Smiling, Teren took his hand and shook it. “It’s incredible. It’s absolutely invisible to the outside world. From the road it looks like an old, still-functioning farmhouse.”
A woman with shining black hair curled around her shoulders, wearing a gray pantsuit, her green eyes sparkling, came up beside Matt. “Teren? I’m Tal Culver-Lockwood. Welcome! We’re really glad to see you.”
Teren started to shake her hand, but Tal’s smile deepened and she stepped forward, lightly hugging her ‘hello’ instead. It was unexpected, but the gesture warmed Teren, and she felt already accepted.
As Tal stepped back, releasing her, she became more serious. “Even more important, welcome to our family. You have a new home now, Teren, and we’re really eager to have you with us as a part of it.”
She couldn’t have heard more welcoming words. “Thanks, Tal. You have no idea how much that means to me.”
Matt threw his arm around his big sister. “Tal here is the big, broody mother hen of Artemis. You gotta watch her, or she’ll start calling you one of her peeps.” He gave his sister a great big, warm grin, squeezing her shoulders and then releasing her.
Tal snorted. “I’m broody all right. Especially with you and Alexa.”
“Someone call my name?”
Teren saw a shorter woman wearing an emerald-green pantsuit, her red hair gathered back into a single braid, slip between Tal and Matt. Her hazel eyes danced with mischief.
“Teren? I’m Alexa Culver-Hunter. I’ve been dying to meet you!” She threw her arms around Teren, hugging her enthusiastically.
Laughing a little, Teren hugged Alexa back. “Same here. It’s so nice to meet you.” And it was, because now Tal, Matt, and Alexa were surrounding her, almost in an embrace. She was struck by their sincerity and warmth, and it was obvious they were family members, given the resemblances and the loving looks they exchanged. Matt mercilessly teased them, and she saw their love for one another dancing in their eyes. Just this one vignette made some of her grief over leaving Kitra melt away. These three people were confident, vulnerable, and friendly, hoping she’d accept them as they’d accepted her.
“Come on,” Tal urged, touching Teren’s elbow. “Would you like to sit down?” She guided her to the front of the long, oval mahogany table.
“Yes, thank you.” Teren was impressed that one half of it was a surface computer, state-of-the-art with two huge viewing screens on two different walls of the room.
Nolan followed, falling into a conversation with Matt. As Teren sat down, Nolan took the seat to her right, Alexa to her left. There was coffee, tea, and doughnuts for everyone. The air was festive, with a lot of laughter and smiles, Teren noted. The door to the planning room remained open, other members coming in shortly.
In no time, she’d met Gage Hunter, Alexa’s husband, and Wyatt Lockwood, Tal’s other half. Matt said his wife, Dr. Dara McKinley-Culver, was inviting Teren and Nolan over to dinner that night at their condo. There were other individuals in the room as well. Soon, with so many new names and faces, Teren said laughing, that she’d need a few days to remember all their names. That brought collective grins with nods of agreement from everyone.
Tal sat at the other end of the table, her coffee in hand, opposite Teren. As the room quieted, everyone looked to Tal.
“Teren, as you can see, we’re kind of a big, warm, sloppy family of sorts.” She smiled. “And it’s like this around here all the time. We do very, very serious work here at Artemis, but we also play as hard as we work. Matt, especially, is a culprit and plays jokes on all of us from time to time, just to keep us from getting too serious.”
“That’s just good mental health,” Matt piped up, smiling smugly, sipping his coffee.
“You’ll have to watch him, Teren, if he comes into your office,” Alexa warned with a giggle. “He’s well-known for planting tiny cameras around and then showing the video to all of us at a Mission Planning meeting later on the big wall screen.”
“Well,” Matt drawled, “I am, after all, Delta Force. We’re black ops to the bone, sis.”
Teren smiled. “Looks like I need to keep Nolan nearby.”
“Oh,” Tal said, “he’s going to be closer to you than you think, Teren.”
Teren gave Nolan a questioning look. He shrugged and looked over at Tal. “Ask her,” he said to her, a slight smile on his face.
