The Reunion Mission (12 page)

“Mon Dieu!”
he rasped, and remembering his hurt knee, she panicked briefly that she’d hurt him somehow. But those thoughts fled as he cupped her bottom, lifted her and tumbled with her over the back of the sofa and onto the cushions.

He stretched across her, his weight pressing her into the soft couch, their bodies aligned so that there was no mistaking his desire for her. She wrapped her legs around his, canting her hips forward to rub against his steely length. His breath hissed through his teeth, and with shaking hands, he shoved her shirt and bra up and off of her. With hot, obsidian eyes, he drank in the sight of her, then laved the peak of each breast with his tongue, molded them with his fingers.

Nicole gasped and writhed beneath him, burning and trembling as her need built. She helped him push her jeans down her legs, kicking them to the floor. When he insinuated a hand between her legs, the intimate stroke of his hand shot liquid fire to her core.

“Daniel!” She teetered on the brink of climax, felt herself careening toward that sweet oblivion, free falling. “Not...yet. I want you...inside me.”

He pressed a warm kiss to her lips, then nuzzled her ear. “It’s all right. There’ll be more. Let go,
cher.
”

The whispered endearment was her undoing. The rich rumble of his voice rolled through her, and the tenderness in his tone melted her bones and pierced her heart. He sank two fingers inside her, and she shattered with a soft cry. She clung to him as she floated back to earth, wanting to weep with joy and love. After so long, she was finally back in Daniel’s arms.

His day’s growth of beard scraped lightly as he trailed nibbling kisses along the curve of her throat. “We should move,” he murmured against her skin. “We’re too exposed here.”

She tipped her head to meet his gaze. “You think Pilar—?”

“Anyone.” He jerked his head toward the front window and door to the porch. “I want to see my target before he sees me.”

The reminder that dangerous men were looking for them sent a shiver down Nicole’s spine.

“Don’t worry,
cher.
” He dragged a crooked finger along her jaw. “I always get my man.”

A cocky smile tugged the corner of his mouth, and Nicole grinned. “I can imagine.”

Daniel sat up, pulling Nicole with him, and his gaze grew smoky once more. “I’ve waited a long time for this.”

She brushed a kiss on his cheek. “Too long.”

With amazing agility and strength, he swept her into his arms and rose from the couch, despite his injury. Nicole struggled, wanting down. “Daniel, no! Your knee!”

“Is fine.” His level gaze echoed his assertion. “Let me do this.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but having seen the pain and frustration in his eyes when he dealt with his injury over the past several days, she knew she couldn’t deny him this chance to reclaim his sense of his manhood. She laid her head on his shoulder and looped her arms around his neck, and as he carried her back to the master bedroom, her heart swelled with affection for her stubborn hero. She caught his occasional grimace but knew he’d rather die than let the ache in his knee interfere with his gallant gesture. Once they were in the room where he’d slept the past nights, he kicked the door closed and followed her down on the mattress.

She fumbled with the button at his fly, murmuring, “You, sir, are overdressed.”

“Roger that.” He caught her mouth for a quick kiss before rolling on his back to toe off his shoes. Once he’d worked his jeans past his knee brace, she skimmed her hands down his chest to his briefs, pushing them down his legs to join the jeans on the floor.

“That’s better.” She flashed him a sultry smile, then swung her leg over him to straddle him. He moaned his satisfaction when she settled on top of him, and the teasing light fled his face. His dark eyes held hers, the intensity and hunger in his expression sending ripples of anticipation through her blood.

Once he’d stripped off his shirt, Daniel picked up where they’d left off on the couch. His hands covered her breasts, tweaking and arousing. His kisses ravaged her mouth and explored her bare skin. He moved unerringly from one erogenous zone to another, as if...

“You remember what I like,” she said on a breathy sigh as he kneaded and nibbled a sensitive spot at her nape.

He pulled back to meet her gaze, his hands still stroking her. “I memorized everything about you. I remember it all. Every.” He kissed her. “Last.” Kiss. “Inch.”

