“I’ll make it up to you.” She winked at him as he smiled. “We have an extra ten minutes thanks to Darina. That’s all you’ll need right.”
“Ignore her.” Hydec tugged on Rasha’s arm. “She knows full well I can go all night.”
Rasha nodded and laughed. “Actually, that is one area where his genetic engineering excelled.”
“Believe it, baby.” He grinned. “Good night, Darina.”
The two of them walked down the hallway, their hands joined, their heads bent toward one another as they shared secrets in the dark. A great longing swelled in her chest, and she turned toward Foster’s door.
To knock or not to knock? Was he deeply asleep in there? He’d had a long day, just as she’d had. Would he be annoyed if she visited? His subconscious might be still working on the cure while he slept. She didn’t want to get in the way of his progress.
Did his genetic engineering excel in the area of lovemaking too? If one were to attempt to build a more superior human, wouldn’t improving their sexual prowess be a fun enhancement?
Did he sleep in the nude?
Deciding she absolutely needed the answer to that last question, she turned the knob and eased the door open. The room was dark, but she could make out the shape of Foster’s bed against the far wall between a set of windows. A lump in the middle of the king-sized bed let her know the man was a bed hog.
For some reason that made her grin.
The room smelled like the outdoors, and a quick scan revealed the windows were open to let in fresh nighttime air. Inhaling deeply, she stood in the doorway as the long curtains on the windows rippled in the warm breeze.
“Are you going to stay at the door or get your unbelievably sexy ass over here?” Foster’s voice was low and whispery, sending goosebumps over her skin.
“You’re awake.”
“Did you actually think I’d be able to sleep knowing you were right next door?” Sheets rustled and a shadowed form became visible as he sat up in the bed.
Darina’s eyes had adjusted to the dark enough to see his finger curling to invite her over to the bed. She swallowed loudly—too loudly—and hesitated. Yes, she’d been the one to bust into his room, but she’d expected him to be asleep. She’d expected to look to see that he was safe—and if he was nude—then pop back out of his room, returning to her own and facing a sleepless night alone.
His invitation changed things.
“Darina, I’m not going to bite… unless you want me to.” He turned on a dim bedside lamp so she could see him grinning now.
Did she want him to bite her? Did she want those grinning lips on her body?
Hell yes!
Her legs took charge and carried her to the bed where she found herself climbing on where Foster’s feet were under the sheets. On all fours, she continued up his body until her face was even with his and she straddled his lap.
“Hey, Doc,” she whispered.
“Hey.” He cupped her face and wasted no time feasting on her mouth.
She was just as hungry. For at least three solid minutes, they went between heated kissing to crazy intense kissing. Darina was more than pleased to find that when she’d rested her hands on Foster’s shoulders, they were bare. If that impressive something poking her from under the sheet still covering his lap was any indication, the man was also bare from the waist down.
Shiver.
Foster’s hand clawed at her tank top, pulling the strap off her left shoulder. He leaned closer and ran his lips along her exposed skin. When his teeth grazed her flesh, she tightened her thighs around his waist, and he groaned into her hair.
“I sincerely hope this isn’t a really vivid dream.” He sucked her earlobe into his mouth then tugged on it with his teeth. “And no one better interrupt us.”
“I’ll shoot them if they do.” She was kidding. Maybe.
Darina closed her eyes and let her head drop back, giving him more of her neck to explore. He didn’t disappoint as his mouth charted a course over what she offered.
She wanted to offer a hell of a lot more.
Foster’s hands skated up into her hair, and he grabbed fistfuls of it, tethering her to him. He looked into her eyes for a minute, and Darina expected him to come to his senses or something.
“Please, don’t stop.” Again, she hated the begging in her voice, but being denied two times in one night was enough to have her throw out all her rules.
He traced a circle on her cheek and smiled. “I couldn’t stop if I wanted to, Officer Lazitter… and trust me, I don’t want to.”
In a quick move that made her let out a little squeak, Foster swiveled her onto her back. Hovering over her, he quickly caught her lips again, and any demands about being on top faded from her consciousness.
She was only aware of one thing… Foster.
He peeled her tank top off completely, and she shimmied out of the rest of her clothes, making a point to rest her weapon within reach on the bedside table. Foster looked at the gun for a few seconds, a crease forming between his brows. Shaking his head, he rested on his elbows and gazed down at her, the dim light getting caught in his pale green eyes.
“Ah, yes. Right where we left off.” He lowered and nibbled on her neck, along her jaw, and to her mouth.
“And Zeke’s totally out in the other room.”
“Another benefit to the seizure medicine. It promotes deep REM sleep.”
“So you sleep that well too?”
“When thoughts of touching you aren’t getting in the way, yes.” His mouth turned up in a half grin, and she needed him inside her. Immediately.
In tune with her thoughts, he slid down her body and used that skilled mouth on her breasts, teasing low moans from deep inside her. He stroked her ready heat with his fingers, testing how badly she wanted him.
Had she ever been this charged with anticipation? Something about seeing Foster on this Vermont property, watching him interact with the people he housed here, and the way he’d shared his knowledge to help Zeke made her feel close to him. Closer than she should. She found it hard to believe she’d only met him early this morning.
