Torrent (Cosmic Forces Book 1) (10 page)

T
orrent rubbed
his hands over his face.
Hardest decision I’ve ever made, leaving one family for another.

“You’re sure?” Control’s voice was measured, and he wasn’t allowing emotions to come through, but Torrent could tell that it affected him.

“I’m sure.”

“It’s the only way. And it’s permanent,” Control told him.

“The man said he’s sure,” Vector reinforced Torrent.

Torrent shot his best friend a look of gratitude, mostly for understanding. Because this mean that they’d never see each other again.

“What have you told any of them?” Control asked.

“Nothing that would in any way jeopardize the team or them for knowing anything. Alyssa knows that I have components that aren’t all flesh and blood. I haven’t told her about our contracts with CRBE or our families, or anything of that nature.”

“It’s important you don’t, as much as possible. It will keep her and her family safe if no one thinks they know. And you have to keep a low profile, otherwise this won’t work.”

“Got it.” Torrent fidgeted, drumming the tabletop with his fingertips. “Why are you letting me off so easily? Why are you not…”

“I have my reasons.” Control said. “You want to go talk to her.” He didn’t even bother to phrase it as a question

“I need to.”

“Take some time while her cousin recuperates.”

Torrent did an about-face and headed toward the car.

“
L
et’s talk
.” Torrent stood in front of the vehicle’s open door.

There was a resolve in his tone and a set to his jaw that brought questions to Alyssa’s mind.

She handed a sleeping Gillie to Omar. “I’ll be back in a while.”

Torrent reached a hand out to her, helping her out of the seat. Without letting go of her hand, he twined his fingers with hers.

“Where are we going?”

“I need some privacy with you.”

They walked silently, Torrent still holding on to her hand. The early May heat caused a rivulet of sweat to form in the small of Alyssa’s back and drip down toward her waistband. The birds chirped in the trees, the mockingbirds making announcements and swooping toward them if they approached a nest that was too high for humans to get to anyway.

Finally, when they couldn’t see the vehicles and for certain couldn’t be heard, even if they yelled, Torrent came to a stop in front of a fallen log.

He sat down and pulled Alyssa into his lap. With one hand on her back, he put the other on her knee.

“I guess you know how I feel about you.”

“Seriously?” She smiled. “That’s a cop out. I’d rather you said how you feel about me.”

Nothing like being put on the spot.
“Guess you could do the same.”

“You’re the one that opened this conversation up.” She poked his chest with her index finger, then left it there.

Slowly, all her fingers joined that finger, splayed out on his chest. Torrent liked the way her hand looked against his body, even with his shirt on.

“You’re the one with the walls. Why so guarded?”

She took a deep breath in, her whole body rising with the air intake. “I’ve been hurt. Guess you could say it’s self-preservation.”

“Recently?” He frowned. Did he have competition?

“No. Long ago. It’s not important now.” She looked deep in his eyes. “I can’t even remember his face any more.”

Casting aside his reservations, Torrent dove in. “I don’t think I’ve ever been in love before.”

“Are you saying you are now?”

“I’m saying something.” He tugged her body closer to his, swiveled her so she straddled him and studied her face.
I could wake up to this every morning for the rest of my life and never want anything more.

His hand dipped to her lower back, his thumb skimming over the ridge of her spine.

His other hand slid to her knee, bare under the loose flowing skirt she had on. Her low gasp was fuel for Torrent’s passion. A fuel he didn’t need, propelling him into a high octane lust. He could smell her scent, exclusively her, now with her legs straddling him, with her body spread for him, her scent was overwhelming, intoxicating, a lure he couldn’t fathom resisting.

The log’s rough bark bit into Torrent’s ass, but it wasn’t enough of a distraction to cause the swelling in his cock to ebb. He grew harder with every breath he took, every inhalation of her aroma. His nostrils flared, a base desire to have her, to conquer her and make her his took over.

Alyssa’s lids were lowering, indicating her desire, adding to his. His hand drifted upward, outlining the soft velvety curve of her thigh, seeking the hot center like a heat-seeking weapon.

A
lyssa’s breath
caught when Torrent’s fingertips grazed the line of her panties, tracing the fabric, tempting the flesh hidden within. Soft, feathery brushes over her skin, and over the fabric covering her flesh, as if he didn’t know what he was doing to her. It was torture. It was temptation. It was the promise of delivery.

Her panties were soaked. She wondered if he could feel the effect he had on her. She’d have felt embarrassed, but she wanted him to know what he did to her.

A low pant slipped out, then another as his fingers breeched the elastic and slipped into the moist heat of her panties, touching her silky skin, and yet not touching it in the way she needed. Alyssa panted in the soft wind that made its way through the grove thick with trees.

His fingers moved further in, the pads caressing her folds as a fingertip rested on her still hooded clit. A gasp escaped her, she bit her lip, her back arched, her breasts offered, though shielded by her dress. Her nipples pressed painfully against her bra, confined as much as her desire for him was confined. Had she really not been with a man for years? How had she lived without this sensation?

He dropped his fingers, leaving her clit pulsing for touch, they rested against her soaking wet entrance. Her hips pressed forward in an attempt to get his fingers to give her what she needed.

