Dare Me, page 7
"Move it." Jon motioned the four men with a wave of the barrel of one of his guns. They trooped inside and he shut the door, then wedged an IV stand into the handles, sealing them in.
Danica blinked, glancing around the room, wondering what the next step should be. Then her eyes caught Jon's and her calm returned. She wasn't trained, but he was. "How do we get past the soldiers?" she asked, adjusting the tank to rest some of the weight against her thigh.
"Guns blazing," he said, winking as he checked the magazines on the guns, then chambered a bullet in each weapon.
"Isn't that a little dangerous?" she asked, then felt an amazing urge to laugh. "More dangerous than this bio-bomb ticking away in my head?"
He ran the tips of his fingers along the line of her jaw. Soldiers first, bomb second. Assuming Donovan was telling the truth, you're loaded with adrenaline at the moment. That should keep the bomb from detonating for now."
"And later?" They both knew how she handled stress. With unnatural calm. A bad thing, given the ticking bomb in her head.
"One step at a time, honey." He positioned the tank in her arms so that it partially obstructed her vision but covered all the vital points any decent marksman might target. "Keep this up. They won't risk shooting you."
"I'd feel better with a gun," she remarked wryly. "But I'll settle for a well-armed ex-husband."
"Not ex yet. Here." He handed her the small can of hair spray he'd found in the bathroom back at the palace.
"You think this'll work, MacGyver?"
"Aim for eyes," he told her, his face grim. "We can't afford for there to be any shooting. Can you manage the tank and the can?" Danica nodded. He brushed a fingertip briefly across her mouth. "That's my girl. Okay—stand aside. I'm going to open the door and stick my head out."
She followed him across the room, then flattened herself against the wall out of the way, holding the tank up on her shoulder and her finger on the trigger of her spray can. "Do you think it's smart to stick your head in the way of a bullet?" she whispered.
"They won't shoot. Especially when they see you holding that tank of ether. One spark and we'll all get blown to hell."
"What a cheerful thought."
Jon grinned. "Trust me."
Danica gave him an arch look, but she did trust him. Completely. She knew with every cell in her body he'd do everything in his power to keep her safe. God only knew, she'd do the same for him. That would be enough. If not, then she could only hope there'd be enough time to tell him she loved him one last time. To hear the same from him.
Jon positioned himself and opened the door. "Hey, guys? Can you get in here a sec? Donovan needs some help." Using his foot and leg as a brace, Jon made sure the opening was only large enough for a single soldier to rush in at a time.
The moment she saw the soldier's face, Danica pressed the little white button on the aerosol can. The guy shouted as the spray hit him full in the face. He doubled over. Jon felled him with a hard blow to the back of his neck, then propelled him into the room with a heave of one hand.
She watched in stunned amazement as he picked each man off like it was an arcade game. A smashing karate chop, then a shove. One, two, three. The soldiers piled up like discarded toys, strewn facedown and motionless on the floor.
Soldier four apparently didn't get the playbook because he barreled inside, AK poised to shoot. Danica sprayed him. Fffftt—The container was empty. Damn. Tossing aside the can, she held up the tank so he got a good look. Blanching, he staggered back a step, looked confused, then swung around to see Jon. He swung his weapon, but it was too late. Jon grabbed the barrel of the rifle and used it to drag the guy closer. The soldier released his hold, coming forward into Jon, causing him to stagger.
They tumbled to the floor, rolling around, grunting and cursing as they fought.
If fear was a great motivator, Danica was in peak form as one of the downed men staggered to his feet behind Jon. "Oh, no you don't!" With strength and determination, she brought her knee up, catching her guy in the chin as he started to rise. He reeled back, and she brought the tank around, smashing his temple. With a wince at the sickening crunch of metal on bone, she watched as he crumpled to the floor.
Eyes darting between Jon and his opponent, Danica cringed every time bone met bone. She rushed over, lifted her trusty tank of ether and brought it down on the last soldier's skull. Crack. Grunt. Silence.
