“Then I suppose the French maid’s uniform is out of the question?”
She bit his lower lip lightly but he yelped anyway.
She laughed, then brought his head back down for a soothing kiss. This time, she didn’t stop him from taking her mouth.
His hand slid down her body and when it didn’t reach his goal, he twisted until it did. His fingers slid over her lips. He was the one who teased now, dipping in but only for a second. He took his time, even when she lifted her hips.
She supposed the only way to help things along was to offer manual encouragement. She found his hard cock and took one long, slow pull.
He froze, body, fingers, lips.
She smiled and did it again.
That ended the teasing portion of the afternoon.
“Ruthless,” he said. “You have no shame.”
“None.”
“Why is that?”
“Don’t know. Must be part of my genetic makeup.”
He took her mouth again, then he sat back, slipping out of her grasp. He lifted her legs and put them on his shoulders, then leaned down again, holding himself up with one arm. With his free hand he positioned himself, then he entered her. Not his usual bed-shaking thrust, but slowly. Letting her feel the thickness of his penis as it filled her inch by inch.
When he couldn’t go in farther, he stopped. It was an amazing sensation. They were as close as two people could be, and she could feel his pulse down there. Or maybe it was her pulse. Or both.
She closed her eyes, letting herself relax around him, adjusting to her position, and when she felt calm all the way to her toes, she clenched him, using the muscles that counted.
He growled like a animal, but he didn’t move. Not yet. He waited until she opened her eyes, and then he pulled slowly out.
“What are you doing to me?” she asked, surprised she sounded breathless.
“This is the no bells, no whistles version,” he said. “I want you to know who’s inside you.”
She closed her eyes at his words, trying not to make this more than it was.
“Don’t close your eyes,” he said, increasing his pace. “Look at me.”
She looked right into his eyes. He kept his head low so there was only inches between them. She could feel his breath on her lips and chin, and see the thickness of his eyelashes.
And while she looked as intently as she ever had, he moved inside her, faster now, shifting the two of them as one on a ride that made the tears come back. She still wasn’t sure why, but this time, she wasn’t willing to blink. She watched him, rode with him as tears slipped down her cheeks.
His expression changed to one of worry. She just gave him a smile that told him she was fine. He didn’t nod because that would have broken the trance.
She was grateful now for the light coming through the blinds. Grateful that she had him, terrified it could all be gone in a blink.
She felt him tremble, saw how hard it was for him to keep his silent promise. His lower half was taking over, and she gave in gracefully. He didn’t need to prove a thing.
When his eyes closed, she reached between them to his small nipples. She took each one between finger and thumb and she grasped him with more force than she would have been able to take. But he did. His head reared back, and he slammed into her, seconds from his climax.
Releasing him, she flicked the nipples with her thumbnails, moving faster as he got closer.
His mouth opened, his face contorted, and he was there. He didn’t thrust again, but he pressed against her as if he needed to get closer still.
She loved the way he came. He grunted and his cheeks turned a dull red, but it was unashamed and so close to the bone that she felt incredibly connected.
It was doubly interesting, because she hadn’t come. He usually made sure she did, even before he entered her. But this time, no. It was fine. He’d given her exactly what she wanted. She felt amazingly satisfied even after he’d rolled to her side.
“I’ll get up in a minute,” he said, panting as if he’d won a marathon.
She kissed his shoulder. “Don’t move.” She got out of bed and went to the bathroom. On her way, she realized something else. They hadn’t used a condom.
She wondered if she’d get pregnant, and how she’d feel about that. By the time she closed the bathroom door, she’d decided she didn’t know, and didn’t much care.
NATE WOKE WITH A START at the knock on the door, and his weapon was in his hand before he realized it was already dark. He looked at Tam who was sitting up, drawing the covers over her naked breasts.
He didn’t give a damn about being naked himself. He got up, went to the door and looked through the peephole. Then he pulled the blinds back a little and saw that it was Harper and she was alone.
“Hold on a minute,” he said.
She nodded.
He smiled at Tam’s blinking confusion as he put away his gun. “It’s Harper. She’ll wait while we get decent.”
“I’m always decent,” she said. “And sometimes I’m naked.”
