by Joni Hahn
Luke stood hands on hips, nostrils flaring. “That’s rich, coming from you. You brought back your wife from the past. It’s okay for you to use the technology, but no one else.”
“She made that decision, Powers. Not me.”
Leaning back his head against his shoulders, Luke shouted a string of vicious expletives.
Mitchell’s low voice echoed over the office speaker system. “Move on, Powers. Don’t look back.”
Screw you.
“I have a call coming in.” The television screen went blank.
With a wild sweep of his arm, Luke sent a vase flying off its pedestal. He wasn’t used to being turned down. There was always a way.
It wasn’t through Mitchell Jacobs.
The truth lay in the past, before his time, before his farce of a marriage.
Dropping down into a conference table chair, he covered his face with both hands. The key to yours is finding your own way out.
How did he find his way out of the betrayal, out of the lies his life had been built upon?
He’d never lived under an umbrella of truth. Kim and his father had existed before he was even born. Hope was conceived in a web of deceit, and Riordan…
His chest tightened into a painful knot. Annie, his beautiful, sweet Annie. He’d loved her more than life, more than his family’s money.
When she’d broken off all contact with him, he’d died a slow death. Little had he known, his father had forced her and Riordan out of his life.
A life he would have adored. A life he would give anything to have now.
He sat up in the chair. Perhaps, Mitchell was right. Rather than wallowing in the lies and anger, he needed to focus on the good. The greatest form of revenge against a bastard like Seth Powers would be his own happiness.
Luke jumped up and went to his desk. He’d find a way around Mitchell Jacobs – and get back to Annie.
Chapter 3
Three days later, a pretty technician led Dylan into an exam room off the main lab. Clint wanted tests run to ensure he was in good health before they installed his new enhancement tomorrow. Sending this beauty to help proved his libido passed the test.
“So, you’re having an enhancement installed tomorrow…” Shutting the door, she leaned against it and gave him a sultry smile.
Sitting on the exam bed, he whipped his shirt over his head. Her eyes darkened as she sidled closer.
“Yes, I am.” He smiled down at the tech’s cute face. “But, my calendar is wide open tonight.”
“Afraid not.” Teague walked through the door, her sweet, flowery scent filling the room and ruining the mood.
Today, she wore her dark hair down around her shoulders, the fat, loose curls shimmering like blue-black silk in the overhead lights. She stepped over to the computer and entered the password.
“Why?” He glared at her back.
The cute technician skirted out of the room with a small wave. Dammit.
“Because you have to stay in the prep room so Clint can monitor your vitals on the pre-enhancement meds.”
She worked at the computer, her profile like a kid’s graphic novel dream. Her round, full breast narrowed to a slim waist, before flaring into a rounded hip. The black skirt and pink, pearl-button sweater hugged her curves, outlining a damned near perfect body.
The doc was built like a brick house.
“I need to take your temperature, McCall.”
Pulling a plastic thermometer from a package, she slipped it under his tongue without meeting his eyes. As a matter of fact, she hadn’t looked at him at all since she walked into the room.
She took his hand in hers and wrapped a blood pressure monitor around his wrist. Her flesh felt like soft butter against his skin, her nearness throwing his healthy libido into acceleration mode. Watching the machine monitor his pulse and blood pressure, she kept her face averted, while he sat with the damned thermometer under his tongue.
Why was she giving him the cold shoulder? He’d rescued her from Cyrus’s clones and had carried her – carried her – across crushed glass so she wouldn’t cut her feet.
He wouldn’t think about how her fingers in his hair sent goose bumps across his nape.
Taking the thermometer from his mouth, she looked at it before showing it to him, her gaze back on the monitor.
“Ninety-eight point four,” she said.
Squinting, he studied her stoic profile. She had the smallest nose he’d ever seen on a woman.
“Yeah, so?”
The monitor powered down before she turned the display toward him. His vitals were perfect.
