by Eva Chase
I frowned. “Who is this?”
“Just a friend of someone you work with. I have a job I thought you might be interested in. But you’d need to start right away.”
You couldn’t get much more vague than that. A chill ran down the back of my neck. “I’m actually pretty busy with projects right now,” I said. “If you want to give me your name and your number—”
“Oh, I think you’ll want to squeeze this in. It’s really quite an extraordinary opportunity. If you’ll just give me a moment—”
He kept talking, but I caught another sound. The chime of a phone alert from somewhere nearby. The default iPhone alert.
My thoughts darted back to the woman Grace had described to me. A hell of a lot of people in the world owned iPhones. But this conversation was already strange enough. I hit the End Call button without a second thought.
As I lowered the phone, I looked around the room, my chest tightening. If they’d tracked down my phone number, they’d gotten that fake name. The same fake name I’d used to rent this apartment. I shut down the phone completely in case they could track that.
“We have to go,” I said, grabbing Grace’s arm. “Now. Maybe it’s nothing, but I don’t want to take the chance.”
Especially not when she was here with me.
“Okay,” she said immediately. “Do you need to take anything with you?”
“It’s all already packed up.”
I stopped for just long enough to lock the apartment door and then we hurried to the back stairwell. We were just starting down when the ding of the arriving elevator sounded from behind us. I flattened myself against the wall and glanced back through the window that looked into the hall.
A lean man with silver mixed into his pale auburn hair strode out of the elevator. He was heading toward my apartment. Grace sucked in a breath.
“That’s Malcolm Fitch,” she whispered.
I swallowed hard. “Let’s get out of here.”
We rushed the rest of the way down to the underground parking lot. I tossed my phone into the garbage bin. I still had my burner on me, but they’d never trace that.
The rental car was exactly where I’d left it. But there were probably other Alpha Project lackeys watching the building.
I’d just have to make the best of the situation. I’d rented the car under a different name, so at least they wouldn’t be looking for that. I grabbed my hoodie out of the back seat and pulled the hood up over my head so it’d be harder to see my face.
“Get down,” I said to Grace. “Until we’re well away. I don’t want them seeing you here.”
She leaned over without complaint, her head coming to rest beside my thigh. “Just keep an eye out for dark sedans.”
“Right.” I let out a rough chuckle and turned the Ford toward the exit.
If the Alpha Project people had brought their sedans, they hadn’t parked them nearby. I cruised down the street as if I were just a regular guy on my way out for the evening, keeping one eye on the rearview mirror. No one pulled onto the road to follow us.
As soon as we’d turned a corner, I sped up. First I needed distance. But not too much distance. Grace still had her life here. I couldn’t just run off with her.
I took a rambling route around downtown and out to the suburbs at the other end of the city. A stolid business-style hotel caught my eye. That was plenty unassuming.
I stashed the car, grabbed the smallest of my three bags, and headed with Grace into the lobby. The hotel had a room free on the second floor near the back—perfect. I accepted the key cards for me and my “wife,” and Grace and I hustled to the elevator and down the hall.
In the room, Grace sank into the chair by the desk. I tossed my bag beside the bed.
“You could go home now,” I said. “The people after me don’t know you were at my apartment. Now that they’ve got a clearer lead on me, they’ll probably leave you alone unless they find out you’ve been spending time with me.”
Grace shook her head. “They’ve already been hanging out around my house. I don’t feel safe there anymore.” She paused. “And I want to be here with you. Until I know you’re safe.”
“Grace...” I should leave town now. My family’s enemies were too close for comfort. But I didn’t want to leave her any more than she wanted to leave me.
I didn’t want to let her down.
Was there any chance I could still stay? When they saw the abandoned apartment, they’d assume I’d run. They wouldn’t expect me to stick around in the city. It might actually be smarter to stay here, laying low for a couple weeks until I was sure they’d have moved on, and then restart my life under a different name. It wouldn’t make any difference to my clients. And it obviously wouldn’t make any difference to Grace.
