Special Forces Rendezvous

chapter 12



Sebastian snapped into action, spinning around and locking the male wrist with both hands. The charcoal-gray Glock fell out of his would-be assailant’s grasp and clattered to the grass. As adrenaline raced through his blood, Sebastian kicked the weapon away and tackled the other man to the ground in two seconds flat.

Grunting, he straddled Brent Davidson and dug his elbow into the man’s windpipe. “What the hell was that?” he snapped.

Davidson began wheezing for air. He batted at Sebastian’s thighs with his fists, but to no avail. The man might have sneaked up on them like a freaking ninja, but now Sebastian had the upper hand and he didn’t intend on giving it up.

“What the hell kind of move was that with the gun?” he demanded, sinking his elbow deeper.

Julia’s sarcastic voice filled the night air. “Do you honestly expect him to answer any questions when you’re crushing his trachea?”

Good point.

As the adrenaline sizzling in his veins began to dissipate, he lifted his arm and let the other man breathe. Red-faced, Brent began to cough, sucking oxygen into his lungs so fast it was a miracle he didn’t pass out.

Sebastian took the time to examine the man, noting that Davidson had barely aged since he’d last seen him five years ago. There were some new wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, but his hair was still as black as night, with only a few strands of silver threaded through it. His blue eyes were sharper than ever, and the body beneath his black suit was surprisingly trim for a man in his sixties who rode a desk all day.

But Brent’s peak physical condition didn’t surprise Sebastian; Brent was a legend in the spec ops community, a former supersoldier who’d kicked more ass and taken more names than Sebastian could only dream of. Brent was probably the only man capable of sneaking up on him like that, and he couldn’t help but feel a spark of grudging admiration that the man had succeeded in catching him unawares. A rare feat, that was for sure.

Still, didn’t mean he was letting this stunt slide.

“Next time you point a gun to my head, be prepared to pull the trigger,” he muttered before easing his weight off Davidson’s chest and standing up.

“Next time you order me to come alone, I expect you to do the same,” Brent shot back.

Julia offered a sheepish look. “He has a valid point,” she said.

Brent staggered to his feet, adjusting his striped red-and-black tie before reaching up to rub his neck, which was red and beginning to swell.

Experiencing a tug of guilt, Sebastian fixed an apologetic look at his father’s old friend. “I’m sorry. I promise I didn’t summon you here to tackle you to the ground and nearly strangle you to death.” He had to grin. “But you should know better than to sneak up on a fellow Special Forces alum.”

“Also a valid point.” Brent finally cracked a smile. “It’s good to see you, Stone.”

“You, too, Brent.”

The two men embraced, and then Brent slapped Sebastian on the shoulder and cocked his head at Julia. “Who’s she?”

“Dr. Julia Davenport.”

A wrinkle appeared in Brent’s forehead. “Why does that name sound so familiar?”

“Because I’m supposedly one of the American casualties in the fire that burned down a foreign aid clinic in Valero,” she said dryly.

Recognition dawned in the man’s eyes. “That’s it. Yes, your picture landed on my desk earlier this morning before the Dixie attack.” Now those blue eyes darkened with suspicion. “What the hell is going on here?”

The trio stepped out from the shadows of the tree, each man putting away his weapon. They walked over to the wrought-iron bench five yards away and sat down. Sebastian kept Julia close to his side, keeping a protective hand on her thigh.

“So Hahn said I’m living in Brazil, huh?”

Brent nodded. “Apparently as of nine months ago. Your former CO claims you chose not to re-up. I checked your file after I heard that and it lists you as receiving an honorable discharge last August.”

“So you thought I really skipped town without saying goodbye?”

“Goodbyes were never really your style. I figured you’d get in touch with me eventually. But you weren’t in Brazil, were you?”

“Nope. I’ve been hiding out for the last eight months.”

“What do you mean ‘hiding out’?”

“Someone tried to kill me. Twice.” He clenched his teeth, trying to quell the escalating fury. “First time, they sent someone to run me down with a car. Second time, they cut the brakes of my Ducati.”

“‘They,’” Brent echoed warily. “Who’s they?”

“You tell me.”

A short silence fell, and then Brent’s astonished laughter echoed in the night breeze. “You think I had something to do with the attempts on your life?”

“No, but you must have heard something about it,” he countered. “And it wasn’t just me. Five members of my unit turned up dead once we got stateside after our last gig. They all died of bogus causes, Brent. And then my captain nearly got his head blown off in a drive-by and I almost got splattered all over the pavement. Someone was deliberately trying to eliminate every last man on our team.”

