Free Soldier With Benefits (Military Men Book 2) by Shelley Munro Page B

dealing with the stress of their job. Louie kept a surreptitious eye on Mac and noticed she didn’t eat much, pushing her food around her plate. Something had happened after he left the room. She’d intended to check her email, which suggested she’d received news from home. He wondered how to handle the situation. With most of his men, it was easy. He called them into his office and they talked the problem through. Other times, his men approached him. Personal problems wreaked havoc on a soldier, taking their head out of the game. They were a team. They relied on each other. One screw up could mean loss of their VIP or that one or all of them died.
    The situation with Mac was different because of their personal history. Louie scowled down at his plate. He’d play it by ear. Observe. It was the only thing he could do in the circumstances.
    * * * * *
    Missing . Her father was missing from the home. At some stage during the night, he’d climbed out of bed, dressed and wandered outside. The director of the nursing home had assured Mac when she’d phoned in a panic that they were searching for him and had called the police.
    Mac was worried sick and couldn’t do a thing from half a world away. She couldn’t leave Iraq on a whim, had known it when she signed up for six months. She didn’t know what to do. Somehow, she managed to get through the training session by channeling her impotent fury and sense of helplessness.
    Mac worked through the training exercises with focus. A military machine. She’d scared the hell out of her team with her icy precision and concentration. A bitter laugh escaped as she strode toward their room. She hoped Louie turned up rather than heading to his office or going to the gym. Restless energy hummed through her limbs, and she couldn’t keep still. She yanked the door open and did her usual pacing.
    A glance at her watch told her it was the middle of the night in New Zealand. Mac powered up Louie’s laptop anyway to check her email. Nothing. She fired off an email and tried not to think about her father, confused and alone in an unfamiliar part of the city.
    The door flew open just as she hit send. Their eyes met and Mac’s heart turned a hard somersault, slamming against her ribs. The hungry glint in his eyes, the hard mask of desire he didn’t try to hide told her they wanted the same thing.
    She stood, quivering, her womb clenching in a hard pulse of need, her breasts exquisitely sensitive beneath the plain cotton of her bra. Each breath was an exercise in torture.
    The lock on the door turned, the click loud in the tension-filled room. With two giant steps, Louie crowded her, pushing her up against the wall, his mouth slamming down on hers. She gripped his head, melting into his chest and molding herself to his body. This was what she wanted. Hard and fast. The edge of roughness. His tongue thrusting into her mouth, his dark flavor heady and alluring.
    She moaned, ripped his shirt from his trousers and slid her hands over his warm flesh. This was what she needed. Without pulling away from the kiss, she fumbled with his fly, desperate to free his cock and feel the smooth skin spearing against her belly. He winced at her feverish attempts to get off his clothes.
    Louie ripped his mouth off hers. “Jesus, woman. Let me do that.”
    “Sorry.” With Louie taking care of his clothes, she went to work on her own, bending to unlace her boots and unfasten her trousers.
    Louie was ready before she’d started on her shirt and bra. He advanced, crowding her against the wall again, taking her mouth in another hard kiss. The surface was cold against her arse, the thin panties no barrier to the chill. She started when Louie roughly spread her legs, sighed when his fingers stroked across her swollen folds. A zing of pleasure shot through her, the friction of his fingers on the thin cotton a tantalizing drag over her flesh.
    Not enough. Not nearly enough.
    As if he read her desperation, he yanked