Chapter Two
The ringing of her phone woke Sydney. Her hand flew out automatically, reaching for her nightstand—for the phone. But instead of scooping up her phone, her fingers collided with warm, strong flesh.
Not a dream.
Her eyes snapped open, and she found herself staring straight into Gunner’s dark gaze. There was no sleepiness in that gaze, just a deep hunger.
For her.
Then he reached out and grabbed the ringing phone from her nightstand. Silently, he handed it to her.
“S-Sydney Sloan.” Her fingers tightened around the phone. Gunner’s tanned fingers were sliding down her arm.
Goose bumps rose on her flesh as she remembered the night before. The things he’d done to her. What she’d done to him.
More, please.
“Sydney?” Logan barked. “Sydney, are you okay?”
She shot up in bed, clutching the sheet to her chest. “I’m fine. Just…sleeping.” Gunner didn’t stop stroking her. He raised himself, and his lips brushed over her shoulder.
She shivered.
“Look, I know you were due to have a few weeks off, but we’ve got a case that we can’t refuse. I’ve got you booked on a jet to Peru at three today.”
Peru.
“I’m going to call Gunner and Cale. They’ll be meeting up with you there.”
I can tell Gunner. He’s right here kissing me, lying naked next to me. She cleared her throat. “What’s the case?” She hadn’t been back to Peru in two years. Not since Slade had died in that jungle, and the place had nearly become her own grave, too.
“An American is being held hostage by a group of rebels.”
Hostage rescue. That was what their team did best.
“He needs us,” Logan said. “So be on that plane.”
“I’ll be there,” she whispered, and then, because Logan would figure the situation out when he had to make reservations for Gunner—and those flight reservations had Gunner leaving from Baton Rouge, Sydney said, “Now hold on, and I’ll get Gunner for you.”
Gunner’s gaze rose to hers. She knew that her cheeks flushed; she could feel the burn. But this wasn’t the time for secrets. They had a case to work. And when a civilian’s life was on the line, there wasn’t room for embarrassment.
Gunner took the phone from her but didn’t look away from her eyes. “Gunner.”
There was a beat of silence. Then Sydney rolled away from Gunner and climbed from the bed before she could overhear Logan’s response to the discovery that Gunner was so close she could just, ahem, hand him her phone first thing in the morning.
She grabbed for a robe. Her body ached in a way that felt so good, and she hated that their time together was already ending.
No, not ending. They were just beginning. They’d turned a corner last night, and there would be no going back for them.
“I’ll be there,” she heard Gunner say, and she looked up as he ended the call.
No man should look as sexy as he did. His hair was a little tousled. A line of stubble coated his square jaw, and his eyes blazed as they raked over her.
“We have at least six hours,” Gunner told her.
Six hours.
She nodded.
“I want you.”
Her fingers clenched around the belt of the robe. “Again?”
“Always.”
She dropped the robe and climbed back in bed with him. Six hours.
This was perfect. What she’d hoped for.
And this time, things would end well for her in Peru. She wouldn’t lose Gunner. Not the way that she’d lost Slade.
Gunner’s lips pressed to hers, and she shoved away the fear that wanted to rise within her.
Peru. The last time she’d been to Peru, her lover had died there.
It won’t happen this time. She’d finally gotten her chance with Gunner. It wouldn’t slip through her fingers.
LOGAN STARED DOWN at the phone in his hand. Gunner was with Sydney.
He’d seen the sexual awareness between the two of them. Had known that Gunner wanted Sydney, and that the sniper had held back with her. He had clung so tightly to his control and his rule that Sydney was off-limits.
But it looked as if Gunner had broken his rule.
Logan tossed aside the phone and stared at the photographs in front of him. The tip he’d received could be wrong. He shouldn’t want it to be wrong, but he did.
Because Gunner was his friend. Gunner had been through hell. The man deserved some happiness.
But if the intel was right—and this intel had come right down from Bruce Mercer, the man who’d formed the EOD—then Gunner’s life was about to be ripped apart.
“Enjoy her while you can,” Logan whispered. Because Gunner would need some good memories to hold tight to in the darkness that was coming.
PERU WAS JUST as hot and beautiful and wild as Sydney remembered. When the plane touched down, and she headed out on the tarmac, the heat was the first thing to hit her.
Cale was inside the airport, waiting for them. Gunner walked right beside Sydney, his hand lightly pressing at the base of her back.
To any onlookers, they probably looked like a vacationing couple.
That was their cover, after all. Lovers. A cover they’d used before.
Only this time, they weren’t pretending.
When they entered the airport, Cale approached them with a broad grin. Again, another cover. The reuniting friends. He slapped Gunner on the back and hugged Sydney.
“Ready?” he asked quietly, keeping his smile in place.
She always was.
They went outside together and tossed their bags into the back of Cale’s jeep.
Sydney climbed into the front seat next to Cale, while Gunner jumped in the back. In moments, Cale was driving them away from the airport.
“Where’s Logan?” Gunner asked, his voice rising over the growl of the engine. “I thought he was meeting us down here.”
“He’s doing recon,” Cale said, keeping his eyes on the road. Cale was an ex–Army Ranger, one who’d actually been targeted by the EOD for takedown.
He’d been framed for the murders of three EOD agents. He’d proven his innocence and earned his way onto their team.
“Have you seen a picture of the target?” Sydney asked. She was trying hard not to glance back at Gunner, but she was so aware of him. She was hyperaware of every single move that he made.
Had they really spent the night together? She’d wanted him for so long that part of her wondered if it had all just been a wonderful dream.
An erotic dream.
She couldn’t help herself—she glanced back at him.
And found Gunner’s dark eyes locked on her.
There was such heat in that gaze. She swallowed and forced her eyes away from him as Cale said—
“No, I haven’t seen any visuals on him yet. I just know that the order for extraction came down from the top.”