Page 24 of Twister

She felt as though she was suffocating as she gazed at him, longing to relent but knowing she didn’t dare. Her voice was fragmented when she whispered, “Don’t, Shane. I’m not sure what’ll happen if you do.”

His eyes captured hers and his touch was infinitely gentle as he dragged his hand through her hair and caught her by the back of the head, forcing her mouth to his. His lips were warm as he brushed the corner of her mouth with a whisper of a kiss, then roughly pressed her against him, his breathing labored. Twister sighed and shifted his hold, his voice tinged with reluctance and a simmering heat. “You aren’t making this any easier.” He slammed the flat of his hand against the stop button to get the elevator moving again, and they were soon in the lobby.

He barely gave her enough time to catch her balance before he propelled her forward. “I think it’s time we move to safer ground,” he said succinctly, and Sadie worked at getting her equilibrium back.

They reached the hallway leading to the mess hall, and Sadie shivered, partly from the cool air and partly from the absence of Twister’s physical warmth. When they entered the room, they were all business. She grabbed the fastest thing she could find, overnight oats, and he followed suit. Along with a cup of coffee each, they wolfed down their breakfast.

They went for another cup of coffee, and he took her cup and poured hers out, then handed it back to her. She added cream, while he took his black, their arms lightly brushing.

“You ready for this whole thing,” he asked, and she realized that he was talking about this thing between them.

“Sure am, but are you?”

“As sure as death and taxes,” he said.

She took a sip, then slanted an amused glance up at him. “Well, look at that. I guess you can teach a seal more tricks than just bouncing a ball on his nose.”

That made him laugh. Stars, he was so beautiful as he shook his head. “I bet you drive your bosses crazy.”

“I’m taking the fifth,” she murmured. She glanced at her watch, and it was time to haul ass to the meeting.

They made it to the briefing room exactly on time and mostly everyone else was already seated. Twister moved to the table and stared at Flash until he moved a seat over, then he and Sadie took the empty side-by-side seats.

Flash grinned with a knowing look.

Sadie had more or less regained her equilibrium, and a vitalizing energy made her feel as if she were walking on air. He moved his chair so that his forearm was touching hers. There was something about the way he did it that revealed a very comfortable familiarity, and Sadie experienced a warm rush. She would have never believed that grumpy sleeping beauty on the plane could find so much pleasure from simply touching her. She leaned against his arm, liking the feel of his warmth against her. She took a sip of coffee, waiting for the brief to begin.

Tex stepped to the front of the room. “Good morning. I’m Lieutenant Michael Penn, but you can all call me Tex. I’m the CO of the Navy SEALs who will be protecting the divers from Seven Demands. Please stand when I call out your name.” He named the team, and each of them stood, including Twister when hisname was called, then sat down when he was finished. “We have some preliminary information to impart, then we’ll get down to the briefing. In regard to the bombing at the airport yesterday, Seven Demands have taken credit. Including the bomber, we had forty-five deaths, twelve of those were children.” His mouth tightened. “Of those children, six were American citizens. They died with their parents while on vacation. American citizens accounted for over half of the fatalities,” he said grimly.

Sadie closed her eyes, a lump in her throat and she pressed harder against Twister’s arm. He turned to look at her, bolstering her with compassion in his eyes.

“The State Department and the Department of Defense have sent CIA Officer Emma Sutherland, and the Navy has sent two NCIS special agents: Griffin Crawford and Axel Beck.” The CIA operative looked like a weapon, sleek, keenly honed, and lethal with long blonde hair and violet blue eyes. Stunning. Special Agent Crawford was a sharply handsome, dark-haired man with pale blue eyes that looked like they could look right through you, and his intimidating partner, Special Agent Beck, was…big and muscular, his skin the color of a fawn’s tawny coat. Dangerously handsome, he had his crinkled, inky black hair secured with a band to the nape of his thick neck. His eyes below those dark-winged brows were velvety obsidian and the only soft thing on him. He had an almost beard accentuating a full, sensuous mouth. “They will be investigating, with the help of our host country’s local police, and both US and Indonesian Naval military attachés, and the FBI forensic team, the attack at the airport and our deceased Navy diver, Dylan Mercer. Dylan was murdered in the Bali Sea from an attack by Seven Demands. They don’t want us to salvage the wreck. Their philosophy is that their bodies were taken in by the ocean and shouldn’t be disturbed. He was stabbed while surfacing from the wreck. His body was recovered by Petty Officer Neil Lancaster, who wasalso in danger from the attackers, but he fought them off and brought Petty Officer Mercer to the surface. But it was too late to save him.”

Neil had been there? She looked around the room and spied him close to the front. Surprisingly, he was staring at her. She nodded to him, trying to project her sympathy at what had happened. He blinked a couple of times, his eyes filling with gratitude. That must have been awful for him. He was a sensitive guy, and although she had no idea if he and Dylan were close, she suspected it had to be very upsetting, regardless of their relationship. They were all in the service together, but it was more than that. There was something about the shared hell of dive school and doing a job that was dangerous even on a good day, that forged a strong bond. Her eyes shifted to David—well, most of them anyway.

He scowled back at her, and she focused once again on Tex.

“So that’s a head’s up for the people you’ll see around.” When he nodded his head, Emma, Axel, and Griffin exited the room.

The people who were left were a man in Navy khaki, showing his warrant officer rank, and another with captain’s bars remained. Tex was moving on to their mission objective. “We have with us Warrant Officer Jason Chisolm, who is commanding this dive operation, and the captain of the rescue and salvage support vessel from Naval Sea Systems Command out of Singapore, USNSGuardian, Captain Allen Robertson.”

Sadie didn’t know either man, but it was clear that the operation was steadfastly moving forward.

“Me and my guys will accompany the salvage divers on each trip out to the Bali Sea where theGuardianwill anchor for the operation. Two combat divers will always accompany two salvage divers. My guys will of course be armed. If there is any danger, follow what they tell you to do to the letter. It will saveyour life.” He shifted, his words firm. “Once the shift is over, the ship will return to the dock. Are there any questions?”

No one said anything. “Good. Everyone who needs to, grab your gear. We’ll be heading out to theGuardianand commencing the first diving operation. Dismissed.”

She gritted her teeth—no opportunity to steal another few moments with Twister. Her body ached for him, and she couldn’t forget the sight of his well-endowed, jutting erection that she wanted to get her hands on. It was true she’d never gone down on a guy, had never had the desire to do so, but she couldn’t stop the urgent need inside her to suck Twister off. She wasn’t exactly sure how that would go, but she wanted to in the worst way.

Again, shocked at herself, she followed him out of the room, back to the elevator so that she could change into her skin suit and collect her gear. When he disappeared into his quarters, she ducked into her room and stripped down, grabbed up the garment she wore beneath her suit, and zipped it up.

It always felt decadent that she was naked beneath it.

Then it was to the van. When they pulled up to the dock, everything was already unloaded and stowed on theGuardian.

It was an impressive vessel designed to perform combat salvage, lifting, towing, off-ship firefighting, manned diving operations, and emergency repairs to stranded or disabled vessels. The ship carried transportable cutting and welding equipment, and hydraulic power sources.

For their purposes, the ship had a diving stage, double-lock hyperbaric chambers for decompression, a galley, and showers for after dives. The minute she was aboard the ship, she started to unload and check over her gear.

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