My Next Breath

by Shannon McKenna

  “I pretty much have it under control these days,” he assured her.

  “Good.” She trembled as he ran slow, sudsy hands over her breasts. Cupping, sliding, rubbing with slow, sensual attention.

  “Battle frenzy can be useful in a boyfriend,” he said into her ear, teasing her nipples. “When bad guys show up, I get protective. Ferociously. All for you.”

  She shivered as he slid his hands down over her hips. Caressing her ass cheeks. “Mmm.”

  “You like that?” he murmured. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “You’re distracting me,” she said. “I can’t think at all.”

  “That’s the idea, angel.” He nipped her shoulder.

  Simone shrugged him off with a not-now look that didn’t wilt his cock one iota. It took all his willpower not to pin her up against the shower wall and nail her right there. But she was exhausted after a crazy day and another sleepless night.

  Revised plan: he’d demonstrate a capacity for self-control. And not try to score points with more wild, juicy sex. Later for that.

  He just let his dick stand at attention and concentrated on washing and rinsing, washing and rinsing. Caressing her tender pussy with patient erotic skill until she melted around him, clutching his upper arms as his fingers delved and thrust … until he felt those tight, clutching pulses, the soft hitching moans. Excellent. A morning shower orgasm.

  Just the way to begin his first day of having an official girlfriend.

  Simone tipped her head back and closed her eyes, letting the shower pour over her, releasing her hair and drenching it. Lost in bliss. She looked more than ever like a goddess who’d just stepped out from a waterfall in paradise.

  Jesus. He was losing it all over again. She had the power to destroy him completely.

  Simone straightened. “I’m hungry.”

  “So am I,” he said. “Let’s go feed you.”

  “That’ll be great.” She smiled dreamily, her eyes raking his body, top to toe. “Can I have another one of those orgasms first?”

  “Only one?”

  He gave her two of them. Nice and slow. Just to show her that he could.

  * * * *

  Zade cooked some breakfast when they finally made it out of the bathroom. Him in fresh jeans, bare-chested, her with one of his towels wrapped around her like a sarong and her hair fetchingly wrapped in another. Her clothes were tumbling in the dryer.

  She perched on one of the stools at the bar, sipping coffee and eyeing his scars and tattoos with curiosity as he cooked. A skillet of fried potatoes sizzled on one side. Eggs and bacon were on the grill. Thick slices of buttered toast piled up on a plate.It was hard to concentrate on cooking with that towel slipping down over her deliciously suckable tits. The towel around her hair came down suddenly like it had heard his silent wish, and her damp, tangled locks hung down over her slender back. Big gray-green eyes looked around intently over the rim of her coffee cup, contemplating and analyzing and calculating God knew what data.

  The sight of her made him want to float up off the floor. He barely noticed the ASP scroll on the edges of his field of vision. It didn’t distract him from the luscious vision of his girlfriend-goddess dreamily eating mixed-berry jam from a spoon. Nearly naked.

  “Oops,” she murmured as a dark drop of jam landed on her hand. She licked it off.

  Zade ground his teeth at the sight of her pink tongue and turned away, shoveling food onto two plates. “Here ya go.”

  She attacked the meal with an enthusiasm approaching his own.

  “My God,” she said. “I’ve never been so hungry in my life.”

  “You’re burning lots of energy. You need fuel.”

  She smiled at him around a mouthful of toast. “You talk like I’m some kind of engine,” she said, once she’d swallowed it.

  “Yeah, I do default to techno-metaphors. But I know you’re not a machine. You’re all woman. Complicated and confusing. And dangerous.”

  “Hmm.” She took a piece of bacon, nibbling at it with a thoughtful smile. “What was that? An insult? A compliment?”

  “Neither,” he said. “I just feel lucky. I’m not taking anything for granted. I don’t want to fuck this up. And you’re so goddamn hot, I can barely even function. Which is a problem. Since we’re walking a real fine line these days.”

  She looked like she wanted to laugh. “Hah. I’m sure you’ll get used to the radiant blaze of my incandescent beauty before you seriously hurt yourself.”

  He raised his coffee mug to her. “Go ahead,” he said. “Mock me. Laugh if you want. I’m too stoked to be embarrassed about it.”

  His alarm sounded. Zade shot to his feet, synching to the neglected data feeds. A vehicle was inside his perimeter. He’d been so sex-fogged and focused on her, he hadn’t been doing his sweeps.

  No one would use this well-hidden road unless they knew it existed. Which meant one of two things. Deadly danger—or a colossal pain in the ass.

  He was unthrilled with either option.

  He toggled from vantage point to vantage point until he saw it. An SUV, driving fast. He recognized the vehicle. It belonged to Asa Stone.

  He let out a breath of relief. So it was going to be the pain in the ass option. Whatever. Asa could be counted on not to try to kill him or Simone.

  Ball-busting, however, was definitely in his future.

  “What is it?” Simone asked the question in a tone that suggested that she had repeated it more than once. “Who is it?”

  “A guy I know,” he said. “Don’t worry.”

