Under Threat by B.J. Daniels (reading the story of the .TXT) 📕

stuff, and even though they were each holding weapons and had backpacks strapped to their bare backs, bundles of clothes in their arms, he held her hand.

He led her farther into the cave, having already pulled the flashlight out of his pack. She tried not to think too deeply about him searching every nook and cranny, and what might be hiding in any of those little places. But he found a little...corner almost, that gave them something like a wall between them and the opening of the cave.

“It’ll keep us out of sight, but you’re going to have to be quiet.”

She giggled at that. How had they gone from running from men with guns to...quietly having sex in a cave?

“What a shame.”

“The only shame is that I can’t see you.”

Those words clutched around her heart and her lungs. She could scarcely suck in the breath to tell him that... She didn’t know what she wanted to tell him. She didn’t recognize this overfull feeling in her chest. Excitement and lust or something more? She wasn’t sure she wanted to delve too far into that possibility.

So she simply held her arms open for him, and he stepped inside. His mouth took hers, his body took hers, and she gave. Everything she had. In a way she never would’ve imagined. But knowing she had so little, and there was so much against her, it made her open up in a way she’s always been scared to.

Because for the first time in her life, she really had nothing to lose. Okay, maybe her life, but she wasn’t so sure she was in control of that.

This, she was in control of. Or at least partially in control of.

Vaughn’s hands touched her gently and reverently, as though he was trying to find just where she like to be touched. Just where to stroke to make her forget where the hell they were.

In a cave. On the run. Giving themselves to each other. She couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather give herself to, and she had the sneaking suspicion that had very little to do with the danger they were in.

Chapter 13

There was the smallest voice in the back of Vaughn’s head telling him to stop this madness. But Natalie was nearly naked, all smooth skin and tantalizing curves in the not-at-all-sufficient flashlight beam. Everything about her was like a soft place to land, and the last thing he should be doing right now was landing. He should be leading and fighting and protecting.

But the driving need of his body had taken over. He wanted Natalie as his. No matter how he tried to tell himself that it was wrong, or the wrong time, or some other combination of those things, it got lost somewhere. Usually about the time he had to actually consider taking his mouth from hers, or his hands from her body. He couldn’t stand the thought.

Especially when her mouth was so sweet under his, and her hands were so determined to explore him. She seemed to touch every piece of him. A finger traced the scar on his shoulder from a stab wound he’d gotten undercover. She poked her finger into the dip of his hip. But the most brain melting was the fact that she kept arching against him, a slow, sensuous rhythm that made him completely crazy. Incapable of thinking of anything else but being inside her.

He had no business thinking that or wanting that or most especially doing that. At this point, he didn’t know how he’d ever stop.

He undid the snap of her bra and slowly drew the fabric down her shoulders and arms. He exhaled, surprised to find it shaky. Surprised to find how much she affected him.

“Are you cold?” he murmured as she shivered now that she was bare from the waist up.

“No,” she returned.

“Are you scared?” he asked, rubbing his hands up her arms, trying to infuse some calm, some surety.

“No.” This time she said it on a laugh. “It feels good. All of it.” Those dark, meaningful eyes peered into his. Her smile was like the gift of sunshine after weeks of darkness. Perhaps months or years, because he had been unwittingly, unknowingly in a period of darkness. Something about Natalie lightened him, even in the middle of all this mess.

“So, I don’t know how much you’re going to want to hear this, but I happened to see a packet of condoms in your sister’s backpack when you handed it to me. So... You know.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. “Can you rephrase that in a way that I don’t have to think about the fact my sister has condoms in her backpack?”

“Why? Do you think she’s too young to use them?”

“No, regardless of whether she should or not, the last thing I want to consider right now is my sister having sex. Period. With anyone. Especially in the cabin that we share.”

“Okay. New story—I just love carrying condoms around in my purse.”

He laughed, and shook his head. “I just haven’t...”

She raised her eyebrows, and he realized this was a conversation he did not want to get into right now. Right here. It was too close to a truth he was still trying to bottle up. The fact he hadn’t slept with anyone since his ex-wife.

The fact he hadn’t wanted to, that he’d thrown his life into police work just like Jenny had always accused him of.

That wanting this, Natalie, here, now, it all meant something.

But there was too much at stake for that meaning to be dissected in the here and now. “We’ll have plenty of time to converse after. Let’s not waste our present.”

“Take off your underwear, and I might be inclined to agree with you.” She grinned, all jokes and fun in the midst of this awful situation for her.

“Grab a condom from your purse. I’ll lay out some blankets.”

She gave a little nod and bent over the pink sparkly backpack. Vaughn focused on the tempting curve of her backside over