SharedObjectives (5 page)

It took Ben a few minutes to find someone qualified to watch
Nate. They all liked the little guy. And who could blame them? He was as cute
as a button. But apparently infant CPR didn’t rank very high in the military’s
priorities. He had to convince a member of the medical personnel that it would
be in his best interests to do the job before he felt comfortable taking Lisa
to meet with Dixie.

When he returned to command central with Lisa, she stared at
the monitors for a few seconds and then turned to the men to say, “Yep. Those
are stasis chambers.”

Ben rubbed his temples and counted to ten before he trusted
himself enough to speak. Just because he wasn’t angry with her about her past
didn’t mean he didn’t find her vague answer irritating. “We already figured
that out. What we need to know is, what’s in them?” He saw her open her mouth
but interrupted before she could actually talk. “And we need something a little
more specific than people.”

Her mouth twitched suspiciously as if she were about to
smile. “I’m sorry.” She leaned forward as if that were going to help but Ben
already knew it wouldn’t. “My best guess is they’re doing some form of genetic
manipulation but unless I got a better look, I can’t really be more specific.”

“But this is what you did. Can’t you tell something by the
chemicals they’re pumping into the chambers?” he asked, pointing to the large
canisters sitting on the lab floor.

“No. I can’t.” She squinted as she looked at the monitor.
“It may come as a surprise to you, but not all of the government geneticists
work on super-soldier projects.”

That would be rather unexpected. “What else would they work
on?”

“I’m a geneticist but I’m also a doctor, Ben.” She sighed
heavily when he didn’t seem to understand what she was trying to tell him. “I
find cures for genetic disorders.” She pointed to the monitor. “I didn’t screw
up the helix, I fixed it.”

He heard the words but he couldn’t process them. “I don’t
understand.”

“When a mother is told that her baby has an extra
chromosome, or when a person’s thyroid stops functioning, or when diet and
medications aren’t lowering a person’s cholesterol they call me. It’s still a
relatively new branch of medicine but we’ve experienced tremendous gains in the
last five years.”

“That’s how you came up with a cure for the NB-7
dependency,” Dixie said softly.

“It’s what I’m trained to do. Find fixes.” She looked at the
monitor again and shook her head. “I took my oath to do no harm seriously. I
mean, I’m not naïve. They probably use some of my research in the
super-soldiers programs somehow. But I’d never experiment on people just to
make them better weapons.”

Ben felt sick with guilt. Dixie had been totally and
completely right. He should’ve given her a chance to explain two years ago. “So
you don’t know what’s in those chambers?”

“Sorry, I don’t.” She looked disappointed. “Can you hack
into the network? Take a peek at their research?” she asked Ben.

He shook his head. “I might have been able to before, but
I’ve sealed off the system to prevent them from detecting us.”

She stared at the screens for a moment longer before saying,
“If I got a look at their charts, I might be able to piece something together.”

Shock at the statement caused Ben to swallow wrong and
cough. If he took the time to think about it, he’d probably find it amazing how
quickly he’d gone from hating her to worrying about her. But he really didn’t
have that kind of time right now. Besides, he was probably concerned because
he’d just found out she was the mother of his child. Men worried about their
kid’s mother. It didn’t have to mean anything deeper.

He breathed a sigh of relief at the logical argument. Now he
just had to talk her out of her plan. “But that would mean…” He couldn’t even
finish the sentence.

“Going into the lab,” Dixie said for him.

“No.” Ben wasn’t going to let her do that. “We can’t risk
anything happening to you. Not until you’ve showed us how to fix the NB-7
dependency,” he added quickly.

“It would only take five minutes.” She pointed to a tabletop
in the corner. “I could copy the charts and then interpret them once we got
back to the bunker.”

“We could go and make the copy for you,” Dixie suggested.

She shook her head. “No can do. You wouldn’t know what
needed copied and what was just bureaucratic paperwork. With my luck, you’d
come back with just the patients’ history and their insurance carrier.”

“We’ll copy everything,” Ben countered.

“But I don’t need everything. Not only would it be a waste
of my time to sort through it all, but it’d also take you three times as long
to get the copies. You’d get caught.” She turned to look at Ben. “I know what
I’m doing. Besides, I am a geneticist. These are my people. I’ll blend in much
better than you or Dixie will.”

