Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,79

her until she came again, then turned her around and eased her onto her back on the mattress, came up over her and filled her again.

“You’re so hot and wet,” he said. “You feel so damned good.” Grabbing her wrists, he drew her hands up over her head and began to move. Faster, deeper, harder. Heavy, unrelenting thrusts that stirred her toward climax again.

It was too much and not enough. Too hard, too fierce and not fierce enough.

She needed to touch him. “More,” she whispered, freeing her hands, digging her nails into the muscles across his shoulders, wrapping her legs around his waist. “More...Ben...please.”

He growled low in his throat, and took her deeper, pushed her to the edge and over. Her climax hit hard, sucking her under, dragging her down like storm waves on the lake. Ben followed her to release, his muscles rigid, his jaw clenched against the fierce orgasm that shook him.

For moments, he didn’t move, just kept the weight of his powerful body on his elbows, his hard length still inside her. Then he levered himself off and lay next to her, drew her into his arms.

He didn’t apologize for his roughness. She didn’t want him to.

The tiger had broken free of its cage, and he was amazing.

Twenty-Three

The sun had come up, but it was still early. Across the lake, a bank of clouds loomed on the horizon, but so far the sky was clear. Claire was in the shower. Ben tried not to think of her naked, of how good it had been last night. And again this morning.

He was beginning to know her, to understand her needs. He was beginning to realize she was an even more passionate woman than he had imagined.

He liked that about her. Hell, he liked way too many things about Claire.

The coffeemaker gurgled, signaling the pot had finished brewing. He poured himself a cup, walked over to the little table, turned on the computer and brought up the maps Sol had sent yesterday. He wanted to review each twist and turn along the route, memorize each meandering tributary that led to a dead end.

It was like a maze in there, with only a single, nearly unnavigable route of entry and escape. It was the reason the Bragg brothers didn’t worry about guarding that side of the compound.

Ben planned to go in again this evening. He had timed the guards’ rounds, knew they changed shifts on the hour, watched the men’s daily routine. They took their survival efforts seriously and everyone did their part. Sam was only nine years old but he was expected to work like a man.

Ben thought of his own childhood. He had gotten a job in the steel mill as soon as he was legally old enough. It was backbreaking labor, but he had been twice Sam’s size and eventually he’d won the respect of the men he worked with. The hard labor had been good for him, had motivated him to go to college, then join the navy.

But if Bragg kept Sam in the compound, he wouldn’t have the opportunities Ben had had, wouldn’t have the chance for any kind of a normal life. And he would suffer the same lack of love Ben had known as a child.

He looked down at the map on the computer screen, added the information he had gleaned last night to the drawings he had made. He needed to find a spot on the bayou side of the compound where he could talk to Sam alone, get him away from the others, into the boat and out of there.

He badly needed backup, but Trace was out of town, Jake was working a protection detail and Alex was still on his honeymoon, off to Rio de Janeiro now, according to Sol, for the next few weeks.

He took a sip of coffee. Claire was right. Nothing better than a hot cup of java in the morning.

His sat phone started ringing. Ben reached over and grabbed it. “What’s up?” he said to Sol.

“I’ve got a present for you, something you’re going to like even better than the candy info.”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Backup. Guy by the name of Tyler Brodie. Says he’s Johnnie Riggs’s partner. Says he worked with you in L.A.”

“That’s right. Ty’s a good man.”

“Brodie called looking for you. He was in Dallas for a funeral. Annie put him through, and when he asked about Sam, I told him you’d found him in Louisiana and were trying to bring him home. I