Tony watched as Grace slept, curled on her side with her hand by her face. Her green eyes were hidden, but he could imagine the expression in them if she caught him watching her. He was propped up on his elbow, sighing when she did in her sleep. She was exhausted and needed to sleep, but he didn’t feel comfortable remaining in their bus fortress for more than a few hours. He glanced at his watch and calculated the hours until dawn. As long as we leave before the sun comes up, we should be fine, he decided as he lay down on his side, facing her.

The woman next to him was practically perfect. Strong, brave, intelligent, beautiful, and sexy. She hadn’t been blatant about her need for sex, and he’d found her subtlety incredibly arousing. The reference to a Keanu Reeves movie he’d loved when he was younger had solidified his attraction to her, though she’d said all she wanted was a good romp. No relationship.

In his past, he would have been perfectly happy with the hard, satisfying sex they’d shared. But this woman lying next to him, exhausted by the ordeal she’d been thrown into, was more than a pretty face and a sexy body. And as he watched her sleeping soundly as if they were in his apartment despite the fact that they were still in very real danger, he was in awe of her.

Yeah, and you talk to her like she’s a man, he chided himself as he settled more comfortably on his back. He wasn’t good talking to women, which was why he’d had only one relationship in his entire life. Karly and he had dated in high school and for a couple years after, but he’d been in the service and was gone all the time. When she went to college and discovered all the boys who were interested in her, her absentee boyfriend she claimed to love was no longer important. He’d enjoyed flings without strings ever since.

He crossed his arms under his head slowly, careful not to jostle Grace next to him. She murmured sweetly in her sleep and snuggled closer, and he smiled at the top of her head near his chest. His gaze flicked up to the ceiling as he let his thoughts meander. He wouldn’t sleep, shouldn’t sleep when the possibility of the cartel finding them was an imminent threat.

At thirty-seven, he had been contemplating retiring from the job, possibly writing his life into novels with the main character based on himself. When she’d offhandedly commented about them writing this story together, his stomach had clenched painfully, though on the outside, he’d remained impassive. Not only had the idea of retiring crossed his mind…so had settling down with a woman. And the one next to him seemed like the type of woman who could certainly fill that role. Assuming she would want to.

Feeling awkward because of his love-filled, pansy-ass thoughts, he shifted so that one arm wrapped around Grace. She moved closer again and put her head in the crook of his shoulder, one of her arms snaking over his belly and holding on. Her warmth slipped through him as if her touch was a heated blanket wrapping around him. His eyes grew heavy, and he let them slide closed for a few minutes.

The few minutes became a few hours, and when he jerked awake, Grace wasn’t next to him. He sat up quickly and looked around the bus, and since that only took three seconds, he jumped up naked and hurried to the door. Just as he jerked it open, she was stepping in the outer door, looking up at him and giggling when she noted his nudity.

“Well, I could walk in on that sight every day,” she teased as she stepped up into the bus, fully dressed, and closed the door.

“Where’d you go?” he asked gruffly, his hands carelessly on his hips as he watched her.

“To pee,” she explained, still smiling as she looked him up and down. “So, um, do we have time for another round of fun?”

Tony hardened immediately when she smiled up at him and ran her hands down his chest. He reached for her hands and stopped them before they could slide over his semi-erect cock. He glanced at his watch, then led his lips lift into a seductive grin.

Grace turned her head to the side and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “Does that mean yes? A quickie, at least?”

Tony’s grin widened as he grabbed her shirt and hauled her against his naked body. His mouth was inches from hers when he whispered, “I could fuck you every day.”

Grace stared up at him, surprise in her expression. She swallowed comically and shook her head, sighing loudly. “Well, handsome, you’ve got about an hour until the sun is up. That’ll probably have to do.”

Grunting, he dragged her into the bus. As they moved, she yanked off her clothes, shedding them faster than a man on fire. With her pants dangling around one ankle, she leapt up so she could wrap her legs around his waist and press her pussy against his cock, which had awakened fully when he’d watched her strip.

