“Ryan,” she cried out.
He ignored her and dipped his mouth to suck her nipple in between his lips. His teeth teased the tip. Deliciously. Seductively. And while he flicked his tongue over her distended nipple rapidly, he lowered his hand to cup her sex, gripping her so hard he nearly lifted her off the floor.
Her eyes rolled back. So much sensation bombarded her. She couldn’t focus on any one thing for more than a second. Her ear stung where he’d bit down, her nipple craved the repeated suction of his lips, her sex was wet and hot and pulsing with desire under the damn denim that needed to go.
After dragging his fingers roughly across her jeans between her legs, he yanked the button open and lowered the zipper. Instead of pulling her pants off, he wormed his hand inside, wiggled his fingers into her panties, and thrust two of them inside her. His palm smashed against her clit.
She cried out, an unintelligible sound in a room otherwise filled with nothing but heavy breathing and the ringing of her ears.
He released her nipple, his mouth once again against her ear. “Come for me, baby. Come on my fingers.”
She did as he demanded, or her body did anyway. Of its own volition. She lost the ability to command her legs to hold her upright, but Ryan had her with his knee and his hands. There was no way to stop the freight train that barreled through her body, sending her over the edge of the tracks to that most precious state of bliss she so loved.
This time it was more intense. This time he was taking from her in a way she had never experienced before. Heaven.
Before she caught her breath or managed to pull words together, he tugged her jeans down and kicked them off. The way he still gripped her wrists above her head made her squirm, her desire building to a new crescendo immediately.
She still wore her bra, but that was it, and one breast was erotically pushed out of the cup. Swollen. Heavy. Needy.
His mouth slammed down on hers again, keeping her mind from wandering too far while he shoved his scrubs over his hips. He didn’t bother to remove them entirely, nor did he take off his shirt. Instead, he dropped her wrists, grabbed her waist with both hands, and lifted her off the floor.
Pressing her against the door, he slammed up into her.
She screamed, biting down on her lower lip when she realized how loud she was. Anyone passing by in the hallway would have heard her.
His lips found hers again as he rocked her world.
She grabbed his shoulders to hold on. “Harder,” she finally managed to whisper. “Faster.” She wanted him to know how damn hot this was. How much she liked it. How much she wanted him to keep going.
He did as she asked, though he might have done so anyway. He seemed thicker and longer in this position or perhaps in this heated exchange.
Her arousal grew to the edge of bliss again, but just before she came, he grabbed her chin and met her gaze. “Nuh-uh.” He shook his head. “Don’t come yet.”
She gasped. How the hell was she supposed to stop herself from coming?
“Look me in the eye, Emily. Watch me while I take you.”
She held his gaze, the intensity melting her.
“Wrap your legs around me tighter.”
She did as he asked, hooking her ankles at the small of his back.
His hands trailed around to her back, his fingers digging into her shoulders from behind as he spun around and carried her across the room. His scrubs hadn’t even been lowered enough to hamper him.
She ran her palms under his shirt and pulled it over his head as he entered her bedroom, and then he lowered them both to the bed, still connected, Emily landing on her back.
His hands found hers and he threaded their fingers together, tugged them above her head, and held her to the mattress. “Eyes on me, baby.”
She watched him, seeing all the love pouring from him as he thrust in and out of her, his frenzied pace resuming. His eyes weren’t just filled with lust, they were wet with unshed tears. Emotion. So much feeling.
Her attention returned to her sex as he slammed against her one last time, the base of his length pressing into her clit as he came deep inside her. “Now,” he demanded. “Now you come for me.”
She did as he commanded, the walls of her channel gripping him, pulsing around it as he emptied into her.
When he was fully spent and she was floating back to earth, he released one of her hands to cup her cheek softly, reverently, his thumb stroking her bottom lip. His gaze never broke from hers. “Tell me that didn’t shake your foundation. Tell me this isn’t something special. Tell me you can walk away from me with no regrets.” He clasped her other hand firmly, shaking it while his fingers tightened on her chin. “Tell me this doesn’t mean as much to you as it means to me and I’ll let you go.”
A tear slid from her eye and trailed down her face to land against the comforter.
His voice softened from demanding to sweet as his grip loosened. He kissed her lips gently. “Tell me,” he whispered. “Tell me, baby.”
She tugged her fingers free of his and grabbed the back of his head with both hands. “I love you.” Tears fell freely. She sobbed. “I love you.” Her vision blurred.
His lips found hers, and then her chin, her cheeks, her nose, her forehead, her neck. Rapid kisses that claimed her, sealed her to him. Finally, he spoke again. “I never want to see that look in your eyes again, baby. Promise me you won’t let stupid thoughts of retreat get between us. Ever.”
She nodded against his forehead as he stared into her eyes, unable to speak, choking on emotion.
“You scared the fuck out of me. You wouldn’t meet my gaze. I could see you were plotting. Planning to leave. Walk away. I know you well enough to realize how your mind works. Don’t forget I studied your notes for years. Some of your entries were like a diary. You were thinking it would be best for me if you left. And that’s bullshit.” He gave her another shake.