She was watching me. “I’m going to stick it out,” I said. “For now. You’re right, I’ve spent an awful lot of time in the past twenty-nine years running.” For myself, or to get one of my brothers out of a jam.
“That must have been hard,” Grace said softly.
“I’m used to it. But it’s not how I enjoy living. And... I’ve got the best reason I’ve ever had to stay put right here in front of me.”
I held her eyes, my body warming as she gazed back at me. She stood up and reached for my hand. The gentle twining of her fingers through mine somehow hit me with an even stronger wave of emotion than I’d felt having her whole body up against mine less than an hour ago.
“You don’t think there’s any way they could track us here?” she said.
“Not unless they’ve got their own superpowers. And if they did, I don’t think we’d have made it anywhere near this far.”
“Good,” she said, her voice taking on a sultry note that took me from warm to hot in an instant. “Because we were interrupted in the middle of something I’d really like to finish.”
She rose on her feet and pressed her lips to mine.
14
Grace
Jeremy kissed me back so hard that for a second I felt as if I’d floated right off the floor. I let go of his hand to wrap my arms around his chest, wanting to feel the heat of his body all against mine. He angled his head to deepen the kiss. His fingers tangled in my hair, sending pleasant shivers all through my scalp and down my spine. Our tongues danced together with a hot, slick slide.
I’d never felt like this before about anyone—so hungry, so caught up in the urge to devour him or to be devoured, whichever happened first. A needy ache had already formed between my thighs. I hadn’t even been on a date since before Gran died. It’d been too long. And for the first time I was with a man who didn’t pull back or keep me at a distance.
Jeremy had trusted me with his deepest secrets. We were in this together now.
I walked us backward until my legs hit the end of the bed. Then I sank down to sit there, pulling Jeremy with me. I slid my hands under his shirt, wanting it off him, finally. I’d felt the sculpted muscles beneath that silky hot skin an hour ago. It was about time I saw them too.
Jeremy eased back at my tug with a wry smile. He yanked his T-shirt the rest of the way off, rumpling his dark brown hair, and tossed it on the floor. He sat there for a moment, letting me just look at him.
And look at him I did. My eyes roved over his broad shoulders and the well-defined muscles below, all the way down to the sparse trail of hair that disappeared beneath the waist of his jeans. Where a very obvious bulge had formed against his fly. The ache between my legs intensified.
I raised my hand to Jeremy’s neck and traced it down his chest, following the lines of his muscles, teasing over one nipple with my thumb. Reveling in how he could feel so strong and so gentle at the same time. His eyelids lowered, a pleased rumble carrying from his lungs.
I undid the button at the collar of my blouse and pulled it off. Jeremy’s eyes widened, taking me in, naked from the waist up except for my bra. My breath caught at the heat in his eyes.
“Grace,” he said, almost a groan.<
br />
Then we were kissing again, hard. Jeremy ran his hands up the bare skin of my stomach to cup my breasts. I whimpered as he stroked them through my bra. My body was already trembling with bliss and the anticipation of more to come.
With a rough noise, Jeremy reached behind me to undo the clasp at my back. He peeled off my bra and tipped me over on the bed in the same smooth movement. My giggle turned into a gasp of pleasure as he caressed my breasts skin to skin. The heel of his hands swiveled against my nipples, drawing them to tighter peaks and making me squirm.
He kissed his way down my neck, stopping to nip the crook of my shoulder, my collarbone. Then his hot breath spilled over my breasts. He sucked the tip of one into his mouth, and I moaned. He tested and teased it with his tongue while his hand drove me wild on the other side. When I was keening with need, he trailed his lips across my chest and started the blissful torture all over again.
“Jeremy,” I murmured. “Oh, God.” I was on fire with need now. What he was doing felt amazing, but it wasn’t enough.
