by Schow, Ryan
I move back in, kissing him, feeling his tongue moving warm and sensuous against mine.
I pull back and say, “Office hours.”
“Is that what you want?”
I nod, hungry, ravenous, “Yes. Right now.”
We’re at his office minutes later, the door is shut, his shirt is being unbuttoned. My hands are finding his chest, his abdomen. Then my shirt is unbuttoned and my bra is opened up and that’s when my cell phone rings.
I’m breathing heavy, nearly out of breath with need, with the force of my carnal lust. This animal instinct in me, it’s more than desire. But the call, it’s Damien.
Shit!
“I’m supposed to meet a friend,” I stammer. Our fiery, spinning world slows to a stop. There’s only heavy breathing and unsatisfied cravings between us. His hair is mussed from my hands plowing through it, from pulling it toward me as I kissed him hard and heavy, and maybe a bit sloppily.
“But I have to have you,” he says. The look in his eyes, it’s him being out of control. It’s him being reckless for me.
“I have to have you, too,” I tell him. “Just not now, as much as I’ll regret this for the next year.”
He takes a deep, stabilizing breath, then looks down at my bare breasts, still rising and falling more than usual.
“Did this really just happen?” he says, euphoric.
“It did.”
“My God.”
“Don’t forget it, Jake. When you’re not my teacher and when I’m no longer legally unavailable, we’ll pick up right where we left off. I promise.”
4
Damien’s at my room. The anger in his eyes is gone. I start to apologize for being late, which I know I should do even though I feel immensely guilty for telling him I was in love with him earlier, and then going and making out with my teacher. My gosh damn teacher!
And that’s when he kisses me and, holy cow, no there’s no f*cking way this is happening! I pull away fast, putting my hand on his chest, saying, “Whoa, dude, what gives?”
“But, I thought—”
Oh, hell with it.
I grab him and pull him into my kiss and even though I’m half torn about what I’m doing and what this means, this is what I’ve wanted since that first day I met him. He walked into class and told me I was in his seat, and I was devastated, but in love.
Or is this lust?
Our mouths come apart and I feel my body sigh.
“I know we have a lot to talk about,” he says, “and I’m going to come and see you. I want to talk to you about…well, about…you know.”
“Okay,” I say, dragging the word out long enough to make it a question.
“It’s just, well, everything has changed. I was depressed all semester because you weren’t here, and now you are.”
“There are things I need to tell you, too,” I say, thinking of my friends. Before I tell him who Tempest and Cicely really are, I’ll ask for their permission. They may not want to give it to me. And Georgia? Just because it’s summer doesn’t mean Gerhard is going to get a three month pass.
I’ll need Damien in my corner when I press Gerhard for information. For results. Inside, I get the feeling the man is a monster in a cage not large enough to contain him. But Georgia is my concern. Maybe my biggest concern.
Damien kisses me again, and I kiss him back and for some reason it feels different from Jake’s kiss, but no less meaningful.
“Now that’s a proper good-bye,” I say. “Finally.”
Epilogue
1
With Georgia up in Canada under the care of Gerhard’s colleague, Dr. Cameron—and his office and lab closed up for the summer—Gerhard sat at home, packed and ready to leave for Canada in the morning.
In the other room, Autumn was laid out on her back on the bed, her underwear torn off, her bra hanging from the lampshade, one of the straps broken. She had blood trickling from her nostrils and her mouth, but she was content, sated.
Her Beta alter, her sex-slave programming, had her wanting things rough. Gerhard had no problem with that. Arabelle did, however. She didn’t like him spending so much time with Autumn, but Gerhard decided his time with Autumn was none of Arabelle’s business.
Sitting in the living room in his underwear, stroking his cat (who sat on his lap with its eyes closed and purring) he contemplated his next move. With Warwick dead, the hierarchy of the Virginia Corporation would change again. But how this time? It almost didn’t matter. With Warwick gone, the group probably wouldn’t survive. Which was fine with him. He could make his own way in this world, the same as he’d been doing for longer than he cared to remember now.
Finally he let the cat down and called Monarch Enterprises. He asked for Gotlieb, Autumn’s old handler. Moments later, the man answered the phone.
“Hello, Shelton. Wolfgang Gerhard here.”
He paused a long time, then: “What can I do for you, Dr. Gerhard?”
“I’m keeping Autumn.”
“She’s not your property,” the man countered, unemotional.
“If she doesn’t hear my voice every single day, her Omega Programming will activate.” Her suicide programming.
“I’m sorry to say, she’s not wired that way.”
“I wrote the book on this type of thing, Shelton. You know that.”
Nothing.
“Good, so we’re agreed.”
“Did you kill Warwick Bundy?” Gotlieb asked.
“He killed himself the minute he threatened me.”
“What about Jamison DuPont and Russell Tate? What will become of them?”
Gerhard glanced down the hall at Autumn, all stretched out and nude on the bed. Inside of her programming manual, he read the details of her Delta alter. Her assassin programming. She was lethal, clean and quiet if need be, brutal and sadistic if he wanted. He wanted brutal. He demanded sadistic. In his mind he could see those two pricks drowning in their own blood, Jamison’s and Tate’s nearly lifeless eyes staring up at this skinny, ruthless goddess. Well maybe not Tate.
He was an interesting young man.
“Someone should…dispose of them, don’t you agree?” Gerhard told Gotlieb. “Jamison at the very least. That goddamn drunkard.”
“I do,” Gotlieb replied. After a pause, he said, “What’ll happen with the Virginia Corporation?”
“Who gives a shit? I mean, really, Shelton, who gives a shit?”
“I do, since we have a contract with them. It’s substantial and I answer to people who will want proof that contract can be closed.”
“Pull a rabbit out of a hat,” Gerhard said unkindly.
“And Savannah?”
“She’s dead.”
“Dead dead?—or dead for now dead?”
“I don’t know,” he said, the truth slipping from his lips.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“I mean, I haven’t made that decision yet, but I will.”
END OF BOOK II
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The saga continues! Keep reading for a b
rief synopsis of book three in the Swann Series novels, entitled CLONE, or simply head to your favorite online eBook retailer, purchase the book and begin reading immediately!
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Book 3 of the Swann Series Novels:
CLONE
The Virginia Corporation is reeling from major losses, and after the brutal double murder in Prague, Monarch Enterprises isn’t sure if Savannah is even alive. With her kill contract still open and assets now hunting her on Astor’s campus, Monarch prepares the hyper-skilled young assassin, Delta 1A to execute her on sight. Savannah is gone, though. Disappeared.
In her stead, the love-struck Abby Swann remains obsessed not only with Jake and Damien, but with morality issues surrounding Gerhard’s miracle transformations. When she attacks the staff at Gerhard’s lab and kidnaps a clone, a gorgeous teenaged red head, Abby unleashes a firestorm of events that should have her dead several times over. Her survival seems impossible, though, and this has her wondering, what was really in those shots Gerhard gave the newest version of her?
Complicating matters, the worst of tragedies strikes her inner circle. How will the new and improved Abby cope with her need to right yet another catastrophic wrong? With the enigmatic and ever evolving Brayden James helping her mete out her own brand of justice, of course. The problem is, Abby is an itty-bitty fish in shark-infested waters spanning back through the ages, and she’s about to cross two men, both psychotic monsters of their own sort, both men the likes of which she has never encountered. Her chances of survival? Damn near zero.
Don’t wait, download your copy of CLONE now!