Last Strike (8 page)

Of course she would know that wasn’t protocol. “You’re sure?” That didn’t sound right.

“Yes. I watched it happen.”

He remembered drawing blood, reveling in the scent. He knew some things couldn’t be unseen. His thirst for destruction had to offend her. If she’d watched him fight in that violent, ice-cold state, why the hell was she still here?

He fingered the stitches he could reach. “Thank you for caring for me.” He could feel the heat of her body as she leaned into his back. “You can’t stay. I’m too dangerous.” He couldn’t bear if it he had to watch her die - or worse - watch UI torture her if they caught her.
When
. Capture was inevitable.

She shifted and the cool air whispered between their bodies. “I think I can break his ability to track you.”

He rounded on her abruptly, bumping her with his oversized shoulder. On an annoyed curse, he quickly reached out to steady her. But she didn’t stay at arm’s length. She never would, he realized, far too late to do the right thing and dodge her. His honor, going unused for years, was out of practice. Daria slipped close and wrapped herself around him, a faint smile on her lips and hope gleaming in those deep, brown eyes.

She bent her head and kissed his chest, on either side of the cross necklace, and squeezed him a bit tighter. His angel. As much as he wanted her close, he had to send her away, far from his darkness.

“It’s a matter of fight or flight,” she said, her voice soft.

Definitely. He needed to fly away from her. His arms hung loose from his shoulders, not quite touching her where his body had a choice. He couldn’t wrap her up as he wanted to, he might crush her. Besides she might get the wrong idea that he could protect her. That clearly wasn’t true.

“Doctor,” he began, regretting how the words made her flinch. He’d hurt her no matter what he did. The sane choice was putting this back in perspective. “We don’t have much time to arrange new protection for you.”

She tipped her head up to stare at him, a small frown drawing her golden eyebrows together. “New protection? Why?”

He nodded. For a smart woman, she was being a fool to cling to him. “I’m a risk to you.”

“Yes.”

The single word lacked fear. She sounded dazed, dazzled to his ears. A residual effect of the blow to his head. Just when he’d pulled himself together enough to seize on her unexpected agreement, she started talking again.

“Not in the way you’re thinking.” Her small hands ran up and down his sides, his arms, before she laced her fingers with his. “Fight or flight, as I said. With you, they put the tracker into your adrenal system. I found the notes a couple of hours ago. I believe I can counter it.”

It had to be another outrageous, medical claim. Nonsense she was making up to ease his concerns. The question slipped past his lips anyway. “How?” He was desperate to believe her. Believe
in
her.

“We’d have to go to the lab to be sure.” She squeezed his hands. “You’re not afraid of anything, are you?”

He shook his head. “I don’t like needles.”

She winced, making him regret the admission. “What about before the UI program?”

How would he know? His first life was little more than a fog with the occasional break to reveal… nothing of much importance. He started to shake his head again and stopped. “I was afraid of water. I think.” Maybe he’d been afraid of everything, though that didn’t feel right either.

Her brown eyes went round in her lovely face. “But your name...” she smothered a giggle. “You joined the
Marines
.”

He shrugged a shoulder, trying not to bask in the admiration in her gaze. “I guess if it’s true, I didn’t let it hold me back.”

Her lips parted and he battled the urge, the need, to kiss her again. What would she say if he told her she was his only fear now? He feared he couldn’t keep her alive. Feared he wouldn’t keep his hands off her. Feared the horrendous fallout if he let her get any closer.

She cleared her throat. “Based on what just happened, on your reactions and responses, I believe if I overload your adrenal system, your body will fry the tracking factor.”

She thought it was body chemistry? He wasn’t a brilliant researcher like her, but he wasn’t an idiot. And losing the tracker wouldn’t change Messenger’s hold over him. He’d lived through their testing, survived their vote to put him down and made something of his life anyway. Something ugly was still something.

He didn’t appreciate the concept that his willing, murderous service to the cold bastard boiled down to conditioning. Mind control wasn’t any more palatable. Either cause put this woman at risk. He wouldn’t tolerate it, not after seeing himself through her eyes. That had been a gift, definitely the best and last he’d ever receive. He meant to honor it.