She nodded, still crying. Even her nose was running. The ugly cry.
“I love you, and I don’t care what we have to face. We’re facing it together. Got it?”
She nodded again. So much love. So much emotion.
“We’ll figure it out. One day at a time. Together. Whatever you had planned is not going to happen, and I never want you to even think of leaving me again. I know the last two days have been stressful. Anyone would freak out. But you have to talk to me. We can get through anything together. If you have doubts or concerns or worries, you bring them to me. We’ll work things out together. Don’t retreat from me to some other suite and plot out my future.”
Damn, he was perceptive. He read all that in her expression?
“Emily?”
She cleared her throat. “Okay. You’re right. I’m sorry.”
He grabbed his shirt from the bed next to them and wiped her face, and then he kissed her again. “This room is history. Now. Tonight. You don’t need some place to get away. If you want privacy, ask for it. Don’t run from me.”
“Okay.” She held him tighter. Shattered. Destroyed by his love. “I love you.”
He sighed, pulled out of her, and rolled onto his back, hauling her with him so that she was plastered to his side. His hand threaded in her hair, pressing her cheek against his chest.
She stared at his smooth skin, running her palm up and down his torso. “I’m sorry.”
“I know, baby.”
She owed him an explanation to confirm his suspicion. “I thought it would be better for you if I left.”
“I could read that in your eyes.” He squeezed her shoulder.
She winced when his fingers dug into the bruises.
“Shit. Sorry.” He loosened his grip and pulled her over his body.
She straddled him, sitting up now and looking down at him.
He popped the clasp on her bra and tossed it aside. His fingers danced across her breasts. “You’re so beautiful.”
She flushed. It was irrational for her to get embarrassed, but this entire scene was new to
her. She wasn’t used to being handled so reverently by a man who adored her. Or so roughly either.
“That was hot,” she murmured.
He smiled. “It was.” He lifted his gaze. “I don’t know what came over me. I think I was desperate to prove to you that we were perfect for each other. I had to do something, anything to wipe your doubts away.”
“It worked.”
Ryan tweaked her nipples. “Now I know how to make you scream.”
Her flush deepened.
“You might want to work on your volume, though, if we’re going to stay in this bunker. It’s like a cheap hotel. The walls are thin. No one is going to want to use the suites on either side of us.”
She swatted at his chest. “Stop it. I’m not that loud.”
His eyebrows rose. “Baby, you rattled the drawers.”
She closed her eyes, lowering her head, but there was no way to wipe away her grin.
There was also no way she was ever going to leave this man. He was hers. She was his.
They would work out the details.
Chapter 25
Three months later…
“Dad, slow down. Stop trying to do everything in one day.” Ryan chuckled as he helped his father stretch his legs, repeating the same physical therapy he’d helped Emily with just a few months prior.
Tushar shot his son a look. “I don’t want your mother to find me all flabby with no muscle tone,” he joked.
Ryan rolled his eyes. “So, your plan is to firm up so that she can’t even recognize you?”
His father swatted his arm away. “Ha ha.”
They had started the process to revive Trish Wolbach two weeks ago. She still had two weeks in the reanimation chamber before she would spend another four in an induced coma.
Her name had been the first word out of Tushar’s mouth when he woke up.
Ryan adored the way his father obviously thought of his wife. As a twenty-year-old kid, he had not paid close attention to how close his parents were. From his perspective, they had been really close when he was a child, but they got so focused on their work as the years went by that they hadn’t spent much time alone together near the end. Tushar was on a mission, though. Determined. Pacing all the time. Worried sick.
Ryan couldn’t blame him. He felt the same way. He had been elated when his father woke up. A ten-ton weight had been lifted from his shoulders. But another ten tons still resided, and he wouldn’t sleep solidly or breathe fully until his mother was also awake and speaking.
It was weird having his father return to him without having aged. They were only fifteen years apart now. Tushar looked the same as Ryan remembered. He’d been suspended in time.
The same was not true of Ryan, and he often caught his father staring at him, mesmerized by the changes and the passage of time.
As Tushar sat up on the mat where he’d been stretching, Emily stepped into the room. “How’s it going?” She still felt uneasy about her relationship with Ryan in front of his father. That fact was immediately apparent the first time she reunited with Tushar. After all, they had been colleagues.
Ryan tried to reason with her, but she cringed a bit still. The first time he brought it up, she winced. “He’s your dad. You were barely more than a kid when I was preserved. A thirty-year-old woman. He must think it’s kind of creepy to wake up and find me sleeping with his son.” Her whispered admonishment had made him chuckle, but he did his best to respect her distance when his father was around. For now. Not for long. But for now.
Tushar pushed to standing and glanced back and forth from Emily to Ryan. “It’s going well. I’m getting stronger every day. How long did it take you to feel one hundred percent?”
She tapped her lips. “I think about a month after I woke up. It took that long to get my equilibrium fully back. I kept getting dizzy when I walked. And my muscles didn’t receive every command from my brain very quickly.”
