Chapter Twelve
Ronin wasn’t moving and wasn’t shivering. Not good. Peri’s heart was lodged in her throat. Hypothermia was setting in, and she had to get him warm.
She slid an arm around him. “Come on, G-Man. Up we go.”
She heaved, and he staggered to his feet. She gritted her teeth as she took his weight. God, he was heavy, and her muscles already felt like noodles after the climb out of the hole.
“Move nice and slowly,” she warned him. “That heart of yours is working overtime right now.” They shuffled across the ancient warehouse.
She led him into one of the ice-free rooms, and gently lowered him to the floor. She needed him horizontal to help the blood flow through his cold-constricted arteries. She ripped his backpack off, thanking whatever god might be listening that it was made of a high-tech waterproof fabric. She opened it and checked that everything inside was still dry. She opened her own pack too, grabbing what she needed. She quickly set up their two-man tent, and laid out their sleeping bags inside, zipping them together. Then she started tearing at his wet clothes.
“Time to get these off.” Peri worked to get his clothes off, and then helped him onto the nest of sleeping bags. His eyes had closed, and he still wasn’t shivering. She grabbed some small warming packs and cracked them to start the chemical reaction to heat them. She stuck them under his armpits.
Next, she wrung out his inner layers and hung them inside the tent. She set his boots inside as well, although they’d take much longer to dry. Hers and Ronin’s bodies would be the heat source to dry everything off.
But first, she had to get him warm.
Hurrying, she stood and opened her jacket. She tossed it aside, and then stripped off her clothes including her silky, thin, thermal underwear. She tossed them in a pile inside the tent. Naked, except for her panties, the cold made her shiver.
She climbed into the tent, zipped it closed behind her. Then she wrapped herself around Ronin and pulled the sleeping bags closed, cocooning them inside.
With all the exertion, and the sleeping bags, she felt hot, but Ronin’s skin was so icy cold against hers. She gritted her teeth, pressed into him, and shoved her face against his neck.
A faint moan rumbled through him.
“I know, babe,” she murmured. “Come on, wake up and talk to me.” Be okay. Please. She started stroking him. His arms, his face, his strong jaw. She kept murmuring comforting nonsense to him.
It felt like forever, but finally, she thought his skin felt warmer. Then he started shivering.
Huge shivers wracked him, so hard his teeth were rattling. She held on to him. “I’ve got you, G-Man.”
He groaned and moved fitfully.
“I’m here. Open your eyes, Ronin. Let me see those midnight eyes of yours.” She kept talking, holding him tight as the violent shivers continued. She told him all about being a twin, her travels, why she liked climbing, how sometimes you could be surrounded by so many people and still feel alone.
Before long, she was covered in a sheen of perspiration, and his body was pumping off heat. Finally, the shivers subsided. She pressed a kiss to his bare shoulder. She was so damn glad he was going to be all right. When he’d fallen into the water, she’d been terrified.
His breathing evened out and she guessed he was asleep. He’d need some calories once he woke up. But for now, exhausted herself, Peri let herself doze, as well.
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but she woke up to a hand sliding down the side of her body. She opened her eyes and took a second to orient herself. She smelled Ronin, and felt toasty warm.
Suddenly, she was rolled over, and his big body moved over hers. He pinned her down, shoving her legs apart.
She gasped and felt a very hard cock brush over the hot, damp center of her. She moaned, her fingers digging into his skin. She looked up into glittering, dark-blue eyes.
The heat and hunger she saw made her chest tighten.
“Ronin, you were just hypothermic. You need to rest—”
He reached down, his hand cupping her breast for a second, before he moved lower. He shoved aside her panties, and one thick finger speared inside her.
God. She’d gone from dozing to a barrage of arousal in seconds. She undulated her hips against his hand.
“Need you.” His voice was deep and guttural.
She wasn’t even sure he was fully awake. He seemed to be operating on instinct. And right now, his body was telling him he was very much alive, when not long ago, he’d been dangerously close to death.
His thumb brushed her clit, and Peri tried to stifle her cry. She stared up at the tough, intense man above her.
Hers. The thought reverberated through her. Nothing and no one had ever just been hers before. Something she could keep and be sure it would stay a part of her life. She sank her hands into his hair and yanked his head down. The kiss was hard, edgy, with the hint of teeth, and the deep drive of tongues.