  “At this hour?” Simone seemed alarmed. She looked down at herself. “My clothes.”

  “Not dry yet,” he said. “Don’t sweat it. You’re decent. Sort of.”

  She shrugged philosophically, adjusted the towel, and poured herself more coffee.

  Zade opened the door and waited on the deck outside as Asa’s car pulled into the clearing. Asa got out, staring at him, and Zade suddenly realized what he looked like. Hair blown every which way by the wind. Naked to the waist. Barefoot. Scratched, bruised, punctured, and beat all to shit.

  He held the door open, bracing himself. “Come on in.”

  Asa stopped dead on the threshold when he caught sight of Simone.

  Zade’s gaze flicked to her. Her beautiful tits were barely covered by the towel. The chilly morning breeze that swept in brought goosebumps to her rosy skin. He wished he’d found something a little more voluminous to cover her with.

  Like a big down jacket. That zipped and snapped.

  “Holy shit.” Asa sounded awestruck. “It’s her.”

  “Of course it’s her,” Zade said testily. “Who else would it be?”

  Simone looked from one to the other, annoyed. “I have a name.”

  “Yeah. And I know it. You’re my brother’s ex,” Asa said.

  Simone’s eyes widened. “You? You’re Noah’s brother? He never told me he had a brother.” She paused for a moment. “Though there were a lot of things that Noah never told me, come to think of it,” she added.

  Asa turned a questioning look on Zade.

  “Simone, this is Asa Stone,” Zade said stiffly. “Asa, Simone Brightman.”

  Asa nodded and looked around at the cabin. Zade suddenly saw it through Asa’s eyes.

  The room said way too much, very loudly, about a whole lot of very private stuff. Overturned lamps. Clothes strewn across the floor left and right. The devastated bed, sheets twisted, covers tossed to the floor. The bathroom door was open. Water trickled out.

  The place looked like a tornado had ripped through it.

  Asa turned his wondering gaze on Simone. Her slim shoulders lifted in an offhand shrug.“We argued,” she said lightly. “He lost.”

  “My ass,” Zade hissed.

  Asa’s appreciative grin transformed his face. “You look so different,” he told her.

  “Different from what?” Simone’s eyebrows lifted. “Have we met?”

  “Onl
y through a long-range camera lens back when you were hanging out with Noah.”

  “Oh. Were you stalking me, too?” She sipped her coffee, shaking her head. “Amazing. My creepy fan club gets bigger every day.”

  “Not you,” Asa assured her. “I was actually stalking Noah at the time.” He waved away her puzzled look. “I know, it’s weird. Long story. Not relevant now.”

  “No?” Her tone was coolly polite.

  “The point is, you don’t look like the same woman. Your face is completely different. I actually wouldn’t have recognized you if—”

  “If you hadn’t known that Zade was stalking me?”

  Asa looked faintly sheepish. “Uh, yeah,” he said apologetically. “That.”

  “Of course she looks different,” Zade said. “She had stim sickness last night. Fought it off like a boss.” He couldn’t keep the pride from his voice.

  Asa’s eyes narrowed. “Stim sickness? You mean—that can’t be. There’s no fucking way.”

  “That’s what I mean,” Zade said. “She’s a modified.”

  Asa looked from Zade to Simone and back again, his face blank with astonishment. “So you just told her? About all of it?”

  “I did. Midlands, everything. I fought off a squad of modified operatives right in front of her. They were sending her to the shredder, so I flattened the motherfuckers. We split and came here. I had to come clean. What else could I do?”

  Asa whistled under his breath and started opening kitchen cupboards until he found one with coffee cups. He took one and filled it with coffee.

  He caught Simone’s eye and lifted his cup. “Long night.”

  “So it would seem,” she replied.

  Asa turned to Zade. “Hate to nag, since you’ve been so busy and distracted and all, but here’s a reminder. Twenty-five hours till your deadline.”

  “Deadline for what?” Simone’s voice sharpened.

  “A thing he promised me,” Asa said vaguely. His gaze swept over the mess of the cabin and then settled on her once again, admiringly. “Damn,” he murmured.

  “Watch it,” Zade growled. “What are you doing up here, anyway?”

  “You weren’t answering your phone. I needed to know if you’d made contact with her. So I called Hannah. Bullied her into spilling the directions to this place.”

  “Contact with me?” Simone demanded. “What do I have to do with you? I’ve never met you. And what’s this deadline?”

  Asa gave Zade a meaningful look. You tell her, asshole.

  “It’s been a crazy night,” Zade said through his teeth. “We got sidetracked when her heart stopped. I promise, I was getting to it.”

  “Don’t bother now,” Asa said. “She’s clued in. I’ll just ask her myself.”

  “Ask me what?” Simone looked alarmed. “There’s more to know? I know he’s looking for his brother Luke, and he wants to figure out how Mark got my prototypes. What else is there to know? What do you want from me?”

  Asa pulled a tablet out of a deep pocket in his coat. He tapped it until a video feed filled the screen, and shoved aside cups, dishes, and cutlery, handing it to her.

