“It’s not a sanctioned mission.” Brick’s voice rumbled like rocks in a landslide. “This is personal. I decide who goes.”
His biceps were impressive as he folded his arms, as was his well-defined chest that stretched his sleeveless T-shirt. His black fatigues were a little loose, but they couldn’t hide his powerful thighs and his tight ass.
She’d wanted him since the moment she heard his voice—even though he’d been arguing with “Thunder” Hansen that she couldn’t be on the team and that something had to be done about it.
Thunder, of course, won the argument—the orders had come from above after all—and Brick had taken another long look at Janie before storming away. She’d smiled to herself as she’d thought about taking the man to bed.
Jeez, she had to stop this train of thought. This desire that she felt every time he was even close to her.
She waved in the direction of the camp that the team had set up on the beach. It was a good two hundred yards from where she and Brick were having their “discussion” within the jungle, far enough that Brick could yell at her in private. “You gave in to all three guys when they insisted on going with you to save your nephew. There’s no reason why I can’t be on the recovery team, too.”
When he’d opposed her being on the team, Brick had used the excuse that because she was a woman she’d be unable to handle the kind of ops they would be sent on. He’d argued that she’d be a liability instead of an asset.
Over the past six months since she’d joined the team, she had egged Brick on every opportunity she had, pissing him off as much as possible just for the hell of it. She’d had no problem proving him wrong on their first two missions together, showing him how valuable she was to the team. Of course he was too much of an arrogant bastard to admit he was wrong. At least he’d stopped his rumblings about her being on the team.
He took one step toward her, leaving only inches between them. She almost stepped back, which would have had her up against the young kapok tree behind her, and congratulated herself on keeping her position. She narrowed her gaze as she met the six-four man’s green eyes. Even at five-ten she had to look up to glare at him.
“I’ve been a member of the team for six months.” She clenched her hands into fists at her sides. “During both our missions I’ve proven that I’m a valuable asset to the team.”
Tension radiated from him, so palpable that she felt it within herself. When he spoke again, the single word was low, measured, controlled. “No.”
She started to speak but every thought shot from her mind as he grabbed her wrists. In an almost violent movement, he jerked her to him and captured her mouth with his.
There could be no other word but capture. She felt his hard firm mouth pressing her softer, fuller lips against her teeth. Complete and total surprise had her opening her mouth and Brick totally dominated her by thrusting his tongue inside, exploring and tasting her before he sucked on her tongue.
Shock immobilized her for only a moment but he’d raised her hands so fast, both of her wrists clenched in one of his big palms. He held her hands above her head and nearly slammed her up against the kapok tree. She fought against his hold but he used his large, hard body to prevent any kind of movement she might make.
Sixteen years of taekwondo, not to mention extensive training in hand-to-hand combat, and she was still pinned by this brute of a man, this immovable force.
His kiss was hard enough to be painful. He clenched his fist in her loose blond hair and kept her head motionless.
Instead of fighting him anymore, she relaxed her body, thinking that if she did she might fool him into letting down his guard. More surprise shot through her as she felt his long, thick erection pressed against her belly.
His kiss was relentless, powerful, his breathing deep and rough. She found herself breathing in his masculine scent and involuntarily electrical charges zinged from her belly button to between her thighs. In the past six months his masculine scent had never failed to send thrills through her since she’d been recruited onto the team by Thunder. She’d never been so close to him, though, never been so filled with his incredible scent, his very presence.
She didn’t even realize she had fallen into the kiss and that she was kissing him back until she heard herself moan.
Her moan encouraged him, and his kiss became impossibly more intense. He bit her lower lip in a firm yet soft bite.
She gave a cry into his mouth. Not of pain, but desire. Sheer, complete desire. And she was shaking with it. Shaking with the need for him to take her right there up against the tree.
“I want to fuck you so bad.” He raised his face just enough that she could see the sexual need and frustration in his green eyes as his words echoed her thoughts. “Be inside you.” His next word was a low growl. “Now.”
