“Keep them on,” I rasp. She looks like a sexy, badass anime chick with that two-toned hair and wearing those stockings.
I reach for my jeans and pop the button open. She watches me as I lower the zipper. One of her hands reaches out, tracing a line down toward my cock.
My hearts pumps heavily in my chest. There's no denying that I'd love to let her explore. Would love to lay on the bed and watch her take her time learning me.
But I just fucking can't right now. She has me so jacked up that I might even bust my nut the moment I'm inside her.
And that's when it hits me.
Inside her.
"Fuck!"
Sapphire flinches at my near roar.
Fury and frustration. Yes, people, they are two separate things, and you can experience them both at once. When you do, though, the need to destroy something hurts.
It's all directed at me. I promise.
I'm a fucking idiot.
Sapphire drops her hand away from me. “What’s wrong?”
I want to slam my fucking fist into the wall and howl with frustration. “I don’t have protection. Never bring it with me on a mission.”
Her brow scrunches. “Are you talking about birth control?”
I nod, my teeth grinding against each other. We’re not finished. I’ll get her off again. Fuck her with my fingers and my mouth until she can’t see straight.
But I won’t be able to use my dick and that shit pisses me off on an unprecedented level. And to think, I almost laughed at her epic sexual frustration. Fuck throwing pillows. I’m sure I can find a grenade launcher somewhere.
Who the fuck would’ve thought I’d regret not bringing condoms on this mission?
Sapphire throws her head back and laughs. This laugh is different than the other ones I've heard from her. Throatier. Husky. Laden with sex.
Her perky breasts rise and fall, and that position—fuck me, that position is so hot.
My mouth waters.
I think my dick just died.
Inside, I'm cursing every supernatural being that may or may not exist.
Sapphire raises her head and gives me the kind of once-over that would ruin a much better man than I. Those eyes trace my abs, like she wants to lick every ridge.
There is a God. I become certain of it right now. And all the horrible, fucked-up things I've done have led to this, the ultimate punishm—
"I'm on birth control."
Say what now?
"Excuse me?" I snap. Yeah, I should be fucking ecstatic, but why in the fuck is she on it?
Sapphire blushes prettily, avoiding my stare. "Magdalena had an—um… insert put in. And it's still good."
That girl had definitely been a little freak.
I twist my neck, satisfied at the sound of it cracking, and ease off the bed.
"Maxwell?"
I ignore Sapphire's question, and she doesn't bother repeating it. No. Her eyes are rapt, watching as I take off my shoes and reach for my jeans.
So Magdalena was a freak in bed. That's fine. I wouldn't give a damn if those memories hadn't been transferred into Sapphire's coding.
But they were. She has them, and that’s fine, too. Because this anger, the freaking voice in my head screaming at me to fuck her brains out then storm outside and find someone to kill? I’m accepting it and what it means.
I want to make her mine. Only mine.
And there’s nothing standing in my way now, is there?
That knowledge jacks me up dangerously, and my cock—now free of both my jeans and briefs—throbs in Sapphire’s direction.
I fucking love how her dilated eyes gobble it up. Blood pumps hot through my veins as I make my way over to her.
Her eyes on me like that is enough to make me feel like a fucking king. “Come here,” I growl softly, lifting her off the bed and into my arms.
Sapphire’s arms and legs tighten around me, bringing her wet little pussy flush with my cock. I slap one hand around her ass and bring her in tighter. “Kiss me.” My voice is even huskier than before.
She comes at me, eating at my mouth in that eager way of hers. Her pussy lips slide up and down the back of my cock.
I reach the end point. I can’t take it anymore. This is happening, and it’s happening now.
I grab her ass in both hands. Motherfuck, those ass cheeks are gorgeous. Plump enough to squeeze down on and slam her up and down on my dick.
Sitting back on the bed, I lean on the headboard. I push my tongue harder against hers. She’s all over me, her tits on my chest. She grinds on me, her swollen clit sliding across the back of my erection. I break our kiss, fucking gasping. “That’s it, baby. Play with it. Fuck. It aches for you.”
