Out of Sight Page 22

Responding to the humorous glint in his eyes, AJ laughed. "Cool. We'll be the first."

  "They'll find our dead bodies come Christmas, naked and dried up like prunes."

  "Your penis will show them we died happy," she said with a wicked smile and a gurgle of laughter. "A little pink staff saluting in the breeze."

  "Hey, what little?"

  "Move your leg."

  "It's moved as far as it can possibly move. A contortionist, I'm not."

  AJ got the giggles as she tried to hoist the caftan clear of her bottom. Then she stood in the stirrups again. "Help me lift my—"

  He gripped her waist and lifted her as easily as he would a bag of potatoes. "See?" she crowed, yanking the bulk of the fabric of the caftan free. The blanket between her thighs felt smooth and warm on her bare skin. A shiver of excitement coursed through her.

  "I see a lovely ass," Kane assured her, running both hands lightly from her midriff down to the curved indentation of her waist, then cupping the aforementioned ass. "World-class," he said dryly. "Now cover up before we fall off this thing."

  AJ crossed her arms, and swiftly drew the caftan up and over her head. Chill air raced over her skin, causing a delicious rash of goose bumps. Her nipples peaked from the cold as she unfastened her bra. She stuffed both garments into the bag in front of her, then reached back to loosen her hair. Long strands untwisted from the braid and tumbled down her bare back in a warm, ticklish fall.

  "Christ. Lady Godiva," Kane said reverently, sliding his palms around her narrow rib cage and slowly up her midriff until he cupped a breast in each hand. She sucked in a breath as he lightly brushed each taut nipple with a calloused thumb. The sensation shot straight to her core in a sharp, sweet wave.

  The feel of him, so close behind her, their torsos not quite touching, sent a shimmer of need racing from her head to her toes. With his palms warm on her breasts, he nuzzled her neck, his breath warm and moist. His penis moved restlessly against her bottom. "Have I mentioned lately that you have a spectacular ass?"

  "Not… lately… no." She wiggled backwards.

  Damned if he could ignore an invitation as tempting as that one. He paused for a long moment, loving the heavy weight of her plump breasts in his hands, loving the responsive way her nipples peaked, the hard, tight buds nuzzling his palms before he released his hold there to slide his hands down her slender rib cage, taking satisfaction in her sigh of pleasure as his hands moved to cup her hips.

  He cradled her behind in both hands, caressing her silky smooth skin and stroking the cool mounds until she trembled in his grasp, rocking her hips.

  She leaned back against him, her head restless on his shoulder. "Kane…"

  "Right… here." He feathered one hand over the gentle curve of her hip, and traced the warm damp crease at the top of her legs. She made a soft sound of need as his fingers slid under the thin black ribbon to find the slick heat of her desire.

  He touched her, and she moved her legs farther apart to give him greater access, as he glided two fingers deep inside her. He pushed his fingers deeper, pressing his palm hard against her, pressing his straining erection hard against her bottom. She moaned low in her throat.

  She trembled and strained against his hand. A primitive satisfaction took hold of him as she moaned and quaked as she climaxed, her body clenching around his fingers.

  Kane almost came just listening to her pleasure. With his other hand he freed himself as his mind emptied and his body took charge. Hard and aching, he needed her damp heat as much as his lungs needed air. He wanted to feel the sweet cradle of her wet flesh surround and clench him. He wanted to empty himself into her depths and hear the soft, sweet moans drift from her throat as she came.

  And he wanted it—needed it—now.

  The sensation of him that close but separated by a millimeter of cotton ratcheted her need up another tight notch. She twisted around to look down between them. "Can you get it out?"

  "Oh, it's come out to play, honey. But that's not the problem," Kane said, laughing at the ridiculousness of what they were attempting. Only AJ… "It's the getting it in."

  AJ leaned her body forward, laying across the neck of the camel, its harsh, coarse hair abrading her skin as she bared her bottom to Kane. "Now?"

  He positioned her with both hands on her hips, and she leaned forward, stretched out over Kika's broad back.

  He withdrew his hand, trailing his damp fingers across her hip, and used them to guide himself into her. She gasped as he filled her, and the sensation was like nothing he'd ever known before. Beneath them, the stoic camel walked on, its rocking motion driving Kane as he moved within AJ's depths.

