What Ryland had in mind was a sailboat off the coast. And Tabi still didn’t understand how quickly they’d gotten here. He’d had himself medevacked out to a coastal town, with her at his side. She had all the medicines they needed in a bag, and he had been transported in a wheelchair and led her toward a large sailboat.
Now safely aboard, she walked around the deck and smiled. He sat in a lawn chair with a laptop and satellite hookups, electronic equipment all around him. “How did you make all this happen in five hours?” she asked.
“It’s my world,” he said. “I make things happen. That’s what I do.”
She shook her head. “Freaking amazing.” She walked to the mast and leaned against it, staring at the blue waters all around.
“Will this do?”
“It will for a little bit,” she said, laughing. “As long as nobody knows where we are, and we won’t get attacked from the sky.”
“We shouldn’t. Ice has Stone running proxies right now.”
“Whatever that means,” she said. “Did you find Cain?”
He looked up and flashed her a bright smile. “Yes, he’s gone underground to regroup.”
“Perfect, and Garret’s still in the hospital,” she said. “I just heard from the surgeon. Apparently he’s showing signs that he’s starting to stir a little bit.”
“Now that is perfect,” he said.
She smiled, knowing how hard and fast the road had been to get them to where they were. Then she noticed the white pinched look around his mouth. “Time to put it away and go lie down for a bit,” she said.
His lips tightened, as if he would protest; then he relaxed and nodded. “You’re right. Can you help me move this stuff to one side?” Soon they had everything secured and in the locked waterproof boxes that were set up all around. With that done, he slowly got up, and, with her help, they managed to get him below to the bed.
As he laid down, he said, “You could join me.”
“I could,” she said, with a smile. “As long as there’s no hanky-panky because I can’t risk having you hurt.”
“You’re such a pain,” he murmured.
“I am,” she said, laughing, as she leaned over and kissed him. But, when she went to pull away, he grabbed her head, then pulled her down and kissed her hard. She shook her head. “You’re too injured for this.”
“Maybe,” he murmured. “But not if I don’t have to do any of the work.”
She stared at him in surprise and delight. “Oh, don’t tell me that you’ll just lie there and let me do my worst?”
“I would love nothing more,” he said. Since he already wore swim shorts, and she was in a bikini top and bottoms, it was much easier to strip down. He had his shorts off in seconds, lying here, completely bare and waiting for anything she wanted to do.
As she sat down, her bikini long gone, she said, “You know something? I don’t think I’ve ever had this opportunity before.”
He looked at her curiously. “What do you mean?”
“Not too many men are just happy to lie there and do nothing.”
“Well, I can’t promise to continue doing nothing,” he said, “but you’ve definitely got a chance to get started.” And with a suggestive wink, he said, “Do your worst.”
She shook her head. “No, I’ll take it easy on you,” she said. “After all, you’re injured.”
“I’m not that injured,” he protested.
She leaned over and kissed him again. When he went to grab her head, she shook her head and placed his hands down beside him and said, “Don’t move.” Delight lit the dark depths of his gaze as she ran her fingers across his features, dropping kisses on his brows and his nose, stroking her fingers through his hair. “I almost lost you,” she murmured and dropped her cheek against his for a long moment. Then she kissed him again and again. She climbed up, so she straddled his body, her hands gently stroking across his heavily muscular chest and shoulders.
With misgivings, she stared at the bandages on his shoulder from one of the latest bullet wounds, until he reached up and said, “Don’t stop. I’m fine.”
“Fine you are not,” she said, “but I’ll go easy.”
She gently whispered her fingers across his skin, exploring and finding out who he was on the outside, since she already knew exactly who he was on the inside. He was honorable, loyal, caring, and dedicated; he was all of that and more. And, on the outside, he was such a warrior. She flicked his nipples with her nails and ran her fingers in a circle around and across his chest, seeing the other bullet wound there. She swallowed back her tears, then she rubbed upward, massaging his muscles as she moved up and down his chest and belly. She scampered a little lower, so she could explore where his ribs rose. His belly dropped immediately at her light touch; his six-pack rose at her tickling.
He gasped and said, “Well, that won’t go down well.”
She leaned over and kissed his belly button. “How about that though?” she murmured.
He groaned and said, “Okay, okay, I’ll take some of that.”
She let her hair, now free and long, drift across his erection, just a whisper of touch. He moaned, his hands still at his side, his hips twisting beneath her. She ran long smooth fingers down over his hip bones, to slide into the curls at the base of his growing erection, where she teased, tormented, and generally avoided the one area she knew he desperately wanted her to touch.
But she wasn’t ready to give this up, and she knew that, when she did, it would be over, really fast. She stroked his thighs, the inside of which were supersoft, the hard quads, bigger and stronger than she could have imagined. But the calves on the man, she just shook her head when she came to his heavy foot. It was just unbelievable to see how much bigger and stronger than her that he was.
Slowly she made her way back up again, leaving a trail of kisses up and down his thighs. When she got to his hip, she moved to the inside of his hip bone, letting her hair once again drift and wrap around his proud member, as it stood higher. Then she grasped it gently with one hand and slowly stroked up and then down, exploring the firm ridge, the shape, and the texture. When she leaned over and kissed him on the tip, he roared, his hips coming up in a flash.
She smiled and let his penis drift between her breasts, then momentarily hugged it with them, as she plumped her breasts around it, letting it slide lower and lower and lower, as she climbed up, until she slowly placed it at the heart of her and sank down. Immediately he thrust his hips up, groaning wildly. She smiled and shifted ever-so-slightly, leaning over so her hands were on the bed beside him.
“You know another activity I like to do?” she teased.
“This,” he said desperately, his hips trying to plumb up and down inside her, but she wouldn’t give him any space to do it.
“No,” she said. “I like to ride.” As she slowly lowered and raised herself, again and again, he grabbed her hips and held her as he lifted, finding the same rhythm, as she rode them right to the edge and hung there for a long moment.
When he grabbed her and pulled her down, plunging deeper and deeper and deeper, she cried out, as her world came crashing apart. He groaned beneath her and she sat still, on top of him, her head thrown back, as her arms collapsed against her thighs as she waited for all the trickles and rumbles of energy sliding up and down her body. Her nerve endings alive, awake, and screaming out in joy.
He reached up, slid his hands up her thighs, across her belly, up to cup her breasts, and he whispered, “God, woman, if you keep that up, you’ll kill me yourself.”
She smiled, looked at him, and said, “Yeah, but what a way to go.”
He burst out laughing as she slowly lowered herself so that she was beside him.
“Now sleep,” she whispered. “You really need it.”
“Only if you sleep with me,” he said. “It’s been a pretty rough week for you too.”
She kissed him gently on the cheek and said, “Yes, but it’s over now. Now we have the rest of our lives.”