“We’re such a black-ops group, Teren. You don’t know about my background, but I was an officer in the Marine Corps and the head of a sniper unit at Bagram. Matt was Delta Force. Alexa here flew A-10 Warthogs and risked her life from the air to bomb and strafe the Taliban to keep our men and women safe on the ground in Afghanistan. And here, most of what we do is undercover as well. We’ve offered Nolan a job at Artemis. We want him to become part of our Africa Consulting Team, so when we pull a mission anywhere on that continent, we have people who are boots on the ground in a particular country. That way we can utilize their knowledge and experiences.”
“And,” Alexa said to Teren, “I want you on my team, but you need to see our facility first and understand what your job entails with me in the Home School Foundation Department.”
Teren looked at Nolan. “Did you know about this?”
He gave her an apologetic look. “Remember when Matt came out last week?”
“Yes.”
“He offered me this new job here at HQ, which would take me off being assigned to missions around the world, but I didn’t want to say anything or make a decision on it until you came here, Teren. I needed to see if you felt like a fit with Artemis. If you want the job, then I’m taking the job here at the security company and we’ll be together.”
She colored a little, all eyes on them. It was as if all of them knew that they were already a couple deeply in love with one another. “That’s fair,” she murmured. Gazing over at Alexa, she said, “I’d love to sit down with you about the job you want to offer me.”
“No worries. You and I are going to spend the rest of the morning together as soon as we get out of here,” Alexa promised her. “And then Tal, Matt, and I have lunch at a nearby inn.”
“And,” Matt said, “don’t forget, you and Nolan are going to have dinner with Dara and me tonight. She’s been cooking all day. It’s her day off and she wants to really welcome you home with us.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Teren said, overwhelmed by the energy, warmth, and cozy atmosphere in the room. “I’d love to meet Dara.”
“Yes,” Tal intoned, “she’s the better half of my jokester brother.”
Everyone chuckled, nodding their heads in unison.
“As you can see,” Matt said, pretending to be wounded by his big sister’s words, “I’m crucified here daily.”
“Only because you’re nailing all of us in our offices with the Instagram videos you’re taking of us when we don’t know about it,” Wyatt drawled, an easy Texas grin spreading across his face.
Nolan reached over, touching Teren’s hand. “Don’t worry, Matt won’t pick on you.”
“Pooh!” Alexa said. “How’s that?”
Nolan arched an eyebrow at her. “Matt is my Delta Force brother. Teren’s my gal, and he’s not gonna pick on her because she’s part of our Delta Force family. Okay?”
Wrinkling her nose, Alexa muttered in Teren’s direction, “You’re getting off easy.”
“Well, her office will be an official safe zone,” Matt proclaimed to everyone. “Because she belongs to a Delta operator. We do take care of our own.”
Nolan gave Teren a pleased look. “See?”
Teren smiled and shook her head. “There are all kinds of families here at Artemis, aren’t there?”
Everyone nodded simultaneously, as if they’d trained for this moment.
Alexa reached over and tapped Teren’s hand. “We are family. We’re not some big, heartless corporation. You’ll find that out right away. We are people with passion and we love what we do, and we’re good at it. But there are also bad
days, Teren, when things go sideways. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come down here to an empty planning room to scream out my fury, or cry, or do both. These rooms are soundproofed and have the latest composite materials in the walls to stop any kind of electronic or other type of snooping into our facility.”
Tal lifted her chin, looking at Teren’s soft expression. “And just like family, when there’s a bad day we circle the wagons. We’re there for that person or department. We know that we deal in life-and-death issues every day. And as much as we want a mission to go right and to help, sometimes it doesn’t. So, while you may see us as a pretty loosey-goosey kind of organization right now, on a tight mission where lives are in the balance, we get damned serious, damned fast. There’s a lot of intensity in Artemis. Not in every department, but Mission Planning is usually a pretty tightly strung area.”
