by Meg Ripley
“There was definitely something… different about you.” His eyes were intense on her now.
She turned away. Jack was just too much. Not in any way that she truly knew how to explain. It was just so easy to get lost in the deluge of his energy. “That’s something I’ve heard plenty of times before. I was always the weird kid growing up, and it really hasn’t changed at all in my adult life. I’m sure there are plenty of other agents who don’t trust me or like me.”
“I never said I didn’t like you,” he corrected.
Heat flushed her cheeks, and she chided herself for reacting to him that way. There was something so distinctly male about him that was difficult to ignore, and anything that could possibly be misconstrued as a sexual remark instantly got translated that way in her mind. “Maybe not, but you did say you didn’t trust me. Everyone else I’ve worked with has had some notion of that. My boss doesn’t like the reports I write up because he thinks everything should be hard and fast facts. No one wants to talk about intuition or instinct.”
“Is that how you refer to it?” he asked quietly. “Instinct?”
Had the room suddenly gotten smaller? Why did she still have to be so damn aware of him? When they’d first started talking, Erica could’ve sworn he was across the room. But with her on the edge of the bed and him in the chair, their knees were practically touching. She could feel the heat radiating off his skin and smell the sandalwood soap he’d used. “It’s one way,” she gulped, trying to keep her mind on the conversation and not his body. “I can’t exactly explain it to anyone else.”
“Now that, I definitely understand,” he remarked with a wry smile. “It’s not easy to hide a secret from everyone you work with, everyone you run into on the street, and even people you want to be friends with. Not when your chances of them understanding are slim to none.”
“But you said there are a lot of shifters,” she countered.
“I only meant that there are probably a lot more than you would imagine. I’ve got my Special Ops buddies and other shifter friends, but humans still outnumber us by a long shot. I can’t imagine there are very many psychics running around, either.” His eyes danced over her features, lingering on her lips for a split second too long before returning to her eyes.
“No. I’ve never met another one, anyway.” Erica frowned, thinking about how lonely her life had been. Even her friends and family had never truly known her, and she’d longed for a deep connection with someone. “It would be nice, though. I’d like to have a bond with someone who understood me like that.”
He tipped his head. “Do you think if you did, it might be the kind of thing you just couldn’t deny? Something that you felt in the very core of your soul and couldn’t stop, no matter how hard you fought against it?”
Something about his words made a shiver of electricity course through her nerves. She bit her lower lip. Why did Jack do this to her? She should have been focusing on their mission and finding out who Ben and his recruits really were, but instead, she was getting completely lost in Jack’s entrancing eyes and voice. Erica felt hypnotized by him as she slowly nodded. “Yeah, something like that.”
“It’s like that for shifters,” he said quietly.
“Like an alliance? You have to be on their side?” She was getting into dangerous territory, and she knew it. Erica was about to botch this entire operation with whatever was going on inside her mind. “Is that going to be a problem if you have to fight shifters?”
The corner of Jack’s mouth curved seductively. “That’s not what I mean.” He’d moved forward on the chair and reached out to pull her hands into his. Her fingertips crackled with energy as he ran his thumbs over her palms. “It happens with all of us, but not with every person we meet. Sometimes that person is another shifter, and sometimes they’re not. But that one person, when we do meet them, makes it difficult for us to control our form. It’s like we completely lose our heads when we finally meet the person we’re destined to be with.”
“Destined?” There was hardly any room in her throat for the word to come out. This wasn’t happening. She’d fallen asleep and was having some wild dream.
But Jack had leaned forward, and their faces were only a few inches apart. “Destined. I can tell we’re fated to be together. As mates.”
Perhaps he’d been controlling his spiritual energy once she’d told him she was psychic, or perhaps she’d just been doing that good of a job of blocking it out, but neither was stopping the flow now. She could feel him, not just physically, but psychically. He’d wrapped around her as he delved into her mind. He was like cool water on a hot beach: refreshing, invigorating, and absolutely irresistible. “How do you know?”
“I just do. And I think you do, too.” He pressed his lips to hers, a slow but deliberate gesture. “Mission or not, I don’t know how long we can really ignore this, Erica.”
She closed her eyes, savoring the sound of her name on his voice. “I know.”
“Does that mean you feel something, too?”
Feel something? Hell, she couldn’t get away from it. Jack was a blur of colors, images, and emotions in her mind, massive and engulfing and utterly delightful. Erica wanted to get completely lost in him and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist. “Like nothing I’ve ever felt before.” Her lips found his again then, and Erica didn’t know which one of them had initiated the kiss. It didn’t even matter. His fingers twined in between hers and gripped them tightly as though he might lose himself if he let go as his mouth explored hers. His lips were warm and inviting, and their tongues were soon a tangle. At that moment, Erica allowed the rest of her concerns to float away. It didn’t matter that they were in the middle of potential enemy territory or that they should be behaving like professionals. She just knew that she needed him.