Her hand smoothed over his chest, and she sighed. “I thought I’d memorized you, but—” She traced a jagged scar on his shoulder. “You’ve changed.” Her fingers drifted to another scar, pale against his tanned skin, and a dull ache jabbed her heart. “I don’t think I want to know how you got all these.” She let her finger trail to another pucker in his skin. Clearly a healed bullet wound. She shuddered. “You lead such a dangerous life. I hate the idea of you facing death as a regular part of your—”

“Led.” His fingers closed around hers, and he pressed his lips to her palm. “Past tense. I’ve been benched from fieldwork, remember?”

She laced her fingers with his and resumed her position on top of him. “I know you’re disappointed, but...I can’t say that I’m sorry. I want you safe.”

He tucked her hair behind her ear, his expression serious. “As I want you.”

Nicole bent down to kiss him, lingering over his lips, savoring the heat and passion. Then, wrapping her fingers around his arousal, she covered him, first with the condom he had waiting and then with her body, taking him deep inside her. Lacing her fingers with his, she moved with him, the pumping sway of their bodies causing a sweet tension to coil at her core. Closing her eyes, she recalled their first night together and the promise their future held. The magic in their lovemaking.
Say my name.

Daniel moaned as she rode him, and in her mind, she was back on the rumbling helicopter in Colombia, holding his hand as his eyes, wild with pain, searched hers.
Say my name.

Her chest contracted remembering the heartache in his eyes when she woke in his hospital room.
Say my name.

She opened her eyes and met the ebony gaze that had been full of fear when he’d burst into her father’s bullet-riddled office to save her from the hired gunmen.
Say my name.

“Daniel,” she whispered in his ear, “I’m here, Daniel. I’m yours.”

His grip on her hand tightened. “Nicole...
cher,
I...”

Whatever he’d planned to say was lost as he inhaled a sharp breath and shuddered with his climax. She followed him into the fray, her body inundated with blissful sensation. “Oh, Daniel...”

When she was spent, she collapsed against him, her heart hammering, her lungs panting for air. Silently he held her, his fingers strumming her spine, threading through her hair.

After a moment to catch her breath, Nicole tipped her head back to see his face, and she scraped a fingernail along his stubbled chin. “That was...pretty great, huh?”

He tonelessly hummed his agreement, flashed her a lopsided smile. “No argument here.” Silently, he stared at the ceiling for a while before adding, “Damn shame, though.”

Nicole propped on an elbow to get a better view of his expression. “What is?”

“The blistering heat between us.”

She drew her eyebrows together. His now-serious expression nipped her neck with apprehension. “How is good sexual chemistry a bad thing?”

He spared her a glance before studying the ceiling again. “It muddies the water. Complicates the real issues.”

Nicole’s felt her stomach swoop in dread. “Meaning?”

“My job, my reason for being here, is to keep you and Pilar alive. Anything else is a distraction.”

“Including how we feel about each other,” she concluded with a sinking heart.

“Yeah.”

And there it was, the protective wall slamming into place around his heart, keeping her distant. She shoved down her hurt, determined not to let her disillusionment show. “So this was just sex. Nothing more?”

“Has to be. I can’t afford anything else. Not until this mess is over, anyway.”

She released a breath slowly, careful not to let him hear the tremor that seized her. “And after this is over?”

He was silent for so long she wasn’t sure he planned to answer. But, finally, his low voice rumbled through the dark room like distant thunder. “I don’t know.”

Squeezing her eyes closed, she battled down the sting of disappointment as she curled against his body and rested her head on his chest. Her body was sated, but her heart craved more. She wanted what she feared she might never have from Daniel...his love.

Chapter 10

T
he next morning, Daniel’s side of the bed was empty when Nicole woke. A chill filled her, burrowing to the bone, when she thought of the empty hotel room she’d found after her shower the last time they’d made love. Within minutes of making love last night, Daniel had been withdrawing again, erecting the barriers that kept his heart off-limits to her.

She curled her fingers into the sheets on his side of the bed. The covers were cool. He’d been gone for a while. A knot twisted in her chest, and her pulse kicked. Had he left the house, abandoned her and Pilar?