“I know you don’t trust me, McCall. I don’t want you accusing me of falsifying your test results.”
Walking back to the computer, she entered the information, her fingers flying over the keys. That rounded backside of hers was damned near mouthwatering. How could a doctor who sat in a lab all day have an ass that pert?
“I have every right to be suspicious,” he said. “Wouldn’t you feel that way, under the circumstances?”
“What I would feel is irrelevant, Agent McCall.” Opening a cabinet above her head, she pulled down some medical supplies.
He hated logical women. They made too much sense. The erratic, fly-off-the-handle type he could handle. He could dismantle their arguments with little effort. With smart women, he had to work at it.
Walking over to the bed, she tore open a package and set a vial beside his hip. “Lay back.”
He refused to move until she looked at him. “No.”
Her gaze met his, disbelief lining her silver eyes. She stood less than a foot away, her mouth parted in surprise. Her top lip curved like the back end of a bow, her bottom lip plump and juicy.
“Do you want these tests, McCall? Or, would you rather have someone else do them?”
The smell of peppermint on her breath drew him closer. “Why have you been avoiding eye contact? Do you have something to hide?”
Her brows furrowed, her gaze dropping to his bare chest before looking back at the package in her hand.
“See what I mean?” he said.
Glancing up, she said, “What do you want from me?” She leaned in even closer, their noses nearly touching. “Is that better?”
His body stirred in his shorts, his lungs stuffed with down feathers. Behind those glasses blazed eyes like quicksilver, luminous and filled with ire.
Gripping the edge of the bed, he itched to grab her around that narrow waist and pull her between his legs. Something told him Dr. Teague Hamilton wouldn’t disappoint in the bedroom.
Damn, he should not feel aroused around this woman. Yet, for some stupid reason, her evasion freaking turned him on.
“You need to work on your bedside manner, Doctor.” He flashed her a cocky grin.
A slow smile blossomed on her face, a pink blush coloring her cheeks. “Would you just shut it and lay back?”
“I rest my case.” He lay back on the bed and propped his arms behind his head. His Johnson sat at semi-erect attention, hoping she’d pay it a little notice.
Of course, she looked anywhere but there.
“I need an arm – unless you want me to take it straight from your jugular.” She cocked a dark, arched eyebrow.
“All of my blood flow is in my shorts at the moment. Any chance you want to help me divert it?”
The ire in her eyes turned to silver fire, her voice going husky. “Sounds… tempting, but I wouldn’t want you to lower your standards for a criminal.”
“I’m into bad girls… just FYI.”
“And, I’m into bad boys. Too bad you’re one of the good guys.” With a cheeky grin, she held out her hand. “Arm.”
Teague Hamilton was what his grandfather called a smart-aleck.
Pulling an arm from under his head, he brushed it against her breast. She caught her breath.
“Sorry, Doc. I didn’t-“
“Cheap shots will get you nowhere.” Her eyes met his, the silver irises now burning a
dark gray, her cheeks flushed rather than pink.
Insult pricked at his pride. He’d never taken a cheap shot at a woman and never would. He had no need. They always succumbed eagerly.
“Cheap shot? That was an accident.” He challenged her to admit her mistake.
Her words came out in a breathless rush. “Forget it…”
Leaning over, she tied a tourniquet around his bicep. She looked everywhere but at his face, her neckline dipping to expose a healthy dose of cleavage. Her plump breasts hung inches from his mouth, teasing him.
Calling him.
Extending his arm, she checked the veins at the crook of his elbow, her fingers brushing over his skin with feather-light movements. Goose bumps sprang up on his arm.
How could she work as if nothing happened? As if she didn’t feel the pull between them, see his Johnson at full alert?
He caught her wrist. Stilling, she wouldn’t look at him.
