Emily was at her makeshift desk in a temporary corner of Temple’s office when her boss walked in, began to pace, and sighed.

“Everything okay?” Emily stood, concerned.

It had been three days since she and Ryan had their heart to heart. Things had been great since then. Amazing. His father’s prognosis still looked great. In a few more weeks they would remove him from the chamber and induce a coma, right on schedule.

Today they were going to leave the bunker. She had convinced Ryan that pacing and waiting and staring at files through unseeing eyes was unhealthy. They were going to go for a drive, see the mountains, pack a lunch, hike, breathe fresh air.

Temple met her gaze. “There are more reporters outside the gate than usual.”

Emily sighed, her shoulders falling. “You think we should stay here?”

“No.” Temple rubbed her forehead with two fingers. “But I want you to take someone with you for protection.”

Emily flinched. “Protection? You think it’s unsafe?”

She shrugged. “I don’t want to find out the hard way. I’ll assign one of the security guards to go with you. I’m sorry. I know you were probably looking for five minutes of normal, but I don’t like the thought of someone following either of you and harassing you. It’ll be easier if a blatantly armed personal security detail accompanies you.”

It wasn’t ideal. But Emily wasn’t going to argue. It’s not as if she and Ryan had planned to have sex in the woods and their day would be ruined. She was sleeping in his bed. They had sex every night. She wasn’t so horny she couldn’t enjoy a day of hiking.

Okay, maybe she was that horny. So far they hadn’t just had sex every night, they’d had sex several times a night. Both of them were exhausted. They needed to rein it in soon before one of them fell asleep at their desk.

She was finding her sensual side, a side she never knew existed. Perhaps it hadn’t, but it did now. And Ryan—he needed to do anything to distract himself from worrying about his parents. She was happy to oblige.

“It’s okay with me. But if you’d prefer we didn’t leave the bunker at all…”

Temple waved a hand through the air. “No. That’s not fair or reasonable. You can’t stay here for the rest of your lives. No one can. Eventually, twenty-two lost souls are going to need to be able to find new lives. We might as well break the ice and see what happens. I’m hoping the media will get tired of waiting around for a story. It has to become old news at some point, right?”

Emily shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe the media. But it’ll be two hundred years before the religious zealots give up.”

“I wish I knew which was worse or more dangerous.”

“Ready?” Ryan popped his head in the doorway. “Oh, hey, Temple. How are you?” He stepped the rest of the way into the room, holding out a hand.

Temple took his, but shot him a glare. “When are you going to stop being so formal around me?”

He grinned. “Never.”

“At least you stopped calling me General. That got old when you were about four.”

Ryan pointed over his shoulder. “I just spoke with Rollans on my way to your office. Apparently you think we need a babysitter.”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, Ryan. I think it’s best. There are over fifty protesters and media out there just waiting. They’ll be less likely to follow you if you’re with someone in uniform with a weapon.”

Ryan rolled his eyes, but he did so while sliding his hand into Emily’s and threading their fingers together. “I have a .45.”

Emily flinched. “You have a .45?”

He flashed her a grin. “Don’t sound so surprised.” He tapped her nose with one finger. “I was raised in a military household. My parents took me to the shooting range as soon as I could walk.”

“Seriously, Ryan.” Temple shot him a glare.

“Okay, maybe not that young.” He laughed. “But trust me. I can handle nearly any weapon. They wanted me to be safe and knowledgeable.”

“You have more than one?” Emily asked.

Temple pointed at the door. “Get out of here. Go hiking. Have fun.” Emily didn’t have a license to carry a gun. It had expired a decade ago.

Emily let Ryan lead her out of the office and down the hallway. When they got back to his suite to gather a few things and grab a backpack, she asked again. “I meant what I said. Do you have more than one weapon?”

He glanced at her. “Yes, but you haven’t shot a weapon in over ten years.”

She planted her hands on her hips. “First of all, it’s been two months technically. Second of all, it’s like riding a bike. Now, you can’t expect me to believe you’re worried about my safety out of one side of your mouth while denying me the ability to protect myself out of the other side. It’s hypocritical. And don’t get all macho on me. You’re a lowly civilian. I was a ranking lieutenant until a few weeks ago.” She tossed her hair back in mock exaggeration.

Ryan dropped the backpack, rushed into her space, and flattened her to the door. A second later, his fingers were threaded in her hair, his thumbs stroking her cheeks. “You want to go hiking today or go back to bed? Because it’s hot when you pump your chest out and get all cocky.”

She smiled, wetness gathering in her panties at his words. “You know when you’re hot?”

“No. When?” He lifted a brow.

“Every time you slam me against the wall unexpectedly and get all alpha. You do it often. I like it.” She lifted onto her toes and kissed him. “Now, let go of me and grab that backpack before I take you up on your offer and your man Rollans is left wondering what happened to us.”

A slow smile spread across Ryan’s face, his eyes dancing with some joke she didn’t get. And then he let her in. “My man Rollans is a woman.”

She smiled broader too. “Even better.”

* * *

A half an hour later Ryan was sitting in the front of the silver Toyota Corolla. Rollans was driving, and Emily was in the back seat hunkered down on the floorboards so they could hopefully drive straight past the protesters without raising suspicion.

Ryan held his breath, shuddering at the number of people outside the gate as they drove by. Half of them had protest signs about God and the devil. The other half had cameras and microphones. They pressed so close to the car on the way by that they would have easily spotted Emily on the floorboards if the windows hadn’t been tinted.

Rollans glanced around constantly, but Ryan noticed she did so without moving her head much. Finally, about five minutes later, she spoke. “I think you’re clear, ma’am.”

Ryan reached over the seat with his hand to help her up. She looked at Rollans. “I’m glad we’re in the clear, but please call me Emily.”

“Okay.” Rollans smiled with a glance at Emily in the rearview mirror. “But you have to call me Blair.”

“Deal. So, where are we going?”

“I was thinking we could drive to some scenic areas around here and then there’s a spot I liked to hike when I was a kid,” Ryan told her.

Blair pulled the car off the road and came to a stop at a gas station. “I’ll sit in the back. Pretend I’m not even here.”

Ryan jumped out of the car and opened the back seat for Emily to climb out too.

“I feel weird about making Blair ride in the back.”

Blair rounded the hood and grabbed the open door. “Don’t feel weird. It’s not the first time I’ve been assigned to protect people. It happens. You’re on a date. I’m invisible.” The two women were almost the same height, five-foot-five. Blair worked out a lot, so she was more muscular and fit, but not by much. She might have been small, but Ryan knew she was larger than life inside. Tough as nails.

Ryan helped Emily into the front passenger seat, but he could tell in an instant there was no way she was going to ignore Blair and leave her sitting in the back in silence. He smiled to himself as he circled to the driver’s side.

Emily had a heart of gold and so many attributes he loved. Her current discomfort with their arrangement only endeared her to him more. By the time he slid into the car, she was already twisted around speaking to Blair. “How long have you been working for the bunker?”

Blair laughed. “Invisible remember?”

“Newly reanimated.” Emily stuck out a hand. “Nice to meet you,” she said formally as if they hadn’t met half an hour ago. “After sleeping ten years, it seems you might wake up with a new perspective on life. I don’t know who I was before I took that nap, but I’m not the sort of person who is going to pretend you aren’t with us now, so get over it.”

And that was how the tone of the day was set.