He laughed as he yanked his jeans on and then his T-shirt, purposely keeping his eyes off Tam. Even when he should know better, looking at her in the buff made him crazy.
He wasn’t at all sure what had happened this afternoon. He hadn’t come that hard since that first time with her. She hadn’t come at all. What the hell?
“Why are you just standing there?”
He snapped out of his minifugue at Tam’s urgent whisper. “You ready?”
“Yes. Go let her in.”
The moment he opened the door, he knew something had happened. He pulled Harper in and before the door was shut he said, “What’s wrong?”
Harper looked at Tam, then at the floor. “I hope we’re wrong.”
Tam joined him, and he put his arm around her shoulder. Harper looked at her again, but this time, she didn’t turn away. “We saw it on the news. I wasn’t sure, but Kate said—”
“Damn it, Harper,” Nate said, his anger rising along with his fear. “What the hell is going on?”
“Tam, your parents are Joseph and Lorraine?”
Instantly, Tam was trembling, her whole body, as if she’d been plugged into a current. “Why?”
“They’ve been injured.”
Tam looked up at him with wide, terrified eyes. It was just like the night he’d found her crouching in the dark, maybe worse.
Without turning away, he spoke to Harper. “Injured how?”
“There was an explosion at their house.”
Tam’s eyes closed as her lips parted. She didn’t weigh much, so he was able to keep her standing with just the one arm.
“Are they alive?” he asked.
“They’re both in critical condition. I wrote down the hospital name in case you wanted it.”
Tam’s hand went out to get the small piece of paper. He could feel her horror, her fear, her helplessness. And still, he put his hand over hers and brought it to her side.
This time, he wasn’t able to hold her.
Nate sat next to her, but when he tried to touch her, she flinched. She didn’t want his comfort or his explanations. She wanted to go home.
“Tam?” Kate stood in front of her with a mug in her hand. “I made you some tea.”
She didn’t want it, but she was too exhausted to explain, so she took it and put it on the side table. It was habit that made her say, “Thanks,” not gratitude.
She hated these people. Every last one of them. They had no idea what it was like not knowing if her parents were alive or dead. To know they’d been injured because of her.
“Isn’t there some way…?” Christie asked.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Seth said. “Maybe we could get a message to one of the hospital administrators. Tell them that Tam is undercover—”
“You don’t think they’ve thought of that?” Nate asked. “They’ve thought of everything, and if they get so much as a hint that Tam is trying to make contact…”
“She has to know how they are,” Christie said, her voice sharp and angry. “It’s not right.”
Nate looked at his sister with grave eyes. “It can’t be done. Not yet. We’ll get through this, and then she’ll be free to go see them. Even then she’ll have to be careful. Her parents believe she’s dead.”
“If it were Mom—”
“We’d do the same thing. Christie, it’ll only be worse for them if Omicron thinks they know something. It’s just good it was on the news. Made public. Now that they’re in the hospital—”
“I’m right here,” Tam said, stopping the futile conversation. “I know I can’t call them, okay? I know they might already be dead, and I can’t do a thing. I know all that, can’t you please stop talking about it?”
The room got quiet and, perversely, that made things even worse. She wanted to walk, to run, to do anything except sit in this filthy motel. She was a scientist. And a fool. She’d been duped. Lied to. By everyone.
“We’re so close, Tam.” Nate’s voice was calm, and it made her want to scream. “A few days, that’s all.”
“They could be dead by then.”
“So could a lot of other people.”
“I don’t care,” she said. “About any of it.”
“I know,” he whispered. “They’re counting on that. They’re trying to break you.”
She stood up, surprising Nate. “They’ve succeeded, okay? They’ve won. I give up.” She turned around, glaring at whoever looked her way, then up to the microphones she prayed were in the walls, to the satellites spinning above the earth. “I give up,” she screamed, as loudly as she could. “Just stop it, please.” Her tears blinded her and her knees grew weak, but she needed them to hear. “Please!”
She covered her face and wept. She wanted her momma, her papa. She wanted to go back in time, to throw the recruiter out on his ass, she wanted—
A hand held her arm, and then she felt a sharp pinch in her shoulder. It was Harper with a needle. She jerked away. “What—”
“It’s a sedative. You’ll sleep.”
“Damn it. I don’t want to sleep.”
