“I want you two to stay put in the vehicle unless somebody dangerous sees you. If you have to, drive out. There are enough seats in the other vehicles that I’ll be able to get a ride out. I’m going to hand you the car keys and a gun.” Seb reached into a compartment and gave me an AK-47.

  “What do I need this for?” I hadn’t handled anything bigger than a hunting rifle since I left the military.

  “If everything goes to hell, you’ll know why you’re holding an AK-47.”

  I didn’t like the idea that I’d be holding off a large swarm of people when I had Selena in the car with me.

  “I was planning on going with you.”

  “Do you really want to leave Selena alone with a male stranger?” Seb met my eyes and cocked one eyebrow.

  Anything could happen. I understood the game that Seb had played. To get me out from underfoot, he gave me the job of babysitting his car and Selena. He knew that I didn’t want Selena there because of the danger. He had assessed the threat. He thought that both of us would be safer staying in the car, and I had to say I admired his foresight. I would have done the same in his place. With a slight grin, he got out of the car, leaving the two of us in there alone.

  “You’re treating me like a child,” hissed Selena. “I can take care of myself. I have a right to be here.”

  “You’re nineteen,” I reminded her. “You don’t even have your college degree yet.”

  Selena was quiet. “You know, I might be nineteen, but I’m still a woman.”

  She launched herself through the center console of the vehicle. She landed in my lap, with her legs on either side of my hips. Her mouth came down on mine.

  My body fired up with raging arousal. Her hips were grinding against me, and I gritted my teeth, not wanting to make a mess while we were waiting for David’s extraction. She explored my body with her hands as she poked her tongue in my mouth. Her cautious exploration turned me on, and I slid a hand to the base of her neck as I deepened the kiss.

  Gunfire and loud shouting broke us apart.

  ONE BED

  Selena

  My head was spinning when Charlie pushed me down, so that I was low in the vehicle and wouldn’t be caught by stray bullets. His heavy weight was crushing me, but I knew that he wasn’t wearing a bulletproof vest. Staying in the car was supposed to be safe. He had his own gun, but his focus was on protecting me with his own body.

  I could hear people crashing through the cloud forest, and I hoped they were the good guys. There were probably both bad ones and the men we had come with.

  “Your dad is alive,” Charlie told me. He let me up. Charlie slid the keys into the ignition, starting up the car.

  I saw Seb and two other men bursting from the trees. Between them, they were carrying my dad. Dad was bleeding from a shot in his upper shoulder.

  I didn’t like the way that he looked or how he was shallowly gasping. Given that the wound was in his shoulder, he shouldn’t have a punctured lung or anything. But there were bruises covering his arms and face, and he wasn’t there enough to realize that I was in the vehicle. I was really worried. What if Dad died from being beaten and shot?

  Anything could happen when it came to the bruises. They could be the tip of the iceberg. I tried to count Dad’s fingers, hoping that they hadn’t cut one off or something.

  Seb jumped back into our vehicle to drive us to Quito. The two men made sure that my dad got into the car with us.

  My dad wasn’t fully conscious. I was kind of freaking out, with the amount of blood pouring out of his wound. I’d seen Hollywood blood and gore in horror films and stuff, but nobody talked to you about the smell of blood. When you got a paper cut, you didn’t really have to deal with it. When it was pouring out of your dad, you definitely became more conscious of what it was.

  “I was a medic when I was in the military,” Charlie told me. “You need to let me take care of your dad. Stay put.” Charlie figured out how to get into the back seat with my dad.

  “Thready pulse,” Charlie said after a bit to Seb.

  “Stabilize him as best you can. There’s a kit in the back.”

  Charlie climbed into the very back of the vehicle and rummaged around. I could hear him unzipping various things. He must have found what he was looking for, because he climbed back into the back seat, where my dad was still laying down. I didn’t want to lose him. I had argued with Charlie about not being able to see my dad for the last time. I was very worried that it would be.

  “I’ve staunched the flow of blood as best I can. I’m keeping pressure on the wound.”

  “I don’t want my dad to die.” I hated even saying that sentence aloud.

  “We’re doing our best to make sure that he doesn’t. I’m getting him to a private hospital, where the doctors will do their best.”

  I was not all that religious, because my aunt believed in a higher power but didn’t force her ideas on me. We were happy to pray together and say grace if other people were doing it, but we’d never made a point of going to church every Sunday or anything. I closed my eyes and started to hope with all of my heart that my dad would make it.

  When we got to the hospital, Seb pulled up right at their emergency entrance. People came out, and he started talking to them in Spanish. The rapid-fire Spanish was a little too fast for me to understand comfortably, even though I’d grown up in Los Angeles and lived in San Diego. There were more people coming out now. Charlie had opened the back door. There were emergency medical personnel bringing a gurney out to the car. They loaded my dad onto it. He disappeared into to the hospital.

  I started crying. Seb didn’t want to deal with it, so he got out of the car and started talking about logistics with Charlie.

  “If you want to stick close to the hospital, I know of a secure hotel nearby. I can someone for your things in the other hotel. I can also send someone to buy you basic necessities if you want.”