She drew a slow, calming breath. He wouldn’t leave them here. Not with kidnappers after Pilar, men willing to kill anyone who got in their way. Daniel was first and always a protector, a defender. No wonder he was so good at guarding his heart.

Sliding out of bed, she padded over to Daniel’s duffel bag and found a T-shirt to wear until she could get her own clothes from the room where Pilar was sleeping. His shirt hung almost to her knees and held a trace of his scent, a sexy combination of man and fresh air and soap. Just that hint of Daniel turned her insides to mush and stirred a flutter in her veins. Surviving his disappearance from her life had been hard enough last time. She wasn’t sure she had the strength to handle losing him again. But how did she get past his defenses? Why did he still feel he had to hold her at arm’s length?

Maybe she’d be better off guarding her own heart, giving up her delusions of a future with Daniel. She wanted roots, children, cats, a house with a garden and a husband who was there for her every night, physically and emotionally. But Daniel craved danger, adventure. Except for his partner and friend, Alec, he’d been a loner most of his professional life. Could she really expect Daniel to settle down and be content with home and hearth?

The tinkle of a child’s laugh drifted to her from down the hall, and she headed to the kitchen to check on Pilar. As soon as she opened the bedroom door, the smell of bacon and fresh coffee greeted her, and Nicole’s stomach rumbled. In the kitchen, Pilar sat at the table, a plate of toast and eggs in front of her and a grin on her face. Daniel stood over a pan of sizzling bacon, a pair of tongs in his hand and a chef’s apron that read
Laissez les Bon Temps Rouller!
draped over his bare chest—presumably to protect him from popping grease.

Nicole was busy ogling Daniel’s wide shoulders and gauging his mood in the wake of their night together, when a chipper voice said, “Good morning, Señorita Nicole!”

Jerking a stunned glance to Pilar, Nicole blinked...grinned. “Good morning, Pilar.” Turning back to Daniel, she widened her eyes in query.

He lifted a muscled shoulder, his mouth twitching with amusement. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t teach it to her. I was as surprised as you when she greeted me that way.”

“I taught it to her while we were in Colombia. That and a few other words and phrases. I just never knew if she was retaining any of it since she wouldn’t speak.”

Daniel turned back to the bacon, flipping the slices in the pan. “Apparently she did.”

“Apparently. I’m just...relieved that she feels safe enough now that she’s talking again.”

He shot a glance over his shoulder at the little girl, then raked an encompassing look at Nicole. She felt his slow, heated perusal like a physical caress.

He arched a black eyebrow, but his expression remained neutral. “That shirt’s never looked better.”

She flashed him a crooked smile, hoping to elicit one from him. “Hope you don’t mind my borrowing it. My clothes got left in the living room last night.”

“Pas du tout.”

She deflated a bit. Though he seemed in a pleasant mood, an improvement from his grim scowling earlier in the week, he also seemed reserved, except where Pilar was concerned. She watched with a prick of envy as he offered the little girl one of his smiles. “Is it good?
Está bueno?
”

Pilar bobbed her head.
“Sí.”
The little girl paused and grinned. “Yes! Good.”

Daniel winked at the little girl then shifted his gaze to Nicole. He hitched his head to the coffeepot. “There’s coffee.”

“Thanks. Smells wonderful.” She padded over to pour herself a cup, watching Daniel from the corner of her eye. As she sipped from the ceramic mug, Boudreaux rubbed against her legs, greeting her with a meow. “Hey, Boo. How are you, old man?”

She squatted to pat him and scratch his cheek, which earned her a purr of appreciation. Oreo sat in the chair next to Pilar, eyeing the eggs on her plate and sniffing the air. Casting a quick, guilty look to Daniel, whose back was turned, Pilar plucked a bite of egg from her plate and fed it to Oreo. When she discovered Nicole watching her, the little girl’s eyes widened.

Nicole sent her a wink and a grin, then gave Boudreaux a final pat before rising to her feet again.

“Thought I’d take Pilar out in the pirogue today. My family still has a shack in the bayou where my grandmother grew up.” Daniel shot her a hooded glance that seemed to be daring her to judge him for his family’s simple, live-off-the-land history. “The fishing there is the best in the swamp.”