“I’m sorry,” Harper said, and Tam saw that tears were running down her face, too.
Nate came to her side, trying once more to hold her.
“Don’t,” she said, twisting away. “Leave me alone. None of you understand.”
Nate just nodded. “It’s okay. I won’t touch you. I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to.”
She slapped him across the face. She hadn’t meant to, and instantly she wanted to take it back.
He didn’t even move. Not a flinch, not a blink. He just kept looking at her with tortured eyes.
That was it, all she could take. Everything was wrong, and it was all her fault.
Then she was on the ground, but she couldn’t remember how she got there.
“I HATE TO LEAVE LIKE this,” Seth said, keeping his voice low. Tam was passed out in Boone’s bed, but no one knew for how long, or how bad it would be when she woke up.
“I know,” Harper said. She kissed him, then kissed him again. “We have to finish this. God knows I don’t want you to go into that place again. But it has to end. None of us can go on like this much longer.”
He nodded, then looked past her to the closed bedroom door. “I thought it was bad enough that I couldn’t call home. My parents are fine.”
Harper didn’t know what to say. She just wanted him safe. If she lost him…
“All right,” he said, his voice firm and strong. Her soldier was back. “It’s time to lock and load. You be good and take care of them, okay?”
She nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
After one last kiss he headed out the door, followed closely by Boone and Cade. The men weren’t going into the chamber tonight, but they would still be in danger. They had to map the outside of the plant, to find all the electrical outlets, vents, phone lines. It would take them till just before dawn, as usual, but tonight, Harper knew, would crawl by. There would be no sleep. Not until they came back home.
Harper watched them until the truck disappeared, then she closed the door. Vince held Kate on the couch. Christie sat on the floor by the bedroom door. Nate was inside with Tam, but he’d honored his words. He had taken the chair with him, and if she knew Nate, he wouldn’t budge until Tam was awake.
Harper stared blindly at that warped door, wondering why she’d cried when she gave Tam the shot. It was so unlike her.
Harper had no relationship at all with her parents. She didn’t miss them because they’d been gone since she was a kid. Her father in prison, her mother married to a man who had money, neither giving her a second thought.
It was better this way. She might have missed out on some of the good stuff, but she’d never go through Tam’s version of hell.
She went to the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee. As she sipped, she figured she’d better check her medical kit again. Tam might wake up mellow, but Harper doubted it.
She took her cup and sat down on the floor, her black bag in front of her. Just then the bedroom door flew open, but it wasn’t Tam. It was Nate, and from the look on his face, something bad had gone down. Real bad.
He walked past her, past everyone, to the door, and then he was gone.
She looked at Christie, who seemed damned scared. Vince stood up, but he didn’t make a move until Kate pulled him back down to the couch.
Harper got out another vial of sedative and filled a new needle. She hoped her supply lasted through the night. She turned to Christie. “Go in with her. See what you can do. I’ll be back.”
She went outside, but she didn’t have to go far to find Nate. He was in the parking lot, standing very still. She closed the door quietly and waited.
The explosion came quickly. He kicked the tire of Vince’s truck, banged his fist on the window. It clearly wasn’t enough. He kicked the door, said a few choice curses so loudly it scared her and then he reached behind his back and drew his weapon.
“Nate! Stop!”
He turned, but he had enough sense not to point the gun at her. “Go back inside, Harper.”
“Not a chance.”
“I’m warning you—”
“What? You’re going to shoot me? Shoot up the motel?”
He stared at her for a long minute, the single street lamp painting him in shadow. “I can’t do this.”
She took a measured step toward him. “Can’t do what?”
“I can’t save everyone.”
“You don’t have to.”
His face broke, but only for a moment. He got himself together again as she moved closer. “I can’t save her.”
The words had been spoken softly, but they hit harder than his shout. “It’s not your fault, Nate.”
“You think that’s a comfort?”
“No. I’m a doctor, remember? I’ve had a lot of time to wish I could save the world. We can only do our best.”
“My best is bullshit. She won’t even look at me. I should have let her call her parents.”