“Fuck me hard, soldier,” she purred, attacking his neck with her lips, teeth, and tongue.

She is the woman of my dreams, he thought as she adjusted her body, pressing her tits against his bare chest and her lips against his. He wanted inside her warm pussy quickly, so he dropped her to her feet and spun her around. Understanding his plan, she sprawled across the table, her belly and tits flat against it, and spread her legs. Her pink pussy was so pretty, her bubbly ass so enticing, he stared for a moment.

Grace looked over her shoulder at him as he ran his fingers up and down her slit, moistening her sweet lips as he stroked himself. She licked her lips and murmured, “If you don’t fuck me, I’m gonna shove you down on the couch and fuck you.”

“Threats?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow as he pinched her clit lightly, causing her to jerk slightly and hum with pleasure. “I like those types of threats.”

“Think I won’t?” she dared him as she attempted to lift her body from the table.

“You won’t have a chance,” he growled as he put a hand between her shoulder blades to hold her in place.

“Prove it,” she challenged, her voice husky but loud. “Fuck me.”

Tony thought his head would explode as he thrust into her quick and rough, causing a gasping squeal to puff through her lips. He let his head fall back as he pumped into her, relishing the feel of wet velvet around his cock. She rocked back and forth, using her entire body to meet him thrust for thrust. He lowered his head so he could watch his cock entering her and pulling out almost to the tip.

“Faster!” she screamed, looking over her shoulder at him with bold eyes.

He adjusted his grip on her and shoved his cock into her pussy at rapid speed, his hips and ass working double time to keep up with her demands. Her yells matched his rhythm, and she slapped the table with one hand as his thighs slammed into the back of hers.

The desire to slap her ass as he pounded her hard overwhelmed him, and he smacked her with little force, only enough to make a thwack sound. Grace cried out, and simultaneously, he felt her tighten around him as she climaxed. Wetness gushed around his cock, smoothing the friction, and he was able to restrain his pleasure so he could give her more.

As soon as her climax ended, he pulled out of her and jerked her to her feet. He released her and stepped back to the couch, dropping onto it. His cock pointed up proudly, glistening with her juices. She saw the challenge in his eyes before he verbalized it.

“Show me what you got.”

Her eyes gleamed with recent pleasure and continued lust, and she straddled him, taking his manhood in to the hilt. Her tits were in his face, but she didn’t give him a chance to suckle. She grabbed the back of the couch with both hands, adjusted her legs so her knees were pressed hard against his hips, and she began to ride him. Her hair, which hung in a loose mess around her face, trapped him in its curtains, and he grabbed her hips and helped her bounce on him.

The position created the perfect friction on the sensitive head of his cock, and he wanted to explode inside her after only a few seconds. He clenched his teeth tightly, forcing his pleasure to wait. She rode him hard, panting and crying gibberish as another orgasm seemed close. He wanted to feel her gushing juices as he surrendered to his climax, so he reached between them and found her clit. The angle was odd, but she let go of the back of the couch and put her hands on his knees for balance so he could reach it.

She continued lifting and lowering her hips, gyrating against his hand as she reached for her pleasure. Tony’s gaze was riveted to her face which had settled in a moue of pleasure, her tits bouncing with every movement. His hand moved more furiously over her clit, and a squeak that turned into a scream of ecstasy, and her face, beautifully lit by her pleasure, was his undoing. He bellowed his release as he spilled his seed into her for the second time.

* * *

Grace was wonderfully sore after the fucking sessions she’d shared with Tony. He was well-endowed and used his hands like a master puppeteer. She’d come more than once in both sessions, which was incredibly rare for her. And she was certain those orgasms had nothing to with the fact that she hadn’t taken a lover in a couple of years. His skills were phenomenal.

After they’d finished, he’d helped her dress and told her to meet him outside. “Are we leaving?” she asked as she made sure they had gathered everything they’d carried in with them.

“As soon as I teach you how to shoot a gun,” he announced gruffly.

