Lahat ng Kabanata ng Solid Muscle (Unseen Enemy 5): Kabanata 51 - Kabanata 60

Cordelia sat in total darkness. The three men in the SUV were silent, but she could hear them breathing both in front of her and next to her. She felt dizzy, disoriented. Lost in the dark.The only stable, solid thing in her whole world right now was Hunter. He was sitting between her and the man in the back seat, holding her hand tight in his, giving her a small squeeze every once in a while, just to let her know he was there with her. He was reassuring her and comforting her, acting as though he didn’t have a gun shoved into his side. His entire focus was her, she was the center of his whole world; she actually felt that.They drove for what felt like a long time, at least an hour. Cordelia started to feel almost sick from the motion, from the darkness. She shut her eyes as hard as she could, took some deep breaths.“Millie?”She jumped. “Yes?”“You doing OK?” She heard the concern in Hunter’s voice, and all she wanted to do was cuddle up in his arms. “You feel sick?”“A bit,” she a

Sully was completely frozen, staring down at the little girl in front of him. She was wearing a stained onesie that might have been pink once upon a time. Her head was covered in dark curls; her eyes were dark; her mouth was a perfect rosebud. She was sitting in her crib looking up at him, and the look on her face was pure sweetness. She had her arms out, extended to him, begging for a hug. Begging to be loved.Everything in his massive body crumbled. Without even one second of conscious thought, he picked her up.“Hey!” The woman in this place was even more disagreeable than the first two they’d met. “No touching!”He turned on her, tightening his grip on the tiny body now curled up warm and safe on his broad chest. “This one.”“No touching!” the woman insisted. “Put it down!”“Her,” Sully ground out. “Her.”“Put. It. Down.” The woman spoke through gritted teeth now.Sully felt a gentle hand on his forearm. Dazed, he looked down at Cordelia.“Garrett?” She was frightened and she knew

Except as it turned out, Iris didn’t have a home to get to. Dallas dropped that little bombshell two mornings later in his hotel room. He, Sully and Cordelia had spent the whole of the previous two days in the hospital with Iris. She’d received a thorough checkup, and the only time she’d stopped screaming had been when Sully or Cordelia was holding her; she’d even looked at Dallas with suspicion. The doctor had declared her to be dehydrated and hungry, but surprisingly bright and alert. X-rays had shown no breaks, no stress fractures, no knitted bones. Her blood tests came back clean; her heartbeat was strong; her internal organs were perfect.Over the two days at the hospital, Sully, Dallas and Cordelia had answered question after question, both individually and together as a team. They’d provided every single detail humanly possible about the men, the women, the drives to and between the holding centers and, of course, the conditions at the centers themselves. Sully now demonstrate

“So.” Cordelia looked up at Hunter. “What are we going to do with our week off?”He grinned. She was sitting next to him on the plane, her head on his shoulder as the plane taxied to the runway for take-off. She looked wiped out, and no surprise there: they’d both been through it the past few days.“Well.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “I know you’ll want to see Sean and your Mom, and I want to see Dad and find out what I can about Iris.”“Yeah.”“So maybe in a couple of days we can go away together?”She smiled. “We just got back from going away together.”“You know what I mean. Go away together somewhere private and romantic. Share a bed, not answer the phone for two whole days because we’re making love non-stop.”“That sounds good,” she said, as visions of Hunter naked flashed through her head. “Any ideas where we’re going?”“Yep. We’re going to my cabin.”“We are?”“Uh-huh.”“In the woods?”“In the mountains. Near a small lake.”“Hmmm.” She pretended to consider it. “You ha

Three days laterCordelia woke up early, glanced over at Hunter. He was still sleeping and her eyes roamed over his amazing naked chest. The urge to wake him up with her mouth was overwhelming, but she really wanted to get out next to the lake and watch the sunrise while doing some yoga.Quietly, she rolled away from him and started to sit up. But of course the man heard her – even in his sleep, his special-ops background was present and kicked up to maximum. Without a word, without even opening his eyes, his muscled arm shot out and wrapped around her waist; she gave a startled shriek as he carefully pulled her back against his strong body. Hunter spooned her, his mouth on the back of her neck, nuzzling and nipping.“Where you going, baby?” he murmured. “It’s too early to get out of this nice, warm bed.”She turned in his arms, stared into those dark eyes. “To do some yoga down by the lake.”“Ummmm.” His throaty groan was turning her on, big time. “You want some exercise, all you hav