“Which is why,” Wyatt drawled, leaning his elbows on the table, holding Teren’s gaze, “they have me leading this group of sorry-looking characters. I’m very laid-back, and I don’t get my knickers in a twist when things go south. It’s a SEAL thing. But,” he continued, looking up and down the table with a sly grin, “not everyone here is from Texas. Pity, because if they were, they wouldn’t get uptight like Tal has noted.”
“I’m glad I don’t have to work with you,” Teren admitted, giving him an apologetic look. “It’s nothing personal, Wyatt, but I don’t work well in that kind of high-stress environment.”
“Most of us don’t,” Alexa huffed. “You’ll find my department just the opposite of Wyatt’s. We’re a happy group, doing happy things for others. There’s a lot of laughter and super-creative people who love education and know the value of our kids all over the world.”
“That really sounds lovely,” Teren admitted, absorbing Alexa’s ebullience. She was like a sun glowing in the room, so alive and caring. Alexa was just the type of person she wanted to work with. Nolan hadn’t been wrong in his assessment of the three Culvers; they truly were genuine, sincere, and family-oriented—everything that she needed to thrive.
“Speaking of that,” Tal said as the table quieted, “I’ve been studying what you’ve created online for Kitra. Matt, Alexa, and I have looked at the numbers and the sales on the clothing that your Sudanese women are making on their treadle machines. They’re impressive, Teren. Having that Internet store has allowed you to sell their goods around the world, and not just to African countries.”
“Right,” Teren murmured. “I wanted to expand the type of goods they sewed. For example, an apron is a European and North American item of clothing that can be added. I did a lot of research on the different types of fabrics that are worn by men and women in a particular continent and country. Over the years, I’ve expanded their sewing into many different areas and as a result, it makes Kitra more money. We have high sales in Scandinavia for our crocheted and knitted cap and scarf sets.”
“I particularly love what you do for the children,” Alexa said, gushing with enthusiasm. “You make those silly little sock monkeys that are coming back in fashion here in the U.S. Only you make them for Africa, Europe, and South America, each a little different so the colors appeal to that particular region and group of people. They’re your best seller right now.”
“It’s nothing short of brilliant,” Tal complimented Teren. “You’re far more than a software designer. You’re truly a visionary, and you have a global grasp of what’s popular or common on every continent. There aren’t many people who have that capacity, Teren. That’s why we wanted to hire you. And you will have your own department. You’ll be able to hire others who are like you and you’ll have the final say on such things. We want you to feel like you’re a part of a huge family, with your own little family in your department. Sort of like those Russian dolls where, when you open one up, there’s another, slightly smaller doll contained in it. And when you open that one up, there’s another.”
Teren shrugged a little. “I guess I’ve never seen myself like that, Tal.”
Alexa made a soft sound in her throat. “Teren, let us see your potential, your skills. Trust us to place you in your own department, to do what you do best: help women learn how to sew, learn how to market their clothing online, and then sell those wares to the world.”
“Which,” Matt said, giving Teren a kind look, “is what you’ve been doing at Kitra for the last seven years. And look how Kitra has prospered. Look at how many more women and children we’re able to take in and help because of the money made from your vision.”
Teren sat there, absorbing all their sincere, passionate compliments and their admiration and respect for her. She felt Nolan nearby, felt his pride in her, and briefly glanced over at him. She saw, radiating from him, not only pride but the depth of his love shining in his eyes, there for all to see.
CHAPTER 23
With a soft sigh, Teren sank against Nolan’s hard, sweaty body. She nuzzled beneath his jaw, smiling, eyes closed, feeling the undulations of pleasure flooding through her lower body. He made a sound of satisfaction, kissing her tousled hair, sweeping her against him. The late-November moonlight flowed silently into the large bedroom where they lay, breathing fast and shallow, languishing against one another, fulfilled.
Barely opening her eyes, Teren was content to be held against Nolan, feeling his fierce love for her, his lips resting against her damp temple, inhaling his fragrance, the scent of their shared sex. There was such a sweet vibration rolling through her and she stretched upward to kiss the column of his thick neck, tasting the salt of his perspiration on her lips.
“Every time is better,” she whispered.
