by Debra Kayn
"You can do that with me holding you."
"I don't think I can." She gazed up at him, conflicted but determined. "We can talk in the morning."
His gaze intensified, but he let her step away from him. She walked down the hallway to the bedroom and shut the door. It was too easy to ignore the signs that something was terribly wrong with his story when he touched her.
Chapter Twenty Seven
The bedroom door opened. Keenan, sitting in the hallway, pressed against the wall and stood, studying Grace, trying to gauge her mood. He couldn't stand being away from her last night after dropping a heavy load of truth on her.
She frowned. "Have you been sitting out here all night?"
"I'm worried about you." He tilted his head. "Are you okay?"
He took in the shadows underneath her eyes. Her tiredness and stress looked back at him, making him hurt.
He knew without asking that she'd tossed and turned all night, periodically getting up and pacing the room. He'd heard every movement. Every sniffle. Every deep sigh.
She rubbed her arms. "I'm so far away from being okay, I'm sick to my stomach. I have a million questions for you, and it's hard for me to figure out if you're telling me the truth or this is some big game that I've been pushed into playing."
"It's not a game. It's dangerous." His gut tightened in his need to protect her. "I've kept you here, not only because I want you—and fuck, Grace, I want you. But I know what they're capable of. I'd put my life down in front of you to make sure they do not hurt you."
"Who are they?" she whispered.
"I don't know," he whispered back. "I've been a part of the project for more than eighteen years. During that time, they..."
"What?"
He closed his eyes an extra beat and then faced her, tapping his temple. "There are things I will never know. The drugs and training I went under make it impossible for me to remember certain things. I know one man, the leader, controls two handlers who oversee our care. I suspect there's an organization or group that funds the project. With the level of knowledge, money, and power they have, they're dangerous. You can see what they've done to me. If you're alone, you won't be able to stop them from hurting you."
The project had gifted each member of Avery Falls Motorcycle Club with a house that was outfitted with a training facility to maintain their enhancements. The small mountain town was given to the club, and the members were instructed to make the former ghost town a thriving recreational hub in the Bitterroot Mountains.
To do all that, there had to be money backing the Alpha Bio Project.
But he knew nothing else.
Over the last year, he'd had plenty of time to process his memories and what had taken place before and during his participation in the project. But the answer of who was behind the AB Project escaped him.
It would take time and evidence to figure that out. Time with his MC brothers, once they were able to settle after the switch.
His time with Grace was limited. He needed to show her how much she meant to him—outside of what was happening to them.
"What in the world was going through your head when you signed up to participate in such an inhumane project?" she asked.
"Let's go in the kitchen. You need to eat."
"I'm not hungry."
"Coffee?" He needed to get her to change the subject. If she wanted to ask him questions about what he went through in the project, he'd answer her. But his past before coming to Avery Falls was off-limits.
She followed him into the other room. He took down a mug and handed her the small can of instant coffee he'd bought for her last week. As she made a cup and warmed it in the microwave, the palms of his hands itched from wanting to touch her and make her forget everything that'd happened.
It would be so easy if he could make her forget, and they could start over.
He swore on his life if he had the drugs available to him that would make her forget everything up to today, he'd give it to her with the coffee to save her from the pain that she'd go through adjusting to his life.
His fear that she wouldn't be able to understand and accept him tainted his tongue. Everything he spoke to her about hid the real truth.
She took a drink, shaking her head when the hotness hit her mouth. Before he could allow her to ask her last question again, he sat on the counter and volunteered more information. "We're not alone in what is happening. Every member of the Avery Falls Motorcycle Club has participated in the project. They're all enhanced."
"They're dangerous like the man that attacked me?"
He shook his head. "No. They'll protect you because you belong to me. But right now, they're dealing with the switch and that makes them unpredictable."
"What is the switch? You mentioned that word before. So it's what happened to you when you woke up at the cabin?"
"Yeah," he mumbled. "It's hell."
"That's where you've been going during the day? To your friends?"
"I've been dealing with keeping my MC brothers safe and trying to keep Avery Falls running. We've got a town full of tourists, and I'm the only member who can keep the businesses open and deal with the locals. As it is, I've had to close the diner and The Shack. I've put the RV Park on the honor system, having the campers who hadn't paid in advance slip an envelope with their payments through an open window on Hank's motorhome." He inhaled deeply. "I'm hoping by the weekend, some of the members will have recovered enough to take on a little more responsibility. But, hell, Grace. I don't know what's going to happen. When this is all over, I'm not sure how many of us will be left."
"Can people die during the...switch?"
"Death would be easier." He felt emotionally and physically tired. A feeling he was unaccustomed to. "I need more time, Grace. I want to trust you with what I've told you. I want to show you how I feel about you."
"But that's what you want. What about what I want? This is my life. Every day that I'm gone, my sister suffers, thinking I'm dead."
