The Chimera Project (Chimera Protocol Book 1)

by Jolie Mason

  He noticed Eisley heading to the door and pursued. "Can I walk with you?"

  She glanced at him, but didn't tell him no. "I'm just going to my rooms."

  He followed her the short distance to her door. "May I come in? I'd like to talk to you."

  She cut a look his way as she slid the key card in the mechanism.

  "All right," she said.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  They each kept a distinct distance as they walked into the small set of rooms. There was a sunken living space and a small dinette that she hadn't thought to have stocked when last they ordered supplies. "I'd offer you something, but I am afraid all I have are small containers of juice."

  "I'm fine. Just let Star know what you need."

  "It's not necessary."

  "You're helping us. Talk to Star."

  She turned around to look him in the eye. Her hair began slipping from the loose knot, giving her a softly disheveled look with her black frames pushed back where they belonged on her face.

  He found himself thinking thoughts he hadn't thought in a long time, like how would that hair look across his pillow kind of thoughts. He cleared his throat and looked away.

  "I wanted to say something. I appreciate what you're doing for us, and I wanted to apologize about the way we met."

  "Which part are you apologizing for, the kidnapping or the minor torture?"

  He felt the twist in his gut. "Both, I guess," he said.

  She walked closer. “Wait. You wanna know my rule? Don't apologize if you'd still do it. Would you kidnap me again?"

  He stood with hands in pockets and looked her dead in the eye. It was a straight question, honest. It deserved an answer that was just as honest. "Yes, I think I would have to. I'm sorry."

  She smiled. "You're sorry that you're not sorry?"

  "No, I think I'm sorry that it happened this way."

  "Fair enough. What about the rest?"

  He approached her this time, and she looked away. "Now, that I think I may regret for the rest of my life. I thought at the time it was the fastest way to make you believe us."

  She stared at a spot behind him on the wall with fidgety fingers. "You didn't think on some level that maybe I deserved it. Some."

  Samuel felt his breath catch, and couldn't seem to look away from her. Was she right? Had he blamed her for what happened to him? He didn't now, he knew. Had he then?

  "I don't blame you," he said softly.

  She huffed. "That's strange. I do."

  He stepped toward her, trying to catch her gaze, make her look at him. She moved awkwardly away, her movements disjointed and automatic. "Eisley, look at me."

  She walked away from him instead, "Maybe, we need that juice after all."

  He followed her to the kitchen. He said her name.

  She reached into her cooling unit and pulled out the box. "Eisley, listen to what I have to say, please."

  "I'm here. Listening."

  But, she looked like she'd rather be almost anywhere else.

  "At first, we thought you must be one of them. We all thought you must have something to do with it. None of us believes that now. And, I could seriously kick my own ass for the way I treated you when you got here."

  She smiled wanly, toying with the juice without opening it.

  "You didn't deserve it. You never did."

  "I was painfully naive. I knew it was research that could be exploited. I thought myself so very clever in writing the contracts. I knew better.

  I keep asking myself what if I'd never sought the grant. What if I'd let it go?"

  "What if you'd become a technician instead of a researcher? What if you'd chosen a different field? What if you'd decided to just have babies? Life happens the way it happens. We make our choices, and we take the consequences."

  He gripped her upper arms just under her shoulders in a firm comforting touch, and turned her to look at him. "I regret what I did more every day. You didn't deserve it, and, possibly even if you had, it wasn't my place."

  She placed her hands on his chest without thinking. "Why did you volunteer?"

  He didn't notice pulling her closer immediately. He wanted her closer. It was the only thing he really knew. His eyes must have flashed golden.

  Placing her hands on his chest, she said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

  "It's not that. I just... I have a hard time talking to people, I suppose." He noticed, almost absently, that his hands were moving along her shoulders, her neck, her back in long smooth strokes meant more to calm him than to comfort her.

  As he looked down, he was floored by the compassion he saw in her face.

  She rested her chin on his chest. "You can talk to me, if you want."

  "To answer that question," he said huskily. "I didn't have much to live for, I guess."

  "What do you mean?" He felt her hands curl around his waist and pulled in a breath filled with the perfume of her. It had been so long since he'd held anyone, let alone a beautiful woman.

  "Four years ago, I lost my family in the Denalian embassy attack. My father was a diplomat, low level, but he loved his work. My mother went where he went. My... I was going to marry a woman, Dad's secretary in fact. I lost them all in the same moment; Mom, Dad, Kirsty."

  She squeezed his body, and it made him unwind inside. "That's awful. I'm sorry."

  There was nothing sexual in what she did or said. He responded to her touch on so much more than a physical level. Resting his cheek on the top of her head, he let himself hold her soft, warm curves against himself and just rested there in the sensation.

  "Anyway, after I did it, there was nothing left for me to be but a soldier."

  "Why is that?"

  "The changes are unstable. I don't understand it all, but, in the right circumstances, I can pretty much lose my mind. The team hasn’t had to haul my ass out of a firefight yet, but it’s pretty much my worst fear."

  She pulled back, suddenly all scientist. "What are those circumstances?"