She tried to think clearly, but all she could do was imagine Brick filling her. That was what she wanted since she’d first met him despite his arrogance and insistence they didn’t need her on the team.
He didn’t relax his hold and she felt his barely contained desire. She knew he wouldn’t force her, but he wanted her badly—as badly as she wanted him.
“I like it rough, Janie.” He pressed his rigid cock against her belly, grinding it as he did it. “And when I start I’m not stopping.”
Where had this come from? He’d never shown any interest in her. Maybe the man just didn’t know how to show it.
She tried to swallow but her throat was too dry as she met his gaze that had gone dark green in the dim jungle light. Feral, hungry—his expression became more intense as he stared at her waiting for her response. Even if he was rough, he wouldn’t hurt her. Would he?
God, she wanted him so badly. What other answer was there? “Yes,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “I want you.”
He moved his hand from her hair while his other hand continued to pin her wrists against the tree. She squirmed against his hard body as she heard rustling. In the next moment he wrapped a vine around her wrists then secured the vine around the trunk of the tree that was less than her body size.
Stunned, she struggled but could tell he had tied the smooth vine so well her efforts were totally futile.
The instinct to fight against her bonds was natural. “What the hell—”
Another harsh kiss took the rest of her sentence from her. With her arms secured above her head and his body pressed to hers, she couldn’t stop him from pushing up her tank top and wrapping another vine around her waist. The vine was smooth against her belly. He had her tied so firmly there was no way she could get out of the hold. As he drew back and looked into her eyes, she knew he’d meant what he said. She’d said yes…and there was no turning back.
And she didn’t want him to go back, didn’t want him to stop. The eroticism of what he was doing, how he had tied her to the tree, had her completely off guard—and completely turned on.
She only had a moment to be thankful they weren’t near the camp and the rest of the team. Then she didn’t care anymore. She was too wrapped up in Brick.
With one hand he yanked her green tank top up and over her breasts. He anchored his other hand in her hair again, pulling her head back firmly so that it thunked against the tree. Her mind spun from the not so gentle thump. But then she gasped as he jerked down her bra and immediately caught one of her nipples in the warmth of his mouth.
Her nipples had always been unusually sensitive, and the feel of him sucking one made her nearly blind with lust. When he lightly bit her nipple, it almost made her knees give out.
She tried to keep her moans and sounds of excitement low as he moved his mouth to her other nipple so that the noises didn’t carry back to camp.
Her scalp tingled as he released it so that his hands were free to push her shorts and panties over her toned thighs to her feet, leaving her naked from the waist down. Humid jungle air brushed her skin and she grew so wet with desire she was squirming against her bonds.
He slid his fingers into her wet folds and she choked back a cry when he flicked the taught nub. His callused fingers felt rough against her softness and the contrast was amazingly hot.
“Can’t wait any longer.” He had the sound of a primal animal that took its mate regardless of her own need.
Well this was one female whose need matched his own.
He unfastened his fatigues and shoved them down his hips. The length and girth of his cock made desire clench her abdomen. She grew wetter with the knowledge that he would be taking her, driving his thick erection into her.
He grabbed her by her ass with his large hands. His fingers dug into her flesh as he raised her up. She wrapped her legs around his hips and ass, his body firm between her thighs.
His feral dark green gaze focused on hers as he positioned his cock to enter her. Janie caught her breath, her heart pounding, body trembling, as she waited for him to do what they both wanted, needed.
He gave an animalistic rumble in his chest just before he thrust his cock inside of her.
An involuntary cry came from her lips as she took him deep. Vaguely she was aware of the fact that the other guys of the team might hear her, but right then she wasn’t quite sure she cared.
“I’ve wanted to fuck you since the day you joined the team.” Brick pounded into her almost relentlessly as he spoke. “I knew you’d be a distraction, and we couldn’t afford distractions. I couldn’t afford it.”
Words failed her as he pulled her hair harder, jerking her head a little to the side so that it was tipped farther back and it caused her breasts to jut out. He ran his stubbled cheeks over the column of her throat.