I cupped the back of his head and tugged his mouth back to mine. He leaned over me, his bare chest grazing my breasts. He rocked against them in a teasing rhythm that made me moan again. I arched my hips up. His hard cock brushed my core. He groaned and kissed me harder.
My fingers slid along the waist of his jeans and found the button of his fly. After a brief fumble, I got it undone and started on the zipper. Jeremy made a choked sound as my knuckles caressed his hard cock.
“Grace,” he said before I could curl my fingers right around it. I looked up at his handsome face, flushed and bright with desire. He wet his lips. His voice came out strained. “Are you sure? I can’t promise— I don’t know what will happen even tomorrow. I want to stay. I do. But it’s not just myself I have to think about.”
Didn’t he know that the fact that he’d bothered to ask just made me love him more? And that was what this feeling was. I was falling in love with him. So fast and so far, but nothing had ever felt this right.
“Even if you have to leave tomorrow and I never see you again, I’d still want this right now,” I said. “You have no idea how much I want you.”
He let out a hoarse chuckle. “I can’t imagine it could be more than I want you.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Then what are you waiting for?”
That question got me a full laugh. A laugh and another kiss that left my head spinning. We scooted up on the bed together to find the pillows. Jeremy kicked off his jeans as he went. He eased off mine and lowered himself over me. I raised my knees, letting him settle between my thighs. Just two thin layers of fabric between us, my panties and his silky boxers. I ground against him with an impatient whimper.
“You feel so fucking good, and I’m not even inside you yet,” he muttered into my hair before nibbling my earlobe. I gasped and bucked toward him. He groaned, meeting my hips with the same rhythm. Pleasure spiraled out from my core in desperate waves. It still wasn’t enough.
I reached between us and grasped his cock as I’d meant to before. Jeremy’s breath stuttered. He held himself still as I stroked up and down his length through his boxers. Tugging back the waistband, I slipped my fingers right inside. The feel of his satiny hot shaft made me moan.
“Grace,” Jeremy murmured. “Grace.” He kissed my mouth, my cheek, and the side of my neck between pants for breath. Heat and tension radiated all through his body, symptoms of the same need that was coiled through mine.
I flicked my thumb over the head of his cock. His body shuddered eagerly. Then he hesitated.
“I don’t know if I have— God, it’s been so long. I want to be inside you so badly, but we can’t risk—”
Fuck. I’d hardly even thought of precautions, I’d been so eager for him. But it wasn’t a problem.
“My purse,” I mumbled.
Jeremy drew back from me for one aching second to grab the purse and drop it onto the bed beside me. I fished through its contents and produced my single, previously overly hopeful just-in-case condom.
“You are fucking amazing,” Jeremy said. I had to grin at the glee in his voice.
I wrenched at his boxers as he ripped the packet with his teeth. A second later, I’d wriggled out of my panties. Then he was sliding against my sex, less than an inch from slipping right inside. My fingers dug into his shoulders.
Jeremy’s breath was ragged, but he stopped just for a moment to press a tender kiss to my lips. The kiss went on and on, deepening as our mouths claimed each other, until I almost forgot where I ended and he began. He traced his hand down my side and under my hips. I arched up to meet him, and he eased into me.
He filled me slowly, torturously, but the stretch of his hard length felt oh, so good. I rocked against him, urging him deeper. My legs splayed, ankles crossing behind him, opening myself as much as I could.
Jeremy groaned. He slid all the way in, shifted back, and plunged into me again. Pleasure rang all through my nerves. He found a rhythm, and I matched it, rising to meet each thrust. Sweat beaded on our skin as our chests slipped against each other. I clutched Jeremy tighter, a gasp escaping my lips.
“So good,” he murmured. “Fucking hell. Whatever happens, I’m going to remember this for the rest of my life, Grace. Just you.”
I whimpered in answer, beyond words now. My hips pumped toward his, chasing my release. My gaze drifted away from him and caught on the bedside lamp. Which was hovering a foot off the night table. The clock was floating beside it, spinning in a slow circle.
