by Lynne Silver
She rolled her eyes. These men needed to change their belief she needed a keeper pretty damn quick. “No, Adam, you go. I’ll be fine on my own. Tell me where I’m sleeping tonight and how to find a toothbrush and shower. Someone got me a little dirty.”
Guilt and indecision flashed in his face. Duty versus desire. Commander Shepard had probably meant for Gavin to stay with her despite his wishes. Well she could make the choice easier for him. “Go,” she insisted again. “I’m done with you.” Even she could hear the lie in her voice. Her words said go, but her body was screaming for him to stay.
Chase raised an eyebrow at Adam. Good. Let her brother wonder how she’d been treated by his comrades. Though, she was withholding judgment on Chase, until she knew where he stood on this whole DNA matching thing.
Adam took a step out the door and she let out a breath she hadn’t even known she was holding.
Chase smiled at her. “I’m starving and was headed to eat. Are you hungry?”
Her stomach grumbled at the mention of food. The meal she’d shared with Adam had long passed through her digestive tract. “Great. But I desperately need a shower first and then let’s go eat. Is there a restaurant nearby?”
Chase shook his head. “Loren, you don’t seem to get it. This is your new home until Shep says so. You can’t leave the property. We eat on campus today. It’s too bad. I was jonesing for some bacon. I need meat.”
She stifled a laugh at her newfound brother’s moans and pleas. He acted as if he were sixteen even though he looked about five years older than she. She suddenly craved more than food. She had a million, or maybe a billion, questions for her brother, starting with his family history and exact occupation. Maybe Adam was more closemouthed than a clam, but Chase seemed to let it all hang out.
She’d take advantage of that, maybe ply him with alcohol and make him talk about the Program and their mission. She had an article to write, and despite Shep’s predictions, she felt no loyalty here yet. She still wanted her byline on the front page.
After a long, hot shower she emerged, starving. “Come on, let’s go.” She swung open the door to Chase’s apartment and entered the hallway. She stopped on the realization that she had no clue where the dining hall was. Chase exited on her heels and led the way.
Chapter Five
“We’ve got her,” Shep said, triumph ringing in his voice.
“Who?” Jonathan Keel and William Blacker asked in unison.
“Robert’s daughter,” Shep informed them. “And get this. She’s genetically compatible with Adam.” He nodded toward Blacker. “As we suspected from his reaction to her at Christenson’s party, your son is her near-perfect match. Xander was a close second, but I think we’d all agree we prefer to reproduce Adam’s traits over that sociopath. I swear that kid is going to blow this place to hell one day. If he weren’t deadly perfect at his job, I’d bench his ass.”
“Hold on, Shep.” William waved a hand. “Stop complaining about Xander. We know you will never send valentines to each other. Go back to the first part about my son. Robert’s daughter is a good match for Adam?” A wide smile spread across his face. He laughed. “That was fast. Who would have thought we’d find his match this quickly?”
Jonathan Keel pasted a smile on his face while his intestines knotted themselves in twists. This was good news. Really. Program numbers had been dwindling these past few years. They’d be in trouble unless they had fresh blood to train, but his stomach lurched at the thought of a Blacker and a Stanton partnering up. It was laughable that the two families he’d wronged many years ago would now be aligned. But then, it was said God had a sense of humor. And it would be another form of personal torture having Loren on campus. He wondered if she looked like her mother. He hoped not, but part of him desired it. It would be like going back in time to see the woman he’d loved at the age he’d loved her.
Shep smiled. “Adam and Loren are genetically matched. They scored a nine-point-seven out of ten on Dr. Rovinsky’s spectrum.”
“And how’s my son taking the news?” William leaned forward intently.
Shep smiled. “He’s your son, so I’ll spare you the gritty details, but they resisted each other for a scant fifteen minutes.”
William leaned back in his chair with a chuckle. “Where are they now?”
“Well, that’s the tricky part.”
“How so?” Keel asked.
