Chapter Four
“Are you going to wake her up?” a voice said.
“Kinda have to, considering where she’s laying,” another voice said. This one came from under her ear.
“Well, wake her up. We have a plane to catch, and the others will be here in three,” the original voice said.
“Yeah, yeah. I just feel bad waking her up. She’s been through hell today, and crashed hard as soon as she laid down.”
“I still can’t believe she just crawled up on top of you and fell asleep. Like you were an air mattress or something.”
“Considering I still have all my gear on, I have no clue how she’s even comfortable,” the voice under her said. “Hell, I’m not comfortable sleeping in all this shit on the best of days, let alone with someone on top of me.”
“Okay, when did you last have someone sleeping on top of you while you were in full tactical gear?” the other voice asked. Then, after a very long pause: “Right, never. Oh, we got dust trails coming our way.”
“Shit,” the voice under her muttered. “Camilla, sweetheart, you need to wake up and move please. I really need to get up and at least pretend to appear professional for a couple of minutes.”
“Shush, you two talk too much.” Camilla grumbled and rubbed her cheek against the stiff vest Gareth wore. “You would be much more comfortable without all the gear, I agree. I think I could sleep a week then.” She was teasing, mostly. Her face was hidden by her hair, a grin on her lips. The corkscrew curls of long red hair had long since given up their bun that she kept them in, and were currently spilled over his arm and shoulder, but she couldn’t seem to find it in her to care.
When he poked her again and asked her to wake up, she sighed. “You two are really killing me here. First you kidnap me—save my rump, whatever you wanna call it. Now you’re waking me up from a perfectly good dream where those dog things don’t exist, and instead you met me with flowers or something crazy like that. Just no apples.” She wrinkled her nose. “I have more apples given to me than an orchard holds, I’m sure.”
“Right, no apples,” he said.
“Gareth, one minute!”
“Shit.” Camilla found herself on her back with Gareth hovering over her. “I really wish we were in a better place to explore this position, without all the clothing, too.” He grinned. “But there’s a potential threat coming up the road, and I really need to have a gun in my hands. Though I will say for the record, I’d much prefer to just hold you.” Gareth winked and rolled off her, then did some kind of a flip out of the van. On his feet, he had a weapon in hand and pointed in front of him in seconds.
“Holy crapballs, do you boys practice that move or what?” She panted. Every inch of the man was hard. Every thick, long, and hard inch of him had clearly been felt by her, too. She should be cowering in fear, but she found herself fanning her face. “Damn.” She didn’t curse often, but this instance called for it.
“Just every other Sunday,” the one Gareth had introduced as Wyatt said. “They’re our trucks,” he added a moment later. Neither man moved, though.
The vehicles they had all previously looked at as possible enemies pulled to a stop and parked. The doors opened and more men in military gear got out, all with their hands out and away from their bodies. Except one. He had his hands on a gun. A really big gun, and he looked like he knew how to use it, too.
“Really, Mikhail? One of these days I’m just going to shoot you when you do that shit,” Gareth said, slipping his weapon back into its holster.
“Try it,” the man with the large gun said. He kept walking right up to them and looked at her with icy blue eyes.
“Oh my gawd,” she whispered, and had to reach out and touch the big man. “How the hell are you so hot? Is it in the water?” Camilla realized what she’d done and said and slapped a hand over her mouth. She needed to restart her brain because it seemed her libido was in control of her mouth. “Sorry, rude of me.” She flushed pink, which she knew with her red hair made her look like a tomato. “So, are you the one who made that head explode?” This man was born and bred to kill, and from the look of him, she was next. “I’m not bitten or whatever they do to make little puppies, so please don’t make my head go splat?”
One of his dark eyebrows went up in an arch as he stared at her. Then he finally blinked and looked to Gareth. “Did she hit her head at any point during your less-than-graceful jump into the vehicle?”
“No!” Gareth said. Then he looked at her and frowned. “At least, I don’t think so.”
The big one grunted and looked at her again. “Yes, I’m the one that blew his brains into the next century. As to the rest, way too much to cover. We need to get in the air,” he said before spinning on a heel and walking to—oh hey, look, a plane.
Gareth held out a hand. “We really do need to clear the area, Camilla. You can keep harassing him on the flight. Which should be fun.” He gave a slight smile.
