In the Line of Fire: Hot Desert Heroes, Book 1 (9 page)

Delaney fought back tears. She’d been trying for the last three years to rescue her self-esteem. Somehow, hearing Beck say “because she is wrong” in his deep voice made more impact than anything her sister or any of her friends had told her countless times through the years.

Morgan had never bought in to her mother’s spiel that she was better than Delaney. As they had gotten older, Delaney had come to realize that, for Morgan, being the perfect child came with a different but just as difficult cross to bear. And that realization had deflated the burgeoning resentment she’d come to feel toward her younger sister and had brought them closer, banding them together to survive the momzilla to end all momzillas.

Beck was right. Her mother had been telling her she was a failure since before she was in grade school. Who did that, other than an extremely unhappy woman?

“Beck,” she whispered and let her head fall back onto the sofa. She had so much to say she couldn’t find the words. “Thank you,” she finally settled on.

His smile lightened his face. “You’re welcome, baby.” He dipped his head and touched his mouth to hers. When he moved to draw away, she pulled him back down. After that, all it took was one single touch of the tip of her tongue to his lower lip for him to take command.

He slanted his head, mouth bearing down on hers with firm pressure, tongue sparring in a kiss that was deep and almost desperate. Most of the desperation came from her, and for once she didn’t care. She needed Beck. She wanted him, and she wasn’t afraid of letting him see how much.

One big hand ran slowly up her thigh and under her skirt then slid beneath her panties to cup her buttock. God, it felt good there. She moaned into his mouth and moved her hands over his shoulders, beneath his jacket, and shoved it down his arms. When he tore it off, she lost his touch but she didn’t complain because, once the jacket hit the floor, she got both his hands back in her panties.

Delaney maneuvered to a sitting position and with shaking hands unbuttoned his shirt, pulling the tails free from his trousers. She rubbed her palms over the hard planes of his chest. He tore his mouth away and went to the curve of her neck. Her entire body shivered and clenched, and she rolled her hips into his hard groin. She made another pass over his chest then ran her hands down his belly, enjoying the peaks and valleys of his washboard abs, but she didn’t linger because she had another prize in mind. She twisted her wrist, flattened her hand, and stroked it over the fly of his pants.

“Fuck.” His groan came openmouthed on her throat.

“I want you,” she whispered and pressed her hand hard against him.

He raised his head and stared down at her with storm-cloud eyes. “Now?”

The door was locked. As long as they stayed quiet, no one would know what was happening in here. She hoped. “Now,” she said.

Beck didn’t say another word. He shifted to one side, a hand leaving her ass to pull his wallet from his back pocket. Delaney went for his belt, then his zipper, and finally was able to slide her hand into his boxer briefs to wrap her fingers around the prize.

It was big. It was hard. And it was all hers.

She pulled his cock free and stroked from base to tip.

He groaned, his hips jerking forward. “Let go of me, baby. Gotta get this on,” he said, holding the condom in his hand.

She didn’t want to lose him but knew if she let go she’d get more of him, so she released her hold on him. He made quick work of rolling the condom on, thank God, but it still seemed to take forever. He’d barely gotten it to the base before she shoved his hand away and latched back on.

“Baby. Fuck,” he rumbled.

“I want you,” she whispered again, in case he’d forgotten.

He reached under her skirt and yanked her panties off. He dropped them to the floor then rolled to a sitting position, lifting her up and over him so that she straddled his lap.

“Then have me.”

Oh God.

Delaney lifted up on her knees and lined him up. As she started to lower herself, his hands went to her hips, fingers digging in. She dropped down, filling herself inch by glorious inch. Then she was riding him, driving down and lifting up, Beck’s hands on her hips holding her steady.

“Give me your mouth,” he demanded.

Careful not to lose her rhythm, she leaned in. The kiss was brutal, primitive. He moved one big hand from her hip to behind her neck, keeping her close, mouths fused. The other hand moved between her thighs where he put pressure on her clit with his finger.

The instant he touched her sensitive flesh, her orgasm ignited. Her cry of release was muffled by Beck’s mouth. He pulled her off him and flipped her to her back on the sofa, her skirt up around her waist. He fit himself between her legs and powered back inside.

She tilted her pelvis, still coming, and raised one leg to wrap around his hips.

“Christ,” he grunted. He rammed into her again and again, grinding against her each time he hit bottom. Then he found his release, his breath coming harsh and turning into a long, low moan he buried against her throat. He slid in and held, lowering his torso to hers. “Baby,” he breathed.

Delaney lost herself in the glow of climax, both hers and his, before she got self-conscious about what just happened and, more to the point, where it happened. She stiffened and pushed against Beck’s shoulders.

His head snapped up. “What the hell?”

“Get off,” she implored. “Before they know what we just did.”

“So what if they do?”