Torrent lowered his head, his mouth against her nipple, still covered by the fabric. Reaching her hands up, Alyssa unbuttoned her buttons and pulled her bra down, releasing her breasts. When her own fingers brushed across her nipples, a charge flew through her body, touching every nerve ending with a pulsing jolt.

Unable to contain herself eager for him, she took a nipple between her fingertips and pinched, rolling, closing her eyes and throwing her head back while she savored the sensation of his fingers almost entering her and touching herself.

Torrent grunted his desire, took her nipple in his mouth, with her fingers as well. He sucked on her fingers, then separated them from her nipple with his tongue and flicked it, driving her fingers away.

His other hand pressed forward, two fingers plunged into her.

Her channel convulsed around the pleasure his fingers offered, and she rose, only to drop her body back down, trying to drive his fingers deeper while his mouth sucked the puckered nipple on her breast.

Alyssa ground her hips on him, driving his fingers deeper into her channel, feeling the convulsions becoming more concentrated, more purposeful as his thumb alit on her clit and began a slow tango, pressing, dancing, flicking, rubbing circles and all of this while making every coherent thought in her mind vanish as quickly as water vanishes down a drain.

Her motor skills were screwed as she tried to control her hands but found her fingers didn’t even belong to her anymore. They belonged to the passion that overrode everything, a product of his fingers inside her body and his thumb on her swollen clit.

Her hips thrust forward, working with his fingers. “I want you.” The words came out of her mouth, she knew they did, but her voice sounded like a siren’s, husky with need, torn with desire.

“You have me.”

“No. Not…” A wave took over as she came apart on his hand. Her head flung back, eyes closed a wail of pleasure began in her chest.

Torrent covered her mouth with his, taking her cry, accepting her need, delivering her pleasure with his fingers.

When Alyssa collapsed against his chest, a brief respite from the spasms deep within her body, he took his fingers out.

Her eyes flew open. He put both fingers in his mouth and sucked them, his eyes darkening to a deep blue, the black pupils dilated with desire. She saw her silhouette in the reflection of his pupils.

“Fuck. You taste amazing,” he groaned.

Her mind wrapped around the dirty talk and embraced it, enjoying the sexiness of this incredible man. He took his fingers out of his mouth slowly, languidly, as though they were reluctantly removed. Torrent pulling her tightly against him, he crushed her mouth with his. His tongue claimed hers.

Alyssa dug her fingertips into his shoulders mercilessly. She could feel the ridge of his hardness against her and wanted it. All of it.

He broke the kiss and leaned her forehead into his lips. “Fuck, Alyssa.”

His released breath was tortured and ragged. “Jesus,” he said. A prayer, a plea, a demand—all of the above. “This is…” He cleared his throat, or tried to, but not quite successfully as his next words were equally broken, equally husky. “This thing we have, it’s…”

“It’s amazing,” she whispered against his neck, touching the tip of her tongue to the droplet of sweat in the hollow.

She closed her eyes from the taste of him. All man, sweaty and sexy and earthy, and totally in control.

He shifted her slightly, tugged on his pants and pulled out his length. Alyssa fought the reaction, fought to keep her eyes from widening or the gasp from escaping at the size of him.

He was beautiful. Long, thick, perfect. A mushroom head with a glistening drop on the tip of it that she wanted to desperately lick away. She whimpered softy, testimony to her desire.

T
orrent shifted her
, placed his cock against her wet mound. Hands on her sensitive inner thighs, he pressed her forward, pushing in, feeling the give of her flesh as he began the slow drive toward filling her. Inch by inch, her channel yielded to him, sucking him in, enveloping him.

Alyssa moved slowly, her body opening to him. His thumb on her clit, he rubbed slowly and firmly to ease her open, to take him in fully.

“Am I hurting you?” He whispered in her ear, his breath making her hair flutter against his lips.

“No.” Her reply was reverent.

He knew he was wide, and his fingers had noticed how tight she was. Now his cock bore witness to the tightness of her sheath. He wanted to lose control. He wanted to jackhammer that pussy into complete submission and until she lost control and screamed his name. God, he wanted to do things with her—to her—that he’d never done before.

“Ride me,” he grit his teeth to keep the lust from owning him completely.

She put her hands on his shoulders, shifted her hips and began a slow rocking back and forth. He closed his eyes, hands on her hips, driving her downward, feeling the tip of his cock against her furthest walls.

Then she did circle patterns on his cock. The need to explode was overwhelming. He groaned and grabbed her hips, pushing her aside slightly. He had to pull her off. Had to or he’d erupt and wreak havoc on her pussy, driving himself as hard and as fast as he could.

“Christ.” It had been too long. He exhaled from gritted teeth. He tried to focus. Tried to win this war with passion.

“Please,” Alyssa’s word was a whisper that broke a damn. Her back bucked, her channel gripped him with a ferocity that demanded satisfaction as she began to crest, falling apart and at the same time falling into the most perfect place ever.