"I can't let you go."
"Can't or won't?" she asked.
"Both." He slid off the counter and approached her.
She leaned into him. He held her, rocked at finally having her back in his arms.
"I won't risk something happening to you, and I can't have law enforcement involved." He tilted her face. "You have to understand who I am. If it got out that I'm enhanced and spent almost half my life within a project that created killers, I would have no life. I've killed one man in front of you. That alone would have the police throwing me in a cell without asking any questions."
"But if I told them—"
"I don't know what this is between us, Grace. Nobody trained me to feel the emotions I'm going through while being with you. I can't imagine not having you here. I don't want you to go."
"But my sister."
"After this is over. We'll figure a way for you to contact her, and you can give her a different story than the truth." He bent his knees to keep her gaze. "Hell, we can elope, and you can tell her that you ran away with me, and now you're starting a life here."
"She'll never believe me." Grace frowned. "Is this just a part of the story, or do you really feel that way about me?"
"It's not even close to how I feel about you. The thought of not having you in my life makes me lose my mind." He pressed his lips against her mouth and murmured, "I've never loved anyone before and never been loved. But if I had to describe what I think it would feel like, it would be how my body reacts when I'm with you."
"This is impossible." She closed her eyes and shuddered. "What are we going to do?"
"Take one day at a time until I can figure everything out." He kissed her hard and then straightened. "When this is over, and you're safe, I will love you for the rest of my life."
He tilted her face. That's all he had in him. How could he put into words how he felt about her? He tried hard not to put the burden on her, but she was keeping him alive. Because of her, he wanted a tomorrow with her.
<
br /> "Don't shut me out," he said.
Her gaze softened. "You've made me crazy even entertaining the idea of waiting for you. My sister is never going to forgive me."
"She will."
She sighed. "I wish I was as positive."
"She'll forgive you because she loves you."
He kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, opening her mouth to him. He held on to the hope that she was feeling the same way. When it came to sex, there was no doubt that they matched in every single way.
She screamed into his mouth, pulled away, breathing hard. "You're making me insane. I don't know what to do or believe."
"Then, you're going to wait?"
" I hope I don't lose everything, but..." Her gaze softened. "I'm falling in love with you, and no matter how many times I tell myself that this is a nightmare and I'll wake up soon, being with you feels so right. I know I belong with you."
She amazed him with her fucking beauty. He'd never been on the receiving end of someone thinking about him, wanting to be with him. His cock swelled and pounded with the need to be with her, leaving him trembling inside enough it seemed as if his bones would shatter.
He wouldn't let her regret her decision. Somehow, he was going to come out of this with the ability to have her in his life. He'd stay clean. He'd make his life safe for her.
There was no need for her to know the kind of man he used to be.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Keenan kneeled at Grace's feet, peeling her panties down her legs. She held onto his shoulders, caught in a whirlwind. Had she really agreed to stay until the trouble plaguing Avery Falls Motorcycle Club was over?
Her sister was going to kill her.
It would take her the rest of her life to make it up to Amelia for putting her through hell, thinking she was missing, or worse, dead.
But she couldn't lose Keenan.
Nothing about their relationship was normal. Keenan wasn't a normal man. After stewing over what he'd told her last night, she'd tried to come up with excuses for what she'd witnessed in the pole building.
His enhancements were unbelievable. But she'd seen him too many times do extraordinary things while in her presence for her not to believe him. Maybe if she'd paid closer attention instead of always trying to escape, she would've picked up on the little clues earlier.
He licked a path up the inside of her thigh. Her legs trembled under the assault. Already flying high, knowing he wanted her and fearing the situation would come between them, forcing them apart, she wanted to prove to him that she was strong enough to stay by his side.
While there was nothing remarkable about her, and she tended to close herself off to men who showed her attention, she glowed from the inside out with him.
He made her feel special and wanted, even needed. That was something other men had never made her feel.
As he'd volunteered more information about what he and his club members were going through, her heart broke for him. He was broken, having lost a big chunk of his life because of what others had done to him.
She couldn't imagine the trials he'd lived through and how many scars she couldn't see.
It was easy for her to compare the weeks during which Keenan had kidnapped her and the years he was captive in a project that changed his whole life and made him into someone new. He was a strong man, not only in the physical sense but to hold it together without losing his mind while someone else controlled everything and changed him was astounding.
Keenan rose to his feet. She rubbed her breasts against the front of him and wrapped her arms around his neck, stretching up on her toes. The adrenaline flowing through her was hard to contain. She needed reassurance that she was doing the right thing because she had doubts that they'd survive.
Keenan rubbed his hands over her hips. "I need inside of you."
Why did those sweet admissions that seldom slipped past his lips make her feel hot and cold at the same time?
She kissed him. "I'm not stopping you."
His grip tightened on her curves, holding her tight, trapping the evidence of how much he wanted her between them. "I need it hard, Grace. I need to bury myself in you."