Jon shoved the guy off him, got to his feet and offered Danica his brightest smile. He gently took the tank and set it aside. "You're full of surprises." He leaned forward to place a kiss on her open mouth.
Tucking the pistols in the waistband of his pants, he grabbed two of the AKs, then took Danica's hand and raced from the building.
Surprised that dawn had broken while they'd been inside, Dani clutched the stitch in her side and kept pace with Jon as he ran.
They reached the first truck. "Get in," he yelled, tossing the guns on the bench seat before reaching for the steering column. In under three seconds and with only a ballpoint pen at his disposal, he had the engine purring to life.
T minus 23hours:19minutes:07seconds
"Where are we going?"
Raven glanced over and saw, in the milky dawn light, how the color had drained from her face. Typical reaction. The adrenaline rush from the fight was wearing off. Shit.
"Gotta get to a phone." He gunned the engine, checked the rearview mirror for a tail, and peeled down the dirt road back to town in a rooster tail of dust. He ran through the cards in his mental Rolodex. "Donovan and I agree on one thing," he told her grimly. "That chip's gotta come out."
Danica grabbed the dashboard as the truck bounced in the deep ruts in the dirt road. "That makes three of us. But there was that little addendum about ninety-five percent probability of the patient's demise, remember?" Her knuckles were white as she clutched the dash, but her voice was steady.
"I know what he said," Raven acknowledged as he stomped the accelerator all the way to the floor. "But the chip was what he wanted. You were . . . expendable." He reached over and closed his fingers over her knee. "There has to be a way to remove the chip without harming you in any way."
"And until then?"
Yeah. Until then . . . He narrowed his eyes against the brilliance of the rising sun. He'd let this incredible woman down more times than he could count.
His security business had always been his 24/7 priority, to the exclusion of all else. He hadn't realized that she'd trip over his ambition on her way out. Nor had he realized Danica needed him too. He'd simply assumed she'd always be there. He hadn't blamed her for leaving him when she had. But now he had a second chance. And he sure as hell wasn't going to screw this one up.
He was not going to let her die, and when this was over, he was going to tell her exactly why they belonged together. Most of all, he'd tell her the truth. He'd been an ass to let her slip out of his life. She'd always been his number one priority, he'd just stupidly thought she'd sit on the sidelines waiting until he'd amassed enough money, enough power to make them both happy. It wouldn't happen again.
On either side of the narrow track, the jungle closed in around them, a hot, green, impenetrable wall of vegetation. His fingers gripped the wheel as he took a corner too fast on the dirt road. "We're winging it here," he told her grimly, swerving to avoid a ragged boy and two goats who'd emerged from nowhere into the middle of the road.
"I have a contact in D.C., I'll call and see what he knows about the chip. In the meantime, I know someone here who'll hook us up with a reputable doctor ASAP."
"We still have an immediate problem," Dani said, her voice amazingly calm, considering. "This thing can blow up at any time."
Like he could possibly forget. "Not if I can help it," Raven said, feeling grim and manic and as though time was spinning out of control while his brain raced like a rat in a maze to come up with a viable solution.
T minus 23hours:19minutes:00seconds
Danica unsnapped her seat belt. "I think I have a way around it."
She was too calm, he thought with rising panic. He knew his girl. The more pissed and afraid Danica became, the calmer she always got. This was a bad, bad, bad, freaking time for her to be calm and collected.
"Which is what?" he asked, mouth dry as he started praying like he'd never prayed before. Help us out here, God. For the first time since he'd left the tutelage of Sister Mary Angelica, Raven said the Our
Father, followed immediately by the Act of Contrition. Hell, he'd recite the Gettysburg Address forward and backward if he thought it might curry favor with the Almighty.
The truck swerved as she whipped her T-shirt over her head, exposing her pretty, bare breasts, then lifted her butt off the seat to pull down the zipper on her too tight jeans. "Pull over."