  AJ shifted, slowly lifting her hips and then lowering them on him again. Then, in inches, she sat up, pushing herself upright until she was pinned to his body like a butterfly on display.

  "Kika's watching us," AJ said suddenly.

  "Kika," Kane said sternly, "face forward. Watch where we're going." The curious camel lifted her lip, exposing large yellow teeth. She and Kane made eye contact. Kika blinked her ridiculously long lashes and faced forward, without missing a step.

  "Thank you," AJ said. "Now, where were we?"

  "One of us is naked, the other is inside the naked one," he said, his tone Sahara dry as he pulled her hard against him.

  "Yum. Indeed you are." AJ flapped a hand at the camel's face. Kika lifted her lip and rolled her eyes. Disgruntled, AJ twisted to look back at Kane. "I don't think I can have wild camel sex with Kika watching."

  "Are you nuts?" Kane demanded. "After all this contorting, you're telling me no?"

  "I'm not telling you no… exactly. I'm telling you I can't have sex while a camel is watching me come."

  "Kika," Kane said firmly. "Go. Go. Go."

  AJ grabbed Kane's hands, which just happened to be cupping her breasts right then, as the camel picked up speed and started trotting. The fastest she'd gone since they'd started the journey.

  "U-uncle," AJ cried as Kane's penis was jammed high inside her with each jarring thud of Kika's splayed feet in the sand. It felt incredible. Wonderful. Full.

  Too much… Ahhhh. Perfect.

  "Oh, Lord. This is amazing. Isn't it amazing?" Stars overhead winked slowly out of existence as light shimmered at the edge of the horizon. But all AJ saw were the sparklers splintering behind her eyelids. Kane's body pushed at hers, rubbing, thrusting. Cool air on her skin, warm hands on her breasts, and the rocking of the camel all combined to send AJ's body into overdrive.

  "Amazing," Kane agreed, chuckling as he buried his face against the back of her neck and bit gently on the soft skin behind her ear. He dropped one hand to her center and thumbed the tiny nub at the heart of her heat. She trembled in his grasp.

  "Okay?" Kane asked tightly.

  "Better than," AJ gasped as she arched her back, taking him deeper, her fingers gripping the camel's muscular neck.

  "Run, Kika," he said, and the camel quickened her steps even further, doing all the work for Kane, until all he had to do was hold on and ride out the storm as AJ's body tightened over his and they came together like liquid lightning.

  Their bodies trembled from the force of their pleasure, and it was several long minutes before AJ could manage to speak coherently. "Takes the word 'humping' to a whole new level, doesn't it?" She laughed as she sank back against him, their bodies still joined.

  Overhead, the sky looked like faded black denim studded with rhinestones, while in the distance, dawn crept like a thief up over the horizon in a gaudy display of shocking pinks and brilliant pumpkin orange. AJ rested comfortably against Kane's warm chest, the blanket wrapped around both of them. His body radiated a comfortable heat, but the desert air felt chill and fresh on her cheeks.

  She'd pulled her clothes on hours before. It was one thing to give Kane a view of her, butt-naked on a camel, but a whole other ball game to have the Brothers Grim see her that way.

  Suddenly, Kane stiffened behind her. He'd been hyperalert for an hour or
more. AJ trusted his instincts, but she hadn't seen or heard anything other than sand and the soft, hypnotizing plod-plop-plop-plod of Kika's footsteps all night.

  "What is it?" she asked, immediately alert.

  He flung off the enveloping blanket. "We've got company." He drew his weapon. The sound of the clip slamming home sounded loud in the predawn quiet. Locked and loaded.

  Cool air washed over AJ as the blanket fell away—she barely noticed as she grabbed up the Dragunov from across her lap and followed his narrow-eyed gaze.

  "There." She saw them. About a mile to the east, and back-lit by the spectacular dawn, a group of men on camels headed straight for them. A thick plume of dust followed in their wake. They were moving fast and with purpose.

  "I'd hazard a guess they aren't the Welcome Wagon," AJ said dryly. Her heart pounded with excitement as the men approached, galabayyas catching the wind around them. From this distance, they were nothing more than large, billowing, black blotches with long, spindly legs following their shadows.

