My Next Breath

by Shannon McKenna

  Problem was, one of those corpses turned out to be not quite dead. Close enough to dying to fool them all, in spite of their enhanced senses. But after the battle, Asa’s crew had found the guy inexplicably alive. Comatose, but with a pulse.

  To say that Asa had been unthrilled about having an Obsidian slave soldier housed in his secret mountain stronghold would be a radical understatement.

  He’d been having a shit fit about it ever since.

  And he was calling back. Same ringtone. Relentless fucker. Zade slid out of bed, steeling himself to deal with Asa’s hostility.

  “You decided to answer it,” she murmured.

  “Work call,” he said. “Second try. I really can’t ignore him this time.”

  “Give my regards to the pirate king.”

  “Yeah.” Zade snatched up the phone from the dresser and hit talk, moving closer to the door in case he had to carry the conversation away from Simone’s interested ears. “Hey,” he said. “What’s keeping you up at night?”

  Asa got right to the point. “Where the fuck is Noah? I’ve been trying to reach him for days. He’s blocked all contact from me.”

  “Honeymoon,” Zade said. “He left a couple days ago. Don’t take it personally. He’s blocked all of us. I think they’re in the South Pacific, or Europe, or maybe Antarctica. You know, before it melts. I can’t remember.”

  “You are fucking shitting me. How about Sisko?”

  “He was in Los Angeles. But I think he was headed to Hong Kong on some Angel Industries business.”

  “Great. That’s just great. I can’t even get in touch with Hannah!”

  “She went down to see Zoe in the Bay Area. The girls do that sometimes. Just blow us all off and go do a hen party all by themselves. What’s your problem?”

  Asa cursed viciously. “Get your ass out here.”

  “Why? What am I, your last resort?”

  “You’re definitely not my first choice,” Asa said sourly. “But you seem to be the only available member of Noah’s local crew, so I’m stuck with you.”

  Simone rolled over to face him. Zade ran a hand through his scruffy hair, avoiding the powerfully curious stare she directed at him.

  “Actually, it’s a bad time,” he said to Asa. “I’m in the middle of something, and I won’t be able to make it out until—”

  “I don’t give a flying fuck what you’re doing. You need to come here now.”

  “What’s going on? Is it Brenner? Did he—”

  “Yeah. He woke up. And he’s apeshit. He’s going to kill himself, and I don’t want to watch. Start coming up with a Plan B real quick, or I’ll come up with one for you. Get in your car and drive up here. Now.”

  Asa hung up on him.

  Zade stared down at the phone, jaw clenched. He disliked being shoved around even by people that he trusted with his life. Asa Stone was not a part of that inner circle, in spite of the recent battle. He was still an unknown who’d rubbed him the wrong way from the first moment that they met.

  But the Midlanders were in Asa’s debt. An uncomfortable place to be, since none of them knew when or how he was going to call in his favors.

  They were all still waiting for that shoe to drop.

  He pulled a shirt out of his closet and shrugged it on as he turned back to Simone. “Gotta go. Believe me, I don’t want to and I hate leaving you here alone but I have to take care of something urgent. I’m really sorry. Wait here for me, okay? Get comfortable. My lair is your lair. We’ll go to the doctor together as soon as I get back.”

  “No. I’ll let you know how my doctor’s appointment goes. Give me your number. Um, never mind—I memorized it off your phone. I’ll call you.”

  Shit, he was losing her. And he wanted to keep her right here, under his security vid-cams’ many watchful eyes. “How?” he said grimly. “I owe you a new phone, remember? That’s another thing that we needed to do today.”

  “Oh, yeah. That’s no big deal. I can buy one of those refillable jobs for now.”

  “No way. The phone is on me, Alison.”

  “Nice of you, but I want to leave on my own,” she said.

  “Stay here,” he pleaded. “Please. You’re safe here. This place is a fortress, security-wise. And I’ll take you to the doctor when I get back. As soon as possible.”

  She sat up, curling her legs up beneath herself on the bed. “You don’t know how long you’ll be.”