Nicole smiled pleasantly. “I’m sure she’d love it.”

He stepped closer to her, holding her gaze. “Want to come with us? I promise not to let the alligators get you.”

Daniel stood near enough that she could smell the soap from his shower. Mingled with the mellow aroma of fresh coffee and frying bacon, the scents were a feast for her senses. She laid a hand on his chest, and his heart thumped strong and steady beneath her palm. “I’d love that.”

“After breakfast, then.” He slid a hand into her hair and nudged her forward for a quick kiss.

Relief flowed through her at this indication that he didn’t regret their lovemaking, even if he viewed their liaison as merely an outlet for their sexual chemistry.

A giggle reached them from the table, and they turned as one to find Pilar grinning at them. Daniel cocked an eyebrow. “Should I not have done that in front of her?”

“Didn’t your parents kiss in front of you?”

“All the time. But we’re not her parents.”

Nicole squeezed his shoulder and brushed another kiss across his lips. “Is that bacon ready yet? I’m starved.”

“Help yourself.” The heat in his eyes as he massaged the nape of her neck with his fingers said he was also hungry...for her. A tingle raced through her from his touch, and just the intensity of his dark gaze made her bones feel as if they were melting.

As he pulled away, he whispered, “Beautiful,” so quietly she almost missed it.

While Daniel tended to the bacon, Nicole collapsed in a chair at the table, her legs trembling with the rush of adrenaline and passion Daniel had stirred in her.

Pilar practiced her English throughout breakfast, correctly naming each food they were eating and repeating the list of birds and animals she’d seen the day before while fishing. The scene felt so natural, so blissfully domestic, that Nicole couldn’t help but imagine what it might be like to sit around a table with Daniel and two or three children who had their father’s dark Cajun good looks.

I can’t afford anything else.
When Daniel’s words replayed in her head, Nicole forced the fantasy of family dinners with him, along with the stab of heartache, to a back corner of her mind. She and Daniel still had a lot of work to do before that dream stood even a remote chance.

* * *

With the long, sturdy pole that he dug out of his grandmother’s storage garage, Daniel guided his old pirogue through the muddy bayou water, the way to his family’s old shack as familiar to him as his own reflection. Nicole and Pilar sat together at the opposite end of the long flat-bottomed boat, pointing out wildlife to each other. A family of turtles on a log, an egret wading in the shallows among the ancient cypress trees, a nutria lumbering along the shore. Smiling to himself, he kept quiet whenever they passed a snake coiled on a branch above them or when he spotted a pair of alligator eyes watching them from the murky depths. He monitored those potential threats, ready to take action if needed but not willing to frighten the females unnecessarily.

As the skiff glided through the water, Daniel’s attention drifted to Nicole over and again. Images and sounds from last night flashed in his memory, making his entire body hum and his nerves jangle. Sleeping with Nicole hadn’t tamped the fire inside him. The first touch of his lips to hers had been gasoline on the smoldering embers. He hadn’t imagined he could burn any hotter for her, but he was discovering new things about himself every day since returning from Colombia with her.

For instance, he found himself enjoying quiet time with Pilar and caught himself wondering what it might be like to take his own daughter fishing or teach his son to bait a crawfish trap. Before this week, he’d never considered himself a father figure. After all, what father spends ninety-nine percent of his time infiltrating dangerous cartels and street gangs in the world’s seamiest neighborhoods, then goes mucking through muddy jungles or lurking in remote caves for days waiting for his human prey to make a wrong move?

Except those days were over for him, thanks to his bum knee. So where did that leave him? How did a guy who’d spent so much time in the field make the transition to a life of bedtime stories and lazy afternoons with a fishing pole?

And where did Nicole fit in the picture? He gritted his teeth as a sharp pang of longing gouged his heart. Since that fateful morning five years ago, he hadn’t allowed himself to envision a future with her. The parts of that dream his pride hadn’t squelched, his life on the black ops team had made impossible.

