by Bethany-Kris
Penny dared to smile—a sight that warmed his heart like nobody would ever know—when she asked him, “What happens?”
“That love makes fools of us all.”
She stilled, gaze darting to his. He swallowed the ache rising from his chest into his throat, refusing to move until she said something. Anything at all.
“Is that what this is?” she eventually asked. “When I can’t breathe, when there’s nothing but you, and when I see you in my dreams—is that what this is, love?”
He couldn’t answer that for her, only say, “That’s what it is for me.”
She took a second—pulled in a hitched breath when her hand came up to lay flat against where his T-shirt stretched across his chest.
Then, she was kissing him again. Only this time, there was nothing to tease.
THE TASTE OF CHLORINE hit the back of Luca’s throat when he came to lean against the sliding glass door leading into the pool. At the far end of the room, still in the calm, crystal blue water, Penny used her folded arms as a perch for her shin on the side of the pool. Her icy hair hung in wet waves down her naked back as her shoulders rose and fell with steady breaths. It was the only way Luca could tell she was even awake considering she didn’t move or speak otherwise, and he couldn’t see her face.
She faced the windows overlooking the rear of the property where the basement of the lodge was exposed. He wasn’t close enough to appreciate the view like she could at the moment, but he also didn’t need to in order to know what she was seeing. The inky sky dotted with bright, twinkling stars. A mountain of treetops hat lifted and lowered for miles. Lush, green land that went on forever—an endless possibility, really.
The view truly was the best part of the lodge even if Luca’s view wasn’t the same as Penny’s. He still thought his current view was damn good, too.
God.
This woman was doing crazy things to him. Even watching her while he did nothing but be silent was something to appreciate. And yet, he was the first to break the silence because he just ... had to know.
“Are you still angry?” Luca questioned.
She was due to have her feelings about the reunion with her adoptive family. He would never suggest anything different. And he knew most of her anger was born from a place of fear—her concern for the people she cared about the most seemed to overweigh almost everything else for Penny. Even her own feelings and wants.
“I wasn’t ... angry,” she finally replied, although he barely heard her over the humming of the pool’s filtration system. That’s how quiet she was—he didn’t like it a bit. “I’m just tired.”
Hell.
Luca understood that.
All too well.
“I parked the car around the side of the lodge. Inside the trail with all the bags in the trunk,” he added, still feeling the weight of the keys inside the pocket of his jeans. “So, that’s done.”
The only other exit from the lodge’s property, actually. The dirt road was more like a path, a long way to the bottom of the private property, and not nearly as comfortable of a drive. But she wanted to leave in the morning, and Luca mentioned the other road in case she might want to use that to go.
Surprise, she did.
“Good,” she heard Penny say absently.
“Hey.”
She didn’t move.
Not even a peep.
“Penny, hey—”
“Could we come back here—someday when ... things are better?”
Luca stiffened at her question. Not because he didn’t like the idea, but more because her request was the first time that he could remember her wanting to make ... plans. Future plans. She suggested an after would come—a time when all of this was over, but even doubts lingered in the back of his mind when her mission sometimes seemed impossible.
At least, not without a tragic ending.
Luca didn’t answer her back right away, instead he rounded the front of the pool to walk along the side to the other end where she waited for him. Penny even turned around in the water to watch him as he came closer, using her arms to prop her up against the side edge until he was right behind her. Luca stared down at the beautiful, broken, perfect woman that had changed so much about his life.
More than she would ever know. He didn’t know where to begin to try and explain, after all.
Without a word, he kneeled and pressed a kiss to her wet lips that still tasted of the pool and that vanilla lip balm she’d been using lately. The soft stroke of her mouth against his answered him back, and he told her, “We’ll do whatever you want, whenever you want.”
And that was that.
Because the truth was easy. What else needed to be said?
Penny grinned against his next kiss, mumbling to him, “Get in the fucking pool, Luca.”
Absolutely.
He wouldn’t say no to that.
Luca made a pile of clothes alongside Penny’s near the window before he dove into the deeper end of the pool where his lover had started to wade water. By the time he broke the surface of the water back at the edge of the pool, Penny was already moving toward him.
His back hit the wall when her hot mouth found his. His arms kept them steady along the side of the pool while her long legs tangled around his waist under the water. There was nothing quite like the sting of this woman’s nails pulling across his skin while her pussy rubbed a rhythm against his cock and made him hard. Her tongue teased his, flicking inside his mouth just long enough to let him get a taste before pulling out of reach.
She lifted higher on his body. Luca moved with her, tilting his head back, so she could drop another one of those hot kisses against his mouth while her hand worked between their bodies. First, she stroked his cock, but then she had him pressing between her thighs. The blunt head of his dick slipped into the silky heat of her sex—and he was floating high in nothing but sensation and bliss.
Breath gone.
Nerves snapping.
Chest aching.
