Mercenary Trilogy - Willing Part 21

She hung up the phone. "He flew to Missoula International Airport on an early morning flight, but he didn

't book a return flight."The location was too much of a coincidence, being the closest airport to the GPS location for her laptop. "He knows the group that blew up his school and tried to kill him."

"And where their headquarters are evidently. He's gone to face them alone. Why didn't he call us?"

He liked the way she subconsciously linked them together as a unit, but he didn't agree her dad had goneoff on a Lone Ranger mission. "More likely he's doing a recon.""Alone," she said disgustedly. "What happens if he's caught gathering information?"Daniel couldn't believe she'd asked that. "Josie, this is your dad we're talking about. He was LLRP in Nam and has been training other mercs ever since. He may be past his prime in age, but no one is goingto see him unless he wants them to.""So, do we follow him to Montana?""We'd be better off waiting for him to come back here."

"He didn't book a return flight.""Not as Andrew Taylor, but it's possible he booked one under another alias as an extra level of security.It's the kind of thing your dad would do."

"Right. Let's call Hotwire and see if he can find out.""Can't you look? You brought your new laptop with you." He wasn't as jealous of Hotwire since Josie had said she didn't want him and shown Daniel how much she did want him, even after he said tactlessand sometimes stupid things.However, it still bothered him that his friend's computer savvy gave him a role in Josie's life that excluded Daniel."Hotwire is a lot faster at this stuff than I am.""Does he have the list of names you compiled from the journals?""Yes, and he's continuing to search on those names as well as Andrew Taylor. I hope he has better luck turning something up on the others than I did."

Josie made the call, and an hour later, Daniel's guess was proved right. A flight had been booked for the day after tomorrow from Missoula International to Reno under the name of Yancy Carpenter, another name off Josie's list.

"So, we just wait for him here?" she asked after hanging up the phone, clearly not thrilled with the idea."It's our best chance at crossing paths with him.""We could fly to Missoula.""And do what? We know the general area to look, but we have no way of knowing which direction your dad chose for his reconnaissance.""So, we wait."Daniel shrugged."What if he decides to fly back to Oregon instead?""Hotwire's at your house in case he goes there, and Tyler has my cell phone number memorized.""If he remembers it.""He remembered this place and enough to figure out who is trying to kill him. I doubt his memory is as impaired as you and the doctor thought."

Josie went to the sink and poured herself a gla.s.s of water from the tap filter. "You think he was faking meout?""Yes. Probably for your own protection."She took a long drink and then licked her lips in a move guaranteed to spark libidinous thoughts. "Why? I could have helped him."

Daniel decided he could use his own gla.s.s of cooling water. "He may have raised you to be a soldier, b.u.t.that doesn't mean he wants you risking your life for him.""I've risked my life plenty of times."That wasn't something Daniel needed to think about. "From what Tyler told me, he didn't like you going into the mercenary business. He wanted you to teach other soldiers how to fight."

She leaned back against the counter, her clingy pink tank top an invitation to sin. "He liked my move intocomputers even less."Daniel did his best to drink his water and ignore the invitation. "He's worried you won't fit in, and he feels like it's his fault."

She shrugged, and her top lifted to expose a slim band of silky skin above the waistband of her shorts. "He taught me how to be a soldier, but I'm learning how to be a woman now.""I don't think you've got much to learn." He reached out and brushed his finger along the bare patch of skin. "You seem to come by it pretty naturally.""Thanks." She smiled, as if his opinion really mattered.

After the way he'd screwed up with her more than once, that surprised him.She looked around the small kitchen. "I guess we can stay here.""No way. Did you see your dad's bed?" It was an extra-long twin, not a bed meant for two people to share, and Daniel planned to share Josie's bed every chance he got."If we leave, we might miss him.""We can meet his flight and leave him a note here just in case. Until then, I say we check in to a decent hotel.""Are you going to fill the room up with roses again?""Do you want me to?"She shook her head, her eyes filled with soft green lights. "As long as you're in it, I don't care what else is there."

