by Lark Brennan
She glared up at him and slowly withdrew her hands. “If I was in your place—alive instead of dead—I wouldn’t be bitching about the details.”
Adrenaline coursed through him. “You have no idea what I’ve been through. I lost everything and now someone’s blown up my boat. Even the clothes on my back are borrowed from your brother. And you expect me to be grateful?”
She didn’t flinch. “After we find the laser, we’ll get you another boat if that’s what you want. Or a house. Or a fortress.”
“We? No way your brother’s going to control where I live or what I do ever again.”
“I have resources of my own. Considerable resources from my share of Durand Tech. I’ll help you and you won’t have to deal with Mark if you don’t want to.”
“I don’t want your charity.”
“Reparation. Not charity.” Standing, their faces were close. Her voice dropped and softened. “You helped me. Let me make things right.”
Her eyes flicked to his mouth and her teeth grazed her bottom lip.
His body responded with a surge of need. “Why would you do that?”
“Because the Dissemblers probably found you in Road Town because they were watching me,” she said. “I owe you a new boat.”
“We’ll see. The laser’s still out there. Until I find it…”
“We find it.”
He couldn’t argue with her anymore. His nerves were raw with frustration and having her in his airspace was making it worse.
Her breasts rose and fell with every warm breath. Her skin smelled like honeysuckle soap and sea breezes, and her lips, full and pink, parted slightly mere inches from his. He desperately wanted to kiss her. All he had to do was drop his head just a little.
He jerked back. “Unbelievable.”
“What?” Her startled expression told him she’d expected to be kissed. Fat chance he was falling for that again.
He shook his head. “We find the laser and I’m gone.”
“But I’ll—”
He raised his palm at her and headed for his room. “I don’t care. I’m done.”
“Bodie. Don’t you dare walk away from me.”
Yeah. He dared. He shoved the bedroom door open and slammed it behind him. His pulse pounded in his ears and revenant echoed in his head. And Lex had known all along and said nothing.
His hands fisted and itched to punch something. When had his life spun so far out of his control? He paced back and forth in the dimly lit room. The laser was his concept and his responsibility and once it was dismantled, the Durands were out of his life for good. Unfortunately, all he had left was this weird revenant shit, some creepy tattoos, and a price on his head.
There was a knock on the bedroom door.
“Go away,” he growled.
The door opened and Lex came in.
He glared at her. “Get out.”
“We need to talk, Bodie.”
“We talked. I’m done being lied to and manipulated.”
Slowly she approached him. “I never meant to hurt you.”
She came closer and he raised his hand to stop her. The muscles in his arms quivered with outrage. “This isn’t hurt, princess. This is royally pissed off.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
The pain in her eyes almost convinced him she was sincere until she took the final step toward him and rested her hand on his chest. He grabbed her wrist, yanked her hand away and held it roughly between them. Her pulse throbbed wildly against his fingers but she didn’t flinch.
“Trust me, you want to use the door. Now.”
The pink tip of her tongue moistened her lips and sent a charge of lust to his groin. “Or what?”
“You won’t like it.”
Her eyes darkened and a smile played at the corners of that lush mouth. “I’ll take that risk.”
Teeth clenched, he tried to ignore his raging hard-on. He let her wrist go. “You’ve got five seconds to change your mind. One. Two. Three…”
She studied his face and didn’t move.
Was he really going to do this? “Four.”
Uncertainty flickered in her eyes and was replaced with challenge. “Five,” she said.
The last of his restraint dissolved. His mouth came down on hers and she drew a sharp breath. If she pushed him away, he’d let her go. But she leaned into him instead and opened her lips to his kiss. Her tongue tasted like wine and honey and within a moment she slid her arms around his neck and kissed him back. He devoured her mouth, every part of him responding to the sweetness of her, to the way she pressed herself along his body. He needed more—skin against skin. To touch and taste every glorious inch of her until she was mindless with the pleasure he gave her.
His arm went around her and lifted her off her feet. Without breaking the kiss she wrapped her legs around his hips and pressed her heated sex against his erection. He groaned deep in his chest, his hands cupping her firm ass. God, she felt good—firm and soft at the same time.
Her teeth grazed his lips and her tongue dueled with his, driving him crazy. The luscious scent of her filled his head and he couldn’t stop himself from taking what she offered—her mouth, her body, passion he’d never wanted before.
He laid her on the bed and pulled the tank top over her head. The vision of her full breasts barely contained in a yellow lace half-bra nearly undid him. His hands trembled as he slid her shorts down her hips and his breath caught at the sight of the matching thong—a tiny lace confection that didn’t so much cover her sex as point the way to the heat he wanted to sink into and claim for his own. His cock kicked against the zipper of his shorts, impatient to be in her. Mind over body, he fought for control.
Straddling her, he slid his hands slowly up her body and down again. Her skin was like velvet under his calloused palms. Her chest rose and fell more quickly as she stretched beneath him.
“I’ve wanted to feel your hands on me,” she said.
Exactly what he’d wanted. Badly. Her nipples pebbled under the sheer fabric of her bra and he bent to tease them with his mouth and his teeth then pulled down the cups to give him access to naked flesh. Her skin was so soft and sweet against his tongue.