A giggle burst from my throat. Jeremy’s eyes darted up. The second he saw what his talent was inadvertently doing, the objects clattered back onto the night table. He let out a ragged laugh.
“When I get caught up in the moment...”
“Mmm,” I said, hugging him to me. “Go ahead. Lose control with me.”
The desire in his eyes flamed hotter. He shifted my hips higher against him, pumping faster. His cock hit the most sensitive spot inside me. I moaned. “Oh. Oh, yes. Right there.”
Jeremy hummed encouragingly and picked up his pace even more. He stroked against that hot spot again, and again, and—
Pleasure burst through my body. My eyes rolled back in my head as the waves of it rolled over me. I clenched around him, shaking with bliss. “Oh, Jeremy.”
The sound of his name seemed to tip my lover over after me. With a choked sound, his hips jerked against mine. He thrust a few more times as I glided on my orgasm. “Grace. Grace. Grace,” he murmured as his body shuddered against mine.
We rocked to a stop, both of us hot and sweaty and utterly sated. Jeremy rolled onto his side and pulled me to him. He nuzzled the side of my face.
“Not a bad start. Imagine what we could do with a little more practice.”
I laughed and nestled against him, breathing in his warm, summery scent. Wishing I didn’t have to worry that we might not get the chance to get in even one more round of that practice.
15
Jeremy
Almost as good as making love with Grace was waking up next to her in the morning. She was already up, sitting propped against her pillow by the headboard of the hotel bed, tapping away at my laptop. She’d pulled the blanket up over her breasts for modesty, but the sight of just her bare shoulders, knowing the rest of her was equally naked underneath, made me half hard in an instant.
When I stirred, she glanced over at me. Her cheeks flushed.
“I hope it’s okay that I got your computer out. I promise I haven’t gone into anything but the internet browser—no checking history there or anything.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “I trust you.” And I did. More than I’d ever thought it was possible to trust anyone outside my family. The sensation filled me with a heady glow.
Grace smiled bright enough to warm me right down to my soul. I smiled back and ran my hand over her bare leg under the blanket. Her breath caught. But she kept tapping at the keyboard. I had to assume whatever she was doing
on it was pretty important.
I scooted closer. “What are you up to, anyway?”
She held up a business card that had been lying on the bed beside her. The one she’d shown me before from Malcolm Finch. “I decided to look up Malcolm and this AP Enterprises to see if I could dig up any info on them we hadn’t already figured out.” She paused, the flush in her cheeks deepening. “I... spent a lot of time tracking down my mom and following what she was up to when I was a teenager. Nothing hacker-level, but I picked up some tricks.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” I said. “Now I’m even more glad I have you on my side. Have you found anything?”
“Well, there are a lot of layers. AP Enterprises seems to be a shell company. And the company that it’s a shell for is also a shell. And so on. But digging down deep enough, I found one that has some actual people associated with it. Only the last names, but maybe they’ll do us some good.”
“Can’t hurt to know. What are the names?”
“Pierce, Roth, and Langdon.”
A chill trickled through me. “Langdon?”
“Yeah.” She eased the computer back on her lap. “Do you know someone with that name?”
“Not personally.” But it sounded familiar. That was the guy my parents had talked about, wasn’t it? The one who’d started running things at Alpha Project right before they’d left.
All their stories about that place had been horrific, but whenever his name came up, their voices had always gotten even terser.
We didn’t need any more confirmation than that, did we? AP Enterprises was Alpha Project, no doubt about it. And from Grace’s findings, this Langdon or someone else in his family was still at least partly in charge.
Grace was watching me, waiting for me to explain. But I couldn’t explain without spilling everything about my family too. I hesitated. “He’s someone I know has been involved in looking for and experimenting on people like me in the past. It’s better if you don’t know more about it than that.”