The pulse pounded at her throat. Sitting up, he grasped her waist. Her hand clamped over his, to stop him or encourage him, he wasn’t sure. Sliding his hand up her ribcage, he stopped just shy of the underside of her breast. She exhaled through her nose, her breath mingling with his to echo in the silent room.
“Teague…”
He covered her breast. She sucked in a breath, her lids falling shut over dazed eyes. Kneading her with languid strokes, he caught her around the waist and pulled her close. She leaned into his caress, her palms flat against his bare chest.
“I won’t let you use me.” She smoothed her hands over his bare shoulders, raising sparks under his skin.
“Use you?” he said, scooting to the edge of the bed, her hips flush against his hardness. “I’ve never used a woman in my life.” Blood rushed through his ears, buoying his inner pride.
Covering his hand at her breast, she showed him how she liked it – before crushing her mouth to his.
Hell… yeah. She plundered his mouth, her kiss hungry, blatant in what she wanted and how. Grabbing her ass in both hands, he kneaded her with greedy strokes, before grinding her core against him.
She broke away on a moan. “You really expect me to believe that every time you slept with a woman, it meant something?”
Pressing his mouth to hers again, he took what he wanted, his tongue delving deep, forcing her to surrender the damned pride she held like a shield between them.
He pulled away this time, his hands finding the hem of her skirt and raising it up her thighs. “Yes, dammit. I’ve never slept with a woman that didn’t want to be there.”
She kissed him again, her breasts crushed against his chest. He caressed one bare ass cheek, eliciting another groan from her throat.
Breaking the kiss, she gave his face and bare chest a heated glance. “I’m sure. What woman could resist a man with your… assets?”
Staring into her eyes, he skimmed his fingers along her inner thigh. She spread her legs wider. His fingers glided higher, finding a pool of moisture at the crotch of her panties. She dropped back her head and moaned low.
“Including you…” he said, as he sucked her earlobe with gentle strokes.
“No…” Her voice sounded like a rush of wind.
Slipping beneath the elastic, he found her folds swollen and slick. “Your body proves you lie.” He dipped a finger inside her. They groaned in unison.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she tilted her hips against his hand. He had to have her. She had him so damned hard he hurt.
He licked at the pulse in her throat, before grazing his teeth along her tender flesh.
“Dylan, no...” She clutched the back of his head as he trailed kisses down her décolleté, his tongue skimming along the edge of her sweater. Her breaths came heavy now.
“No?” He smiled against her cleavage, his finger playing in her heat. Damn, he loved her scent, but combine it with the smell of sex?
He was freaking gone.
“You’re not supposed to get aroused this close to the enhancement.” Swallowing hard, she reached beside her before delving into the leg of his shorts and taking him in her soft, moist fist.
Oh, shit…
He dropped his forehead against her shoulder and showed her how to please him. “A little too late for that.”
She removed his finger from inside her.
“No,” he groaned, her hand confident as she pleasured him.
“You’ll owe me, McCall.” She whispered the words in his ear. “Right now, I need a sperm sample.” He heard her fumble beside him.
All thought faded into obscurity as she took him to the brink of release in a way he’d never allowed a woman to do. He didn’t know how the tables had turned, but he felt helpless to stop them.
“You’re going to get more than you bargained for…” He leaned back his head against his shoulders, her teeth along his earlobe making him shudder.
“I’ve always loved overachievers,” she said, taking his damp finger into her mouth.
His climax exploded in a blanket of fireworks.
***
“Nanorobotics, Clint?”
Teague glanced at her new boss, then her other new boss, but refused to look at Dylan. She didn’t think she could ever face him again.
She said, “Exposure to nanoparticles can cause DNA and chromosome damage, resulting in cancer, heart disease, neurological disorders... even aging.”
Taking a sip of coffee, Mitchell set down his cup on the prep room counter and propped his hip against the cabinet. “Teague, Dylan is fully aware of the risks involved.”