Her moan is desperate, her hips moving in my grip.
My tip pierces her, sliding just an inch inside.
Sapphire keens, her body clenching around me.
I almost fucking yell, my hands flying away from her. Gotta grab onto something. Fuck. Can’t hurt her.
My fingers sink deep into the wall next to my head.
She’s wet as fuck and her pussy is sucking eagerly on my tip, trying to drag me in deeper.
“Maxwell. Oh my God. More.” She goes mindless on me, riding me. Sliding me a little deeper with every downward stroke.
Groaning deep in my chest, I tighten my fingers, plaster giving way beneath my grip. “Get me in there. Get me in that tight pussy, baby.”
Her moans leave my shaft pulsing with the need to come. Ah, God, just thinking about pumping my cum into her, covering her walls in me—fuck me.
“Maxwell, you feel so good inside me.” She fists the hair at the back of my head and lays her forehead on mine. I’m halfway into her now and the next slide takes me in deeper.
Jesus, she’s about to come for me again. Her walls shudder, squeezing down on me.
I press my feet flat on the bed and spread my knees, gaining leverage. I'm shaking so fucking much it hurts.
Hearing her hurts.
Everything about her hurts.
I thrust up gently toward her, still trying to hang on to some sense of control.
“Maxwell, yes!” Her greedy hands tug on my hair. She lifts up, then comes down on me as hard as she can. My cock scrapes deep inside her, almost to the fucking base. She rocks back and forth on me, and I swear to God my head almost explodes. “Please,” she begs me, eyes glazed, beautiful lips so close. “More. Faster.”
Her cunt gushes around me—wet, motherfucking heaven—and a bolt of pleasure slices through me. She’s so wet that it’s dripping down my shaft, sliding down to my balls.
“You’re going to make me fuck this pussy hard, aren’t you baby?” I ask her, holding onto the wall behind me with all my strength.
“That’s—ungh! I’m going to come Maxwell. Oh God.”
“Yeah. You’re going to make me fuck you real hard,” I growl at her. Then I slam my hips up and impale her deep, as hard as I promised, going all the way to the hilt.
Sapphire’s sexy little moans grow more frantic. Her orgasm ripples through me and I groan, the pressure at my tip unbearable. “No one’s pussy ever felt this good. Fuck, girl.”
My fingers sink farther into the wall. I go at her like a fucking madman, shafting her tight cunt as it comes around me. The pressure pops inside me, semen jetting out of my cock in a blinding, painful rush. I roar her name. My fingers rip out of the wall and my arms wrap around her, holding her still for my pounding.
The pleasure obliterates my heart, and I almost can’t breathe through the tightness of my chest. The last ripple leaves me twitching, my limbs weak as fuck. On the verge of hyperventilating, I press my face to her neck.
She’s breathing just as hard as I am. Her arms clasp me against her. I groan as my air supply gets cut off.
“Oops. Sorry.”
I stop her before she can let me go. “Don’t.” What I meant to say was keep hugging me, but the words won’t come out.
Actually, I’m a
fraid to speak right now. Won’t admit that out loud to anyone, either.
If I start talking, there’s no telling what I’ll say to her. What I’ll confess.
I don’t even understand half of what’s going through me right now. All I know is that I need to keep hugging this girl more than I need my next breath.
Sapphire nuzzles my temple and places a soft kiss to my skin. I ignore how my throat tightens and lift my head to stare at her.
Women usually look sexy-as-hell after sex. Lips swollen, skin glowing, hair a mess. But Sapphire takes all that to another level.
Damn, what the hell’s stuck in my throat? It won’t freaking loosen.
“Are you okay?” The smile on her face tells me that she’s more than okay, but I still want to hear her say it.
“I’m perfectly fine.” Her voice is even sexier now. Hoarse from all her cries.
Fuck, I have to stop thinking about that before I end up giving her more reasons to cry out for me. “I’m going to go to the bathroom and get something to clean you up.”
