by S. E. Babin
“I love your wild hair,” he murmured against my lips and pulled a lock to his thumb. His hand stroked my hair until he pulled away and stroked my face with his thumb. His other hand lay splayed against my waist, his thumb fanning the underside of my breast.
Was it possible for my brain to spontaneously combust? The rational, logical person inside of me thought this might be a terrible idea, but the woman in me, the one who possessed a heart and lady parts, was screaming to rip off his shirt and assault him on the kitchen floor.
I kissed him with wild abandon, my hands roaming everywhere until they reached the top of his waistband, where I paused.
“Don’t stop,” he murmured against my lips.
One tug and I knew it would all be over. One tug of that waistband and I’d have Watson the way I’d been imagining him from the first day I’d met him: naked and sweating above me.
I broke away from his kiss, my brain a mess of what ifs and future scenarios of disaster. “I’m not ready,” I whispered, although my body was screaming, Penelope, you’re a fucking idiot. Rip off his pants and ride him like a sweaty stallion!
His thumb swept against my core and I bit my lip and whimpered. His masculine chuckle rang through the room, but he still stepped away from me. His eyes were pools of molten desire and the evidence of it strained against his workout pants. I swallowed hard and forced my gaze to his face. I could stare at that area all day, but I’d rather take advantage of it.
He didn’t seem angry. He didn’t seem offended. In fact, he seemed downright amused, which, of course, made me furious. I narrowed my eyes at him. “What?”
He shrugged. “I know you want me.”
I huffed in outrage at his blatant arrogance, but I didn’t respond. He was right. How had this gone from an emotional moment into horny town?
“That doesn’t mean I’m ready.” I stepped away from the counter, knowing I’d never be able to look at it the same way again.
“You’re scared.”
I crossed my arms against my chest. “And you aren’t?” I exclaimed.
“Abso-bloody-lutely terrified,” he replied with complete honesty. “You’re Holmes’ daughter. One wrong step and I’d be obliterated back into 1492.”
I frowned and ran my fingers through my disheveled hair. Watson blinked and his eyes darkened. I pulled my fingers from my hair. He looked like a lion about to pounce on a fresh piece of meat. “Neither one of is ready or prepared for this.”
He grinned at me and I smiled back in response. That was a stupid statement. Few people were prepared mentally or emotionally before they jumped into bed together.
“For this? Bloody hell, Penelope. If we hadn’t stopped, I would have ripped your clothes off, bent you over that island, and taken you like an animal.”
I choked. “God, Watson.” I straightened my clothes and tied my hair back up, not watching Watson to see his reaction. Maybe I should wear my hair down around him more.
“You asked.”
“How is Holmes going to feel about this?” I was concerned about that a little bit. I still didn’t feel a strong familial bond with him, although I was beginning to care about him.
Watson snorted. “Either irrationally angry or he’d dissect it down to its molecules. Holmes doesn’t feel love the same way we do. Your mother was the only one I’d ever seen him fret over. He loved her with everything he could, but in the end, power is what is more important. The serum tore them apart. Who’s to say how he’d react?” He stepped away from me and a look of regret stole over his expression. “But now that we’ve stepped away, we both have to agree this, whatever this is between us…well, taking it a step further would be a bloody terrible idea.”
He stepped toward me and held his hand out. I took it. “For now, let us agree to a simple friendship. I find you most likeable.”
I nodded, both overwhelmed and saddened at his words. His thumb stroked my knuckles and he leaned in to kiss me softly on the lips.
Stunned at his tenderness, I returned his kiss lightly and blew out a breath. “First rule of Friend Club. No more smooches.”
Watson gave me a devilish grin. “Parting kisses don’t count.”
I shook my head at his cheek. “I have to go,” I said after a moment.
He nodded. “You need time to process. I understand.”
I laughed. “It’s not every day you beat the crap out of someone one minute, and the next, make out with them in the kitchen.”
He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “We are not normal. Remember that, love.”
How could I forget?
With the imprint of his kiss on my face, I saw myself out of his quarters.
Chapter 27
I spent the rest of the day with a big, dumb grin on my face distracted beyond belief. There was a hot guy and he thought I had a hot little bod. I picked at my food at dinnertime, distracted by all that had gone on today. Not only did I have a make out session with Watson, I’d discovered I was fast as hell and apparently had some serious ninja moves. I was a far cry from the girl I’d been just a few weeks ago.
All in a day’s work around here, I guess. I was putting my dinner waste into the trash when Masters found me. His face had a grim set to it.
“What’s up?” I set my tray into the bin.
He leaned in, and whispered, “Holmes wants us in his office. It’s about Lila.”
I stiffened. Our nice little lull was over. I grabbed a bottle of water from the drink fridge and tossed one to Masters. We walked in silence down to Holmes’ quarters.
The door was ajar, so I pushed it open and walked in. Holmes, Watson, and Aaron were already there, clustered around the large desk with concerned looks on their faces. Watson looked up when I walked in, his gaze heating as it passed over me.
I tried to control the blush threatening to explode across my face, so I nodded once to him and dropped my gaze. Masters and I pulled over a chair and made ourselves comfortable.
