“I felt the effects kick in and knew what was happening. It was like a sense of weightlessness, but my eyes were fine. They worked and I saw you.”
Emily turned from the window and though the room grew darker with the setting sun, she was certain that nothing could mask her emotions.
“I saw you,” She continued softly. “And I fought it. I fought breathing. I made it look like I passed out quicker than actually happened just so he would take that tainted cloth away from my mouth. I did lose consciousness a few seconds later, but the dose I took must have been minimal. I only inhaled when I screamed.”
Brian stepped forward, but the she kept him at bay with her continued speech.
“When I woke up, I could have sworn they dropped me in the Sound. It was dark and the walls were undulating, and I saw fish—” She had felt like Pinocchio inside the mouth of the whale. “It finally registered that I was Barcuda’s office. I knew he was there. I heard him breathing before I saw him, and I guess it was dark enough that he didn’t notice I had opened my eyes. I tried so hard to stay still, but I just couldn’t stop shivering. It was so cold in that office—like the bottom of the ocean.”
“It was only him,” She continued, still hearing the buzz of the aquarium in her ears, “only Barcuda in the room.” Around her, the iridescent wall leant a touch of macabre to the moment, and then she heard that sharp nasal intake directly above her. He was standing over her, bending down—
Emily tried to appear latent, but the clammy combination of sweat and hair gel along with the nauseas side-effects of the drug nearly made her gag.
“Emily,”
She broke from her reverie at the sound of Brian’s husky tone.
“If he touched you— ”
She shook her head, but it was more of a twitch. “I don’t think Barcuda really believed that I was conscious, but he talked to me as if I were. He told me you were both dying.” Her voice caught. “That you would run out of oxygen soon, and that I could join him later to collect the bod—”
On that last word, she lost it.
Brian reached for her before the first tremble. Her body indicated she was crying but the tears had not yet reached her eyes, just another sign of the control she was always exerting. He felt the tremors, the hiccups that she swallowed, and he held her tight and tucked her head against his collarbone.
“We’re okay. You see that—everyone’s okay.”
Emily’s nod brushed against his throat, a silky sweep that made him clench even tighter the precious package in his arms.
“I know that now,” She whimpered, “but I didn’t then.”
In his arms Brian felt the tension creep up Emily’s back. Lithe muscles flexed instinctively as her hands crawled up to his chest and used the connection as leverage to push off.
Brian reluctantly let her go, though she backed only arms length away. She gripped his forearms with a tenacity that amazed him.
“I went mad.” Her fingers flexed. “I—I—just remember attacking him.”
“Attacking him?” He echoed. “Emily, dammit, what did you do?” Thoughts of the jeopardy she placed herself in had him anguished.
Her voice grew confident with recollection. “I just wanted him to suffer. I remember diving at him and knocking him back against his desk. The element of surprise was definitely on my side. He fell back and I didn’t think, I just dove for the gun.”
The wind had picked up outside, its keening wail creeping into the tiny cracks around the window frame. Brian felt that cold invasion in his bones. He wanted warmth. He wanted Emily’s warmth. He wanted assurance that she was unharmed.
“You could have been killed.” His husky voice tone bore traces of every raw emotion he felt.
“It didn’t matter at that point.”
“Barcuda’s men could have barged in and shot you.”
“They didn’t.”
“Barcuda himself could have overpowered you.”
Her smile was sad, but her dark eyes flashed conviction. “I don’t believe so. I don’t think anyone could have stopped me.”
Brian reached up and cupped Emily’s shoulders, his head dipped so he could look at her dead on. “Why, Em? Why did you do it? At least you were safe while you were playing unconscious.” He gripped her shoulders, dragging her imperceptibly closer. “I was coming for you—I was delayed, but I was coming for you. I would have died before I let him hurt you.”
Emily’s lower lip trembled mutinously. The rosy glow of the setting sun reached beneath the sheer curtains and shimmered around her cinnamon hair. She was bathed in ethereal light—a grounded angel.
“I didn’t know Brian,” She whispered hoarsely. “I didn’t know you were coming back. He—he” The sob nearly overpowered her, but she straightened her spine against it. “He told me that the man I love was dying.”
Vertigo sucked at Brian. He gripped her shoulders even tighter, afraid he was hurting her, yet afraid to let go. Logistics reminded him that her statement was rational. “Your brother wasn’t hurt, Em. He’s okay.”
Tears bubbled in the corners of her eyes and slipped when she shook her head in frustration. “I love my brother, and you know I will do anything to protect him. I’m all he has, and I will fight a thousand armies to keep him safe.”
Brian nodded, awed by the force of her speech. He didn’t doubt her for a minute. She was a dynamo, who had outsmarted a dangerous egomaniac. It was that compelling sense of protection that was yet one more trait he found endearing.
“But I was talking about the man I’m in-love with.”
The floor opened up beneath his feet and he felt the tug of the Earth’s core threatening to haul him through the wood into its fiery axis. “What are you saying, Em?”
Emily rolled her eyes and smiled. It was the first genuine smile he had seen on her face since before they entered NMD. It was beautiful.
