Long Gone (7 page)

But there was still one thing he
could
give her—the memory of this moment. In the lonely months to come, she would savor every detail.

Droplets sprayed the tiled floor as he swung her out of the tub and briskly rubbed her down. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her into the bedroom, yanked the coverlet and sheets from the bed in one grand gesture, and sent the pillows flying. And then he tackled her onto the mattress, careful to protect her from the weight of his body as they fell in a tangle of limbs and laughter, huddling together for warmth.

“I could never get enough of you,” he confessed, as their bodies aligned in a way that left them both breathless.

It would have to be enough for now. “I love you,” she whispered as he found her slick opening. Wrapping her legs around his thighs, she welcomed his possession. 

With restraint that made her love him all the more, he claimed her inch by gentle inch until he filled her utterly.  

Just as in that magical moment in her bedroom four years ago, they fit together perfectly, like a hand in a glove. In some ways, they scarcely knew each other. In others, she knew him better than he knew himself—which was the reason she couldn’t let him run off with her.

With
Skyler
emitting soft cries of pleasure, her body squeezing around him so tightly it put him into a mindless trance, Drake roused to awareness just enough to realize they were being careless. He went still. “We forgot protection. It’s in my bag.” 

Her grip tightened. “Don’t get up,” she pleaded, holding him closely.

“You could get pregnant,” he warned as she rocked against him, sending him closer to his climax.

“I know.” Lifting her head, she deliberately caught his lips in a kiss so sweet it threatened the last of his self-control. 

“And that would be okay with you?”  

“Getting pregnant? Having your baby? Hell, yes.”

Her mild swear word made him chuckle. She was full of surprises. He tried to be the voice of reason, which didn’t work so well considering his presently limited cranial functioning.

“That wouldn’t be fair to either of us, Sky. We’re going to have to travel for the next month or so. I can’t have you feeling sick on a freighter across the ocean.”

A tear appeared at the corner of her eyes, sliding into the hair at her temple.

Drake stilled for a second time. “What’s wrong? Talk to me, Sky.” 

Her eyes resembled sapphire pools. “I’m not leaving the country with you, Drake,” she informed him with lament. “I’m not turning you into a fugitive.”

Stunned, he pushed up on his hands to gaze down at her. “I’m not sending you back to WITSEC. Hell, no. We’re making a break for it.”

She just shook her head. “No. As much as I love you and wish we could be together, I refuse to cost you your career, Drake.”

His eyes burned with frustration as his half-formed plans went up in smoke. “Damn my father for saying that to you!” he raged.

“I’m glad he did. It woke me up.”

“It won’t be like that, Sky. I can find another job. I swear
,
I can take care of you.”

“I know you can, but you shouldn’t have to. Just give me this moment, right now.” She ran her fingers through his hair, pulling him back down against her. “Stay with me every second, for as long as you can.”

If she wanted to believe he could just leave her to her fate, so be it. He’d find some way to keep her safe without surrendering her to WITSEC and even without her knowing, if need be.

“The only place I’m going right now,” he whispered, “is to heaven and back—with you.”

Slipping a hand between their joined bodies, he teased the pulsing center of her pleasure to spur her toward release.

“
Drake
.”
She raked her nails into his back, arching toward his touch. “Oh, yes!”

“I know, Sky.” Hanging on to his self-control, he urged her to orgasm. “I’m right here with you. You’re safe now. I’ve got you.”

With a cry, she climaxed, sobbing into the crook of his neck. In the next moment, as her muscles milked him, he joined her, giving in to the overwhelming fervor of their passion. He drove into her warmth, feeling for the first time in four years as though he were finally complete, at peace.

With his breath still gusting, Drake cracked his eyes to find fresh tears on her face. His heart gave a throb of despair that their time was running out.

“That’s just the first time,” he promised, feeling himself stir again. “It isn’t over yet.”

Her eyes swept open. “It was perfect.” Tears of repletion rimmed her eyelids.
“Just like I remembered.”

Warmth spread through Drake’s body.
God, I love her
.
  If she thought he’d let WITSEC anywhere close to her again after they’d failed so miserably to protect her, she could think again. He had friends who could do a better job than the program.

Not only was his sister married to a Navy SEAL, but
Skyler
herself had nephews whose mother, Ellie, had fretted over
Skyler’s
circumstances for years now, and she was also married to a Navy SEAL. Between Lucy’s husband, Gus, and Ellie’s Sean, one of them surely knew a warrior willing and able to keep
Skyler
hidden in some remote location until the rest of the Centurions frittered away or forgot about her.

Drake would look them up at the first opportunity. A surge of optimism lifted his spirits. He now felt like he and Sky had all the time in the world to make love.

Kissing her thoroughly, he gave himself another minute to recover. Like warm wax, she melted around him, pliant and willing and wanting him with such bottomless yearning that he
swelled with renewed desire as he pumped inside her. They strained ever closer, mouths open and hungry, bodies taut and damp with sweat.

With every desperate plunge, Drake’s muscles clenched tighter. Urgency battled his desire to make the encounter last forever, to hold onto the magic and never let it end.

Glimpsing her flushed, wanton expression from beneath his heavy lashes, he took pride in his self-control. But then
Skyler
caught him staring. Their heavy-lidded gazes locked, and the mutual lust reflected in each other’s eyes was their undoing.

“Drake,” she cried as they spiraled toward orgasm together.

