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  He spoke to her like any slave owner would. “Take the senorita’s plate away. It’s unfit for the dogs.”

  “Stop it.” Ali stood before she thought. “The food is fine. I’m simply not hungry.” She wouldn’t back down. “If you’ll be good enough to call your driver around, I have to get medical attention for Sweeney, and he has to be in Bogotá for that to happen.”

  Nothing but freezing silence came back for several seconds. Slowly, his lightning-struck expression faded into a smile. He stood and went to her side. “I can see you are in distress, my dear. Forgive me for being so blind to your worry.” His oily gaze slid to Gun, who observed them from his chair.

  “The car, please.” Saying please to Armondez burned her tongue.

  “Of course.” Armondez stabbed Gun with a slanted glare. “I’ll arrange it immediately.”

  Ali nodded, unaware she had twisted a fine lace napkin into a shredded rag. “Thank you.”

  He left them alone for the first time in hours. Gun stood to wrap his arms around her. “You’re a keg of dynamite.” His chuckle was a balm to her quaking heart. “I want to show you something.”

  “Don’t do anything brave, Sweeney.” She kept her voice low, worried her words might be overheard in this eerie place. “I want to get the hell out of here. In one piece.”

  He kissed her lips before walking her to the edge of the patio. “See that?” He inclined his head toward a break in the trees and murmured in her ear. “A riding trail. The snake warms his blood out here every morning. Bingo.”

  “I understand.” She touched the bloodstained bandage on Gun’s head. “We’re going to the hotel and get our crap together. You really do need stitches, and when was your last tetanus shot?”

  He laughed softly. “I’m fine, and you’re really fine.” She wanted to cry with relief, thinking how close they were to getting out of this frightening place.

  A sixth sense alerted her to Armondez’s return, his footsteps in the hallway echoing into the jungle as he crossed the stone patio. “Your driver is waiting.” The man had a renewed look of arrogance about him, his chin held high and his smile confident. “I’ll see you outside.”

  “Thank you.” Ali grabbed her handbag before he could feel the weight of it. “We’re ready.” She fought back a shudder, knowing Armondez’s obsidian stare drilled into her back as she walked ahead of him and Gun.

  She realized the sound was her imagination, the tight cadence of a snare drum counting every step they took. Shoulders back, head up, and eyes to the front. Her gaze swept the lush grounds of the entrance, and it appeared to be non-hostile. A tiny part of her rejoiced. Thank God, the driver waited and had the back passenger-side door open.

  Apprehension hit her, and she stepped back to hold her hand out to Gun. “I’ll help you. You look a little wobbly.” Gun smiled at her, slid across the seat, and stared out the window.

  She got in and tried to close the door. Armondez caught the door, leaning in to speak to her. “Your promise means a great deal to me.”

  Ali nodded and stared at his smiling mouth, answering slowly. “Yes, I’ll do what I can.”

  They didn’t cross paths with the guards again, but Ali couldn’t shake the worry they would be stopped. She sat next to Gun, holding her breath at every twist in the narrow road.

  Gun took her hand to get her attention and nodded toward the sparse underbrush along a short stretch of the road. He had been right; a sandy trail bordered the road, wide enough for several riders. She squeezed his fingers, letting him know she had seen it.

  As the miles fell behind them, Ali gave her full attention to Gun. His cocky grin let her know her open concern and bit of coddling were a joke to him. He couldn’t stop being tough long enough to accept gentleness.

  The moment they arrived in Bogotá, Ali directed the driver to hurry to the nearest hospital in town. He didn’t question her, and they sped off to find help for Gun. The driver weaved through the unyielding traffic and evaded the cops while doing it.

  Ali heard the wailing of sirens before she realized they had arrived at the emergency entrance of a hospital. Her pulse slowed a fraction.

  The driver looked over his shoulder at her. “I’ll wait for you.”

  “No. Thank you.” She leaned over Gun to open the door. “We’ll catch a ride back to the hotel.”

  Case closed. They got out, and the big car took off. Ali gave Gun a little push toward the door.