“Do I have to spell it out for you, Morrison?” Her fingertips reached up and brushed along his jaw. “I’m in love with you.”
When he would have crushed her to him—when he would have echoed her words a breath before touching her lips, he saw that magnificent smile drop. And all that remained was a grim sense of foreboding.
“Now is a hell of time to say but, Emily.”
“But—I know that this adventure is over. I know this was borrowed time.” Her finger drifted from Brian’s jaw to his lips to silence his objection. “And I know that you will move on. Washington, right?” She managed a wan smile. “You never know, I hear the cherry blossoms are beautiful in the spring. Maybe I’ll—”
Brian brushed her wrist out of his path, and kissed her.
CHAPTER XVII
When Brian finally ended the kiss that left her feeling like she had been de-boned, Emily stared up at him. Somehow her arms had managed to link around his neck, and her body slid an intimate course across his. She tried to draw back, but there was no deterring the determined hands splayed across her lower back.
Emily dipped her head and whispered his name desperately against his chest.
“What?” His lips were on her hair, making her shiver. “Can I get in a few words?”
She smiled against his shirt. Soap and musk replaced the singed smell of only hours ago. The thought jolted her and she pushed back to look up at him.
In his eyes lie tumults of experience. This man had been through so much in his life, and she had only added to his danger.
“What happened in that hangar? How did you and Colin get out?”
Brian sighed and dropped a kiss on top of her head. “I guess not.” He settled a hand in her hair and stroked it. “Teamwork, Em. I think your brother and I make a good team.”
That thought warmed her. All the friends she had growing up, and later in life had never taken to Colin. They shied away from the eccentricity and avoided coming to her house, always opting to meet elsewhere. In the clouded judgment of youth she had ignored these blatant signs of rejection.
But here was a
man that accepted—no, actually liked her brother. If possible, Emily fell more in love with him for that.
“And I think,” Brian continued in a hoarse tone, “that you and I make a great team, too.”
“You do?”
“Ummm.” The sound was nearly a growl. “Emily, how much do you remember of what happened inside the Hyperion?”
“I remember the look in your eyes the moment I went under.”
Her head rested so tight against Brian’s shoulder, she could feel the lump move down his throat.
“I almost let something slip,” he said, “right before Barcuda and his men charged in. I almost got to say the words.”
A door was locked in her mind and she tried grabbing at the handle to tug it open, but in the brief gap between wood and hinge lay illusions.
“What?” She hesitated, but it came back to her now. I condone it because I saw the woman I— He had never completed the sentence. “What were you going to say?” She barely breathed.
“I was going to say that I loved you.”
Her gasp was swift. “You were?” She whispered in awe. “And do you still?”
Brian’s smile was something to behold. A dimple lie dormant until that simple gesture brought it to life at the bottom of his cheek, a fascinating contradiction to the stern countenance…and something so damn sexy.
“Oh yeah,” he said softly, “without a doubt.”
“But—”
“No, Em. No more buts. Listen to me, will you?”
He cleared his throat and stepped at arm’s length so that he could look at her. Emily felt those eyes slide over her like a warm summer shower, a reminder of childhood when she would stand in the middle of the driveway on a hot summer day, with her arms widespread under an afternoon spell of rain. On those humid August afternoons she never wanted the rain to end, and now she never wanted him to stop looking at her like that.
“I’ve been alone all my life. By choice. It was easier to be accountable for one person in my line of work. And now, just recently I took on a working partner. Phil taught me that it was okay to lighten up. That was one major stride in my life. Then the next majorstride came when I fell in love with you.” He touched her lips as they parted. “I am about the last person to ever toss out a corny clichés. I don’t do clichés—but that night, on that road when you stood above me—I believed in destiny.”
“You had a concussion.”
Brian grinned. “Then let’s move forward to the hospital. Tell me Emily. Tell me you didn’t sense it the moment you touched my hand. And tell me why you did that? Why did you cross that room and reach for the hand of a total stranger, and hold on like we were the only two people in the world?”
Emily gulped in a breath, and was once again in that chrome chair, waiting for the stranger with magnificent amber eyes to wake up. His eyes opened, fell on her, and he whispered hi in such an intimate tone, as if they had just woken from one of many mornings full of lovemaking.
The draw was overwhelming and she crossed that room and touched his hand and thought perhaps the lights in the hospital had flickered in response.
“It felt so right.”
“Yes, Em.” Brian said. “It did. It still does. Everything else be damned, I want you.”
Emily would have stumbled backwards were it not for his steadying grip around her waist.
She wanted him too. But there had been too much mistrust, and if there was to be something solid between them, Emily wanted Brian’s trust more than anything else.
“Do you trust me?” It came out of her as almost a plea.
“With my life.” He replied.
The force of the answer staggered her for a moment, but she regrouped and uttered softly, “Okay.”
And with that, she turned and left him.
Brian stared at the door in disbelief.
His gaze dropped to the open palms that she had so easily slipped from, as vaporous as a heavenly deity.
But it was definitely a mortal’s soft tread he heard going down the stairs, and certainly an earthly touch on the front door that slammed shut.