“You think it would be better if she led Omicron here? Remember, they’re the bad guys, Nate. Leland Ingram. Senator Raines.” She was right in front of him now, and she wished he’d put the damn gun away. “The only thing that’s kept us alive is that we’ve stuck together. We all need you, Nate, not just Tam. We need her, too. And Seth, and Boone, and all the others. Hell, we even need me. So get this out of your system. Go beat up the truck again. Howl at the moon. But then you have to come back, you hear me?”
It hurt to look at him, his pain was so raw. She’d had no idea it was so serious between the two of them. That would have been great news if Tam’s parents hadn’t been targeted. God, the choice he’d had to make. Give the woman he loved the chance to speak to her dying parents, or complete the mission. It must have killed him to stop her from taking the phone number.
“I don’t know what to do,” he said.
That had to have been a painful admission. Nate Pratchett was a leader. To show weakness was worse even than death.
“The best thing you can do for Tam is to finish this. We have to expose them. We have to win.”
He looked away, bringing his face into the light. She watched as he made his decision. His jaw muscle flexed, his lips pressed together. He got back his mojo right there in front of her.
She didn’t know how it would end with him and Tam, but the only chance they all had was to fight. When the dust settled, they’d find out who they were apart and together. Before she’d fallen for Seth, she’d have given them one chance in a million. Now? She wanted them to win, too.
THERE WERE MORE GUARDS on patrol at the plant than usual. Seth wondered if they were getting ready to ship out the armaments. It wouldn’t surprise him. The chamber had been ninety percent full.
He looked to his right, at Boone and Cade as they crawled under the fence at the eastern perimeter. Once through, they’d have seven minutes to make it to the rear of the processing plant. They’d split up then and go quadrant by quadrant, mapping the exterior, paying special attention to any points of egress or entrance.
They also needed to see inside one particular window. From the inside of the chamber, they’d sighted a sterile room that was fully self-contained. Inside were the computers and the operators who ran the chamber. None of the personnel had worn chem suits, which told them a lot about the structure of the room itself.
It was also clear that there was a separate entrance. One personnel could access from the outside.
Their aim tonight would be to find a way to get in that room.
He crawled forward, using his claw to propel him in ways his other hand couldn’t. He’d learned how to do almost everything he needed to with the claw. It was still a pain, but at least he wasn’t helpless.
Once he reached the inside of the fence, he turned back to make sure there were no signs of a cut in the wire. They’d rigged it so that the electrical feed that monitored the fence for breaches had been traversed, so no alarms would give them away.
He hit the dirt with only seconds to spare as a jeep with two MPs rolled by about a hundred feet from where he hid.
He knew Boone and Cade were doing likewise, checking their watches carefully to know when to hide and when to work.
Even though they’d done this time and again, there was no getting used to it. No way to relax, not for a moment.
It was time. He rose, adjusted his infrared glasses and started toward the plant.
TAM DRIFTED IN AND OUT OF consciousness. She imagined the worst for her parents and when that became unbearable she took refuge in her anger.
Nate had promised to keep her safe. He’d promised to take her out of this nightmare. The bastard had given her hope.
Her naiveté had cost her everything. Her reputation, her safety, her future. What did she have to look forward to? Even if they did get out of this, no one would hire her. She’d helped Omicron develop the gas. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t known what her part in the process had been for. That only made things worse. And no one would care that she’d come up with the antidote.
By the time this thing was over—if she wasn’t dead—every scientist and research facility in the world would know of her duplicity.
Ignoring Christie, who’d taken Nate’s place in the chair by the wall, she turned over, wanting nothing more than to sleep. If she could just still her thoughts, her exhaustion would take over. Maybe it would be better to just ask Harper for another shot.
So, she wasn’t finished typing in all her notes. She didn’t care.
The image of her mother came to her, only she was covered in bandages, connected to tubes and monitors. It was so vivid, she couldn’t stop the low moan that wanted to be a scream.
A second later, Christie was by her side, and she touched Tam’s arm, but she didn’t jerk away. She had no energy at all, not even enough to chase Nate’s sister out of the room.
“Tam, let me get you something to drink. Your throat must be parched.”
It was. Every part of her felt parched, as if she’d been baking in the desert. She closed her eyes.
Sometime later, she woke to a fuzzy darkness. Disoriented, she reached over to see if Nate was with her, but his side was empty. She wondered what time it was, and if she could shower before he came home. Then she remembered.