He replaced his fingers with his arousal and slowly slid into her, filling her. Inch by delightful inch. They shuddered simultaneously, and Foster stilled for a second, his gaze connecting with hers.
In that moment, Darina saw this man was much more than a doctor trying to save the world. He was capable, perhaps, of saving her.
Chapter Nine
He had hoped Darina would come to him tonight. He’d gotten into bed, but sleepy was the last thing he’d felt. Every time he’d closed his eyes, visions of Darina in the library, ready and willing, had parts of his body refusing to settle.
Now she’s here.
He was buried deep inside her, and no hologram could compare to having her wrapped around him so snugly, so completely, so perfectly. He’d had a few live partners in the past, but no one like Darina. From the moment she’d pulled him off the street in the city, he knew she wasn’t like anyone he’d ever met. Strong, confident, smart. She was all of these and more.
Her fingernails grazed his shoulders as she pulled him closer and took him in deeper. Their bodies were so tangled, her legs hooked around his waist, his arms touching everything he could reach. Never had he wanted to be a part of someone so desperately.
“Foster.” His name was a plea on her lips, urging him to give her what she needed, to take what he wanted.
He shifted, pulled out of her slowly, then thrust back in, causing her to let out a husky purr that gave him the fuel to continue, to take them both higher.
With a final series of thrusts, he drove into her and earned a full body shudder for them both. Breathing heavily, they went limp, and he lay cradled between her legs, his head resting on her shoulder.
She hugged him, her muscled arms locked around him in a way that made him feel as if he were important to her. It was silly to think what they had shared was anything more than two adults find
ing a release in pleasuring each other.
But it felt like more.
A great deal more.
“Nothing wrong with your genetic coding in this area, Doc,” she said, her breathing still a bit labored.
He lifted his head and smiled at the satisfied expression on her face. Her eyelids were lowered, her lips slightly turned up at the corners as she ran her foot up and down his calf. The light scrape of her toes made him hard all over again.
“Oh, really?” She raised her head off the pillow to meet his gaze.
“Extra stamina came with the DNA.” He gave her hopeful eyes.
“Be a shame to let it go to waste.” She grabbed him and rolled them over so he was on the bottom now. “I’m in charge this time.”
“Yes, Officer Lazitter.” He raised a hand and pushed her hair away so he could see her beautiful face. “You have the most amazing lips.”
“You haven’t even begun to see what they can do.” Her eyebrows tilted devilishly as she slid down the length of him, her nipples coasting along his chest, followed by the sweep of her hair.
She reached up to his shoulders and raked her fingers down his front until she arrived at where his prosthetic right leg began. Like her hand, the seam was hardly visible. You’d only find it if you were looking for it. The muscles in his real left leg were slightly bigger than what remained of his right thigh due to years of overcompensating when walking, but other than that, the evidence of his non-organic part was almost nonexistent.
“Do you ever take it off?” She ran her index finger along the seam, then flattened her palm against the prosthetic part of his thigh.
He shook his head. “When I had a lesser model I did because it wasn’t comfortable, but I often forget this one isn’t the real deal.”
She flexed her prosthetic hand. “Me too. Thanks to you.”
He reached down and threaded his fingers between hers. Pulling her hand up to his lips, he dropped a kiss on the back of it. “But you can’t feel that, can you?”
“No, but I like watching you do it anyway.” She grinned at him, and her face became more magnificent.
“I was working on adding nerve ending simulators into the fleshy outer layer of my prosthetic designs, but the Anarch ruined my plans.”
“And Warres didn’t help any.” She clenched her teeth hard enough that he could hear them grind together.
“No, he didn’t. I should be working on so many other things.” Foster blew out a breath. “Instead, I’m trying to undo a situation that never should have happened in the first place.” Even now he felt guilty for enjoying the pleasure Darina had given him. If he wasn’t sleeping, shouldn’t he be trying to find the cure?
“Recharging is okay.” She grabbed his chin and made him look at her.
“What?”
“I can feel the guilt coming off you, Doc. Have you been working on that cure the way you worked on it today?”
He nodded. Every hour of every day had been consumed with trying to find the combination that would eradicate Warres’s plague.
“Then you’re giving it your all. Besides, this,” she gestured between the two of them, “might be good for your brain.” She tapped his temple. “Might kickstart a line of thinking you haven’t considered yet. You know, like when you’re trying to remember something, but the more you try to remember it, the more you can’t retrieve it. The moment you work on something else, however, it just pops into your head.” She snapped her fingers. “You know what I mean?”
“I do.” He ran his index finger over her full bottom lip. “Does that make you the something else I’m working on?”
“It would, except…” she shifted lower and stroked his erection, “I’m working on you.”
He wanted to reply with some witty comment, but her hands on him in that way made forming sentences impossible. Her hands were warm and strong and most welcome to touch him like that any time she wanted them to.
She tightened her grip and moved her hand back and forth until he could barely contain himself. When her mouth closed around him, stars flashed behind his closed eyelids, and his heart threatened to pummel his ribs to splintery bits. Her full lips were velvety and the heat of her mouth was a welcome sanctuary. Her tongue massaged him, coaxed him to steel hard, and brought him to the breaking point.