The taste of him flooded her, and his tongue slid into her mouth, hard and demanding.
“Never tasted anything as good as you.” He nipped her jawline, then found a sensitive spot on her neck that made her squirm.
With a jerk of his wrist, he tore her panties off.
She arched into him and felt the head of his cock prod between her legs. Then, with one hard thrust, he drove inside her.
Peri moaned. It was fast, and there was nothing gentle about him. Sensation burned across her nerve endings. She felt very stretched and very full and she loved it.
He dragged out of her and then thrust back in with a flex of his hips. He pinned her down and started hammering into her with brutal thrusts. This wasn’t gentle lovemaking, this was a hard, fast affirmation of life. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, and dug her nails into his tight ass, urging him on.
Each grind of his hips put pressure on her clit and she felt her release rushing at her. She’d never experienced anything like this—so primal, so raw. His big body covered her, filled her, and she loved it. She felt claimed and branded.
With every thrust, she heard a harsh expulsion of air from Ronin. He was thrusting into her with an urgency that made her body white-hot.
Her release erupted through her body. Her inner muscles clamped down on Ronin’s cock and she came hard, sinking her teeth into his arm to muffle her scream.
***
Ronin felt all of Peri’s orgasm. Her sweet body gripped his cock, her muffled screams played in his ears, and he felt the sharp nip of her teeth on his skin. It was sexy as hell.
He ground his teeth together, his jaw tight. He wanted to feel her come again. He used every ounce of his control to stop from slamming into her and emptying himself inside her.
He wanted to make sure she remembered this. That she remembered exactly how he made her feel, and how she felt with him inside her for the first time.
They could have both died out there in the freezing cold, and right now, the driving need inside him was to claim this woman.
He pulled out of her and she made a protesting noise, grabbing for him.
“Up.” He urged her to her feet and turned her. The tent wasn’t very big, and she was forced to bend over. He had the perfect view of her round ass, and the pretty sight of her just-fucked folds. He groaned and ran his fingers between her legs.
“What are you—” she moaned, pushing back against him.
“So fucking pretty, Peri.” He stroked her, listening to her mewling cry. “Can’t believe my cock fits in here. Did it stretch you out? Did it feel good?”
“Yes.” A husky growl.
“I’m going to slide back in here and make you come again.”
She jerked against his hand. Ronin sank back, resting on his knees, his throbbing cock hard as steel. “Yeah, you want that, don’t you?”
“Yes. Yes.”
He gripped her hips. “Sit back on my lap.”
He helped her sink down slowly. He fisted his cock with one hand, and when her damp, slick flesh touched his cock, they both groaned. Every muscle in his body went tight. Hold on. Don’t come yet.
“That’s it, Peri. Sit on my cock. Take it all inside you.”
She moaned and he controlled her movement, slowly sliding inside her warmth. It was torture.
Perspiration broke out on his skin until finally, she was flush in his lap, his cock lodged deep inside her. He nuzzled her neck and saw the curve of her flushed cheek.
“I’m alive because of you.” He bumped his hips up and she moaned. “My hard cock is inside you, because of you.”
“Please, Ronin…move.” She wiggled her ass against him.
He clamped his hand on her hip and held her down. He slid his other hand up to cup her breast and tease her hard nipple.
She moved against him, moaning helplessly. “Move, damn you.”
He smiled. His sexy woman wasn’t the most patient when she wanted something. “Okay.” He gripped both her hips, and used his strength to lift her, then slam her back down on his cock.
Her head flew back, hitting his shoulder. He worked her up and down his cock.
“Yes.” She moved as well, helping him, her body rippling on his.
“Touch yourself,” he whispered. “Reach between those sexy thighs and find that swollen clit.”
She slid her hand down, and when she moaned, he knew she was close.
And fuck, he was riding the hard edge of the orgasm of his life. She rocked against him.
“That’s it, Peri,” he murmured. “Give me your mouth, baby.”
She turned her head and he kissed her. As she came, her body shook, spasming around his cock. He swallowed her scream with his mouth.
Then he jerked her up and down another few times, and a blinding orgasm crashed into him. He roared his release, shooting deep inside her. It was strong enough that his vision actually dimmed for a moment.
