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  But hat thirteen hundred foot bonus dwindled fast.

  He let the freefall go on for a few thousand more feet before yanking on the pud handle, which deployed the drogue parachute, preparing them for deployment of the main chute. The bigger canopy flowed out next, yanking them into the wild swoop of opening shock. As they swung forward again and he started to guide them toward the landing pit, Sage let out her first sound since they’d left the plane: a long, gleeful shriek. A bunch more followed as they rode the wind together, and Garrett couldn’t help but laugh. He tried to remember that an hour ago, he’d been in the Taj Mahal of royally pissed at her. He struggled to dredge up what it felt like to see King’s gutter dogs in that hangar, sniffing at her with their hungry eyes, looking at her as nothing more than a means to a fat payback. He fought to recall how the Otter couldn’t take off fast enough, and how he’d breathed easier with every foot they ascended.

  He struggled to remember all of it, yet the only thing that seemed to matter now was now. This moment. This pure, soaring, joy. For a few precious seconds, time was flung backwards and the only thing in the world was just him and her, wrapped around each other again. Flying with each other.

  Muscle memory took over while his hands pulled at the steering and brake lines, aligning their descent with the landing pit. The perfect jump conditions didn’t preclude him from taking care with the task. The pit was a little sloped because it was on one side by a dense forest, a challenge the Army had purposely created during those years when units were being deployed right and left to the Afghan mountains, and needed training on terrain like this. He slowed the chute down by increasing intervals, bringing them down for what was going to be a textbook landing.

  “Legs up, Sergeant,” he instructed Sage.

  “Yes, Sir.” A tiny giggle in her voice drained the respect from the words. His brain, already untethered from a number of its usual restraints, kicked in with a reaction that sent his senses on another freefall. He imagined disciplining that sass out of her—right on her tawny, smooth ass. Then he’d force an apology from her with his cock head, refusing to let her pussy have him until she said those two words with breathy, needing reverence…

  Thank God he had the landing to worry about.

  They hit the gravel at perfect velocity. Sage squealed with victory as they did. She squirmed with energy as Garrett unclipped them both from the rigging. T-Bomb and Kell were doing the same about twenty yards away. He exchanged upturned thumbs with him, indicating everyone had gotten in a good jump. Kell, as the unit’s rigger, came jogging over to collect his chute and rig.

  “The penguins will be here in about twenty with the van,” he stated.

  “Got it.”

  Garrett confirmed, reckoned it might be the longest twenty minutes of his life. He knew Archer would be riding with the ground crew and ready with an update about the assholes who’d snuck into the hangar. With all luck, the MP’s would be able to detain the men long enough to discern how they’d tailed Sage onto the base.

  Tension jabbed its way back into his muscles. He grunted from the invasion, wistfully saying goodbye to those blissful moments up in the sky.

  He looked over in time to see Kell crack one side of his mouth up at Sage while he sorted through the lines and deflated canopy on the ground. “So, Sage Mouse, what’d you think?”

  If it were possible, Sage’s glow got a little brighter. Kell was one of the guys who’d been around long enough to remember the unit’s endearment for her, given instantly after Garrett had fallen for her. “For once, the prey caught the hawk,” they’d joke. They got away with it because they knew it was true.

  Thank fuck none of them had a door to his brain, allowing them to see how the woman proved it glaringly true right now. Damn, she riveted him. She was even more stunning now than before the flight, bouncing around like one of those dancers from the Irish fast-step troupes, even humming a silly tune as accompaniment. The brilliance in her eyes was a breath-stopper. Her dazzling grin hadn’t faltered since they touched down.

  “I—I didn’t think,” she exclaimed. “I couldn’t! And that’s what made it so—so—”

  Kell chuckled. “Yeah. Pretty good, huh?”

  “Pretty good?” She gaped like Kell had just grown horns, before spinning around and pumping her fists skyward. “Wow! Flipping, freaking wow!” When her pirouette placed Garrett back in her field of sight, she stopped. Her smile dropped a little, but the change was good. Very good. It was the way only Sage could look at him, shoving past those doors inside him that said No Admittance, diving over the barriers and the bullshit he gave everyone else, seeing him as nobody else did and loving him anyway. Holy fuck, he loved that look. And hated it. And right now, had no idea what to do about it.

