She sighed and made a soft purring sound as she opened for him, hungry for more of the heat he'd ignited in her. Just as things were starting to get interesting, she jolted when the fire alarm blared to life.
Ryan stilled and lifted his head, instantly on alert.
Coming up on her knees, she looked up at the ceiling and inhaled deeply. There was no smoke and the air seemed clean. "Smell anything?"
"No." He rolled out from under her and peeked out the window. "Don't see anything."
"Must be a false alarm. Come back here." She grabbed his shoulder and turned him back toward her.
Grinning, he resumed his former position beneath her and cupped his hands around her breasts, his thumbs brushing over the hard, sensitive tips. "My sexy wife." He kissed the side of her neck, the brush of his beard making her tingle all over despite the continued blare of the fire alarm. "Just ignore it and focus on me." He turned her face back to his, slanted his mouth across hers before skimming his way over her jaw, to her throat.
"Mmm … " She tipped her head back to give him more room, running her hands over his bare back. The sheer power of him never failed to get her hot. Then Ryan rolled her over onto her back and blanketed her with his weight, the hard ridge of his erection pressing against her throbbing mound.
She sighed and threaded her fingers into his hair, letting her eyes drift close, the sound of the fire alarm fading beneath the rush of desire.
Something flickered against her closed eyelids.
Her body went rigid as she opened her eyes and saw the yellow-orange glow flickering through the window. "Ryan." She pushed at his shoulder.
At the urgency in her voice he sat up and reached for the blind covering the window, shoving it aside to look down. A second later, she smelled it. Faint, but unmistakable.
Smoke.
Ryan jumped off the bed and pulled on his underwear. "Something's burning down there," he said, reaching for his jeans. "Get dressed."
* * * *
After yanking on his boots, Ryan unlocked their door and opened it to check the hallway. The moment he did the scent of smoke grew stronger, and there was a faint haze in the air. Maya and Jackson's door opened and Jackson stuck his head out.
"Not a false alarm," Ryan told him. "Meet you guys outside?"
"Yeah." Jackson slammed the door shut behind him.
Ryan ducked back inside and turned to Candace, who was pulling on a sweater. "We should go."
Calm but decisive, his wife hurried to the dresser across the room to grab some things. "I'll get our IDs and wallets. You get the weapons."
Good call. Leaving live ammo in a fire wasn't an awesome idea. He went to the closet, grabbed his jacket, and then the hunting gear Wade had loaned him.
Candace was pulling on her shoes when he met her at the door. "Any idea where it is or how far it's spread?" she asked.
"Definitely on the ground floor at our end of the building. Not sure how big it is yet." Just as he said it the emergency sprinkler system activated overhead, spraying them with cold water. "Come on," he said, pulling open the door, rifle in hand and the rest of his gear in the backpack slung over his shoulder.
She stepped into the hallway and turned right, toward the far end of the hall opposite where the flames were, where that stairwell would hopefully be clear. Maya and Jackson appeared behind them a few moments later. There were only four rooms per floor, and no one answered when Ryan pounded on the others, so there was no one else to warn and clear out.
The smoke grew thicker every second, the blare of the fire alarm echoing off the walls and ceiling. He moved in front of Candace as they neared the far stairwell door and opened it to check that it was safe. The lights were still on inside and the air was clearer here.
"Clear." Ryan took the lead, with Candace behind him, then Maya and Jackson bringing up the rear. They were almost to the third floor when the stairwell door there shoved open to reveal Wade, Erin, Cam, and Dev. "This is sure an exciting wedding trip you two've got going on here so far," he said to Wade.
Wade grunted and held the door for the others while holding his rifle, his own gear packed into a duffel in his free hand. "I was hoping for a lot less excitement, believe me."
"Yeah, us too," Devon muttered as she entered the stairwell, the soles of her running shoes slapping against the concrete steps.