The pool bit into his back when he only kept one hand at the edge to keep them steady. His other hand found the fleshy roundness of her ass. His fingers dug in as she rode him, and he used that grip to yank her harder into his cock, so he could get those breathless whines escaping her lips just the way he liked.
She watched him through heavy lids and long lashes. She’d lean in just close enough for him to nibble against her jaw, or even closer when she wanted him biting that spot on the side of her neck where she didn’t even care if he left teeth marks behind. The faster they fucked, the more the water made waves against the edge of the pool, some reaching high enough to splash onto the tiles.
The closer Penny came to her orgasm, the more she wanted to touch him. Her hand rested to his cheek before her fingertips dragged over the line of his jaw. When those fingers of hers came close to his mouth, he sucked them in for a taste. His teeth scraped along the digits as Penny let out a hard breath when she came down on his dick a little harder.
“Come,” he told her. “Get what you want, baby. You know I got it.”
He always did.
Luca could have stayed like that forever.
Fucking Penny.
Taking in her life.
Wrapped up with her.
Together in whatever their love was.
He’d stay like that.
Always.
Reality was a bitch, though.
She came with a heavy hand. A screech of tire against gravel, and smoke bombs that were thrown through the windows of the lodge. It all happened so fast that at first, neither of the two in the pool even knew what was happening.
“Fuck,” Luca hissed.
Penny was already reaching for the side of the pool to pull herself from the water when the first smoke bomb was thrown into the downstairs. Her wide, wild blue gaze darted to his when she screamed, “Move!”
The stomp of feet accompanied the smoke and confusion. Luca just did what he was told and pulled his body from the water, nak
ed and cold. He barely felt it at all, but he heard every step and shout coming closer as the smoke started to crawl over the pool at the far end. The only thing that worked to their favor was the smoke bombs clouded the intruders’ view of their escape.
Penny grabbed the clothes. Luca busted out the windows with a chair. The rush of air from the outside pulled the smoke toward the windows even faster. He couldn’t see anything—especially not the pale beauty who had just been at his side.
He felt her hand, though,
Finding his.
She pulled him through to the outside. It was then that he finally understood why she wanted him to move the car and for them to have a second exit plan.
Nowhere was safe.
Not even paradise.
17.
Penny
LUCA drove the Vanquish through the small, winding dirt road that led out from the rear of the lodge’s property. Penny didn’t even care to argue about who was behind the wheel because the man had proved himself in that regard on more than one occasion.
The vehicle jumped, and the tires slid on the path more than once, but even so, Luca kept the car under control. Going at a speed that would have frightened a weaker woman sitting in the passenger seat, Penny, however, wasn’t bothered.
“Are you going to say something?” Luca asked.
She glanced away from the bag in her lap—the only one Luca put in the backseat and not in the trunk; hers, with her weapons and other items she liked to have close—to see his knuckles were ghostly white from the tight grip he had on the steering wheel. But other than his stronghold on the vehicle, the man was unfazed.
He stared at her, waiting.
Penny didn’t know what kind of response he wanted, saying, “It was just a matter of time before someone found us there. That they would find you—if you’re not around to be found, then you must be with me. That should tell you something right there.”
It took Luca a moment.
Penny waited him out.
“The League attacked us tonight,” he murmured, gaze darting back to the road after their brief exchange.
He couldn’t see it since his attention was back on whatever was coming at them on the dirt road, but Penny still shrugged. “The Elite don’t know about your connection to me maybe beyond my past, and I’ve not connected myself to that in any way.”
Except him.
But her mother’s people didn’t know that. Only the organization she had been working for that was now out there hunting her like a fucking dog. As if she was the one doing something wrong when she was just trying to finish what they had allowed her to start. Just because they allowed it didn’t mean they also got a say on when it ended.
Full stop.
She respected The League for what they had done with her—for what they gave to her. And she would not go out of her way to purposely hurt anyone from an organization that for years had been the only family she had to her name. That wouldn’t stop her from doing whatever she needed to do to meet her end goal.
They could get in line.
Or get out of the way.
“Shit,” Luca snarled.
His harsh exclamation accompanied the screech of the Vanquish’s wheels when Luca slammed on the brakes without warning. Penny jerked forward violently with only inches to spare before her face smashed into the dash. She didn’t have her seatbelt on because honestly, that had been one of the last things on her mind. The only thing that saved her from getting a broken face—or worse—was Luca’s arm that caught her right under her throat.
Not that it was an easy impact. His fucking arm was like a bar, and when she hit against him with her chest, all of her breath went with it.
“Sorry,” she heard him mutter. “Fuck, are you ok—”
She didn’t hear the rest of his concern because in the midst of being thrown forward, she had finally gotten a glimpse of what waited for them around a bend on the dirt road. She realized then why Luca had slammed on the brakes as hard as he did, and why her fucking distraction with their conversation and the bag in her lap had been foolish.
Of course, The League had a backup. Why wouldn’t they? Penny knew how they worked. She was one of them.