“But if they do find you, there’s no way you’ll be able to
get out.” Ben felt ill at the thought. Life had been so much simpler when he
hated her. “No. You can’t go. It’s not safe.”

“It’s not safe now,” Dixie said, his focus back on the
monitors. “But in a couple days when they settle into a routine, maybe she
could do it then.”

This was Dixie’s specialty. Nobody planned missions or
carried them out as well as him. And normally Ben would follow Dixie through
the gates of hell. But this was Lisa. She wasn’t trained in self-defense or
covert tactics.

“Good,” she said with a decisive nod. “It’s settled. As soon
as they grow complacent, we’ll see what they’ve got in those chambers.”

It looked as if she was going to walk through those fires
anyway. And damned if he wasn’t going to be there beside her every step of the
way.

Dixie hovered on the edge of insanity. He had for the last
three days. He actually considered it a testament to his mental health that he
hadn’t slipped over the abyss yet. When he’d carried Lisa out of the prison,
he’d felt how soft her body had been against his. It would’ve been wrong for
him to do more, but he had noticed. And when he’d been in her quarters that
first evening, he’d felt a connection with her. Even before he’d been modified,
he’d been tall and intimidating. It made women uncomfortable around him. After
he’d gone through the process, they went from uncomfortable to outright
nervous. Which made for a pretty lonely existence. But Lisa hadn’t been nervous
around him. When she’d held his hand that evening, everything had changed.
She’d wiped away all those years of loneliness. It had been fantastic during
those precious moments. When the loneliness returned, however, it’d become
twice as painful.

“Is everything okay?” Lisa’s voice pulled him out of his
thoughts.

He shook his head to clear the last of the memories. He had
to stay in the present. Focus on the job at hand. And right now that meant his
attention needed to be on the bank of monitors that lined the command room wall
in front of him. “Yeah. I’m good. Is Nate adjusting to the sitters?” They’d
come up with a rotation of qualified soldiers to watch the boy so Lisa could
help them establish the routines of the military, but the first couple of days
had been rough. After being separated from his mother once before, Nate hadn’t
taken to the arrangement.

She turned in her chair and looked up at him before
answering. “It’s better now that I’m working nights. I leave after he’s asleep
and am back before he wakes up. All the sitter has to do is make sure he
doesn’t wake Nate up and we’re all golden.”

He nodded. “That’s good. I’m glad it’s going smoothly.
Anything interesting on the monitors last night?”

“You just got here and all you want to talk about is work?”
She smiled up at him. “All work and no play,” she teased.

And that’s what had him teetering on the brink of crazy.
He’d learned a lot about her over the past three days. The most devastating
tidbit being that she loved to tease. Light and airy banter that pulled him in
and made him remember over and over again what it’d been like to not be alone.
Being alone sucked but it was worse when you were constantly taunted by the
memory of being with someone. If she would just give him some clear signal that
she was interested, he’d act. But she hadn’t. And her flirtatious comments were
so ambiguous they left him pulling out his hair.

She took one of the cups of coffee from his hands and
inhaled its fragrance. Her expression quickly changed to one of bliss and he
nearly moaned. He could imagine several ways to put that look on her face. And
if he didn’t stop he was liable to do something unthinkable. Like kiss her.

He pushed the temptation away. They had a great working
relationship. The quickest way to ruin it would be to make a move on her.

“You know the way to a woman’s heart.” She took a drink of
the coffee and then groaned. “It’s like battery acid that you want to have
babies with.”

He smiled to hide his discomfort and took a gulp of his own
coffee. Which, of course, burned his tongue. “Damn it.” He put the cup down on
the desk in front of him before rubbing his temples in an attempt to fend off a
developing stress headache.

“Is everything okay?” All levity had disappeared from her
expression.

He gritted his teeth against the temptation to tell her
exactly what was wrong with him. She had her own problems. And he certainly
didn’t want her to add him to her list. “I’m fine,” he growled. He sat down in
the chair next to her and started studying the wall of screens. When her hand
brushed against his shoulder he nearly jumped.

“No, you’re not. What is it?” The concern in her voice nearly
broke him.

“Nothing.”

“It’s something.” Her fingers swept down his back in what
she probably intended as a reassuring touch, but the simple gesture sent waves
of barely controlled hunger racing though him.

“Don’t touch me.” He jumped out of the chair and then took a
step away from her.