The older man finally displayed a glimmer of worry. “What did your last op entail?”

Secrecy and security clearance be damned, Sebastian outlined that final mission—the deployment to San Marquez, the attempt to save the doctor from the rebels, discovering the village up in flames.

“Cruz and his soldiers didn’t kill those people,” Sebastian said. “They burned the bodies because they feared the virus was contagious.”

“And you’re certain it’s the same virus? This Meridian thing Escobar mentioned in his video?”

“Fairly certain.”

He quickly went on to explain what happened in Esperanza, and Julia piped in with her own play-by-play. Each word she uttered dug a deeper groove into Brent’s forehead.

“So you’re saying that a U.S. military unit was in charge of an op to cover up the testing of a biological weapon on foreign soil?”

Sebastian studied the older man’s face for any sign that they were being played, but those blue eyes reflected nothing but shock and horror. Either the man was a phenomenal liar, or he truly hadn’t known about any of this.

“So you’re saying the Department of Defense knew nothing about this?” Sebastian countered.

“I sure as hell didn’t. I have no clue whether the deputy secretary or the damn secretary himself is aware of it, but if they are, they’ve kept me in the dark.” Brent rubbed his temples as if warding off an oncoming migraine. “The first time I heard about this so-called Meridian virus was earlier today. I’ve been with the deputy secretary at the Pentagon all day, and he was as shocked as I was by the terrorist attack.”

“Of course he’s shocked,” Julia muttered. “I’m sure whoever authorized this project didn’t intend for the virus to be released here. Apparently it’s okay to treat foreigners as guinea pigs, but God forbid any innocent Americans get hurt.”

Brent let out a breath. “I understand your anger, Dr. Davenport. And I appreciate the effort you’ve expended to learn what you can about the virus. Did you bring the sample with you?”

Sebastian noticed Julia’s hand tightening over the strap of the canvas messenger bag on her shoulder. The bag contained the sample and Matheson’s research notes, but he could tell she wasn’t anxious to part with it just yet.

He didn’t blame her. Although he believed that Brent hadn’t been aware of Project Aries, he still didn’t fully trust the man, and that mistrust only deepened when Brent turned to him and said, “You need to come in officially.”

“No way,” he said emphatically.

“I promise you, I will protect you. We’ll take your story to the secretary of defense himself. Barrett—”

“—might be behind this entire mess,” Sebastian finished. “For all we know, Secretary Barrett green-lighted Project Aries.”

“Then we contact the Bureau, place you and Dr. Davenport in protective custody.” Immediately after the words left his mouth, Brent chuckled ruefully. “Don’t bother answering—we both know you’ll reject the offer.”

Sebastian just shrugged.

“How do we handle this, then? I don’t have the authority to negotiate with you, Stone, and I don’t have the time to sit here and chat. In less than forty-eight hours, Escobar and his troop of crazies plan to release a virus that will kill who knows how many innocent people.” Anger colored the man’s tone. “So if you have any useful information about this Meridian virus, hand it over now. Otherwise I’ll have no choice but to place you under arrest for obstruction of justice.”

“Relax, Brent, we have every intention of sharing what we know.” Sebastian took the bag from Julia and held it out. “We contacted a microbiologist to test the sample we got from the well in Esperanza. All his research notes are in here, too.”

As the bag exchanged hands, he quickly gave Brent a rundown of Matheson’s findings, making sure to keep Frank’s name out of it. When he finished, Brent’s face was devoid of color. “It’s that bad?” he said flatly.

Sebastian and Julia nodded.

“Shit.” Jaw tense, Brent abruptly stood up. “I have to head back to the Pentagon. My superiors need to be briefed about this.”

“I’d appreciate it if you could keep our names out of it,” Sebastian said. “No one can know that Dr. Davenport and I are in the States.”

“It’ll be a lot easier if you just come in with me.”

“I can’t. Not until I know who authorized the killing of my unit.”

“I’ll do what I can to look into that,” Brent promised. Then he hesitated. “And I’ll also keep your names out of this virus inquiry, but with that said, I want your word that you’ll leave the investigating to us from this point on. We can take it from here.” He took a step. “How do I get in touch with you?”

“You don’t.” Taking Julia’s hand, Sebastian helped her to her feet and glanced at Davidson in gratitude. “Thanks for meeting us, Brent. Please don’t make me regret this.”

“I’ll do my best. Stay in touch, Sebastian.”

“I’ll do my best,” he mimicked.

Brent headed off, making it five yards before he stopped to face them again. “And don’t think I didn’t notice that you never gave me your word,” he called.

