“I love you too,” he said.
Bree felt something inside her uncoil at his words. Leaning down, he gently met her lips with his. She closed her eyes and gave in to need. The kiss switched from sweet to passionate in seconds. Declan was holding her so tightly he was afraid he would hurt her. Bree pulled away long enough to shift so that she had a knee on either side of his lap, struggling to get as close to him as possible. Reaching down to the hem of his shirt, she began to pull it up, breaking off the kiss just long enough to pull it over his head. Her hands ran over the bare skin of his chest, as though memorizing every warm curve of his body. His arms came around her and he stood up, wrapping her legs around his waist before he turned around to lay her back onto the bed. Their positions were now reversed and Bree felt incredibly vulnerable. Declan was in control and she loved it. Reaching down, he slid his hands up her waist, pulling her shirt up as he went. Tiny nerves trembled across Bree’s stomach and she shivered with goosebumps though she was far from cold. Declan quickly pulled her shirt over her head before coming back down beside her on the bed. Their hands and mouths began to explore one another. Her hands moved further down to the waistband of his jeans, fingers skimming under the edge. She felt and heard Declan suck in a breath as he kissed her neck. She smiled and began to unfasten his belt.
She had a moment to wonder if she should feel embarrassed or awkward. In past relationships, intimacy had always come with some sort of shyness or embarrassment. But here, now, with Declan, she felt none of that. Being with him felt right. This was exactly where she belonged.
Their hands and bodies moved together as though they’d always known one another. Gradually, their clothes fell away until there was nothing between them. Declan’s very vivid dreams hadn’t prepared him for the reality of being with Bree this way. Every touch sent a jolt through his body. His nerve endings were alive with sensation and he found that he couldn’t stop kissing her. He loved the feel of her soft skin under his hands, against his lips. The small sounds of pleasure that escaped her nearly undid him. When they finally came together, they both stilled for a moment. Declan stared down into Bree’s eyes and knew with absolute certainty that he would do whatever it took to keep her safe with him. “I love you,” he said solemnly. She smiled and reached to cup his face in her hand.
“I love you,” she whispered before kissing him. All rational thought left him as they began to move together.
Chapter 25
Declan was afraid to move, to speak. He didn't want to do anything to ruin this moment. Bree’s head was resting on his shoulder, her arm slung across his waist. The length of her body pressed against him, her legs tangled up with his own. She was wearing nothing but his t–shirt which barely reached her thighs. He thought he'd better let her keep the shirt as there was no way he'd ever look half as good in it as she did right now. He had to fight to keep a smile from his face.
Why had he fought against this for so long? Why had he constantly pushed her away? Right now, he couldn't remember a single reason. This was exactly where he was meant to be. He leaned down and kissed the top of Bree’s head, breathing her scent deep into his lungs. He didn't want this moment to end. They could stay together like this forever. No war. No Ephraim. No Praetorians. Just the two of them, here together, holding each other close.
Bree sighed contentedly and stroked her hand over Declan’s chest and belly, her fingers pausing as she brushed across the scar from his fight with Benson all those months ago. Her mind wandered back to that night in his apartment as she’d bandaged his cut. She’d been so distracted by his bare skin. Smiling, she remembered how flustered she’d been to see him without a shirt. Now, here she was, lying in bed with him, free to touch him at her leisure. She slowly slid her finger back and forth along the small raised line before sliding her hand back up to rest on his chest, over his heart. Declan reached his hand up to cover hers and gave it a small squeeze.
“Do you think anyone would notice if we never left this room?” Bree murmured. She heard the deep rumble of his laugh under her ear and smiled.
Declan said, “I had a similar plan in mind.” Bree shifted so her chin rested on his chest and she could meet his gaze. There was something in his expression as he looked at her that she’d only ever seen in her dreams of the two of them. She smiled.
