Chapter 11
Zade stared at Simone as she slept, winding a lock of her hair around his finger. Wild, tangled waves spread out across the pillow, glinting like pale metal in the dim light. Listening to her heart soothed him slightly. Steady and sweet.
They’d finally made it back up to the bedroom about an hour ago, after the totally decadent chocolate and cognac fueled sex on the couch downstairs. Simone had fallen into an exhausted doze, but he couldn’t even think of sleeping. Not even sentinel sleep.
He needed both brain hemispheres blazing to walk this tightrope.
Dawn wasn’t far off, and it gave him a sick ache of foreboding. The magic of this night would soon be over. She might feel differently about him when her eyes opened.He was braced for that. This might be their only night.
Her heart sped up and his ASP snapped into play, measuring, recording, processing everything. Rapid eye movement, quickened breathing, cortisol levels rising. She was having a nightmare.
He wondered if her nightmares were anything like his own. She moaned softly.
He put his hand on her shoulder, and her eyes opened.
A moment of startled disorientation, and she gave him a sweet, relieved smile that sent him blasting up into space.
She lifted her arms for a stretch, her tits poking flirtatiously out from the coverlet. “Good morning. Or is it morning yet?”
“It’s thinking about being morning,” he said. “It’s not quite convinced yet.”
She rolled up onto her elbow, looked at the window and then at the clock. “I guess I should be getting home.”
“Why?” Zade asked. “Why leave at all?”
Her eyes went wide and wary. “That question seems a little premature.”
“Not really. Have you got a cat to feed?”
Her lips twitched. “No, but—”
“Plants to water?”
“No. I don’t do plants.”
“Then why leave? Your stepdad’s thugs are still out there trolling for you.”
“Probably.”
“So stay where you are. Let them sweat. You’ve been working from home, right? Work from here, if you have to work at all.”
“But I can’t simply move in with you. We just met.”
“Call it a visit, if it makes you feel better. I’ll be a great host. Sex whenever. You like movies? I have an amazing home theater. Hungry? I have a big fridge stocked with excellent food. You can shop online, on me. Or we could take off on an adventure. Mountains, deserts, oceans. Anything you want. I’d love that. I would fucking love that.”
She looked down at her lap, plucking at the coverlet. “Well,” she said slowly, “I would love that, too. But there’s something I need to do today. And it can’t wait.”
“Let me give you a ride to whatever it is,” he suggested. “Stay out of sight. Once they nail you down, it’ll be twice as hard to shake them off again.”
“It’s a doctor’s appointment,” she said.
In the silence that followed her statement, he felt it. They sat there staring at each other, and he suddenly felt all of the cold, dead weight of fear she’d managed to hide so far.
“A doctor’s appointment,” he repeated slowly.
“Routine, in case you’re wondering. But necessary.”
“I don’t believe that,” he said.
She looked away from him, shaking her head. He just waited her out.
Finally, she tossed her hair back. “Goddamnit, Zade.” Her low voice was furious. “Not fair.”
“Nope,” he said. “Sure isn’t. But we’re making progress. So tell me.”
She blew out a shaky breath. “So we’re popping this lovely bubble right now? And I was having such a nice time.”
“Good to know. Now talk.”
She was quiet for almost a minute. “I told you about my mom last night,” she said finally. “How she died when I was young.”
“Yes, I remember. A neurological thing.”
“It’s called Frey-Moller. Extremely rare. For her, it started with headaches that got progressively worse, then ringing in her ears. Depression, mood swings, irrational behavior, personality changes, and dementia. Then she died.”
She avoided his eyes. He got it. Pity was a bitch. But he had to find out more.
“Are you starting to have her symptoms?” he asked.
“Some of them. Remember when we were in the bar? That’s happened to me before. Head pain, and this incredible noise. I can’t see, can’t hear. Sometimes I pass out.”
“So you got tested?”
“Yes. I’m going to talk to the doctor today. About my gene map. Dr. Fayette called me yesterday but he refused to tell me anything on the phone. He said he had to see me in person.” She twisted the top sheet into a ball.
He reached out and unwound her fingers, squeezing both her hands. “You’re scared. I can see it.”
He had to say something. He doubted that she had this disease, but there was no way he could clue her into her real problems. Which were just as terrifying.
He wondered about her gene map. It could be a springboard for telling her about her mods. Otherwise she was going to think he was batshit crazy.
“Anyhow,” she said. “That’s what today is about for me. Not an adventure or anything fun and fabulous like that.”
“I’m going with you to the appointment,” he said.
