To the Xtreme (Xtreme Ops Book 2) Read online

  She sat watching him for a minute. For some reason, Harris had quieted in her head… but that tiny voice that wondered if he could be right and Jack might be a person of suspicion, belonged to her.

  Chapter Nine

  The cardboard in the cabin windows had been removed and replaced with plywood. But that didn’t change the fact that Lipton couldn’t look out and see Jenna.

  Of course she hadn’t returned to the cabin as he told her to and if she had, she’d gone again. Where the hell was she now?

  He whipped open the door and looked out. Braced in the doorway, he sent a glare at the woods and road.

  Yes, he could text her. He should text her. She could be in danger.

  Or he could be overreacting.

  They weren’t a couple—they’d known each other for days. Sex didn’t equal feelings, and he didn’t operate that way anyhow.

  But dammit, there was a reason he told her to stay put at the cabin—a reason that they told her not to go home.

  She’s a grown woman and carries a weapon. She’s fine.

  He stumped inside and slammed the door. He went from desk to fireplace and back again. Then he found himself standing at the kitchen sink looking up at the stupid plant hanging from knotted threads.

  Leaning against the sink, he bowed his head. His issue wasn’t the fact she didn’t obey some command he’d given her. His real problem was how Jenna consumed all his thoughts. If someone could just tell him how the hell she’d become so important to him in only days, he’d like to hear the theory. Because damn if he could puzzle it out.

  What happened when they found the bomber? The team would move on from the national park to another threat. Hell, right now, a search and rescue was going on in another part of the state, and they could use their expertise about the region.

  When he did go, what then? Jenna fit into his life in the here and now. Actually, she didn’t fit in at all. They walked on opposite sides of the universe, but for a brief second, their lives collided.

  They had little in common. He saw in black and white. Rules kept his life in order. But Jenna…she saw in all colors of Mother Earth.

  Dammit.

  He stumped over to the desk and plopped into the chair, letting his crutches fall with crashes to each side of him.

  The silence of the cabin pressed in on him from all sides. He was about to stand and go to the fireplace just to start a fire and hear the crackle of log and flame, when the door opened.

  Across the small expanse, he met Jenna’s gaze.

  His first thought was that she was whole. Safe.

  He took in her appearance. She hadn’t changed from her uniform, but her curls appeared a bit more windblown.

  Quietly, she closed the door and crossed the cabin to him. Lipton got to his feet as she approached. Staring down at her, he reached out and touched a finger to her braid.

  His feelings for her bloomed in his chest, gaining more roots by the minute, even as the braid proved to be a physical manifestation of their differences.

  Her green eyes softened as she looked up at him.

  “Where were you?” His voice grew roughened.

  “I’ve just been driving.”

  He sensed she wasn’t telling him everything, and she had a right not to. She owed him nothing.

  “Driving in the park?”

  She nodded.

  “I wish you’d told someone where you were. You know the threat that’s out there.”

  She nodded and turned away from him. She took a few steps, and the distance between them put him on high alert as nothing else could.

  “Jenna. Where were you really?”

  “I ran into Jack. He was walking along the road. I picked him up and we went out for pizza.”

  He pictured them sitting across from each other at a cozy table in a cozy pizza joint having some vegetarian variety made with fucking cauliflower crust, and he tried not to react to the image stamped on his brain.

  On the heels of that came the uneasy feeling Lipton experienced when he met Jack—as if he had something to hide under the façade of hippie hiker and all those dreadlocks.

  Lipton jammed his fingers through his short hair. Anger mixed with fear for Jenna’s safety bubbled inside him, and he clenched a fist, holding in the urge to explode.

  “Did you ever consider that Jack might be the one we’re looking for?” He forced his tone to gentle.

  With green eyes leveled on him, she nodded.

  Shock rocked him on his feet. “You did?”

  “I looked into it.”

  “Looked into it how?” he demanded.

