Full Throttle (Black Knights Inc. #7)(69)
Of course, the one person who wasn’t privy to the true nature of his affiliation—though he was sure she had her suspicions—was Penni.
When Mad Dog pushed him away, he cleared his throat and flicked a meaningful glance in her direction. “Those rumors are unconfirmed,” he said from the corner of his mouth.
Mad Dog’s expression blanked in an instant. And, damn, Dan wouldn’t want to go up against the guy in a cutthroat game of poker, that’s for sure. “Coming in loud and clear.” Mad Dog nodded.
“Penni”—Dan turned, motioning for her to join them—“come let me make some introductions.”
“Are you sure it’s safe?” She waved a hand in front of her face and wore a soft grin Dan knew was all for show. The woman had just experienced a long-overdue emotional meltdown followed by…well…a few minutes of insanity. Which he wasn’t going to think about unless he wanted to sport the world’s most painful boner.
“Safe? What do you mean?” he asked.
“With so much testosterone floating around, it’s like I’m standing inside of a testicle. And I’m afraid of what getting any closer to the source will do to my eggs. They might spontaneously fertilize or something.”
Before Dan could think up a response to that bit of unexpected witticism, he got distracted by Romeo’s crack of laughter as it echoed against the acoustic tiles on the ceiling. “Ah, the lovely Agent Penelope DePaul,” Romeo said, stepping forward to offer his hand. “Your file didn’t say anything about your wonderful sense of humor. And the picture the Secret Service has of you doesn’t do you a bit of justice, querida.”
When Penni reached forward for a handshake, Romeo caught her hand between both of his. Dan could tell she bit the inside of her cheek when the devilish, dark-eyed bastard lifted her fingers to his lips.
Whoa. What?
The tips of his ears were burning like he was jealous or something. But that was impossible. He and Penni were…well…they weren’t anything. So maybe he was imagining that weird fire in his blood. Or maybe it had just been a very long day.
That’s gotta be it.
Still, he couldn’t stop himself from reaching out to jerk Penni away from Romeo and pull her next to his side. “Penni, you’ve already met Spiro Delgado, known as Romeo. I’m sure you can guess how he came by that name.” He frowned at the man. “But I wanna introduce to you to the guys from my former SEAL team. And even though they’re lowly Alpha platoon—I was with Bravo, by the way—try your best not to hold that against ’em.”
He went around the group, making the introductions, and by the time he’d finished, Penni looked a little dazed. Dan didn’t know if it was all the new names and nicknames, the fact that Leo’s team was a handsome bunch—the f*ckers—or that she was working on zero sleep. He was hoping for the latter.
“So,” Leo said, scratching his brownish-blond beard. “Now that that’s out of the way, how ’bout you tell us where, when, and how we’re supposed to evac the president’s lovely young daughter…”
*
“Mmm,” Abby hummed when Carlos stretched like a cat. He was absolutely glorious in his nudity…and completely unabashed. He even reached down to absently caress his flaccid penis where it lolled lazily against his thigh.
“Mmm?” he asked, releasing himself to tuck one hand beneath his head and reach for her with the other. She went to him willingly. And with his strong arm holding her close to his side, her cheek resting on his broad chest, she could almost pretend it was possible for her to be like this with him forever. To be his forever.
“Yes, mmm.” She ran her finger around one of his flat, brown nipples. “That’s the sound a woman makes when she’s completely sated.”
His chuckle sounded particularly low and rumbly beneath her ear. “Say it isn’t so. Not completely sated, anyway. Because I have much more in store for you. In fact, it’s best you prepare yourself now for a full week of Steady lovin’ once we return stateside. I’ve got some time off coming to me.”
She ignored the sharp pain that sliced through her at the thought of what their return stateside would mean and instead latched on to the first change of subject that came to mind. “How did you get the nickname Steady? Is it because you’re so brave and courageous and reliable in the field?”
“Ha! I wish. That’d be so much cooler.” He was drawing little circles on her shoulder with his index finger. And even though the hut had to be pushing ninety degrees with ninety percent humidity, his soft touch made her shiver. “No, I picked up that name back in Ranger School during a live-fire drill. A young petty officer caught a round to the right lung, and it looked like he was going to suffocate on the blood and air filling his chest cavity long before the ambulance arrived. So I had to do an emergency thoracentesis there in the field.”
He stopped caressing her shoulder, lifting his chin to glance down at her. “I keep forgetting you didn’t finish medical school. Do you know what a thoracentesis is?”
“A pleural tap. Where you cut into the pleural space in the chest in order to release the air or fluid that’s building up.”
“Sí.” He nodded before dropping his head back atop his hand. “So, anyway, I grabbed my Swiss Army knife, unfolded the reamer tool from the case, found a space between the kid’s ribs, and jabbed that blade deep. I had to use somebody’s ballpoint pen casing to keep the wound open so the blood and air could continue to drain until the medics arrived.”