  “I think we’ve feel the most comfortable with our own things. If you could send someone to our hotel room, that’d be great.” Charlie paused for a few minutes. “Here’s my key card.”

  Charlie put a lot of trust into Seb. There wasn’t anything of high value to me besides my computer, and it was all backed up anyhow.

  “I’m going to drive you to the hotel.”

  “What about David?”

  “The medical team here will keep me updated, but you won’t be allowed to see him until he’s fully stable.”

  “Fine, we’ll go to a hotel.”

  Seb came back into the car. I tried to stop crying. Charlie was in the back, where there was still some of my dad’s blood.

  Seb called somebody through the car’s system to line up a hotel room for us.

  “Don’t go into the lobby. One of my team members will be waiting in the parking lot with your key cards. Charlie, you’re still covered in blood.”

  “I haven’t had a chance to clean up,” admitted Charlie.

  The smell of blood was still freaking me out. When Seb got us to the hotel, there was somebody dressed in a raspberry gown with a smile on her face.

  “You must be Selena and Charlie,” she said as Seb approached her. “Ignore how grumpy he is.” I got the impression that she normally gave out hugs like Halloween candy.

  She handed us two key cards. I took them and handed one to Charlie.

  “Follow me. I’ll take you up to your room.”

  She didn’t say that we were in a suite. I didn’t know if the best that she had been able to do on short notice in a secure hotel was a single room. I hoped that it was nice enough to sleep in.

  When we all got up to the room, Seb’s phone rang.

  “Yeah?” he asked. He listened for a moment, and then he hit the speaker button.

  The doctor was speaking in Spanish, but he was explaining that my dad was okay. He just needed some rest before they’d allow visitors during normal hours the next day. I was glad Charlie and Seb weren’t making me go back to our original hotel. I knew we were definitely in a poorer part of town now. The other one was too far from the private hospital for my comfort if something happened.

  The lady told us, “I’ll take care of sending your things. They should be here in a few hours.” She rattled off some digits and gave a card to Charlie. “Consider me your personal concierge while you are in our delightful city.” She stopped being able to hold herself back, and she gave Charlie and me a hug each, despite the fact that Charlie still had blood on him. She didn’t seem to mind getting blood on her gorgeous dress. After the two of us opened the door to the room, she left with Seb.

  As soon as I saw that we were stuck with a single bed, Charlie said, “I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

  “You can take the bed. You’re taller.”

  “The sofa is fine. I’ve slept on worse.” He cleared his throat. “I’m going to clean up.”

  I was so exhausted that I just dove on top of the bed. I was lightly dozing as I felt Charlie taking off my clothes.

  FIRST TIME

  Charlie

  After removing some of her clothes, I tried to avert my gaze from Selena’s tempting body. I knew that she had way more curves than she had as a skinny kid, but now she was nineteen. I still remembered the shock I had felt when I realized that Brandon Adams was the one in my daughter’s apartment. I didn’t want that to happen with David. I knew that what I felt for Selena was on par with what I felt for my first wife, but I didn’t want to ruin our business relationship. At her age, she shouldn’t be settling down.

  I sighed. I hadn’t wanted Kayla to get married at nineteen, but here we were. At least we all had agreed on making sure she finished her degree. As a parent, I wanted the world to be open for her.

  I went to the bathroom and cleaned David’s blood off of my hands. As a medic, it wasn’t anything I hadn’t experienced before. I knew that Selena had probably never seen anything like it before, though. She had been raised in Los Angeles, just like Kayla. She had no idea of what happened on a battlefield. David and I were likely to keep it that way. Our daughters didn’t need to go into the military to get funding for college or build their careers. They’d be able to pick and choose whatever they liked.

  I thought about it, and I thought David might have said something about Selena pursuing a degree in international business at UCSD. He’d said something vague about her doing summer internships at the company. I knew that it could have the potential to go south, but I wouldn’t mind having her around.

  We hadn’t gotten any of our stuff yet. I applied soap and water to the blood on my shirt. I needed to get out of it, so I took it off and draped it over the handle of the sliding shower door. It could dry off. I made sure to towel off. Housekeeping might charge us extra for the blood, but I wouldn’t mind paying them, not in Ecuador. The cost of living here was much cheaper than in the United States. They also used the US dollar, which made conversion rates nonexistent.

  I went back into the room, laying out on a tiny sofa and trying not to think of the lumps under my back. Earlier, I hadn’t been joking when I thought about worse places that I’d slept. As a soldier, you got used to getting some shut-eye here and there. You never knew when you’d need to be on the move.

  I could smell Selena. It had been a long time since I had slept in the same room as a woman. It was as if she was emanating a floral scent that was filling the room.

  I woke up to the sound of Selena’s sobs.

  “No!” she was shouting. I could hear people waking up in adjacent hotel rooms. I knew that if she didn’t stop, someone would call down to the front desk. We’d get far more attention than we wanted.

  I got to my feet and shook her shoulder. “Selena, wake up. You’re safe. Your father is alive.”

  Her eyes popped open. Her body was shaking, so I put my arms around her and tried to ignore how good she felt.

  “Can you hold me for a while?” Her voice was breathy.