Peri had slumped against him, limp and warm. He lowered them down onto the sleeping bags, their slick skin sticking them together.
Christ. Ronin pulled in a few deep breaths, running his hand through her hair. He’d had sex plenty of times. But this…this was something else.
He held her tight and listened to her harsh breathing slow down and even out. This was the bit he wasn’t good with. He wasn’t a snuggler, or someone to talk about his feelings. When he had sex, he ensured the woman enjoyed herself, and then he left.
Peri turned, wrapping her arms around him, and snuggled into his chest. Ronin relaxed. Apparently, Peri knew what to do.
She looked up at him from under mussed bangs. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he responded.
“You’re okay?” She reached up and cupped his cheek, gently scratching a nail through his stubble.
“Thanks to you.”
She smiled. “I think you paid me back with interest.”
“I think I sort of…took you by surprise.”
“For a second.” She scratched his cheek again. “Don’t think I wasn’t an enthusiastic, willing participant.”
Shit. “Peri, I didn’t even think about protection—”
“It’s okay. I’m on birth control and I got a clean bill of health at my last checkup.”
Ronin blew out a breath. He’d never not used protection with a woman. “I’m healthy, too.”
“Good.”
He tightened his hold on her, a feeling of rightness moving through him. “I may never be able to let you go.”
She leaned up and pressed a light kiss to his lips. “So don’t.”
Ronin felt parts of him that had never seen the light straining to get closer to her. “Peri—”
“I know. You’re dark, bad, and dangerous.” She cupped his cheek. “What happened to you, Ronin, to make you think you don’t deserve some happiness?”
God, she cracked him wide open. “It wasn’t one big, terrible thing. Just lots of smaller ones. From being an abandoned, drug-addicted baby tossed out like trash—”
“Which has nothing to do with you,” she said fiercely.
He smiled sadly. “I watched so many people die while I was a SEAL. There were so many people I couldn’t save. I watched good men and women lose limbs, their eyesight, or go home in boxes.” He pulled in a shuddering breath. “I thought working for the CIA would help me find the missing chunks of my soul.”
“And instead, it took more.”
He nodded. “My last assignment was to help take down a human trafficking ring.” He closed his eyes, unwilling to sully what he’d just shared with Peri. “I saw women, hell, young girls, used and abused.” God, the things he’d seen. His hand clenched in her hair. He breathed in the fresh scent of her. “I had to watch terrible things, and pretend I liked them, to get close to the people we needed to bring down.”
She squeezed him tighter. “You did your part. You’re one of the good guys, Ronin. A hero. And now, you deserve a life.”
Ronin wanted to believe her. He cleared his throat. “How long was I out?”
“Half an hour.” She glanced at her heavy-duty watch. “We’ve been gone about two hours.”
God, it felt like a lifetime. Dec would have realized something had gone wrong by now. “They’ll be looking for us.”
“You need to eat something—” she sat up “—and drink something to get your strength back.”
“Thought I just proved my strength was fine.”
She rolled her eyes at him and reached over to the backpacks. As she pulled out some ready-to-eat meal packs, Ronin watched the sway of her pretty breasts.
She turned back, and handed him a package of food and a drink bottle. Then she realized he was looking at her. She glanced down, her cheeks going pink, then glanced back up at him, heat flickering in her eyes.
“You need to conserve some energy, Ronin. Not spend more of it.”
“I want you again.” He blew out a breath. “But there’s no time.” Hell, there hadn’t been time the first time he’d had her, but he’d already been inside her before any conscious thought had moved through his head.
She leaned in and kissed him. He pulled her closer, and drank from her mouth.
“Later,” she murmured. “After we finish this.”
“Later,” he promised. “Later, I want to fuck you from behind, and then wrap my hand in that pretty hair of yours while you suck my cock.”
She raised a brow. “And I want your clever tongue between my legs again, and then I want to climb you and ride you hard.”
His cock jerked. “You have yourself a deal, Peri.”
***
Peri spooned some of the bland food into her mouth, chewing slowly. “We need to find Dec and the others.”
Ronin was sorting through his clothes. She could see that the outer layers were still damp, but the inner layers that would be closest to his body were dry. Luckily, he also had dry socks in his backpack.