He got out of the chair and pulled her to her feet along with him. Just as she’d envisioned before, she felt his hands on her lower back and pressed herself against him. The evidence of his need for her was hard against her stomach, which sent a spark of excitement through her core as their kiss deepened. Erica touched him tentatively, exploring his hard abs beneath her fingertips before bringing her hands up his back and into his thick hair.
He pulled back slowly, breaking their liplock with the utmost delicacy. “Erica,” he breathed.
“Yes?”
“I can see where this is going, or at least where I’d like it to go, but I don’t want to do anything if it’s not what you want.” He pressed his forehead against hers, his shoulders tense with the effort of holding himself back.
She smiled. For all the distrust she’d initially held for him, Jack was a good guy. “I thought at first I was just attracted to you because we’d been put in a dangerous situation together. That makes people think and feel things that aren’t quite true. I don’t think it’s like that with us.” She dared to find his mouth with hers again.
He growled as his hands gripped her backside. “I mean it, Erica. Please don’t do that unless you mean it, too.”
She put her hands under his shirt, splaying her fingers against the muscles of his back and longing to feel more of his skin against hers. “I absolutely do.”
His response was a strong one, gripping her body against his with such strength that he lifted her feet off the floor. The two of them tumbled into bed together, and the rest of the world melted away. Jack worshipped her mouth with his own as his hands worked at her blouse, pulling the buttons apart to reveal what lay hidden beneath.
She was already heated through, but the feeling of his hands on her stomach, then drifting up to the roundness of her breasts, set Erica on fire. Arching against him, needing more, she gripped the hem of his shirt and pulled it off. She’d already seen him without his shirt, but it was different as they lay in bed together. He was stronger, bigger, and even more statuesque. She pulled him down to her as he stripped off her jeans, running his hands down the smoothness of each of her legs and sending a quiver through her body that
made her gasp.
Erica ignored the soft thumps of their clothes hitting the floor as her skin met his. Fire blazed behind her eyes as she explored his body, from the hardness of his chest to the rippling muscles of his abs to the strength of his legs and the urgency of his throbbing manhood that lay between them. She wrapped her own legs around him, desperate and eager.
“Erica,” he groaned into the crook of her neck as she writhed against him.
“Please.” She couldn’t remember the last time she’d yearned for anything so badly. There wasn’t time for foreplay. Erica had finally found someone that she could connect with on the deepest level possible, and she didn’t want anything to stand in the way of making that final bond. She pushed her hips against him once again.
Jack sank inside her, filling her completely. She opened her body and mind to him, willing him to be inside of her in every aspect. His presence was no longer random flashes of imagery that she usually got from other people. He was light and color, melding and swirling and then separating into a million suns that exploded into galaxies. She felt the animal inside him now, a raw and feral beast that needed her in the same way she needed him. They fastened to each other on an intrinsic level that Erica had never before accessed as their hips pulsed together.
Her body accepted him just as easily as her mind did, wrapping around his hardness and making it a part of her. She could smell him, taste him even, as her walls contracted around him more and more with each thrust. The low growl emitting from his throat as he gripped her hips let her know he was almost there. Erica clenched her body and bucked harder against him, sending them each over the edge.
Separating from Jack was like coming to after passing out in a strange place. Her consciousness returned to her own body as she looked around the room, hardly even knowing where she was for a moment. He’d rolled over and put his back to the wall with his arms around her, holding her from behind. She sank into the warmth and comfort of his body, and the reality of where they were and what they were actually supposed to be doing there was like a distant memory.
“You okay?” he whispered as he pulled her closer, wrapping his leg over the top of hers protectively.
She smiled. “Mhmm.” For the first time in her life, she’d deliberately let someone in instead of pushing them away. Her mind was calm and relaxed, and she couldn’t remember ever feeling more at peace.
7
Jack scanned the large common room that served as a cafeteria and general gathering place. There were so many people there, so many more than he’d ever estimated. When Ben had shown them around the day before, they’d only met a handful. Jack now felt like he was in the break room of some big corporation. Of course, it would’ve had to have been one of those newer places with good benefits and flexible work schedules, because everyone looked way too happy to be there.
Finally, his eyes landed on a woman in a blue shirt just getting in the back of the line for food. Her waves of hair were slightly rumpled, but her eyes carried a familiar glow to them as she, too, scanned the room.
He stepped up behind her. “I was worried about you getting back to your room last night,” he whispered in Erica’s ear. “You should’ve let me walk with you.”
“I can handle myself, thank you.” Her words were tough, but the coy smile she gave him sent an entirely different message. “Besides, it wouldn’t be worth both of us getting into trouble.”
The line moved forward, and the two of them stepped up with it as someone headed toward the tables with a tray full of food. “We’re in this together, Erica. We already were, but I would think last night more than proved that.” He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her, and it wasn’t just the sex. Jack had been honest when he’d confessed that he believed Erica to be his mate. Those were words he’d never thought to hear from his own mouth, but as soon as they were out, they made complete sense. No one else had ever sensed him in the way that she did, psychic or not. Never had he been tempted to reveal his own truth to a non-shifter, yet he’d just blurted it out to her in the car. There was no denying it for him. She was his.