  “Come on, cowboy. Let’s go see what the damage is.”

  He hung back and shook his head, pressing his hand to his eyes. “Hey, I’m fine. I don’t need looking at.”

  “Be a good boy and do it for me.” She put her arms around his waist.

  “And if I do it, what happens?”

  “You’ll get so lucky tonight.” She kissed him and slipped her tongue into his mouth to tease the underside of his upper lip.

  He chuckled and patted her hips. “I’m all yours, baby.”

  “Remember that when playtime starts getting hot and you’re tired and cranky.”

  They went into the emergency room, and Gun was penciled in to receive attention. When he was taken to an examining room, he sat still for the probing and questions and even winked at the elderly nurse who eyed him with piercing black eyes. Not surprising, he spent a lot of time bullshitting with the young male intern who examined him. They shared a common bond — both loved muscle cars.

  Ali took in the sterile room’s furnishings. Fine cotton sheets covered the examining table, and an antique, doublewide glass-door cabinet held an array of colorful bottles and gleaming instruments. She liked the crystal apothecary jars that held everything from cotton balls to tongue depressors. Her favorite held small lollipops of every color. Her attention was drawn back to Gun when the intern handed her a bottle of pills with directions written in Spanish. After a few stitches and instructions to take it easy, they hailed a taxi and headed back to their hotel.

  She didn’t care that he grinned like a cocky jackass when she kissed and hugged him repeatedly during the ride to the hotel. She would have him for the rest of the night. For the last time.

  He sobered considerably after they were back in the privacy of their suite. Ali dug his prescription out of her purse and handed him one of the pills. After studying the blue pill for several seconds, he looked up with a crooked smile. “This Viagra?”

  “No. Do you need some?” She poured him a glass of water.

  “I might if I take this.”

  “Swallow that. We’ll talk about getting it up later.” She picked up the phone. “I’m ordering lobster and hot chocolate. Want that double chocolate torte I saw on the menu?”

  He shook his head and took the receiver from her hand, placing it back on the cradle. “Let’s have a late dinner.”

  She put her arms around his neck and kissed his mouth, trying not to let him know her heart trembled with emotion. He wouldn’t say it, but he wanted her.

  * * * *

  Gun knew he shouldn’t be doing this. Getting cozy with a woman who wasn’t nearly as coldhearted as she wanted him to believe. Donavon made him feel too many things. Like, ashamed of his lousy way of treating her most of the time. Once she got back to the States, she’d be damned glad to be rid of him.

  That was good because he wasn’t the type to make her happy, to give her what she deserved. Loyalty. He wasn’t sure he had that in him anymore.

  He held her close, her perfumed warmth easing his troubled mind. If he got out of this alive, he would never take on another partner. He didn’t want to be responsible for anybody’s head but his own. Damn it. But that was in the future. Right now, he had Donavon.

  “Something wrong?” She looked at him with her fantastic blue eyes.

  “Not a thing, baby.” He pushed away the negative thoughts that threatened to ruin the night. “Did I tell you how great you feel with all that hard, trained muscle?”

  She slapped his ass with no mercy. “I can show you just how trained
it is.” She reached up to feel the bandage at the back of his head. “Want a fresh one of these?”

  He chuckled. “Fresh gash?”

  “Either one you want.” Her smile was sexy as hell.

  Together, they removed his bloodstained clothes and tossed them out of the way. Her exploration of his body warmed and pleased him, erasing any lingering concerns he may have had earlier. She turned him into a regular guy with a super-woman to entertain. He was one lucky bastard.

  “Okay, chili pepper,” he said with a grunt, picking her up to carry her into the bathroom. “I’m stripping you and taking you in the shower.”

  Just the way he liked it, she pressed her full lips to his and sucked hard, thrusting her tongue inside his mouth, leaning back to grin at him. “You’re taking me into the shower or taking me in the shower?”

  “Both.” He couldn’t surprise her. He had always been able to control his emotions and his body, but Donavon had taken the key and could turn him on at her pleasure. Right now, his blood screamed through his veins and surged in his cock, leaving it standing tall.

