Tempting the Fire Read online

  “Oh, go screw yourself,” Sela snapped, and he laughed as he planted himself behind his makeshift desk.

  Marlena, as if she hadn’t just dressed Sela down, shifted her hips far forward in the chair, so that her back arched, allowing her breasts to subtly push up and out.

  Damn, she was good. When Sela had worked as a Seducer, her methods had been more aggressive, but then, she’d had less to work with than Marlena, who needed only to sit there in order to draw men.

  Logan handed Marlena a drink, which she downed in a single shot before holding out her cup for more. He poured, and then turned to Sela.

  “So. The chupacabra.”

  “They’re mythical creatures whose origins—at least, the legend of their origins—are rooted in Puerto Rico. There have been numerous sightings, mainly in the American Southwest, Mexico and parts of Central and South America. Recently, sightings here in the Amazon have been reported, which is why we’re here.”

  Logan ran his long fingers up and down his cup. “Is anything known about their behavior in the wild?”

  In the wild? As opposed to what? Zoos? Sela shook her head. “Everything is theory. Based on kills and sightings, some cryptozoologists think they might be territorial. They’re not pack animals, probably loners, but there have been sightings of pairs, so they may take mates rather than breeding nonselectively. But like I said, there’s little fact here, and a lot of speculation.” Unless Grady’s book was truly an account of chupacabra life.

  “Has anyone ever captured one?” Logan asked, and Sela shook her head. “A few strange creatures have been killed or caught, in places like Texas, but scientists determined that those animals were diseased coyotes, and they never did fit the profile of the infamous goat sucker.”

  “Which apparently looks like that thing in the tent,” Logan muttered.

  Marlena’s hand shook as she poured herself another shot of liquor, but she covered quickly by bracing her forearm on the table. “That was … weird.”

  “You think?” Logan snorted. “So, what exactly are chupacabras?”

  Marlena downed the shot. “Some theories floating around out there suggest that chupacabras are actually escaped alien pets.”

  “Which is ridiculous,” Sela scoffed.

  Logan took a gulp of his Scotch. “You just found out the thing is real. So why is the idea that it’s an alien so out of the realm of possibility?”

  “Because aliens don’t exist.”

  Marlena shrugged, regaining her Seducer persona with a slow roll of one sexy shoulder. “Until ten minutes ago, you didn’t think chupacabras existed.”

  Sela shot her a scowl. “In any case, not once has the chupacabra legend been associated with humans turning into them.” She turned her gaze on Logan. “I need to know who the man in your medical tent is.”

  Logan looked up at the roof. “We found him nearly dead. He’s American military. The only survivor of an animal attack. We expected him to die, but he healed so quickly it’s miraculous.”

  “So you don’t know anything about him.”

  “I know the military doesn’t make a habit of enlisting people who change into man-eating beasts, so I’m going to throw out a wild guess that whatever attacked him also infected him.”

  “We need to talk to him,” Marlena said, coming to her feet. She swayed drunkenly, and Logan caught her. She smiled apologetically, but when he tried to release her, she clung to him. “Sorry. I’m just … a little tipsy.”

  “Jungle heat will do that to you.” He guided her back to her chair, but still, she clung to him, running one hand up his arm, the motion causing her breasts to rub against his chest.

  Sela watched curiously, wondering if he’d take advantage of Marlena’s “drunken” state.

  “I want my backpack,” she purred.

  “Why?” Logan’s voice was rough, but with irritation or arousal, Sela couldn’t tell. “Want your little vibrating buddy?”

  “I’ve never been one to deny myself pleasure whenever I can find it. And in a hellhole like this …” Marlena shrugged.

  “Really …” Logan tugged her close, and for some reason, Sela felt a twinge of jealousy. “So if I wanted to get down to it with you, right now, you wouldn’t have a problem with that?”

  “Why should I?” The words were casual, but there was a slight tremor in Marlena’s voice. She was definitely not okay, but she was soldiering on, determined to do her job.

  He turned to Sela. “What about you?”

