Sarah McCarty by Slade

of right he’d felt from their first email exchange. Her energy had always been very pleasing, and it had only gotten better as time passed. She wiggled around. His cock hardened.
    “This would be a lot easier,” she grumbled, bending to put the laptop on the floor, “if you weren’t so big.”
    His cock surged hard and strong, uncaring that this wasn’t the time, just liking the way she felt, so different yet so familiar. This close, he could see the perspiration on her temple. Smell the acrid taint of fear under her bravado. She was terrified, but covering well. He pressed up.
    “But you like me big,” he said, just to get her mind off the fear consuming her.
    She stiffened but didn’t counter. Too bad. He could use some distraction, especially as she dragged that soft ass across his groin. Gritting his teeth, he flopped to the opposite side of the seat. She adjusted the steering wheel and the seat.
    He only had a few minutes before he blacked out, which made the perk in his cock pretty close to a miracle. A totally unappreciated one if Jane’s glare and “harrumph” was anything to go by.
    “Ignore him, he has no manners.”
    “So I noticed.”
    Go figure, she was a good sport on top of everything else. He reached for the seat belt. She shook her head. “You need to be in the back.”
    “No.”
    “From the look of you, you’re going to pass out any second, and the backseat offers the best protection from the sun.”
    “I can’t protect you back there.”
    This time she didn’t bother to hide the roll of her eyes. “Not to upset the day with logic again, but I think the number-one priority is for you to get in the back and stay out of the sun so you can live to fight another day or whatever it is you men say during a testosterone high.”
    It galled the hell out of him that she was right.
    He squeezed over the seat, landing on his ass with one booted foot stuck on the back of the seat. “You, woman, are bossy.”
    “So are you. I’m just holding my own.”
    The darkness was coming fast. He had only moments. “Do you really think you’re equipped to handle this?”
    She put the car in gear. “I have no idea, but I think we’re both about to find out.”
    Shit .

4
     
    S HE had so not signed on for this, Jane thought as she drove the SUV down the road. She was a researcher. She worked from the safety of her lab on theories that grew from solid fact. She’d never had any desire to be a hero, so what in hell was she doing driving at dawn in some sort of souped-up magic tank that was masquerading as an SUV? She was not adventurous and certainly not GI Jane against the world.
    The morning broke with a peaceful beauty—pale pinks blending with the gray. Pretty. And deceptive, because she could feel the danger still lurking in the prickle of hairs along her forearms and the churning in her gut. Behind her, she could hear Slade breathing. Even that wasn’t right. His breathing was too shallow, the rhythm of it too uneven. Instinct demanded she pull the car over and check on him, but that feeling of danger said “Put the pedal to the metal and drive like a maniac despite common sense,” though common sense told her to keep the speed to sensible. She swore. She hated conflict. Order was more her style.
    Taking a deep breath, she focused on the here and now. She didn’t know these roads. She was in the back of beyond, but if she remembered correctly from the maps she’d checked when moving to the area four years ago, this road had a lot of sudden turns. Which meant she’d better slow down. The last thing either of them needed was for her to crash the car. Whatever magic Slade had that enabled him to clear three tons of metal over a ditch in a single bound wasn’t in her repertoire.
    Slade made a strange noise. Risking a quick glance over her shoulder, she asked, “You okay back there?”
    The sound that came back to her could have been a grunt or a snore. More light flooded the horizon. Normally,