  Sage didn’t abandon him to the dilemma. Before he could form another thought, she threw herself against him. “Thank you, baby!”

  She clearly intended the embrace to be over as soon as it started, but Garrett’s instincts, still on overdrive, forced another plan. He held her in return. He didn’t want a damn hug. He needed an embrace. As he wrapped his arms around her, he ducked his head against the side of her head. She felt so tiny. She felt so warm. She felt so right.

  “You’re welcome.”

  He knew how rough the sibilance came off his lips, and he saw the recognition of it in Sage’s gaze when they pulled apart. He also saw what she wanted to do about it—if her lingering touch on his ribcage still meant what it had a year ago. On top of that, the celadon of her gaze deepened to a shade that matched her name, and her tongue snuck out in a tentative slide between her lips. Damn. Even if he wasn’t smitten with the woman, he’d read her mind more clear than a comic book.

  She wanted his tongue to go in after hers.

  The adrenalin from the jump fused with the new heat in his blood, spiking his heart rate. It became an anaerobic fun zone as his mind took thing from there, working the image into a fantasy that ended with them both naked, gasping and drained. Damn it, this was getting messy.

  And impossible to deny any longer.

  Somehow, he managed to let Sage step back. But even those two feet were intolerable. His body gunned like a dragster at the Start line, the key in the ignition and all cylinders ready to fire. If he didn’t get to open the throttle soon, the engine was going to explode.

  “Kell,” he called without ungluing his stare from Sage. “We’ll be right back.”

  “Okay. Where you going?”

  “Yeah.” Sage frowned in confusion as he dipped his head toward the woods, indicating for her to follow. “Where are we going?”

  He willed his voice and his gait into feigned ease. “Maybe we can find that—er—house key. Yeah, your house key. You said it fell loose just before we dipped in over the trees.”

  “Oh.” Suddenly she quickened her own pace. “Right! Yeah, that’s right. Damn. I can’t believe that happened. Hopefully we’ll see it. Be right ba—”

  He literally snatched the rest of the word out of her, pulling her through the underbrush at damn-near a run.

  The second they were out of eyesight and earshot from Kell, he whirled Sage around. He picked the spot on purpose. A wide tree was right behind her. With one solid slam, he had her pinned between the trunk and him. Her mouth popped open in surprise, which he also didn’t let her finish. Her open lips were the beacon for his, and he wasted no time smashing a deep, hungering kiss on her.

  A high cry swept up her throat. The vibrations of it filled his mouth, pulling his tongue deeper inside her. And that was it. She set him totally afire with her open, incredible surrender. She fanned the blaze higher by stabbing her arms under his top, fisting his T-shirt, pulling hard on the sweat-soaked cotton.

  “Garrett!” She pleaded it against his jaw when he dragged away to let her breathe. “Oh yes…”

  He stopped her with another kiss, though he wasn’t sure this still qualified as kissing. Conquering her mouth, controlling it completely, was a rushing, consumin
g exigency. He needed this. Fuck, he couldn’t get enough of her.

  He bracketed her face with one hand, holding her in place while he plunged, plowed, and explored with his tongue and teeth. His imagination went into hyperdrive again. It taunted him with the fantasy of her creamy and nude against the leaves and mud. Ditch the dream, Hawk. Isn’t going to happen here. But the creative imagery exercise left its mark in his blood, torching him from head to toe so even the act of pulling down her jumpsuit zipper was a pure carnal pleasure. Her answering moan urged him on. In seconds, he found his way under her T-shirt and bra, landing his eager fingers on one of her erect nipples.

  He finally pulled away from her lips, but didn’t go very far. The soft column of her neck beckoned. He marked the skin there with his teeth while he continued to tease her breast. “Damn it, Sage,” he growled against her jugular, “I should still be furious with you.”