  She nearly choked on her own tongue. “What about me? I’m not into threesomes.” She ground her teeth and added, “Not with women anyway.” God, she hoped things didn’t come down to that. To a threesome of any sort.

  “I wasn’t talking about a threesome. Mainly because I don’t share well.” He plunked Marlena in the chair and left her to sink down beside Sela, so close his heat rolled over her like a caress. “I’m wondering about you. Do you look at sex the same way? A moment of pleasure to be had in any situation, no matter how extreme?”

  She smiled sweetly. “You mean, like jerking off in a shower while your prisoner is cuffed to a pole right outside? That’s a pretty extreme situation. Seems to me that given your little shower adventure, you have a lot in common with Marlena.”

  “You’re mouthy.”

  “You like it.”

  His gaze dropped to her mouth. “I know where I’d like it.”

  An image of her with her lips wrapped around his cock swamped her brain, which was insane, because no way was she having sex with him. Then again, he was showing no interest in Marlena, and even if he were, Sela couldn’t let Marlena continue this charade. The woman had been through enough.

  “Logan,” Marlena began, but he cut her off with a wave of his hand and called for one of his men, who must have been right outside, and told him to take Marlena away.

  Sela couldn’t decide if she was relieved or not, but as Marlena exited the tent, she flashed Sela an apologetic look, and Sela knew without a doubt that Logan’s balls were now in her court.

  CHAPTER

  Five

  Sela waited until the flap closed, and then she came to her feet with an indignant huff. “Where are you taking her?”

  “Supply tent for now. There’s a cot in there. She’ll be comfortable until we find a more permanent solution.”

  Well, it was better than putting Marlena back in with Chance. “And where will I stay?”

  Logan poured more Scotch into his cup. “You stay with me.”

  Sela managed an outraged gasp that wasn’t entirely feigned. “Why?”

  “Because you’re a troublemaker. I want to keep an eye on you.”

  She jabbed him in the chest so hard the last of his liquor sloshed out of the cup. “You have no right to hold us like this.”

  He dropped the cup and seized her wrist. “You’d rather be out in the jungle with that creature? It tore apart an entire SEAL team. What do you think it’ll do to two helpless women? And if it doesn’t get you, there are plenty of drug thugs who will.”

  The helpless thing really pissed her off. She’d show him helpless soon enough. “So I’m supposed to believe you’re keeping us prisoner out of the goodness of your heart?”

  His laughter cut through the air. “I don’t do anything out of the goodness of my heart, babe.” He hauled her close, so her breasts mashed against his chest … and his erection pressed into the softness of her belly. “I have some seriously selfish motives.”

  “You going to rape me? Because you’ll have to,” she spat.

  “Rape?” He leaned in, so his lips brushed her ear. “I so wouldn’t have to.”

  Had she been in any other situation, she’d have kneed the arrogant bastard in the balls and jammed the heel of her palm into his nose. But she really did have to get into bed with him, so she stayed where she was and whispered, “You’re so full of yourself.”

  “Soon,” he whispered back, “you’ll be full of me too.”

  Fury shot
through her, and job or no, she slapped him. He grabbed her other arm and held her immobile with an incredible amount of strength.

  “That,” he snarled, “was a huge mistake.”

  A thread of terror wove its way into her soul as a scene from her beating slammed into her head. The man who’d nearly killed her had said the same thing, right before he knocked her across the room so hard her shoulder had dislocated on impact with the wall. Worse had followed.

  But instead of striking her, Logan fisted her hair and held her for his sudden, punishing kiss. Sela wanted to fight, but at the same time, she wanted to kiss him. His lips were hard but not cruel, and when his tongue stroked at the seam of her mouth, she opened up to him.

  Instantly, the air seemed to arc with electricity, thickening around them. He deepened the kiss, turning it into something so hot that she clung to his shirt, preventing him from breaking away.

