The apartment they’d found was not much of an apartment. Instead, it was an old warehouse that’d been refurbished to resemble an open loft-style space. Marc found that he very much liked the broad windows and the open aired feeling of the space. It helped to ease the tightness in his chest when he thought about what they were about to do.
The papers had been signed and their false identifications had been scanned and accepted by GOE. Tomorrow, they would begin their new jobs in the GOE facility. Marc wasn’t the happiest with the job he’d been given. He’d taken one look at the papers in his hands and glared at his brother’s mate.
Anya had only shrugged her shoulders and claimed the facility wasn’t looking for anything else in that time. They were lucky to even get the jobs they’d gotten. Marc would just have to deal with his duties as a janitor.
They’d gone over the plan time and time again. Marc had spent too much time watching his brother hover over poor Anya, but he understood the bare bones of the plan. Noelle would be working for someone important in the facility. That would give her access to a number of codes and a number of doors. Anya warned his fiery mate that she might not like who she was working for, but Noelle told her there was nothing to worry about.
She’d been strangely determined throughout the whole process. At some point during the meeting, her eyes had met his and their gazes held for a good portion of the meeting. Marc felt himself calm, the crashing waves of indecision and fear receding as he looked into her confident eyes.
Noelle dropped her box of records onto the floor. She looked around the room and frowned. Marc knew exactly what she was thinking and felt a wind stirring inside of him. It whipped and tore at his emotions until he found the calm center of it again. Noelle was unhappy there seemed to be only one bed.
Even if she made him sleep on the couch, he would find a way to weasel himself into that bed with her. He would sleep on the opposite side of the mattress until she accepted him. He only wanted to be near her, he told himself. He only needed to be in her presence.
Marc had to ignore the thoughts going through his mind. He had to try his best not to think about her naked across the bed in the loft, or leaning against the counter in the small kitchen area, or pressed against the shower door.
“What are you going to do with so much space?” Marc asked to distract himself.
***
Noelle knew there was only one bed in the whole apartment. She also knew that was a ploy on Liana’s part. Too bad for Liana, Noelle was considering the king-sized bed with some interest. Noelle couldn’t hide from her bond to this man for much longer. Especially not if they were going to share the same space.
“Probably find a closet to hide in,” she joked. Her own tiny home would have easily fit into this space ten times over. It was amazing to think this was all for them.
But, it also filled Noelle’s minds with thoughts she didn’t have time to bother with. She blamed the beast inside her, but she knew better. Noelle liked the image of Marc walking around the apartment naked as much as her beast did. It made her sneak a glance back at her mate and wonder what he looked like beneath his clothing.
What was he hiding beneath the thick fabric of his jeans? She smiled to herself, lips pressed together to keep from being too obvious as she eyes his package. Was he a grower, tucked away until the time they needed it? Or, was Marc a shower, always presenting all he had to the world?
Noelle had her own guess, but she wouldn’t know until she got the courage to look. It seemed that today was not that day as his eyes connected with hers and she turned away with pink cheeks. What kept her from making a move now? They were alone and surrounded with as much privacy as two dragons could want in the center of town.
Yet, her feet were rooted to the ground. She couldn’t move toward or away from him. Noelle spared a moment to wonder if this was how she’d spent her whole life. It explained why she was so angry with herself, why it felt like she’d done nothing. If she’d frozen, if she’d panicked and hidden it behind her anger, then her life never moved at all.
Noelle spun on her heel, mouth open to speak, but her words fizzled out. Her eye’s met Marc’s and her heart seized again. He swallowed a small laugh and her mouth snapped shut. Noelle threw him a glare before snatching up her box of records and stomping toward the stairs into the loft.
She’d hide up there until she figured out what was going on in her head. All she needed was time and space, right? She’d been given a lot of that. She’d had years of time and space to figure out what she wanted. In all that time, all she’d done was thrust her thoughts of Marc to the side.
“Tomorrow is the day…” Marc began downstairs. His voice seemed to meander, speaking to her and no one all at once.
Noelle paused, waiting for more.
“Are you afraid?”
Noelle swallowed. “Of course, I am. We’re two dumb dragons inserting ourselves into a facility where they experiment on our kind. That’s freaking terrifying.”
Marc laughed, an empty rush of air.
Noelle let herself fall back onto the bed. “But, I’ve lived a long life up until this point. No matter what happens from here on out, I’ll know I tried to help someone other than myself.”
“You spent years trying to help your sister. Don’t those count?”
“Perhaps. Perhaps they don’t. I don’t feel like I accomplished much.”
Noelle knew he would go on to pry, trying to dig through her thoughts and emotions to see what kind of a person he’d been mated to, but she wasn’t in the mood for it. The conversation made her feel too exposed and that ignited a hot anger inside her to cover it up. Mary was gone. She’d done so little to find her. Helping Lucia would only go so far in making up for Noelle’s mistakes.
Her eyes lighted in a small ladder in the corner. It led to a square hatch in the ceiling and she found herself rolling off the bed. Marc, unpacking downstairs, didn’t hear his mate slip out of the apartment. All he knew was that the conversation was over.