“Make it work,” the guy said from the outside, and then he swung the door shut and locked it.
She turned into a hellcat—a flailing tiny beast made of claws and swinging limbs. It took me longer than it should have to find her arms and pin them down. She was kicking with her legs, fighting me, fighting the space.
I grunted as she headbutted me in her panic.
She moaned only one word. “No.”
“It’s okay,” I said against her ear as I wrapped one arm around her arms and another around her bent legs, immobilizing her by pinning her back against my chest. Her panic was real, and she fought me hard, but she was far too easy to overpower. I felt guilt even as I did it, but I rationalized that it was better than a sleeper hold.
My head was over her shoulder and my face against hers, mainly so she couldn’t headbutt me again.
“Shhh. You’re not alone,” I soothed in Russian.
She whimpered when the plane bounced as it touched down. She continued to fight against me, arching against my body with surprising force. I held her tight against my chest and spoke Russian in her ear.
“You’re safe in here with me. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, okay?”
Her body, wired with tension, stilled as she listened to my voice. That didn’t mean her panic attack was over. In the field, I’d seen rookie soldiers run blindly into oncoming fire because they were so scared—a disastrous scenario that required their own team to tackle them and hold them down. I had once seen a friendly sniper shoot a soldier in the back of the leg because he was running blindly toward the enemy. That sniper saved that kid’s life that day. I knew that when people got this scared, they couldn’t be reasoned with. She was operating from a place of intense fear, and her reaction was to fight.
I listened to the sounds outside. The plane had landed and was taxiing on the runway. I felt the plane turn and then glide to a stop. The engines were cut, but the noisy engine fans still whirled hard, creating a white noise that made it hard to hear what was happening outside.
“Let me out of here,” she panted.
Normally, this was when I would have knocked a hostage unconscious, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that to her. I needed her to calm her down, and I needed to do it fast.
“I’m going to turn you around nice and easy, okay?” I told her.
She seemed to go limp in my arms. But if someone opened that door, I needed her out of my way. It was awkward, but I maneuvered her around. Now she was facing me. Her knees were bent, and her feet found space on either side of my hips.
“Put your arms around me.”
She wrapped her arms tight around my neck, and I could feel her hot, erratic breath against my skin.
I dropped my hands to my side, not touching her.
“Focus on my chest. I want you to breathe with me.” I wasn’t sure if she heard me. “In and out, Blaire. Breathe with me. Nice and slow.”
“Like pranayama?” She hiccuped, still out of breath.
Who the fuck knows? “Yes.”
After what seemed like an eternity, I felt her breathing slow down and match my own. I could feel her body relax, and she seemed much less frightened.
Out of the dark came her whisper, sounding tiny and upset. “I have a panic disorder. I’m scared of small spaces.”
“Noted.”
“Normally I don’t like to be touched during my panic attacks.”
“Didn’t have much choice.”
“It kind of helped.”
I needed to move her to have an unrestricted view of the door in case I needed to shoot someone. “I need to shift you over a bit.”
I pulled her closer toward me until I had access to my sidearm pistol. If that closet door swung open, I was ready.
She lifted her face, blocking my view.
“Put your head down. I need to see.”
She rolled her hips, trying to find a more comfortable spot, and managed to roll right up onto my cock.
I tried not to focus on that, working to hear what was happening outside. There were voices and the whine of a hydraulic line, probably for the fuel stand.
She wiggled again, shifting her weight and, completely unaware, rolling herself perfectly up and down my dick.
Don’t get hard. Don’t fucking get hard.
My rebellious dick got hard, stubbornly pushing up in my pants, seeking more friction. She didn’t seem to notice. She seemed focused on her one knee and foot, repeatedly shifting them.
I leaned my head back against the wall behind me and tried to quell the beast by outthinking him. A long time ago, the military had hardwired me to ignore cold, hunger and pain for the sake of the mission. I should be able to ignore this, right?
Her breath was on my neck, her hands on my shoulders. Another wiggle.
They had failed to train me to ignore pleasure.
Another goddamn wiggle.
I lifted my head. “Stop moving.”
She was breathless. “My foot is cramping.”
We both froze when the bunk room door opened.
I leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Don’t move. Don’t breathe.”
Outside the closet door, two men talked in English.
“Why is the American military helping with this cargo airport fire?”
“I don’t know—goodwill between countries? All I know is this was supposed to be my weekend off.”
“What happened?”
Her neck was almost against my mouth, and I could smell her faint feminine perfume.
“Not sure, but someone says there was an explosion in that third building over there and it just spread.”
Fucking hell, she was sitting almost perfectly on my dick. There was so much blood pounding in my engorged cock that it felt like it had its own heartbeat. I prayed she couldn’t feel it pulsing up toward her softness.
“Was anyone hurt in the fire?”
Her entire body went completely still the moment she realized what she was sitting on. She momentarily stopped breathing. Her awareness of my hard member made it surge even harder toward her, seeking her attention.
My back molars hurt from how hard I was clenching my teeth, willing my body to stand down.
“A couple people went to the hospital for smoke inhalation.”
I felt the muscles in her legs tense as she readied to lift herself up. Didn’t blame her one bit, but our lives depended on her not moving. I squeezed my arm around her waist, effectively holding her soft body tighter against my hard-on. My self-disgust raged against the bolts of lust that zipped up my spine.
“Sorry to hear that. Have you been doing these inspections since the fire started? That seems like quite the day for you.”
It had been a long time since I had allowed myself the indulgence of a woman. I loved sex, craved it hard sometimes, but women were complications I didn’t want in my life. Normally I could block out my baser urges, but now with temptation so close, my body was in overdrive.
My thoughts started to veer toward the woman I held in my arms. Don’t go there, asshole. Don’t go there. I would push aside her bottoms and I would slowly slide my cock up into her depths. I would hold myself there and watch her face as her body reacted to the sensation of being thoroughly filled by me.
I went there.
My cock ached with need, and it took all my effort not to pull her tighter against me so I could capture those lips against my own mouth.