She nods at me, her eyes all sparkly, and it’s the kind of expression that would have freaked me the hell out if it had been coming from any other girl.
But coming from her? My brain scrambles to find a million other ways to keep that glow in her eyes.
I lift her off me and place her on the bed. “And when I’m done, we're sleeping together.” Again, my mouth’s run away with me, saying things before I’ve even assimilated the thought behind them.
Sapphire beams up at me and gives me another nod.
Fuck it. I want it. And when I want something, I take it. Enough of this over-analyzing shit. I’ve never slept—as in actual sleep—with a woman before, and now that I want to, I’m going for it.
I step into the bathroom and find a washcloth on the shelf next to the sink. When I return, Sapphire’s on the bed waiting for me. I make quick work of getting her cleaned up, although I’m tempted to drop the washcloth and use my hand on her instead. Her skin turns pink as I clean her, making it harder for me to keep myself in check.
“You sure you’re feeling okay?” I ask her.
“I’m perfect, told you. If this is what sex is like, I’m going to have to do it more often.”
“With me,” I grunt, not even surprised when I hear myself say it. I can’t promise her anything after today, but that doesn’t mean I have to like the idea of her with another man.
“With you,” she agrees with a lazy smile.
I LISTEN TO THE SOUNDS of Sapphire moving around in the bathroom. We’re getting ready to head out and search for the others. I tried reaching Gage using Sapphire's phone four times since we woke up. Nothing. His phone keeps going straight to voicemail.
If we’re lucky, it’s dead. At worse, something’s happened to him.
Either way, we have to head out. If I can’t find the others, I have to find another way to get Sapphire safely out of the country. Then I have other things to take care of.
My course is set. I know what I have to do now.
And yet my hands are freezing cold. I’m sweating. I’ll protect Sapphire, kill anyone I have to for her. It’s a given. It’s what comes with it that’s eating at me.
I’ll never find anyone like her.
I have to let her go.
She knows it, too. Whatever this is between us, it’s about to be put on a major pause.
I can’t forget the sad smile she gave me before heading into the bathroom. It was her silent way of telling me she gets it. We’ll stay in contact after this, but it’ll be different. I’ll be checking up on her, because there’s no way I’ll be able to handle not speaking to her at all. If I’m going to watch out for her, I’m going to at least talk to her from time to time.
But there’s no possibility of anything more between us, and I… might want more.
It’s a sobering realization. I’m not saying I’d definitely pursue her in that sense, but as things stand right now, there’s no way of anything happening. No choice for me no matter what I decide. Some things have to be “readjusted” before I can contemplate it further.
I don’t expect her to wait for me to figure things out. Doesn’t matter if she does, either. She’s the reason I’m even pondering shit like this. If what I feel for her doesn’t die, I’ll win her back. There’s no doubt in my mind. That girl has shaken up everything.
I’ll rip her out of the arms of any fucker that dares to have her. Point blank. If that makes me an asshole, so be it. I never said I was anything less.
Kind of erases the whole if in that theory, doesn’t it?
I laugh at myself, shaking my head. I’m grasping at straws, hoping that time and some distance will change what I want.
My eyes drift back to the headboard. Decimated. The wall behind it is in an even more pitiful state.
I’m going to have to punch through both just to hide the fact that it had been my fingers that did the damage. Then I’ll have to come up with an excuse as to why I wrecked the wall. Consider me fucked-up, but I’m not interested in Gage finding out about last night. What happened between me and Sapphire concerns me and her. That’s it.
With a sigh, I get up and crack my fingers. Not even a single mark remains of my wounds from the night before. Aside from the whole knocking me out bullshit, I have to admit that the nanobots are an amazing invention.
Luckily for them, I’m about to give them something else to heal.
I open my mouth to call out to Sapphire and warn her of what I’m about to do—
The doorknob turns behind me.
I whirl around and see the door opening. Fuck. We didn’t lock it?
