Iron Willed Warrior (Last Refuge Protectors #5)

20. Cole

CHAPTER TWENTY

Cole

I knew what Brynn was doing. She didn’t want to talk about her heartbreak, so she was distracting me with sex.

Was I a bad person if it worked?

But I was the last guy to force someone to share feelings if she didn’t want to. If I could comfort Brynn and show her just how amazing she was, how lucky any man would be to have her, then I was ready and willing to report for duty.

I finally had her naked against me, all slippery and wet. While I had thoroughly enjoyed that quickie on the couch earlier, there was a lot more I wanted to try with Brynn. First off, continuing to admire her fine form.

I also hadn’t missed the way she’d admired me when I’d been in the shower. And when I’d crawled over to join her in the tub. Yes, I’d been concerned about practicality. I’d slipped on wet tile out of carelessness before, and I didn’t need the annoyance of a bruised tailbone or worse.

But I’d enjoyed putting on a little show for her, too. Seeing her reactions to me. Brynn hadn’t made any secret of how much I turned her on. Which made a guy feel pretty damn good.

Time to return the favor .

She was in my lap, a position I was a fan of. I loved having her thighs spread around me, my hands able to squeeze the curves of her butt cheeks. Her nipples rubbed against my chest. I let Brynn be in charge of the kiss for a while.

But then I sat forward, laying her back against the far side of the tub and kneeling over her. Taking the dominant position. I sucked and nibbled at her lips, then moved my mouth to her neck and chest. I lavished kisses on the skin just above where the water lapped at her breasts.

The water covered too much of her, and that wasn’t going to work. Not for what I had in mind.

I stretched up to grab a couple of folded towels from the shelf above us. This was one of the benefits of the upgraded room, apparently. An ample supply of towels. I positioned them on the ledge behind Brynn, where the frame of the tub connected to the wall.

Grabbing her by the hips, I lifted her up and set her there on the narrow stretch of tile. Now she was out of the water and in just the perfect place for my mouth.

“Not too cold?” I asked.

“Not cold,” she said breathily. “If anything, I was overheating. Something about sharing a tub of hot water with an even hotter man.”

“Then let’s see if I can get you more comfortable.” Pushing her thighs wider and holding one in each hand, I bent forward.

The flat of my tongue lapped over her core. She gasped and leaned further back against the rolled towels. Giving me full access.

I used my tongue to tease her. To trace her outlines and then slowly dip inside her opening. Brynn grasped at my hair. Her hips moved and her knees shook as she made the sexiest whimpers .

My cock strained toward her from where I knelt in the water. But right now, this was all about Brynn.

When she started begging, I flicked my tongue at a faster pace. Her moans echoed against the tile. Then I pushed two fingers inside of her and sucked on her clit. Her head fell back against the wall and she let out a breathy cry.

“C—oh. Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.”

She had been about to yell my name. Good thing she had stopped herself, because we had no idea if anyone could hear us. She could’ve called me Cameron like she had on the trail, but I was glad she didn’t. This was real, and it wasn’t for anyone but us.

I loved the wild sounds she was making, the way she lost more and more composure as I massaged her sweet center with my tongue. When she finally stopped shuddering, her thighs trying to close, I sat back on my heels.

Brynn slid down into the water. She had a soft, dazed smile on her face, and her hair was a mess.

The water was only lukewarm by now, but neither of us paid any attention. Especially when she reached out and stroked my erection from base to tip.

I closed my lips on a groan. This wasn’t going to take long. The aching need for release had already tightened at the base of my spine.

We kissed deeply as she brought me closer and closer to climax. Then she bent at the waist to fit her hot mouth around my tip, and I was done for. I grabbed for the sides of the tub to keep myself steady, still kneeling, and just gave in to the incredible feeling of her mouth as the water lapped at my thighs. It all built up and crescendoed like a firework going off, light bursting behind my eyes, heat and release and perfect satisfaction.

Brynn sat up, licking her lips. “I think I like the tub.”

“I really like it.” I stretched out in the cooling water. Brynn lay on top of me and rested her head on my chest. It was going to be a few minutes before I could move again.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so content after sex. Maybe not ever.

I need a tub like this at the house , I thought, picturing how it might fit in the bathroom at my place on the beach. Would I ever get to take Brynn there? I could imagine her in a bikini and a see-through cover-up, sipping a margarita on my deck. Smiling at me.

I could feel it like an arrow to the chest.

Maybe that was too much to hope for. Who knew where this was heading? But I liked the thought of it. Liked the thought of falling into whatever this was between us. Enjoying it for as long as it would last.

Eventually the water was ice cold. I handed Brynn a towel after getting out myself. Once we were all dry, and I had my prosthesis back in place and my clothes on, we went to check the laptop.

Brynn made it there first. “We’ve got a message from River. He sent some info to the secure server.” I stood behind her shoulder, one hand on the back of her chair, as she navigated to the new documents.

“Westwick’s friend is named Eric Masterson.” She glanced up at me. “He’s running for a US Senate seat here in Arizona. He’s been making the rounds on cable news. That’s why I recognized him.”

“Figures. But why did he show up for a morning meeting with Westwick?”

Together, we read the profile River had provided on Masterson. He was an Ivy League-educated businessman turned politician. He’d spent a lot of time campaigning about the importance of new technology, research and development that would give our country the edge in the future. Which matched up with things Westwick had said.

So it was no surprise that Masterson’s campaign had received large donations from the companies owned by Garon Westwick.