It was the most desolate sound he had ever heard.
Astonishment held Brian rooted for a moment, but determination had him on the move. He wasn’t going to let her walk out of his life without a fight.
At the top of the stairs, he drew up short. The front door opened. Emily stepped in, shaking fresh-fallen snow out of her hair. She quietly tapped the toes of her boots on the doorstep, and then looked up.
Their eyes met. Emily held that gaze as she started towards the stairs and stayed locked on it as she mounted each step with deliberate care. Brian sensed no trepidation in the woman that approached him. This woman was a composed creature, regal and elegant, and she wanted something.
At the top of the steps she dipped a hand into her coat pocket and withdrew a package. She peered at it with a mixture of disdain and irreverence, and then slowly handed it to him.
Instead of looking at the procured item, Brian held her eyes, asking the question of them, rather than addressing the article in his hand.
“The hard drive.” She shrugged. “Do what you will with it.”
Now he did glance down. The slim device suddenly felt very heavy. Too heavy to bear.
“I know exactly who this belongs to.” He turned it over once, twice, and then smirked. “That guy snoring in my guest room.”
Emily lunged for his neck, her arms encircling him, nearly knocking him off balance.
“Whoah, don’t attack me.” He chuckled.
“You’ve done so much for us,” She said between kisses against his neck. “I don’t know what to say—”
“Keep kissing me like that and you won’t be able to say anything.”
Emily tore from his neck, cupped his cheeks, and planted her lips firmly against his. At first they were quick, frantic pecks, submitting to a need to touch every inch of his face.
And then the kisses slowed.
Brian wanted to voice more assurances, he wanted to talk about their future together, and he wanted to will away any misgivings Emily may have, but how was he to convey these points when she was making a soft moan in the back of her throat and standing up on her toes for a closer kiss. His arms curled around her back and he held Emily up on the tips of her toes, settling her tight against him, reveling in the sweep of her body molded to his. He felt her smile against his mouth before she dissolved under another kiss.
“Yo, guys, are you up there?”
Surely she hadn’t heard that sound. Nothing was going to invade this moment. Emily had waited for the liberation of being able to kiss Brian without inhibition. At Edelweiss, for as heated as the interlude was, it was still tainted with anxiety.
“Em,” Brian whispered against her neck.
“Guys, come on, you’re scaring me.”
Damn.
“Believe me,” Brian drew back to look at her. “There is nothing I want more than to ignore that—”
A soft whimper escaped her lips, but Emily strove for composure and pushed back from his shoulders, tugging on her sweatshirt.
“This is unfinished business.” She vowed.
“That will be finished.” Brian added.
“Promise?”
His reply was a hot kiss that exposed her to the core.
“Emily, Brian?”
“That brother of mine—”
“Is a great guy,” Brian interrupted as he set her back on her feet. “Who’s probably hungry as hell right now.”
Emily swept her bangs out of her eyes and caught a glimpse of the heat smoldering in Brian’s stare. “I’m hungry as hell too.”
“Whoah,” He ground a fist into his eye. “Woman, you are way too tempting.” He reached for the door and yelled, “Be right down.”
When he would have moved to leave, Emily reached for his arm. “Brian,”
“Hmmm,” His hand rested on the old brass knob, and his eyes dusted across her with promise.
> “I am head over heels in love with you.”
“That’s good.”
“That’s good?” She trailed him down the stairs, her voice shrill. “That’s good?”
“Colin,” Brian took the last step and caught the young man’s hand in a brief grasp, which he used to haul him into a mannish hug.
At first he felt a tension in the lanky frame, but it fled like someone had pulled the plug from the drain. Brian found himself in a bear hug that warmed another compartment of his heart. He was learning so many surprises about himself and was besieged by so many new forms of emotions recently.
Over Colin’s head he met the eyes of the woman responsible and mouthed the words “I love you too.”
“So what’s going to happen to Barcuda?” Colin asked over a mouthful of Cream of Mushroom soup, all that Emily could muster up in the bachelor’s kitchen.
“Well, with Phil’s testimony, Emily’s testimony, and the benefit of some connections I have in the Navy, he’s going to be doing some considerable time for treason.”
“That would be the least of his offenses.” Emily set down her spoon and crossed her arms.
“True. Actually, prison is his safest option. He collected some major dollars from foreign governments looking to use the Hyperion. I’m sure they are looking to impart their own justice as well.” Sitting back and rubbing his stomach, he added, “Anyway, don’t worry. Philip is taking over George’s position at NMD, so the company’s tarnished image will eventually be mended.”
“When can we see Phil?”
The request made Brian smile, and Emily realized how much she enjoyed that look on him.
“Tomorrow if you like.” He met her eyes. “Thanks.”
She recognized his gratitude as a result of his concern. Philip Pulkowski was a friend, and she gathered that was a new concept for Brian Morrison, water he was just testing out.
She would be there for him, as he had been there for her.
“And what about everyone else at NMD?”
Colin’s solemn request seemed crucial to him that his spoon suspended in mid air.
Borrowed Time Page 22
