Nate
When I’d walked into the workout room a few minutes ago, I’d overheard Alissa talking with Jacob and Tracker about their dreg partners and whether or not they believed they would be able to have a relationship with a woman if their dreg partners were still living. I had liked both Jacob and Tracker’s responses. I felt the same way. Hearing Alissa’s fears spoken out loud like that made me aware that she was afraid she would somehow come between me and Tony and that I wouldn’t be able to have a relationship with her because of my bond with Tony. After speaking with Tony a moment ago, I was more than happy to dispel her worries.
Tony admired her. He respected her. He approved of her. And why wouldn’t he? She was amazing. And I was never letting her go. Alissa and I were made for each other. We worked well together. In more ways than one.
And right now, I was thinking of a way I wanted to work with her. Alone. In my apartment. Naked. She was fucking hot. Sexy as hell. I wanted to drag her off right now, and have my way with her.
She glanced up as we paused outside of Tony’s apartment. “Tony really wants to see me? Should I be afraid?”
I chuckled. “Yeah, he wants to see you. But no, you don’t need to be afraid.”
Still, she hesitated. “Do you know what he wants to see me about?”
“No. But I have an idea.” I knocked on the door, then shoved it open. “Come on. Tony’s waiting.”
I tugged her into the apartment, not letting her prolong it any further. We went into Tony’s bedroom where Tony had propped himself up into a sitting position against the headboard in bed.
With a last worried glance at me, Alissa went to his side. “How are you doing?”
He jerked his head in a nod. “Good. You?”
She grinned, her face lighting up. “Great, now that I know you’re okay.” Then she reached over and grabbed his hand. He jolted at the contact, his face flushing, and tried to pull away, but Alissa held on tight. “This is called comfort, Tony. Remember? It’s not a bad thing. I’m holding your hand because I care about you and I want to offer you comfort, okay?”
He jerked his gaze to mine, the expression in his eyes turning to panic. I would have laughed if I didn’t know him so well. He was indeed terrified. I don’t think he had much experience with another human touch before, other than brotherly pats from his dreg brothers, and the rough sparring in the ring. Everyone needed human touch from time to time in order to stay human. Now that I thought about it, Tony had softened a bit in the time that Alissa had been around. I don’t think he was as harsh now as he’d been before. In fact, his “softening” had actually begun before Alissa. It had started first with Jessica, then with Anna, and now with Alissa. He seemed to be gentling a little more each time he was around females. Women had a way of doing that to a man. Softening him. And I could now speak from experience and say that it wasn’t a bad thing. Not at all. Having Alissa in my life was something I looked forward to.
But I doubt Tony would admit he was changing, even if he realized it was happening.
Tony cleared his throat and made another attempt to pull his hand free. This time, Alissa let him go, but she gently chastised him. “Was it really that horrible to have someone touch you?”
He let out a soft grunt and lowered his gaze, looking extremely uncomfortable.
“She’s right, you know,” I said. “Having someone touch you in a loving way is incredible. In fact, as soon as you two are done talking, I’m taking her back to my room and touching her everywhere that I can.”
Alissa’s cheeks flashed red, but her eyes darkened with awareness and anticipation as they met mine.
Tony shook his head and let out a sound of disgust. “I don’t want to hear about you two fucking.”
Alissa giggled. “It’s nice to see your personality hasn’t changed. Still the gruff, hard ass.”
Tony’s lips twitched. He hesitated a moment, glanced at me, then drew in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. He was preparing himself for whatever it was he wanted to say to her.
Finally, he lifted his gaze to hers again, his expression turning serious. “Thank you,” he said quietly. “For saving me. That’s twice now you went out of your way for me. You’re a far better person than I am. In my opinion, you are the only woman worthy of Nate.” Then he actually smiled. A true smile.
Alissa let out a soft laugh and threw herself onto the bed, wrapping her arms around him, squeezing him tightly. “Thank you! That means a lot to me that you approve.”
He let out a soft grunt of surprise, his entire body stiffening with the shock of her hug. I chuckled, unable to hold it back. Someday he would know the feel of a woman’s touch. And I couldn’t wait for him to fall in love. Because I wanted him to be as happy as I was.
At last, she leaned back. “And that is called a hug,” she stated. “It is one of the best forms of human comfort. It was nice, wasn’t it?”
Tony scowled, but he obviously wasn’t as unaffected by her touch as he pretended. He would probably deny it, but I knew he’d liked it.
I grabbed her hand and pulled her off the bed. “Come on. It’s my turn for a hug.” I drew her close and wrapped my arms around her, then ran my hands down to her ass and cupped her against me suggestively.
Tony lifted a hand and covered his eyes. “Rent a fucking room, you two. Jesus. Get out of here.” He waved us away.
Laughing softly, Alissa and I left the room just as the other dregs came filing in.
“How’s he doing?” Logan whispered.
“He’s fine,” I told them all, saying it loud enough so Tony could hear. “Back to his normal cranky self.”
They all shuffled past us and went into Tony’s room, eager to see how he was doing.
I dragged Alissa down the hallway to my apartment, locking the door behind us. Then I pushed her up against the wall and kissed her. “I’m ready for some of that human comfort you were telling Tony about,” I whispered against her lips. “Lots of it.”