She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Please. I’m from Texas. I’ve been shooting guns since I was six years old,” she informed him haughtily. She lifted a finger, smiling as she made her point. “I’m not the best shot, I’ll admit, but I won’t accidentally shoot myself either.”

“Huh,” he answered, looking her up and down with interest. “You surprise me every other minute.”

“I hope pleasantly,” she quipped, kissing him quickly on the lips and sneaking past him out of the bus. Her tummy had warmed with his compliment, and her face had reddened slightly. She waited for him to close the bus door and latch it.

“What kind of gun have you shot?”

“Pistols, mostly. Low caliber,” she told him with a shrug.

“A .22?”

Grace thought for a second and answered, “Yes, and a couple others. I’m comfortable with the .22 though.”

“Luckily, I have one of those.” Tony pulled a gun from his pack along with a clip that he loaded with bullets.

Grace watched him, some apprehension filling her mind. “Why do you think I need a gun?”

“If something happens to me, or if I’m occupied, I think you need to be able to protect yourself,” Tony reasoned as he flicked the safety on before handing it to her.

Grace immediately checked to see if a bullet was in the chamber, ejected the clip, reinserted it, and pulled the slide back to load the gun. Glancing at him, she asked, “Target practice?”

“We probably should, but I don’t really want to draw attention to this area with gunfire,” he replied, nodding to the gun. “I can tell by the way you handled it when I gave it to you that you know what to do.”

“My dad taught my sisters and me how to shoot,” she said proudly, her heart nostalgic as she remembered going to her dad’s deer lease and learning the ins and outs of weaponry.

“Cool.” Tony turned and lifted his pack off the ground, shouldering it before looking at her again. “We need to head out.” With no other comment, he turned toward the road leading back to the car with the expectation that she would follow him.

Grace frowned at his back and followed slowly. His manner was no less brusque than it had been before they’d had sex. But what did I expect? she asked herself internally as she hurried to catch up to his long strides. The man was here to do his job, which was to protect her from the cartel as he helped her get back to the US. They had enjoyed a mutual release of tension, had used sex to decompress after some seriously stressful situations. Expecting his attitude to change just because they’d fucked was dumb on her part.

But…he didn’t look at her like some random woman he’d fucked for fun, and the comment about how he could fuck her everyday was telling. Could have just been a dude’s version of a compliment to a good lover, she thought as she brushed aside branches to avoid scratching her face. She didn’t think so, though. She hadn’t been asleep when he’d been watching her, and she’d peeked more than once and caught him. She let him watch and fell asleep after he’d cuddled with her. When she’d wakened with the insane need to pee, both his arms had been wrapped around her and she’d been laying on his chest. She’d had to extract herself gently from his arms, shocked she hadn’t woken him up. And the morning sex had been outrageously delicious.

Maybe when this is all over, I’ll ask him if he’d like to have dinner, she pondered, watching his form as he stepped over a fallen tree. She scrunched her nose up because she’d prefer he ask her out, and though she wasn’t the type of chick to ask a man out, this one pulled a braver woman out of her. Technically, she’d made the first move the night before. She reflected that either the jungle or this sexy ass man walking in front of her had encouraged her inner naughty chick to emerge from the depths. A smirk played across her lips as she determined she would have a real date with this man, regardless of who asked who.

Because she was lost in thought, she nearly ran into him when he jerked to a stop in front of her. “What? Why are you stopping?”

“Shh,” he hissed, ducking behind a copse of trees and dragging her with him.

Grace pressed her body against the tree and froze, afraid if she moved their position would be given away. She watched Tony, who stared in every direction without moving his head. Fractionally, he began to swivel until he had looked all around them. He straightened after perusing the entire area and looked at her.

“Someone was here,” he whispered.

“How do you know?”

“Two flat tires on the car,” he murmured.

Grace frowned and peered around the tree at the car. She could barely see it under the brush they’d covered it with, and from this angle, she certainly couldn’t see the tires. Amazed, she wondered how he’d been able to tell.

“Cartel?”