  “A few hours at least. There’s some driving involved.”

  “Let’s leave things open,” she suggested. “If it gets late and I have to leave for my appointment, I’ll just call a car service.”

  He could have screamed his frustration. “But how will I find you again? I don’t even know your last name.” He slid into bed and reached for her, sliding his hand into the warm satiny curls behind her head. He kissed her again, his lips lingering, sliding hungrily over hers.

  Her sweet taste did something to him. It felt like a door swinging open to some bright place—

  Stop it. Now. Act like a fucking grown-up.

  He pulled away. Grabbed a piece of notepaper off the pad on the chest of drawers and scribbled down some twenty-digit codes. “Okay. Deactivate the alarms when you leave with these two. That’s the elevator code. And this one disarms the garage door. The last one is my real cell phone number.”

  She studied the paper he’d handed to her. Glanced up to meet his eyes.

  “Come on. Who do you think you’re dealing with?” he teased. “Like I’d make it that easy for you.”

  She rolled her eyes but let that slide. “What if I screw up the alarm system? Or get stuck in the elevator?”

  Some question, coming from a master engineer. He wondered if she was trying to get him to stay. But he couldn’t.

  “Just hit something with a lug wrench,” he said. “Works every time.”

  “Ha ha.”

  “I’d know, in any case,” he assured her. “If necessary, I can open it for you remotely. Or lock and change the passwords after you’re out. Unless you want to come back in. In which case just call me. Anytime you want. Please.”

  “Change the passwords?” She laughed softly. “You trust me that much?”

  “It’s not about trust,” he said. “I change ’em every day. Sometimes more than once. But that’s beside the point. Please don’t go.”

  “I have my appointment, Zade.”

  “Reschedule it. Whatever they have to tell you won’t change if you cancel or show up late.”

  “They can’t just give me a new appointment at my convenience whenever I feel like waltzing in!”

  “Actually, they can.” He smiled with all his teeth. “Let me talk to them, and they’ll accommodate you. I guarantee it.”

  “You’re sweet, but no way in hell will I wait one second longer than I have to for those test results.”

  He exhaled slowly, fighting for calm. “Okay. I got that. And I understand where you’re coming from.”

  “Then why are you arguing with me?”

  “Because I want to see you again,” he said. “Stay here. Spend the day. Spend the week. I’ll take you to the lab. After that, we drive straight to the coast. I know a great bed and breakfast on an oceanfront cliff. Tower rooms, incredible views, private beach access. Oyster stew, clam chowder, tempura prawns, champagne. Long baths together in a big clawfoot tub. Long nights rolling around in a big four-poster bed.”

  She laughed at him, but her face had gone hot pink. He was heartened.

  “One more little thing,” she said. “Could I use your computer? I was supposed to Facetime a friend last night, so she might be worried. I assume your system is password protected, right?”

  He hesitated for a moment, mentally organizing how to let her into the system while still protecting his data. Simple enough. “Sure. Use the computer downstairs. I’ll write down the password and leave it on the keyboard for you.”

  “And you’ll change that password remotely as soon as I’ve made
my call, I bet.”

  He smiled back at her, but let it slide. “Don’t disappear on me, Alison.” He turned reluctantly toward the door.

  “Um, Zade?”

  He spun around. “Yeah?”

  “My name isn’t Alison. It’s Simone. Simone Brightman. I work at Batello.”

  He was just as startled by that frank admission as if he had never known her real name in the first place. Keep right on faking it, fucker. He just stared at her, his mouth working stupidly. “Ah … Okay.”

  “Here’s why,” she said.

  “You don’t have to tell me.”

  “But I want to.” She paused to find the right words. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when we introduced ourselves. And I wanted an escape route in case you were, you know, a psycho.”

  “Sounds reasonable,” he said cautiously.

  “But you aren’t. Plus I looked you up online at the bar. On a dark web site for killer nerds like me. When I had your phone. At the bar.”

  And he’d thought she was planting malware. “Right.”

