“Maybe, depends on how much negotiation I’ll be doing with this new man. If he asks too much, we might not have enough funds to cover his expenses and ours.” Lily got into the car, slamming it shut. When she looked up, her gaze was guarded. “Sorry to have to bail out on you, but we’ll have to talk again later when I get back. Now that you’re going off with Hawk and with me going on the usual trip, there’s no one here to run things. You see how it is when your attention is divided, Amber? Maybe after this operation we might have to split up for a while, so I can check out new avenues of saving these girls.”
“Split up?” Amber repeated carefully.
Lily nodded as she started the car. “Yes. It might be good to streamline the operation. I understand about the need for men, Amber, but it isn’t going to work out if you have to take off with them, too. The girls need an environment where they can depend on you or me being there when they need something.”
Amber watched her friend’s car pull away. She massaged the back of her neck as a headache threatened. She didn’t know what to do. Something was horridly wrong and she had just made it worse somehow.
“I wish you could stay the night.”
Hawk smiled. Amber’s voice was sleepy-sexy, muffled against his chest. He kissed the top of her head, inhaling her perfume and scent appreciatively. He liked these moments with her the best—his arms around her, in semidarkness, her womanly curves somehow bonelessly soft under his body. He was very comfortable with Amber, with the way her smaller size fit against his, with the way she lazily kissed his chest while she was half asleep, like she was doing now.
“Me, too, but I have to be there earlier than Thomas.” He and the reporters had agreed that it would look better if he didn’t bring them there. “I’ll point out the girls who I think will talk to them. Most of them will, but it’s better to be careful anyway.” He paused. “I’m sorry that Lily’s upset. I didn’t mean to cause any problems between the two of you.”
“She and I will be okay. Will you IM me tonight and let me know what happens?”
“Keep doing what you’re doing and I might return and crawl back in bed with you instead,” Hawk said. She was licking his nipple, driving him crazy with that hot tongue. She bit him in response. “And then you’d start complaining about not getting your beauty sleep.”
He smiled again. They hadn’t slept much whenever he had been in this room. He had made good use of her bed, her shower, the floor—hell, the four corners of this room—and he still couldn’t get enough of her. Strange. All these months, he had females walking around him mostly naked, some practically throwing themselves on him, others in erotic situations that usually tempted the male libido, and he hadn’t felt a thing. And all Amber had to do was walk past him with that particular sway of her hips, or look at him with those amazing eyes, or even roll dough with her very talented and strong hands, and his heart would start a steady patter that would increase. He was getting used to the way all his cells seemed magnetically charged whenever she was near, his whole body leaping to an aliveness that was so razor-sharp that sometimes making love to her became a spiritual experience.
It dawned on him that the anger he held checked inside all the time wasn’t there when Amber was around. He didn’t feel helpless, unable to do what he wanted to do—stop the things happening around him. Nor did he feel cold, as if part of him died every time he stopped himself from lunging at those bastards playing with a girl young enough to be their daughter.
Amber made him feel light again. And able to feel something other than anger. He gathered her deeper into his arms.
“It’d be better than instant messaging,” she agreed, wrapping her arms around his neck. “All you do is tease when we IM anyway. I’d rather have you here so I can do this.”
Thiswas her teeth tugging at his nipple ring. Hawk grinned. She was insanely turned on by that little piece of jewelry. “I’ll leave that here with you tonight so you can stare at it fondly,” he offered. “I think you like it better than you do me, anyway.”
She reached down, her hand teasing him. “Oh no, I just like things that dangle.”
Hawk laughed. “Dangle? Baby, you’re hurting my feelings. It’s standing up very proudly. There’s no way it’s dangling.”
“Oh yes, standing and ready.” She looked up inquiringly. “What’s the matter?”
“Standing and Ready”—STAR—was the name and motto of the SEAL teams under the charge of Admiral Madison. When orders were given, the teams yelled out, “standing and ready” as a war cry. Of course, among the brothers, the term also applied in reference to certain anatomical functions during male locker room talk.
Hawk missed his SEAL team. Almost three and a half months without his frog brothers. And longer than that out of water. They had been in the jungles of Asia when he had left them, playing his new role as Dilaver’s guide. Hearing that phrase again made him wonder what his team was doing at the moment. He had the sudden urge to go swimming.
“Hawk?”
“Hmm?”
“Lost you for a minute there, Hot Stuff. What were you thinking?”
He wanted to tell her about his real job. He stroked her hair softly. “I was just thinking about us, and then you distracted me with that naughty hand of yours.” Maybe later. After he had retrieved the weapon. Life was complicated enough for both of them at the moment without adding yet something else to discuss and analyze, as he knew by now she would. Women liked to do that too damn much. He nudged her suggestively. “I’m standing. You ready?”
He let her roll him onto his back, taking her with him. She grinned down at him. “Such a liar. You were thinking of something else and are now trying to distract me with sex.”
She was too perceptive by far. “Is it working?”
She cocked her head, her startlingly blue eyes smiling down at him. “Remember you wouldn’t let me move before?”
He ran his hands lazily down her back to her backside, rubbing the round silkiness gently, knowing that it turned her on. “What do you have in mind?”
“It’s my turn.”
Hawk was a SEAL. He knew when it was a win-win situation. “You mean, if I don’t move, you’re going to distract me instead?”
“Yeah. And get you to tell me a deep dark secret…maybe….”
