Page 26 of Brawler
Her chest clenched. What if it was Sombra? What if something had hurt her or the cubs? The thought carved a hollow ache in her gut, a wild panic rising sharp and fast. She couldn’t bear the idea of their small bodies broken, of the fierce mother silenced. Not them. Not after all the odds they’d already fought to survive.
Suddenly, the team bugged out, movement behind her, the sweep of shadows as every operator shifted in unison. Emilyturned her head in confusion just in time to see Brawler and Beast barreling toward her, massive and silent as a landslide.
“Don’t move!” His voice cracked like a shot.
She meant to comply, but the earth betrayed her. The ground shuddered, then collapsed. Her stomach dropped as soil and roots gave way beneath her.
Something heavy and fast launched over her shoulder, followed by a sharp yelp.
Emily scrabbled, nails raking dirt, boots sliding for purchase, but the slope carried her down. Branches snapped across her arms and face. Breath burst from her lungs. The world flipped end over end.
Brawler hithigh on the slope, the earth giving way under him. His body tumbled, rolling hard, dirt and rock battering his ribs, shoulders slamming into roots, his teeth clacking with every jolt. The jungle blurred, sky and ground trading places until the slope finally spat him out at the bottom. The ground slammed his shoulder, jarred down to his teeth. His helmet askew, he righted it, pushing up the NVGs.
Beast yelped, rolling to his side, scrabbling upright with dirt caked in his fur. Brawler’s heart clenched hard.Christ. Sorry, buddy.Beast was more than a dog. He was his other half in the field, his lifeline. If the fall had broken something, if he’d failed his partner?—
Relief cut sharp when the Malinois shook himself, braced, and came up steady, eyes already scanning the dark like nothing could put him down.
Fuck. What an idiot.Beast froze at the edge of the slope for a reason, muscles bunched, ears pricked. A silent warning.Brawler should’ve read it, but his focus was locked on Emily being where she had no business. He tripped over his partner’s flank, momentum already carrying them forward.
Then…impact.
Emily landed full length on top of him, knocking the wind from his chest for the second time but in a completely different way. For a heartbeat, everything stopped. The crack of gunfire above. The stink of churned earth. The jungle pressing close.
They lay in a bruising tangle, dirt grinding into skin, the world still spinning from the fall. Sharp, ragged breaths tore from them both, the kind you couldn’t hold back after being knocked around by the earth itself.
She shifted with a pained sound, her body pressed to his, ribs rising and falling against his chest. Brawler gritted his teeth, forcing air into lungs that didn’t want to expand, every muscle jarred and throbbing. Beneath it all, the adrenaline spike that had already surged through him slammed lower, swelling hard as her small, fiery body lay against his.
Fuck. Third impact. Harder than the fall, harder than the bruises. Too close. Too goddamn close.
It wasn’t just color. It wasEmilyetched in color and vibrancy like she already knew him, reaching for the parts he’d buried deepest. Recognition slammed through him, raw and unyielding, as if she could see every scar and secret he’d ever tried to hide, and the ache he had to share them.
They weren’t still, but sparking with life, throwing back the moonlight like flame catching and flaring in the dark. There was nothing he could do to stop himself from staring.
A storm of green seas, flecked with gold, copper lightning striking at the edges. Too much. Too wild. Fairy magic.
He was lost.
He sucked in air, sharp and jagged, every nerve in his body fired raw. More of that chemical rush roared through him,molten and uncontainable, and before he could leash it, his body betrayed him.
His hips surged, hard and urgent, pressing against her belly.
Heat punched through him, a volatile, intoxicating cocktail of testosterone and adrenaline, lust and fury and need tangled so tightly he couldn’t separate one from the other. His muscles locked, straining, his pulse hammering in places that had nothing to do with survival.
Christ, it was arousal stripped bare, no finesse, no control. Primitive. Dangerous. The kind of hunger he’d spent his whole life keeping buried under discipline and restraint was now boiling over just because this stubborn, infuriating, beautiful woman was sprawled across him, her body a live current against his.
It was again too much. Too real. Too goddamn close again.
Her eyes flared, then froze, and she felt it, too, the surge of awareness slamming between them, raw and undeniable. One heartbeat, two, and then her compelling gaze cut down, realization striking hard as his body betrayed him.
Her head snapped up, narrowing into accusation. “Are youactuallyhard?”
Brawler’s jaw locked. Oh.Hellno. He wasn’t explaining a thing. Not here. Not when fury churned hotter than shame. Fury that she’d disobeyed.
“You were told not to mess with that camera! What were you thinking?”
“Hmm, let me see,” she lobbed back, bristling, her eyes losing all that sheen, her face hardening. “Maybe my life’sfuckingwork. I had to get that footage.”
“Even if it risked your life?”
