He paused, balls deep, and kept her attention. Waiting. She blinked, tugged hard on the secured restraints, and then stopped. Her hands wrapped around the leather. Keeping his gaze, she slowly released each muscle, her body soft and pliant beneath him.
Hunger roared through him, sparking his nerves, clawing deep. So many words rushed to his mouth, he bit his tongue. Not one could he say. Feelings, the real kind, would get them both killed. So he started to move.
Hard and fast, giving no quarter, he pounded into her. She took what he gave, wrapping her legs around him, trust and a light he didn’t want to identify in her wary eyes. The harder he thrust, the higher her hips met his. So he pushed down, keeping control, pinning her where he wanted her. Red flushed across her face, and her nipples sharpened even more against his chest.
He took her mouth, overcoming her, stealing even her breath. He took everything she had, knowing full well what he was doing, forcing her higher and higher. Her nails bit into the leather belt, and internal quakes grabbed his cock in an unreal heat. He released her sweet lips, levered himself up, and battered her clit relentlessly with each thrust.
Her body stiffened, and she opened her mouth in a high scream as he hurtled her into oblivion. It crossed his mind to cover her mouth, to kiss her deep, but he let her cry echo against the apartment walls and beyond—in a primitive display of possession. Let them all hear. Too far gone to care, he dropped his head to the crook of her neck and shoved deep, his entire body shaking as he came.
They panted against each other in the aftermath. He reached up and released her wrists. She lowered her arms with a pained hiss, rolling her shoulders into the bed. He pulled out of her and removed the condom. Without a word, he levered himself up and pushed her onto her stomach.
“What?” she murmured.
He planted both hands on her shoulders and started to knead. She moaned, the sound full of pleasure, and buried her face in the pillow.
He could admit, just to himself, that he didn’t want her to see his face until he got himself under control. While he’d easily released the restraint around her, the ones trying to capture him, to bind him to her, were growing stronger.
He’d let down too many people in his life, and the Vanguard group deserved his full allegiance—no matter how sweet Lynne Harmony turned out to be.
Lynne sat at the wooden table in a sprawling middle room on the first floor, trying not to fidget in the afternoon light. After the wild bout of sex, she and Jax had slept for several hours. “What was this room before?” she asked Sami.
Sami glanced around. “A soup kitchen.”
A counter ran alongside one wall holding food, and tables had been scattered throughout like a mess hall. The tables consisted of everything from lawn furniture to wooden planks set over concrete blocks. A doorway led out front to the deserted parking lot, and a sliding glass door opened out back to an empty street. The showers were over to the left, she thought. She leaned forward and blew on some soup heated over a makeshift fireplace outside. “I need to get to work.”
Sami drank soup from a plastic Dora the Explorer cup. “Jax said to make sure you ate something and then take you to Tace’s infirmary.”
“How are Tace and Haylee doing?” Lynne asked.
Sami winced. “I heard both have slipped into comas, so we’ll see if either one of them wakes up.”
God, Lynne hated the Scorpius bacteria. She kept drinking her soup, trying to regain some strength. Jax had been gone when she’d awoken, leaving her oddly bereft. So they’d had sex. Wild, crazy, kind of intriguing sex. She could handle that. Yep. No emotions for her. That would be crazy. Plus, once she’d taken care of her agenda, she’d be free. Enough of this place, which was just another prison.
Two women, dressed in faded jeans and dark shirts, skirted their table and scurried across the room.
Lynne lifted her chin.
Sami rolled her eyes. “Ignore them. The blue heart is scary, and that’s life.”
“What. Are we becoming friends here?” Lynne downed her soup.
Sami shrugged. “Why not?”
Why not, indeed? “You didn’t like me on sight.”
“Geez, I apologized already.” Sami sat back in a torn wicker chair.
Heat climbed into Lynne’s face. “You’re right, and I’m sorry.”
Sami’s brown eyes sparkled. “But you don’t want a friend.”
Lynne swallowed. “I don’t, ah, want complications.”
Sami threw back her head and laughed, the sound almost contagious. “Well, then it’s a good thing you’re banging Jax Mercury. That doesn’t seem complicated at all.”
Lynne snorted. “Shut up.”
“You shut up.” Sami sobered. “Seriously. You show up, offer to help, ask Jax for a favor, and then what?” Wisdom far beyond her years glowed in her eyes. “You done at that point?”
Lynne swallowed. “That’s an odd question.”
“That’s not an answer.” Sami played with a sliver on the makeshift table. “I know more than a couple of people who couldn’t handle this new life and checked out. They had the same look in their eyes as you did last night.”
Lynne blinked. “I hadn’t really thought I’d make it this far, to be honest.”
“Yeah, I get that.” Sami rubbed her nose. “But you’re here now.”
Yes, yes she was. The idea of hope and a real future hurt, so she banished them. “What did you do before this?”
“Com . . . cop. I was a rookie here in L.A.” Sami glanced down.
Lynne paused, her mind clicking. Interesting. “What’s a com . . . cop?”
Sami laughed, the sound a bit more forced. “I burned my tongue.”
Lynne leaned forward and waited until Sami met her gaze. “Whatever your secret is, I don’t care.”
Sami blinked. “I don’t have a secret.” She pushed her chair back from the table to look down. “I have to ask you—is there any truth to the rumors? That you’re carrying a more deadly strain of Scorpius?”
Lynne dropped her head and then looked back up, frustration welling in her. “No. I promise—there’s no deadlier strain.”
Sami nodded. “That’s what Jax said. You know, at some point I wonder if we’ll have to separate people. You know, survivors from folks who haven’t been infected.”
Lynne shrugged. “I bet it’ll get to that point, but even then, Scorpius will remain on surfaces. I think everyone will be infected someday, and only the survivors of the contagion will live on. But I could be wrong.”
Sami rolled her shoulders. “Something to worry about for another day, right? I’ll get us some water. With the rain last night and today, we can drink all we want.”
Lynne watched as Sami strode across the room to a barrel of water, saying hi to people on the way. In society as it was now, who didn’t have a secret or two? She turned and glanced out the square industrial windows out back. Rain still pattered down, turning an already depressing landscape gray. Jax and another soldier, one she hadn’t met, strolled into her view.
Her stomach tingled.
Jax stood in the mist, ignoring the cold, tall and broad. Droplets caught in his thick hair and slid down the sharp angles of his face. The streets had stamped him hard, but he stood erect, like a soldier. Such an intriguing mixture in the man. The other guy tugged a gun from his waistband and pivoted to jog out of sight.
Jax stuck his hands in his pockets and stared across the empty street to a long building and beyond into the heart of his territory.
A little girl, with blond hair so light as to be white, and wearing a wet pink dress, danced up from the shower area, ragged doll in hand, to grab his pants leg.
Lynne’s breath caught, and she rose from her chair. The girl was so tiny.
Jax’s face, even in profile, was transformed by a look that stuttered her heart. His dimples flashed and he dropped to his haunches, eye to eye with the little girl.
She held out her doll.
Appearing serious, his attention on the girl, he took the doll and turned her over. Then he put her to his ear. Finally, he grinned and handed the doll back. Whatever he said had the little girl smiling widely.