“We could do it,” she said. “Barricade the door, just stay here until the food runs out.” She kissed his chest lightly. “Then we go to your place and do it all over again. We could last for weeks, I’m sure. What do you think?” Her blue eyes were shining up at him, her hair was a riot of waves around her face. She raised one eyebrow in a questioning glance. Declan felt his heart swell as he looked at her. She was waiting for him to answer her. Instead, he cupped her jaw in his hand and just stared at her a moment longer.
“Declan?” she said in a questioning tone. “What is it?”
He shook his head as though in disbelief. “You,” he said simply. “You’re so beautiful.”
Bree tried to duck her head in embarrassment at his words, but his hand on her cheek wouldn’t let her.
“You are,” he insisted, his thumb stroking her cheek slowly. Bree found herself caught by the intensity of his eyes. “Thank you,” he said, “for not giving up on me.” He smiled.
This time, when Bree felt her stomach flip at the sight, she only smiled and leaned up to kiss him before settling back into his arms, her head on his chest. She closed her eyes as she felt him stroke her hair. “I couldn’t,” she said softly.
“What?” he asked.
“Give up on you,” she said.
She felt his hand still for a moment before he continued to run his fingers through her hair.
“I'm sorry,” he said.
Bree opened her eyes and tilted her head to look in his direction, her brow drew down in confusion. “For what?” She asked him.
He looked away from her gaze for a moment and she thought he looked embarrassed.
“Last night,” he said. “At Rowan's. I was an ass.”
She smiled wider at his sheepish expression. “Yes, you were,” she said.
“I shouldn't have acted the way I did,” he told her. “I was just––”
“Jealous?” She offered in a teasing tone.
Declan let out a sigh. “Yeah,” he said. “Crazy jealous.” He studied her face for a moment. “I'm not that guy, you know? The angry, jealous guy. I need you to know that. It's not even Pax I was jealous of.” He looked away from her again, seeming to be searching for the right words. “I think I was jealous of the possibility. I'd convinced myself that you and I couldn't ever be more than friends but here was this other guy who could. This guy who could be what you needed when I couldn't. Or at least that's what I told myself.” He sighed again. “Have I said I was an ass?” He said, looking back to her face.
Bree smiled again. “You mentioned it,” she said.
Her voice turned serious when she said, “Declan, Pax is a nice guy. He’s funny and charming and not bad to look at, but he could never be what I need. It’s you. It's always been you.” She reached over and touched his cheek. The moment stretched out between them. Neither spoke, both content to stay this way forever if they could.
Declan opened the door and peered into the hallway, making sure there was no one around to see him leaving Bree’s room. The hall was empty so he slipped out of the room and walked quickly toward his own quarters. He wanted to grab a few of his things before going back to Bree’s. She was still wearing his shirt, so Declan moved quickly down the hall, bare–chested and barefoot. It was midmorning. The two of them had spent the last several hours alternating between sleeping, talking and making love. He tried to wipe the smile from his face as he reached into his pocket for his keycard. He felt the smile fade slightly as his hand came up empty and he realized he hadn’t grabbed his card the night before when he’d ran after Bree. He was locked out of his quarters.
“Walk of shame? Declan Thomas, I am shocked!” Saw
yer’s teasing voice cut through the silence and he felt his face redden. Still, he made himself boldly turn to face Sawyer who had just exited the door from the stairwell.
“Good morning,” he said brightly, ignoring Sawyer’s words. He should have known better. She wasn’t going to let this go.
Sawyer paused and gave him an assessing look. “Are we not doing shirts these days?”
Declan rolled his eyes but thought better of making any sort of retort. As she was about to continue walking toward her own quarters, he had a thought. “Um, Sawyer,” he said speculatively. “You wouldn’t happen to know a way into this room if someone maybe, locked their keycard inside, would you?” Sawyer’s brows rose and she glanced down the hall in the direction of Bree’s room. Declan forced himself not to follow her gaze. Her eyes narrowed slightly and she walked over to him, waving him away from the door.