  “I know.” Her voice was a rasp, but her hands gave him a different message. She tore at his back with her fingernails, her touch almost bestial with need. “I know, and I’m sorry…”

  Garrett went at her mouth again, and she dug at his back even harder. He grunted from the new pressure but followed with a rough moan. If his endorphins weren’t turbo-charging everything in his body, he imagined her ploughs would be painful, but the only sensation he cared about was the hotter, harder, heaviness between his thighs.

  Hell. They needed to stop. The most dangerous prisoner in his psyche began stirring again. The dark beast paced the cage of his soul, demanding a little exercise. Okay, a lot of exercise. And his brain had run a goddamn mental obstacle course for the last two hours, depleting his strength to fight the monster.

  He needed to push away. He needed to leave her the hell alone, or the cage was going to snap. This animal he didn’t know, much less control, was going to break free. Seeing her like this, with her hair half-down and her eyes half-wild, didn’t help. Not one fucking bit.

  “Sorry,” she offered again, lifting her lips to his chin, his neck. “Garrett, I really am—”

  “No.” The mix of the beast’s voice and her plea was a double whammy on his dwindling restraint. He moved his hand into her hair and yanked her head to one side. As he sank his teeth again to her neck, he slid his hand to her other breast. No,” he repeated in a seductive snarl, “I don’t think you really are.” Her peak came alive under his squeezing fingers. Her sharp gasp was exactly the reaction he sought. He could feel her hammering pulse through his questing tongue. “But if we were anywhere else, I’d make sure you were truly sorry.”

  A deep swallow undulated down her throat. “You—you would?”

  “Damn straight.”

  Her head tipped deeper to the side, sending her hot, panting breaths into his shoulder. She nipped at the skin there, dipping her head as if trying to determine how to crawl inside him, before uttering one word of reply.

  “How?”

  Her sweet, quivering question sent a shot of lighter fluid into his cock. Damn, it had been four hundred forty five days since he’d last been inside her, not that he was counting. He let out a harsh breath as his BVD’s chafed with a familiar wetness. Hello, pre-cum.

  “I’d have this jumpsuit down past your knees.” Acting on at least part of that fantasy, he unzipped the jumpsuit farther. Her body had warmed the inside of it, forming a perfect welcome for his wind-chilled hands. She let loose a gorgeous sigh as he swept his grip around, cupping her ass with voracious force. “Then this bra would be gone too. You’d be naked for me. Exposed. At my mercy.”

  He felt her thighs tremble. She scored his spine with her nails. “But I still wouldn’t be sorry.”

  “No,” he said, “you probably wouldn’t be.”

  As he gripped her tighter, fitting the apex of her body against the center of his, he angled his gaze to lock into hers. Damn it, here came the animal again. It charged the disintegrating cage of his control, completely taking over his next words.

  “That’s why I’d have to get you over my knees.”

  Sage’s lips parted. Her eyes glimmered like a tigress in heat. Feral. Magical. Thoroughly aroused. “Oh,” she murmured. “Over your—”

  “Knees.” He nodded as she shivered again. Though he hated the animal, he adored the creature it set free in her. He was transfixed by the new softness in her face, living there right beside her wildcat. He was helpless against her sensuality, drowning in it. “Yeah, that’s what I said. Over my knees. With your head against my calf, and your ass high and proud…waiting for me.”

  “W-waiting?”

  “Yes.” He curled his fingers deeper against her ass, scraping the flesh inside her cheeks with his nails. “What do you think it would be waiting for, Sage?”

  She closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them again, the sun kissed her tawny lashes and highlighted her deep arousal. Holy hell, she was gorgeous, wildness and tenderness together, a creature all but begging for his claim. Garrett had never remembered her so beautiful, and the realization that he’d caused it was better than ten shots of Patrón.

  She was even more mesmerizing as she answered his query. “Your punishment,” she whispered. “It—it would be waiting for your punishment.”

  “Damn right, sugar. It would be waiting for my punishment. For me to spank it hard, as many times as I wanted.”