Clint squinted at his computer monitor where Dylan’s heart rate spiked each time she paced in front of him. She knew the feeling. She’d walked out of that exam room mortified, unfulfilled, but so turned on it alarmed her.
She’d had no intention of taking that sperm sample. It just happened. However, once she knew it was inevitable, a thought had occurred to her: she could use Dylan’s sperm for her baby.
After all, he was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen, and he appeared quite healthy. She couldn’t select a better specimen for her baby. He would never know he fathered a child, and she would never tell him.
That didn’t prevent her from wanting to stick her head in the sand outside the window.
“It’s not as dangerous as it once was, Teague.” With a glare at Dylan, Clint rolled away from his computer to sit in the center of the lab. “Plus, we’ve lined the nanobots with sheets of graphene, which is the strongest compound ever discovered. It will shield him from exposure. Considering his delicate situation, I think this enhancement is most suitable to his talents, and less-invasive.”
Teague glanced at Dylan who, based on everything she’d… touched, appeared so far from delicate it proved comical.
“What delicate situation?”
Rising from his chair, Dylan went to the view box on the wall and removed an x-ray. He handed it to her. Heat blossomed in her face.
“A gift from Cyrus.”
Glancing at the image of his heart, she noticed a foreign object clamped beside it. Holding it up to the light, she said, “What is it?”
Dylan spoke in a matter of fact tone. “A kill switch with a GPS tracker.”
Her heart clutched in a tight fist. “What?”
Nodding, he said, “I consider it a merit badge. I received it for pissing off Cyrus so bad he had to find a unique way of retaliation. He had it installed to keep tabs on me after I made life miserable for them. The last time I escaped, he didn’t go after me because he knew he could always find me.” Glancing away, he spoke in a quiet tone. “He used it on me once, just to prove a point.”
“No…”
God, what was wrong with her? To think she’d accepted a job with a man that could do something so cold-blooded made her sick. What had happened to her intuition? Her judgment?
She said, “Clint, you have to remove the switch before you install his enhancement.”
He let out a sigh of frustration. “We’ve discusse
d it at great length. I don’t think we can remove it without losing him.”
With a stubborn shake of her head, she refused to acknowledge the fear that tightened her shoulders. “You can’t do this, Dylan. It’s ludicrous.”
He let out a bark of laughter. “Of course I can. It’s my body.”
Do not care, Teague. Take a step back.
Sliding the x-ray onto the desk, she said, “You’re almost assured an early death.”
He gave his head a firm shake. “So be it, as long as I die putting away Cyrus.”
She clutched the edge of the granite counter. Why did that response surprise her? His display of courage on the beach proved he was meant to do this work. He’d walked into this knowing he could die as soon as tomorrow.
Then again, couldn’t they all?
Thank God she’d never grown close to anyone like Dylan. Loving someone that took chances like that took a special person.
Hope and Jocelyn came to mind. Both women knew the dangers of their fiancés’ jobs. However, rather than fighting them, they embraced them. They did all they could to ensure Jaydan and Dar faced those dangers with the best weapons at hand.
Teague didn’t have it in her.
Although she’d been enlightened by D.I.R.E.’s astounding technology, and she enjoyed working with it, the danger made her appreciate the quiet isolation of the lab.
Glancing around the room, she said, “Am I the only one that finds something wrong with Dylan’s statement?”
Silence rang in the room.
She stifled a yawn, fatigue coating her bones as her vision blurred. “Are you sure about this, Dylan? Don’t you have a family that needs you?”
His wide grin made her toes curl. “My family’s so damned big they would never miss me.”
Frowning, she shut her eyes against the double vision. She couldn’t let on to the others. Sympathy rubbed her wrong, and help was something she’d learned to do without.
“You make light of something I would’ve given anything to have growing up.”
God, did she really say that aloud?
Turning away from him, she stumbled and fell against the counter. Dylan caught her arm. Her face flamed.
“Are you okay?” he said, his soft voice warming her from the inside.