Shock held her immobile for a moment then she started shoving at him again. “It’s private.”

He grabbed her wrists and held them in one hand. “Laney, even if they know, they’re not gonna say anything.” He bent his head and placed a soft kiss on the corner of her mouth. “Stop freakin’ out.”

Remorse filled her. She’d taken a beautiful moment between them and ruined it by getting all uptight. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“No sweat,” he whispered back. “Just remember, I got you.”

He levered off her, and she moaned as his cock slid over still-sensitive flesh. He kissed the corner of her mouth again and walked into the en suite bathroom she only just then noticed. She found her panties and wiggled into them. As she pulled her skirt down, she heard water run and stop, and he came out of the bathroom, buckling his belt. She kept her gaze on his hands, a shiver working its way through her as she remembered how those hands felt on her skin.

She heard his low laugh and her eyes darted up to his face.

“Babe, you keep lookin’ at me like that and we’ll be right back on that couch.”

Heat worked its way through her core, but also across her cheeks. She darted a quick glance to the couch in question. “Maybe later,” she muttered.

His head went back and he burst out laughing. When he got control of his hilarity, he said, “It’s a deal. You need the bathroom before we go?”

Delaney nodded and walked past him. Closing the door behind her, she stared at herself in the mirror over the sink. Her face was flushed, her lips swollen, and her hair had a definite bedhead look to it.

Good God, she looked like a woman who’d just had sex in an office.

She pressed her lips together and then giggled. She’d. Just. Had. Sex. In. An. Office. And it had been
awesome
. “You go, girl,” she whispered.

She used toilet paper to do some cleanup then washed her hands, ran her fingers through her hair to tame it a bit, and rejoined Beck.

He smiled at her. “Come on; let’s go get something to eat.”

She smoothed her skirt over her hips and walked to the office door. When he came up behind her, she took a deep breath and opened the door. They walked down the hallway, Beck calling “lunch” to the men still in the conference room. They didn’t look at her any differently than they had when she first walked in, though Ty’s wide grin seemed even wider, if possible.

Her gaze flew to Beck.

“You look fine,” he assured her.

A man’s opinion of what fine looked like was not the same as a woman’s, she knew this for a fact. But for now she’d have to go with it.

She was hungry and was going to let her man feed her.

Chapter Eight

“So what made you decide to go into the marines?” Delaney asked forty-five minutes later as she pushed her nearly empty lunch plate away. She had an expectantly determined look on her face, like she knew Beck had been evasive about his past and wasn’t going to keep letting him off the hook.

Before he could respond, his phone chirped signaling the arrival of a text message. He pulled out his cell and checked the message. It was from Gabe, letting him know one of the jobs they’d decided to take on was a go. Everyone except Gabe would be needed for a minimum two-week assignment out of the country. Gabe had already made plane reservations for them. The flight left at 7:00 p.m.

That meant, with all that needed to be done in preparation, he wouldn’t be able to spend more time with Delaney before he left. His chest tightened. They were so new he’d been looking forward to spending the night with her. But he couldn’t put off this job. It was a literal case of life or death.

“Sorry, babe, we gotta get back.” He put his phone in his pocket and sucked down the last of his iced tea. He looked across the table to see Delaney dab the corners of her mouth with a napkin before she placed the cloth on the table.

She looked disappointed but gave him a nod. “Thanks for lunch. It was good.”

“I figured as much.” He smiled and tipped his chin toward her lunch setting. He had to lighten his mood. Teasing her should do the trick. “That’s gotta be the cleanest plate I’ve seen outside a dishwasher.”

She crinkled her nose at him. “Ha-ha.” She gestured toward his plate. “I don’t see much left on yours, either.”

He leaned back and stretched his arm out along the top of the booth seat. Lifting a hand, he signaled for the server. “Are you really giving me a hard time about me eating all my food?”

She huffed a sigh. “You started it.”

“So I did.” Beck kept a straight face as long as he could, but lost it at Delaney’s disgruntled look. “I have to get back to work,” he told her. He shifted forward and rested his elbows on the table. “I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to have dinner with you tonight. Ty, Rafe, and I will be leaving this evening for a job. It’s out of the country—”

“This evening!” Her eyes went wide. “What kind of job takes you out of the country?”

He shook his head. “I can’t go into details.”

Her brows went down. He could tell she didn’t like that. She’d have to get used to it. He wasn’t going to compromise a mission by telling a civilian where they were going and what they were doing.

“A lot of what we do is classified, or at the very least, highly confidential,” he told her as gently as he could, “or it’s something I don’t think you need to know.” He reached across the table and grasped her hand. “I’m not saying that to be mean, baby. Part of who I am means I’m going to protect you, even if it’s just from information that will make you worry. I won’t always be able to give you specifics.”