“Step aside, rookie,” she said and bent to study the door. She reached into her own pocket and pulled out a keycard that Declan assumed was her own. He wasn’t sure what she was doing, but he didn’t question it. He glanced up and down the hallway, hoping no one else would show up right now. He wasn’t sure how he would explain this.
“There,” Sawyer said triumphantly as the door clicked open. “You owe me.”
Declan had no idea how she’d done it, but he was grateful. “Thank you,” he said sincerely as he slipped into the room.
She gave him a shrug. “It was nothing,” she said. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she called out in a sing–song voice as the door closed.
Declan leaned against the closed door for a moment and sighed. It wasn’t like he wanted to keep their relationship a secret. But he hadn’t planned to announce it to the world on day one, either. Still, he couldn’t stop the grin that kept making its way onto his face. Bree loved him. He let the words replay in his head a few times until he was able to think them without also being shocked. After a moment, he moved to his room to collect the items he’d come for. Toothbrush, a change of clothes, these items he threw into a bag. He moved quickly, eager to return to Bree.
As he opened the door to his quarters, he once again scanned the hallway looking and listening for anyone. Assured that there was no one nearby, he ran down to Bree’s room where she’d just opened the door to see what was keeping him. He opened his arms for her and she went into them, pushing the door closed behind them. He kissed her, even as he turned her and backed her up against the door. She returned his kiss, wrapping her arms and legs around him.
“Sawyer knows,” he whispered as his mouth trailed down her neck. He stilled for a moment before continuing. “She saw me in the hallway.” His hands were pushing the hem of the shirt up over her hips and higher.
She pulled back enough to look at his face. “Did you want to keep me a secret?” she asked him, her expression shocked. He smiled teasingly as he continued to raise the shirt higher, exposing more of her to his gaze.
‘Well,” he said. “I have always wanted to have a secret lover. It seems my plan is foiled.” He leaned down and kissed her thoroughly. She let out a startled laugh when he scooped her up in a fireman’s hold, throwing her over his shoulder before jogging toward the bedroom.
Chapter 26
Training the next morning was more exhausting than usual for Bree and Declan. They’d gotten little sleep the night before and hadn’t wanted to get out of bed when the alarm had begun shouting at them. After a minute or two of grumbling, Bree finally made herself climb from her very comfortable spot in Declan’s arms. They had to face the day.
They dressed quickly and Declan left a minute before Bree. She didn’t want her parents to see him leaving her quarters before dawn. It was one thing for Sawyer to see him doing what she’d called a walk of shame, but her parents would be far less amused. She was nearly 21. Her mother knew she hadn’t saved herself for marriage and she assumed her father did too, even if they’d never outright discussed it. The thought of that conversation made Bree cringe. Still, she didn’t think they’d appreciate her flaunting her sex life.
The four of them met at the elevator and Bree had to fight the urge to touch Declan, to take his hand in hers. She’d spent months not being able to touch him as she wanted to and the last 24 hours able to touch him as much as she liked. She preferred the latter. Even so, she wanted to talk to her parents about the two of them first. A short elevator ride on the way to training didn’t allow enough time. She kept her hands to herself.
The morning workout passed quickly and they broke for showers and breakfast. As they stepped off the elevator, Bree stopped her parents before they would have turned left to go to their own quarters.
“Mom, Dad,” she said. “Hold on a sec.”
They both turned to face her, curiosity evident in their faces. Bree opened her mouth to speak, but Declan stepped up beside her and took her hand in his, smiling down at her before he looked at Jon and Rylee.
“I’m in love with Bree,” he said, squeezing her hand.
Bree smiled and felt her face turn red. “And I love him,” she said. Jon and Rylee looked back and forth between the two of them before they turned to face one another. Jon looked at Declan with a confused expression.
“That’s pretty obvious,” he said. “We’ve been waiting for you two to figure it out.”
Rylee nodded her agreement. “It’s true,” she said. “Jon and I had a bet going. My money was on one more month.”