“You know I don’t make promises I can’t keep,” Sebastian called back.

The sound of soft laughter carried in the air, and then Brent disappeared into the shadows.

After Brent was gone, Sebastian drifted toward one of the white headstones ten feet away and stood there for a moment, gazing at the inscription. A moment later, Julia’s quiet footsteps crunched on the crisp grass and she came up beside him. “Are you okay?” she asked gently.

He fixed his gaze on the grave. James Marvin Stone. Colonel. U.S. Marine Corps.

“He would’ve wanted me to go with Brent, to turn myself in,” Sebastian murmured.

Julia sounded taken aback. “You really think so?”

“My dad was very by-the-book. He followed the rules, to the extreme almost, and he had a terrifying amount of faith in our democratic system. He would have believed Commander Hahn when Hahn said he didn’t have a target on his back. He would have trusted his commanding officer. And he would have died.”

“Seb...”

Swallowing hard, he turned away from his father’s headstone. “Whatever. He’s dead anyway, so there’s no point in talking about what he would or wouldn’t have done.”

He jumped when he felt Julia’s hand on his arm. Her touch was gentle, warm and comforting. She glided her hand up to his face and ran her fingertips over the stubble coating his jaw.

“You’re right. It doesn’t matter what your father would’ve done. It matters what you’re doing.” She traced the line of his jaw, bringing a shiver to his body. “And you’re doing the right thing, Sebastian. Right now, we can’t afford to trust blindly.”

He was oddly touched by the reassurance. He leaned into her touch, enjoying the way she rubbed his prickly beard growth with her palm. “We should go,” he said, his voice coming out rough. “I have a feeling tomorrow will be another long day.”

A knowing smile lifted her lips. “We’re totally going to keep investigating, right?”

“No doubt about it, Doc.”

* * *

Julia was wiggling out of her jeans before they even entered their motel room half an hour later. She felt disheveled and grimy from that eight-hour drive, followed by the trek through the cemetery, and the only place she wanted to be at the moment was in the shower. Kicking away the jeans, she slid her black cardigan off her shoulders, then whipped her T-shirt over her head and walked toward the bathroom in her bra and panties.

A wolf whistle sounded from behind.

Rolling her eyes, she looked at Sebastian over her shoulder. “I feel like I just walked past a construction site.”

“Baby, if you ever walked by a construction site wearing that—” he indicated her skimpy red panties and matching bra “—you’d cause so many workplace accidents there’d be no one left alive.”

She laughed, then caught her breath when Sebastian started stripping right before her eyes. “I take it you’re joining me in the shower?” she murmured, unable to tear her eyes off his incredible body.

Each piece of clothing he removed provided her with a new delicious body part to focus on. The tanned expanse of his chest, dusted with hair and sculpted with muscle. His trim waist, ripped thighs, long legs. In the unforgiving motel room light, the handful of scars marring his body were more visible. A white one beneath his left pectoral, a puckered one over his right hip. When she’d asked about the scars, he’d simply shrugged and described them as “a couple of teeny battle wounds,” but her doctor’s eyes saw right through that line of bull.

The line under his pec? Definitely caused by a blade of some sort. And the puckered scar? Clearly a bullet wound, and not a through-and-through either, seeing as there was no exit scar.

But apparently knife and bullet wounds were no biggie to a tough guy like Sebastian Stone.

“Jeez, Doc, quit ogling me,” he said mockingly. “It’s my job to ogle you, remember?”

They headed for the bathroom, where Julia stared at the miniscule shower stall before turning to the naked man beside her. “Both of us won’t fit in here.”

“Sure we will. We’ll just have to stand real close...” He wagged his eyebrows. “And our bodies will be all wet and slippery as they bump into each other. I can’t freaking wait.”

Another laugh flew out. God, the more time she spent with this man, the more she liked him. He was so magnetic, so sexy, so entertaining.

And he kept showing her new facets of his personality that she wouldn’t have ever expected to find. Like the tenderness with which he touched her—a man that big and powerful wasn’t supposed to be so gentle. And his tendency to go all Mother Hen on her—eat, drink, get some rest. Normally she’d be incredibly annoyed being fussed over like that, but with Sebastian, she didn’t feel pressured, or as though he had no confidence in her ability to take care of herself. She knew he thought her capable—he’d said it time and time again—but that didn’t stop him from being so protective of her.

As Sebastian leaned into the stall to turn on the water, Julia’s gaze landed on his spectacular bare butt. Her mouth actually watered, and she had to forcibly snap herself out of her lust-filled haze before she gave in to the urge to pinch that taut bottom.