  "Well, I haven't tested out a whole lot of states of being, but high anger does it. We…”. He paused, looking at her. Could he tell her this? "We had an incident and thought sex was a trigger for it."

  "Sex. That makes some sense, I suppose. What do you mean thought it was a trigger?"

  "It might be more than just sex."

  She had the most adorable confused look on her face, and wrinkled her nose in thought. "I don't get it," she said. “I’m sorry.”

  He ran a hand over his short hair. "I've been having some difficulty controlling it." He looked away. "Around you."

  "Around me? Because I make you angry?"

  He sighed. "No, because you make me want you."

  He almost laughed at the look of stark surprise on her face. "I make you...? How is that possible?"

  "You've seen you, right?"

  "That's why I'm asking," she said annoyed.

  He'd already begun sensing the changes, the subtle signs that his mind might revert to that feral state he hated so much. Her question made it worse.

  "Eisley, you're one of the sexiest women I've ever met."

  He leaned in again taking in a long pull of that Eisley scent. "And you smell like home. It's not just sex. I haven't even kissed you for real yet."

  "Yes, you have," she protested. He shook his head.

  "When I kiss you for real, it won't be with Maxwell Trege looking on and getting a peep show."

  "Maybe, it is still sex. Maybe, it's just the confusion of all the fake kissing me you've been doing."

  "Well, no way to know without performing tests, is there?"

  "How would we even test that?" She looked up at him nervously.

  "Easy, right now. I kiss you for real."

  "I thought you were having trouble controlling it." She licked her lips, making him nearly groan out loud.

  "I thought it couldn't be true."

  Samuel stepped even closer, resulting in her grabbing his shirt and curling two fists in th
e fabric. "We should think about this long and hard, Samuel."

  "Oh, I have. It's the only way," he said leaning into her ear.

  He backed them up till she hit the wall. He watched her swallow nervously as he caged her with his arms. "It's for science," he whispered, and then he kissed her.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Eisley couldn't breathe. His mouth captured hers in the softest, teasing caress of her life. She could let it go on forever without stopping once, she realized. He cupped the back of her head, hand curling into her dark, straight hair that was a gift from her Salinan mother who'd been the darling of the elites in their country, until they'd come to the Central Council Territories during the occupation.

  She found herself unable to do much but hold on, as his mouth grew more and more insistent. In between lingering kisses, she noticed his eyes were glowing yellow around dark pupils. But, he didn't seem crazy, she thought.

  His tongue darted across her lips, and she pressed closer, feeling his erection pressing against her abdomen. It drew her closer like a magnet till she realized she moved in a slow glide up and down, making his breathing speed up like he’d been running a race.

  His hands suddenly caught her under her arms, lifting her up with a thump against the wall. She had no choice but to wrap her legs around his hips. He was so strong. "Oh, god," she whimpered as the hard part of him met the soft parts of her.

  She opened glazed eyes to look at him. He looked wild, but she didn't see anything to fear as his gold eyes scanned over her with absolute precision, grazing over her jaw, her neck. "Say no now, Eisley," he growled.

  His mouth tracked down her skin, setting her on fire from the neck down. She let her eyes drift closed, and said softly, "I won't."

  "You won't what. Eisley?"

  She drew in a deep breath. "I won't say no. Not in a million years." And, she meant it. This was just too shiny a bauble for her. She couldn't put it down now that he'd finally kissed her for real because he was right. The other kisses hadn't compared to this. There was something different about his intent here.

  She ran her hands up around his neck to cross behind his head, as she raised herself up till her face hovered over his. It was her turn to kiss him out of his mind. Her mouth descended on his. She intended him to lose whatever held him back from his own desires. The kiss she gave him was designed with that goal in mind. She wanted him to never forget that moment. She wanted him to feel what she did; pure want.

  He pressed her against the wall with his mass, while his hands began to pull off the pretty pink shirt. She panted a moment, then the worry about her body set in. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

  He crowded her body with his own, pressing the evidence of how much he wanted this into her. "Do I feel like I have doubts?"

  "I just... I'm nobody's ideal."

  His hands gathered her hair on either side of her head and guided her to look him in the eyes. He speared her with an uncomfortable intensity. "Eisley, give me a minute, and you won't have anymore questions about my wanting you. Trust me?"

  She touched his cheek with one thumb. "I do. I think I have to, otherwise why would I want you this badly."

  He pulled her weight entirely in his arms and left the wall behind. She clutched at his neck and laughed a little nervously. “Now, you’re showing off,” she said breathlessly.

  He stopped, still holding her by her long hair. Samuel pulled her mouth to his. His fist in her hair allowing no argument, and he made love to her mouth standing there holding her, anchored with her legs around his hips.

  She moaned into his mouth, a low, feminine sound that she didn't know she could make. He started to move again. They got as far as the short steps that led into her sunken seating area where she had a reclining, overstuffed bench seat.

  He slid down the steps and laid her out before him on the top step. Methodically and with great purpose, she watched him undress her, and run his hands over her curves in worshiping strokes, till she squirmed beneath his hands.

  She reached for him, called him to come to her. He refused, rather, he pressed her back to the floor and spread her legs wide.

