Free Fall (Elite Force #4)(13)
Author: Catherine Mann

The glide of Jose’s fingers along her skin was bittersweet pleasure. Even the antiseptic sting couldn’t dull the pleasure. Her mind was too weary to put up boundaries, and her thoughts raced back to another time she’d seen him fresh from the field—a mission rescuing two fishermen captured by pirates and held hostage. Sweat plastered his coal black hair to his head. He’d hauled on camo, but it was clear he hadn’t showered since the swim. His rangy body had been taut with residual tension from the mission. He was intense and mesmerizing and hot as hell. They’d had great sex…

Still, in the end they’d broken up in a heartrending argument that left her shattered. So much so, she feared she’d let her emotions cloud her professional judgment. That somehow she’d been off her game because of the breakup. That she was responsible for the kidnapping and loss of life.

Even now, they’d missed the chopper. Sure, Sutton’s freak-out had slowed them down, but had her exhaustion been a factor as well? Damn it, she had to keep her emotional distance.

And that included keeping her hands to herself.

She clenched her fingers together as Jose repacked his medic gear. She scanned their little makeshift camp. Bubbles cleaned up a scrape on Sutton’s head. Jose draped a whisper thin camouflage tarp over the stick tripod he’d built earlier, his movements and the shelter barely perceptible in the shifting night shadows.

He looked up sharply. She bit her lip, a flush burning her face at being caught staring at him so openly. “Uhm, I was thinking…”

“Stella?” he interrupted, whispering, stalking toward her with a leopard-like grace. “Don’t. Move. Truck’s approaching.”

Before she processed the words, he’d stretched over her, melding their bodies together as he pushed her to the ground.

Chapter 3

Jose’s hard muscled body pressed her into the dust.

Stella froze while a Land Rover jostled along a rugged path nearby, shocks squeaking. A jagged rock dug into her cheek, but she barely dared breathe much less inch away. Jose had sent up the alert about the vehicle mere seconds before the headlights peeked through the brush. If he’d heard the truck any later, they could have been discovered.

Adrenaline seared her veins again, different from earlier when they’d hugged. Edgier. That was about tender relief. This was about survival. Raw feelings. Instincts. Her body responded to his on a primal level.

And neither of them had so much as moved a muscle.

The 4×4 drove closer, the sound of grinding gears overpowering all other night sounds. Each slow, shallow breath mingled with the scent of baked earth and musky man. Her heart pulsed so hard, Jose had to feel it just as she felt the steady beat of his pounding against her shoulder. Was it her imagination, or had their hearts synced up in this elemental moment? Or was it only that they were both so in tune because of their training?

Except right now, her feelings for him were nowhere near detached and professional.

The light swept over them… and past. Still, she didn’t dare move. Not yet. Seconds blended into minutes and even longer. Relief tingled over her like a sunburn, sending every nerve hyper aware. The urge to flip over and wrap her arms around Jose was damn near impossible to resist. But if she held him, she knew it would lead to a kiss this time, a line neither of them could afford to cross.

And if she wasn’t mistaken, he was every bit as aware, every bit as aroused, as she was.

Then the heavy night air swept over her as he rolled aside and into a crouch. The taillights faded along with the sound of the misfiring engine. The danger had passed. For now. The truck could have been a threat or it could have been anyone. Regardless, it served as a reminder she couldn’t let her guard down for even a second. It wasn’t fair to rely on the guys. They had enough on their plates keeping everyone alive. Bubbles had already gone back to treating Sutton, leaving Stella and Jose paired off.

She searched for something benign to say, anything other than the too personal and vulnerable thoughts plaguing her. “How were you able to talk and run so easily all that time? Even for a marathon racer, this was intense.”

“Bubbles and I have been pulling overtime on Wii Fit.”

He delivered his answer with such a deadpan face, she almost missed his attempt to lighten the mood of a hellish day. A laugh burst free, then another until her laughter verged on hysteria. But she couldn’t stop. It was as if someone had pulled the plug holding in all her emotions, and now they flowed out, the fear, the pain, the relief, all mingling together and pouring free. She sat back on her butt and held her aching ribs.

And God bless him, Jose seemed to understand. He didn’t say a word to stop her. He didn’t even look at her like she was nuts—the way Sutton was eyeing her as Bubbles disinfected cuts and assessed bruises. But then Jose knew her, he understood her, even if he didn’t want a future with her.

A month into her relationship with Jose, she’d confessed she loved him, that she’d fallen for him the first time she saw him and wanted to spend forever together. He’d said he felt the same—but she fast realized their ideas of settling down were vastly different. At first, she’d deluded herself into believing he simply wasn’t ready for the white picket fence and a couple of kids because he was two years younger than she was. She wanted to believe with time he would come around to her way of thinking. Building a family someday was everything to her.

Apparently he didn’t really feel the same, not in the ways that counted. Could he really expect to stay in this high-octane sort of rescue environment until the day he died? She couldn’t and she’d told him so.

Her daddy had always said not to make ultimatums unless you could live with either answer.

She scrubbed her wrist over her cheeks, swiping away grimy tears. “Sorry about that.”

“You’re okay,” Jose said simply, keeping that wall between them.

“Thanks to you I’m okay.” She wished there could be some kind of middle ground between them, a way to—what? Stay friends? That wasn’t possible and she knew it. Being around him reminded her of those lost dreams, and that simply hurt too much.

“Not just me.” He brushed aside her thanks. “We all worked together.”

Sutton snapped his fingers, leaning back against a fat tree trunk. “Uhm, hello? I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. Where I’m sitting we’re stuck out in the middle of nowhere so the rescue thing still feels iffy.”

Bubbles looked up from spreading out medical supplies to stitch a gash in Sutton’s arm. “Wanna go back?”