“You mean you won’t always be
willing
to give me specifics,” she corrected. “And don’t you think, as an adult, it’s up to me to take information and decide how I’m going to handle it? Even if that means it’ll make me worry?”

“No. It’s my job as your man to make sure you breathe easy as much as possible.” When she started to protest, he gave her fingers a squeeze. “This has to be something you accept about me, Laney. I hope you will because I like what we have. I like it a lot.”

She stared at him a few seconds. “I’ll try,” she finally said softly. “That’s all I can promise. But like I’ve already told you, I don’t like you being in danger.” And she had to wonder how he thought he’d be able to keep things from her if she was working for his company. But he’d find a way.

“Laney—”

She pulled her hand free and shook her head. “You not liking it isn’t going to change how I feel, Beck. But I’ll try to learn to live with it.”

That was all he could ask for. Well, he could ask for more but he wasn’t sure he’d get it, so he’d settle for this. “Okay.”

The server arrived at the table with the check. After he left with Beck’s credit card, Delaney asked, “Will I see you tonight before you leave?”

He dumped his wadded napkin on the table. “I’d like to, but no. As soon as we get done here, I need to get back to the guys so we can finalize details. That’ll take several hours. We’re catching a plane at seven tonight.” He saw the look that ran through her eyes. “I know what you’re thinking. You think you can check the airport’s flight schedule, but you won’t know for certain where we have to go for a connecting flight, or how many legs our trip will have before we leave the States,” he told her. “So stop trying to figure it out.”

Her gaze dropped to his shoulder and she heaved a sigh. “Oh, all right.”

He shook his head at her but before he could tease her further, the server returned with his card and receipt. Beck added a tip to the receipt and signed it then slid out of the booth. He placed his card into his wallet and his wallet back into his pocket, then helped Delaney out of her seat. He lifted his chin in thanks to the server while Delaney said a soft thank-you.

The five-minute drive back to his building was accomplished mostly in silence, with Delaney gazing out the window. After he parked under the ramada, he unfastened his seat belt and twisted to face her, one arm along the seat to rest his hand on her shoulder. “Laney?”

She unclipped her seat belt and turned her head toward him. Her eyes were wet. “Promise you’ll be careful,” she whispered. “Promise me you’ll
all
be careful.”

“I will.
We
will.” He gave her shoulder a light squeeze. “We always are.”

She drew in a breath and nodded. “Well, okay then.” She reached out and touched his face, rubbed her thumb over his bottom lip. “Can you at least tell me how long you’ll be gone?”

“Probably two weeks. But we could get done earlier, or it could take longer. It all depends on the job.”

“The job you can’t tell me about.” She swiped her thumb across his lip again. Softly she said, “I guess I’ll see you when you get back.”

“Count on it.” Beck had to fight back his own emotions at the thought of leaving her. But since he didn’t have kids, he had to go on this mission. Only Gabe, the family man, was staying behind.

When Beck and Ty had first set up Red Eagle Group, they’d decided there were some jobs that family men were not going to do. This was one of those jobs, an extraction of a diplomat’s son who’d been kidnapped. The kid was ten years old, for Christ’s sake. What filth of an excuse for a human being made war on children?

Because of the tenuous relationship the U.S. government had with the country in question, they couldn’t be involved in an official basis except through diplomatic channels. One of Beck’s contacts convinced those in authority that REG could get the job done.

And they would. Or die trying, because then they’d be surrounded by insurgents who’d love to do nothing more than murder a few Americans.

They got out of the SUV and he walked with her toward her car.

“Can I…would it be all right to call you?” she asked in a wavering voice.

“Baby, we’ll be off-grid. I won’t have my phone with me. If you need me, let Gabe know. He’ll try to get a message to me if he can,” he husked. Leaning over, he planted a soft kiss on her lips. “I’ll text you his number.”

She nodded.

“Good. Now, I gotta get back inside so we can finish planning. I’ll talk to you soon as I can.” He gave her another kiss, longer this time, long enough to keep him going for a while. “Okay, baby,” he said with a gentle nudge toward her car. “You go on home, yeah?” He stroked one hand down her soft cheek and helped her into the vehicle. He waited until she pulled out of the parking lot, before he moved toward the building.

He was going to miss her. More than he’d missed his fiancée when he had one and was deployed overseas. He had a feeling Delaney was going to get much, much deeper under his skin, but he couldn’t worry about that now. He had a job to do.

* * * * *

Delaney managed to keep it together until she got home. As she was unlocking her front door, her hands shook so much she dropped her keys. Twice. It was clear Beck wasn’t going to budge on his let’s-not-tell-Delaney-shit-that-might-upset-her stance. She could understand it when it applied to something top secret, as this most recent job seemed to be.

But he also appeared equally unwilling to give her much information about himself or his past. It seemed like every time she brought it up, trying to learn more about what had made him into the man he was today, he changed the subject or flat-out refused to respond. The question now was could she handle that?