“Darina, please…” He had to be inside her. Had to. Immediately.
With a final caress of her lips against his tip, she released him and climbed atop him instead. “Ask for it again.”
“Now. Please.” One word demands were all he was capable of giving her.
“What do you want, Doc?” She leaned forward, her lips brushing against his ear. “Tell me.”
“I want you take me into that hot, wet paradise between your legs.” He impressed himself with that bit of poetry, considering the fact that all the blood in his body was definitely assembled in one area.
Darina’s eyes darkened as a low growl rumbled in her throat. It was the most erotic sound Foster had ever heard.
With a few teases of his lips, she slid onto him, accepting him, making his fantasies come true with each movement of her body above his. Their flight to the summit was powerful and consuming and primal. He clamped his hands on her slender hips, holding her to him, pushing himself deeper, wanting to fuse their bodies into one.
When her insides clenched around him, milked him until he had no more to give, he had to bite his bottom lip to keep from tossing a victory cry into the quiet night. She must have known he was trying to contain himself because she took control of his lips, keeping him busy enough that he no longer wanted to sound off.
Instead, he wanted to kiss her everywhere.
Flipping her over onto her back, he ran his tongue down the valley between her breasts and around her flat stomach. Dropping feather-light kisses along her soft flesh, he enjoyed the taste of her, knowing it was a flavor he’d always crave now that he’d sampled her.
She dug her fingers into his hair, her nails scraping his skull in a way that had him feeling it in every extremity—even his prosthetic leg somehow.
He settled next to her, his arm draped across her stomach, hoping to keep her there.
“You know I can’t stay, Foster.” She pressed a kiss to his forehead.
He tightened his grip on her waist. “I don’t know anything of the sort.”
She laughed and her body shook beside him. Damn, he loved having a body beside him. More specifically, her body.
“I should get some sleep if I’m to properly protect you, Doc.”
“You can sleep right here.” Again he nestled closer, hoping she wouldn’t be able to resist staying.
“You and I both know if I stay, we won’t be sleeping.” She patted his cheek and grinned at him.
“We can rest between not sleeping.”
She angled her head to the digital clock he had beside the bed. “Shit. The new set of guards is already at your door.”
“See? Too complicated for you to get past them now. Better hunker down right here.” He liked this line of reasoning.
“Maybe another night. How would it look if I was found in here on the very first night?”
“Like I’m irresistible?”
She pushed him back with a light slap to the shoulder. “Maybe you are. I don’t know how to explain falling into bed with you otherwise.”
“You’re probably just too tired to fight me off.” He nibbled on her shoulder while his thumb caressed her nipple to a tight bud.
Darina arched into his touch. “I don’t want to fight you off.” She pressed her lips to his, explored his mouth for several glorious moments, then pushed away. “I have to go.” She slid from his grip and pulled herself to sitting on the edge of his bed.
“Help me in the lab tomorrow?” He at least wanted to be sure she’d be with him all day tomorrow.
“Guarding you personally, remember?” She pointed to herself. “It’s my job to be in your space.”
Foster pumped
a fist in the air. “Yes!”
Smiling, she stood and collected her clothes. She dressed in the dim light, and he enjoyed everything about watching her. Of course, he’d have liked it better if she were undressing to stay with him, but he was encouraged by the prospect of being with her tomorrow.
“What time are you planning to get up?” she asked as she stepped into her boots and tied them.
“When the sun does. I don’t want to waste a moment. I’m close on this cure.” He sat up and ran a hand through his hair, scratching at the back of his neck. “I’m just missing something.” If only he could put his finger on what was missing.
Darina pressed her palms to the bed and leaned down to him in a quasi-pushup. Her bicep muscles caught his attention for a moment, then the way her tank top dipped over her breasts in that position stole all his focus.
“You’ll get it.”
She sounded so sure. Surer than he felt.
“See you in the morning, Doc.”
After a quick kiss, she left. He heard her talk to the two new guards, saying something about investigating a sound inside the room. Then the night got super quiet again except for the crickets singing their summer song outside. He folded his arms behind his head and listened to those crickets until he could almost pick out the sounds of the individual insects.
Was Darina back in bed in the guest room? Had Zeke noticed she was gone? If so, was he asking her a million questions? What were her responses?
Did she want tomorrow to come as fast as he did?
****
Strangely, Darina slept like a newborn puppy after returning to the guest room. Nothing like a few rounds of amazing sex to make a girl sleep deeply. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept like that.
Possibly she’d never slept like that.
In the shower now, she let the water beat against her skin. Zeke had been right. There was no sense in taking a lukewarm shower when a scorching hot one was available. Seriously, how did Foster return to the city when he had all this here in Vermont? She thought back to his Emerge Tech domicile and even with its state-of-the-art technology, it didn’t compare to this place. She felt as if she’d been transported back in time to a much better version of living on planet Earth. It’d be hard to let it go when this gig was over.
Safe (The Shielded Series Book 1) Page 13