To Die for Love

FIVE

FIVE

ANCHORED BY HER ARMS looped around his neck, she stayed against him while he took the keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. As he stepped inside, she held her breath. It was… They were…

“Home,” she whispered when he put her down. “God, baby, how did…?” She turned to see him locking the door behind them. “Are we being monitored? Followed?”

“No.”

That was all she needed to know and rushed to him, throwing her arms around his neck, trying to pull his mouth to hers.

He resisted. “Wait a minute,” he said, unhooking her arms. “We need to—”

“What’s wrong?” she asked, losing her happiness in an instant. “What happened?”

“Nothing happened, just…” He exhaled and set his contrite eyes on hers. “He told me to seduce you.”

“Who?”

“Zeus.”

“When?”

“A couple of days after we got to Beta.”

Relief relaxed her muscles. “Geez, and you waited all this time? I thought you were going to… Who cares?”

He frowned. “Who cares?”

“I don’t,” she said, coiling her arms around his waist. “He gives you orders every day. You have to follow them. You have to… For now anyway. Here’s one you get for free.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t want to—”

“You didn’t want me to find out later and wonder if everything was a lie.” He shrugged in confirmation. “It’s a gift, my Heart,” she said, slipping her feet from her shoes, then bobbing her brows as she took her top off. “I appreciate you telling me. Thank you. You should always tell me. But he’s given us a gift… even if he doesn’t know it.”

“A gift?”

“You have permission to be with me,” she said, tossing her top to the couch before wriggling out of her jeans. “Even if we get caught, you have a cover story.”

“He wants me to seduce you because he thinks it’ll make you more pliable when it comes to releasing JARR.”

“And because he probably wants to mock me about it some time.” And Zeus was proud of being that kinda guy. “Think about it logically,” she said, going to unbutton his pants. “If we get to a point where I’m in the JARR control room and my blood is needed, I won’t be able to resist by force. I’ll try, but it won’t make a difference.” As her experience in the Beta lab last time proved. “They don’t need my consent. In fact, I can be unconscious, and they can still use it. I don’t know what releasing JARR will do.” She slid her hands under his tee-shirt to stroke his body. “But I do know that if it brings plague and death and horror…” She smiled. “I’d regret not being with you, I’d never regret the opposite.”

“I didn’t think…” His hands rose slowly, creeping under her hair to her jaw. Rising further, they hooked around her head beneath her ears. “I’ve never endured a t*****e like this.” Pain touched her expression before it found his. “All I want is you, Little Red.”

“You have me,” she said, still stroking him. “You’ll always have me. Didn’t I promise we’d always find a way back to each other?”

“I stand in the room while he talks about you…” The way he gritted his teeth in a snarl suggested his leader wasn’t always complimentary. “I want to put a bullet in him.”

“But you haven’t. Because we need intel. The sacrifice you’re making is… I would never be able to do it.”

“You are doing it,” he said, his thumbs moving in a gentle caress. “Every time you ignore my cruelty. My betrayal.”

“This is not a betrayal,” she said, curling her fingers into his tee-shirt. “You are my heart. My soul. My breath. My being.”

“Goddamnit, baby,” he said, lunging down to capture her mouth with his.

In their home, the first place they’d ever been together, it wasn’t possible to resist their pull. In his arms, off the floor, she knew he’d take her to their bed. Even so, a zing of thrilling anticipation zipped through her when he lowered her onto her back.

“I love you,” she whispered when he kissed her chin, her throat. Unhooking her b*a, he continued his feast as she tossed it aside. “Oh, God, baby…”

Had she thought it was possible to exist without this? Without the tender touch of his famished mouth. He needed her. She knew it, her body was in withdrawal from his. A spasm clenched her gut as his palm drifted down it. The feather-light touch heralded his finger’s entry to her body. Her panties were just an inconvenience, they didn’t slow him down.

“Daire,” she said, moving with the probing of his digit, gasping as a second joined in. “Please, baby.”

“I can’t…” He rose to meet her eye. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to walk away again.”

In the motel, he’d resisted, thinking it would be too difficult to turn his back on her again.

Scooping her hands around his face, she smiled as a warm trickle of moisture left the corner of her eye. “You live in me, baby. You never went anywhere.”

Guiding his mouth to hers, she pushed up, forcing her tongue deep into his mouth, reminding him of the power of their connection. It didn’t matter if they were apart. Yes, she’d choose to be next to him every minute of the day if she could. Life wasn’t that simple.

In London, with an ocean between them, the potency of their love hadn’t faded. Distance, physical or mental, didn’t change the truth of what they were. Soulmates was a corny word that didn’t go far enough. He was her. Her reason and her meaning… Maybe her father was right.

Easing back, she licked his lower lip. “Your c**k,” she said, alight with a need just as potent as it had been on their first night together. “I need your c**k…” Frayed, his conflict was heartbreaking. Pulling away, refusing, would be the easier, more sensible course. But he’d brought her there. He’d brought them to their bed. He had to know how this would end. “Please don’t deny me.”