Or did she cut her losses before she fell completely in love with him and had her heart broken?

She’d heard men were good at compartmentalization, but Beck must be a master. She understood the need for secrecy with his job, especially if it was a matter of life and death. But she sensed there was more to his reticence than that. If she lost her job and went to work for him, though, he’d lose some of that tight control. She’d overhear things, see documents, invoices. She wondered if he’d thought about that when he made his impromptu offer of employment.

She also wondered if he’d think of it later and rescind that offer.

Delaney blew out a breath. She had to get a grip on this. She wasn’t sure if she could handle Beck being in a dangerous job, but one thing she did know—she wasn’t ready to call it quits.

She’d spent a good part of her life merely surviving, waiting until the next phase. First, she’d been a child under her mother’s rules, waiting until she was grown. Then, she was a wife, literally and figuratively beaten down by her husband. For the last year, she’d avoided Beck, and while that had gotten her adrenaline flowing, she still hadn’t been living. The last week with him had been the best time of her life.

She felt more alive than she ever had, like she’d been existing in black and white and now everything was vibrant with color. She wasn’t ready to give that up. Not yet.

This was her problem to deal with. And she would. With friends and carrot cake muffins.

Sliding her purse off her shoulder, she pulled her cell phone from the outer pocket and called her best friend, Rachel. When she answered, Delaney asked, “When do you go in to work tonight?”

“My shift starts at eight. Why? What’s going on?” Rachel asked.

“I need to activate the phone tree.” Delaney needed her girls’ advice, and she needed it now. Activating the phone tree communicated the urgency of her situation.

“Oh. My. God.” Rachel’s breathy exclamation indicated her understanding of the seriousness of Delaney’s request. “It’s only one o’clock. Aren’t you and Colbie still at the office?”

“That’s part of what I want to talk about. I’ll call Colbie. I have a feeling her boss’ll let her leave early today.” There was so much she needed to bounce off her friends—the situation with Beck, her potential job loss, the theft of the quilt from the trunk of her car. “Would you call Lily or Andi for me? And see if they have girls in today who can cover for them so they can actually sit down and talk. If they can’t, that’s okay. I’ll at least have you and Colbie.”

“I’ll call ’em. What time do you want this powwow to start?”

“By two if I can.”

“Okay, hon. See you in an hour.”

“Bye.” Delaney ended the call and went to her bedroom. Changing into shorts, T-shirt, and sandals took less than five minutes. She grabbed her phone again and called Colbie. When her coworker answered, Delaney said, “How’re you doing, sweetie?”

“All right, I guess. What about you?”

“I’m fine. I’ll be in tomorrow.” She paused then asked, “Has anyone said anything more?”

“The VP of finance thinks nearly everyone in our department will be let go. He said one or two finance positions might be saved but most likely transferred to headquarters. They won’t be moving an admin assistant two thousand miles, so it’s pretty certain I’ll be laid off.”

“Well, I have something to take your mind off things for a while.” Delaney took a breath. “I’m activating the phone tree.”

“Why? What happened?”

“It’s Beck. I need advice.”

“Where and when?”

God, she loved her girls. “Two o’clock at Coffee & Confections if you can make it.”

Colbie gave a little sniff, tears obviously not that far off. “My supervisor told me an hour ago I could leave if I wanted to. I didn’t want to go home and be alone with my thoughts, so I’ve been hanging out at the office. I’ll just go tell her I’m heading out, and I’ll see you there.”

They said their goodbyes and Delaney placed her phone back in her purse. She went into her spare bedroom, where her sewing machine and quilting materials were, and since she still had a hard time believing someone broke into her car just to steal a baby quilt, she checked one more time to make sure the quilt wasn’t lying around.

It wasn’t.

Well, count that as a mystery yet unsolved. While her instinct was to call the police and report it, she figured Beck was right. It would be a waste of resources for the undermanned police department to send someone to take a report. If they would even do that. Shoot, for all she knew, they might just take the information over the phone, give her a figurative pat on the head, and send her on her way.

But for sure she wasn’t storing anything in her car anymore.

Thirty minutes later she walked into Coffee & Confections. Colbie was already on the sofa by the window and, with the hand wrapped around a coffee cup, gave her a two-fingered wave.

After saying hello to a couple of people she knew, regulars like her, Delaney got in line, a short one, thank God—she was the third customer. The one at the counter received her order and moved out of the way, and the line shifted forward. Another few minutes and the next customer was taken care of, and Delaney was at the front of the line.

“Hey,” she said to the teenaged girl behind the counter. Ashley? April? Adria? Her name was something that started with an
A
. She’d only been there a few weeks, but Lily and Andi had both commented about what a hard worker she was. Delaney felt bad that she couldn’t remember her name.