THE COUGAR'S BABY - 6

C H A P T E R S I X - - - S HA U N

Shaun wished he could bite his knuckles. His hands were wanting to move on their own, and it was getting absurd trying to control them.

She was very near, and she smelt fantastic. The man wasn't the only one who was turned on; the jaguar was nearly roaring with passion, making him squirm every time he moved too close to her. And he had no idea what her name was.

Shaun watched her walk inside one of the secondary rooms, the one where he slept, her beautiful locks bouncing on her shoulders. She needed a shower, she must have been fatigued, and her wound had not yet been treated, yet she was utterly devastating throughout.

Jerome led her to a chair, and Shaun came to a halt at the door, closing it but standing against the doorframe like an ominous ghost. Jerome probably didn't need him there and didn't protest on the grounds of adding some intimidation to the situation, but Shaun wouldn't have left if he'd been instructed to. He wasn't trying to defy the lieutenant, but he couldn't shift his body any more away from her than he had to.

She sat down hard, and her body language indicated tiredness. Shaun wanted to pick her up and place her on the bed, wrap up over her, and keep her safe until she was relaxed and everything was fine. The concept made him visibly cringe.

What’s wrong with you, man? Snap out of it.

Easier said than done.

“You want to tell me why you chose to help Jordan? You didn’t have any reason to,” Jerome started.

The woman shrugged, putting her elbows on her knees and leaning forward a bit, a sly look in her eyes that could have almost doubled for amusement if she hadn’t looked so damn worn and ragged.

“I figured I could play both sides a little. You know, keep my life interesting,” she noted with a smirk, one that Shaun wanted badly to kiss off her lips.

“Hey, we can make this easy or we can make this hard. You can tell me who you are or I can bundle you up, throw you back in the jungle for your friends to find you and see what they make of you,” Jerome said, flashing his teeth in a predatory snarl that Shaun knew all too well.

His threats were rarely empty. They’d done it before with hostages that they didn’t really need, and let their own people sort out what to do with them. Usually though, it meant freedom for the party at hand. This time, Shaun was sure that the first person from the camp to get their hands on her would make sure she never had another chance to help anyone ever again.

His hands rolled into tight fists at the mere thought of it.

“You could do that. But I bet you won’t,” she said idly, her expressive eyes sparkling with something other than exhaustion.

It was like she was almost playing with them, taunting them. It made her even sexier than before and Shaun was cursing the moment he’d ever laid eyes on her. He’d made a point of keeping his life rational, on track, and without distraction. This beautiful, impossible creature had the capability to ruin all of that. And Shaun hated it when something fucked with his system.

“How come?” Jerome asked, cocking a brow and mirroring her faint amusement.

“Well, you guys don’t look like assholes. I mean, for a bunch who mowed down a camp full of thugs, that is, but my point remains.”

“You can’t build your expectations based on first impressions,” Jerome warned with a chuckle.

“True,” she agreed, shrugging her shoulders a little. “But aren’t SEALs supposed to have a code of conduct of some sort? You know, serve with honor and integrity and what not.”

Shaun felt himself tense. She’d seen Jordan’s tattoo, and almost every member of the squad had it tattooed on them at some point during their service. He flicked his gaze at Jerome and the lieutenant remained unflappable, as he always was during missions. The way that man could keep a cool head was impressive to say the least.

“What we were in our past has little to do with what we are now,” he noted coolly.

“I doubt that, though,” she said, the smirk hovering on her lips.

Without another word, she peeled up the side of her ratty, ragged shirt. Shaun’s muscles flexed halfway because he was instinctively worried that she was going for a weapon—impossible, because they’d checked her before tying her up—and halfway because the exposed flesh on her stomach and side longed to be kissed and touched by him. He had to put serious effort into not getting turned on by the fact that he could see a tiny bit of skin that he hadn’t seen before.

You are so fucked.

She looked at both Jerome and then at Shaun and it might have been his imagination, but he was pretty sure her gaze lingered on him longer than it needed to. Her fingers peeled at an invisible edge on her side, right on her ribs, and Shaun strangled a gasp of surprise as the flesh tore back, coming off smoothly with a hint of a ripping noise scratching at his ears.

It was a cover-up bandage, wide but perfectly matched to her skin tone and with edges so fine that it would have been impossible to tell it was there if she hadn’t taken it off. Underneath it, a crisp, sharp ink figure was revealed. The United States Marine Corps logo in simple black, close to her heart.

Shaun wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but he definitely didn’t anticipate Jerome bursting into laughter, his body visibly relaxing.

“So you know, huh?” he asked, the corners of his eyes crinkling with laughter.

“I could guess,” she admitted, further confusing Shaun.

“Know what?” Shaun asked, feeling his heart beat far too fast and hard.

He could recognize that logo anywhere, but why the hell was it on a woman they’d found in a foreign drug operation, packing away cocaine? It made no damn sense.

“You want to tell her or shall I, Miss Daniella Gutierrez?” Jerome asked, giving the woman a look and then raising his hand to settle Shaun and show him everything was okay.

“You two seem to have such great rapport, I’m sure you can explain it better. But just so we’re clear here, you’re with The Firm, right? Did you know I was going to be there?” she asked, letting out a long breath and patting the shirt back over her exposed skin.