He pulled her on him, pushed her away, in, out, away, pushing, pulling, over and over. The sound of their skin slapping, the sound of her slickness, his hardness, their melded breaths, their low cries, all of this made for one crack in the armor of his self-control as Torrent lost it completely and filled her with himself, his emotions, his everything.

T
orrent held
her close against his body, enjoying the feeling of her heart beating so close to his. The feel of her hair on his lips, her head tucked under his chin. They couldn’t stay long, not here. The others were waiting. And what would they think? Who cared what they thought. This was his woman. She belonged to him. This was natural and it had to happen. Had to.

“Torrent?” Alyssa’s voice was slurred, wiped out from her own climaxes.

He kissed her forehead and waited for her to speak.

“What about Gillie calling you Daddy?”

“What about it?” he asked.

“Well, you’re not his father. Don’t you think that poses a problem?”

“No. He needs a father. And I’m volunteering. You’re the closest thing he has to a mother. What’s wrong with my being his father?”

“It’s just that… if…”

“I’m not going anywhere. Ever. You’re stuck with me. So is Gillie.”

Torrent meant it, too. Every word of it. It felt like his soul had been in limbo, wandering aimlessly. Now he had purpose.

He palmed her cheek, kissing her lips.

“One day we can tell him the truth.”

Maybe one day, the whole truth.

T
orrent and Alyssa
walked back to the transport and her family. He held her hand. He wanted her to know she’d never need her walls again. Not as long as he was around.

He looked at her flushed cheeks. The afterglow of their stolen moments. He couldn’t wait until they had some time together. He wondered what their life would hold.

Jesse saw them and nodded, walking toward them with Gillie in his arms.

“Daddy. Mommy Lyssa.” Gillie swiped the tears away.

Control looked at Torrent. Then he turned his eyes to the ragtag group of Texans. He rubbed his jaw, the sound of the stubble loud in the quiet windless noon hour in the clearing that hadn’t been a field or a pasture in years. He picked up the radio.

“Headquarters. This is Control.”

“Headquarters.” The word came out of the radio with a squawk.

“We lost Torrent.” Control glanced down at Gillie. “And the package.”

There was silence on the other end. Control shrugged.

Alyssa opened her mouth to speak. Control held his hand up.

“What do you mean the package is lost? What about the boy?” The voice screeched over the air.

“Killed during a skirmish. This place becomes a territorial warzone at times, sir. Control out.”

Static and heavy breathing traveled over the airwaves.

“Bullshit. I want to see his body. I want his body. I don’t believe—”

Control flicked the lever to off, shutting down the radio. “We’ll deal with that later.”

“
S
o what are your plans
?” Vector asked Torrent.

“I hadn’t thought that far. Guess I’ll go back in with them.”

“You have a privateer vehicle. That means you can go wherever you want.”

“Until we run out of gas. Houston tokens won’t work outside of Houston.”

“You have funds?” Control fiddled with a pen.

“No. How could I? Why would I? All the money goes to my family. CRBE takes care of our needs.” Torrent cocked his head. Control should know this. “Do you have any?”

“I have access to some. I can give you enough to get set up somewhere else.”

Jesse coughed. “I have friends outside of Houston. “Others who are considered insurrectionaries by the LOS. They are self-sustaining and live in the hill country, also on the coast, in what used to be Matagorda County.” He paused. “Well, I have friends in more areas than that. Enemies of the state, according to LOS. Hence they are called insurrectionaries.”

Torrent studied the Jesse. There was much more to him than Torrent imagined.

“How did you contact them? How do you know? I thought communications and all means of communications have been cut off.” Vector asked.

“Jesse built a radio.” Alyssa practically lit up with pride. “He’s good with electronics. But lately we’ve had a problem with getting parts—”

“True,” Jesse cut in. “It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to communicate regularly.”

“Think we can help him out with parts,” Control said. “I can get you some funds, Torrent. “After that, you’re on your own.”

“I don’t want to leave Houston,” a groggy Omar piped in, sitting on a chair, his leg propped up.

Torrent bit back his response that Omar had no voice in matters considering the choices he’d made.

“Can Omar travel?” Torrent asked Torch.

“Sure. In the back of a car. He’s going to need to take it easy on that leg so that he doesn’t bust open the stitches I put in.” He held out a hand to Omar. “Here’s a souvenir. It’s the round I took out.”

A
lyssa looked
from Torrent to Vector to Control. “I don’t know how to begin to thank you for what you’re doing for us.”

Vector’s eyes were on Belinda. Belinda gazed back at the former soldier. A challenge in her eyes.

Alyssa wondered if she’d missed something while she and Torrent were in the woods. Had those two had an altercation? She shook the thought away. It didn’t matter. They had more important things to think about, and Vector wasn’t a part of that.

She was ready to begin a new life. A life of not hiding Gillie from the authorities in Houston. A life of being able to see children go to school without the penalties that LOS imposed.

Jesse put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s not a bed of roses, sis. Just know it. But it’s better than it is in the city. My friends told me. And some of them are hoping to get Texas back. One day.”

She hugged her brother. “Should we get on the road?” She looked at Torrent, his blue eyes had an unspoken question in them. “You’re coming, right?”

A slow smile made an appearance on Torrent’s lips. “Wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else.”