Gage can’t come in here yet.
I reach the door, intent on slamming it shut in his face.
The door is pushed inward the rest of the way, and it hits me in the face. I freeze, eyes shut, trying to remind myself that I can’t glock Gage right in the eye.
“Oh my God. Deimos. I’m sorry.”
My eyes fly open at the sound of that laughing voice. No. Not right now.
The sunlight from outside glints off long, black hair that I know really well.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Noemi.
The rest of the team is here. She must have been called in without my knowing.
Shit.
“Are you ok—” Noemi stops two steps inside the room, her hazel eyes wide.
Frozen on the bed.
The wall behind it.
I see the deduction click into place. The burgeoning fury as her eyes move toward me.
And I realize that she wanted more than what we’d agreed on. A lot more. Raw jealousy flares in her eyes.
The bathroom door opens behind me. Noemi’s eyes bounce there next, and something in me snaps. The intention in those blazing eyes is loud and clear.
“You listen to me,” I tell her in a calm, hard tone. “We’re going to be professional about this—”
Noemi rears back, her expression disbelieving. “Professional?”
Gage steps into the room. I don’t look at him, but I know he just looked at the bed. Now, I feel his glare as it lands on the side of my face.
“I can’t fucking believe you.” Noemi shakes her head, glaring at Sapphire.
I’m horrified, straight-up horrified, when tears fill Noemi’s eyes. Listen, women are rarely detached enough to handle a sex-only situation. I get that. But the amount of pain in Noemi’s eyes goes way beyond a mere attachment.
She’s acting like she’s fucking in love with me, and because of that, she’s dangerous to Sapphire.
I’m a fucking idiot for not catching onto something like this, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let Noemi hurt her. That’s what wounded females do: they lash out. “Listen to me, Noemi. We can talk about this outside. Don’t make this worse than it has to be.”
Noemi’s hand connects hard across my face. “You’re sleeping with me, but yet you sleep with her. Your fucking charge?”
I hear
Sapphire’s small gasp. Rage explodes inside me at the sound. No one hurts her. “You and I had an understanding,” I hiss out at Noemi through clenched teeth, “and she was necessary.”
This time, Noemi gasps.
I don’t need to open my eyes and see Noemi’s expression to know that I’ve just broken her heart completely. Three minutes ago, I would’ve cared, but Sapphire is hypersensitive and she doesn’t need—
“Sapphire? Are you okay?”
My head snaps around at Gage’s question. “Sapphire?”
She’s standing by the bathroom door, utterly still. Unseeing eyes are locked with the wall in front of her. No movement. I call out her name again. No sign that she’s even in there.
Gage and I snap to attention at the same time, but it’s me that gets to her first. I scowl at him before grabbing her shoulders. “Sapphire… Sapphire?” I turn her toward me, harder than I should have—there, a blink. “Sapphire, talk to me.”
Her stare is blank as she raises her eyes and looks at me. Then her mouth opens, and what I hear makes me go cold everywhere.
It’s that voice. The flat, mechanical one that I heard in my head the night before.
“Emergency protocol one-nine-four loading.”
“What the fuck?” Gage snaps behind me.
I’m shaking. Can’t hold it back. Eyes wide, I cup her shoulders and bring her closer.
She lets me, still as a doll.
No, as a fucking robot.
“Sapphire… what—”
“Protocol one-nine-four activated. Dissociation software package integrated. Emotional processing nullified.”
EX II TEASER
There's a large blur standing over me. A very large blur. It's lost behind the light. It's so bright. How can people see through this kind of glare?
And the air around me. It's so... so... cold.
Sensations bombard me on every level and my head pounds as my mind tries to keep up.
"Sapphire...can you hear me?"
The blur moves. I squint, but nothing I see makes sense. A man... Black hair, I think? He's tall. Broad. The shape before me solidifies with each second that passes.
I don't recognize his voice, the features and gray eyes that are starting to come into focus.
The Exchange Part 1 Page 11
