The Darkest Corner (Gravediggers #1)(79)

       
         
       
        

He gritted his teeth and their hands joined as she went molten around him. And then he felt his own release jerk from his body with no warning, so powerful it was as if his very soul had entered her.

They lay tangled together for what could've been minutes or hours, sweat cooling on their skin and their breaths evening out. He shifted their bodies and disposed of the condom, and then he gathered her close in his arms. He thought she might have drifted off to sleep, and he was about to move to pull the covers over them when she stretched languidly, her body rubbing against his. Damned if his cock didn't stir in response.

"What are you doing?" he asked as she halfway sat up and began sliding down his body. His erection was more than at half-mast at this point, and she laughed, the sound full of sorcery and seduction, as she noticed the effect her touch had on him.

"I told you turnabout was fair play," she said, kissing his hip.

His eyes rolled back in his head as she licked him in one long stroke, and he went from half-mast to full-mast in seconds.

"Fuck," he groaned as her mouth tortured him. "I believe you now."

"Too little, too late," she teased. And then she moved off the bed and left him wanting. She looked over her shoulder as she headed toward the bathroom. "You'll have to be patient with me. I've never swallowed."

She winked, and he watched her sweet ass disappear into the bathroom.

"Jesus," he said, taking a hard hold of his cock. He almost came then and there. "At least I'll die a happy man." And then he followed behind her.





CHAPTER SEVENTEEN




The darkness pressed in on him at thirty thousand feet. His skin was clammy with sweat beneath his specially designed flight suit. He kept his head pressed against the wall of the C-130 cargo plane and focused on breathing. He was closed inside a metal can at thirty thousand feet. It wasn't the fear of falling from the sky that had his balls in his throat. It was the ever-shrinking walls of the plane, the decrease in oxygen as they ascended higher, and the darkness that kept pressing in on him.

His only reprieve was to think of Tess. He'd been selfish to keep her up the hours before they'd left instead of letting her sleep, but he hadn't been able to get enough of her. He wanted to imprint himself on her memory, on her body, so that if anything happened to him she'd know how much he loved her. They'd made love for hours. And that's exactly what it had been.

Making love.

They'd only dozed for what seemed like minutes before it was time to get up and dress. Her eyes had been shadowed, and he could see the worry etched in her face, but she gathered her things in silence and nodded in thanks when he handed her an insulated cup of coffee. 

Her eyes had grown large and round when they'd showed her the way to the underground tunnel and strapped everything to both of the ATVs, but still there was no talking. As they sped out of the tunnel, he kept his hands tight on the wheel, focusing on the end of it and not imagining the walls caving in on him-being buried alive in the rubble-again.

The chopper had been waiting for them, ready for takeoff, and he'd squeezed her hand in reassurance when she looked at the lake in its stillness-as if she'd never see it again. The ride had been short to the private airstrip where their plane waited. The sun was just peeking over the horizon when they made takeoff.

The jet was equipped with much of the same equipment HQ was, and their focus was on making sure the tanker didn't change course or that the Russians didn't try to confuse the satellite for the twelve-hour flight to Nome, Alaska. But the Russians seemed confident in their abilities of concealment, which was their mistake.

He was proud of her. He didn't think many civilians could handle the kind of pressure she was under at the moment-understanding how high the stakes were and thrown into a situation where she no longer had control. Where her mental and physical capacities would be tested, and her ability to trust would be her saving grace.

They landed on an abandoned stretch of land, nothing more than grass and gravel, just outside of Nome. It was the closest point of origin for traveling to the Bering Sea. Transport was waiting, two identical Humvees, set to take them to their destinations-Dante and Tess to the submarine, and he and the others to prepare for the HALO jump onto the tanker. If everything went according to plan, he'd see her again in another eight hours. He didn't want to begin to think about not seeing her again.

He kissed her good-bye-long and hard-and he knew he'd drawn looks from the others. He no longer cared if they thought he was just carrying out Eve's orders. Then he got in the Humvee with the others and focused on the job at hand. He had to. He couldn't afford to think of her when so much was at stake.