“Preventing UI from tracking me doesn’t change what I am.” However he’d come to the program, or the lies they’d told him, it didn’t change the things he’d done for Messenger. She deserved a better man. A small voice in his head protested as he reclaimed his hands, put as much distance as possible between them. “What I’ve done.” He wished to hell he remembered a useful detail from his past. If he’d ever had a trustworthy friend who might be persuaded to give her shelter, it wouldn’t be enough. UI knew more about his past than he did. Any friends would be investigated. He understood UI’s resources better than anyone else, not counting that damned chameleon, Ben.

“The past is done, Noah. I want to give you a future.”

The quiet conviction in her voice gave him more comfort than his actions and choices warranted. “Contact Ben,” he said through gritted teeth. “He’ll know someone who can help you hide.”

“Ben is busy.”

Busy? Her safety should trump any other concerns. If Ben didn’t realize that... Damn it. Who could he count on? “Not too busy to haul me here.”

“Well, no. I sent him away before you woke up.”

“You were alone while I was unconscious?” Dread for her, raw and terrible, clawed at his gut, searching for a way out. Foolish woman, she came closer again. They could have captured her anytime and he would’ve been helpless to defend her.

“Even if the worst happened, Amelia has everything I gathered to break UI wide open.”

He couldn’t find a sensible response. Another step and the warm sunlight of her hair would be within his reach.

“Ben is testing my theory about their tracking method.”

He slumped to the edge of the bed, his stomach churning at the idea of her testing on him again. “You took more blood.”

That stopped her advance. He was grateful to learn something could.

“To help you,” she said. “To protect us. Noah, what UI did to you -”

“I compounded their actions,” he interrupted. “Enhancements or conditioning, I had the free will to choose how I executed Messenger’s orders.”

“There’s a difference between following orders and malicious killing.”

He refused to hide behind the excuse of orders or manipulation. “I’m done with that.” What kind of an idiot was he that it tweaked his pride to be replaced by a newer, deadlier model? “From now on I’ll only defend myself. I won’t kill.” Unless he killed himself. Which might be the best solution, once she was safe. He needed one person in the world to see him, to remember him, as something other than a monster.

And he needed to be sure that one person, this woman in front of him survived. Daria was his only opportunity to pull something truly good from his existence with UI.

She stepped closer, her lean legs pushing his knees wider. Picking up his hands, she brought them to her hips. His fingers flexed into her soft, supple curves. Her gentle touch glided over his head and all of their contrasts struck him as laughable. He was bald, she had thick, glorious hair. He was hard and vicious, she was warm and supple.

Bending close, her hair fell across his cheek as she graced him with the softest kiss on his lips. A touch he couldn’t fight and didn’t want to. Her lips melted against his, tasting, giving, drawing a yearning out of his black soul. A need so intense he trembled.

“Shh,” she whispered against his mouth. “I’ve got you.”

Her small hands smoothed over his nape and he shook, recalling how he’d thought to snap her neck. “Daria…” He couldn’t get out the ‘no’. Couldn’t refuse her while her hair fell around them like a curtain, her lips feathering kisses over his face.

He dropped his forehead to her shoulder and tried again. “I can’t. We can’t do this.” His body told him to shut the hell up and let her take whatever she wanted. “I’ll hurt you.” His body was so much bigger than hers. He wasn’t sure he could manage his enhancements around her.

“Never,” she murmured at his ear. Her tongue blazed a trail along the curve of his ear, suckling at the lobe. “Noah.” She moved over him, her knees hugging his hips as she perched on his thighs. “I’ve got you.”

That angelic voice stroked him as effectively as her hands. He believed her. Maybe he just wanted to believe her. Was there a difference? The more she touched him, the stronger he felt. He watched his big, ugly hands shape the length of her beautiful thighs covered by worn denim, outside and in, as she sighed and scooted closer.

“Be smart, Daria.” One of them had to be smart. It had to be her. She had all the degrees. He dug his hands into her hips when she pushed closer, holding her just out of reach. If any part of her brushed up against his hard-on he’d be lost.

