Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protection Crisis (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

  My orgasm didn’t leave me completely soft, but I was beginning to think nothing except sinking inside of Chloe would manage that feat. Maybe after having her a hundred times or so, I might be able to walk around without being hard.

  My release in the shower took the edge off, at least until I caught Chloe’s knowing smile when I left the bathroom and found her packing her stuff so we could hit the road. The little minx looked way too pleased with herself for me to leave well enough alone, even though I knew better.

  “You need some alone time in the shower, beautiful?” I whispered in her ear. “Or do you want a little help with those hard to reach spots?”

  Her innocent eyes filled with surprise, quickly chased away by searing heat. Then her gaze dropped down to my crotch and worked its way back up again. “That’s an awfully tempting offer, since it looks like you’re able to handle yourself in the shower pretty well. But I think I’ll manage on my own, or else we won’t be getting out of this motel anytime soon. You did say you wanted to be on the road before six.”

  She followed her taunt up with a saucy wink and then sauntered into the bathroom. Her hips swayed seductively with each step she took, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the sight until the door shut behind her.

  Shit, my dick was pressed against my zipper again.

  ***

  About a dozen hours later, we were only an hour away from the outskirts of Bakersfield, California. I’d never road tripped with a woman before, but I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly Chloe and I fell into a rhythm. She navigated while I drove, and she did it while also keeping me entertained with a variety of games. It all started with her hitting me in the arm and calling out “Slug Bug!” when we passed a Volkswagen Beetle. For the next hundred miles, we used any sighting of one of those cars as an excuse to touch the other person. Maybe it was a little juvenile, similar to how kindergarten boys tried to gain the attention of a girl they liked, but it was also a lot of fun.

  I conceded defeat when we made our first pit stop, the car running close to empty. I was surprised Chloe hadn’t asked me to stop earlier, but she explained she was a destination kind of girl when she was driving somewhere. She loved nothing more than beating the GPS’s estimated time of arrival, and that meant she was on board with my plan to limit our stops along the way. It was quirky, but in an interesting way. The more I discovered about Chloe, the more intrigued I became. Considering how fascinated I’d been from the get-go, that was saying a lot.

  Even though I wasn’t the kind of guy who opened up to people about himself easily, I leapt at the chance to learn more about Chloe when she suggested a game of twenty questions.

  “You first,” I suggested.

  “Okay, but we’re going to take turns,” she warned. “Asking and answering.”

  “Deal,” I agreed. “When’s the last time you were out on a date?”

  “There’s no dipping your toe in the kiddie side of the pool with you, is there?”

  “You want that to count as your first question?”

  “No,” she sputtered.

  “It could have been worse, I could have asked when’s the last time you had sex,” I pointed out, and then I thought better of it. “Don’t answer that question. I don’t want to know the answer because then I’m going to want to hunt someone other than your stalker down just so I can shoot them for touching you.”

  I was afraid to look at her because I knew I sounded like a stalker, going all caveman over the thought of Chloe with another man.

  “More years than I want to admit to,” she whispered.

  My head whipped to the side while I tried to figure out if she was telling me the truth. It didn’t seem possible, but the horrified look on her face made it clear that it really had been that long. She looked embarrassed by her admission, but it made me want to beat my chest in triumph. I reached over, snagged her hand in mine and moved it on top of my thigh, threading our fingers together.

  “You didn’t ask, but I’m going to answer anyway. It’s been awhile for me, too. More than a year.”

  “The last time I was on a real date, not a publicity stunt my agent set up, was probably six months ago,” she answered my original question.

  Her name had been connected to several men in the articles I’d read—other actors, a couple athletes, and even one rock star—all men she’d supposedly dated within the last few months. I felt an overwhelming sense of relief at hearing they’d been her agent’s idea and not guys she’d actually dated.

  “Same for me, except without the publicity ops. I was out of the country on a mission for most of that time.”

  “Why’d you leave the Navy?”

  “No kiddie pool for you either,” I muttered. “It’s a complicated question, and I could give you a variety of answers. I’m not sure I can explain it to anyone outside of the military. It boiled down to me having a gut feeling that I was done, and one thing I learned early on was to never ignore my instincts.”

  “Lucky for me you did or else I’d be in this mess alone.”

  “Lucky for both of us,” I corrected her, lifting her hand to my lips and placing a kiss on her knuckles.

  “Yeah,” she sighed.

  In an effort to lighten the mood between us, I asked an easy question next. “What’s your favorite color?”

  She answered with purple and followed my lead by asking an innocuous question herself. By the time we reached our destination in Bakersfield, we’d learned the answers to just about every question they asked when you joined an online dating service, and then some. It had been a great way to get to know each other better in a short amount of time.

  “All those questions, and I didn’t think to ask why we were stopping in Bakersfield instead of heading straight to L.A.” She pointed at the sign above the building in front of where I parked. “Did you forget to tell me something?”

  “Remember how I said your stalker would have to go through me to get to you?” She nodded shakily, her face paling at the reminder. “I should have mentioned he’d have to avoid getting shot by me because I’m not taking you back home unless I’m carrying a gun, for your protection and mine.”