Like a falling meteor, they crashed into the atmosphere and exploded into flame. Lungs stripped of oxygen, his nerves singed but sated, Drake collapsed onto
Skyler
, with no strength left in his limbs whatsoever. 

“My God,” she breathed her heart still pounding beneath his heaving chest.

Kissing her tenderly under her ear, he rolled them both onto their sides to protect her from his dead weight. The towel they had brought from the bathroom lay within arm’s reach. He dragged it over to wipe away the sticky moisture on her thighs. Tossing the towel onto the floor, he pulled the covers up over them.

Skyler
cozied
into the curve of his body, drew the pillow closer, and shut her eyes. “So tired,” she whispered. He watched the lines of exhaustion on her face slowly fade as she relaxed toward sleep. “I love you, Drake.”

“I love you, Sky.” His own eyes felt like they had sand in them. How long would Connor interrogate Jameson?
Probably for hours.
Maybe he had time to catch a few winks himself. That way, he’d wake up refreshed and clear-headed, ready to take action on
Skyler’s
behalf.

That was his last thought before his eyelids slammed shut.

A frightening dream jerked
Skyler
awake. For an awful second, she thought she was still on Jameson’s yacht, trapped in his smothering grip, a hair’s breadth from having her ear cut off.

But it was Drake’s handsome visage that filled her eyes as she turned her head toward the man holding her. His rumbling snore muted the frantic thud of her heart as she gazed at him, memorizing every angle of his face, the way his dark lashes fanned his strong cheekbones.

God, it hurt to love him the way she did! But it would hurt so much more to watch him give up everything for her sake.  

Involving him at all had been a mistake.

She had to leave. To take responsibility for her own actions so that Drake would not be reprimanded because, God help her, she refused to ruin his life the way her own life had been ruined.

Lifting his arm off her hip, she eased away from him and rolled stealthily out of bed. 

“
Wher’re
you
goin
’?” he protested.  

“To the bathroom,” she lied. She stood over him, watching as he lapsed back into slumber, branding the image of his dark head upon the pillow into her memory. 

Then she turned away, picked up her bag and purse, and went into the bathroom to dress. Her body and her mind felt equally numb. This was something she had to do, not something she wanted.

Stuffing her pajamas into her bag, she took one last look at her pale, tight-lipped reflection and turned off the light.

With stealth she had learned as a child to avoid her father’s notice, she let herself out of the motel room, closing the heavy door without a sound behind her. As she coursed the motel corridor, she marveled that just yesterday, she’d been cleaning guest rooms like the maids up ahead, working their way toward Drake’s
Do Not Disturb
sign. The past twenty-four hours felt like a week. 

She left the motel via the side exit.

The instant she stepped outside into bright sunshine, vulnerability assailed her.
What do I do now?
Exactly what she ought to have done last night—head straight for the bus station and leave town.

Traffic whizzed by, disorienting her. All the restaurants, all the souvenir shops along this thoroughfare looked the same. Which way was the bus station? She took a wild guess and started up the sidewalk.

The sight of a police officer rolling up out of his cruiser half a block away broke her stride. At one time, Centurions had infiltrated every level in law enforcement, especially the local level. The officer appeared to be handing out parking tickets, but she couldn’t take the chance that he might recognize her. 

Sure enough, he stopped scribbling on his clipboard to eye her intently. 

Panicked,
Skyler
stepped off the curb between two parked cars and darted across the four-lane street. She had nearly made it to the other side when a car sped up, nearly plowing into her. She stepped back to avoid being hit, and it braked directly in her path. Startled by the close call, it took her a second to recognize the face of the furious driver behind his dark sunglasses as he lowered the window and demanded, “What the hell are you doing out here?”

Special Agent Higgins.
What were the odds of running into him so suddenly?

“Get in the car,” he said, jerking his head toward the door behind him.

She glanced at the passenger in the seat beside him, stunned to recognize Connor Donovan. Drake’s father had obviously alerted the U.S. Marshals to her whereabouts. An awful sense of doom dropped over her as her gaze slid back to Higgins’ inscrutable expression.

“No.” She backed away, and a car horn blared in her ear, making her realize she was standing on the double yellow line in the center of a busy street.

“It’s okay,” Higgins was shouting. Connor Donovan climbed out of the passenger seat. 

The light had turned green and cars were whizzing past her, forcing her to run past Connor in order to reach the safety of the sidewalk. 

He proved to be faster than she was. 

Caught up from behind,
Skyler
kicked and squirmed as he carried her back to the car. Passersby regarded them like she’d lost her mind.  

“It’s okay,” he kept saying. “
It’s
okay,
Skyler
. We’re on your side. None of this was supposed to happen. You’ll be safe now.”

Chapter Six

A brisk knock at the door startled Drake awake.

He sat straight up. The silence in the motel room turned the surface of his skin cold.
“Sky?”
He leapt out of bed heedless of his nakedness and peered into the dark bathroom on route to the door, his panic blooming.

She was gone
. The brisk knocking came again. Snatching up a towel, he girded his hips and picked up his pistol.

“Who is it?” he demanded, edging toward the door.

“Your father.
Open up.”

Impossible.
How had his father found him when he had no cell phone that could be traced, unless… He hauled the door open and saw that his guess was right. 

Skyler
stood in the hallway, dressed in clothes he’d never seen and sandwiched between Connor and a man whose attire screamed U.S. Marshal—black suit, white shirt, black sunglasses.