Echoes at Dawn

This time she uncurled her fingers so she wasn’t fisting him and held him by her fingertips. Then she licked from the very base, her tongue glancing over his balls, all the way up the underside to the very tip. Before he had any chance to imagine what she’d do next, she sucked him in deep and hard.

He landed at the back of her throat, and he automatically bucked upward, unable to control his response.

She gripped him again, steadying herself, and then she slowly worked back up. This time she didn’t tease but rather set a steady rhythm with her hand and mouth, growing tighter with each stroke.

“Use your other hand to cup my balls,” he said in a tight voice. “Squeeze but not too hard. Work them while you suck me.”

The raw, coarse language had the same effect on them both. Grace trembled. Her nipples tightened and became rigid, erect points as they bobbed in front of him. Precum leaked into her mouth, and he worried at first that she’d decide this wasn’t what she’d imagined and bail.

Instead she slowed and seemed to savor it, almost like she was deciding how she liked it. She rolled her tongue around, catching every bit of the liquid before resuming the slow, sucking motions.

She had both hands wrapped around him, one around his balls, squeezing and massaging gently, and the other stretched around the base, working up and down in time with her mouth.

“Deeper,” he urged. “Take me deep, baby. Hold me there. See how deep you can take me.”

He didn’t want to take over and force her to do anything. He’d rather let her set her own pace, explore at her leisure and do what came naturally to her. It was sexy as hell to discover a blow job with her.

In a lot of ways it felt like he was getting his first ever. He could also say he’d never had anything better than right here, right now, with a woman who wanted nothing more than to please him.

She sucked down until her chin brushed over his balls and her nose rested against his groin. Then she swallowed, her throat closing around him, and he lost the last vestiges of his control.

He arched into her, barely able to utter a harsh warning that he was coming. He began to spill into her mouth but she kept sucking and moving, seemingly unfazed by the sudden, forceful ejaculation into her mouth.

He reached out to run his fingers through her hair, his touch gentle and loving as she slowed in her movements. He felt her swallow against him and groaned, knowing she’d just taken everything he’d had to give.

She seemed to instinctively know he was a lot more sensitive now, and she loosened her grip and suction until she very gently released him. His erection sagged to the side, still semierect, and she looked up at him, her lips still glistening with his release.

“That was incredible,” he said

hoarsely. “Thank you.”

She blushed but smiled big, her blue eyes shining.

“Come here,” he said, f1D;inding her hands and pulling her toward him.

He wrapped his arms around her and lay back so she was atop him on the bed. Then he rolled so she was tucked into his side, their legs all tangled up.

“Thank you. That was very sweet of you. I don’t think I’ve ever had a woman who wanted to please me as much as you.”

She tilted her chin up so that her mouth was close to his ear and she whispered as if imparting something top secret. “I love the way you taste. Can I do it again sometime?”

He groaned again. Did she honestly think he was going to tell her no?

CHAPTER 25

GRACE was shaken awake to see Rio looming above her, a tight frown marring his face. She came instantly to awareness, blinking away the layers of sleep. Sunlight shone in from the high window, softly illuminating the room in morning sunshine.

“I have to do some recon,” he said tersely.

She scrambled to a sitting position. “What does that mean? Do I need to go?”

He held out a hand. “No, no. You stay here. Browning’s going to be here with you. I’m going out with Terrence while Decker, Diego and Alton are going to post a perimeter to make sure no one gets in.”

“Is someone here?” she demanded. “What’s going on, Rio?”

“Maybe nothing, but I’m not taking any chances. Browning just came off his watch and he reported movement in the southern sector bordering the river. Said they didn’t look like locals. As I said, it could be nothing, but I’m sure as hell going to check it out.”

She bit her lip but nodded.

“Listen to me. I want you up and dressed and prepared for anything. But I want you to stay in this room until I come back. Unless Browning tells you to move out. If for some reason I can’t return to get you and we need to move, he’ll bring you to meet me through one of the escape tunnels.”

Her pulse raced out of control until she could feel it at her temples. She scrambled out of bed, staring left and right, unsure of what she was even looking for.

Rio put his hands on her shoulders and then turned her around to meet his gaze. He lowered his head and kissed her hard and quick.

“Don’t freak. I need you calm. There are clothes in the closet. Get what you need. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

He kissed her one last time and then was gone before she could even tell him to be careful.

There was no hope of her actually relaxing after that kind of wake-up call. She rummaged through the closet until she found a shirt and a pair of shorts with a drawstring waist. Perfect.

She frowned as she considered whether or not to take a quick shower. He hadn’t really had time to leave yet. If he found trouble, he wouldn’t find it this quickly, would he?

Finally deciding to risk it, she set a record for getting hair and body washed and clean. She toweled off, pulled her clothing on and then began drying her hair. She combed it out, left it mostly damp and pulled it back into one of the rubber bands she found in the bathroom drawer.

She wouldn’t win any beauty contests but she was ready for anything.

Knowing her morning was shot to hell and she needed to find a way to relax, she climbed onto the bed and went through the exercises Rio had shown her the day before.

Gradually the anxiety melted away and she found her focus. Calm descended. It was as if her mind was a knotted rope that was uncoiling and loosening and fs iwe1em">inding its way free.

Tentatively she reached for her sister, trying to find her way back to that familiar path she’d used for so many years. She was changed, though. Her mind was different. She was different. Nothing was as it was before, and she had to find her way again.