  “I’ve never seen a real gun, only props on set.”

  “It’s a good thing we’re meeting my buddy at a shooting range because I’d feel better if you knew how to handle one too.”

  “Will you teach me?”

  “Of course.” I was committing myself to a new form of torture, but I wasn’t going to let anyone else do it. Watching another guy put his hands on Chloe while I had a gun in my hands would just result in my arrest for murder.

  Another car pulled up next to us, and I recognized Blaine as he stepped out.

  “There’s my buddy.” I jerked my head in Blaine’s direction as he rounded his car to open the passenger door.

  “Did he bring you a gun?” she whispered in my ear after I helped her out of my car. “Isn’t that illegal?”

  “You’ve let all those movies and books get to you. I’m not buying a gun on the black market. I’m a former Navy SEAL for fuck’s sake. I have a concealed carry license. If I hadn’t flown commercial, I would have had one of my own pieces with me.”

  “As far as the paperwork is concerned, these are yours too.”

  “Pretend you didn’t hear him say that,” the woman standing next to Blaine said, her eyes widening when I stepped to the side and she caught sight of Chloe. Then she turned an accusing glare Blaine’s way. “Our spur of the moment road trip to Bakersfield was to help Chloe Porter, and you didn’t think to mention it to me?”

  “Your friend is the former Navy SEAL who saved Delia Sinclair?”

  “West,” Blaine corrected on a growl, lifting his wife’s hand and making the diamond on her ring sparkle in the sunshine.

  Chloe and Delia completely ignored us, their attention wholly focused on each other.

  “I love your books.”

  “I’ve watched your movie at least a dozen times.”
>
  They spoke in unison, but it didn’t seem to bother either of them. I moved closer to Blaine and elbowed him in the side. “Our women seem to have a mutual admiration society going on.”

  “There’s a lot to admire.” A deep growl rumbled up my chest until I realized his gaze was firmly on his wife, and he’d hardly noticed Chloe at all. “And I’m going to enjoy every inch as soon as we make it up to the mountain cabin I rented for the next few days. We can enjoy a second honeymoon, and I’ll only be a couple hours away if you need any help with Chloe’s stalker situation.”

  “You have a stalker?” Delia asked. “If you need help, I could give my friend Cyan a call. She’s one of the FBI agents who was part of the whole thing when Blaine and I met.”

  Chloe deferred to me instead of accepting the offer herself. “We may take you up on that, but I’m hoping it won’t be necessary.”

  It was better left unsaid in front of the ladies that if it came down to our needing the FBI agent to intercede on our part, then the situation would have become FUBAR.

  Chapter 10

  Chloe

  I hardly paid any attention to where we were going as Kael led me into the shooting range. I was still in shock from meeting Delia Sinclair. I’d been a fan of her books forever. She was one of my favorite authors, and I couldn’t get over the fact that she liked my movie. Delia Sinclair told me she’d watched my movie a dozen times!

  “How cool is that?” I mumbled to myself.

  “The facility is one of the best in the nation,” Kael answered. He must have misunderstood the rhetorical question I’d directed at myself and thought I was talking about the shooting range instead.

  I looked around and was surprised to see how big the place was. There were a couple of buildings behind us, but Kael had led me around the back to an area with a long, narrow bench underneath a shade canopy. He set two black cases on the bench as I looked onto the field where a series of targets were placed.

  “Nice,” Kael breathed. “Blaine knows how much I like my Sig Sauer, but he brought a Glock for you.”

  “For me?” I squeaked, startled by the thought of having a gun of my own.

  “It’s perfect for you because it’s smaller, so it’ll fit your hand better. Plus, it can be more easily concealed. It’s also a half-pound lighter than my P226.”

  “I only understood about half of what you just said,” I admitted. “But whatever it was, you sound like you know a lot about guns.”

  “You bet your sweet ass I do.” He grinned down at me with boyish pleasure on his face.

  “How about you show me what you’ve got?”

  “Don’t mind if I do.”

  He fiddled with his gun for a minute before slipping a set of earmuffs onto my head and nudging me into a safe location. Then he put a pair on himself, got into position and fired off ten shots in rapid succession. Even though the sound was muffled, it was still super loud. I watched in awe as each shot made a steel target swing, first in one direction and then in another before he moved on to the next one and repeated the process all over again. Each target was farther out than the one before, and the last one looked like it was more than an entire football field away.

  “Damn, you’re good.”

  He whirled around and flashed me a sexy grin. “The SEALs only take the best of the best, and then they make ‘em even better.”

  “I’m probably going to be the worst of the worst,” I warned him.

  “No way is that going to happen, not with me for your teacher.”

  I started to think he was right as he taught me about the Glock 19 I was going to use. It was fairly simple to operate since it didn’t have manually operated safety for me to figure out. It only took me one try to load the magazine and pull back the slide to chamber the first round. I was feeling confident until he turned me towards the targets and stepped behind me. My back was pressed against his front, our bodies lined up together as he helped me with my stance. I had to bite my lip to hold back a moan when his hard length brushed against me. It was nearly impossible to focus on anything besides the feel of his body when he was this close, but I needed to force myself to concentrate since I was holding a loaded gun in my hand.

