by M J Adams
But she couldn’t ask, because his mouth stroked hers in the next moment, and instant fire leapt down her throat. She moaned and pressed into him, and Isaac took their kiss to the next level.
He seemed hungrier than Max had, and yet he kissed her with careful abandon. More passion. Much more wild. She still felt like he wasn’t there to own her, but to take as much as he gave, and she sure did like that.
He broke away, his breathing quick and uneven. “This is okay?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “It’s okay with you? Knowing I kissed Max this afternoon?”
“Yes,” he said, pulling in a breath and skating his lips down her neck.
“And Max is okay with it?”
“He said he was,” Isaac whispered. “And we don’t play games with each other.”
Cora wanted him to play all kinds of games with her, but she pressed on his chest as his head dipped toward hers. He came right back up, his eyes dark pools of desire when they looked into hers. “Too much?”
She closed her eyes and touched her mouth to his again, keeping the kiss sweet and slow. He could do that incredibly well too, and Cora relaxed into his embrace a moment later.
His pulse beat out an irregular rhythm in her ear, and a rush of power moved through her. She did that to him. She made him crazy, and sent his pulse racing, and she hadn’t done that to anyone in a long, long time.
“So now what?” she asked. “You guys have a plan for everything, but I’m thinking this has never happened before?”
“Not for us,” he whispered. “We’ll have to break some Academy rules. A lot of them.”
“And that’s okay?”
“Bend them,” he said. “Max will take most of the heat, and we’ll have to pretend you’re still going to Silver Lake to open a bakery.”
She still had never agreed to the bakery, but she didn’t mention it again. “And we’ll do what instead?”
“Find a different place. Off the grid. Out of the way. And we’ll just…be. Be together. The four of us.”
Cora breathed in and out with him, the sound of that out of the way, quaint life exactly what she wanted after the terror and busyness of Hollywood Hills. “But you have to talk to Luke first.”
“That’s right.”
“I could talk to him,” she said.
“Yeah?” Isaac kept her in his arms, his lips tracking down her earlobe now. She could only imagine what being with him would be like, as she’d never truly had a loving sexual relationship with Rich.
“Yeah,” she said. “I mean, we need to know if he’s on-board soon, right? There seems like there would be a lot of plans to be made.”
“There would be.”
“I’ll talk to him in the morning,” she said. “Right now, I just want to sleep.”
Isaac chuckled softly and removed his mouth from her neck. “All right, princess. You sleep. I’ll be right here.”
And he was. For the rest of the night, whenever she started to nightmare, Isaac was right there, soothing her back to dreamless slumber. It was the best night of sleep she’d had since marrying Rich, and she could get very used to sleeping in Isaac’s arms.
She didn’t go running with Isaac or the dogs, though she was awake when he slipped away from her. Cora wasn’t exactly sure where to find Luke at such an early hour, but she dressed and went downstairs to the chapel.
A few people sat in the pews, hands being held while they wept. But Luke wasn’t there. Cora had never been terribly religious, though in the last few months before she’d worked up the courage to go into the law office, she had been praying for a solution to her predicament.
And God had given her three Rangers as rescuers.
She turned back and took a seat across from those already in the chapel. She closed her eyes and bowed her head, expressing a simple prayer of gratitude that she’d been able to be removed from the damaging situation.
A hand landed on her shoulder, and she flinched away from it. “Sorry,” Luke whispered as he crowded onto the row with her. She slid down to make room for him, glancing at his handsome face as her pulse resumed its normal beat.
“Didn’t mean to scare you,” he said with a smile. “What are you doing here?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly. “It just…felt nice to be here.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” He faced the front, his own hands folded neatly in his lap. His eyes drifted closed too, and Cora wondered how in the world she was going to ask him to be her third boyfriend.
Her third life companion.
Would he even consider it? And if he didn’t, would she lose Max and Isaac too?
One way to find out, she told herself, and she scooted over so her leg pressed right into his. “I was actually here thinking about something,” she whispered, her heart tapping out a staccato rhythm now. “And it involves you.”
Chapter 12
Luke
Luke sure liked the way Cora pressed into him, even if they were in the chapel. She smelled like peaches and something more masculine—almost like Isaac—and Luke knew the Ranger hadn’t been in their room that morning.
He waited for the tightening of his gut that would indicate his jealousy, but it never came. Their charges almost always asked Isaac to stay with them, because he offered the service initially. It had never bothered Luke before, and he was glad it didn’t now.
“Did Isaac stay with you last night?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, pulling away a few inches. “Is that okay?”
“Of course it’s okay.” He looked at her, those blue eyes pulling at him until he couldn’t look away. If Max caught him sitting this close to Cora, gazing at her so fondly, his cover would be blown. He’d never be able to be alone with her again, and Luke couldn’t let that happen.
Of course, both Max and Isaac had admitted to feelings for her, so maybe the restrictions he’d had last time wouldn’t apply this time. He honestly didn’t know. Their debrief last night had been quick, as usual. Isaac reported that she was weak but making progress. Max had found a house in Silver Lake that would be perfect. Luke had said their walk to the edge of the grounds had been great. That he’d left Cora in high spirits for the two of them.