“Yes, but at least some of that has to wait. We’re supposed to be best friends, remember?” She glanced up at him again through her lashes.
He thought he might completely come apart inside seeing her like that. Jack had always relied heavily on his logic, and it was only the shifter portion of him that didn’t like to obey practicality and reasoning. Whatever had happened between he and Erica had brought even more of that out in him, and he was struggling to have any control over himself whatsoever. “That’s going to be a hard sell if you keep looking at me like that.”
She turned away, and the conversation was suspended while they filled their trays from the generous buffet. Jack noted a wide array of quality, fresh food that even most restaurants didn’t offer. “This is quite a spread,” he remarked as the two of them sat down at a table near the corner. “It certainly helps rule out a few theories, too.”
Erica looked up from her tray. Her eyes were soft and sweet, but she quickly hardened them. Jack wondered if she, too, was working hard not to let anyone see what had transpired between the two of them. “How so?”
He pointed with his fork. “Pork sausage. Most of these terrorist cells join their recruits based on religion, but he’s clearly not some Islamic extremist. Or, if he is, he’s decided to take a different tactic.”
“He never once asked for our spiritual beliefs,” Erica noted as she scooped up a spoonful of fruit salad. “I was thinking about that quite a bit myself. It’s not like a typical religious cult. It’s more like he’s just promising peace and happiness, a utopia of sorts. Of course, we haven’t been here long enough to really know what his motives are.”
“The one thing I can say is that the peace and happiness he’s promised seems to be a genuine offer. Look at everyone. It’s bright and early in the day, but they’re smiling from ear to ear. They all look so happy and healthy.”
“Maybe that’s all it takes these days,” Erica reasoned. “He’s not going to get anyone here by promising more of the stress and headache of our current lives. And he did tell us that he’s protecting us by taking away our cell phones. I have to agree that social media and the constant screen time are bad for people in the long run. If we’re lucky, this is more like a wellness retreat than anything.”
He noticed the subtle shift in her eyes. It was like the color had changed slightly. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“You told me how hard it was to be around me, that you could even tell there was more to me than a regular human. Just how much can you see? I mean, can you actually see my thoughts?” Jack had been wondering this ever since she’d told him, and he hadn’t been sure how to ask. It was funny to think that they were each practically fictional to each other up until yesterday.
“Not really. I mean, I can, but it’s something that takes a lot of energy. If I’m actually trying to reach into someone’s mind and get specific thoughts, I usually end up passing out afterward. I have to be careful about that, obviously. Most of the time, it’s just a general notion of their feelings with a few flashes of imagery here and there.”
She spoke of it to him like she was talking about going to the grocery store, and even though Jack knew that was how things should be, it was making him nervous. He wanted to know more, but it would have to wait. “Look, there’s Ben right now.”
The man had just walked in through the double doors. As soon as the others saw him, the crowd broke out in applause. He spread his arms and put his hands up in the air to acknowledge them, the smile on his face very similar to the one he wore on his sales posters. “Thank you! Good morning! It’s good to see you.” He made his way through the room, stopping here and there to put his hand on a shoulder or laugh at someone’s joke. The center of the room had been left free of tables, something Jack had noted but hadn’t known what to make of it. When Ben stopped and the crowd silenced, he un
derstood. This was how Ben spoke to his followers, and they readily put down their forks to listen.
“My dearest friends, I hope you’re having a fantastic morning. I know I am. I woke up today feeling so grateful for everything we have here. We’re happy, we’re healthy. We have plenty to eat and drink. Most of all, we have the fellowship of likeminded people who simply want to live their lives. I think those two things are incredibly important: gratitude and fellowship.” Ben paused as several in the crowd cheered. “We are nothing without each other. I do my best to provide all of you with everything you could possibly need, and I do my best to protect you from the dangers of the outside world, but in return, I get so much from you that I’m grateful for. My mission and I would be nothing without all of you.” Once again, there was a smattering of applause.
Jack knew he needed to pay attention to every word Ben was saying, but he was also very interested in seeing how the crowd reacted. In every situation like this that he’d been a part of, there was always someone who hadn’t completely bought into what the leader was selling. There was someone who didn’t feel they were getting what they’d been promised out of the deal. Or maybe they did and realized that wasn’t what they actually wanted, and now they were just looking for a way out. They would do their best to hide this fact from the leader for as long as they could because, of course, it wasn’t worth risking their lives, but it would be evident on their faces or in their actions whether they realized it or not. Jack looked around, watching all the nods, smiles, and occasional claps of encouragement. He watched for hard eyes, tightened jaws, or stiff shoulders and saw none.
None, that is, until he turned back to Erica. Her eyes had changed again, the verdant green having turned to hard stone as she looked not at Ben, but at the double doors where everyone had entered the room. Trying to be subtle, Jack let his eyes drift in that direction.