  “I didn’t find much about you, and some websites were blocked, but what I did find was verifiable and generally positive.”

  “Thanks for telling me.” He actually was pleased to hear that his search-engine tweaks were working. He was, for all intents and purposes, a genuine Mr. Wonderful on the internet. He couldn’t help but grin.

  “Why are you smiling?”

  “Because you looked me up,” he said. “And liked what you saw.”

  “After spending a night in your company, I think you’re excellent,” she concluded. “And I want to hear you say my real name.”

  He cleared his throat. “Simone,” he said hoarsely.

  The openness of her smile cut him right to the heart.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “That sounds just exactly as good as I thought it would.”

  He was across the room before he realized it, kissing her desperately.

  “That turned me on so much I can’t even breathe,” he muttered. “Just saying your real name. Thank you for giving me that.”

  “It turns me on, too,” she said, between kisses. “I love it. Love it.”

  “Simone. Stop. Please.” He pulled reluctantly away. “You’re making me hard. But I have to leave now. You’re killing me.”

  She rose up onto her knees, smiling, and slid her hand between her legs, undulating as she squeezed her thighs around her hand. “I’m so wet,” she said dreamily. “When I woke up and looked at you, I felt this rush, like my whole body had turned to honey. Just thinking about what you do to me. Sliding your beautiful cock deep inside me. And then you’re fucking me deep and hard, and I’m trying to get closer to you, to take you deeper, and I can barely breathe, it feels so good.”

  “Whoa,” he whispered, his face hot. She did want him to stay. He didn’t have to read between the lines. There weren’t any.

  “You want more, Zade? Me touching myself while you watch?”

  Her gray-green eyes had that hot, wild glow that made him crazy. That, and her slender body swaying.

  “Yes,” he whispered. “Now.”

  He pressed his hand to the fine skin over her heart, feeling it beat against his palm. A gentle push and she lay back onto the rumpled sheets.

  “Show me,” he said. “I want to see it.”

  She opened her thighs, offering herself like a flower opening up to the sun. Wanton and beautiful.

  “Put your fingers inside those beautiful pussy lips for me,” he said. “All the way in. Make yourself come for me while I watch you.”

  She didn’t have far to go. He actually wished it had taken longer, it was so erotic to watch her fingers sliding into herself, then out to tease her swollen clit. To watch her arch and gasp, overwhelmed by pleasure. A long, lingering orgasm.

  The sight transfixed him. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. Couldn’t think.

  Her eyes opened, and she reached for him, tugging him closer. “I want you.”

  He answered with a growl of assent, and got naked again real fast. A condom packet lay on the floor. He scooped it up. Had it on in record time.

  He thrust himself deep inside, and stayed there, motionless. Simone grabbed his ass and set the pace herself, making those breathless little whimpers that drove him nuts, into an altered state far beyond any kind of self-control. Plunging and writhing.

  A heaving frenzy of crazy, wild, wonderful fucking.

  She was about to hit that high a second time. So beautiful. No holding back. She pulled him right over the edge with her, and they soared.

  One body, one mind, one soul. Shining and complete.

  He opened his eyes, realizing that she was fighting for breath under his weight, even though she was still hugging him.

  Zade raised himself partway up just in time to see her tongue lick her kiss-reddened lips. In a heartbeat, he was rock hard. He could have started all over again. The sensation was familiar.

  Like a compulsion pattern.

  Hell. Bring it on. Never let it stop. He’d been suckered. She was the wildest, sweetest, purest rush of pleasure he’d ever gotten, and he was strung out on her now, locked into the strongest compulsion pattern he’d ever experienced.

  He’d let himself be programmed, for fuck’s sake. After all these years.

  It wasn’t her fault. She was as innocent as a goddamn star in the sky. She just shone like that, naturally. Dazzling him with her light. She couldn’t help it. But oh fuck.

  He, of all people, should know better.

  Chapter 12

  Don’t leave don’t leave don’t leave please. Stay right where you are.