  “Pill not hitting yet?” She couldn’t miss the fact his dick was poking her in the ass as he walked. He set her down and stood with his legs apart, smiling, waiting for her appraisal. Her smile and sultry voice answered his question.

  “Well, well. Is that for me?” Her eyes narrowed, and her lips parted in a provocative smile.

  “You know it is.” He caught the zipper of her jumpsuit and lowered it to her crotch, pushing it from her shoulders to her waist. “I want to give it to you right now.”

  Damn, he was glad she was into the game. His head hurt, but playing around with Donavon made him forget it pretty damned quick.

  “Gun, are you ready for this?”

  “Ready and wishing you’d quit talking and start doing.” Her hands worked magic, reinforcing the steel gauge of his hard-on.

  “Now, I’m ready for that beautiful eight inches of happiness.”

  Dizzy or not, he had to be inside Donavon. She could drive him nuts while insulting him. “Nine, Donavon. Nine.”

  She laughed as he leaned over to kiss and lick her belly. While he tongued her belly button, she spanked his ass and made him even harder. Getting her clothes off was a hard task. With her help, she was in his arms, naked and luscious.

  Hooking his arm around her waist, he stepped into the luxurious shower stall and turned the water on, not caring that the water wasn’t warm. He needed to cool down, or he was going to come before she’d had her fun.

  The woman was phenomenal, relaxing against him and holding her arms out to the sides while he squeezed her nipples into his mouth. Yeah, he was nuts, but her nipples tasted like cherry gumdrops, sweet and firm. He sucked hard, trying to get every bit of the taste. She moaned and smacked his cheek.

  “Did that mean stop, or harder?”

  “You figure it out.”

  “Okay.” He slipped two fingers inside her and nodded. “Yeah, that means harder.”

  There was nothing like the feel of a woman ready for sex— hot, slick, and tight, quivering around his fingers. And nothing like Donavon. She moved against his fingers and took his cock in her hand, imitating his movement inside her. She used his pre-cum to slide her hand up and down his length. Her finger formed a cock ring and squeezed the head out of its cover until he groaned.

  “I’m going to wash you.”

  “The hell, you say.” He couldn’t believe anything but fucking was on her mind. “You’re kidding.”

  “Relax, Mr. Agent. Let me shampoo that fine nine.”

  “Oh, hell, Donavon.” He fought the urge to climax in her hand. “Let me go down on you first.” Son-of-a-bitch. It was hard as hell to hold back with her touching him. And he wasn’t. She had poured shampoo in her palm and worked it along his dick and over his balls. She didn’t forget his ass. His hips bucked against her, and he moaned in a powerful release of passion.

  “Nice, huh?” Her smile was so damned sexy, and her hair was getting big and frizzy. Damn, she was so hot he couldn’t stand it. “Gun, you have a really nice hard-on.”

  “No shit.” He gripped her under the arms and pushed her against the wall. “I can’t wait any longer.”

  She knew what to do. She locked her legs around his waist and clung to his shoulders while he pushed into her hot pussy. She ground her slick cunt against his cock and leaned her head back while she worked, moaning in wild, passion-driven sounds.

  He let her slip down so he could mouth her nipples and kiss her in a hungry way that took his breath and sent him off on a new journey of dizzy pleasure. Her ass fit in his hands like a brand-new pair of fine gloves, tight and smooth, sensually warm and flexible.

  The memory of her clit teased his brain, and he braced her on his thigh to find her tight little bud in her folds. Standing rigid and hot, the pink flesh quivered under his fingers, swelling into a delicious candied-peanut-sized sugar tit. Three strokes and one squeeze, and Donavon began climaxing against him, her inner muscles gripping him hard and milking him until he came in a lightning bolt of sweet heat, then the agony of letting go.

  Chapter 21

  Ali tapped her fingertip on the small map they had spread out on the bed. “The extraction site is exactly a half-hour from Armondez’s place, on foot and walking fast.” She didn’t like the way Gun exhaled and ignored her comment. “You have doubts, now?”