The lights of the Vanquish illuminated the man standing directly in the middle of the road. Though the road wasn’t that big, to begin with, the bend had been widened, it seemed. For what reason, Penny wasn’t sure but it allowed the other vehicle—with lights turned off—to park off to the side. Out of the way.
“I almost killed him,” Luca said under his breath, staring out the window at Cree who still stood in the middle of the road staring at the two of them in the car like he didn’t have a problem in the world. Hell, the man even smiled.
That was most unsettling of all.
“Apparently,” Penny mumbled when Cree pointed a single finger at her and then crooked it as if to say come here, “I’m not the only one around here that trusts your judgment when it comes to driving.”
Luca’s head snapped her way. “What?”
It wasn’t important.
Just a thought.
Penny reached for the handle on the door at the same time Luca asked, “You’re not seriously going out there to talk to him, are you?”
With only Luca’s T-shirt that she had managed to throw on once they were in the car, and her panties, Penny didn’t even bother to reply to him before she stepped out into the cool night air. She figured, what did it matter—why waste time stating the obvious when her actions would speak for her?
She understood Luca’s worry.
Penny didn’t share it.
If the man waiting for her on the dirt road wanted Penny dead, then she would already be buried six feet under where no one would ever find her body again. That was the thing ... she knew the truth about what was happening in her life right now. Other people needed to catch up, too.
Rocks bit into the soles of Penny’s bare feet as she approached Cree with no weapon in her hand and no threat on her lips. She even smiled—like him.
“Did you come to collect the bounty?” she asked him. “Or is this ... League business.”
Cree folded his hands at his back as she came to a stop only three feet away. He didn’t comment on her lack of clothes. He didn’t even give her appearance a second look; his gaze stayed on her face. “I hope you know that putting a bounty out was probably the stupidest thing I have ever seen someone of your position do to themselves.”
“But how hard has it been to find me with a hundred other people looking, too? Didn’t they get in your way at all?”
Cree’s jaw flexed. It was subtle, but she saw it. Penny wouldn’t let it pass, adding quietly, “Bounties make people greedy—especially a million-dollar one on the head of a legend. See, you did that. You made me into that, Cree. Don’t fault me for doing the rest because I could. You don’t need to tell me what I already know. No one is going out of their way to help The League right now with that kind of money on the line.”
A resigned huff left the man as he turned his head to the side, staring at the parked vehicle on the side of the road. With windows tinted black on all four corners, she couldn’t tell if there was someone else inside the two-door, black coupe or not.
Did it matter?
They weren’t getting out.
Cree’s brown gaze swung back to Penny when he told her, “Dare was right—you were a pet project I let get out of control, but he was wrong, too ... when you break already broken people, Penny, it only teaches them that they can and will survive. This was inevitable.”
Her brow dipped. “What?”
“You don’t have much time—they’re maybe forty seconds behind if they followed instructions. And the team did. They always do.”
Right.
She was starting to understand. After all, it was only Penny who had constantly pushed and broke the rules when they didn’t suit her. The rest got to be sheep.
Cree tipped his chin toward the Vanquish, muttering, �
��I had to make this look good. At least, I could do that for you.”
He was going to let them go. She knew that the second she stepped out of the car, and he hadn’t shot her dead on the spot, but still ... a part of her dared to wonder if that would be the case. Nothing in this life was ever promised.
“Do they know what you’re doing right now?” she asked, referring to the people probably racing down the dirt path to catch up.
But also the people he left in Nevada.
Dare, too.
Wherever he was.
Cree surveyed the dark sky, shrugging his broad shoulders under the black, cotton long-sleeve he wore. “They should, but—”
“I’m doing what’s right.”
His stare slammed back into hers when he replied, “Well, I just don’t think you’re wrong. And I’m making choices here ... ones I might not be able to take back. Go, Penny. Before you can’t.”
Luca slammed on the horn—had he rolled down the window to listen? It didn’t make much of a difference, and Penny didn’t bother to say goodbye to Cree—or even a thank you—before she ran back to the car. She didn’t even get the door closed before Luca had taken the vehicle out of park and slammed on the gas. Cree had just managed to step out of the way when the car sped past, rocks and dirt spitting out from the tires on the way by.
The only thing on Penny’s mind?
She wanted this to end.
It needed to be over.
“Luca?”
If he looked her way, she couldn’t tell. Penny was too busy staring out the window and letting her mind wander.
“What, babe?”
He was going to argue.
She was willing to fight.
For this, always.
“You need to go home,” Penny said, finally looking his way. Luca’s mouth immediately opened to refuse, but she was quick to say, “I can’t finish this with you, and I’m not the girl that needs to be saved, anyway. It’ll be better if you’re—”
His hand slammed into the steering wheel palm first.
Penny didn’t even flinch.
“Why—I can help.”
He could.
But that also meant ... “I don’t want you to; I want to come back to you, Luca. Don’t you understand? I’m not running away. I’m running back.”