  He kept the chant going in his head, as if he were trying to persuade her on the astral plane or something. Goddamn the shitty timing of Asa’s call. Rocks and hard places all around him, and more coming up, he was sure of it. This thing was going to drive him nuts before he was done.

  Mist tangled softly in the trees, but Zade barely saw the canyon he was driving through. Most of his mind was focused on the surveillance feed projected internally onto his field of vision.

  He had vid-cams in every room of his house. He could turn them on remotely and connect to them at any time using his router and his implants, which allowed him to follow Simone as she wandered through his apartment.

  She’d finished her shower and wrapped a towel around herself. Her hair, not quite dry, was a pale rippling curtain swinging sensually around her, catching the morning light that streamed in through all the windows.

  The first thing she’d done was call her friend. They hadn’t talked long. Just some stifled giggling and whispering that he hadn’t tried to make out. After that, she didn’t seem curious about his computer in the least. Fine by him.

  Now she was wandering around downstairs wrapped in a towel, reading the spines of the books in his bookcase, running her hand along couches, patting pillows and afghans, looking at the animal carvings that Noah had made.

  Shit. He had a brief moment of panic, thinking that she might recognize Noah’s distinctive artistic style.

  But she didn’t get hung up on them, just stopped and looked at each one in turn. An orca, a redtail hawk, a sockeye salmon, a river otter. She moved on to the Edie Parrish sketches he’d picked up at an exhibition in Portland years ago. She stared at the four sketches that hung on the wall for almost twenty minutes. He wondered what she saw when she looked at them.

  He wished he could ask her.

  She’d fished her clothes out of the dryer and was choosing a coffee mug in the kitchen when the warning sensor buzzed. Zade’s attention jolted to the car’s dashboard controls and the speedometer.

  98 mph. Fuck.

  He eased up on the accelerator and turned his attention to the road. Noah’s well-worn lecture on processing too much data at once flashed through his mind. Don’t think you’re Superman just because of your ASP. You get cocky, you get killed. And not just you. All of us.

  Zade straigh
tened up and paid attention. He didn’t want to have to explain why he was speeding to a state trooper. The truth wouldn’t go over well.

  He set the monitoring to passive mode, allowing the feed only a limited percentage of his attention. Almost killed him to do it. A beautiful woman in a towel looking happy in his space—he could look at that all day.

  With his whole mind.

  He barely noticed the near-invisible turnoff coming up on his right. He swerved onto it, then drove more slowly up the narrow blacktop road that wound its way through heavily wooded mountain slopes.

  After several miles, the road dead-ended at a gate. Zade rolled down the window and let the bulbous lens of the security cam get a good look at him.

  After a half a minute, the gate ground open. A few more miles of winding road and he was there.

  Asa Stone’s house was massive. The A-frame was solidly perched on giant logs that also supported a wraparound deck. High windows everywhere showcased the mountain view. There was no visible clue as to the existence of the huge underground facility hidden from sight.

  Asa sauntered out onto his deck as Zade pulled into the parking area, which was also huge. Big enough for six vehicles, in fact, not even counting the enormous garage.

  No welcoming smile. Asa wasn’t a smiling sort of guy to begin with, and since the Brenner thing came down, he’d been perpetually pissed. Big, tall son of a bitch. Cold gray eyes, short dark hair. Zero sense of humor, outside of the vicious sarcasm that kept his inner circle constantly off balance.

  “What kept you?” Asa growled.

  “It’s a long drive from the city,” Zade said. “What’s up with Brenner?”

  “Follow me.”

  Zade did, through the house and down two flights of stairs into the hidden underground complex. They stopped partway down a long corridor, in front of armored doors with heavy bolt locks.

  Asa unfastened them and threw the doors open, revealing a deep, windowless room. “Here he is,” Asa said. “My reward for offering a helping hand to my long lost family. The gift that keeps on giving.”

  The room was divided by a thick wall of something like Plexiglass. On the other side of it was a huge, muscular man wearing sweatpants seated on a cot. His body was slumped in exhausted dejection.