She stepped back, turned on by the promise and hearing the neediness in his voice. Then, smiling, she slowly circled away from him and looked over her shoulder.
Keenan's upper body leaned to the side as his gaze tracked her spine, and he ogled her ass. A heated intensity burned her skin, making her sex wet with need.
Licking his bottom lip, he straightened and reached for a condom on the dresser. Slowly, carefully, he rolled on the protection. Emotions clogged her throat, forcing her to straighten her neck and look away.
She bent over and lowered her elbows to the bed and then widened her feet, opening for him.
His hands landed on her lower back, spreading to her hips. She let her head fall forward in preparation.
He slid his hand between her legs, using his fingers to spread the wetness he found. His hands went back to her hips and she slowly exhaled, trying to calm herself down.
The pressure of his cock at her entrance had her eyes rolling back in her head. The pleasure sent micro orgasms bursting inside of her. She lifted her head and pressed her lips together. The sheer potency of being taken by Keenan validated her decision to stay with him a little longer in hopes of making their relationship work.
"Hold on, Grace."
She grabbed handfuls of the comforter on the bed milliseconds before he plunged into her.
Her breath escaped her, coming out in a moan at the invasion, and her knees buckled. If it weren't for the bed, stopping her from falling under the pressure, Keenan would've propelled her across the room.
He pulled back and thrust inside of her again. Better prepared, she braced with her arms. The momentum took her to her toes. Or maybe it was his hold on her hips, lifting her higher, but she lost all purchase with her feet when they left the floor.
Marveling at what he could do, all her attention went to feeling the length and width of him fill every inch of her.
Her breath hitched. Awareness of the bond they'd created through the trials and fear that surrounded their lives strengthened her.
Over and over, he showed her the violent passion inside of him he had trouble expressing, leaving her with no doubts about how he felt toward her.
Keenan ground against her, holding her tight against him. Then, he slipped his arm around her hip, reached between her legs, and circled his finger over her clit.
The sudden softness and warmth against her back melted her bones. The soft caress of a man stronger than anything made her want to cry at the way he treated her.
"Come on my dick," he whispered against her ear.
She pressed against him, using his body to lean on. Arching her neck, she put the back of her head on his shoulder.
He moved his pelvis. Little movements, in and out. In and out. His finger, though, she panted. God, his finger was magical.
The sensations he created left her unable to do anything but receive them. Receive all the ways he pleasured her.
Her thighs quivered. She reached up and hooked her arm around his neck. Her nipples ached delightfully with the constant jiggle. Not too much. Not too little. He had her whole body vibrating.
She swallowed hard as her body tingled. He took her to the edge, and like her connection with Keenan, she lunged toward the awaiting explosion with no hesitation, even knowing he could destroy her.
Her orgasm swept her off her feet. If it weren't for Keenan holding her up and having his cock deep in her body, she would've slithered to the floor in complete bliss.
He removed his hand from between her legs and lowered her to the bed until she was flat on her stomach, bent at the waist, with her feet on the floor. She sighed and rested her head against the mattress.
Keenan closed her legs while remaining inside of her. She raised her head at the sensation of having him not only inside of her but captured between hi
s legs. He had to have moved his feet, but she wasn't aware of anything but the way she floated.
He began to pull out, plunge in. A long moan erupted from her. Having sex in that position allowed him to impale her. Every inch sliding in and out. She came again, just lying there, knowing he possessed her body.
Keenan grunted, holding still with his chest against her back. His elbows braced his weight off her. Her body quivered in exhaustion and pleasure.
Whoever he was and whatever he was capable of being, Keenan had never physically hurt her. She trusted him not to break her heart, too.
Chapter Twenty Nine
An Idaho State patrol car pulled into the RV Park. Across the street, Keenan looked outside the glass door from inside the gas station. Once a week or so, a stater would drive through the area to make his presence known.
Only once had one pulled to a stop in front of Hank's motorhome.
At that time, the police had become involved with a hit and run, believing the driver had tried to cross the Montana/Idaho border and sought safety in Avery Falls.
"Uh oh. It looks like one of the campers called the cops," said Jason, a local teenage boy, tending the cash register. "What do you think happened?"
"Don't know."
"Are you going to see what's going on?" Jason joined him at the door, looking at their visitor.
Not answering the kid, he walked out and went straight to his Harley. Quickly, he revved the engine and rode past the RV Park, turning left at the first street and straight to the clubhouse.
Once he was inside the gate, he ran across the field toward the patch of woody area. Knowing none of the locals could see him behind the fence, he pushed himself, sprinting at full speed until he reached the clearing a hundred feet into the trees.
Grace's Jeep was still there. The added assurance calmed him somewhat. If the police were looking for the vehicle, they wouldn't find it unless they suspected one of the Avery Falls Motorcycle Club members was involved in her disappearance.