They walked along the track. It was approaching mid-day and hotter than seven hells. Her shirt clung to her like a second skin and she constantly wiped the sweat from her brow. They’d been without water for hours, the only moisture coming from the various fruits Dan could find near the road as they trudged along. She worried about him. He claimed to not need it, but he gave most of the food he could find to her. Maybe he could go without the food, but as much as he was sweating, he had to be dehydrating.

She glanced at him. He suffered as much as she did but it looked good on him, his sweat-soaked shirt stuck to him and showing off his physique. She couldn’t believe she was actually thinking about fucking him again, not after last night. He’d been insatiable. She wasn’t sure what came over her, but last night she’d stopped being Natasha Sampson, analyst for the NSA, and had simply become a female beast taking pleasure from her mate. Never had she been fucked like she had last night.

She had no idea how long they’d rolled and tumbled, the rain, the mud, their bellows and shrieks of passion making her wilder than she’d ever been before. Dan had taken her three times, one after other, with only a momentary break between, and each time he orgasmed, it was more violent than the time before. He hadn’t hurt her, but my God, had he fucked her, his own passions seemingly out of control.

After his third and final, orgasm he’d lain panting for a long time before rising with a groan. They’d used the rain to wash the mud from them, redressed, and settled into the nest of leaves he’d made. Even though it was stifling, she’d curled up next to him and slept the sleep of the dead. Not because it was comfortable, because it wasn’t, but because he’d fucked her into exhaustion.

She smiled to herself in memory. Neither of them started out moving very well this morning. She was sore as shit, and not all of it came from sleeping on the ground. They’d started walking and the soreness had gradually disappeared until it was only the pleasant ache between her legs that served as a reminder of the most passion-filled night of her life.

“What?” Dan asked.

“Nothing,” she said, unable to hide her smile anymore.

“Looks like something to me.”

“I was merely thinking it was a good thing you fucked the shit out of me last night, because that’s the end of it for a while. I don’t have my birth-control pills with me, and even if I did, they’d probably be ruined from all this heat and humidity.”

He chuckled. “After last night, I’m not sure I could get it up again anyway.”

“Somehow, I doubt you’d have any problem. What came over you last night, anyway?”

He smiled, pulling her sharply toward him to avoid a snake lying at the edge of the road. “I don’t know. All I know is I’ve never wanted a woman more than I wanted you last night. Last night was…” He paused as he shook his head.

“What? Tell me.”

“Epic. Beyond belief.” He shook his head again. “Nothing will ever top it. Ever.”

She grinned, pleased that he felt no matter what happened between them, no woman would ever be able to measure up to her and their night making love in the jungle. And that was what it was. Oh, sure, they fucked their brains out, but for her it was more than that. There was something special in their fucking. The reason it had been so intense wasn’t because Dan was a lover of extraordinary talent, though that certainly played a part in it, but it was more because it was more than simply fucking. She wasn’t fucking him for her pleasure, she was fucking him for their pleasure, and that made all the difference in the world. Like him, she wasn’t sure she’d ever find a lover to top what had happened last night.

She chewed her bottom lip. Dan had hinted that he felt something too, and she wondered if that was part of the reason last night had been so intense for him. She hoped so. She was prepared to admit, if only to herself, that she was falling for Dan. His admission that he feared for her as he fought for his life had at first chilled her, then warmed her deep inside. Nobody had ever worried about her before, not like that, not even Roger. If he asked if she was in love with him, she would tell him ‘no.’ But if she was perfectly honest with herself, she had to admit, she was starting to be.

She found she didn’t think of herself as Tasha anymore. She thought of herself as Tasha and Dan. It was almost as if he was as much part of her life as her left arm. It almost went without saying, where she went, Dan would follow, and where Dan went, she would follow. Was that love? She’d thought she was in love with Roger, and maybe she had been, but the feelings she had for Roger were different than what she felt for Dan. The same, but different, much like the difference between a faded photograph and the same photograph restored. She was only beginning to have feelings for Dan, yet they already felt more vibrant, more real, than anything she’d felt for Roger.

“What?”

Dan’s voice pulled her back to the here and now. “What?” she repeated, unsure what he was asking her.

“You were fifty-million miles away.”

She smiled, looking down as she watched where she placed her feet. “Just thinking.”

“About what?”

“The mission,” she lied.

“No, you weren’t,” he said after a moment.

Her smile grew. He was very perceptive sometimes. “Okay, you’re right, I wasn’t.”

“What, then?”

“Are you sure you want to know?”

He looked at her strangely. “I don’t know. Do I?”

She debated not telling him, then changed her mind. “I was thinking about us.”

“What about us?”

She steeled her nerve. She was about to find out where they stood, and the thought of knowing scared the shit out of her. “How I feel about you. How we feel about each other.”

He pulled her to a stop. “How do you feel?” he asked quietly, his gaze holding hers.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know, or you don’t want to say?”

“I...don’t know. Not for sure.”

He took her face into his hands. “I do. I’m falling for you, Tasha. I wasn’t sure before, but I am now. I’m falling in love with you.” He kissed her softly and her heart soared. He felt the same as she did.