“I can’t,” he said, his mouth touching hers again. “Temptress…”

His words didn’t match his actions; his hand descended between them and…

Completion came when he slid into her. It was exactly the medicine she needed. The truth that enlightened her. The meaning of existence.

With her eyes closed, her body arched into his every thrust. “Daire,” she whispered.

They needed this. Both of them. There in the forest, surrounded by trees and wildlife, they could do what they hadn’t before. Yelping in response to the deep push of him consuming her, she wanted every second to stretch, to linger, to envelope her the way her body did his.

“Little Red,” he said, his speed growing. “Look at me, baby.”

Opening her eyes to his, their obvious adoration curved her lips. “I love you.” Slamming her fists on the bed, a surge of endorphins pushed her higher. Lighter. Hotter. Desperate. Everything was clarity. Nothing made sense. “Oh, goddamnit, Daire. I love you!”

When she screamed it out, he exhaled a laugh and ducked to kiss her head. “I love you too, baby. I love you too.”

She only kind of heard him as the rush of blood in her ears rang.

Gasping in one breath, her muscles clenched around him. “Yes! Oh, f**k!”

No matter how much she wanted it to last, this was the first time she’d climaxed since the last time he was inside her. There hadn’t been much to celebrate or many opportunities. The only time she thought about s*x was when she was with him.

Her o****m kept on going so long that his almost passed her by. Her whole quivering form wasn’t ready to surrender his, but when he pulled out, she was stolen from the bliss she’d missed.

“Every time we think we have nothing left to give, no fight left, our strength is tested.”

“What does that mean?” he asked, leaving the bed. “Thinking of your mom?”

“I think…”

Him taking off his tee-shirt distracted her for a second. She hadn’t even moved, couldn’t really, but that act suggested they were in no hurry to rush back to Beta. Thank God for that.

He opened the fridge. “Think what?”

“That I was a really stupid kid,” she said, digging her heels into the mattress to push up the bed until she was sitting against the pillows.

Beer in hand, he closed the fridge with a flat hand that remained against it. “Didn’t take us long to get back to it.”

No, and until it was dealt with, they’d always keep circling back to Olympus.

“When can I talk to my dad and Styx again?”

“Next week maybe,” he said, pushing himself away from the fridge.

“Why does it have to be so long?”

“It’s better to talk when there’s information to exchange,” he said, handing her the beer as he got back on the bed. “Too much and it’s more difficult to pick out what’s relevant.”

“Styx said I would have to be the conduit… I didn’t know if there was anything I should—”

“This one went the other way,” he said with a smile, lying on his side next to her, holding his head on a hand.

“The other way?” she asked, tipping some beer into her mouth. “What does that mean?”

“Styx gave me intel.”

She frowned, her beer hand dropping to the bed. “How did he do that? Did you talk to him while I was talking to Harry?”

“No,” he said, his smile almost pitying. “The teamsters are—”

“The prisoners.”

“No.”

“That’s… what?” She was confused. “I thought he was asking me how your people were doing.”

“He was talking about the team he’s building.”

“Him and Harry?”

“Yes,” he said. “No news is good news means all is going well. His comment about one or two not being smart enough to stay in line means a potential recruit or two are reluctant. But he said ‘stand ready’ which means we’re in the final stages. He feels ready to proceed, so it could happen any time.”

“Even if the recruits are reluctant?”

“Remember, H will think this is all his plan. As far as I know, Styx hasn’t told him about my mission.”

“H is prepping with the team.”

“They’re probably still trying to encourage whoever’s reluctant, but we can’t wait forever. It will come down to a do or die moment.”

“What a nice way to put it.” She offered him the beer. He shook his head while sliding a hand behind it. “You won’t drink with me…? Because you’re on Omega?”

Skimming a hand up her thigh, he gave her a squeeze. “Because I’ll have to see him when I go back. The s*x I can explain. Alcohol?” He shook his head again, still stroking her leg. “Ares doesn’t drink unless it’s required for a mission.”

“Always clear headed.”

“Right.” He tipped his head back to find her eyes. “I know this isn’t easy for you.”

“It isn’t easy for anyone,” she said, drinking more beer. “Sometimes I want…”

Saying the words aloud wouldn’t be fair.

Sitting up, he took the beer from her to set it on the windowsill behind the pillows. “If you say the word…”

“I know,” she said, pulling him closer. He hadn’t said it since his mission started, at least since she learned about it, but that didn’t matter. “If I asked you to walk away right now…”

“I would,” he said without a second of hesitation. “But it would mean…”

“The murder of every person left behind. The pursuit of Harry and Styx… We’d be running forever.”

“Because no matter what, he needs your blood.”

She licked her lips. “How does this play out? What don’t I know? Styx is putting a team together?”

“Yes,” he said. “Assets. People we know. We can trust.”

“Like Wreck and Tulsi.”

“I don’t know them, but Styx trusts them. That’s enough for me… I don’t know that Tulsi would—”

“I met them,” she said, smiling. “He’s a scary guy. Big and mean looking… Tulsi… she was the oasis I needed… And she witnessed me screaming at Harry, so, you know, she knows what she’s getting into.”

“Don’t know that Styx or Wreck will let her in on this, but I’m happy you had some comfort.”