She shook her head. “Don’t. It wouldn’t help. But thanks anyway.”
“You don’t have to be alone. You shouldn’t be, in fact.”
“I don’t want to get bad news in front of you. Or melt down like I did.”
“Didn’t I help you through it?” he asked.
“That’s not the point,” she said. “And you’re making this really hard.”
He scooted closer to her and stroked her back. “You have nothing to lose by letting me keep you company.”
“It’s not your call, Zade,” she said tightly.
He paused for a moment. “Is there someone else you’d rather go with? Then I’ll step back.”
She shook her head. “No again. I’m fine alone. Really.”
Zade didn’t give up. “If you’re sitting in a waiting room, the only place I want to be is next to you.”
His phone rang from where he’d left it on the dresser. His heart sank at the distinctive ringtone.
Asa Stone.
Suck-ass timing. Asa was the long-lost and just recently rediscovered brother of Noah and Hannah, his fellow Midlands rebels.
“Do you need to pick that up?” Simone asked. “I bet you do. Go ahead. Who is it?”
Somehow she’d guessed that he knew the ringtone. “Nobody.”
“Like hell. At this hour of the morning?”
He grinned at her. “If you really want to know, it’s a dark web data pirate. Hugely rich. With an underground lair and a global network of shadowy agents at his beck and call.”
Simone smiled faintly. “Quite a story.”
“You think I’m lying?”
She laughed. “Zade. Right now, I don’t care if you are. But you certainly do not have to try and impress me.” She rolled over with her back to him.
Message received. She had more serious shit to worry about.
He stretched out beside her in silence, thinking about Asa. He was a complicated guy who had to be managed very carefully. Dangerous to ignore.
The ringtone faded away.
Simone lay perfectly still. Instinct told him to wait a few moments before he tried curling up around her body again.
Asa had saved their asses when Mark Olund went after Noah’s new lover Caro Bishop. They never would’ve taken that psycho bastard down without Asa and his team—who’d also disposed of Mark’s corpse, and the dead supersoldiers that Mark had stolen from Obsidian.
Problem was, one of those corpses turned out to be not quite dead. Close enough to dying to fool them all, in spite of their enhanced senses. But after the battle, Asa’s crew had found the guy inexplicably alive. Comatose, but with a pulse.
To say that Asa had been unthrilled about having an Obsidian slave soldier housed in his secret mountain stronghold would be a radical understatement.
He’d been having a shit fit about it ever since.
And he was calling back. Same ringtone. Relentless fucker. Zade slid out of bed, steeling himself to deal with Asa’s hostility.
“You decided to answer it,” she murmured.
“Work call,” he said. “Second try. I really can’t ignore him this time.”
“Give my regards to the pirate king.”
“Yeah.” Zade snatched up the phone from the dresser and hit talk, moving closer to the door in case he had to carry the conversation away from Simone’s interested ears. “Hey,” he said. “What’s keeping you up at night?”
Asa got right to the point. “Where the fuck is Noah? I’ve been trying to reach him for days. He’s blocked all contact from me.”
“Honeymoon,” Zade said. “He left a couple days ago. Don’t take it personally. He’s blocked all of us. I think they’re in the South Pacific, or Europe, or maybe Antarctica. You know, before it melts. I can’t remember.”
“You are fucking shitting me. How about Sisko?”
“He was in Los Angeles. But I think he was headed to Hong Kong on some Angel Industries business.”
“Great. That’s just great. I can’t even get in touch with Hannah!”
“She went down to see Zoe in the Bay Area. The girls do that sometimes. Just blow us all off and go do a hen party all by themselves. What’s your problem?”
Asa cursed viciously. “Get your ass out here.”
“Why? What am I, your last resort?”
“You’re definitely not my first choice,” Asa said sourly. “But you seem to be the only available member of Noah’s local crew, so I’m stuck with you.”
Simone rolled over to face him. Zade ran a hand through his scruffy hair, avoiding the powerfully curious stare she directed at him.
“Actually, it’s a bad time,” he said to Asa. “I’m in the middle of something, and I won’t be able to make it out until—”
“I don’t give a flying fuck what you’re doing. You need to come here now.”
“What’s going on? Is it Brenner? Did he—”
“Yeah. He woke up. And he’s apeshit. He’s going to kill himself, and I don’t want to watch. Start coming up with a Plan B real quick, or I’ll come up with one for you. Get in your car and drive up here. Now.”
Asa hung up on him.