“I think I’m falling in love with you, too,” she whispered, a smile forcing its way onto her lips. “I’ve never felt anything like what I feel with you.”

“I was that good last night, huh?” he teased.

She wanted to scream her laughter to the world. “Yes, but it’s more than that. It’s not only what you do to me, it’s who you are. I can’t describe it, but it’s like you complete me and make me whole.”

He kissed her again, a gentle caress of her lips with his. “That’s it exactly,” he whispered, his lips so close she could feel the soft puffs of his breath. “You fill that space inside me that has been empty for so long that I didn’t even realize it was there.”

“Yes. Yes, I know how you feel!”

He kissed her again, more thoroughly this time, and despite her soreness and the heat, she wanted him. She wanted him badly.

He pulled back and held her gaze a moment, then smiled. “Too bad about the fucking pills.”

She snickered. “I like that. Yeah, it is too fucking bad about the fucking pills, but as much as you come in me, I don’t want to take the chance.”

He kissed her again with passion. “Yeah. I may be falling in love with you, but I don’t think I’m ready to start a family.”

“No, me neither.”

He took her hand and started her walking. “Let’s get the Griffins, get this fucking mission over with, and get the hell out of this shit hole of a country. I’m sick of having to deal with bad guys, the heat, and all the fucking rain.” He looked at her and smiled. “When we get back to the States, I’m taking you away for a week. I don’t know where yet, but it’s going to be cool, dry, and we’ll have the same bed to sleep in every night.”

She smiled, liking how that sounded a lot. A whole lot. “So long as sleeping isn’t the only thing we do in the bed.”

He said nothing but smiled that smile, causing a tingle to pass through her in anticipation.

Dan knew which way to turn when the road branched off. Something to do with tracks, but despite him pointing it out, she wasn’t sure she saw what he saw. It didn’t matter. He was their best bet for finding the Griffins. The road he led her down was far rougher than the one they’d been on. It appeared this goat path of a road had been hacked straight of the jungle, the path meandering and weaving around the larger trees.

He pulled her to a stop. “You hear that?”

She listened a moment but heard nothing. “What?”

He frowned, clearly listening for something. “There. Hear it?”

She stilled her breathing. She still didn’t hear anything. Then she caught it, the sound of a faraway engine. “Generator?”

He smiled. “Has to be. Stay quiet.”

This was Dan’s game. She might be better at eluding in an urban environment, but here in the wilds of Africa, Dan was clearly ‘the man’ and she followed his lead. He led her forward until the roar of the engine was clearly audible.

“Step where I step,” he cautioned as he led her off the road and into the jungle.

He led her on a long and winding route around the compound using the bellow of the motor to maintain their bearings. After over an hour of creeping, they reached the other side of the clearing and crept forward until they could see. She didn’t know how he’d done it, but they’d come up on the camp on the opposite side from the road.

Before them was a clearing that had been hacked out of the jungle approximately five hundred feet on each side of a round-cornered square. Squatting in the center was a large RDS—Rapid Deployment Shelter—often used by the military to quickly setup a semi-permanent facility. With a solid floor, ridged, canvas-covered walls and ceiling, this unit had several air-conditioners attached for climate control. Off to the side sat a bellowing diesel generator with a second unit sitting silently beside it. The units were identical in appearance, and she couldn’t tell which one they had followed in.

To the other side, opposite the generators, was a second, smaller, RDS. Across the clearing was the truck they’d seen loading at the river, so she was certain they were at the right place. The two RDSes had windows, but she couldn’t see anything through them. There didn’t appear to be any guards about, but she would bet strong money there were. All in all, the place appeared deserted, but it was unlikely with the generator running as well as the air-conditioners connected to the larger of the two tents.

“What do you think?” she whispered in Dan’s ear.

“I think this is the place. Too dangerous to do anything now. We need to wait until nightfall. I wish to Christ Thom, Derrick, and Rich were here. This is right up their alley.”

She nodded. He didn’t say it accusingly, and he was right. They could use the extra muscle. All they had were their two pistols and eighteen rounds of ammo. He pulled slowly back into the bush.

“We need to find a place to settle down. Maybe get some sleep. We’ll scout the place tonight to try to come up with a plan.”

“It’s too damned hot to sleep.”

He nodded in agreement. “It’s not going to be much better at night, so it won’t get any easier.” He flashed her a quick grin. “Hotter than hell, twenty-four seven.”

“Shit,” she muttered as they continued to put space between themselves and the camp. It wouldn’t do for a guard to find them by wandering into the jungle to take a leak.

They retreated until the generators were audible, but their quiet conversation couldn’t be heard back at the camp.

“Goodie,” she huffed. “Another night of sleeping on the ground.”

“It could be worse. It could be raining.”

She held her hands up as if checking for rain. “Give it time.”

He made a mat of leaves in the shade against a giant tree then settled with a groan. “If I’d known we would be trekking through a jungle, I’d have worn different shoes,” he said as he pulled his loafers off and dumped bits of twigs and leaves out of them before putting them back on. “We didn’t plan this mission very well.”