  “I visited a friend who works at the sheriff’s office. He has access to databases.”

  He opened his mouth to snap that he did too—dammit, what did she think that computer was doing on the desk? But he held his tongue and allowed her to continue.

  “Tell me what happened.”

  “I gave him a photo of Jack.”

  She had a photo? In her phone? Of course she did.

  “I didn’t think his photo would be a match in the criminal database, but…” Her voice faltered. She looked down and then to Lipton. “He’s an ex-con.”

  “You had more to work from than I did when I searched for him,” he muttered.

  She blew out a shaky breath. “I figured you did.”

  He didn’t know if he should be annoyed or not.

  “What was his crime?”

  “First you should know his name isn’t Jack.” She raised a hand and fingered the gold thread tying her braid in place. “It’s Joshua King. Son of Maggie and Jordan King. He attended prep school and flew through college, graduating early. The only thing he didn’t lie about was working for a big tech startup. He told me he got burnt out and left to find the real meaning of life. But that was a lie.”

  She shook her head and snaked her arms around her middle as if holding herself together. Lipton took a step toward her, but her body language kept him from reaching out and pulling her into his arms to offer comfort.

  “What was his crime?”

  “He stole a quarter million through a cybersecurity leak. He got off easy—probably because of his rich daddy—got a slap on the wrist and was made to pay back the money. After that, he took off and nobody’s seen him since. His family has a reward out for information about him.”

  Her voice wobbled, and Lipton couldn’t stand it anymore. He took a step forward and yanked her against his chest. She buried her face in his shirt, but she wasn’t crying. While Lipton ran his hand up and down her spine, he felt her begin to calm.

  “That has to feel terrible knowing he lied to you.”

  She nodded, rubbing her cheek on his shirt.

  “It’s the worst form of betrayal, thinking you know somebody and finding out they’re something else entirely.”

  “I don’t think he’s completely lying about who he is. I might not know his real name or anything about his past, but I don’t believe he’s been totally untruthful with me.” She shifted out of his embrace.

  Lipton clenched his jaw against the tirade of words that would only hurt her feelings. “Sit down,” he said instead. “I’ll make you some hot cocoa.”

  Jenna felt as though the earth had crumbled from underneath her feet, leaving her grappling for solid ground to stand on.

  She brought her steaming mug to her lips and met Harris’s eyes over the rim. When she sipped and found the perfect blend of sweet chocolate and milk, she issued a small sigh.

  Logs crackled in the fireplace, and everything about this moment offered peace. Too bad it didn’t make her feel better. “I feel as if some of my personal beliefs have been pulled out from under me.”

  He made a noise in his throat. “I’m sorry this happened.”

  “I’m not a skeptical, suspicious person.”

  “What made you question him then?” He didn’t drink any cocoa but sat staring at her without pause, wearing that hard expression that resembled a fortress gate—nothing
got past it. Not even her.

  She took another sip, trying to compose her thoughts. “You were talking to me in my head.”

  His stare landed on her. “I was?”

  “I guess you’ve gotten to me a little bit. All this investigating and hunting people through the forest… I couldn’t stop looking at Jack and wondering why he was in the forest at the same time that tree fell on Joffrey.”

  He nodded. “Good call.”

  Tears boiled near the surface. “I hate that I was right.”

  “Maybe not. He might be convicted of some cybercrime, but that doesn’t make him the bomber.”

  “It seems so suspicious, though, don’t you think?”

  He leaned forward, placing his hands on the table. They were big, capable, callused and felt amazing on her body. She extracted her attention from his hands and met his stare.

  “Jenna, this isn’t you. You’re only questioning Jack because…” He leaned back in the chair and took his hands off the table.

  “Because what?” she whispered.

  “Because of me. This is my fault. I’m turning you into somebody you’re not. One thing I love about you is your purity and your ability to see life in a different way. I’ve been made hard, first by my childhood and a father who beat me and a mother who’d never leave him to get me out of the foster care system.”