Zade stared down at the phone, jaw clenched. He disliked being shoved around even by people that he trusted with his life. Asa Stone was not a part of that inner circle, in spite of the recent battle. He was still an unknown who’d rubbed him the wrong way from the first moment that they met.
But the Midlanders were in Asa’s debt. An uncomfortable place to be, since none of them knew when or how he was going to call in his favors.
They were all still waiting for that shoe to drop.
He pulled a shirt out of his closet and shrugged it on as he turned back to Simone. “Gotta go. Believe me, I don’t want to and I hate leaving you here alone but I have to take care of something urgent. I’m really sorry. Wait here for me, okay? Get comfortable. My lair is your lair. We’ll go to the doctor together as soon as I get back.”
“No. I’ll let you know how my doctor’s appointment goes. Give me your number. Um, never mind—I memorized it off your phone. I’ll call you.”
Shit, he was losing her. And he wanted to keep her right here, under his security vid-cams’ many watchful eyes. “How?” he said grimly. “I owe you a new phone, remember? That’s another thing that we needed to do today.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s no big deal. I can buy one of those refillable jobs for now.”
“No way. The phone is on me, Alison.”
“Nice of you, but I want to leave on my own,” she said.
“Stay here,” he pleaded. “Please. You’re safe here. This place is a fortress, security-wise. And I’ll take you to the doctor when I get back. As soon as possible.”
She sat up, curling her legs up beneath herself on the bed. “You don’t know how long you’ll be.”
“A few hours at least. There’s some driving involved.”
“Let’s leave things open,” she suggested. “If it gets late and I have to leave for my appointment, I’ll just call a car service.”
He could have screamed his frustration. “But how will I find you again? I don’t even know your last name.” He slid into bed and reached for her, sliding his hand into the warm satiny curls behind her head. He kissed her again, his lips lingering, sliding hungrily over hers.
Her sweet taste did something to him. It felt like a door swinging open to some bright place—
Stop it. Now. Act like a fucking grown-up.
He pulled away. Grabbed a piece of notepaper off the pad on the chest of drawers and scribbled down some twenty-digit codes. “Okay. Deactivate the alarms when you leave with these two. That’s the elevator code. And this one disarms the garage door. The last one is my real cell phone number.”
She studied the paper he’d handed to her. Glanced up to meet his eyes.
“Come on. Who do you think you’re dealing with?” he teased. “Like I’d make it that easy for you.”
She rolled her eyes but let that slide. “What if I screw up the alarm system? Or get stuck in the elevator?”
Some question, coming from a master engineer. He wondered if she was trying to get him to stay. But he couldn’t.
“Just hit something with a lug wrench,” he said. “Works every time.”
“Ha ha.”
“I’d know, in any case,” he assured her. “If necessary, I can open it for you remotely. Or lock and change the passwords after you’re out. Unless you want to come back in. In which case just call me. Anytime you want. Please.”
“Change the passwords?” She laughed softly. “You trust me that much?”
“It’s not about trust,” he said. “I change ’em every day. Sometimes more than once. But that’s beside the point. Please don’t go.”
“I have my appointment, Zade.”
“Reschedule it. Whatever they have to tell you won’t change if you cancel or show up late.”
“They can’t just give me a new appointment at my convenience whenever I feel like waltzing in!”
“Actually, they can.” He smiled with all his teeth. “Let me talk to them, and they’ll accommodate you. I guarantee it.”
“You’re sweet, but no way in hell will I wait one second longer than I have to for those test results.”
He exhaled slowly, fighting for calm. “Okay. I got that. And I understand where you’re coming from.”
“Then why are you arguing with me?”
“Because I want to see you again,” he said. “Stay here. Spend the day. Spend the week. I’ll take you to the lab. After that, we drive straight to the coast. I know a great bed and breakfast on an oceanfront cliff. Tower rooms, incredible views, private beach access. Oyster stew, clam chowder, tempura prawns, champagne. Long baths together in a big clawfoot tub. Long nights rolling around in a big four-poster bed.”
She laughed at him, but her face had gone hot pink. He was heartened.
“One more little thing,” she said. “Could I use your computer? I was supposed to Facetime a friend last night, so she might be worried. I assume your system is password protected, right?”
He hesitated for a moment, mentally organizing how to let her into the system while still protecting his data. Simple enough. “Sure. Use the computer downstairs. I’ll write down the password and leave it on the keyboard for you.”
“And you’ll change that password remotely as soon as I’ve made my call, I bet.”
He smiled back at her, but let it slide. “Don’t disappear on me, Alison.” He turned reluctantly toward the door.
