Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
The man fell. He didn’t cry out, he just dropped like someone had hit his off switch. A gunshot echoed.
“Thanks,” muttered the older guy into his earpiece. Someone else was out there, shooting from a distance. We ran through the gate and then we were out, slipping between the trees. We stopped a few moments later and ducked down in a line, our backs pressed against the trunk of a fallen tree.
“You okay?” Gabriel asked me immediately. “Are you hit? Are you hurt?” He didn’t wait for an answer. His big hands cupped my shoulders and then traced down my arms and up the insides, checking for wounds. His palms moved down my sides to my waist, thumbs rubbing over my stomach. Then down my legs, all the way to my ankles. His hands started to skim up the inside of my legs. They slowed, and the mood changed…
I caught his hands with mine. “I’m fine,” I told him, my voice shaky. He lifted his head to look at me and—God, his eyes were hooded with lust. I went weak.
He seemed to catch himself and realize that the others were looking at us. He drew back.
“Everyone else okay?” asked the older guy, in a carefully neutral voice.
There was a chorus of okays and yups. When they’d finished, a British voice murmured, “I dunno. Gabe, can you check me over?”
Gabriel glared at him and there was stifled laughter. Both of us flushed.
The older guy turned to me. “We’ve got medical gear to treat your wounded and fresh clothes for you, but that’ll have to wait a while. They’re going to be coming after us and we’ve got to put some distance between us and them.”
I nodded and my legs tensed, ready to stand up and move. But they all seemed to be waiting for something.
Suddenly, a huge form loomed over us and I choked back a shriek of fear. The guy was huge, like seven feet tall, but somehow I hadn’t heard him approach at all. Then I saw the rifle slung on his back. This was who they’d been waiting for: the guy who’d been covering our escape.
“Let’s go,” said Gabriel. And we set off into the jungle.
14
GABRIEL
We walked fast, trying to put the camp as far behind us as possible. Each time I looked back at Bradan, who was covering our rear, he shook his head: nothing yet. But we knew they’d be coming. For the next thirty-six hours or so, until we were extracted, it was going to be a race to stay ahead of them.
As we walked, I thought about how things had gone at the camp. Cal saving my life. Colton taking down that guard hand-to-hand and getting the injured doctor out. Bradan and Danny keeping the bad guys off us. The plan had gone wrong and we’d had some close calls but they were a talented bunch, and I had to admit JD was doing a good job giving the orders, even if he was kind of a boy scout.
At first, it was almost totally dark. My night vision had been ruined by all the bright flashes and the flames back at the camp, and I just followed, relying on Cal up front to know where he was going. But as we pressed on, the moon broke through the clouds and my eyes adjusted.
That meant I could see her.
I’d put her ahead of me in the line: I’d told myself it made sense, now that we weren’t being shot at: I could keep an eye on her and any attack was more likely to come from the rear, anyway. But it had another advantage, too. As she hurried along, that perfect, curvy ass in its tight jeans swayed back and forth, hypnotizing me. I kept finding myself moving faster, unconsciously trying to catch up to it.
When I wasn’t staring at her ass, I was focused on the back of her neck. She had her hair pulled back into a bun, as usual, but this was the first time I’d been able to see her from behind. Below the bun, there was this beautiful, pale skin, turned silver by the moonlight. It looked so soft…and it was a place she was never normally touched, which meant it would be super-sensitive. I kept imagining kissing her there, twisting my head sideways a little to come in just under her bun and kiss a line that would have her squirming and gasping and maybe giggling if she was ticklish. Then I could finally slide those hair clips out and let her long hair cascade down, nudging it aside as I turned her and kissed the side of her neck, along her jaw and finally her lips…
I must have spent a full hour just staring at that patch of skin. What’s the matter with me? I’d been in jail for three long years: I’d spent a lot of time thinking about women and what I’d like to do with them. But until Olivia, none of those fantasies wasted time on tender, romantic kissing. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt like this about a woman. I wasn’t sure I ever had.