“I don’t know, but someone,” Tony commented, his voice still quiet. He gazed between the branches at the sun. “If I remember correctly, there’s a village or town about fifteen miles east. Not the way we need to go, but we won’t make it to the rendezvous without transportation.”

“How far is the rendezvous?”

“Fifty miles west.”

“Shit.”

He nodded his agreement with her curse. “Hopefully we can steal a car. If not, horses will have to do.”

The man was all business, talking more to himself than to her. Grace admired his hard jaw and hawk eyes as he continued to scan the area. She forced her eyes away to look around as well. If the cartel had slit the tires, they would still be close and waiting for them to return to the car. If not the cartel, they could still be in danger from random criminals. Either way, she had to focus not on her handsome companion but on her surroundings.

“So we walk?” she asked.

Tony looked at her and nodded. “No choice.”

“Will we make it to the airport in time?”

“The pilot won’t fly out until he hears from me, so we won’t miss him. Unless the cartel gets to the airstrip first,” he said darkly, his frown frightening as the scar pulled down on his eyebrow.

“Guess we better get going then,” she said, standing straight and waiting for him to take the lead.

Tony was scowling when he looked at her, but his expression cleared when his eyes met hers. “You really are an amazing woman.”

She smiled, her heart warming. More than just fucking, she thought as she said, “Thank you. I’m glad you’re here to protect me.”

Without warning, he bent and kissed her hard on the lips. When they parted, he remained close to her, smiling slightly. “When this is over, I would like to take you to dinner.”

He read my damn mind, she thought drunkenly, her grin so big her cheeks hurt. “I’d really like to go to dinner with you.”

* * *

Tomas nodded at Carlos before glancing distastefully at the body in the trunk of the car. Anna had disappointed him, and Carlos had gone with her with orders to kill her should she disappoint again. Her body was dusty and beginning to smell, so Tomas had met him near the gate.

“Take care of that,” he said to a couple of men behind them, who hurried to the car and lifted the body out of the trunk. They carried it as if it were garbage, and Tomas turned his back, no longer concerned with Anna or her body. “Where have they gone?”

“I believe they’re headed to the airstrip near Santa Poco,” Carlos told him.

“Do you know this, or do you think this?”

Carlos shrugged carelessly. The man was afraid of nothing, one of the reasons Tomas had hired him. But his fearlessness made him hard to control, a fact Tomas did not like.

“It’s the closest one within a hundred miles,” Carlos answered. “I’m not positive they’re going there, but that’s where I would go.”

“Hmm,” Tomas hummed, displeasure dashing through his mind. Besides fearlessness, the man possessed an intelligence Tomas didn’t get to see often in his line of work. He’d often wondered about the man’s background but never bothered to ask. “What would you suggest?”

Carlos shrugged again, his calm eyes on Tomas’. “Send some men to the airstrip to wait. See if they show up.”

“How long?”

“A few days,” Carlos said with positivity. “They got a car from Pablo’s house, but the thing was a wreck. I doubt it will get them all the way to Santa Poco.”

“So they’ll have to find transportation somewhere,” Tomas concluded, his eyes brightening. “What villages and towns are between Pablo’s and Santa Poco?”

Carlos looked bored as he answered from memory, reciting a dozen names of places Tomas had never heard of, his eyes on the ceiling as he spoke. “Depending on how far they got, they might stop in any of those places.” Carlos returned his eyes to Tomas’. “May I make a suggestion?”

“Yes.”

“Use your network of spies.”

Tomas scowled and turned away from Carlos to think. He had avoided using the men and women he had all over the countryside. They were paid decently to keep him informed when anything unusual happened, such as two Americans traveling through the villages and towns. His humiliation over losing Grace sat like a heavy weight in his gut, and alerting the network would increase the number of people aware that a damn woman had outsmarted him. However, his choices were slim. If he wanted her back, he would have to suffer the cutting humiliation.

And she and her friend would suffer doubly for their part in his embarrassment. He waved a hand at Carlos. “I’ll alert the network. You take what men you want and set up at that airfield. I want that bitch and her fucking protector.”