Brynn opened a news article. Masterson’s photo was below the headline, his arms crossed as he grinned at the camera. His wife and family were a little younger than Westwick’s, but equally beautiful. A picture of perfect domestic bliss. But if he was affiliated with Westwick, how much of that fa?ade was real?

Brynn kept scrolling through the documents River had sent, and she inhaled sharply. “Remember how they talked about touring a facility? Look at this.”

River had connected Westwick to a new solar energy plant in the Arizona desert. The plant was massive, the size of multiple football fields. I leaned over the desk for a better look, while Brynn zoomed in on the satellite images. “This is a hundred miles or so from the resort,” she said. “Out in the middle of nowhere. This could be the facility Masterson wanted to see.”

“Hmm. Question is, what’s so exciting about a solar plant?” I was no expert, but desert and sun pretty much went together. “Why did Masterson make a special trip out here to coincide with Westwick’s seminar?”

“And then go without a photo op,” Brynn quipped. “We know politicians love those.”

According to what River had learned, the project had been in the works for about a year. Government approvals had come through shockingly fast and with little friction. Yet despite the man’s social media presence and nice guy persona, Westwick hadn’t publicized this investment. Instead, he’d tried to minimize his involvement. One of Westwick’s companies had funneled millions of dollars through shell corporations to build it. River had connected the dots, obviously, but none of the public documents related to the solar plant mentioned the man at the top.

“If this has something to do with Stillwater,” Brynn said, “Westwick would want the media as far away as possible. Especially if Stillwater’s contacts inside the government pushed the project through using manipulation and bribes.”

My hand rested on Brynn’s shoulder, massaging the tension there. “So Westwick isn’t just here to teach a seminar. He’s using the seminar to create the appearance of a legitimate trip without the need to publicize exactly what they’re doing.”

Both Masterson and Westwick had high profiles, relatively speaking. They couldn’t move around completely unnoticed. But the surface reason for the trip could conceal something more nefarious. Stillwater was all about hiding in plain sight.

Brynn nodded. “And that just makes me wonder. Is this solar plant really all that’s out there?”

“You want to find out what they’re up to in the desert?” I asked.

“Of course I do. Which means I have to get River’s virus onto Westwick’s devices asap. Tonight. Before Westwick changes his schedule yet again. I have to get him alone.”

Over my dead body , I thought. “Or we could gather intel at the source. We drive out to the site of this solar plant after dark, and we find out if it’s connected to Stillwater or not.”

“You think we can get close enough?”

I gestured for her to let me take the seat. Brynn got up, and I slid into the place she’d left. River had included maps of the area around the solar plant, as well as more satellite images. Great resolution, too. These had come from government satellites, not just Google Earth.

I zoomed in .

“Looks like the main highway will take us within a couple of miles. The turnoff to the facility is here.” I pointed at a narrower road that spurred from the highway. “There’s a fence surrounding the perimeter. A gatehouse at the entrance.” I tapped the screen. “And the front office building is here.”

Brynn nodded along with my assessment. “Might have guards on patrol at night, but it’ll be a skeleton crew,” she mused. “They’ll rely on their remoteness instead of a large security force.”

“If this is really a Stillwater facility, they won’t want too much personnel.”

She laughed without humor. “Exactly. They’ll happily send dozens of operatives to kidnap or kill a target, like the lieutenant governor. Wreak as much havoc and chaos as possible. But more guards around a place like this would mean more mouths to talk. Westwick likes his privacy.”

“A weakness we can use.”

The photos showed large trucks visiting the facility, probably with deliveries of materials. Plus construction vehicles in areas that looked unfinished. Were they still expanding?

“What about this?” She leaned over me and tapped on another building towards the middle of the property. “Another staff building? Electrical components of some kind?”

“I don’t know what goes into maintaining these solar farms. Or what kind of machinery and electrical infrastructure they require.” I was a bounty hunter, not an engineer.

“That’s what Google is for. Right?”

Snorting, I pulled up the browser and searched. We spent some time reading up on solar energy plants. Most were either owned by utilities or by private investors who sold the energy wholesale to local power companies. “They’ll have inverters and transformers to convert the power to a form that’s usable by the utility,” Brynn read. “Connections to the main power grid.” But neither of us could identify everything we saw on the satellite images for Westwick’s facility.

We sent a secure text to River, asking his opinion on the images. After all, he was the Protectors’ resident nerd. And I meant that in the best way possible.

A few minutes later, River sent back the satellite photo with some parts labeled. He’d identified the centralized inverters that served each rectangular block of solar panels, as well as the other electrical equipment.

Then I added labels for the buildings that appeared to be for staff. “Building A” for the front office near the entrance. “Building B” for the one in the middle.

But there were other structures that didn’t seem to fit the solar plant layout or the official public plans the government had approved. River couldn’t identify them either.

“We need to get closer,” I said. “Find out what’s really going on there.”

She nodded. “I say we hike in, time out their security guard patrols, and get a better look. We could approach from this side.” Brynn pointed at the west perimeter of the facility, where the desert flora was thicker and the terrain more rugged. Small hills and canyons would provide cover.

“Perfect. You’re pretty good at this, honey.”

“Watch it.” Grinning, Brynn wrapped her arms around my neck and playfully bit my ear. “You’re not such a bad partner yourself. When you behave.”

I turned my head to kiss her, anticipation making my pulse race.

I had a feeling that this excursion with Brynn would be almost as fun as partnering with her in bed.