In her, to her.

D
aria strained against his hold
, desperate to touch all of him, all at once. He didn’t trust himself. How could she show him the man she saw? She relaxed, felt him respond, as she pressed her mouth to his. Filling the kiss with the tenderness he’d shown her at every turn. Had she wanted a man the way she wanted him? Never. If he was determined to leave her, she was determined to make it the toughest decision of his life.

She braced her hands on those impossibly strong shoulders and pushed gently while her tongue stroked deep into his mouth.

His body yielded, as she knew it would. The position brought his erection right up against her core. Beneath her, she devoured that glorious torso with her eyes, her mouth and hands, not giving him time to argue.

Overwhelming him was key, though technically that was impossible. Well, so was being alive when the program’s best assassin had been sent to eliminate her.

She smiled against his warm skin. They were both alive and if she succeeded with her seduction, they’d both have more to fight for. She continued her exploration, carefully avoiding the bruises and wounds from the earlier fight. No bad memories here. No triggers. Only love.

Love
. She didn’t dare say it. She told him without words what her heart and body knew. Sitting up, she stripped away her t-shirt, reached back and unhooked her plain white bra.

His hands flexed on her thighs and she brought them up to cup her breasts. Her eyelids closed in the immediate ecstasy. His rough callouses scuffed her nipples and she moaned in delight. She reached for his fly, barely sliding the button free before he tugged her down.

Her hands braced on either side of his head, her breasts swayed in front of his face. He captured one aching peak in his mouth while his eyes watched her react.

His lips were the only soft thing about him, she thought, rocking her hips against his hard length. The right pressure and a hint of pace and she’d have an orgasm before they got the rest of their clothes off.

She focused her efforts and attention on him, reflecting the exquisite pleasure he was giving her. His breath sighed in and out as she moved against his brawny body, touching him everywhere she could from this position. She reached for his fly again, this time succeeding enough that she could reach in and wrap her hand around his erection.

The delicious contact seemed to freeze them both in place. She thought he’d protest again. He didn’t. His pale eyes weren’t cold or indifferent, they were lit with a blatant, sexual promise she’d never seen in another man.

He rolled them until she was stretched out under him. His weight pressed her into the mattress and she caressed his face and arms, kissed his shoulders. But he didn’t stay within reach. He slid lower, stripping away her jeans and underwear, the socks she’d worn against the room’s over-achieving air conditioner. He ditched his pants as well and she savored the exceptional view.

Beautiful warrior. Heroic lover. Under all of UI’s programming and enhancement, he was the most honorable, the strongest of men.
Love me
, she cried out with her eyes and her seeking hands. She wanted to give him those tender words, the certain knowledge, beating inside her ribcage. It was too soon, for both of them.

His eyes studied her from head to toe and back up. Everywhere his gaze lingered her body responded with a hot flash of anticipation. At last he touched her, blazing a sizzling trail from her feet upward with lips and teeth and hands. Slowly, so slowly she thought she’d die before he reached the hot, weeping juncture of her thighs. As he put his mouth on her sex, she knew she wouldn’t survive the onslaught. Her heart hammered and her hips bucked until those big hands held her down, held her open to his demands.

She cried out his name when the orgasm shattered her senses. Her hands beckoned him close, her body craving more. More of him. He bent his head to her breasts, his erection teasing her. She begged, delighted. He laughed, the rough, out-of-practice sound teasing every raw nerve.

He wouldn’t let her push him back and take what she needed. No, with one smooth thrust he buried himself deep inside her, satisfying them both. Eyes open, gazes locked, she reveled in the beautiful sensations. Thrilled, her greedy body clung to his, reluctant to let go as he began to move, sliding back and sinking deep again. Over and over.

He leaned down, covering her, kissing the sensitive place where throat curved into shoulder. He wrapped her in his arms, his cross caught between their pounding hearts as his hips pumped and her legs came up to cradle his body.

She felt him everywhere, inside and out, giving all of himself, taking all she could give. Nothing in her life had prepared her for this kind of beauty, this stunning glory. Life affirming. Life altering.