Page 79 of Deceptive Lies

Slowly he began to move, thrusting in and out with as much restraint as he still had left. Willow moved with him like they’d been doing this all their lives. Her legs hooked around his hips, drawing him deeper, and he found her lips, kissing her with every drop of emotion he felt.

Balancing his weight on one hand, his other slipped between them, touching her where their bodies joined, building her quickly toward another orgasm because he sure as hell wasn't coming alone.

The second she cried out, her internal muscles clamping around him as pleasure tore through her body, Cooper let go, let his own release gather him up and toss him around in a whirlwind of ecstasy.

They were both breathing hard by the time they floated back down to earth. Willow’s eyes were soft as she looked at him, and he touched another kiss to her lips before easing out of her. Disposing of the condom, he went into the bathroom, ran a washcloth under warm water then returned to the bedroom and cleaned Willow up.

Then he pulled the covers down, lay beside her, drawing her into his arms, and tucked them both in. “Sleep time now, honey,” he murmured as he touched a kiss to her temple.

“Are you staying here all night?” she asked, voice already turning sleepy.

“Wild horses couldn’t drag me away,” he promised.

Maybe wild horses couldn’t drag him away from the woman snuggled against his side, but there was somebody who could.

Tonight, he got to sleep with his girl in his arms, but tomorrowmorning she was going to play bait for a dangerous man who had already tried to kill her several times over, who wouldn't hesitate to do it if given the chance.

All it would take was for one tiny thing to go wrong and he could lose her forever.

July 15th

9:23 A.M

This seemed like a much better idea when she sat safe in a motel room surrounded by six strong, skilled warriors.

Now …

Now Willow was thinking maybe this wasn't her best plan ever.

Saying goodbye to Cooper before the guys dropped her off had felt wrong somehow. Almost like she was tempting fate. That her stubborn determination to bring down Tarek Mahmoud whatever the cost was going to wind up costing her far more than she was prepared to pay.

Only it was too late to back out now.

After spending the night sleeping peacefully in Cooper’s arms, they’d woken early, made love again, then showered together and gotten dressed. When she put back on the dirty, blood-stained clothes she’d been wearing when the helicopter crashed, she’d gotten her first foreshadowing that something felt wrong.

But she’d brushed it off.

Even though things felt wrong, and she wished she had Cooper and his brothers at her back, Willow still knew her plan was solid. This was the best way to ensure they got their man. If they didn't, she didn't want to be responsible for what Allah’s Warriors would do if they were left to freely indoctrinate young men and then follow through with their plans.

This was for sure the right thing to do, so why did it feel so wrong?

Glancing around, Willow tried to check if anyone was watching her, but nobody was around.

What if she was wrong about this?

What if there weren't any of the professor’s people around here?

The entire plan depended on someone spotting her and getting word to Professor Mahmoud. While she and Cooper had been having sex and sleeping tangled together in one another’s arms, the rest of the guys had been busy planning. Normally, Willow would feel guilty for sleeping on the job, she should have been there, helping work through the details, but this time she knew the best thing she could do for all of them was rest.

Even with the few hours of sleep, she was running on one step away from empty.

It would take her weeks to fully recover from this ordeal, but at least she was no longer dying of thirst. The guys had pumped her full of painkillers so the throbbing in her head, and her arm, and her chest, and pretty much every single muscle in her body, was dulled to a more manageable level.

Still, the sun felt too hot against her already sunburned skin, and the filthy clothes felt stiff and scratchy against her body. As much as she wished she could have stayed in one of the outfits they had packed for her, that would give away the fact that she’d been rescued.

For this to work, it had to look like she’d wandered alone in the desert since the crash and then taken refuge in the first building she found.

The guys had located what would have been the closest village to where the helicopter crashed. It sucked to know that she and Cooper had walked in the wrong direction, and had they come this way, they might have found help before things became so dire and she almost died.

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