  “There are a lot of reasons why the Glock is better for you, but you need to remember that the light trigger pull and lack of a manual safety mean you need to be aware of where your trigger finger is at all times. Keep it on the frame of the gun until you’re ready to fire.”

  Crap. Attention. Must pay attention to the gun and not the slide of Kael’s finger against mine. It was oh so tempting to get lost in Kael and ignore the reality of my situation.

  Even with his help, I completely missed the target on my first few shots. He’d made it look so easy, but I wasn’t able to hit the closest one which was only fifteen feet away. By the time I’d emptied my magazine, I’d only managed to hit it three times. Kael made me reload and do it all over again three times before we were done. I improved with each round, until I was able to hit the target about half the time.

  “You’re doing good,” he praised me.

  “Only because it’s the closest target.”

  “The only reason you should need to fire your gun is if this guy somehow manages to get the drop on me. If that happens, he’ll be close enough for you to hit him.” I gulped at the thought of shooting someone. “When you draw your gun, you’re accepting responsibility for someone dying. I need you to wrap your head around this now, before you might get into a situation where the right mindset can be the difference between life and death. This guy who’s stalking you? His life is less important than yours. Period. End of story.”

  “And yours,” I whispered.

  “Mine, what?”

  “Your life is more important than his, too.”

  “I’m not worried about me not being able to pull the trigger, Chloe. I know I’ll be able to fire on him if it comes down to that, but I need to make sure you’re prepared for it, too. I’ve been there before. I know what to expect.” There was a darkness in his tone that hinted at the reasons why his gut had told him it was time to get out of the Navy. “As the adrenalin kicks up, the blood supply to your peripheral nervous system is starved. Your fine motor control is going to slow down. Aiming will be more difficult because your vision will narrow and you will be hyper-focused on details. Your first instinct is going to be to freeze up. You’ll have to fight against yourself and act.”

  “I’ll try my hardest,” I promised him. I meant it, too. I felt like I had even more to fight for after finding Kael.

  ***

  The shooting range was only a couple hours from my house. We would have missed most of the traffic by the time we hit Los Angeles, but I agreed with Kael when he suggested we spend the night at a hotel instead. I could have blamed it on the setting sun or my sore muscles, but really it boiled down to me being in no rush to return to my home. I felt stronger than I had when I’d left, but I wasn’t ready for reality quite yet. Even with Kael at my side and the shooting lessons he’d given me, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever feel prepared to face my stalker.

  The way the clerk who’d checked us in had looked at us knowingly made it clear he thought we were there for a hook-up. At first I was a little embarrassed, but then it started to put ideas into my head. I’d only met Kael thirty-six hours before, but I felt like I knew him better than any other man I’d ever dated. I’d spent all those hours with him, which in dating terms translated into at least a dozen or more dates. It was kind of like knowing him for a month or two, or that’s how I was rationalizing it in my brain when I stepped out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a thin camisole and a short pair of sleeping boxers.

  Kael caught sight of me and stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes swept up and down my body, lingering on my tits and making my nipples harden. “You shouldn’t look at me like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “Those innocent eyes of yours are making an offer I’m not sure you’re ready to deliv
er on.”

  “What if I am?”

  “You better be careful or else I’m going to kiss the shit out of you,” he warned.

  “Oh, yeah? Then why don’t you do it already?”

  Wait, had I just thrown the gauntlet down for him to pick up? Judging by the way he was stalking towards me, that was exactly what I’d done. With the reaction I received it was well worth stepping outside my comfort zone.

  His warm hands teased the bottom of my boxers before sliding up my back. He lifted my shirt up along the way, and my back arched when the cool air hit my nipples. When his mouth took possession of one of them, my hips bucked upwards. I felt the loss when he lifted his head away from my tits to wrap my legs around his waist and carry me to the bed. He didn’t wait long before he got back to what he’d been doing, this time while hovering over me as he licked and sucked at my nipples. He shoved my camisole up for better access, and I whipped it over my head to get it out of the way. I didn’t want anything to block my view of Kael.

  The sight of his dark head bent towards my chest and his strong hands trailing against my pale skin turned me on just as much as the tugs his lips made against my nipples. When his hand moved down my belly to cup my pussy, I was already writhing in need. With a gentle nudge of his knee, he widened my legs so his hand could dip inside my sleep shorts. I arched up when his fingers glided between my wet folds.

  “You feel even better than I imagined, and I did a hell of a lot of fantasizing about you,” he groaned, lifting a finger up to his mouth and slipping it between his lips. “Fuck, I could easily become addicted to your taste.”

  “If you’re expecting me to complain, don’t hold your breath.”

  “If you’ve got enough breath left in you to even think of complaining, then I must not be giving you what you need.”

  I opened my mouth to say something witty in return, but lost the ability to speak when he slipped a finger inside me. His thumb glided over my clit, and I trembled with need. He lowered his head, his tongue tracing the path his thumb had just taken, and I exploded.