He pulled his thermal underwear on with a frown. “They should have come looking for us by now. I don’t think we’d be that hard to find.”
Peri finished eating. “They’re probably close.” Her body was still tingling, and she kept sneaking glances at Ronin as he dressed.
God, that body. He pulled his trousers on and she stifled a sigh. She’d been thoroughly fucked and possessed by Ronin Cooper. She quivered and felt a throb between her legs, a very physical reminder. She really wanted to do it again. And again.
She started pulling her own clothes on. But that would have to wait. Right now, she had a sister to save.
Soon, they stepped out of the tent. She zipped up her coat, and they quickly took down the tent and packed up the rest of their gear.
Strong arms yanked her close. As soon as his lips touched hers, warmth curled through her. Yep, she couldn’t get enough of this man.
“Thanks again for the rescue,” he said quietly.
“Anytime, G-Man.”
His fingers brushed at her hair. “And thanks for the rest, as well.”
“Anytime to that, too,” she whispered.
“Hey, there you guys are.”
The voice had them both spinning. Lars stepped through the doorway of the building.
Peri smiled. “We are so glad to see you. We had an incident, but we’re okay.”
Beside her, she sensed Ronin stiffen a little. His gaze was scanning behind Lars.
“Where are Dec and Logan?” Ronin asked.
“We lost your trail. They went to check one direction, and I came this way.”
Peri nodded, but when she looked over at Ronin, she detected something from him that she didn’t understand. “What’s wrong?”
Lars shook his head. “You have some sharp instincts, Coop.” The scientist pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Ronin.
Peri gasped. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m afraid your expedition ends here.” There was regret on the man’s face, but his arm didn’t waver.
“They offered you money,” Ronin said. “What is it? Sick kid? Relative in debt?”
“Sick wife,” Lars answered sadly. “She has cancer, and the doctors back home can’t do any more for her. But there’s an experimental treatment in Germany.” He shot Peri a regretful look. “I’m so sorry, Peri. I didn’t have the money, and I need to save my wife.”
Peri swallowed hard, betrayal cutting through her. “Did you kill your colleagues, too?”
“No!” There was horror on his face. “But I was supposed to keep all the station people away from Silk Road, and what they were doing here. Unfortunately, two of them ignored my warnings.”
God, this couldn’t be happening. Peri pressed her hands to her thighs. “You attacked me. In the bathroom.”
Heat filled Lars’ cheeks. “I’m sorry about that.”
Ronin took a threatening step forward. “You choked her.”
“Stay back.” The man’s gun stayed steady.
“Dec and Logan?” Ronin’s tone was as sharp as a blade.
Lars cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, I—”
Ronin leaped forward so fast, Peri jerked in shock. He landed a hard chop to Lars’ arm, and the scientist cried out, his gun hitting the icy floor. Ronin gripped the front of the man’s coat, and jerked him around. A hard punch to Lars’ face snapped the man’s head back and blood spurted from his nose.
“You couldn’t have killed Dec and Logan,” Ronin said. “They would’ve seen you coming a mile away.”
“No.” Lars pressed a gloved hand to his nose. “But the last I saw of them, they were in an unstable area. Ice was falling down from the roof, all around them.”
Ronin’s hand struck out, his fist slamming into Lars’ temple. The man crashed into the wall and slumped down to the floor, out cold. Ronin reached down and picked up the pistol. “We need to move. We need to find Dec and Logan.”
With a nod, Peri hitched the straps of her backpack tighter, and clicked her flashlight on. She followed Ronin out of the warehouse.
Then, she heard Ronin make a sound.
Before she could respond, a jolt of electricity raced through her body. Pain hit her, and her body started jerking. She collapsed on the ice.
Hurts. So. Bad. She forced herself to move her head slightly, trying to see what was happening around her. The ice was cold on her bare cheek. What was going on?
Ahead, she saw Ronin fall heavily to his knees, his teeth clenched, and his body jerking.
She blinked slowly, and that’s when she saw the small prongs in his back, and the thin wires protruding from them. Taser. Damn.
Heavy, black boots stepped in front of her face, crunching on the ice. But before she could see who’d attacked them, she passed out from the pain.