  Kane leaned away from her to give himself some elbow room. "Hold your fire until we know what they wa—"

  Their intent was pretty damn clear as a bullet whizzed over AJ's head. Then another and another. Top-of-the-line weapons, by the sound of them. Russian. New. High-powered. Even in the most inept hands, lethal.

  Adrenaline kicked in, and AJ felt a surge of heart-throbbing, Jesus-God-this-is-it kind of excitement. She waited, bracing herself for that lick of paralyzing fear to kick in…

  Her heart raced, her brain was clear and sharp, her hands, rock steady…

  No fear.

  No fear?

  She felt a wash of relief. No fear.

  She was a real T-FLAC operative after all.

  No time for elation.

  She raised the Dragunov, tucked the stock into her shoulder, and felt the intensity of the moment as all her concentration ran down the length of the barrel. Index finger resting lightly on the trigger guard, she observed the bad guys through her scope. Kika's rocking motion made it hard, but AJ worked it into a rhythm. The man in the lead rose and fell in her target zone. He had a familiar mole right beside his beak of a nose. She could see him that clearly, despite the muted light.

  "They're Raazaq's," she told Kane, recognizing the guy from the car chase the other day. Definitely Raazaq's. "A little closer…" she said softly under her breath.

  Seven hundred yards.

  Six-fifty.

  Six…

  "Thank you." She fired, hitting Mr. Mole bull's-eye. A good, clean shot was messy. A dermatologist would've done a better job, and the man's life expectancy would've been guaranteed. Unfortunately for him she wasn't a dermatologist. When she removed a malignancy, it was fatal.

  She fired again, a deterring pattern, and the man's camel veered off from the others and went plodding off, back the way they'd come. Mr. Mole's companions split up, their camels drifting apart until ten yards or so separated them. As if making them harder to hit than when in a group. Instead, they'd just made it easier forAJ.

  Behind her, Kane continued firing the AK-47. Awkward without room to maneuver. But they managed to eliminate several of the bad guys in a one-two burst of fire that seemed perfectly synchronized and well choreographed.

  Five hundred feet.

  As their attackers closed the gap, AJ counted fifteen-plus men… Shit, no—eighteen. She and Kane were pitifully outnumbered and needed an advantage. She glanced around. Cover. They needed cover. And fast.

  Four hundred feet… "Holy dromedary, Batman. Their camels must be on speed! Kika's never moved that fast."

  " 'Specially carrying two." Kane didn't sound particularly perturbed. "There's a rocky outcrop about half a click ahead," he shouted, still firing.

  A hole appeared in AJ's sleeve as if by magic, missing her arm by a cotton thread. She felt the cold heat of the bullet passing over her skin. Her heart leaped into her throat, and sweat broke out on her brow, but she ignored it. She fired again. And again.

  "The brothers have headed over there to high ground," Kane shouted. "Kika, get the lead out. Har-eeb! Har-eeb! Har-eeb!"

  Apparently, Kika, bless her little camel heart, didn't like the noise of bullets whizzing by, and picked up the pace, breaking into a clumsy, swaying gallop, which made their aim even iffier. Still, AJ got another three bad guys in quick succession. Kane, two.

  "Damn, we're good," she shouted, feeling the rush of doing her job and doing it well.

  "Don't count your tangos before they fall," Kane shouted back, firing an impressive round and still managing to support AJ with his thighs so she didn't fall off the careening camel.

  The men were a lot closer.

  Four hundred yards and closing.

  She aimed for the lead camel, a bigger target, and hoped it would be a clean kill. She loved animals, so it was a tough, but necessary, shot. The shot was true. The camel and rider went down in a heap and were promptly trampled by the camel and rider behind them. AJ winced as she got off another series of shots. One more down. This time she aimed at the human vermin.

  The air smelled of cordite, gun oil, and hot metal. Better than Chanel, AJ thought with satisfaction, as another bad guy dropped off his camel like a fly. The camel continued running.

  Kika let out a god-awful loud, braying cry as a bullet winged her right flank. The poor beast, burdened by two riders, picked up even more speed. This time in sheer terror.

  Plod-plop-plop-plod-plodplopplopplod, faster and faster.

  AJ was flung against Kane as Kika started to climb. He pushed her back with the butt of the AK-47 and held her there until she centered herself on the saddle.