  “No, but the riding trail crosses some shitty wet area, and it gets pretty hairy before we hit the mark.”

  Her apprehension lifted some when he kissed her ear and spoke with his usual command. “Okay, we run through it again, then flush the stuff. Check?”

  “Check.”

  “We use the same road Armondez’s driver took. Leave the Jeep and cross the field to the trail. Set up on our sighting area. When the target shows, I take my shot. We wait ten seconds to confirm our kill, then move out toward our pick-up.”

  “I should maybe take the shot.”

  “Why the hell do you think that?”

  “You have a better sense of what’s happening around you. I have to give total concentration to my target.”

  “No.” He met her resentful stare without blinking.

  “You don’t think I can do it, right?”

  “Didn’t say that.” He lit a cigarette and rolled off the bed. “I need you to watch my back. Okay?”

  Ali nodded and folded the map. The way he could get out of situations when he didn’t want to explain himself was awesome. She sat up and kept an eye on him while he stood on a chair to take the rifle and ammunition from their hiding place in the ceiling.

  There wasn’t time to be resentful or feel anything close to personal emotion. This would be their last night alone. He had closed the door on the subject of which of them would make the hit. It wouldn’t be brought up again. Her only concern was to keep him alive until he hit the target. After that, they would run like hell and wait for the chopper to pluck them from certain death.

  She didn’t mind the silence in the room. They were comfortable in their arrangement. Occasionally, the quiet was broken by the soft sounds the bolt action made as Gun checked over the rifle. The weapon worked smooth as silk, with no resistance.

  The need to move around hit Ali, and she got out of bed to wrap herself in a sheet, walking by Gun to touch his hair. He took her hand and kissed her palm, then went back to inspecting the rifle.

  Gazing at his hands that held the deadly weapon made her shiver. The hour of reckoning hurtled toward them. She wondered if her nerves would have been pulled this tight if Rance were here instead of Gun. Hell, no. There was an astronomical difference between the two men. Between any man and Gun.

  What made him tick still eluded Ali. She was no closer to knowing that than she’d ever been. She knew he could be snide, boastful, and rude. His saving grace was the ability to make fun of himself, unwittingly revealing a small portion of his carefully hidden heart.

  He glanced up and smiled
at her, propping the rifle on his thigh. “Just like me, Donavon. Hard steel and primed.”

  Ali didn’t comment. She knew the truth. He was a warm and totally giving lover, making her long to be in his arms again. Time to get real. He can’t help it if you lost your mind and broke every rule in the manual and gave the agency plenty of reason to drum you out the door. Lord, she would pay for her stupidity for years to come.

  She laid her toothbrush and toothpaste on the nightstand, doing her best to sound matter-of-fact. “I’ll pitch all this stuff down the trash chute on the way out tomorrow.”

  He nodded and then put the rifle in the tote bag. “Sounds like we’re finished here.” He stood and perused the dinner on the service cart that they had ordered and not touched. “Did you order all this rice?”

  “Hell no. You did.” She reached under the bed, pulling out her bundle of clothing. “I’ll share the chocolate sauce and cake with you.”

  He picked up the cake plate, small container of chocolate sauce, and two forks. “Come on, Donavon. Let’s relax and hit the sack.”

  How could she possibly turn that down — chocolate cake and, if she got lucky, more sex?

  “Sure.” She didn’t give a hoot that she sounded eager. She was. “Let’s have the sangria, too.”

  “Just what I was thinking.” Gun placed the plate on the bed and took the pitcher of sangria from the serving cart. The drink was now room temperature.

  She climbed onto the bed and lounged idly, sampling the cake frosting while he poured their drinks. The bed was high off the floor and comfortable, made even better by all the pillows and fine linen. The desire to never leave this room sang through her blood. Cold reality slapped her full in the face. She had to stop thinking like a kid. Right now, he was taking a hell of a long time getting her a glass of sangria, clinking a spoon against the crystal.

  “What are you doing, cutting up the fruit?”