Nolan eased his embrace, placing Teren on her back, studying her shadowed face caressed by moonlight through the nearby window. He drank in her shimmering, happy gaze, the way those sculpted lips curved upward, telling him how well he’d satisfied her. There was nothing more he wanted to do for this woman than make her smile like that, see the happiness glimmering in her peaceful eyes. “It’s you,” he rasped, kissing her smooth brow. “You inspire me, Teren.”
“Mmm, well, I think we inspire one another, don’t you?”
She heard a rumble in his chest, her lips drawing upward. Absorbing the vibration, her heart swelled with love for him.
“Most definitely,” he managed to say, sliding his fingers through her loose hair, grazing her cheek. Nolan pushed himself up on one elbow, wanting to memorize Teren right now. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes warm with love for him, her fingers caressing his damp shoulder, the moonlight accentuating her naked beauty as she lay beside him.
“Love gives us this gift,” he told her, his voice roughened with emotion. Glancing at the clock on the nearby nightstand, he added wryly, “And the gift of being sleep-deprived is the price we pay.”
Smiling softly, she skimmed her fingers down his tightly-muscled arm, which kept her hip pinned comfortably against him. “Do you think Tal, Matt, and Alexa notice it?”
He laughed. “I think they see us drinking more coffee in the morning. But we put in our eight hours and we get a lot done, so I don’t think they’re concerned at all.”
Sobering, she said, “Then maybe it’s time, Nolan?” She saw him cock his head, confusion coming to his eyes.
“For what, sweetheart?”
“Well, we’ve finished the parlor, the kitchen, and this bedroom,” she began quietly, making invisible patterns across his large biceps. Stilling her hand, she wrapped her fingers around his upper arm, holding his concerned, shadowed gaze. “I know we haven’t made anything official yet, Nolan, but I want to know what you think about something.”
Nolan felt the sudden tentativeness within Teren. He could see worry in her eyes, or maybe it was concern about something new; he wasn’t sure. The last two months, she’d not only become a part of the Artemis family, she’d thrived as never before. He wanted to think it was the love blossoming between them, giving them the deep roots required to make their lives something that would last fo
rever. There was no question that Artemis and Teren hummed together as a smoothly working team. In two months, she had accomplished so much, laying out a grand plan for the software she’d already written, so that it could be sent to every Delos charity that wanted it. Nolan had recognized early on her intelligence and her far-seeing capability, but he knew that Tal, Matt, and Alexa were blown away by her visionary abilities. Teren was such a major asset to Artemis—and to him as well, but in a different, far more personal way.
“Tell me what’s on your mind.” Nolan knew that when Teren had tried to share her ideas with her family, they’d shut her down. To this day, she struggled with speaking her mind. Nolan had made it his personal mission to get her to open up and trust him and talk at length with him. He would not interrupt her. Not like her family always did as a way to control her and shut her up.
Their most important talks seemed to come up after loving one another and tonight was no different. He leaned down, caressing her lips, wanting to erase the worry he saw in her eyes. Nolan would never turn away from her, never not be interested in what she had to say, or how she saw her world—or their world.
“Come on,” he teased with a growl. “Fess up.” He felt Teren quiver with laughter.
She sighed, cupping his jaw. “I love you, Nolan. I never want anything else in this life except you.” She looked away for a moment, as if to gather her thoughts, then tilted her chin, holding his warm, amused gaze, she whispered, “And that’s one reason why I want to get pregnant. I want to carry your baby…our child. Are you okay with that?”
Stunned, Nolan responded with his heart. “Oh, sweetheart, I’d like that more than you can ever know. I want as many kids as you think you want, Teren.”
Staring up at him, the tears running down her face, she sniffed, “I-I was so worried, Nolan…”
“Why?” he rasped, kissing her gently, her mouth warm and inviting beneath his.
“Because, you lost your wife…your baby…I wasn’t sure you’d ever want another child, Nolan—risking it all again. Oh, I know I’m a worrier, but I had to ask you, I had to know.”
Sanctuary: Delos Series, Book 9 Page 29