Together they headed for the second floor, slowing to allow other guests ahead of them to file down the concrete steps and toward the exit on the first floor. An elderly couple wearing the resort's robes and slippers were the first to leave the building, then a younger couple with their small daughter, followed by a middle-aged woman and her poodle.
When it was finally their turn, Ryan neared the door and glimpsed the flames at the opposite end of the building. They were already halfway up the front of it and climbing toward their room.
"We're good." He held the door open that led to the flagstone patio outside, watching the flames licking at the wooden exterior while Candace and the others filed past him into the open.
The moment he released the door and stepped outside, the unmistakable crack of a rifle filled the air. He froze, automatically scanning to see where it had come from.
More cracks rang out, and a bullet smashed into the front of the building two yards away from him.
Shit.
People screamed and scattered in different directions. Reacting on pure instinct, Ryan gripped his rifle and immediately turned for his wife.
Candace was already running for cover but he caught her around the ribs and took her to the ground, shielding her with his larger body, one hand wrapped around the back of her head to protect her skull from the impact.
As they hit the hard surface of the stone patio, a hot, burning pain lanced through his right upper arm and tore across his ribs.
Chapter Nine
You gotta be fucking kidding me.
Ryan bit back a growl of rage and pain as he rolled off Candace and grabbed her arm to drag her behind cover, his right hand slick already with blood as he clutched the rifle.
She scrambled up onto her hands and knees, crawling beside him while blood ran down the length of his right arm. He'd served a total of six combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, managed to avoid any bullet holes throughout all of them, but he wound up getting shot at a fucking resort in Montana?
So wrong.
People were still screaming and running all over the place. Someone was still out there shooting at them.
Ignoring the pain, focused on getting them to safety, he shoved to his hands and knees, dragged Candace up, and took off in a running crouch, her hand clutched tightly in his left one. Bullets slammed into the rock wall a few feet beside him, sending up a spray of razor-sharp shards.
"Go, go," he urged her, flinging her in front of him toward safety.
Two strides from the corner of the building ahead of them, another shot splintered the air. Candace flinched and clapped a hand to her side an instant before she disappeared from view.
His heart shot into his throat. He dove around the corner just as more bullets punched into the fieldstone wall behind him where he had been only a split second before.
The instant he hit the ground, a hand grabbed him and hauled him the rest of the way behind cover. He rolled over to find Cam bending over him.
"You hit?" the PJ yelled over the chaotic noise and confusion around them.
Ryan didn't answer, his only concern finding his wife. Turning onto his left side, he pushed up and scanned frantically for her.
She was crouched down against the stone foundation of the building, her face pale, a stream of blood trickling through her fingers as she pressed a hand to her upper left side and his anger evaporated as raw fear punched through him. "Candace."
Her dark gaze met his, wide and startled. "I'm okay," she blurted.
No, she wasn't. He was already rolling to his feet, rushing for her. "She's hit."
"So are you," Cam said, clamping a hand on his good shoulder and shoving him back down. "Stay the hell put so I can take a look."
He wrenched away and opened his mouth to tell his buddy to fuck off, but Erin was already crawling her way to Candace. "I've got her." She took Candace by the shoulders, saying something he couldn't hear. Fuck, how bad was she hit?
Ryan shoved Cam away and rolled to his feet. His wife was fucking bleeding; he didn't care about himself.
Cam let him go but followed close behind. Whoever was out there shooting was quiet now, but that didn't mean the threat was over. Ryan crouched next to Candace, set a hand on her shoulder and cupped the side of her face with the other, the burn of his wound barely registering beneath his alarm. Her dark brown eyes were dazed, glazed with pain. "Baby … "
"No, I'm fine," she insisted, the words choppy, her breath coming in gasps. "I'm breathing okay and I can move my arm. I don't think it hit anything serious. What about you?" She ran her free hand down his right arm.
"I'm good." The bullet hole stung like someone had poured fucking battery acid into it, but he could still move his arm so he figured it wasn't broken, even if parts of it had gone numb and some of his muscles were weak.