  I called myself an idiot. I shouldn’t be holding her in bed. Once David was out of danger, he’d berate me about taking advantage of his kid.

  “Sure.” In for a penny, in for a pound.

  I eased myself into her bed, still keeping a hold on her. She pressed her face against me. My body was aroused. I was in heaven. I was in hell.

  I held her until she stopped shaking. She shifted a little. I loosened my hold. Selena looked up to my face and said, “I know that you want me.”

  What did I say to that? I had tried to go on some blind dates that my friends and business associates had sent me on, but not many women clicked with me. I knew what it was like to really be in love. I thought that I’d never have it again.

  It was strange to be in bed with Selena. It was stranger still that my erection was between us. She could feel the force of my physical desire for her, which I could not deny.

  “We shouldn’t,” I protested.

  In reply, Selena stripped off the last of her clothing. She started pulling my clothes off.

  I was torn between the instinct to protect her and raging lust. David would murder us both once he knew about it.

  After she started licking and sucking the sensitive parts of my dick, I shuddered beneath her. She must have studied human anatomy, because she knew all of the right spots to hit. Soon, I was blazing like an inferno. If I didn’t stop her, I’d embarrass myself.

  I put my hands on her head to pull her away.

  “I was just getting into it,” Selena complained.

  “Thighs apart,” I told her. Soon, I was eating her with all the skills I had left behind long ago. I stimulated her clitoris with my fingers as my tongue explored her soft folds. She writhed and moaned under my tongue. She thrust her hips towards my mouth, and I came along for the bumpy ride.

  She cried out in the back of her throat when she came. There was a burst of talking from a nearby hotel room. I didn’t know if we would get some angry knocking on the door. I didn’t know if we’d be reported to the hotel. At this point, I didn’t care.

  I rearranged us so that Selena was on top of me. I was happy to get a view of her gorgeous natural breasts.

  “Take me,” I told her.

  I helped guide my cock into her softened body. We both felt a moment of resistance, and then I slid all the way inside of her.

  I felt like the top of my head was about to blow off. Her face had tightened. I put my hands on her hips and set a demanding rhythm. I watched her breasts bounce as her mouth fell open. She was arching her back and panting as I surged into her over and over.

  I needed her to fall over the cliff with me. I put my fingers against her clit. With a soft cry, she orgasmed, her muscles fluttering around me. I grunted as my body climaxed, sending seed shooting into her.

  I didn’t have a rubber, and I didn’t want to use one with her. I didn’t think she was thinking five steps ahead here. If she got pregnant, David would have to sign off on us getting married. I had no idea if Selena would be on board, but I’d have to ask when my dick wasn’t firmly embedded inside of her.

  Normally, men needed a recovery period. However, my dick was still hard and inside of Selena. I rolled us so that I was on top of her. I pushed her thighs apart, as wide as they would go. I started swinging my hips, and she closed her eyes. She made noises that made me wild. I could listen to her like this for a lifetime.

  It scared me how much I wanted from Selena. I leaned forward and bit her neck, hoping that other men would see the mark and understand that she was mine and nobody else’s ever. I thought that the resistance her body had had when I first slid in told me something about her previously untouched state. As soon as we got back into the United States, I’d talk to her about designs for an engagement ring she might wear for the rest of her life.

  After the second time I came, I pulled her into the shower. She didn’t comment on my damp shirt. She let me wash her all over and explored my body with her hands. We kissed under the shower spray. I turned her against the shower wall, with her palms flat.

  “Again? So soon?”

  I knew she might be sore after two rounds, but I couldn’t help myself.

  “Yes,” I told her. I guided myself back inside of her body. I pinned her body between the wall and mine. I bit her earlobe, which made her moan. My hand went back to her clitoris to stimulate her into as many orgasms as I wanted to give.

  I knew I wanted to make her my wife. Now, I just needed to figure out how to make it happen.

  AWAKENED

  Selena

  When I woke up the next morning, there was a painful amount of sunlight in the room. I could see a bunch of stuff piled up on the desk in the room.

  “You’re up. Good. I bought some fruit, so you can eat breakfast before we go.”

  It was high-handed of him to buy fruit, but I guessed I could eat a banana or something before we got on the road. I was still worried about my dad, even if I had given Charlie my v-card last night. My body was still sore from what we had done. I had no idea that Charlie would be able to go for that many rounds.

  He wasn’t looking at me as I ate the banana. I considered my bags. I got an outfit out of my backpack and went to the bathroom to change. The energy that had been between us last night had sizzled to nothingness. Maybe I was just another notch in his bedpost.

  Swallowing a hard lump in my throat, I went back into the bedroom. Charlie had all of our possessions ready to go. He still wasn’t looking me in the eye, which didn’t bode well for my girlish notions of having an actual relationship with him. We had been near a fire fight last night. There had been a lot of adrenaline. I guessed now that he was safe, he had no real interest in me.

  Seb met us downstairs. He helped Charlie and me get our stuff into the back of the car, then Seb drove us to the hospital. They chatted about the weather as my anxiety spiked. Was my dad going to be okay? Was no news good news?