They found a room in a two-story Spanish-style hotel in a small town about fifteen miles from Tyler's safe house. Daniel checked them in to one of the hotel's two suites, available because the hotel was almost empty during the off season. Its courtyard boasted an outdoor pool and Jacuzzi.

Josie wanted to go swimming, and Daniel was more than willing to indulge her, but first they had to go shopping for swimsuits. Daniel insisted she try them on before buying.

First she came out of the dressing room wearing a dark blue one-piece with a white racing stripe down both sides.

Daniel shook his head. "I want to see more of you."

Josie could feel the blush crawl up from her toes as the sales clerk smirked, giving Daniel the once-over. Her expression said she'd be more than happy to try on two Band-Aids and a thong if that's what he wanted.

He didn't even spare her a glance, his hot, dark gaze fixed on Josie's figure under the demure swimsuit. " Please?"

"Okay."

Next, she tried a solid white bikini with a lift bra in the top that made her look as though she actually had a little bit of cleavage. The bottoms were styled like low-rider shorts, being slightly more modest than regular bikini bottoms. She liked the suit a lot and went out to Daniel with a smile on her face.

He made no effort to hide his obvious arousal at the sight of her, but shook his head. "Try on the green one."

He'd grabbed it off the rack, saying it was the same color as her eyes. It wasn't anything special, though, just a very basic string bikini. The small triangles that comprised the top did nothing to enhance her meager curves, and the bottoms made her feel almost naked in their briefness.

However, when she walked out of the dressing room, Daniel's approval was instantaneous. He looked ready to eat her like ice cream, and his hard-on was pressing against his jeans zipper in a definable ridge.

"It's perfect."

She looked down at herself. Okay, so the thin fabric of the top revealed her rapidly hardening nipples,

and she could see that might be a turn-on for him, but did he realize how small the bottoms were? They barely covered her pubic hair and wouldn't have if she didn't wax her bikini line.

She did it for the same reason she bought s.e.xy underpants, so she would feel more feminine under her

clothes. It had hurt like Hades the first few times, but it worked. She got a major mental boost knowing

she had a tidy triangle of curls adorning her most feminine place.

And now her secret little habit made it possible to wear a pair of bikini bottoms that had less fabric in them than a handkerchief.

Her gaze lifted to Daniel. "If you expect me to wear this, you have to buy a Speedo."

He shook his head, not looking even sort of repentant. "No can do." He pointed to the area below his

waist with his whole hand. "You can see what being around you in a swimsuit does to me. A Speedo justwon't cut it."The sales clerk coughed and turned away, her expression priceless.Josie was too busy trying not to blush, herself, to laugh, but she had to admit she could understand Daniel 's dilemma. No way would a tiny pair of briefs hold his erection inside.But, "The pool isn't heated.""Ice cubes wouldn't help with you in that suit.""Maybe I should get the blue one.""No."She smiled, really liking the buzz his uncontrolled reaction to her gave her. "Okay, I'll buy the green one, but I get to pick out something for you to wear, too.""Not a Speedo.""Agreed." She smiled, wondering what he would think of the leather thong made to look like a loincloth she'd seen in an on-line catalogue once.

By the time they made it back to the hotel after shopping, they were both hungry for dinner and decided to eat before their swim. They didn't make it to the pool until a little after eight in the evening.

They were both used to getting a lot of physical exercise and started off swimming laps.

A hand on her ankle was the only warning Josie got before going under. She came up sputtering and glaring to be met by a grinning Daniel.

"You'll pay for that," she threatened.

He laughed at her, and no way was she going to let him get away with it.

Remembering his weakness, she attacked, tickling and trying to dunk him at the same time. She

succeeded, only to get pulled under with him. She came up wrapped in his arms and with his lips locked against hers. They kissed and played and teased until she was so aroused from all the touching, she could barely stay afloat.

She anch.o.r.ed herself to his shoulders and wrapped her thighs around his hips, trapping the evidence of his excitement between them.

He grinned down at her, his hands gliding along her bare back and over her hips to cup her bottom in the water. "You surrender?"

She laid her head on his shoulder and sighed with contentment. "If this were really what surrendering was like, wars would end before they started."

