Lifting the covers, he moved over her, between her legs, entering her without prelude. She opened to him, holding nothing back. Her eyes were locked with his. He stared down at her beautiful face, grounding himself in her arms, in her body. He felt impossibly hollow. She would go, quit him, as all the others he’d loved had, his family included.
He rocked over her slowly, deeply, watching her the whole time. Color began to blossom on her face, the beautiful, beautiful red of her life force. Her eyes closed and her lips parted as her body rose to meet his. He gripped the edge of the mattress above her head and leveraged it to move deeper inside of her, spreading his thighs, spreading hers.
He felt her body convulse beneath his as he drove her over the edge into ecstasy. As her body quieted, his began to peak. He jammed himself deep inside her, holding her hip still as he banged out his release.
When the last wave left him, he leaned his head on the pillow, against hers, waiting for his breath to even out. She was stroking his back, trying to soothe him. He lifted his head and looked at her. Her eyes mirrored the trouble in his heart.
He got up and removed the condom, then left it in the bathroom trash. He went over to her window and drew the light darkening drapes over the sheers. Then he went back to her bed and slipped between the covers, pulling her close.
“Sleep now. When we wake up, we’ll figure out what’s next. I’ve got you. You’ve got me. We’re safe. So sleep.” My love. The last were words he thought but didn’t say. He couldn’t. He couldn’t bring himself to clip her wings by limiting her choices.
She nestled into him. He felt her body relax as her breathing evened out. When she slept, he allowed himself to shut his eyes and drift away.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Bright light slashed across Remi’s face. She scrunched her eyes up, then cracked one open. Greer was standing next to the bed with a tray of food. Whatever was on it smelled divine. Remi was starving.
“Morning. Well, afternoon. Kathy made a big meal for lunch since so many of us missed breakfast.”
Remi held the sheet to her bare chest and sat up. Her hair was dry, but since it was wet when she went to sleep, it now looked like a rat’s nest. She pushed some of it out of her face.
“That was my fault,” she said.
“No, it wasn’t. Shit happens.” He set the tray on the dresser, then lifted the steel cover and snagged a fry.
“What’s in there?”
“Cheeseburger, fries, and side salad. With iced tea. Couldn’t remember if you liked your tea sweet or used mustard or mayo on the burger, so I brought some of it all.” He plopped himself down on the armchair near the window and grinned at her.
She smiled back. For no reason other than it felt right.
“What happens now? What’s next?” she asked.
“Next, you get up, dress, eat, wrangle your hair into some kind of order”—he looked at her and cocked his head to the side—“or not. It’s kinda sexy like that.”
Remi shoved the covers aside and walked into her closet.
“No one would know if we went back to bed for a while,” Greer suggested. “We’ll just tell them you’re a slow eater.”
Hearing the grin in his voice, she laughed. She pulled on some underwear and clothes—jeans and a white cotton blouse. “We could,” she said as she came out of the closet. “But your self-satisfied smile would give us away.”
She lifted the tray and brought it over to the bed. “Did you eat?”
“I did. I wanted to put off waking you until I couldn’t delay any longer.”
“Last night, you said you knew what was happening.” She fixed her burger and took a big bite. After swallowing, she said. “So tell me what it is.”
“We’ll talk about it with the team in a few. You’ve been a big help, let’s just say that.”
“I have?”
“Huge. It’s actually a big breakthrough.”
She smiled as she chewed another bite. That was a relief. Maybe they were close to the end of this fiasco after all.
*
“Stairs or elevator? You have a preference?” Greer asked when they went down the south staircase to the main floor.
“No.” She looked down the hall where she’d seen the guys take her stuff. “My boxes went this way.”
Greer nodded. “Then let’s go that way.”
He led her into the bedroom with the secret elevator. They went into the empty closet. She looked at him warily. He smiled at her and popped a compartment open in the paneling. There was a single button, which he hit.
“I always feel like 007 when I do this.” He opened a sliding panel in the back of the closet, revealing an elevator gate. She gasped. That was the very last thing she’d expected to see. He pushed that open when the elevator arrived. Stepping inside, he held the doors open for her, then shut the hidden panel, then the gate.
The ride was short. When the doors opened, they stepped out into a state-of-the-art weapons room. Each wall had lighted glass and steel cases with row upon row of long guns, pistols, knives, accessories. There was a steel island in the center of the room that looked like a work surface. Below the weapon cases were more locked steel cabinets. The room had the acridly sweet scent of gun cleaner and oil.
Greer sniffed the air and smiled at her. “That smell always gives me a flash boner.”
Remi blushed. He laughed.
She followed him out of the weapons room into a dim room lit by a dozen computer screens with a couple walls of floor-to-ceiling servers. Cool air moved up from vents in the floor. Max got up as they came in. He looked too rangy to be a computer geek, but he also looked at home in the ops area.
“Glad you’re here. Was gonna go look for you. Kit’s ready to start. Doc.” He nodded toward her, then led the way out of the ops room.