Nothing else had been said about Isaac’s admission, nor Max’s non-admission, of feelings. Luke may be the most fragile of the three Rangers, but he wasn’t stupid.
“Luke,” Cora said, and he blinked, trying to get his wits about him again.
“Yeah?”
“You like me, right?” She batted her eyelashes at him, further confusing him.
“I guess?” he asked, hating that he’d made it a question. He shook his head and looked away from her. “Why don’t you just tell me what’s going on?” He glanced over to the three people seated on the pew in front and to the right of them.
Cora leaned against his shoulder even more, and if she kept it up, she’d be in his lap before long. “I kissed Max yesterday,” she whispered, her breath tickling his ear. Pure desire roared through him at the same time his stomach dropped to his feet.
He worked to keep his emotions where they belonged—buried deep. “You did?”
The woman and her two protectors got up and left the chapel, one of the men nodding to Luke as Cora settled onto the bench beside him in a more chaste manner. Luke nodded back and waited until their footsteps had faded.
Then he got up and closed the chapel doors, locking them inside the small room with the candles and the stained glass window he loved so much. He wanted to return to the bench, and Cora, but he needed space to think.
Max had kissed Cora. That was really heavy, because the team leader never broke the rules. Never even bent them. Never even got close to touching them.
“Are you going to stay over there?” she asked, and Luke nodded.
“I just need to think,” he said. “Tell me what you and Max talked about.”
“He said he wanted to quit this job,” she said, sober and serious. She wasn’t all that gre
at at flirting, and Luke liked this version of her better. “Said he liked me—that you all did—but he wanted to kiss me first. Then he did.”
Cora detailed things as if she were teaching someone how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
“And…and you kissed him back? Where did this happen?”
“Out in the back,” she said. “After you left me on that bench.”
“There are cameras out there,” Luke said, surprised. “Max will be in so much trouble.” There would be interviews, and he’d likely lose his job not be able to quit it. Maybe that was what he wanted. Luke frowned, wishing Max had just told him all of this last night. They needed to be on the same page, and it seemed unfair of him to make decisions that impacted the team without talking to him and Isaac first.
“Isaac kissed me last night,” she said. “Maybe this morning. I don’t know what time it was.”
Luke’s eyebrows shot toward his hairline. “And…” He had no idea what to say, or what to ask.
“Does it seem crazy?” she asked, scooting to the end of the row and standing up. “The three of us want to leave Parkwood and find somewhere to be…together. They both want to quit. They wanted to talk to you about it, but I said I would.” She took a step toward him, and Luke’s pulse went nuts.
Part of him wanted to agree. Yes, everything she’d just said was fine with him—if he could kiss her too.
The other part of him wanted her all to himself. Yes, he, Max, and Isaac had been a team both in battle and then here at Parkwood Academy. They worked together flawlessly. Shared their ups and downs in their personal lives. Knew every intricate detail about one another.
If there’s anyone to share a woman with, it’s them, he thought.
“Do you want to quit?” she asked him.
“It’s a new concept for me,” he admitted. “Isaac mentioned it the night you arrived, but I haven’t had time to really decide.”
“Do you think if you did decide to quit, that you’d like to come with me, Max, and Isaac? I mean, is that something you’d be…comfortable with?” She looked at him with earnestness in her eyes, along with a tremendous amount of hope.
“You want me to come with you?”
“Yes,” she said simply. “If you want to.”
Luke wanted to, but he didn’t want to make rushed decisions. An image of June flashed through his mind, and he seized onto it. He didn’t want to get married again, even though he felt sure his heart could love again.
Maybe disappearing with his team and Cora was the best solution to the unrest in his soul. He looked to the stained glass window as the first rays of morning light streamed through, and the answer was right there in front of him.
“Yes,” he said. “I want to.”
Cora smiled at him as she approached, throwing her arms around him and holding on tight. “Okay,” she said, her breath hot against his chest. “Let’s go tell the others.”
A couple of hours passed before they met in the conference room again. Max hadn’t been in the room when Luke returned with Cora, and Isaac had the dogs out on the lawn, running. They’d showered, eaten breakfast, and gone through their normal routines first. All the while, the secret Luke kept in his heart ate at him, wanting to explode out.
Isaac finally brought the door closed behind the last dog and stepped next to Luke, “Hey, bro,” he said.
“Hey.” Luke looked up at Isaac, who’d kissed Cora already. Max had too, and Luke suddenly felt left out. Why hadn’t she kissed him in the chapel that morning?
“He’s in,” Cora said from where she sat along the side of the table. Isaac’s and Max’s eyes flew to Luke, and he wanted to squirm.
But he’d been through plenty of trainings, and a Ranger didn’t squirm in the hot seat. “Are we really doing this?” he asked, glancing at the other guys.
“I want to,” Max said, his voice croaking from his throat. “I’m done here, Luke. And I don’t want to go out into the world alone.” He stood up, his eyes dark and dancing with more life than Luke had seen in them in a long time. “This way, we all go. And we don’t have to be alone.”