She paled and pulled her hand to her chest as if he’d burned
her. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I didn’t know…”
She let the sentence die unfinished as she turned to face the monitors. He
heard a light sniffle and something inside him broke.

He sank back into the chair and cupped her chin in his palm
so he could turn her to face him. Just as he feared, her eyes sparkled with
unshed tears. He was such an ass. It was no wonder women didn’t want to be
around him. He had no idea how to act even around one who liked him—as a
friend, he added for his own benefit. “Don’t cry. Please.”

“I’m not crying.” The sniffle became louder as she tried to
look away from him. “I have something in my eye.”

The tough act was downright adorable on her. And he would’ve
told her as much if he didn’t think it’d get him punched. “It’s called a tear.”
As if to prove him right, a single teardrop slid down her cheek. He reached out
to wipe it away before it fell completely. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled
at you.”

“It’s not your fault.” She offered him a weak smile. “I
shouldn’t have touched you. I know I’m not anybody’s favorite person around
here. I guess I just didn’t realize you were one of the people who don’t want
to be around me.”

She thought he’d yelled at her because he didn’t like her
touch. How the hell did he screw up something so simple so completely? “Are you
kidding? I love being around you. Everybody does.” He saw her roll her eyes at
him so he added, “It’s true, there were a few people who were cautious in the
beginning. But they adore you now.”

“They adore Nate. They tolerate me at best.” She shook her
head at some private thought. “It’s okay, though. Really. I understand. We
should probably get back to work.”

“You think we tolerate you?” He couldn’t believe she could
actually think that. “That’s not true. Everybody likes you. Even Ben.” He’d
never felt the need to soothe a woman’s hurt feelings before. But now it was
the most important thing in the world. He had to fix this. He needed to make
her feel better.

“Ben is trying to get along. I know he is. But he can’t
stand to be in the same room with me. He barely talks to me, which I guess is
better than him screaming at me. But still, he’s always on edge around me.”

Dixie bet that Ben was on edge around her, but not for the
reasons she assumed. Ben most likely suffered from the same thing that was
driving Dixie insane. Working next her every day and not being able to touch
her, kiss her, it’d drive a saint to the brink. “Ben is confused. He’s trying
to sort things out. Really, he doesn’t hate you anymore. I doubt he ever did.”
He’d moved his hand from her chin to her neck so he could caress the sensitive
skin there. He shouldn’t be doing that. He shouldn’t be touching her but he
just couldn’t make himself stop.

“But you seemed to like me. You said you did,” she said,
ignoring his comments about Ben. She looked up at him, her stare becoming
accusatory. “That first night. After you brought Nate and me dinner.”

“I do.” His voice had dropped, become husky.

She licked her lips nervously. “I don’t understand.” Her
warm breath caressed his hand.

“I like you a lot.” He lowered his own voice to match hers.
It added to the intimacy of the moment. “Too much.” He didn’t give her time to
interpret the words. He dropped his head until his mouth brushed against hers
in the softest of caresses before pulling back slightly. “Working next to you
every day, you touching me, it’s driving me crazy, sweetheart.”

She sat tantalizingly close to him. Mere inches separated
them. And he was just about to turn away from her when she leaned in to close
the distance. She kissed him tentatively but she tasted spicy and hot, like
cinnamon and coffee, and his hard-earned resistance melted in that moment. He
wrapped his arms around her so he could pull her to him. She seemed to have the
same idea as she left her chair to straddle him on his without breaking the
kiss.

She rocked against him as she wound her arms around his neck
and her spicy scent enveloped him. She smelled good enough to eat. His fingers
ran down her back until he could grasp her firm ass. She moaned as she rubbed
herself against his erection. He was so hard that he knew she had to feel it
even through the clothes they both wore.

When she pulled back, he let her break the kiss. But relief
filled him when he saw she’d only wanted space to remove her shirt. She didn’t
wear a bra under the soft material so as soon as she had it above her head her
breasts bounced into view. She had one of the most amazing figures he’d ever
seen. She didn’t have the lean, muscular physique shared by so many of the
female soldiers he worked alongside. Hers was softer, more voluptuous—and all
woman. He barely gave her enough time to throw the garment to the floor before
he started exploring.