She kissed me back hungrily, and we came together in a desperate rush, eager to get our hands on each other. We got as far as the couch before we were both naked, our bodies meshing as one. I got plenty of human comfort from her. And she got plenty from me.
Afterwards, we lay contentedly in each other’s arms, snuggling on the couch. Words could never express how much I loved this woman. She meant everything to me, and I never wanted to let her go.
“I love you,” I told her, looking into her eyes. “And I’m going to tell you that every day for the rest of my life. Tony told me I should hurry and marry you before you left again. You’re not leaving again, are you?”
“Tony said that?” She chuckled softly. “Here I was scared to death he didn’t approve of me. And, no. I’m definitely not leaving. Not unless you’re going with me.” She pressed her lips to mine. “I love you, too. More than anything.”
My heart swelled. That was good. Because I had no intention of ever letting her go. She was mine now. Forever.
We smiled at each other.
“Do you really think Tony’s going to be okay?” She trailed a finger across my chest, slowly caressing, then looked into my eyes.
“I hope so. He’s still hurting inside, but he doesn’t seem as damaged as he was before he was injured. I think dying and coming back may have been a wake-up call for him, making him realize he didn’t really want to die. I still think I should stick around for a while to make sure he’s going to be okay. Is that all right with you? Will you stay here with me a bit longer?”
“Of course I will. I should probably go visit Grace and let her see firsthand that I’m really okay, but other than that, I don’t plan on going anywhere. We can take that trip whenever you’re ready. At first I thought I needed to be out there on my own, proving my independence, away from you, but now I know I don’t have to do that. I’ve discovered who Alissa is now, and she’s strong and independent, both on her own and with you. All I really need now is you, Nate. Just you. Everything else is just secondary.”
My heart squeezed. I looked deeply into her eyes. “We will take that trip,” I promised. “Just you and me. And it will be soon. Very soon.”
She smiled. “I can’t wait.” She paused. “What about your sister, Katie? Do you want to go see her?”
“I do. But I think I should wait awhile in case The Company is watching. But when I do go see her, I want you to come with me.”
She snuggled against me. “I would like that.”
A knock came at the door, so I pulled on my jeans and jumped up to answer it. Tracker and Jacob stood out in the corridor. “We’re heading out now,” Tracker said. “We just wanted to say goodbye.”
I shook both their hands. “You guys coming back when we figure out how to deal with the shareholders?”
Jacob nodded. “We’ll be here. But we need to get back to our girls.” I didn’t blame them. I didn’t like being away from Alissa for very long, either.
Alissa came up behind me. “Good luck, you guys. And thanks for everything.”
They left and I closed the door.
Alissa lifted her arm to brush her fingers through my hair and I noticed the tiny tattoo on her wrist. “I promised I’d remove this thing for you, but life has been a bit crazy since I met you and I never got around to doing it.”
She chuckled. “Yeah. No kidding. It has been a crazy whirlwind, hasn’t it? You can remove the tattoo after dinner later, okay?” She grabbed my hand and turned my wrist toward her. “Do you still have that tracking device under your skin?”
“Yeah.”
She gently pressed her finger against the inside of my wrist. “We’ll just have a little ‘tattoo and tracking device removal party’ later.”
I snorted. “Yeah. We can do that. Remove the ugly reminders of what we’ve gone through.” I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her close. “Come here, you.”
She settled against me, hugging me back, and we just held each other for a long moment.
Then she leaned back. “So what are you guys going to do about the shareholders?”
“For now, nothing. Just lay low.”
Alissa nodded, then her expression turned suggestive. “We can lock ourselves in here for a while, then. Just you and me.”
I grinned. “Sounds like a plan to me.” I bent and scooped her up, tossing her over my shoulder. She squealed with laughter as I carried her into the bedroom. I tossed her on the bed and stripped her bare, and her squeals turned into soft gasps as I ran my hands and mouth all over her soft curves, loving her everywhere.
Later, as we lay entwined in each other’s arms, I thought about the journey we’d taken together.
When I had made the decision to give Alissa my phone number that night several weeks ago—breaking a dreg rule to never give out our numbers to strangers—I had no way of knowing what the consequences of that action might be.
Even so, I couldn’t and certainly wouldn’t change what I’d done. If I hadn’t given Alissa my number, she wouldn’t be here with me now. And I wouldn’t have discovered a love so powerful it literally blew my mind. Alissa was a part of me now. I could honestly say she was my soulmate. My forever. The woman of my dreams.
The shareholders were still out there. The Spartans now had our files and all The Company’s information. There was no telling who they might share that information with. And Enrique had Darcy.
I didn’t want to think about any of that right now. Alissa and I were safe in my bed. We would deal with all that other stuff later.
For now, we did exactly what Alissa suggested. Locked ourselves inside, and locked everyone else out. And spent the time getting to know each other better. Way better. In every way possible.
I had found my happily ever after. The love of my life.
My only wish now was that Tony might someday find his own happiness, too.
# # #
Thank you for reading Nate and Alissa’s story. I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. It would mean a lot to me if you would take a moment to leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads:
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**Don’t miss the next book in the series, The Smuggler, coming December 1, 2018**
Books in this series:
The Smuggler (coming December 1, 2018)
The Extractor (coming approximately April 2019)
The Enforcer (coming approximately August 2019)
The Trainer (coming approximately December 2019)
The Hacker (coming approximately April 2020)