“No, we didn’t. I don’t think that’ll surprise you much, right?” Jerome asked, getting a confirmatory nod and an eye roll from Daniella. “I called it in after we extracted you and Jordan from the scene. When I said we had you alive, our handlers were more than happy to tell us that you were one of us and that we should send you home. But we weren’t alerted beforehand, so you know what that means.”

His brows were furrowed and he felt irritation boiling in him. Daniella dropped her eyes for a moment, nodding solemnly, and the air in the room seemed suffocating, thick. The Firm had been willing to let Squad Six kill one of their own without remorse, without warning, or having them try and get her out of there alive. She would have been collateral damage and it was dumb luck that she was alive.

“Wait, what? You’re with The Firm?” Shaun piped in, standing up straight.

Bile rose in Shaun’s stomach. This was exactly like The Firm to pull bullshit like that. If he had to guess, he was willing to place a stiff bet on the fact that Ace had to have something to do with the whole mess.

“I am,” Daniella nodded, rolling back her shoulders now and slouching a bit in the chair, like she could finally take a breath that wasn’t calculated.

“Guess we all got lucky today, Daniella,” Jerome said.

“Call me Dani.”

“Fine, Dani. Thank you for making sure one of my boys didn’t get his brain blasted on the side of a Jeep. And for patching him up. I’m sure Jordan will bitch and moan about your handiwork later, but don’t mind him. He’s a big pussycat, really,” Jerome said, reaching out a hand to Dani.

She took it and they shook hands, her grip firm and sure. Shaun could see that from the way the tendons in her forearm flexed, and now, suddenly, he could look at her in a whole new light. The sureness of step and the way her body seemed to float when thrown into a mess that would have made any normal person falter, panic, and stumble was the result of years of training, muscle memory, and confidence colliding into the perfect combination.

She was a warrior, like they were. And he’d almost killed her.

“Don’t mention it,” she said, and there was a genuine smile on her lips now.

It was disarming.

“Shaun will get you settled in,” Jerome said as they released hands, with Dani looking at Shaun now for more than a simple stolen moment. “Give her a chance to clean up and check out that laceration on her head. I bet you need a good night’s sleep with some shitty air conditioning and stale rations, right Dani?”

“Sounds about right,” she confirmed with a chuckle, her mesmerizing eyes still locked on Shaun.

“I need to get a report from you as soon as you feel up to it. Apparently there’s a two-month gap between your last transmissions and the desk monkeys don’t like that. Shaun can take it, right? I’ll go check with the rest of the team and let command know you’re in one piece and of sound mind.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” she noted. “If I were of sound mind, I wouldn’t be in the middle of this fucking jungle.”

“Yeah, well, that’s a brand of insanity we all subscribe to,” Shaun muttered, drawing a grin out of her that damn near lit the room up.

“It’s settled then,” Jerome said, pushing open the door and stepping out with a nod to both of them.

Being alone with her was difficult, to say the least. He hadn’t realized he’d been staring before Dani grinned a little, cocking her head to the side.

“What, soldier? Like what you see?” she asked, batting her lashes in a way that was obviously full of at least a little bit of mockery.

“Impressed to see a dead woman walking, that’s all,” Shaun gruffed, slicking a hand through his hair in an effort to do anything other than sink into her.

“What do you mean by that?” she asked, the fake coyness wiped from her face immediately.

Shaun couldn’t help but grin a little at that. She was feisty as hell and he bet her reflexes were topnotch. Serious little actress, too. Her body language could go from inviting to threatening at the drop of a hat, and for once he felt well-matched. He couldn’t banter with most women at all, fearing he would hurt their feelings and cause a big teary mess as soon as he said a word. Dani, though? He bet she could dish it back twice as hard as she took it.

“I had you in my cross hairs,” he said, pursing his lips lazily.

She stilled for a second. She must have known as well as he did what that meant, and he bet she’d seen the sniper rifle case being hauled out from the back of the vehicle. Shaun himself still couldn’t believe he hadn’t taken the shot, though every fiber in his body was trained to act when he had a clear chance in a situation like that.

But standing a few feet from her now, hell… she could arrest him from hundreds of yards away, making his hand falter, but at this distance, she had disarmed him completely. All he had now was his wits and even that seemed to be running dry when faced with her.

“Why didn’t you take the shot?” she asked, echoing the question rolling back and forth in Shaun’s head as well.

“Guess I did like what I saw,” he said, grinning wryly.

He was almost expecting her to lunge at him for that and get in a good punch or two, but she didn’t. Instead, she licked over her lips, her gaze flicking down to the toes of her boots and for a second, Shaun thought he spied a slight blush on her cheeks. That was surprising. Apparently she wasn’t all sass, then. It looked just as cute on her as her tough attitude did.

“Careful, soldier. You’re playing with fire here,” she said, looking back up and clearing the tiny note of surprise off of her expression.

She couldn’t fool him, though. He’d seen it, and now the dynamic was changed. Shaun shrugged his shoulders, pushing the door open in front of him and motioning for her to go through.

“I’m not afraid of getting burned,” he said.

He wasn’t sure if that was a lie or not.