MEGAN LAY BACK in the king-size motel room feeling as if sand coated her eyeballs. It was after two and she hadn’t been able to close her eyelids for more than a moment, much less fall asleep. Which was par for the course lately.
She reached over to check her quiet cell and then lie back again with a heavy sigh.
In recent weeks, she’d become aware of a sort of silent humming. Oh, she missed Dari with her head and her heart. But her body had been fine. Of course, sexting had probably helped. But now, now she felt as if she wanted to jump out of her skin it was so uncomfortably alive.
The sensation began at the tip of her toes, traveled upward to her inner thighs, making her nipples constantly hard, making her panties constantly damp.
An image of Jason chanced through her mind. She frowned, attributing the aberration to the fact she’d just seen him.
She groaned and rolled over onto her side, back to the nightstand and the cell phone on top of it. Despite the nonstop hum of the air conditioner under the window, it was still hot and she wore nothing but a white tank top and a pair of white cotton panties. She’d stripped the blankets back and was lying on the sheets. But the humidity was brutal and seemed to contribute to her sense of longing.
Without realizing that’s what she had in mind, she slipped her hand between her thighs so her wrist pressed against her damp crotch and then she squeezed her muscles together tightly. She groaned again as white-hot need shot through her every cell.
She’d been known to take matters into her own hands before. But certainly not since meeting Dari. He saw to every one of her needs and beyond.
But now that he was gone, she was all too aware she was a living, breathing female in need of release, preferably with a willing, skilled male.
Of course, her male was thousands of miles away in a sweltering desert just then, and her release was nowhere to be found.
She rolled back onto her back, shifting her hand so that it lay directly against her aching womanhood through the damp cotton. Heat shimmered up to her breasts and then sank back down to pool in her lower belly.
Yes…
It had been four long months since she’d felt Dari…right there. Touching her. Thrusting deep into her…
She stroked herself through the cotton and restlessly licked her lips, surrendering to what she was about to do and ultimately embracing it. Only, the connection wasn’t nearly intimate enough, so she edged her fingertips under the elastic of her panties, diving lower still until they met with her slick, shallow channel.
Megan stretched her head back and moaned, riding the delicious waves of sensation, a willing surfer bent on exploring deeper waters.
She ran her fingertips along the damp length of her swollen folds, working her middle into the tight pool for a dip. Her muscles immediately contracted, closing around the digit, begging for an even more meaningful meeting.
Her other hand trailed down her stomach until it, too, took up residence under the cotton of her panties. But where her left had focused on exploring dark, damp places, her right found her fleshy center, rubbing against it once, twice…
Megan gasped, her muscles contracting, allowing her the release she’d sought. She rode it out, welcoming every last spasm even as she clamped her legs together, trapping her hands where they were.
For long moments she lay there, absently stroking her pulsing flesh, curious as to why her cheeks were suddenly damp. She was surprised to find she was crying…
JASON SQUINTED UP at the blinding orange ball of the midday sun, thinking conditions couldn’t possibly be worse.
“Things could always be worse,” Megan said next to him. “There could be a hurricane heading this way.”
He stared at her. “Is there?”
“Nah.”
“Thank God for small favors.”
He blew out a long breath from between his teeth, staring at the clearing around them. Five minutes ago they’d both emerged to find the nonstop rain they’d woken up to this morning was being replaced by the scorching sun. It didn’t feel like a sauna—it felt worse.
Megan plucked the material of her T-shirt away from where it clung, soaked, to her stomach. He tried not to watch, but couldn’t help himself.
Another team member emerged from across the fifty-yard clearing in the middle of the forest.
“Anything?” Megan called.
The agent indicated in the negative and then backed up until he was once again protected by the tree line.
Good idea.
Jason did the same and Megan followed suit. He glanced at his watch. They’d been at it since early this morning. That meant five hours of slogging through the trees with only a minimum of breaks, a protein bar and water bottle the only sustenance.
Megan leaned against the trunk of a tall pine and drank sparingly from her own canteen, dragging the back of her hand across her mouth afterward as she considered the clearing.
“Not a scrap of fabric, no sign of tracks…nothing.”
Jason grimaced. “Same here.”
Of course, had any of them found anything, they would have contacted the others via the radios they each carried.
Jason picked up his radio and told the rest of the team about the clearing, then advised they take at least a twenty-minute break and eat something before continuing.
Megan edged down slightly, propping her back against the tree in a semiseated position without actually sitting down. The ground was so sodden, she was denied that luxury.
“Christ, it’s hot,” she said.
“Tell me about it. I’d take a hundred and twenty degrees in the desert heat of Afghanistan over this any day.”
She looked at him. “Me, too.”
They fell silent. Jason quietly cursed himself. He hadn’t meant to inspire thoughts of Dari, but he was sure that’s where her mind had wandered. If he had any doubt, all he had to do was watch her take out her cell and check it before frowning and putting it back in her pocket.
They’d all been supplied with lunch rations, modified MRE—meals ready-to-eat—that were fresher and a little more appetizing, but just as safe and portable. He took his out and offered it to Megan. She stared up at him.
“Thanks, but I have my own.”
Her curious gaze made him look the other way, even as he tore open the package. Of course she had her own. What the hell was he thinking, offering her his?
He wasn’t sure what was happening here, but he’d better snap out of it before Megan started thinking something was up.
Problem was, something was up. Big-time. Last night he’d woken up in the middle of the night with a massive hard-on…and it had Megan’s name written all over it.
He was relieved when Dominic popped up some twenty yards to his right and headed in their direction.
“Hey,” he said, leaning against a tree on the other side of Jason.
They answered in kind and all three ate in relative silence.
“There’s still so much ground we’re missing,” Megan said quietly, tucking away the wrapper from a piece of cheddar.
Dominic said, “We could have organized the volunteers lined up outside the sheriff’s office.”
“In this weather? We would have ended up searching for half of them.” Jason shook his head. “It was just as well the sheriff sent them to the mall and other public venues where they could keep an eye out but stay out of the elements.”
“Besides,”