  She gulped in a cry of pain on his behalf. What she suspected was true—and he shared it with her in a dead tone that told her he’d long ago separated his thoughts from his feelings.

  “I’ve seen the harsh realities of life, Jenna. As a kid growing up in the system and then in the military. I’ve either been evading bad guys or gunning for them my entire life. But you”—he reached across the table and snagged her hand in his—“you don’t think like me. And if I’m causing you to change…then you shouldn’t be hanging around me.”

  As quickly as he grabbed her hand, he released it, leaving her feeling empty and alone.

  She stared at the tabletop until her eyes blurred. Then she got up and walked into the bedroom. They were at a standoff. What did she even say or do after Lipton’s statement?

  This can’t work. Ever.

  But I like him.

  He’s everything against what I like…or thought I did.

  She heard a sound and turned to see him standing in the doorway. Her heart stuttered through a triple beat.

  Neither of them could stay away from each other—who were they kidding?

  With his crutches abandoned somewhere in the cabin, he came forward. She quivered at what he’d do or say. Would he touch her or tell her to pack her belongings and move to another cabin?

  She wouldn’t meet his gaze but felt his stare on her, hot and burning through her layers, clear to her soul.

  He drew her into his arms again.

  “You say I shouldn’t be hanging around you…but you’re a good person, Harris.” She ticked her gaze up to his. “And I want you in my li—”

  Her whispered confession was cut short by Harris’s mouth slamming over hers.

  She moaned out and he dragged her onto tiptoe, his broad palm planted on her ass, jerking her into his hard body as he kissed her until she gasped.

  The what-ifs fled her mind, and she kissed him with all the lust and desire pounding through her system. He cupped her face in one hand, twisting her right and left while he delivered harsh kiss after harsh kiss.

  Her lips felt deliciously bruised and her nipples throbbing to hard peaks. His fingers worked down her braid, from her scalp to the bit of gold thread at the bottom. “This braid drives me crazy. It’s so unexpected…it’s so you.”

  Her heart flexed and she swayed into him, seeking more.

  She plucked at his hair and then slid her hands down his shirt to pull the hem free of his pants. When she inched her fingers over his washboard abs, he growled low in his throat, grabbed the sides of her top and ripped it down the center. Buttons flew every direction, and she cried out with red-hot desire.

  “Take me, Harris!”

  He didn’t hesitate but picked her up and turned to the bed. They hit the mattress together. She robbed him of his shirt and cast it aside. As his warm muscle pressed down on her, she gasped.

  They tore at each other’s clothes. And once those were gone, his fingertips found her nipples and pinched and plucked them while she bucked upward for more.

  She kissed a path over his rounded steel pecs, pushing him to lie on his side while she continued dropping kisses to his abs, licking at the furred trail leading to his long, hard shaft.

  The head bobbed against his stomach. She lapped at the purple, flared head and slipped her tongue over the depression. Tasting his salt, she moaned.

  “Jesus, Jenna.” He sank his fingers into her curls as she parted her lips and took him inside her mouth. The taste and scent of man drove her on to pleasure him in a brand-new way. Need pattered through her lower belly.

  Gliding down his body, she sucked him in as far as he’d fit. With her lips wrapped around his cock, a tight, prickly need took up residence in her core. She flashed a look at his face, saw his glazed expression, and moaned.

  “Jenna,” he ground out.

  She bobbed up his cock to the tip.

  “Fuck! Jenna…sweetheart…stop.”

  She didn’t, sucking his length into her mouth and swirling her tongue along the veined length until a constant rumble of pleasure rolled through the hard man. The minute he lost control, she took it, determined to throw him over the edge. Driven by his groans and grunts and a final plea for her to stop before it was too late, she sucked him until he stiffened.

  His hot juices hit her throat, and she swallowed fast in gulps. As she continued to love him with her mouth, she watched his face contort with ecstasy.