Lex moaned and arched her back to offer herself to him. “More.”
His pulse spiked. She didn’t have to ask twice. He removed her bra and gave her breasts the attention they deserved then nuzzled his way down her stomach to the fragile thong. The piece of lace was all there was between his mouth and her heat. Brute force would remove the barrier but he couldn’t destroy the pretty little thing because it was hers. Instead he drew it slowly down her legs and tossed it on the floor. Gently nudging her thighs, he swallowed hard as she opened herself to him. His heart pounded. His for the taking. And yet he wanted much more from her than a fast fuck. He met her eyes and her nostrils flared.
“Undress so I can look at you,” she said.
Without breaking their connection, he yanked his shirt over his head and dropped his shorts.
Her gaze slid down his body and her breath caught when it landed at his hips. She reached out to him. “I want to touch you.”
Catching her wrists, he held them over her head in one hand and stretched out next to her on the bed. “Not if you want this to last more than five seconds. First let me…” He almost said “make love to you” and caught himself. He’d never used those words in his life. “Let me take care of you.”
Before she could protest he covered her mouth with a searing kiss. His free hand slid up the soft skin over her ribs to caress her breast and then snaked down to stroke her sex. Wet and hot.
She moaned into his mouth sending a charge directly to his cock.
“Is this what you want, princess?” Shifting, his mouth moved to her breasts. She opened further to him as he stroked and teased her with his fingers. Her hips jacked off the bed against his hand.
“God, Bodie, don’t stop!”
Flushed, lips parted, eyes closed, her face stunned him with its beauty. Her chest
rose and fell in quick succession and the pulse at her neck pounded. He leaned his mouth close to her ear. “We’re just getting started.”
The musky scent of her arousal was making him crazy. He released her wrists and slowly made his way down her body, kissing and licking her hard, flat stomach. God, he loved the way her body moved beneath his hands and mouth like she couldn’t get enough of his touch. And the soft purr of pleasure deep in her throat nearly undid him.
Every cell in his body craved her. Settling between her legs he gazed down on her possessively. At this moment she was his—naked and aroused—and the need to make her come roared inside him.
He bent his head and swirled his tongue around sensitive flesh. He didn’t think he could go slowly now, and he didn’t want to. Her muscles stiffened and she gasped. That was when he felt the delphic swirling around them, lifting his awareness of his body and hers beyond anything he’d ever imagined. Their hearts beat in unison, blood pumped in the same ebb and flow, their nerves surged with the same electrical impulse. She moaned and the sound echoed in his groin.
He smiled, his eyes never leaving hers when he swept his tongue where it would give her greatest pleasure.
Her hips lifted off the bed. “Oh, God.”
Without breaking their gaze, he pinned her hips with his hands and made love to her with his lips and tongue and teeth, memorizing her response to everything he did to her to learn what drove her higher.
“Come for me, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Let me feel you.”
A moment later, her body bucked and convulsed, shuddering again and again while he worked her to draw out the orgasm.
“Bodie! Please,” she panted. “I need you in me.”
Her words shattered the last of his control and his body took over. He moved up and over her and with a single stroke he entered her to the hilt. She was hot and wet and tight around him, and his hips began to move. Her legs went around his waist and she caught his rhythm. With each powerful stroke he claimed her and she claimed him. Sweat ran down his chest, making the skin between them slick. His orgasm was barreling down on him but he wouldn’t let himself go.
The delphic churned around them as if it were alive. Sensation magnified a hundredfold until he’d swear he was inside Lex’s skin, not just her body. There was no boundary between them, nothing to mark where he ended and she began. A corner of his brain knew she was projecting what she felt to him and he wanted to share what he felt with her. Their combined pleasure overwhelmed him, but he wanted every bit of it.
Her hands clutched his shoulders, holding on to take him even deeper. Another stroke and another, he thrust into her until she threw her head back and cried out, taking him with her. Powerless over their combined senses, he barreled over the edge with a roar that shook the windows and rocked his world. His release went on and on with an intensity he’d never felt before. Under him she held on, moving her hips in the perfect tempo to draw out their pleasure.
Finally spent, he went still, dropped his head to the pillow next to her cheek and rested his weight on his forearms so as not to crush her. His chest pounded and his breath came in shallow pants. Her rough breathing matched his and her legs held him in place deep inside her. He was still hard, and, hell, that wasn’t changing any time soon.
As his pulse rate slowed, the delphic gradually calmed and their psychic connection dissolved, leaving behind an unfamiliar tenderness.
“I like the way you make love,” she said softly against his ear.
He lifted his head and brushed her lips with his. “Back at you.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Oxley stared at the tall, dark-haired man looming behind the Boss and clenched his hands to still the trembling. The Boss was intimidating. The other man took scary to a whole new level.
The alarm indicating an approaching boat sounded well after midnight and had just as quickly gone silent. The security cameras had all shut down simultaneously. No supply boat was scheduled for the night. He and Henri had waited for several minutes listening. The walls of the bunkers seemed to close in on them, the claustrophobia Oxley struggled to keep at bay crying out that they could be trapped. The fear in Henri Sardou’s eyes mirrored his own growing panic. In silent agreement they’d clambered up the stairway and out into the night.