  Desire speared her, went straight to her sex and radiated out. As if he knew, he dropped his hand to her thigh and lifted her leg to his waist, putting her core in contact with the hard ridge of his erection. His warmth put the jungle heat to shame, and yet she shivered as his mouth blazed a trail along her jaw and down her throat. He bent her back on his arm, exposing her neck to him, and one hand came up to jerk her tee out of her pants.

  He sucked lightly on her neck as he slid his hand up her shirt, leaving a trail of tingles behind it. Her nipples tightened against the silk fabric of her bra, becoming instantly sensitive, feeling almost abraded as his palm cupped one breast.

  Tension made her belly taut and her lungs tight, and when his thumb began to rub slow circles around her nipple her muscles locked up hard, as if her body was trying to fight the pleasure. But it wasn’t her body doing the fighting; it was her brain.

  Sela hadn’t had sex since the attack, and before that, it had been about the job. Oh, she’d sometimes taken pleasure from it, if her partner was skilled or considerate, but usually, the sex was all about measuring his response. Getting him worked up for the most intense orgasm of his life so he’d spill more secrets into her brain as he spilled his semen into her body. Usually she was so occupied with making him feel good that she would fake her responses, putting on a show worthy of an Oscar.

  Sex on the job had never been about her orgasms. It had been about theirs.

  But something about Logan made her curious about his skills and made her want what her feminine instincts said he could give her.

  And that scared the crap out of her, because out of all the men she’d screwed for the good of ACRO and the country, this one, with his weapons company and connections to Itor, had the potential to be the baddest of the bad, with a generous topping of evil.

  Evil, for sure, because even now, his wicked fingers were sliding beneath the fabric of her bra to her bare breasts, and she couldn’t stifle a moan.

  “You like that,” he murmured against her neck.

  “No shit.” She spoke softly, mindful of the tent’s thin walls.

  His chuckle sent an erotic tremor down her body. Slowly, his hand followed, skimming over her ribs to her stomach, until his fingertips were working the buttons on her BDUs. Panic reared up, and she squirmed, but he tugged her close and wedged his thigh between her legs, trapping her, but creating a delicious pressure against her core that settled her down no matter how badly she wanted to get away.

  It’s just a job. It’s just a job. She repeated the mantra in her head and tried to concentrate on giving instead of taking. Boldly, she palmed his neck and pushed his face to her breasts as she dropped her other hand to his ass and squeezed. That fast, it was his turn to groan. He arched into her, grinding that massive erection against her sex.

  His mouth did sinful things to her breasts, even through her T-shirt and bra, and she pictured them together with no clothes between them. If he could affect her like this fully dressed and standing up, in a tent, she could only imagine his talents in a real bed, with no clothes and no worries about who might hear them.

  His fingers no longer played with her pants’ buttons. He tore the fly open and dipped his hand inside. “We don’t have time for what I want to do to you,” he breathed into her shirt, “but fuck if I’m going to wait another second to touch you.”

  She didn’t have time to say anything. His fingers slipped beneath the lace edge of her panties and found her clit. Sela damn near shouted at the sudden pleasure that crashed into her. The unaccustomed sensation sent her into a fresh panic, and she shoved against Logan’s chest, but again, he brought her down with pressure right where she needed it.

  “Shh,” he whispered, rolling her swollen nub between two fingers. “Just let yourself go.”

  Oh, God, she wanted to. Wanted him to squeeze harder and rub faster, and yes, that was what he was doing now. Once again she remembered that she was supposed to be rubbing and squeezing him, not the other way around. But she ached so badly, and really, what would it hurt to get a little something out of this godforsaken assignment?

  She let her head loll back in surrender, and in that instant, Logan growled low in his chest, a male animal taking possession now that the female had given in. Oh, but she hadn’t completely rolled over, and even as he pushed two fingers inside her weeping core, she tore open his pants and took his hard cock in her fist.

  She’d seen it when he’d come out of the shower, and only just semi-erect, his penis had been impressive. But fully engorged, she couldn’t even close her hand around it. A silky drop formed at the tip, and as Logan found a rhythm with his thumb against her clit, she matched it, spreading the moisture over the head of his cock.