  Embarrassed, she protested and shut them again. "I'm busy," he said. "Don't interrupt."

  After that, she could barely remember her own name. His mouth began to work over her softest flesh as if he couldn't get enough. He ate at her, causing the pleasure to spiral upward, until she couldn't remain still on her own. He had to keep his arm over her hips to keep her where he wanted her.

  Samuel's mouth was wicked on her body. He hooked a finger deep inside her and dialed up the sensation enough that she thought she might do something new and scream out her pleasure. No man had ever made her lose control this way.

  He slipped a second finger to hook even deeper and, simultaneously, worked her clit with his tongue. Lights exploded behind her eyes, and she did scream for the first time in her adult life.

  "Perfect," he whispered, pulling her back into his arms. He carried her over to the bench chair and turned her till she straddled the bench and told her to brace using the back of the seat. She felt him behind her, staring at her exposed backside.

  Then, she heard his pants and shoes hitting the floor, and that sound dialed up her want, making her whimper. She couldn't remember a time she'd felt this way. He stood behind her and ran his hands over the curve of one hip. "Do you have an implant?"

  She tried to focus, but said, "Hmm?"

  He pulled her back to his hard front. Eisley pressed back. In her ear, she heard his amused laughter. "Do you have an implant?"

  Pregnancy, she realized vaguely. That’s what he was asking. She nodded. "Good," he growled, and he put her back in position, driving home in her body with a merciless hunger that made her clench around him almost immediately. She heard him speak, but couldn't tell through the fog what he was saying as he pumped in and out of her, and she pressed back wanting so much more, chasing that glittering feeling she'd already had once.

  "Oh, God." She clutched tighter to the back of the metal she leaned on. Her low, guttural words seemed to incense him to go harder, faster, until she felt the fluttering fire of her orgasm clench him tight, and she called out his name. He groaned his release behind her, slowing. She dropped across the chair when she could no longer hold herself up.

  He followed her, sitting behind her, and pulled her up to drape over him like a limp towel. Her hair spread between them, so he gently brushed it to one side of her sweat-sheened face. "You believe me now?" he asked.

  She nodded because, how could she not? Even now, she felt the brush of his teeth on her shoulder, as if he wasn't quite done with her. She reached up and ran a hand along the back of his neck, feeling the short, neat edge of his hair.

  "I believe you. You said something about losing control during sex."

  "Yeah, I thought I did. It's happened before," he said to her, turning her face toward his. "Maybe, I find you calming."

  She waved a hand in exhaustion. "That's me. Security blanket for the tough guys."

  His fingers gently cupped her face as he stared down at her without a trace of gold in his eyes. He pressed his forehead to hers. "Maybe. Just perhaps. I just know you're not like any woman I've ever known."

  CHAPTER TEN

  Eisley had hidden in her rooms to try and read over the files she had on each patient, her new way of thinking of each of the men of chimera detachment, and she had organized the information into her tried and true system. And, she'd determined something.

  There was something here in the science that she didn't understand. The mutation of the gene material was too rapid and too unpredictable. She had a theory she had yet to test, and it was time to do that.

  She commed Samuel. "I need you in the infirmary. You are donating today. Time to start blood work."

  He grimaced on the screen. "I'd hoped you wanted me for something else entirely."

  She smiled. "Just be a good boy. Maybe, you'll get a treat."

  He would p
robably beat her to the lab. She laughed, hitting the comm.

  Their night together played through her mind, even as she tried to focus on the work. He wasn't going to be good for her concentration. She’d never been the type to get lost in a relationship before now, but she thought maybe you were supposed to. Something about this felt so right, so natural.

  She finished getting dressed and threw on slipper soled shoes before leaving her quarters. She looked down the hall to see him standing at the door of the lab, and she laughed loudly. He smiled as he looked her way affectionately.

  "I knew you'd beat me here."

  "Happy to serve."

  She laughed again and opened the simple lock with her key card.

  They entered to find John shirtless, revealing a well muscled form covered in the occasional metal accessory. Olivia was laughing at something he'd said to her. They were sweetly devoted to each other. Also, how it should be, she thought again. The injustice of the situation stuck her again.

  Eisley gestured for the Chief to take off his own shirt and sit on a neighboring gurney, while she prepared her extractor.

  When she'd returned, she'd put on one of the long lab coats. Samuel sat facing the others, while Eisley readied her supplies. Once she raised the very gun like extractor, he put his hands beneath her jacket and hauled her closer saying, "I'm scared. You'll have to hold my hand through it."

  She felt his hand slip down over her ass suggestively. "That's not my hand."

  "Well, your hands are full, so I'm improvising." He grinned widely.

  She hadn't expected this playful lover to emerge from the stern and solemn Section Chief of Chimera Detachment. Yet, here she was being happily groped in her own lab. Right, she thought.

  Eisley scanned the arm and mapped the vessels and veins, then the extractor would do the rest, inserting its own flexible tubing and taking out exactly the right amount of blood for the tests she wanted to do. It also applied local anesthetic. She breathed in the smell of Samuel's hair as she stood there between his legs with his hands roaming under her coat deliciously.