She brought the image of Shea’s face to the center of her focus and let everything else fall away. She brought to mind the sound of her sister’s voice. How it echoed in her memory. The way it sounded through the telepathic link.

Warmth spread over her, soothing and comforting. She could literally feel her sister’s smile. And then the faintest echo, so faint she thought she’d imagined it.

Grace.

Her name. Shea was calling to her.

She was about to respond when her door burst open and Browning flew inside, his expression grave.

“Let’s go. We have to meet Rio.”

Her heart pounding out of her chest, she scrambled off the bed, thrust her feet into the pair of shoes on the floor and hurried after Browning, who was already on his way down the hall.

“What is it? What’s happened?” she asked.

“I don’t have all the details. Rio said to get you out and that’s what I’m doing. He’ll meet us in the northwest corner.”

Grace frowned. That was away from the river. Had they come for her? Had she been found this quickly?

Browning led her through a tunnel she hadn’t been in. It came out in a small cave, really more of a carved-out hole a few feet up a cliff overgrown with vines and thick moss.

He dropped down first and then motioned for her to jump to him. He broke her fall and then took her hand, tugging her farther into the dense foliage.

Limbs and brush slapped at her face, chest and legs. Several times she got tangled up in the undergrowth and nearly fell. She stumbled into Browning, who seemed impatient with how slowly she was moving.

Several times he looked as though he would say something, but he clamped his lips shut and urged her on.

After what seemed like an hour of him all but dragging her through the jungle, they stepped into a clearing. Ahead, there was what looked like a village right on the banks of the river. Browning had said northwest, but northwest from the house wasn’t the river.

She struggled to catch up then pulled at his arm when several people stepped from the small huts that were erected a distance from the banks.

“Browning, what’s going on? What are we doing here?”

He grimaced and then caught hold of her wrist. He held it so firmly that it hurt, but when she tried to twist away, he only tightened his hold.

“I’m sorry, Grace,” he said in a low voice. “This is something I had to do. Rio’s going to be pissed that I gave him false information so he and the others would go out, but I had to do it because he would have never let you come otherwise.”

Fear burned through her stomach. “What the hell are you talking about?”

She tried to take a step back, but he wouldn’t release her hand. She started to struggle, but he pulled out his pistol. She went still, unbelieving what she was seeing. What was happening? Browning pointed the gun at her.

“Don’t, Grace. Please. I’m not going to hurt you unless you make it necessary. Just listen to me, okay? We don’t have a lot of time.”

Just then a young woman ran up to Browning, babbling a stream that Grace didn’t understand. Browning held up the hand holp tx20ding the pistol to silence the other woman but then pulled her into his side and held her, even as he gripped Grace’s wrist with his other hand.

Grace’s blood ran cold and panic gripped her throat. She hadn’t questioned Browning. Rio himself had told her to go with Browning if he told her to. She’d trusted Rio’s men because they were an extension of him. What was she supposed to have done, though, when Rio told her to do just as she’d done?

Browning had set Rio and the others up so he could get Grace out of the house. But why?

Browning said something to the woman and then gestured her away. He then turned his attention back to Grace. “I need your help.”

His tone was pleading but Grace was just pissed. “Lying to me, dragging me through a jungle and pointing a gun at me isn’t the way to go about asking for my help.” She looked pointedly down at her wrist. “You’re hurting me.”

He loosened his grip slightly but wouldn’t let her go. He kept looking in the direction that the woman had run, and a moment later, relief flooded his eyes. Grace followed the direction of his gaze to see the woman hurrying toward them with a baby in her arms.

Several of the villagers had formed a loose perimeter, and still more gathered, murmuring in low voices. Several shot the young woman holding the baby looks of sympathy. Others shook their heads and made gestures to suggest she was crazy.

The woman slowed as she approached Grace. Her expression was pleading and she spoke to Grace in broken English. “Please do not be angry with Mitch. I begged him to do this. It’s the only way. You’re our only hope.”

Grace looked at Browning in confusion.

“Mitch is my first name,” he muttered.

“What the hell is going on?” she asked for what seemed like the hundredth time. “Why am I here?”

Finally he let go of her wrist but then she noticed that several of the villagers were behind her as well. She had nowhere to go even if she decided to run. She cupped her arm, rubbing absently at the red marks as she waited for someone to tell her what the hell was happening.

Browning pulled the young woman into his side, his arm wrapped possessively around her waist. There was a fierceness in his expression, one she recognized because it was the way Rio looked at her.

“This is Sumathi, my woman, and our child, Ana. Ana is…” He broke off, his voice thick with emotion. “She’s sick. She’s dying.”

Sumathi interjected again. “Please, you must help her. There is nothing else to do. She’s so weak. I’m afraid she will die today if nothing is done to help her.”

Some of Grace’s anger slipped away as she stared at the infant in Sumathi’s arms. She was a thin baby, not at all like the chubby, rosy-looking babies that signified good health. The baby lay listlessly in the blanket.

“What’s wrong with her?” Grace asked Browning.

“The doctors call it failure to thrive. No one really knows. She just won’t eat. She has no strength. She’s wasting away and I don’t know what to do. I wanted to take her to the U.S. so she could be hospitalized. I was going to ask Rio for help. I know he would have given it to me. But I didn’t know until just a short time ago and now I don’t think she would be able to make the trip. Sumathi has taken her to see doctors here, but they tell her to feed her. Give her special formulas. She’s tried everything, even asking another woman to nurse her. But she’s dying.”