Her breasts were large but firm in his hand and her nipples
a shade of pale pink that fascinated him. It was the loveliest color he’d ever
seen. He wrapped one arm under her ass and lifted her off his lap. He missed
her weight rubbing against his cock, but the move brought her breasts to the
perfect height for his mouth. He brushed his lips across the tip of one of her
nipples and she rewarded him with a throaty moan. “Do you like that?”

She arched her back to present him with more of her breast
in answer.

“What about this?” He took the nipple into his mouth and
sucked gently on it as he moved so he could caress the other breast with his
hand. She writhed in his embrace and her nails dug gently into his shoulders.

“Please.” Her voice was filled with hunger.

He pulled away from her breast to look up at her but
continued to tease the breast in his hand. He rolled the nipple between his
fingers before lightly tugging on it. “Please what? What do you want me to do,
Lisa?”

She whimpered as she pressed her hips against his abdomen.
“Touch me.”

She kept her weight on her knees as he unsnapped her pants
then slowly lowered her zipper. The rasp of the metal on metal made him even
harder. “Here?” He paused as he placed his palm on her stomach, his fingers a
breath away from the hair that surrounded her sex. He was surprised to realize
that there were no panties under her fatigues. He wondered how often she went
commando. It was an intriguing thought that would need further exploration in the
future.

“Yes.” She rocked again to push his hand farther into her
pants. “Please.”

He slid his fingers to her crease and then parted her
pussy’s lips to find the warm moisture there. She was already wet enough that
he slid through her sex without any resistance.

“Yes.” She rocked harder against his hand as she moaned the
single word. She looked up with desire-clouded eyes and he couldn’t breathe for
a second. She made a striking image as she straddled his lap, half naked,
fucking his hand. It didn’t get hotter than that.

He slid a finger into her channel and nearly came at feeling
how tight her muscles were. “I want to be inside you so bad it hurts.” He added
a second finger to stretch her.

She threw her head back and closed her eyes as he continued
to fuck her with his fingers. “Oh yes.”

“Lisa.” She opened her eyes and looked up at him but didn’t
stop the flexing of her hips. “Do you want me inside you, sweetheart?” If she
said no, it just might kill him but it would be a valiant death. At least it
would be in his mind.

“Please.” She said the word between panted breaths. Her
hands found the snap to his fatigues a second later, reassuring Dixie that she
did indeed know what she was agreeing to. “Need you.”

He would never leave a woman in a state of need. He pulled
his fingers out of her and, unable to resist the urge, licked her essence off
them. Her addictive flavor burst across his tongue and filled his mouth, making
him crave more. He needed to make her come on his tongue. But as her hand found
its way down the waistband of his pants and then under his boxers, he had a
change of heart. Taking her with him, he stood up and then sat her down on the
desktop. With a quick tug and a wiggle of her hips, he stripped her of her
pants. He wanted to be inside her warmth so badly that he hurt with it, but he
still had to stop for a second to admire her naked form sprawled out in front
of him in invitation. When she ran one of her fingers over her clit, though, he
couldn’t wait any longer. He wanted to be inside her when she came.

He dug a condom out of his pocket before pushing the
fatigues down to his ankles. They could do completely naked later. He planned
on doing all kinds of things later. For right now, he just needed to be inside
her. It only took him a second to tear open the foil package and roll the
barrier over his cock but it felt like forever. The torture was worth it when
he finally slipped into her, though.

Warmth wrapped around him and he couldn’t help but pause so
he could enjoy the feel of her. “Damn. You feel amazing.”

“You too.” She wiggled her hips. “When you move you feel
even better, though,” she teased.

He pulled almost all the way out of her before pushing back
into her depths. “You mean like that?”

She moaned and tightened the inner muscles of her sex around
him. “Yeah, just like that.”

He thrust into her faster and harder this time. Her body was
so inviting that the sensation almost overwhelmed him. Already his muscles were
tense and begging for release. Three days of craving her had left him on edge.
But he wanted to make sure she enjoyed this as much as he did. He slid his hand
between them so he could stroke her clit as he repeatedly thrust into her. He
couldn’t last long but she didn’t appear to be far behind him. In a matter of
minutes, she called out his name as her body shook in release. Just watching
her come brought him to the edge and that was before he felt the muscles of her
sex contract around him—milking his cock. His climax slammed into him with
harsh demand. His balls tightened and a tingling swept down his spine as he
rode out the intense release until contentment settled over him. “That was
amazing.”