“Brick.” His name seemed to come from nowhere as he fucked her harder than she’d ever been taken before. “Please—” She stopped, not even knowing what she was begging for. Maybe it was for the orgasm that was starting to build inside her, already beginning low in her belly.
“Damn you have a nice pussy.” He didn’t pause. “So fucking wet.”
She could feel his hips bruising the insides of her thighs from the power of his thrusts. Being restrained, his hold on her hair almost painful, made everything feel somehow more exciting.
Her orgasm spiraled inside her, eliminating her ability to think clearly. She fell into every sensation she was experiencing. Her wrists restrained above her, the vine tethering her waist to the tree, Brick’s T-shirt rasping against her nipples, his stubble like sandpaper against her throat, and his cock driving in and out of her so powerfully she felt it deep enough to cry out with every thrust.
When he clenched his fingers in her ass, she nearly screamed as she came. Her entire body jerked then shuddered from the intensity, the power of her orgasm. It seemed to go on and on, Brick drawing her climax out as her channel spasmed around his cock.
“I can’t have you driving me out of my mind like you do.” He bit her ear as he spoke in a low, almost menacing tone, and she shuddered as she tried to come back to herself. “When I finish fucking you, you’ll be out of my system. I won’t think about putting my cock inside you every time I look at you.”
Through the haze in her mind, she tried to make sense of his words.
He slammed into her a few more times, then growled as he came inside her. Within her now sensitized channel, she felt him throb inside her. His face was a grimace as his orgasm clenched his body.
When he looked like he was in control of himself, he gripped her shoulders and he slid his cock out. She stared at him in confusion as she lowered her legs from around his waist.
She widened her gaze when he drew out his dagger. Then he reached up and sliced through the vines securing her wrists. He did the same with her waist and caught her before she would have fallen from the wobbly feeling throughout her body.
He kept his gaze on her as he sheathed his knife, tugged up his fatigues, and fastened them. She dressed as well, slipping into her shorts and pulling her tank top and bra down over her aching breasts.
Her body went from hot and excited to cool and distant as she stared at him, processing each and every word he’d just said.
“You fucked me because you think that will make you stop wanting me.” Her tone was like ice as she took a step toward him.
He shrugged and started to turn away from her, toward camp.
She moved in front of him and slugged him in his eye. She followed it by ramming her knee as hard as she could into his balls.
Brick dropped to his knees with a pained shout.
Janie smiled with the smallest amount of satisfaction, turned, and headed back toward camp.
* * *
Adrenaline heightened Janie’s senses as she slipped silently through the dark jungle and gripped the stock of her Barrett 82A1 .50 cal high capacity semi-automatic rifle. A kidnapped twelve-year-old kid’s life was at stake.
And his sonofabitch uncle, Brick, was somewhere in the jungle, unaware of her presence.
Despite his order that she wasn’t to accompany the rest of the team, she left not long after they did, following the men into the jungle.
The snowy streets of New York City and all the Christmas shoppers and revelers were a world away from the jungle they were in. No matter what, they’d get the kid and get him to where he belonged—in a warm home with presents beneath the tree and not in some godforsaken place like this.
Her body armor and utility belt were heavy but comforting as she moved forward. The IEDs—improvised explosive devices—as well as her dagger, Sig Sauer, a small flashlight, and extra ammo weighted her belt. Secured in her left boot was a petite but deadly knife and in her right was a second Sig, a model that was more easily concealed than her larger handgun.
Occasionally she heard the men checking in with Brick, the obvious team leader on this mission, by giving their statuses in low voices. Miniscule earpieces were secured firmly just outside each operative’s ear canal, including her own. The individual high-tech earpieces were programmed to transmit only its operative’s voice, keeping background noise to a minimum.
It was possible lives would be lost tonight—it was almost a given in a situation where their team would be storming a compound like this. But no way could she allow that kid or anyone on the team to be among the casualties.