Chapter 15.

"Y ou feel good to me, too, sweetheart."She loved it when he called her that, and she rewarded him with a kiss against his neck."You ready to go back to the room?"Darkness had fallen while they played in the pool, and no one else had come out to disturb their solitude.

Summer wasn't exactly high season in the Nevada desert. It was too hot, but she didn't mind the heat,and she liked the fact the hotel wasn't booked to capacity."I'd rather go in the Jacuzzi. Is that okay?""Will you make the delay worth it?" he asked with a mock leer.

This teasing Daniel was someone she could spend the rest of her life with.

She tipped her head back and fluttered her eyelashes at him, surprised at how naturally some things came to a woman. "Don't you think I can?"

The kiss he gave her answered that question and any other she might have on her desirability."I'm counting on it," he said when he lifted his head."Good."He started walking through the water to the pool steps, and she let him carry her, but when they reached the first step, she tried to unwrap her legs.His hold on her bottom tightened. "No. Let me carry you to the spa."She looked around and didn't see anyone, not sure that it would matter if she did. "All right." She wasn't sure her legs would hold her up anyway.

His resilience amazed her.

It was incredibly erotic being carried in such an intimate position across the pool deck. Her imagination

drummed up some pretty interesting scenarios in the same position, but without any swimsuits to hinder them. He stopped at the whirlpool controls to turn on the jets before stepping into the now bubbling hot water with her.

Her body tensed in involuntary reaction to the shock of the high temperature after the colder water of the

pool. "It's hot.""You'll get used to it pretty fast." Then he dipped down, immersing them both up to their necks. "This isthe quickest way."

She gasped and tried to shoot up out of the almost unbearably hot water, but he held her tight. "Relax, it will get better soon."

He was right. Within a second or two, it felt too good for her to want to get out. "It feels wonderful.""I know something that feels even better." He unwrapped her legs from around him and changed his holdon her to one at her waist.

Lifting her through the water, he placed her on the cement seat running the circ.u.mference of the spa. A jet of water shot against her lower back, ma.s.saging her with a steady stream of water pressure.

Her eyes closed, and she reveled in the delicious sensation. "Umm...That is nice.""I know." He sat down beside her and started kneading her shoulders with strong fingers. "I designed myhouse with a multiperson hot tub in the master bath."

Tension drained out of her as a sense of utter peace pervaded her being. "No luxury like this for your

guests?""I'd share with you, but there's another, much bigger one in the backyard." His fingers moved up herneck. "It's fed by an artificial waterfall pumped up from a natural spring."

"Wolf's house has a hot spring under it," she remembered out loud."I know. I incorporated it into his house's design, too, but his is heated. I have to heat the water for mine.Summers are hot, and the rest of the year isn't much cooler, so I leave it set at a low temperature most of the time." He guided her into a position leaning with her back against his chest. "You can stay in it longerthat way.""It sounds wonderful." She let her head fall back onto his shoulder. "I'd like to see your house someday.

""I'd like that, too.""I can't believe you designed it and Wolf's house, too. His is amazing. I've never seen anything as beautiful as the jungle room downstairs.""Thank you.""How did you learn to design like that?"He shrugged, causing her shoulders to lift and fall in unison with his. "When I first joined the Rangers, everything was so intense, I realized I needed something to do between a.s.signments that wasn't related to warfare. Architecture and design interested me, so I started reading about it."

"You've done a lot more than read to have designed Wolf's house the way you did.""I played around with plans, designing things on a small scale, and then I met this old guy who was aretired architect. He would look over my plans and tell me what was wrong with them until I learned the fundamentals. Then he suggested I start using computer simulation programs for design. It's the one thing I like doing on the computer."

"He sounds like a neat man.""He was. He died the year I designed Wolf's house, but he liked my plans." The sense ofaccomplishment in Daniel's voice was unmistakable.

"Have you ever thought about becoming an architect?"

"I'm a soldier." He said it as if it was an incontrovertible fact.

"But if you weren't one, would you have pursued architecture and design as a career?"