  He ground her crotch along the bulging ridge of his, letting her feel what this forbidden fantasy was doing to him. Her head fell back against the tree as he pressed close, her heartbeat slamming at the base of her throat. “Garrett. Oh, hell!”

  “Uh-uh,” he commanded. “None of that, Sage. No words during your punishment. You’d take every blow in silence, to ensure me that you were thinking about how insane you’d made me today. When I got out of the shower, and you weren’t there…” The memory of his terror twisted with the fever of his lust, making him thrust against her harder. “Fuck, Sage!”

  “I am sorry.” A couple of tears tangled on her cheek. “I never thought you’d be—”

  “Hush.” He slammed his mouth to hers again, reddening it like he craved to darken her ass. With his gaze planted on her face, he ordered, “Give me your hands.”

  She frowned, clearly confused. “What?”

  “Your hands.” He gave it harder emphasis. “Off my back, against the tree, over your head. Now.” After Sage complied, he pulled one of his hands off her ass and raised it to her wrists, pinning them together under his grip. “I’d bind you like this too, Sage. Yeah, definitely. You’d be helpless, the same way I felt this morning, not knowing where you’d gone, not knowing who you’d gone with.”

  For the first time, the tigress in her struck out. “And if I’d told you, would you have let me go?”

  “Damn it!” he snarled. “It’s my responsibility to—”

  “Protect me. I know. Though from what, I don’t know. But protection is different than house arrest, Sergeant Hawk—”

  She interrupted herself with her own high, aching cry. It exploded from her as he widened his stance in order to mash their bodies with more ferocious force. Oh, damn. Her yelp…he instantly craved to hear it again. He hated himself for the admission, but it resonated deeply as his fucking DNA. He’d never wanted to go balls-out fighting with a woman at the same time he had balls in other places too. This…fuck, this was new as boot camp for him.

  That’s not quite the truth, is it, Hawk?

  He raged at the reminder note, courtesy of his past. At the same time, he couldn’t ignore the truth that was in front of him, very much in his present. There was no denying the effect that this new “thing,” whatever it was, had on both of them. Sage was an image of writhing, breathtaking beauty as she started to match his thrusts, her eyes closed, her lips panting, her body trembling. His anger from this morning, stirred with this week’s nonstop apprehension, flipped his desire for her into pure need. It wasn’t just his body that told him to conquer her now. It was his mind, his heart. He craved her surrender in every
way he could get it.

  The comprehension spurred his retort, flung with no apology. “’House arrest?’ That’s the line you’re going with, huh? Seems you really do want me to paint your ass red.”

  Sage chuffed, matching him snark for snark. “It’s your punishment fantasy, baby.”

  Again, he battled the simultaneous urges to spank her and screw her.

  The former wasn’t happening here. But they were doing a damn fine job of dress- rehearsing the latter.

  “Well, maybe I’m not fantasy-punishing your ass good enough.” He crushed her even tighter against the tree, shaking the thing so hard that a flurry of pine needles scattered on them. “You’re still spitting that sass at me worse than a thirteen year-old on restriction. Maybe that means you’ve got to have the punishment fucked directly into you.”

  He didn’t give Sage a second to try and interpret that. He showed her exactly what he meant with his body. As he rammed more forcefully against her, he freed his other hand from her jumpsuit and grabbed her leg. Inside a second, he forced her thigh around his waist. His other arm remained raised, his hand still a shackle to her wrists, leaving her upper body open for his gaze and his lips. He took advantage of that opportunity, taking her collarbone, her sternum and her neck with his open, wet mouth. Every shiver she gave him in return was like a gift of molten gold. No matter what, he didn’t stop rocking against her, pseudo-fucking her into the high gasp she finally erupted at him.

  “Y-yes! Oh…yes, Garrett. Maybe that is what I need…”

  He intensified the pace. The friction of their clothes was an agonizing, erotic surrogate for the bond their bodies couldn’t have. “Tell me again,” he commanded. “Call me ‘Sir’ this time.”