But last night, having her in his arms, burying himself deep in her welcoming warmth, had revived a glimmer of his youthful optimism. That seed of hope burrowed deep inside him, taunting him and raking his heart with painful illusions of what could never be. His life and Nicole’s were still as different and incompatible as ever. They both had a mountain of issues to deal with, careers that took them all over the planet, and ambitions for the future that had no room for family. And she had loyalties to her father that Daniel would never ask her to deny. Because family mattered.
Mémère
had taught him that, and he believed it, even when it meant accepting that Senator White was a permanent fixture in Nicole’s life.

Last night had been soul-shaking, and he refused to regret any part of it. But he couldn’t let Nicole believe it was more than what it was—hot, even-better-than-he-remembered, burned-into-his-DNA sex.

He watched Nicole tuck her hair behind her ear and laugh at something Pilar said in broken English, and a fist squeezed his lungs. He’d survived without her before, and somehow he’d find a way to move on this time, as well. Once Pilar was back with her father, he’d launch a new career and put Nicole behind him, just like he had five years ago.

When the old shack came into view, a bittersweet nostalgia settled over him. As a boy he’d loved coming out here with his father to fish, and when he’d grown older, he’d taken on the job of caring for the tiny house on stilts for his grandmother, who’d loved to tell him happy stories about her childhood in the swamp.

As they approached, he tried to see the weather-beaten shack through Nicole’s eyes. The warped and rotting wood, the rusty tin roof, the moss-covered walls and dingy windows. Yet the shack wasn’t a total disaster, since he’d made some repairs and cleaned the inside a few months back, before directing Alec here to use the house as a hideout from the men tailing him.

The pirogue bumped the rickety dock, and Daniel lashed a rope from the boat to a post.

“Can we go inside? I’d love to see where your grandmother grew up,” Nicole said as she climbed out onto the floating wooden platform at the base of the stilts.

“Sure. Let’s unload the boat, then I’ll give you the fifty-cent tour.” Daniel handed her the cooler with the lunch they’d packed and gave Pilar the set of cane poles and tackle box.

“Want help?” Nicole asked, offering her hand to help him negotiate the awkward gap between the dock and the pirogue.

He waved her away with a scowl. “I can do it.” When he stood, the boat rocked, and unable to put his full weight on his bad leg, he fumbled for balance.

“Daniel.” Nicole shoved her hand at him, her blue gaze steady and determined. “Don’t be so stubborn. Give me your hand.”

He hesitated, hating to appear weak in any way in front of her, but finally grasped her arm at the elbow while she grasped his arm and pulled him onto the dock beside her.

“Thanks,” he grunted, then set to work moving their cane poles to the other end of the platform where they’d be fishing.

As promised, he took Nicole and Pilar for a quick tour of the two-room shack, but getting inside required climbing a ladder made of two-by-fours nailed to one of the stilts. Daniel ascended the rungs by pulling himself up until his good leg had a foothold, then performing another pull-up to repeat the process. He didn’t give the tactic a second thought until he saw the gleam of appreciation in Nicole’s eyes as she squeezed his biceps and wiggled her eyebrows. “Impressive. I like.”

In deference to the little girl watching them, he limited his response to grin and a smoldering gaze. But later...

Nicole turned and took in the decor. “Hey, not bad.”

Despite its outer appearance, the shack had several new items of furniture, including a new mattress on the bed. He’d paid extra to the delivery man for his help to bring it out on a boat and carry it up the two-by-four ladder. The living space had a small table, a couple of chairs and a kitchen area where he could cook over a camping stove. The tiny back room was a bathroom with a shower, sans hot water, and a toilet hooked up to an underwater septic tank.

“See? All the comforts of home,” he said, pulling a wry grin.

Nicole gave him a dubious grin, and Pilar, standing at a window, stared out at the water. “Fishing?”

Daniel chuckled. “Yes, fishing. Let’s go.”

For the next hour, they tossed their lines off the small dock, swatting mosquitoes and working with Pilar on her English. Despite their chatter, which Daniel knew was scaring away most of the fish, they managed to hook a couple medium-size crappie. When Nicole’s line pulled taut, Daniel wrapped his arms around her to help pull in a struggling catfish. The excitement in her eyes when they dragged the catch onto the dock spun a mellow warmth inside him.