She sat down beside him with a soft groan of her own. She was tired, dirty, bug-bitten, and her feet hurt from all the walking. Despite everything, it did feel good to get off her feet.

“Didn’t have time. I thought we’d find the Doctors Griffin in Talish, not out here in the middle of fucking nowhere.”

She leaned into his side and he draped an arm around her shoulders. The day was too hot to snuggle, but fuck it. She needed this. It wasn’t like she could get any hotter or sweatier.

She heaved a great sigh as she closed her eyes. She was so tired. Tired of the heat, the insects, the dirt, sleeping on the ground, and most of all, tired of this fucking mission. She leaned back against Dan and closed her eyes. All the aches and pains that came from sleeping on the hard ground last night, or maybe from Dan trying to drive her through the ground with his cock, or maybe both, returned. She squirmed until she found the most comfortable position. She liked how he cupped her breast with a hand. It would be so nice to be somewhere cool, where she could take a bath before tumbling into a soft bed with him. She’d sleep for a week, then they’d spend the next week fucking their…

“Wake up,” Dan murmured as he shook her.

“What?” she hissed as she sat bolt upright. It was dark and, of course, raining.

“Nothing,” he said. “It’s almost ten. Time to see what’s what.”

She struggled to her feet, grimacing and hissing as ever muscle, bone, and joint in her body protested.

“Shit!” she snarled as she hobbled around, trying to work the kinks out. “Did I really sleep for six hours?”

“Yeah. I was afraid your snoring would bring the guards.”

“What guards?”

He grinned broadly so she gave him a humorless smile and teasing sneer as she displayed her middle finger.

“Did you sleep?”

“I don’t know. I think so.”

They crept up on the compound again. Her left hip felt like someone was driving a knife into it with every step, but there was nothing for it. It did give her a little satisfaction that Dan wasn’t moving with his normal grace either. Being in the jungle with no supplies was kicking their ass.

They paused at the edge of the encampment, watching. The bellowing generator would be great at masking the noise of their movements, so they crept around the edge of the clearing. Most of the large RDS was dark, but there was one window brightly lit.

Saying nothing, Dan pull Tasha down then made a ‘stay’ gesture with his hand. Staying in a low crouch, he darted across the opening to the side of the tent, then slid along the edge until he reached the window. As she watched, he took a quick peek before darting back, then took a second, longer look. He dropped low and scampered back to her position.

“Both doctors are in there,” he whispered into her ear.

“Are we going to grab them and try to run?”

“No. I don’t think they’ll be able to make the walk out. Get evac inbound. We’ll grab them then.”

“Evac for where?”

“Here.”

“Where the fuck is here?”

“Can’t they track that phone or something?”

“I don’t know. I’ll ask.”

“Okay. Do that. I’m going to see what kind of shit we can expect when the helo arrives.”

She waited until he disappeared, then she pulled out her SAT phone, turned it on, and dialed.

“Lancaster,” she said the moment the phone was answered.

“Stand-by.”

Seconds later, a male voice came on the line. “This is Deputy-Director Sorkan. Where the hell have you been, Lancaster? We’ve been trying to reach you for three days.”

“We have a situation,” she whispered. “We’ve located the target. They are being held in a compound in the middle of the jungle. We need immediate evac.”

“Jungle? You’re in the jungle?”

“Just listen, dammit! We are at a temporary compound maybe twenty miles west of the Hangula river. We need immediate evac from this location.”

“Standby, we’re locating your phone. Why haven’t you reported in?”

Tasha ground her teeth. “Because I can’t exactly plug the fucking phone in to recharge it in the middle of the fucking jungle, now can I?”

There was a pause. “Evac from your location is not available.”

“Are you shitting me? How are we supposed to get the targets out? They’re sixty years old. It was hard enough for us to get here. They’ll never make it out.”

“I’m sorry, Lancaster, but evac isn’t available from your location. We have no assets in the area. If the Griffins can’t make it out, you’ll have to kill them. I repeat, your orders are to kill the Griffins if they can’t make it out on their own.”

“Are you shitting me?” She wanted to scream, but she had to keep her voice low.

“I’m sorry, Lancaster. Things have gotten…complicated. Our embassy staff has been ejected and the U.S. is not cleared to fly in Orkut air space. The State Department is working on restoring diplomatic relations, but the Long and Tesley incident has caused a huge shit storm.”

“Understood. Lancaster out,” she snapped before ending the call and turning off the phone to conserve the battery. She and Dan were on their own. If they couldn’t help her, then she wasn’t going to spend a lot of time listening to some asshole safe and sound back in Maryland telling her what to do. Fuck ‘em. The smart move would be to kill the doctors and blow up the entire compound, but they couldn’t even do that easily. They had no explosives, and she knew Dan well enough to know he wouldn’t kill the Griffins in cold blood.

She crouched in the darkness, trying to figure out how she would break the news to him. She saw a shadow moving along the edge of the trees toward her. She drew her weapon and pointed it at the figure but held her fire.

“It’s me,” Dan hissed from the darkness.

“I’ve got you.”

He came forward and crouched beside her. “It’s not good.”

She smiled grimly. “You don’t know the half of it.”