  “Oh, yeah.” His voice was gruff, breathless, and it turned her on like nothing before.

  Slow, skilled strokes in and out with his fingers built pressure inside her that threatened to blow out her ears. She cried out when he found her G-spot, and he smiled impishly, went to work with unmerciful flicks of his fingertips over the swollen pillow of nerves.

  “Bastard,” she moaned. “You’re such a … ah, yes … bastard.”

  “And don’t you forget it.” His words came out slurred; he was panting as hard as she was now, his hips thrusting into her grip.

  His strokes turned into luscious twists of his thick fingers. Each rotation raked her inner walls, the friction charging her up until her release hovered just out of reach … and he knew it. He fucked her with his talented fingers, letting his thumb just barely brush her hypersensitive knot.

  Panting and grinding, she arched into him, riding his hand until her orgasm came at her as if it had been fired out of a cannon, hit her hard and knocked her breathless and was so fierce it almost hurt. Her pussy clenched around his fingers, pulling them deep, and damn, she wished his cock was filling her instead. Her chest heaved and her breath snagged in her throat, and she had to sink her teeth into his shoulder to keep from screaming.

  His snarled “Yes!” told her he didn’t mind the bite.

  Though she scarcely had the energy, she locked her knees to keep from sliding into a boneless puddle and increased the speed of her strokes on his shaft. His hand, wet with her juices, joined hers, creating a silky lubricant. Together, they caressed him, up and down his erection, faster, faster … until the only sounds in the tent were of his harsh breaths and the soft slide of their hands rubbing his hard flesh.

  Logan’s head fell back, his teeth bared in ecstasy, the tendons in his neck standing out in stark agony, and wow, he was handsome like that, a perfect male specimen on the verge of pleasure-pain. The sight sent flames licking through her again, but she concentrated on him, needing to get him there …

  He grabbed her hand and forced her to concentrate her motion on the head of his cock, rubbing gentle circles as he used his fist to take himself the rest of the way—another sight that had her squeezing her thighs together as though she hadn’t just had one of the most explosive orgasms of her life.

  Another crystal drop formed at the dusky purple tip, and she smoothed her thumb
through it, loving how his massive body jerked and how his breath caught. His hand pumped faster, the rim of his fingers meeting hers on every upstroke. Three heartbeats later, he came with a muffled shout, and instantly, his thoughts and memories shot into Sela’s brain. Thoughts about … how sexy she was, how hot, how he wished his cock was inside her. At the same time, memories washed over the surface of her mind, memories from childhood.

  She didn’t have time to waste on things that weren’t relevant to the present, so before the psychic airwaves shut off as his orgasm waned, she poked around in his brain, looking for recent memories … but she ran into what amounted to a virtual wall.

  Odd. She’d been trained to detect a mental shield, but this wasn’t one of them. Her probes kept pinging back at her, like sonar hitting the metal hull of a ship.

  And then the connection was gone, and she was alone inside her head, sifting through images of a young Logan on a playground by himself, and then in a backyard throwing a ball for a mixed-breed mutt.

  “That,” he rasped, “was really …”

  “Intense?”

  He took in a ragged breath. “I was going to say embarrassing.” He looked down at his cock, still in his hand. “We’re like fucking teenagers.”

  “Without the fucking.” God, she couldn’t believe how fast the flames had built between them … they hadn’t even made it to the cot, were still propping each other up. She pushed away from him and jerked up her pants, which had ridden down to her thighs. “I, uh, need a bathroom.”

  Logan didn’t meet her gaze as he began to clean himself up with a napkin from his table. “Outside to the right.”

  “Not worried I’ll run away?”

  “There’s someone outside my tent to keep an eye on you.”

  Great. That someone had probably heard everything that had gone on in here. She ducked out of the tent, and sure enough, Dax was standing there, a knowing smile on his roundish face. She flipped him off and headed for the portable toilet, but spun around when she was halfway there. She wanted her backpack and the micro-satellite phone inside. Her minute alone in the toilet would give her a chance to send Dev an update.