She unhooked her bra and stepped out of her panties, then joined Sebastian in the shower. Hot water rushed out of the showerhead with a surprising degree of pressure, quickly filling the stall with a cloud of steam. Julia dunked her head under the spray and let the water soak her body before stepping aside to let Sebastian have a turn.

He was right—their bodies were slick, colliding and rubbing as they maneuvered around in the tiny glass stall. All that slippery contact succeeded in turning her on beyond belief, and a glance at Sebastian’s lower body confirmed that he was getting as worked up as she was.

Grabbing a bar of soap, Sebastian caught her by the waist and then his husky voice cut into the rushing water. “This is the best shower I’ve ever had, Doc.”

Her laughter bounced off the tiled walls.

With a sexy grin, he brought the soap to her body and proceeded to lather her into a whole new state of turned on. He dragged the soap over her aching breasts, letting the suds cover her nipples before he tweaked those erect buds with his fingers. His hands danced and explored, gliding over every inch of her body, and then he was suddenly on his knees, dropping the soap and letting it clatter to the shower floor.

Julia squeaked as those rough-skinned hands parted her thighs. Her gaze flew south in time to see Sebastian pressing his mouth to her core. Shock waves of pleasure hit her hard. She nearly keeled over, but he quickly planted a hand on her waist to steady her.

“Easy, Doc,” he said in a humor-tinged voice. “Don’t want you slipping and breaking a leg.”

Then he brushed his lips over her, and she realized that if she did slip and break a leg? She wouldn’t even care. Not as long as Sebastian drove her over that orgasmic edge first.

Her eyes fluttered closed as she lost herself in pure sensation. Her entire body was hypersensitive—nipples tingling as the lukewarm water sluiced over them, pulse hammering in her ears, sex throbbing from Sebastian’s deliberate teasing. He licked her damp folds as if he had all the time in the world, lapping her up, heating her blood, driving her absolutely crazy.

Her hips began to move in a restless rhythm, seeking deeper contact, seeking release, but each time Sebastian brought her close to the brink, he quickly retreated, until her anguished pleas echoed in the shower stall.

“Please,” she begged.

His answering chuckle tickled her swollen flesh, but he must have heard the desperation in her voice because a second later, he gave her exactly what she wanted. Pushing one finger inside her, he latched his mouth on her sensitive bud and sucked, unleashing a climax so intense that Julia saw stars.

She’d barely crashed down to earth when she felt herself being turned around. Water from the spray splashed her face, slid down her body and ran over her mound, which was so sensitive from that explosive release that she squirmed away from the shower stream and almost giggled from the tickling sensation.

Sebastian’s strong fingers dug into her hips. He pressed his erection into her bottom, rubbing for several excruciating seconds before nudging her forward so that her palms were braced on the tiled wall, and then he plunged into her from behind, eliciting a wild cry from her lips.

The position allowed him to fill her completely, to hit a spot deep inside that had her moaning with abandon. His ragged breathing and her husky noises mingled with the rush of the water. Tightly gripping her hips, he moved inside her in fast, hard thrusts guaranteed to send them both soaring, and it wasn’t long before that happened.

Julia’s second release came without warning, robbing the breath from her lungs and sending a tornado of pleasure spinning through her body. Shortening his strokes, Sebastian’s chest sagged against her back, and then he let out a loud groan and withdrew, drawing her attention to the fact that he wasn’t wearing a condom. Warmth tickled the small of her back as he emptied his seed with a hoarse cry.

By the time they stepped out of the shower, the water had grown cold, but Julia’s body was still on fire. She’d never experienced such raw, uncontrollable passion. She’d never had sex like this before. Ever.

She was still amazed as they stepped into the main room, where she threw on an oversized T-shirt and some underwear while Sebastian donned a pair of boxers.

“Why do you look like you just struck gold?” he asked.

Julia blushed. “No reason.”

“You’re a terrible liar, Doc.” He lifted the flower-patterned bedspread and slid beneath the white sheets.

After a moment, she joined him in bed. “I was just thinking about how incredible the sex is,” she admitted. “It’s never been like this for me before.”

“Like this, how?” He leaned over to turn off the bedside lamp, then settled on his back and pulled her closer so that her head was resting on his bare chest.

“Passionate.” Her cheeks grew hot, and she was glad the room was dark so he couldn’t see her tomato face. “I’m not usually so adventurous in the bedroom. And I like being the one in control. But with you...I feel so totally out of control.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

She paused thoughtfully. “Before, I would have said yes, but now that I know how extraordinary it can be, how liberating, I think letting go is a very good thing.”