“I don’t want to be alone either,” Cora said, and Luke’s heart bled for her. But he couldn’t commit to this lifestyle just because he felt bad for the woman.
You feel more than that, and you know it.
And he did.
“So we’re doing everything as normal,” he said. “She’s going to Silver Lake. Opening a bakery. All of that.”
“Yes,” Max said. “But we’ll have alternate plans.”
“Rich still gets told to forget about her.” Luke looked at Isaac, his eyebrows raised.
Cora perked up at that, and Luke knew they still had dozens of details to put into place.
“Yes,” Isaac said. “I’m working on that. There won’t be any problems.”
There hadn’t been with any of their previous charges, so Luke was inclined to believe his friend. “And we’re…how does the relationship with Cora work?”
Max looked at her, and then Isaac. “However she wants it to,” he said.
Everyone looked at her then, and something like panic paraded across her face. She hadn’t thought that far ahead, obviously.
“I—I don’t know,” she said, glancing at all of them and then dropping her eyes to the table in front of her.
“Those details can be worked out later, in my opinion,” Max said. “What we have to decide right now is if we’re all okay with it. I’ll need to put in our termination paperwork and go through the exit interviews with the Grand Master. We’ll need to coordinate an alternate plan for Cora to leave Parkwood, where we’ll go at first, and when we’ll all meet up in a new location, and all of that.”
But Luke wanted to know when he could kiss Cora, and if he’d be the only one sleeping with her sometimes. He’d heard stories from other soldiers about a few of them sleeping with one woman simultaneously, and he’d never been interested in that.
“I’ll do whatever Cora wants,” Isaac said, and Luke looked at him. If Cora wanted both of them in bed with her, would he say no?
He glanced at Cora. “I will too.”
“So we’re all okay with this?” Max asked, glancing around. “The quitting, the secrecy—at least from Parkwood—and being with Cora?”
“Yes,” Luke and Isaac said at the same time.
Cora glanced around at them, her chin wobbling as tears filled her eyes. “You three are the best thing to ever happen to me,” she said. “I don’t know what I want, but I know I don’t want any of you to get in trouble because of me.”
Max stepped around the table and gathered her into his arms. Luke watched, glad someone was close enough to comfort her, even if it wasn’t him.
“We’ll be careful,” Max promised. “Make it seem like our team is just disbanding.” He stepped back and cleared his throat, always so careful. So Max, which made the kiss on the park bench in the back really confusing.
“So we need to fill out our paperwork today,” he said. “And that means we need relocation requests as well.” He shuffled the papers in front of him. “Let’s get this done quickly, boys.”
Luke walked around the table, already knowing where he was going to request as his relocation city. “Do you think the Grand Master will really refuse me if I ask to go back to Aberdeen?”
“No,” Max said with a smile, sliding a paper toward Luke. “That’s the perfect request.”
“Where are we thinking we’ll really go?” Isaac asked, joining the men on the other side of Max.
“She hates the cold,” Max muttered as he gave Isaac his paperwork. “But I was thinking Canada.”
Luke didn’t like the sound of that either. “There has to be somewhere warmer,” he said, his pen scratching across the paper. “I’ll look into it. Come up with a list.”
“I’ll keep working on Silver Lake, as if she’ll be going there,” Max said.
“And I’ll make sure Rich never comes looking for any of
us.” Isaac signed his name on his paper with a flourish without filling out any of the rest of it. “I’m going to let the Grand Master assign me wherever.” He grinned at Max and Luke. “I’m so glad we’re doing this.”
“Me too,” Max said, scrawling a couple of town names on the lines provided.
Luke filled in Aberdeen, and said, “Me too,” which was absolutely true.
He couldn’t believe they were doing it, but it felt good about it all the same. He’d add an extra prayer to his morning ritual—one that would keep them all safe, allow them to get where they needed to go without incident, and that he could kiss Cora soon.
Chapter 13
Cora
Snow crunches under my feet, and the sun is so bright. I’m always outside in dreams, and I hear Isaac’s voice telling me not to let anyone take me inside a building or put me in a car.
There are no dogs, but it’s so cold my breath steams in front of my face, making the forest obscured for a moment. It feels skeletal, all the trees with no leaves, standing there, branches overhead like spindly arms.
My muscles feel strong though, and my feet seem to know the way. I come to a break in the trees to find a house sitting there. A big, black dog stands up from where he was lying on the back deck.
A growl starts low in his throat, and I fear he’ll bark, alerting whoever lives in that house to my presence.
There is no cover. Nowhere to hide. And the cabin calls to me anyway, beckons me toward it as if I’ve been here before.
I know I haven’t. I’ve never lived somewhere it snowed. Never even visited anyone who did.
I take slow steps over the crusty snow, and the dog remains silent. His tails wags as I approach, and it’s clear someone takes care of this animal, this swept-free-of-snow deck, and the cabin inside.
A thin trail of smoke lifts from the chimney, and my skin stings in anticipation of getting out of the cold.