They emerged from the Deep Wild four hours later, battered, bloodied, and forever changed.
The access hatch opened into a derelict sub-level maintenance yard beneath the outer ring of the Spires. Rain hammered down from the poisoned sky, turning the ground into a slick mire of oil and runoff. Ryker helped Lira through the hatch, his hand lingering on the small of her back. Even through their soaked clothes, the contact sent a fresh spark of heat between them. The memory of her tight heat clenching around him in that alcove still burned behind his eyes.
The Code had been strangely quiet since their frenzied coupling. Sated, almost purring. But Ryker could feel it shifting, studying the new data: the rush of oxytocin, the addictive taste of her skin, the way her moans had momentarily silen