Tushar grabbed a bottle of water and took a drink, lowering himself onto a chair in the makeshift PT room. Ryan could tell he had something else to say. It was still amazing every time Ryan read something in his father’s expression. A memory triggered from over a decade ago.
His father cleared his throat. “You know you don’t have to dance around me. I’m not stupid. Nor am I mentally impaired,” he teased. “I get that you two are an item. If I was dense enough to have missed it, the strange looks from everyone else on your team would have clued me in.” He winked.
Ryan blew out a breath. “I don’t want things to be weird for you.”
“Weird?” He laughed. “Weird is watching you both pretend you’re not in a serious relationship when clearly the opposite is true, tiptoeing around me like I might object.”
Ryan lifted his mouth in a half grin. “Were you always this astute?”
“Yep.”
Emily came closer, wringing her hands. “We don’t want to be disrespectful.”
Tushar laughed again. “Life is too short for pretense. You know that better than anyone, Emily.” He glanced at Ryan. “I’m so happy for both of you. I’ve seen the way you look at each other. Besides, I had a little chat with your grandmother last week.”
Ryan groaned. Of course. Leave it to Patricia to tell his secrets.
“She was so happy she clapped her hands together. I’ve never seen her so lit up. Rambling about the two of you like you were royalty.” He sobered, glancing back and forth between them again. “Don’t waste a second of what this life gives you. Time is a precious commodity. Be grateful. Spend every moment together you can.”
“I don’t remember you and Mom heeding that advice as I got older.”
Tushar nodded, sighing. “I’m not going to lie. We spent a lot of hours working in this bunker. Our work was important to us. It took precedence over our private lives. But we both felt that way. Neither of us was slighted. And we made every moment we were alone count.”
He took a deep breath, obviously wanting to say more. When he met Ryan’s gaze, his eyes were watery. “I loved your mother. I still do. But I’m also looking forward to getting to know her again. A second chance. We were so involved in our work that we’d grown apart in the last few years. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It just happened.”
His father toyed with the rim of the water bottle. “I hope she feels the same way when she wakes up. I hope she’s willing to start over and build something new and precious with me.” He lifted his gaze, barely holding on to the tears. “Something like what I see happening between the two of you.”
Ryan’s throat clogged with emotion. “You will, Dad. I know you will.” He reached for Emily and pulled her against his side, wrapping an arm around her waist. “I have fond memories of weekends and holidays with both of you. All you need to do is rekindle your love.”
Tushar smiled. “We turned our minimal time into quality time. I hope you felt loved and cherished.”
“Always.”
Tushar pushed to standing. He stepped closer to Ryan and Emily and reached out to pat them both on their shoulders. “You look so happy together.”
“We are.”
His smile widened. “I’m going to be a different man this time around. When I get your mother back, I’ll never take her for granted again. I promise we won’t work ourselves to death this time. Stop and smell the roses and all that stuff.”
“I’m glad, Dad.” It was an emotional exchange. He knew both him and his father were holding their emotions in check right at the surface.
Emily broke the spell before it got ugly. “I can tell you from experience that I woke up feeling the same way. Seize the day.” She leaned into Ryan closer, setting her palm on his chest. And then she surprised him by lifting onto her tiptoes and kissing him. It was brief, but it was on the lips. She claimed him fully in front of his dad.
It felt right.
Their lives were going to be up in the air for a while, but Ryan knew the government would do everything possible to help each member of the team tr
ansition into the real world. For some of them it might mean moving on eventually. Others would want to stay and resume their work.
After what Emily had experienced every time she left the bunker, Temple recognized the need to provide all the assistance necessary to ease everyone back into society. For as long as it took. All of them would have a home in this bunker. More housing would have to be arranged, but there was time.
Eventually they would revive every member of the team. Three more reanimation chambers had been ordered. Perhaps not every reanimation would be as smooth or successful as Emily’s and Tushar’s, but there was hope. A promise for tomorrow.
Emily had made Ryan nervous for the first few weeks after she was abducted. He worried constantly that she would decide to leave. Every time he wasn’t with her, he was afraid she would make a decision that would devastate him.
He would rush into their suite or her office sometimes in the middle of the day to reassure himself she was still there. Eventually, she lost that look of concern and replaced it with one of excitement. She was working hard on her research concerning reanimation and helping Temple develop a plan that would ensure a smoother transition for everyone on the team.
She not only stopped talking about leaving, but she winced at the mention of stepping out of the compound at all. It had gotten difficult to even lure her outside. If anything, she would need some therapy to get over her new concerns. But he would be with her every step of the way. Forever.
Ryan pulled Emily around to his front, took her cheeks in his hands, and kissed her soundly while his father watched. “I love you,” he told her when he separated their lips.
“I love you too.”
His heart was full. His world was nearly complete. The puzzle pieces were coming together. He’d devoted most of his life to getting to this moment. He could taste victory. And it felt so wonderful.
The End
Enjoy the following excerpt from the next book in this series, Reviving Trish (Project DEEP, Book Two)
Reviving Emily Page 21