She twisted her neck to study the alarm clock on the end table, surprised to see it was almost midnight. But she wasn’t tired at all, and Sebastian didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go to sleep either.

“What’s your favorite place that you’ve ever traveled to?” he asked.

Julia pursed her lips for a moment. “Toronto.”

“Seriously? Out of all the places you’ve been, you choose a city in North America?”

“I really loved it,” she answered with a laugh. “It was so clean and pretty, and the people were so nice. I’ve always been a city person, and as far as cities go, Toronto was definitely my favorite. What about you?”

“Istanbul,” he said immediately. “I love everything about that place—the sights, the smells, the crowds. There’s so much to do there, and I like to keep busy.”

“Yet you’re hiding out on the coast, where you lie around on the beach all day,” she teased.

Sebastian snorted. “Does it look like we’re lying on a beach right now, Doc? Trust me, I’m the first to volunteer to get the hell out of that beach house. I go stir-crazy when I’m in one place for too long.”

“Me, too,” she admitted. “I commit to nine months working at one clinic, come back here for three months to regroup, and the second a new cycle begins, I’m on a plane again.” She furrowed her brows in the darkness, noting the irony of that. “I was never much of a traveler before. My sister, Mia, was the one with the traveling bug.”

“Was?”

“She died.” Julia swallowed the lump in her throat. “Mia was five years younger than me. The moment she turned eighteen, she took off to go backpacking around Europe. She wrote short travel pieces that she eventually started selling to travel websites, and she pretty much became a nomad. Three years ago—she was twenty-one by then—she went to South Africa. She was traveling in the north, wound up somewhere in the Limpopo province, where health care is lacking big-time. She fell during a hike, cut her leg pretty bad, and the wound got infected and eventually septicemia set in. There was no hospital she could go to, no antibiotics she could take, absolutely no treatment. A village doctor came by and gave her some aspirin.” Julia shook her head in dismay. “Aspirin!”

Sebastian’s arm tightened around her. “I’m sorry.”

She pictured Mia’s smiling face, then thought back to that last phone call from her sister. Mia had invested in a satellite phone, but she rarely ever used it because even a one-minute call cost an arm and a leg. The second Julia heard her sister’s tinny voice over the line, she’d known something was wrong.

But she hadn’t dreamed that they’d be saying goodbye.

“I wanted to get on the next plane out the second she called me. But she ordered me not to. She knew she was going to die, and she didn’t want me to see her like that.”

“Christ. I’m so sorry, Julia.” He hesitated. “So that’s why you went into foreign aid, huh?”

She nodded. “My sister died overseas because there was nobody there to give her proper medical treatment. That’s when I decided that I refused to let that happen to anyone else, travelers, locals, didn’t matter who. I wanted to save them.” A soft laugh slipped out. “And then, to my surprise, I discovered just how much I enjoyed the traveling lifestyle. I don’t think I could ever settle in one place nowadays.”

“Me either,” he agreed. “I love exploring new places and meeting new people.”

Do you? she wanted to challenge. She bit her tongue at the last second, but a part of her wondered how much of Sebastian’s wanderlust had to do with a genuine thirst for adventure, and how much was about his need to avoid commitment. She’d already figured out that he was deathly afraid of getting too close. The military had been the perfect place for him, offering the opportunity for constant travel, which made it hard to put down roots in one place. She got the feeling that forming roots was something he desperately wanted to avoid.

Silence settled between them. Easy. Comfortable. She’d never felt more at ease with a man before, and as she snuggled closer to his warm body, a contented sigh left her lips.

But when Sebastian spoke again, her contentment faded like an old sweater in the wash.

“This is just sex, Doc.” He cleared his throat. “We’re still clear on that, right?”

An unexpected arrow of pain sliced directly into her heart. It took her a second to find her voice, to make it sound casual and unruffled. “Of course.” Now she tried to sound teasing. “We’re not commitment people, remember? We’re globe-trotters, explorers, risk takers.”

A note of relief crept into his deep voice. “Right, that we are.” He gave her shoulder a quick squeeze before rolling them over so that he was spooning her from behind. “We should get some sleep.”

“Yeah, we probably should,” she murmured.

The motel room went silent again.

Closing her eyes, Julia listened to the sound of Sebastian’s soft, even breathing, trying desperately to ignore the little jabs of pain wreaking havoc on her chest.

This is just sex, Doc.

But it wasn’t. It wasn’t just sex for her.

Not anymore.