“They’re both fighting the match with every ounce of resistance, but we know he won’t be able to let her go, because his instinct right now is screaming for him to keep her.”
“As much as we want to believe we’ve evolved past the caveman stage of our history, we haven’t. I’ve seen it time and again with all our genetically matched couples. They can’t seem to stay away from each other,” Keel said.
William nodded, a morose look on his face. “I only hope he won’t walk in my footsteps and follow my example.”
No one met his gaze.
“Adam and Ms. Stanton will be together,” Shep said in a hard voice. “Even if I have to lock them in a room again filled with chocolate and roses.”
*
“Paulson? It’s me.” Keel shifted the phone from one ear to the other. A quick glance around told him he was still alone in the convenience store parking lot despite the multitude of cars in the lot.
“Ah, young man. I’ve been waiting to hear from you.” The older man’s voice crackled from either age or distance of an ocean. “Do you have any news to report?”
“Yes. Your plan worked last night. Shep and the boys are scratching their asses wondering how the kid disappeared underneath their noses.”
“Excellent. I’ve always found diversionary tactics to be such fun and effective. They took the bait? Are they sending someone?”
“Not yet. They don’t have the first clue of where to look. I can drop some hints if necessary. Imagine their surprise when they find out you’re still alive.” He could almost feel the smile of his partner across the phone lines. “I’ll email you with more information about their progress as I have it.” A whisper of apprehension skated through him at having to ask his next question. “You’ll deposit the money?”
“Patience, Keel. First you need to deliver a living specimen and then you’ll be five hundred thousand dollars richer.”
He opened his mouth to deliver the oft-rehearsed speech about how five hundred thousand was barely worth his time to share secrets, but the phone went dead before he could get a word out. It would have to wait for next time. But any amount of money would go a long way toward his plan of island retirement living.
When Paulson first approached him weeks ago to deliver a healthy living soldier for research, he’d been appalled. But when the older doctor had started spouting threats about revealing his past misdeeds to the victims, he was in. He had no choice, really, but actively setting up a team member for capture was upsetting. It didn’t sit well.
Paulson had promised the soldier wouldn’t be hurt, only some mild medical procedures, and then he’d be put back on a plane to Beltsville minus a pint of blood and some DNA samples. He could live with that.
It had been a shock to hear Paulson’s voice. They’d all accounted him for dead years ago, but the original founder of the Program was apparently alive and well in Europe. And still actively studying human DNA. He hadn’t asked what Paulson would use the soldier’s DNA for. Ignorance was the smarter path in this instance.
He’d deliver someone to Paulson, get his five hundred Gs and stay under the radar on campus. Something that was now necessary thanks to the new female addition on campus. He hung up on Paulson and returned to his car to head back home. A quick glance at his watch told him he’d make it back in time for lunch. Good, he was hungry. He drove down the street back to the Program compound and made his way to the cafeteria.
She was the spitting image of her mother. Keel nearly choked on his food when she walked into the dining room accompanied by her brother. It almost hurt to
watch Loren, who was a perfect replica of the woman he’d loved. Seeing her took him back more than thirty years ago when he’d first laid eyes on Julia, Loren’s mother.
He remembered her shy smile and laughing eyes as she’d interviewed for a secretary position on campus. One look and he’d been smitten. And she’d reciprocated too. They dated for months until Robert Stanton sunk his claws into her. Stanton had been out on a long-term assignment overseas and had missed Julia’s initiation onto the campus. But upon his return, he’d been drawn to Julia like a magnet, stealing her away.
He chewed his sandwich slowly, watching Loren laughing with Chase, and remembered all the hurdles he’d jumped to make things go his way with Julia. Too bad it hadn’t worked.
Keel had had no choice but to alter the genetic results paperwork. A little Wite-Out and some typing and another woman, Marie, shot to the top as a breeding candidate for Stanton and Julia had been sent packing. Though Stanton wanted Julia, he’d done his duty like a good soldier, married Marie and fathered Chase.