  When he gripped her upper arms and pulled her off his cock and up his body to kiss the hell out of her, she threw herself at him.

  He slipped his thumb through her slick folds. “Fuck, you’re wetter than ever. From sucking me?”

  She nodded and threw her leg over his middle, anchoring her pussy over his still hard shaft.

  But he lifted her off him and shimmied down the mattress until her pussy hovered just over his lips.

  Her breathing caught. His warm breaths passed over her quivering folds. When his tongue hit her clit and applied the perfect pressure, she tossed her head on a cry.

  It was his name.

  The urge to scoop Jenna up and rush her away from this place, to hide her away forever, burned strong through him. Her sweet little moans were driving him to the brink. If he heard her cry his name in that throaty rasp one more time…he might actually do it.

  This didn’t have to end—he could find a way to see her. Alaska might be vast, but he had access to transport besides four wheels and an engine. He had a long weekend off every six weeks, vacations and the Xtreme Ops team had down times.

  They could make this work.

  Was he crazy? Was he considering a relationship? It would tear him apart at the seams. He’d never be able to hide from his feelings once he brought her into his life.

  Holding her over his face, tonguing her sweet pussy until she thrashed with a wild orgasm, he thought there might not be any turning back now.

  He had to have her. She couldn’t hide her true self from him, and he didn’t want to hide from her.

  Hell, he was falling for the woman.

  As her final pulsation throbbed against his tongue, he lowered her to the bed. She lay still, eyes burning and wide.

  He leaned over her. “You’re so goddamn beautiful. And you’re stealing my damn heart.”

  Her eyelids flickered, and she raised a hand to his jaw. “I think you already own mine,” she whispered.

  He kissed her long and deep, building her need for him. When he could barely stand the throb in his balls anymore, he lowered himself over her. With each inch he sank, the sweet torturous clutch of her walls around his erection shot him higher. He issued a rou
gh groan and sank balls-deep.

  She brought his hand to her breast, and he splayed his hand wide over her chest, flicking one nipple with his thumb and the other his middle finger. Realizing that she loved the added stimulation, he continued to strum each hard bud until the juicy sounds of her wet pussy, as he fucked it, filled the room.

  “Harris…I don’t know…how we work. We’re so…different.” She arched and rocked her hips at the same time.

  His cock hit her innermost point, and they shared a moan. “I have…no idea.” He strained against the need to burst too soon. He wanted to feel the delicious abandon of her orgasm around him before he let go.

  “Don’t stop!”

  “I couldn’t if I tried.” He took her mouth again in a claiming kiss and felt the change in her body.

  She went boneless and the first pulse around his cock began. He thrust his tongue in time to the movement of his hips. She gave a rasp, grabbed him hard and started coming.

  He only made it two strokes before he let go too. Passion and need blasted through him as the orgasm stole the last of his control. Any barriers between him and this woman had officially crumbled to ash.

  He collapsed and half rolled to keep from crushing her. Seconds passed as he gathered his wits, aware that he might not be able to ever fully keep hold of himself when it came to Jenna.

  Their gazes locked, and she smiled—a soft, beautiful smile that brushed at the edges of his heart.

  “You know, when I first saw you hovering over me when I came to, I thought you were a fairy nymph.”

  Her expression blanked, and then she burst out laughing. “Seriously?”

  “Uh-huh.” Now that he’d told her, she’d never let him live it down. He could only hope she didn’t tell Broshears. The man would definitely never let him live it down.

  “What exactly is a fairy nymph?”

  “I don’t know. Something out of a storybook. You were wearing green, and with your green eyes…” He slid a hand into her curls and drew her down for a kiss, if for nothing more than to stop her laughter.

  The tender meeting of their mouths brought to life more of those feelings he wasn’t sure how to deal with. But he didn’t pull away. He closed his eyes and allowed the new sensations to wash over him.