T minus 23hours:18minutes:30seconds
"You are nuts,' Jon murmured, spearing the truck into the overhanging trees like a hot knife through butter. The jungle closed in around the vehicle with a rustle of leaves and the snap of branches, cocooning them in verdant green. He shut off the engine and silence rushed at them. "Do you have any idea how insane this is?" His voice was thick as he turned to look at her.
Danica smiled, and her heart started pounding as if his hands, rather than his gaze had touched her. "Do you have any idea how messy it would get in here if we don't?"
He cupped the back of her head and brought their heads together, touched his forehead to hers. "Ah, Jesus, sweetheart. Don't—"
"Shhh. Shhh. Keep me safe, Jon. Make love to me."
The inside of the army surplus truck was hotter than sin, despite the thick jade canopy. Danica intended to make it even hotter. Naked, already damp with equal amounts of perspiration and desperation, she reached for the hem of his T-shirt. "Clothes off. Now." She dragged the damp fabric up his body and over his head and tossed the garment over her shoulder.
Just seeing the heated desire flare in his eyes as he looked at her made her adrenaline race. She grabbed his hand, placed his fingers at the base of her throat. "Feel that? You, touching me—anywhere—gives me the biggest rush. You make my heart race and my blood sing."
"I've never stopped wanting you," he said in a ragged voice thick with urgency. His fingers glided down, caressing first her throat where her pulse pounded, then trailing down her chest in an almost lazy caress. Danica looked down, watching as his lean, tanned fingers curved around to cup the weight of her breast.
Her breath caught and her body shuddered with anticipation as he bent his head, the long dark silk of his hair brushing her skin in its own caress. She squeezed her eyes shut, threading her fingers through the skeins, holding his head to her, dizzy at the exquisite pull of his wet mouth on her painfully erect nipple.
"Nobody—" she tried to say. But his tongue stroked the distended bud in slick, rapid movements that sent her heart slamming erratically into her ribs and shuddered through her entire body, scrambling her thoughts. She fumbled with the top button of his pants, feeling his furnace heat and clenched muscles against her fingers. An electric current zinged through her, Come on. Come on. Come on. "Ah— could ever make me ache as you do, Jon Raven." And nobody else ever would.
He skimmed out of his jeans, shoving them aside, all hard, sinewy muscle and bronzed satin skin as he slid to the center of the bench seat, taking her with him. He lifted his head, and Danica shuddered as this beautiful man, this primal male, gently cupped her jaw, tilting her face up to meet the hard pressure of his mouth, and kissed her as though they'd been apart for a hundred years.
"You are my water in the desert." He lifted his mouth from hers long enough to murmur it. "My reason for being." Then he lowered his mouth again to gently bite the fullness of her lower lip, tugging at it to access the inner softness, before he crushed her mouth beneath his in a kiss so raw, so desperate, Danica moaned, feeling the power of it all the way to her toes.
Arms around his neck, fingers gripping his hair, she straddled his lap, opening her body to him. He glided his hands around her waist, neither insisting nor holding her back. Simply—holding her. Still kissing her as though there was no tomorrow. His thumbs moved in lazy circles, dipping into the creases at the juncture of her thighs.
Taut with anticipation, she stayed poised there, braced on her knees, feeling the jut of him, so hard, so ready, against her eager core. Liquid heat filled her, surging and rushing through her veins. The sensitive tips of her breasts rubbed against the solid plane of his chest, teased by the wiry hair arrowing down to his groin. Every part of her yearned for him, while the kiss went on and on.
She tore her mouth from beneath his as she impaled herself, then had to stop because the sensation of having Jon inside her was so sharp, so unbearably sweet, she couldn't move. And Jon, being Jon, and knowing her so well, let the pleasure build and build as the muscles in his neck corded and his body shook with the effort to remain still while buried deep inside her.
The magnitude of his control stunned and humbled her.