“Lila has again managed to evade the law.” My father’s face was a mix of annoyance and admiration. “Not that any of us are surprised.” Nods all around. “I spoke with the director of COTO this morning. He claims Lila spun a wild tale of experimentation gone wrong and that she was merely chasing her patient down to get her back in restraints.”
“Experimentation?” My stomach soured. “They experiment on people?”
Watson’s heavy gaze fell on me. My father spoke. “It’s nothing more than we already do here.”
My lips thinned and I sucked on my bottom lip. I had to be careful what I said here and that was never easy for me to do. “I thought that stopped when you perfected the immortality serum.” It was posed as a statement, but was really a question. I guess I never asked for specifics, assuming my father had learned his lesson and had gone on to more scholarly pursuits. Watson’s words came back to me. You must always, always, retain your humanity, Penelope. There is no research, no knowledge worth losing sight of those very things that make us human.
I met his gaze across the room and his held a world of sympathy for me.
Silence fell in the air, a stone in the water causing ripples of discomfort throughout the room. When my father spoke next, it wasn’t with compassion, it was with anger.
“The serum was merely a stepping stone to greater things, Penelope. We have in our hands the literal fountain of youth. With it, we can explore further than we’ve ever explored, discover things within our lifetimes no mortal man could ever hope to achieve. We are destined for greatness.” His hands swept the room. “All of us.”
His eyes were lit with an avarice I’d never seen from him. He’d handled me mostly with kid gloves while I was here, but it looked like play time was over. “At what cost?” I asked, already knowing he wouldn’t care about the cost if he became the greatest. “You are already a legend. People speak of you in reverent tones. You have movies and fangirls, for Christ’s sake.”
My father dashed away my concerns with a flick of his fingers.
“There is no danger in exploration, Penelope.”
I shook with anger. “No danger? Watson is now immortal against his will. My mother, me, and any children I bear, are immortal. We don’t get that choice, Father. There is always danger in having your free will stripped away.”
“Free will?” my father scoffed. “I’ve given you the universe.”
“You’ve given us a curse.” I stared him down, angry at him in a way I’d never been. For all his brilliance, for all his incredible discoveries, he was a complete dunce when it came to people and emotions. It was like that guy, whoever he may be, who invented the merge drive-thrus at fast food restaurants. Absolutely excellent in theory. Absolutely terrible in practice because on the whole…people suck. They get angry, enraged, emotional, sometimes about things normal people wouldn’t. There could be no accounting for humanity in the realm of scientific discovery and some things, some amazing discoveries, should never see the light of day.
“There is only one Earth. There is only one home for us. There is no room for a race of immortals. There is no room to bring in those things that can destroy the human race. We already have too many of them.” I was pleading with him to understand.
My father glared at me, adjusted his neck scarf nervously, and cleared his throat. You could hear a pin drop in the silence of the room. Watson was still looking at me and I risked a glance at him. There was approval and something heartbreakingly tender in his eyes.
A lump filled my throat and tears filled my eyes. I dropped my head and clenched my hands tightly together.
“The only ones at COTO who know about you right now are Aaron and Lila. No one else, besides the director, knows it was you running through the halls like a madwoman, so everyone seems to have either bought her story or is pretending to believe her. Now is our time to move.”
I blinked at my father’s sudden change of subject. Seemed like the time for a heart to heart had passed. I wasn’t sure what kind of testing he was doing, but I damned sure planned to find out.
Watson, perhaps sensing I needed a moment, spoke up. “We are prepared. We’ll go over final details after we are done here, but I have the dummy blood. All we have to do is lure Lila here.”
“We shouldn’t do anything until tomorrow. Right now, she’s probably still on edge after Penelope’s escape. Call her tomorrow and set everything up.”
Masters cleared his throat. Oh, right. I knew I was forgetting something and now that Holmes was angry at me, it seemed like the perfect time to bring it up.
“Before we go, I wanted to talk to you about Masters.”
My father lifted a brow. “No need. Sick daughter. Needs either a cure or the serum, correct?”
I frowned at him. “How did you know that?”
“Dear girl, I know most things. A master never reveals his secrets.”
“A master never reveals where the recording devices are,” Aaron murmured under his breath.
My father’s eyes crinkled. “Indeed.”
Well…shit. I wanted to paw myself right then and figure out where it was, but I refrained. Barely. “I’d prefer to find the cure.”
My father nodded. “I suspected as much. There’s a laboratory available for your use when this is over.” He tilted his head to Masters. “My condolences, good sir. With Penelope here at the helm, I’m sure she will be able to help.” He winked at me. “She’s a genius, you know.”
“Super,” I muttered.
Masters gave me a hard stare.
“Look who my father is,” I grumbled, “would you expect anything else?”
Aaron chuckled under his breath.
“Are we done here?” I asked, impatient to get away from all this testosterone.
“Are you prepared?” Holmes asked.
I nodded. “Prepared as I can be, I suppose.”
My father frowned. “When you go into battle, you should be prepared for all eventualities. Anything that can happen, you should be prepared for it. Anything that goes wrong, you should know how to fix it.”