“Oh good lord, I didn’t hit my head.” Instead of taking Gareth’s hand, she dogged the big guy’s heels. “And you know you could introduce yourself. Lord, seems I am going to have to instill manners into every one of you.” She turned and cast her gaze about. “That’s right, I’m including all of you in this lesson.” Camilla grabbed Gareth’s hand, pulling him along with her as if she were the one trying to get him on the plane. She followed the massive man with the white blond hair and called out to him, “Hey, big guy who makes people’s brains take a hike, wait up. Short legs here, and I’m so not done with you yet.”
The first snicker behind her had the big guy stopping and turning around slowly. If she’d thought his eyes had been chilly before, they were positively glacial now as he looked at the laughing men. But he didn’t say anything, just spun back around and took the last couple of steps before climbing up into the jet.
“That’s Mikhail,” Gareth told her with a chuckle. “He’s not overly communicative. With words, anyway. But you get to know the little ticks and eyebrow movements pretty quick. Snipers aren’t exactly the most warm and cuddly of folks. Up you go,” he said when they reached the plane’s stairs.
“Right, well, that’s just not going to work. I’m a teacher and I like to be talked to. Not at. Not around, and not down to. I like to be talked to, communicated with.” She enunciated the words and then lost all train of thought when she looked up at the perfect ass of the man that Gareth had called Mikhail. Her mouth went dry, and she stopped dead in her tracks. Holy Mother of God, the man was spectacular. And there went her libido once again. Dammit, she was going to have to pull off her panties and wring them out at this rate.
A hand on her ass got her moving. When Camilla entered the building, she turned to find Gareth grinning at her. He obviously knew why she’d been distracted. “Grab a seat. The ones back where Mikhail is actually recline for better napping,” he said with a wink.
“Right, better napping.” Camilla didn’t hesitate, though. She moved right on back to the large man and plopped her fanny into the seat beside him. Grinning unrepentantly up at him, she said, “Hi. You can’t get rid of me that easily.” Accepting the blanket that one of the men passed her, she only gave him a brief glance. Then she realized only two of the twelve men made her panties go wetter than water. Interesting. “So, have any good stories to tell?” Camilla needed something other than the fact that they were getting ready to fly to focus on.
“No.” Mikhail did up his seatbelt and kicked his feet out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles. After folding his hands over his stomach, he relaxed and closed his eyes. For all intents and purposes, he looked like he was already asleep.
“Okay, how about I tell you one instead? Did you know that before today, most animals actually liked me? I mean, those dogs that attacked, they don’t really count as animals, do they? If so, then I think that I need to scratch that off my list of things that I excel at, and that would be just plain sad, because the list is pretty short.” Camilla could shoot an arrow with deadly accuracy, but what kind of worth was that in today’s world? She was good at her job, or so she thought. She loved kids, any and all children, but aside from those things, she felt totally unremarkable, which was what prompted her to say, “Are you sure that they were there for me and not one of the other teachers? Sure, I was the only one in the lot, but that’s because I stayed way later than I typically do. Perhaps one of the janitors? I mean, I’m really a nobody.”
“They were there for you,” he said. Oddly enough, his lips didn’t seem to move a whole lot. Neat trick. “Otherwise they would have been in the other parking lot waiting for the other staff. Since you were the only teacher left, with your car being the only one in that lot, they were targeting you. And they were wolves, not dogs, though they are of the same genus. You should buckle up, we’re about to take off.”
Cocking her head, she mimed him just the way that some of her kids in her class would her some days, when they didn’t think she could see them. She mimicked his words silently just as a five-year-old would, and couldn’t seem to stop herself. Camilla was attracted to the men, both men, and wasn’t in the smallest bit ashamed of herself for it.
She couldn’t seem to stop touching them and sleeping on them Camilla felt oddly connected to them. And that butt of Mikhail’s, holy mother. Wow. Again, she stopped to fan herself. Yep, she felt seriously screwed, and not in a good way, either.
“Mocking me won’t do any good,” Mikhail told her.
Just then, the engines roared to life and one of the men shut the door, locking them inside the jet. He moved to the pilot’s door and knocked on it. “We’re all buttoned up, take us up.”
“Mocking you made me feel better.” She grumbled and snuggled up against Mikhail’s arm. “I think I’m going to catch a nap.” Before she fell asleep, she lifted the chair arm between them, moved in closer to him, and sighed. “Would be easier to sleep on you without the vest, but that’s okay. I slept on Gareth’s, so I can sleep on yours.” She hooked a hand on one of the front pockets of his vest, and was shortly out cold. Again.