Then, when her nerves quivered unbearably and her muscles jumped with the strain, when the urgency encompassed her entire world, only then did Jon grip her hips in his strong hands and set a rhythm that had them both panting and gasping. Everything seemed to tighten inside her in concentric circles. Danica's vision blurred. She went deaf, blind.
Nothing could compare to this—this driving compulsion. This overwhelming race to the finish.
Jon cried her name in a garbled voice, his sweaty face buried against her equally sweaty throat as they came together in an apocalyptic finish that left them both weak and shaken.
T minus 23hours:11 minutes:20seconds
"We made it even hotter in here," Raven murmured against her temple. Their bodies were glued together, and he was still deep inside her: He had to get to a phone. Now. But Dani was a limp, gloriously satiated limpet on his chest and he didn't want to move any more than she did. As relaxed as her body felt, her heart pounded in a comforting, rapid, erratic beat beneath the hand he had cupped around her breast. ■
"Hmmm," she murmured, not moving.
Unfortunately, move they must. "There's a spider the size of my Porsche on the hood of the truck."
The lashes of one eye brushed his chest as she stirred. "What color?"
"Silver."
With a grin Danica lifted her head. She gave him a not-so-gentle punch to the ribs. "The spider, you idiot."
His throat closed, aching with how incredibly beautiful she looked as she sat up, pushing her hair off her face. Her stick-straight bangs fell into place above her, sparkling eyes like black silk. Her cheeks were hot pink with the heat, her mouth slightly swollen and still damp from his kisses.
She lifted her leg over him, leaving him bereft at the loss of her slick heat, and felt around in the foot well for her clothes. "Guess we'd better go and do whatever it is we've got to go and do before my head explodes. Right?"
"Jesus, Dani, don't even joke about it. Nothing's going to happen to you." He needed to make that promise. The amazing sex had sent a healthy dose of adrenaline and endorphins through her system. But how long would it last? How long before Villalba-Vera decided he wasn't getting her back, and therefore she was expendable? How long before Donovan and his soldiers found them and forced Danica to undergo surgery so they could keep their damned prototype of the smallest assassination tool ever made?
Raven pulled his T-shirt over his head, then bent to retrieve his pants from the floor. "I'm prepared to pull over any time you feel the least little bit calm," he offered magnanimously, doing up his pants while keeping an eye on the rapid pulse at the base of her throat.
"A prince of a guy-" Dani smiled. Not the wide Danica smile that always made his pulse go from zero to eighty in a second, but a knowing smile that sliced right into his heart. She reached out, cupping his cheek. Raven buried his face in her soft palm as the pressure in his chest built. Her other hand came up and stroked his hair back off his face.
"I'm not going to let that bastard make me explode. Got that, Jon Raven? The only person allowed to make me explode, and in future I'll use that term with due seriousness, is you." She stroked his hair, his cheek, her heart in her eyes.
His throat ached. Jesus, Dani—
"You still take my breath away," she admitted, touching the corners of his lips. "I—I want to tell you something before . . . just in case ... I mean, if—"
Raven silenced her by pressing two fingers to her mouth. "There'll be plenty of time for this later. Let's book so I can call my contact and resolve this once and for all." He started the truck and backed back out onto the road, cracking the window open once they started moving to dissipate the fog on the inside.
Danica finished straightening her clothes, then moved the guns and slid across the seat to tuck herself against his side despite the stifling heat. Raven looped an arm about her shoulders and drew her hard against him, then rested his fingers lightly on the pulse at her throat as he drove.
Dense jungle eventually gave way to the poverty stricken outskirts of San Cristobal proper as the sun rose higher in the sky, heralding another hotter-thanhell day in paradise. The smoky smell of open fires mingled with the scent of spicy foods as Jon steered the truck into a rutted parking spot in front of a corner service station. A decades-old telephone booth stood guard over the antiquated pumps beneath a tattered awning.
He placed one of the guns on the seat next to her. "Shoot anyone who isn't me."
"That's a little drastic, isn't it? What if it's someone who has nothing to do with—"
