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She took a soft breath. “I realized that after you quite thoroughly fractured my anger and outrage with your honesty. I can’t fault it, but over the time we’ve spent together, I’ve seen the man you are, with the deep bonds you have, and what they will do for you, and you for them. And what you were willing to do for me because that is who you are.”
He took her mouth. Right then. No preamble, no slow lowering of his lips to hers, no choice given. Just a choice made.
The surprise of it kept her still, but only for a second. He mentally braced himself for her to shove at him. He’d have respected that, backed away, though, it would have cost him. He knew then how well and truly entangled he’d become. It had never been like this for him. Almost irrational. He relied on instinct, on rational thought. Not on emotion and his hard-on.
Then she moaned, just a little guttural sound in the back of her throat. And her hands came up and fisted in his hair as she pulled his mouth down on hers. And kissed him back with every ounce of intensity she had in her.
And he knew there was no protecting himself from this. Or from her.
10
Isabelle’s driverdropped them at Niamey’s Airport where a C-17 Globemaster was finishing up its preflight checks. Blitz’s mood hadn’t changed much. He was still vehemently opposed to Bree going on this mission, and although he had mollified her regarding his opposition, she was aware he didn’t think she was prepared for what lay ahead.
She was determined to keep her game face in place if it killed her.
She hadn’t known what had made him act so obnoxious and unprofessional until he’d told her what was going through his mind, then his admission had made her anger dry up. What she did know was that leaning on him, even a little bit, would be dangerous. She’d spent most of her adult life learning how to lean only on herself. Just because things were looking promising, in and out of bed, didn’t mean it was easy for her to shore up her own defenses.
Part of her was freaked out and part of her was up for the challenge, not only because Blitz wasn’t happy about it, but because she knew her own skills, her limits, and he didn’t. God bless him, he was so angry, and that made her glow inside and made her wary. He’d have to care about her a lot to be so mad about it.
Okay, so she’d never parachuted and okay, that scared the bejeezus out of her. Thirty thousand feet. The number was overwhelming. That was almostsixmiles above the earth. Her palms got a little sweaty thinking about it. But then she looked at Blitz and most of the fear subsided. She’d be strapped to him, this capable, calm—when it didn’t have to do with her safety—and cool man.
His training was legendary, including the many, many times he’d parachuted from a perfectly good plane. She’d seen his body, knew he was physically intimidating with layer upon layer of hard muscle, enough to rope his shoulders with a dozen of those layers, enough to six-pack his abs and burn the memory of him into every single cell she had. Yeah, that was one delicious memory.
And, oh God, he was so damn brave. She’d also seen that firsthand.
They exited the vehicle as crewmen rushed to remove chocks and blocks, preparing to roll out. They were traveling light. Blitz and Gator were still in their combat gear, and she had nothing but the clothes on her back, which weren’t exactly suited for the drastically different temperatures in Finland and Moscow, but she had been told the CIA had their gear and transportation locked down.
All she had to do was focus on getting prepared to jump out of a plane. Bree took a breath and tried to steady her nerves. She had agreed to this, and she was needed, an integral part of the mission. She’d made her decision back in the briefing room where she could have refused Isabelle. She was at the plane and there was no turning back now. Not that she wanted to. A few nerves about doing something she’d never done before was understandable, and she could cut herself some slack.
The mission wasn’t what was troubling her the most. It was Blitz’s reaction, which then fueled her own emotional reaction, and it was the emotional part she had trouble dealing with, because she’d never, ever expected to feel so connected to Blitz in anything more than a physical way. Sex with him had been wonderful, hotter, and better than she’d ever imagined, but it was what happened in the aftermath that shook her to her core—his outburst at the briefing. At first, she’d been so angry, until he’d confessed to her how he was feeling. That admission rocked her world.
Blitz had to go and muddle up a perfectly good situation, making her realize how isolated she was from the people in her life. By choice. She’d always been independent, had gotten used to the fact that her mom didn’t consider her or her feelings when making her decisions. In hindsight, it was because she had been on autopilot, working out her grief with Bree’s dad and providing for Bree. That’s what she had been doing all these years, expecting Bree’s self-sufficiency to sustain her. But now she almost felt boxed in by her feelings for Blitz, and she wasn’t quite sure how to deal with him, a man who was also torn about his own needs and wants. So with that glimmer of tenderness she’d seen in his gaze, it was no wonder that her heart was feeling a bit torn and confused.
Regardless of her emotional tangle, Blitz’s presence was like a warm blanket behind her, his hand slipping to the small of her back. “I’m afraid the accommodations are lacking,” he said. She looked at him over her shoulder. His tone was neutral, but the tension radiating from his body and the steel glint in his eyes told her he was now in full warrior mode.
“I’ve traveled on a military cargo plane before. It’s not all cushy rides with the FBI.”
Gator smiled. “No? I’m so shocked.”
The plane wasn’t completely empty. A pallet, which was secured aft, was a few feet forward of the ramp. Supplies for Finland or a farther destination?
The seats faced the center of the plane on both sides and were made out of the familiar orange netting supported by metal tubing. Very uncomfortable if her memory served.
She accepted earplugs from the flight tech, stuck them in her ears, and sat down in one of the seats as the hydraulic lift started to close. The engines fired up, the noise deafening.
She braced herself for liftoff, the smell of jet fuel, the bumpy ride, and the vibrations that traveled through the metal and seemed to tune with every bone in her body, tweaking her memory. Oh, yeah.
Once they were in the air and hit their cruising altitude, the rumbling from the engines subsided. Cool, fresh air cleared out the smell of jet fuel. “The takeoff in one of these is as rough as I remember.”
“It doesn’t even register with us anymore,” Blitz said. “Mostly, we sleep, but we’re not going to get the luxury this time around. We’ll need a good portion of the flight time to practice and get you ready for the jump.”
“You want to start now?”
“Yeah, no time like the present.”
“Okay.”
“I do admire what you’re doing, Bree. It’s way out of your skillset. Parachuting from such a height is daunting.”