Instantly he’d recognized the change in the atmosphere, a chilling fog descending on the island although there was no visual indication of the cold heaviness that filled his lungs. And then he saw the boat, no, the black mass of a submarine at the edge of the pier and two men standing in the moonlight waiting.
The Boss had called out to him and he’d exhaled in relief. Now with the Boss and the stranger standing in front of him, Oxley re-evaluated his situation and decided he was in deep shit.
“We’re here to observe the next test of the laser,” the Boss said.
Oxley tried to clear his throat and found his mouth had gone dry. “Of course. I need to replace the lens first. Would you like to go down to the lab? Can Henri get you a drink while you wait?”
“We’ll watch you change the lens,” the tall man said.
That voice. It filled Oxley with awe and fear. He stared at the stranger, mesmerized. Now that his eyes had fully adjusted to the night he could see that the man was younger than he’d first appeared—late thirties, early forties at the most. His dark hair was long and pulled back from a high, unlined forehead. He wore a black long-sleeved shirt and fitted trousers that looked to be from a different era. So who the fuck was this guy?
“That’s not your concern,” the man said. “You may call me Senhor.”
The Boss barked a quick laugh before he caught himself.
Senhor glanced at him, a dark brow arching, before returning his attention to Oxley. “The lens? You have one hour. Do not waste it.”
Something inside Oxley had shifted and clouded his thoughts. He shook his head to clear it, not very successfully. “Sure. I’ll get the lens and be right back.”
He hurried to the bunker and took the steps two at a time. Henri sat at a computer, his attention glued to the screen.
“Do you know who that man is?” Oxley asked.
Henri shook his head violently and said something that sounded like an incantation in rapid patois. Right, he didn’t know the guy and that was why he was scared shitless.
Without pressing the issue, Oxley found the lens and headed back for the surface where the Boss and Senhor squatted next to the laser portal. He slowed. Why had these two come here now? In all the time he’d been on the island, the Boss had only visited three times—all in the first year. To show up unannounced with this fierce companion at such a critical time in the project didn’t bode well. Then again, the other tests of the laser had gone perfectly. There was no reason this one wouldn’t too.
He knelt next to the aluminum portal cover and cranked it open with a hand crank. The light from his mag-light reflected off of the shattered lens. Now for the tricky part, removing the crystal without dropping shards into the laser itself. He took a clean piece of cloth from his pocket and was about to extract the crystal when a flash of light temporarily blinded him. When he blinked, the crystal was gone. “What the f…?”
“Install the new crystal,” Senhor ordered. “You’re trying my patience.”
Working quickly, Oxley set the lens in place and adjusted the tiny clips that held it firmly. “It’s ready for the test,” he said and stood up.
“Good. You will now show us how the equipment operates,” Senhor said. “Your target is Fallen Jerusalem in the British Virgins.”
An island? “I’m not sure it’s ready for a land mass.”
Senhor turned the full force of his glare on Oxley. “I haven’t invested three years and millions of dollars to fuck around with whales and dolphins. You do what I say or I replace you with someone who will.”
The hackles reared on Oxley’s back. Who the hell did this asshole think he was to threaten to take away Oxley’s breakthrough work? Repl
ace him? No way. He wasn’t stupid enough to record all the details of his invention in his records. Key pieces existed only in his mind and as far as he was concerned this Senhor could go fuck himself.
With a quick glance at Senhor, the Boss stepped back. “Fool.”
The pain hit every cell of Oxley’s body at once and he screamed in agony. The blood froze and then boiled in his veins. His brain throbbed as though it would explode and his skin crackled. Through the pain he saw Senhor’s face, expressionless, and he threw himself at the man’s feet.
“Please. I’m sorry. Make it stop,” he pleaded.
“Why should I?”
“I’ll do anything you want.”
A low, otherworldly laugh echoed in the darkness.
He was about to die. He wanted to die.
• • •
The funny thing was, Oxley didn’t mind sharing his brain. It was a little weird at first but not driving for a change allowed him to sit back and watch the show. Sure, the Other asked a lot of questions but Oxley kind of liked the camaraderie. Okay, it wasn’t exactly a cozy kind of sharing but it sure beat being dead.
Change of plans, the Other told him. There’s a dive boat off the coast of Anegada just here.
Oxley watched his own finger point to a flashing dot on the monitor screen. Weird.
Pay attention, the Other roared.
“Yes, sir.” Oxley’s reply echoed off the hard surfaces of the bunker. Glancing around, he located the Boss through an archway lounging in a chair in what passed for a living room. No Henri in sight. “What do we use for coordinates?”
With no effort on his part, his fingers danced across the keyboard and he recognized the target as a cell phone. Very cool. He suddenly had control of his hands again.
Give us a demonstration of the laser.
Oxley felt a rush of panic. He’d never collected the energy on his own before. Henri had always been there with the majik to guide him and help him focus it. Without Henri, he didn’t have the power to make the laser work. “I need to call Henri,” he said.
No, you don’t. The power will come as you need it.