Bree’s mouth dropped open. “What?” she asked, shock plain in her voice. “Mom!”
Rylee shrugged. “I’ve known since that first day you introduced us to him at the house. Hello? Empath?” She smiled. “I’m happy for you both,” she said. Then she looked at Declan with a serious expression. “If you hurt her, I can make you wish you were dead,” she said, pointing a finger at him.
Declan’s eyes widened slightly. He knew exactly what Rylee was capable of and didn’t want to be on the receiving end. “No, ma’am,” he said. “I promise.”
Rylee smiled sweetly. “Good. I’ll see you both at breakfast?” They nodded their agreement as she and Jon turned to go.
As they walked away, Bree heard her dad say, “I wanted to do the threat thing. You totally stole my line.”
“Next time, hon,” Rylee said.
“Next time? We only have the one kid,” Jon grumbled.
Bree laughed and turned with Declan toward their own quarters. When they reached Declan’s door, he said, “I’ll just be a few minutes.”
Bree smiled mischievously and said, “I have a better idea. What if you grabbed your stuff and we can go see if my shower’s big enough for two.” She raised one eyebrow at him, daring him.
He grinned at her. “Give me 20 seconds to grab my clothes,” he said before he dashed into his room, leaving Bree laughing.
Over the next two weeks, Bree and Declan were never far from one another. They trained together with the rest of the team during the day and most of their nights were spent together. When she slept in Declan’s arms, Bree wasn’t plagued by the nightmare. She wasn’t sure if the reason was because she was so happy or if it was just a coincidence, but she was enjoying herself immensely. She’d been in relationships before. She’d even thought she’d been in love once, but nothing compared to what she felt when she looked at Declan. She found it difficult to put it into words, even in her own mind so she stopped trying. She focused instead on being happy.
Right now, Bree was sprawled on the couch in Declan’s quarters, one of Lydia’s books in her hand. She’d been reading some of the books from the Praetorian archives over the last few weeks. She hadn’t resumed her reading of Charlotte’s journal although the idea was never far from her mind. Spending most of her non–training time with Declan had left her even less time for reading than before, but she wasn’t complaining about that. She also didn’t miss the strange dreams that seemed to visit her after reading some of Charlotte’s entries. Pushing aside thoughts of the journal, she glanced back to the bo
ok in her hands.
She ordinarily gravitated toward works of fiction, and although she knew she was reading historic accounts of real events, it was still hard for her mind to classify them as facts. So much of what she was reading felt like a science fiction novel. If it weren’t for the dry tone in some of the descriptions, she wouldn’t know she was reading a history book, rather than a bestseller. She was currently engrossed in a retelling of a two–day siege of the compound that had taken place in the early 1970s. It had ultimately failed, but to Bree that wasn’t reassuring.
The fact that there had ever been enemy Praetorians trying to get into this place meant that they knew its location. That meant that they could someday try again. Bree didn’t think any place—even this one, with all its security features—was completely safe. She wasn’t sure why she’d thought that Ephraim couldn’t possibly know about this place, but this entry proved otherwise.
“You’re concentrating awfully hard on that book, Bree,” Declan’s teasing voice came from the other end of the couch. She smiled at him over the top of the book.
“It’s interesting, that’s all,” she said, defensively.
Declan smiled back at her and lowered his sketchpad. “Did you know your nose gets all crinkly when you’re really focused? It’s cute.”
Bree rolled her eyes and made a point to relax her face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said archly.
Declan smiled and turned his sketchpad around so she could see what he’d been drawing. It was her, of course. Reclined against the arm of the couch, a book in her hands, hair piled atop her head, chewing her thumbnail, and her nose scrunched up in thought. Bree immediately reached up to touch her nose. Declan laughed at her as she continued to stare at the drawing. She lightly traced her finger over the paper before she looked back up at him, the humor gone from her eyes. Now, she looked awed. “How do you do that?” she asked softly.
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