Unfortunately, Keel’s plan hadn’t gone completely to script. Julia had refused to come back to him once she’d left Beltsville. Claimed to be heartbroken over Stanton. He’d lost track of her until that bastard, Stanton, divorced Marie, left the Program and married Julia. And now their daughter was here. In Beltsville. On his campus.
Had Stanton and Julia told Loren anything of their history? Had they suspected his role in their initial separation? He couldn’t risk anyone learning the truth. He’d stayed for years pretending to be Stanton’s friend and colleague until he’d left Marie and run back to Julia. He couldn’t risk being accused of wrongdoing. He had a spotless record and was nearing retirement. As an external recruit from the early beginnings of the Program, he didn’t have the enhanced genes to stay as young and fit as most everyone else on campus, and he was starting to feel his age.
Loren’s clear laugh chimed through the cafeteria. Interesting that Adam Blacker wasn’t sitting with them. No, he sat opposite Keel, frowning every time Loren’s laugh rang out. Keel pushed aside his tray. He’d lost his appetite.
*
Loren lay in her unfamiliar bed that night wearing a borrowed t-shirt from her brother. It figured he’d have one of those ridiculous tourist shirts with the buxom, bikini-clad body painted on it. The body was positioned so the wearer would look as if he or she had the Betty Boop figure. If it was silly on her, it would be even more absurd on the tall, masculine Chase. Her brother was a clown. She’d tried in vain to get a serious word from him all day, but he’d insisted on telling jokes and yukking it up with his posse. Any mention of their father brought darkness to his eyes and was quickly hidden by a jest. He’d done everything but snort milk out of his nose just to avoid a quiet moment with her.
Adam had not helped. He’d sat on the opposite side of the dining room, quietly eating his fish. It had been delicious, no high-school cafeteria for this campus. It was restaurant quality all the way. Every so often, Loren had glanced in exasperation from her brother to Adam. She’d not managed to catch his eye even once. It was as though the hours of sex had never happened. She tried to tell herself it didn’t matter, because, let’s be honest, if Adam had treated her better, it might mean a wedding and babies. Despite the strong sexual urges pulling them together, he was determined to stay apart. Which was fine with her. Really. It wasn’t that she had anything against marriage and kids. It was in her life plan, but very distantly. She had to build her career first.
But why wasn’t he gangbusters on the idea? He’d grown up in this world of marriages based on matched DNA, so why would he protest strongly? He obviously wanted her sexually, but was totally closemouthed on why he was opposed to anything longer than a quick roll in the hay. Or grass. Or couch.
She suspected there was more to it than the usual commitment phobias from young men. Adam hadn’t said he didn’t want to breed with her. He’d said he couldn’t. The soreness between her thighs told her it wasn’t a physical couldn’t, but an emotional one.
There was more to it than she understood, and she wanted to understand. She stayed in bed for a few more minutes staring at the bare walls. Finally, she sat up with a huff. It was stupid. She wasn’t going to catch any winks tonight without getting some questions answered from either Adam or Chase. Screw Adam’s instructions about staying put. She was heading out.
She folded her legs off the bed and debated pulling on her jeans. Forget it, night was too hot for warm pants. She grabbed the pair of athletic shorts Chase had let her borrow. He’d mentioned something about hitting the gym after dinner. Loren decided to try her luck there. Wherever the gym was. She exited the bare-bones room Chase had her bunking in and headed down the stairs to the apartment exit. The small buildings to her right looked dark and more like individual residences than a large gymnasium, so she headed left toward where they’d eaten dinner.
Loren neared the glass doors of a large building and pulled them open. Two tall, well-built men, who looked as if they hit the gym on a daily basis, exited as she tried to enter.
“Hi. Can you please point me in the direction of the gym?” Loren asked with a polite smile.
Both men stared at her as if she’d grown two heads.
“What?” She folded her arms across her chest. She should have taken the time to put on her bra. Pants would be a bonus too.
The men kept staring. “Who are you?” One of the men looked ready to grill her up and serve her for dinner.
“I’m Loren. I have permission to be here.”