I opened my mouth. I shut it. Watson stood and took my elbow to help me up. “Don’t fight it. Let’s just go.”
I stood and allowed him to lead me, but I looked back at my father and stuck my tongue out at him as I walked out.
My father’s bark of laughter followed me out the door.
Masters, Aaron, Watson, and I were all crowded in the apartment discussing the events of tomorrow. Masters and Aaron didn’t have major parts, but they would be there acting as silent sentries to alert us if anything looked weird or was about to go wrong. Both were highly trained agents of COTO and Watson seemed to have full faith in them. I held Masters’ daughter’s life in my hands, so I knew we were allies—at least for now. Aaron had saved me twice and I had saved him once. I still owed him one. I trusted him. My other feelings were still conflicted about him. I was definitely attracted to him more than what was good for me, but he wasn’t Watson. Aaron was safety and Watson was wild ass craziness. Aaron was light and Watson was dark. I would contemplate my feelings later. As long as I was still alive. I was hard to kill, but if someone really motivated got ahold of me, I was sure they could eventually make me see the white light.
It was not a theory I wanted to test out.
The plan was pretty simple. I’d be restrained to a table, convincingly, which I wasn’t super happy about but Watson thought was necessary. I’d be hooked up to a kidney dialysis machine that would very slowly pull blood from me, convincingly. They assured me they had it rigged to pull as little blood from me as possible. What blood went out, would come right back in through a hidden line hooked up to my thigh. I wasn’t so happy about that one either, but Watson said Lila was a pro and would know if we were trying to dupe her. She was also a medical professional and would check the lines. This whole thing gave me the heebers, especially since I was not a big fan of needles.
Watson, the lucky bastard, would be doing his damnedest to woo her back, presenting my prone body as some kind of bizarre reunion present. If Lila fell into Watson’s arms after he presented the blood to her, we would all cheer and have a party. However, if she didn’t, and that was a good possibility, we would have to do some serious ass kicking. This was where Aaron and his extensive medical training came in. Extensive, as in he passed a course about eight years ago on beginning an IV drip. He would unstrap me from the table and the lines. Every time I thought about it, I shuddered and gagged a little bit, especially when I thought about how long ago Aaron used his medical skills. These guys were real lucky I needed to get Lila off my tail because this plan sucked for me.
Masters would wait in the shadows and provide Watson assistance if he needed it. We didn’t expect that, but so far, we hadn’t expected anything Lila had done. We went over the plan what felt like at least a hundred times. I checked the clock over the kitchen sink and yawned.
“It’s late, guys. We’re going to have a long day tomorrow. I’d like to get some rest.”
“Need company?” Aaron quipped, and the temperature in the room fell about thirty degrees.
“Oh no you didn’t,” Masters said under his breath as he chuckled and left the room as swiftly as his legs would carry him.
Everything except my eyes froze as I stared between Aaron and Watson. He immediately realized what he had done. He took one step back and held his hands up. “Jesus, my apologies.”
Watson’s lean frame was taut and wired as he stared Aaron down. I held my breath, hoping there wouldn’t be bloodshed.
“Get. Out,” Watson gritted out from between clenched teeth, “before I mop the floor with your blood.”
Aaron didn’t think twice. He kept his mancard by not running, but he lifted himself off the couch and walked quickly to the door. It shut with a soft whoosh as Watson turned back to me.
“Is there something going on?” His gaze was molten with anger.
I shook my head, terrified to speak.
“Does he like you?”
I nodded.
“Do you like him?”
Silence blistered the room.
Oh Mother Mary. I paused. Shit. I paused! I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could get the words of denial out, Watson tore the door off its hinges and stormed out of the room. I stared in shock at the ruined hinges and carnage of my pretty wooden door. It lay on its side, still rocking back and forth noisily.
“I paused,” I muttered. I heaved a deep sigh and turned to get a beer out of the fridge. There was no fixing that. The door or Watson’s hurt feelings. I’d try for Watson, but I’d have to get Holmes to call the handyman. I frowned. If he had a handyman.
I cracked open my beer, brushed the wood splinters off the couch and sat down. “Well, that escalated quickly,” I said to myself and took a swig of my beer. I picked up the remote control and flipped mindlessly for a while, trying not to think about my colossal mistake. Watson poured his heart out to me just hours before. Even though we’d agreed to be friends, he was obviously attracted me. And like a thoughtless harlot, this was how I repaid him? Way to go, Penelope.
It was difficult to wake up the next morning. I stared at the ceiling for several hours before I went to bed last night. Tears didn’t come. We weren’t in a relationship, and although I guess I could rationalize it that way, it didn’t feel fair to Watson to do so. I didn’t think it was a good idea to go to him, especially not after the incident with the door, but I wasn’t sure, so I hesitated. I ended up tossing and turning the majority of the night before waking up at six the next morning feeling like I had a hangover.
I dressed quickly and padded down to the dining hall. Aaron and Masters were already eating so I grabbed a tray full of breakfast and brought it over to them. Both of them froze when I sat down.
