Whispers in the Dark (KGI #4)(55)

“I…I need your help, Sam.”

“Was that so goddamn hard?”

Nathan’s brow wrinkled. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Sam sighed. “Was it so goddamn hard to ask your family for help?”

“Look, I know I’ve been difficult. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t give a shit about that. Tell me what you need. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Really. But Shea’s not. She—we—need help.”

There was a long silence. “And Shea is…?”

“She saved me, Sam. She’s the one who sent Van the emails. I can’t even go into all she did for me. You’d never believe me anyway. But she’s in trouble and we need help.”

“Tell me where you are,” Sam said sharply.

“In a cabin on Lake Talawa. About eleven miles south of the Oregon border. Last cabin on the path past the sign for the campsites. Place is called Wilderness Camping ‘with all the modern conveniences,’ or something like that.”

“Sit tight. And don’t move.”

The line went dead and Nathan ruefully put the phone down. Just like Sam. Few words. To the point. And always with the orders.

He fiddled with the phone for a moment, contemplating the urge to call Joe. Guilt weighed heavily on him. The one person he should have called first was the one person who’d have to receive the news from Sam.

He tossed aside the phone again because what the hell was he supposed to say? Joe would have to understand. Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn’t, but right now Nathan’s focus was on Shea. It had to be. Shea didn’t have the support network that Nathan had. She had no one. Just him and, by proxy, his family.

The bathroom door opened and Shea padded out, a towel wrapped around her slender body. In that moment he felt like the biggest ass**le on earth because he wasn’t thinking about tending her cuts. All he could think about was pulling the towel away and wrapping himself around her as tightly as he could.

His dick agreed because, as she neared him, it swelled painfully against his jeans.

She stopped in front of him and then moved into his space, positioning herself between his splayed knees. She was so close, he could smell the scent of her soap. Light and floral. He leaned in closer, inhaling as his mouth hovered just above where the towel covered her br**sts.

He touched her legs and then ran his hands up her thighs underneath the towel until he cupped her rounded bottom. Only when he glanced higher to see the ragged edge of the more serious cut on her shoulder did he let his hands fall.

“You make me forget what I’m supposed to be doing.”

She leaned toward him, allowing the towel to slip the barest amount. If anything, it made her look even more alluring and vulnerable, standing before him, her eyes soft, her curves barely hidden by the scrap of damp material barely clinging to her body.

Her lips hovered just above his as she stared down at him. And then she pressed her mouth to his. Warm. A shock to his senses.

She framed his face in her hands, and it took him a moment to realize that the towel had slipped down her body and pooled at her feet.

Oh hell. A warm, lush, naked woman coming on to him? Nothing in the military had prepared him for an onslaught like this. The never-surrender thing went right out the window, and he started waving the white flag like a dog wagging his tail.

Her back bowed inward as she pressed her br**sts forward until his chin was buried in the valley. Her fingers trailed through his hair and then she pulled him upward to meet her lips once more.

Damn it, he was trying to do the right thing here.

He reached up to catch her hands. “Shea, baby, I need to bandage those cuts. Put some antibiotic ointment on them or something.”

She pulled away from him and stared down with eyes drenched in emotion. Need. Pulling at him until it was impossible to deny her anything at all.

“I need you,” she whispered. “I was so scared today, Nathan. I’m still scared. I’m sick with worry. Right now I need you to love me. I need you to touch me so I’ll feel safe again. Being with you eases me in a way I can’t explain.”

He was at a loss to describe how affected he was by her words. She needed him. Yes, she needed protection. Someone to help her, to care about her. But it was more than that. She looked at him like he was the only man she saw, as if there was no one else who could do for her what she wanted and needed.

Scarred, worn, his sanity questionable, and she wanted him still.

He pulled her against him, enjoying the sensation of her bare flesh against him. He loved her smell. How silky her skin felt against his fingers. How she was plump in all the right places. He loved every curve and swell. How delicate she appeared and yet she was a force to be reckoned with.

The perfect package. Far too perfect for someone as damaged as he was. Even as he recognized the disparity between them, he wanted her. He had to have her. She completed him in a way no one ever had or would, and so he held on to her, because the thought of being without her was another kind of hell. Worse than being held captive and tortured.

He rubbed his cheek along the top of her breast, before nuzzling down to her nipple. He tugged it between his teeth and gently sucked until it formed a turgid point on his tongue.

He loved the way she melted into his body. Loved the way she fit him. She made the most beautiful, erotic sounds. Every little gasp and moan had him so hard that he could barely breathe. Hell, he’d give up breathing if she would keep making those sweet sounds of contentment.