The Unseen Enemy Series

Chapter 243

Sully stood off to the side of the indoor shooting range, watching Cordelia load her gun. He wasn’t at all surprised at her choice of personal weapon: a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield. Compact and light, it was a popular choice with women with smaller hands... but it had a quick reset triggered by the striker-fired action, so the gun made it possible for multiple rounds to be fired quickly. The gun was sleek and slim – but it was f*****g fast and lethal. Sully got the feeling that it was the perfect gun for this tough, sweet woman.

She never stops surprising me, does she?

He adjusted the earmuffs and lowered his safety glasses. Cordelia looked over her shoulder at him and he gave her a thumbs-up. She nodded back at him, turned and spread her feet apart, finding her position. Right away, he saw that her hips weren’t square and her shoulders were too tense. He waited, though, curious how she’d do on her first try.

Cordelia tried to ignore the fact that Hunter Sullivan was looming behind her, watching her every move. She was incredibly self-conscious about her wide hips and curvy ass, and she just knew that he’d have those sharp eyes trained on both, assessing her stance. She took a deep breath, tried to relax.

She stared at the target, and the whole world around it disappeared. She extended her arms – not too stiff, keep them a bit loose – flicked the safety off with her thumb, and fired eight rounds in rapid succession, barely thinking as she did so. When her eyes focused again, she saw that she’d at least hit the target.

So I haven’t totally embarrassed myself in front of him. Thank God.

She pressed the button to retrieve her target, and it moved smoothly towards her on the cable. Hunter was next to her now and he reached out to remove the paper. He stared down at it, stunned that she’d hit the target eight times. None smack in the centre on the ‘x’, but none went beyond the second circle for eight points. If she’d been aiming for a guy’s heart, she’d have for sure driven a bullet into his lung, and that was good enough to get her away and safe, if it came to that.

He indicated for her to remove her earmuffs and she did. She shook her hair back and stared up at him.

“Fuckin' ‘A’, Cordelia,” he said. “Damn impressive.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Now I want you to do it again, but square your hips.”

“OK.”

“I’ll help you. Load up and cover your ears again.”

He set up a new paper target on the wire, sent it back to the wall. Meanwhile, she loaded her live ammo carefully, and he watched her hands move on the gun. It was unbearably sexy, seeing her fingers sliding up and down the shaft, strong and confident. He was horrified when his c**k twitched, and he fought to control himself.

A moment later, he was almost lost, though, when he stood directly behind her. Gently, he placed his large hands on her hips, positioned her to face front. The scent of her hair was right under his nose, and her sleek curves were under his fingers, and he longed to push her up against the wall, palm that hot little p***y. He’d take her hard, he’d take her until she screamed. Unable to help himself, he dug into her soft flesh, just a bit, wanting her to feel his touch through the material of her conservative navy blue skirt.

Cordelia was achingly aware that Hunter was right behind her. She felt his heat and strength and she wanted to just lean back into it, to press into that huge chest. She’d throw her head against his muscled shoulder as his fingers slid down her thighs and tugged her trim little skirt up. If those strong fingers shoved her panties aside, he’d find that she was totally, completely open and soaked for him. And if he slipped a thick, rough finger inside her now, she’d come on the spot and in seconds, she was sure of it.

He leaned forward, his breath on her cheek, and carefully squeezed her hips once more. She took that as a signal to fire, so she took a deep breath, tried to ignore her body’s helpless response to Hunter’s closeness. She stared at the target, stared at the ‘x’ at its heart. Her vision cleared, her body relaxed, her finger pulled.

It felt better this time, cleaner, more natural. When she stopped and dropped her arms, she felt Hunter’s breath on the back of her neck again. He tapped her earmuffs and she lifted them, rested them on her neck.

“Was that better?” she asked, her voice lower than usual.

“Yeah. For sure. Look.”

The target came close enough to see now and sure enough, she’d hit dead center three times.

“Huh.” She blinked. “Amazing.”

“You’re a damn good shot,” he said. “Let’s keep practicing.”

“Yeah, OK.” She stepped away from him to reload her gun, and felt a twinge of loss and regret at doing so. “A few more rounds.”

“Quite a few.” Sully didn’t think she’d need much more practice, to be honest, but he did think he wanted to keep standing right behind her, touching her hips. He argued with himself that it was to help her, to give her some guidance, but he knew damn good and well that was bullshit. He just liked touching her, and he was going to do it every single chance he got. And as Garrett Baker, he’d do nothing but touch her when they were out in public. The thought both terrified and elated him.

Fuck. I’m dead in the water here. Goddammit.