It had always been this way with them, intense. Immediate. Explosive sex with guaranteed blow-your-mind satisfaction beat the hell out of the tougher prospect of talking.
She yanked his zipper down, farther along the full length of his torso until she could unfurl the length of her hand to his throbbing erection. Throbbing? Hell, what an ineffective word to describe his pounding need to have her.
If there just weren't so many clothes between them.
The flight suit offered easy access for her to get to him, but damn it, the uniform impeded him from getting to her. Into her. Where he needed to be now, because he was seconds away from screwing her where they stood.
He might be far gone—hell, he was far gone— but he wanted her still speaking to him afterward. Unlike the last time she'd been this upset.
Jack inched back, sucked in air. "If you don't want to finish right here against the door, say something fast. I've got about one minute's worth of restraint left in me to throw your sleeping bag on the floor for us."
"Here suits me just fine." She slid her hands from him, clasped them over her head in a sensual arch that notched his blood pressure. "Take off my clothes. I want to feel your hands against my skin when the clothes are falling away. I want to be able to watch you as you see me."
No mistaking that. "I like it when you get bossy."
One hand slid from above her head to scratch down the open vee of his flight suit, deeper, a hint too hard. "I am not bossy. Just assertive and damned determined to be in control of my destiny." Her finger trailed lower until she snapped the waistband of his boxers.
He knew there was a reason he should stop to analyze what she'd just said, but she grabbed his wrist and molded his palm to her breast. Her fullness filled his hand, dragging his other hand up for more.
Air thickened in the room. Breathing became optional. Touching, however, became essential.
Her hand roved lower. Her fingers tucked inside his boxers, found, cradled the weight of him in her hand, stroking again and again, her thumb gliding over the head with a familiarity of just what brought him to the edge until he almost came in her hand.
Jack clamped her wrist. Her other hand slipped past and he stopped it, too. Pinned both to her sides against the door.
"Not yet." His mouth found the crook of her neck where it met her shoulder. "You're always in such a rush and I'm not ready to finish yet."
"Then we'll start again."
Start again. With Monica. His mind pushed thoughts through the red haze of lust almost blinding him. Almost.
Damn it, but the brain was an annoying-as-hell organ battling for control with another organ that seriously wanted jurisdiction over this moment.
He looked down at her, so vulnerable in his grasp in spite of her bossy ways and take-no-shit attitude. Passion took a nosedive.
A man kicked ass for women. Protected them. Honored them. And he'd been lying to her by omission about Tina, as well as about the stoning incident.
Monica chose just that second to capitalize on his weakening grip and slid her hands free, brought them down, into his gaping flight suit and into his boxers again, gripping his ass and guiding him. Her nails bit an arousing urgency into his skin.
Three more seconds and he would be inside her.
Her teeth grazed his bottom lip.
Two.
The press of her body jammed the e-mail pager against his hip with an uncomfortable reminder of all the lies between them.
One.
Damn. Damn. Damn.
He manacled her wrists again and tore himself away from her, the toughest thing he'd done since his first spin recovery in pilot training. "I can't do this."
Chapter 12
Mission accomplished. Belly to the ground, Blake crawled back toward his sandpit outside the terrorist compound.
Gunshots echoed across the stretch of desert with more night maneuvers and training for al-Khayr's operatives. And the perfect distraction when he'd slipped in and out to check on Sydney. An even better cover to obliterate any sound from the faint Predator drone unmanned spy craft gathering additional intel and monitoring to ensure the hostages weren't moved.