For some reason, both men chuckled at that. What? Were there no other women here? Actually, come to think of it, she’d been the sole estrogen soldier at dinnertime.
“What’s so funny?” Loren asked.
“Of course you have permission. Or you’d be dead,” the darker-haired man informed her. “We just don’t get a lot of pretty women wandering about in their pajamas.”
The blond man’s eyes suddenly widened. “Holy shit,” he said. “I recognize that shirt. Chase has balls. I mean, he’s done a lot of crazy stuff, but sneaking a lover on campus takes the cake.”
“I’m not his lover. I’m his sister.” Her words ended with a slight shriek.
The men laughed even harder. “Sure you are, sweetheart. Chase doesn’t have a sister.”
She nearly stamped her foot in annoyance, and if one of their feet happened to be under her foot, well…accidents happen. “Fine. I’m Adam Blacker’s match. Can you take me to one of them, or not?”
The laughter continued.
“Oh, forget it. I’ll go find them myself.” She pushed past the hyenas and started into the building alone.
“Loren, wait up. I’ll take you.” One of the men jogged after her. “Sorry for laughing,” he said. “Chase is sort of known for doing some crazy shit. Sneaking a woman on campus as his ‘sister’ is just his kind of thing, but for real, you’re Blacker’s match?”
“I am.” She marched down the corridor and let her gaze wander from door to door but tried to keep her head still. If she looked around as she wanted to, her annoying escort would know she was totally lost.
“Why isn’t he with you then? I mean if I were newly matched, I wouldn’t leave the bed.”
She shrugged and ignored his almost lewd question. Her ears strained for any sound, any clue as to her brother’s whereabouts. About halfway down the hall, the distinctive metal clang of iron hitting iron sounded. A rap song she didn’t recognize barreled out of the hall with the speed and subtlety of an eighteen-wheeler.
She immediately hung a right down another hall toward the din, then turned into the doorway and paused to scan the room for Chase. A festival of men greeted her. Around a dozen sweaty, hard bodies stood at different machines and free weight stations. One hard body caught her attention like a magnet. Adam faced a mirror with his back to her, a large weight in each hand. His biceps and pecs rippled with each curl and lift. Sweat gleamed on his back. Her heart raced at the sight of his bod
y and arousal shot through her, landing dead center at the junction of her thighs.
She gripped the doorframe, her fingernails marking the wood. Adam’s attention suddenly turned from his own reflection and caught her stare. Their gazes locked and crashed in an exchange so heated she was surprised the mirror didn’t shatter.
She wanted to lick him, run her tongue along the grooves of his abdominal muscles. She’d walk over to him, pull her t-shirt over her head and press her bare breasts to his glistening back, then run her hands around his front to rub his nipples. He’d turn in her embrace and bend his head…
“Sis!” Chase’s voice boomed over the music’s steady thump and knocked her out of her wicked fantasy. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Adam go back to his biceps curls, and she forced a smile on her face for her newfound brother.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she shouted. “I have too many questions.”
Chase opened his mouth to reply. Whatever he said was lost as Loren’s attention was caught by a clang of steel on steel. Adam had slammed down his weights and was making his way over toward her. As soon as he reached her, he tugged on her arm and turned toward the weight room exit. She whipped her head toward him with a nasty setdown for manhandling her, but closed her mouth when she saw the look in his eyes. One glance and Loren knew her arousal was not the only one spiking. She allowed him to escort her from the room and they walked silently outside and down one of the long gravel paths. Finally, she broke the silence.
“I thought you were ignoring me.” She tossed off the flippant comment, but truth be told, it felt nice to walk alone in the sultry summer air with him. Maybe too nice.
“Honestly, I have no idea what the hell I’m doing. I can’t seem to help myself around you. I should be back in the weight room, but instead I’m out here. With you. Wanting to touch you so damn badly. Plus, why the hell are you parading around in a nightshirt with no pants on?”
She paused as his admission sank in and her arousal spiked even higher.