  "I'm good," she told him as soon as she felt balanced. She resumed firing. She felt the hardness of the stock on her shoulder as Kane paused, making sure she wasn't about to tumble to the rocky ground. "I'm good," she repeated, and Kane grunted before twisting around to get off a few shots himself.

  The small hill was an island in the middle of a sand sea. The rocks dry and crumbling beneath Kika's feet as she did a mad scramble to safety, scattering bits of rock and showering the desert behind them with sprays of sand and gravel.

  Several hundred yards away, in a small depression of rock, the brothers hunkered down out of range. Kane could just see the tops of their camels' heads.

  They came to a small, flat area. "Down, girl," Kane instructed Kika, nudging the camel hard with his foot. She immediately rocked forward and then back, folding her legs beneath her.

  AJ and Kane swung their legs over the animal's back before flattening themselves on the ground on top of the rocks and pebbles. In his peripheral vision, Kane saw a head pop up.

  "Keep your heads down," he shouted in Arabic. The brothers didn't need to be told twice—they ducked, and stayed out of sight. "Call Kika," he added.

  One of the boys whistled long and sharp, and Kika lumbered to her feet and sauntered up and over the rocks to safety.

  Kane reloaded, glanced at AJ, then continued to get off several rounds as she did the same. While her appearance wasn't exactly by the book by any stretch of the imagination, Kane was hard-pressed to imagine anything sexier than AJ with her red hair wild and tangled around her shoulders, and her eyes glittering with excitement as she lay flat on her stomach, caftan hiked about her thighs, bare legs spread for balance.

  He grinned. Jesus, she was great. And he had it bad. "Left. Three o'clock," he told her. And she immediately swiveled the Dragunov and dropped the guy. There was no sign now that she'd ever been afraid. It was as if the woman who'd landed in Cairo days ago and the woman before him now were two different people.

  Her aim was incredible.

  He'd never seen anything like it.

  She didn't miss.

  There was nowhere for the tangos to hide. He suspected they'd planned to be at this outcrop of rocks before their prey and had miscalculated. The morning sun rose higher in the sky as the remaining men got off a few more shots. They were wasting bulle
ts. They couldn't breach the place where Kane and AJ lay. And unless they planned to outwait them, they were screwed.

  "Pick them off," Kane instructed, wiping sweat from his eyes and feeling the unrelenting beat of the sun on top of his unprotected head. Their hats were in Kika's saddlebag with their sunglasses and sunscreen. He wanted this over.

  "Leave the big one on the right. Maybe we can get some answers."

  AJ nodded. Sweat gleamed on her skin, strands of honey-red hair clung to the dampness on her cheek and neck, and lay in a gleaming pool on the dirt beside her head as she rested her cheek on her weapon like a mother with her child.

  "The fat ugly one, or the tall ugly one?"

  "Which looks the most intelligent?" Kane asked facetiously. The men were covered from nose to toes in black.

  "Fat and ugly." AJ picked off the other three as easily as shooting at tin cans, although they were three hundred yards away and the sun was in her eyes.

  "Nice work," he told her easily.

  She turned and gave him a brilliant smile that shot straight to his heart, before turning back to keep the Dragunov trained on the last man, a hundred and fifty feet away.

  "Off the camel," Kane shouted in Arabic. "Hands up."

  He and AJ rose to their feet, weapons still pointed at the last man. The bad guy's camel danced in place as he manipulated the reins.

  "Son of a bitch is going to bolt." She squeezed off a warning shot. But it was no use. The man wheeled his animal and took off across the desert in a cloud of dust. She hesitated.

  "Drop him," Kane told her grimly.

  "We need him," AJ shouted, aiming for the camel's hindquarters. She squeezed off the shot. The camel's legs buckled. Damn it. Damn it. She hated, hated, hated hurting animals. The man jumped free, his legs tangling in the enveloping galabayya as he fell to the ground, and rolled over and over. His camel bolted.

  AJ trained her weapon on the man, keeping his face in her sight. Fifties. Small, close together black eyes. "Tell us what Raazaq's up to, you bastard," she yelled, not even aware he probably didn't understand a word she said. The weapon didn't so much as waver in her hands.

  "Put your hands up, and walk toward us," Kane shouted in Arabic.