“Um, Zade?”
He spun around. “Yeah?”
“My name isn’t Alison. It’s Simone. Simone Brightman. I work at Batello.”
He was just as startled by that frank admission as if he had never known her real name in the first place. Keep right on faking it, fucker. He just stared at her, his mouth working stupidly. “Ah … Okay.”
“Here’s why,” she said.
“You don’t have to tell me.”
“But I want to.” She paused to find the right words. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when we introduced ourselves. And I wanted an escape route in case you were, you know, a psycho.”
“Sounds reasonable,” he said cautiously.
“But you aren’t. Plus I looked you up online at the bar. On a dark web site for killer nerds like me. When I had your phone. At the bar.”
And he’d thought she was planting malware. “Right.”
“I didn’t find much about you, and some websites were blocked, but what I did find was verifiable and generally positive.”
“Thanks for telling me.” He actually was pleased to hear that his search-engine tweaks were working. He was, for all intents and purposes, a genuine Mr. Wonderful on the internet. He couldn’t help but grin.
“Why are you smiling?”
“Because you looked me up,” he said. “And liked what you saw.”
“After spending a night in your company, I think you’re excellent,” she concluded. “And I want to hear you say my real name.”
He cleared his throat. “Simone,” he said hoarsely.
The openness of her smile cut him right to the heart.
“Yes,” she whispered. “That sounds just exactly as good as I thought it would.”
He was across the room before he realized it, kissing her desperately.
“That turned me on so much I can’t even breathe,” he muttered. “Just saying your real name. Thank you for giving me that.”
“It turns me on, too,” she said, between kisses. “I love it. Love it.”
“Simone. Stop. Please.” He pulled reluctantly away. “You’re making me hard. But I have to leave now. You’re killing me.”
She rose up onto her knees, smiling, and slid her hand between her legs, undulating as she squeezed her thighs around her hand. “I’m so wet,” she said dreamily. “When I woke up and looked at you, I felt this rush, like my whole body had turned to honey. Just thinking about what you do to me. Sliding your beautiful cock deep inside me. And then you’re fucking me deep and hard, and I’m trying to get closer to you, to take you deeper, and I can barely breathe, it feels so good.”
“Whoa,” he whispered, his face hot. She did want him to stay. He didn’t have to read between the lines. There weren’t any.
“You want more, Zade? Me touching myself while you watch?”
Her gray-green eyes had that hot, wild glow that made him crazy. That, and her slender body swaying.
“Yes,” he whispered. “Now.”
He pressed his hand to the fine skin over her heart, feeling it beat against his palm. A gentle push and she lay back onto the rumpled sheets.
“Show me,” he said. “I want to see it.”
She opened her thighs, offering herself like a flower opening up to the sun. Wanton and beautiful.
“Put your fingers inside those beautiful pussy lips for me,” he said. “All the way in. Make yourself come for me while I watch you.”
She didn’t have far to go. He actually wished it had taken longer, it was so erotic to watch her fingers sliding into herself, then out to tease her swollen clit. To watch her arch and gasp, overwhelmed by pleasure. A long, lingering orgasm.
The sight transfixed him. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. Couldn’t think.
Her eyes opened, and she reached for him, tugging him closer. “I want you.”
He answered with a growl of assent, and got naked again real fast. A condom packet lay on the floor. He scooped it up. Had it on in record time.
He thrust himself deep inside, and stayed there, motionless. Simone grabbed his ass and set the pace herself, making those breathless little whimpers that drove him nuts, into an altered state far beyond any kind of self-control. Plunging and writhing.
A heaving frenzy of crazy, wild, wonderful fucking.
She was about to hit that high a second time. So beautiful. No holding back. She pulled him right over the edge with her, and they soared.
One body, one mind, one soul. Shining and complete.
He opened his eyes, realizing that she was fighting for breath under his weight, even though she was still hugging him.
Zade raised himself partway up just in time to see her tongue lick her kiss-reddened lips. In a heartbeat, he was rock hard. He could have started all over again. The sensation was familiar.
Like a compulsion pattern.
Hell. Bring it on. Never let it stop. He’d been suckered. She was the wildest, sweetest, purest rush of pleasure he’d ever gotten, and he was strung out on her now, locked into the strongest compulsion pattern he’d ever experienced.
He’d let himself be programmed, for fuck’s sake. After all these years.
It wasn’t her fault. She was as innocent as a goddamn star in the sky. She just shone like that, naturally. Dazzling him with her light. She couldn’t help it. But oh fuck.
He, of all people, should know better.