  “Do you know this guy?” he asked.

  Simone’s gold hair coiled over the dark, gleaming granite of the countertop as she leaned over, peering at the screen. Zade looked over her shoulder.

  Brenner again. But looking much worse than he had twenty-four hours before. Even more bloodied and wretched. But still flinging himself against the walls as if trying to beat himself to death. Maybe he was.

  Simone recoiled. “Dear God,” she whispered. “No, I don’t recognize him. And whatever his problem is, I doubt that I could help him. I’m no doctor.”

  “One of your inventions did that to him,” Asa said.

  Simone looked startled. “No. That’s not possible. My designs are all aimed at healing brain lesions and reconnecting neural pathways. Not disrupting them.”

  Asa reached into his pocket again and laid a hard shell case on the bar. He opened it, revealing a gleaming cylindrical wand with knobs and dials. “Does this thing look familiar?”

  She reached for it, turning it over in her hands. “Superficially, yes,” she said. “I’ve designed things that look like this. What’s important is what’s inside.”

  Asa spun the tablet around, exited the video player, and pulled up another document. “Here are the schematics.”

  Simone slid the tablet back to herself, scrolling swiftly through page after page of data.

  Zade stood there in rapt admiration, watching his succulent, towel-wrapped sex-goddess genius. Finally, Asa poked him hard in the side.

  “It has to be today,” Asa said. “Brenner won’t last much longer.”

  Simone looked up. “I got it.” Her voice was hard. “Some of it, at least. I’m going to find whoever did this to my work, and I am going to tear him apart.”

  “Can you help Brenner?” Asa asked.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s nothing I’ve ever done before. Like I said, I’m not a doctor. Besides, I would need some of the biomed devices themselves to do anything for him. After what happened yesterday, I can’t just swing by the lab and pick stuff up.”

  “We have all the equipment we took from Mark’s truck after the battle,” Asa said. “Maybe some of it would be useful.”

  “I won’t know until I see it. And he’s in terrible shape as it is. It’s only going to get worse.”

  “Do whatever you can,” Asa urged. “Please. I got nothing else. I don’t want him to die on my watch. He probably will, but I have to know that I tried everything.”

  “I can’t make any promises,” Simone warned.

  “I wouldn’t believe promises even if you made them,” Asa said. “Just try.”

  She looked at Zade. The fierce light in her eyes fired him up. What a woman.

  Of course, Asa, being the world-class horndog that he was, caught on.

  “Hate to interrupt the throbbing afterglow, you two, but a man is suffering,” he said. “Go put on some fucking clothes. Whaddaya say?”

  “I say go wait in the car,” Zade told him.

  Chapter 24

  “Simone? Simone?”

  Zade’s voice finally intruded into her consciousness. The motion of the car jolted the tablet she was studying out of her hand.

  He caught it for her. “Hey,” he said gently. “We’re here.”

  She looked around, blinking. She felt like her body had just popped back into existence after a trip to another dimension.

  The one where she’d spent most of her life.

  Zade was looking at her thoughtfully. “You’re incredibly focused.”

  “The schematics are complicated,” she said. “I didn’t want to miss anything those bastards might have fucked up. How long have we been driving?”

  “Almost three hours.”

  It took effort to focus her eyes outward on the deep mountain canyon that surrounded them. Tall trees rose straight up from its steep sides.

  Asa waited for them on the porch of a huge A-frame house, arms crossed over his big chest. He turned when they got to the door and led them through the house without a word. When they followed him down the secret staircase off the pantry, she was unsurprised. These guys were heavy into secrets.

  They paced behind him through a dimly lit corridor. Asa finally stopped in front of a reinforced door.

  “Where’s your team?” Zade asked.

  “I told them to leave,” Asa said. “He was getting stronger fast and I didn’t know if I’d be able to keep him contained. Didn’t want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt.” He looked at Simone. “Brace yourself.”

  She nodded.

  Asa unfastened several massive bolts and pushed the reinforced door open. They followed him inside.

  A transparent barrier divided the room, covered with rusty splotches, some wetter than others. Blood. There was a twisted iron bedframe lying on its side. A foam mattress had been torn apart
into ragged chunks. Uneaten food was thrown everywhere. Plastic water bottles also. The bottles were all full.

  On the far end, sprawled face downward as if he’d collapsed while crawling, was a huge man, his half-naked body covered with bruises. His back moved with quick, hectic jerks. His legs jittered.

  “Seizure,” Asa murmured. “Not the first.”

  His head lifted as they watched. His battered face was hardly recognizable as human. But he looked right at them through grotesquely swollen eyelids.

  He leaped to his feet, roaring, though they couldn’t hear him through the thick soundproof barrier. She saw tendons straining in his face and neck, his hands fisting, his cracked, dry mouth distorted by rage.

  She took an instinctive step backwards as Brenner hoisted the iron bedframe and bashed it against the barrier again and again. Brenner flung the twisted thing away. It hit the wall, then the floor.

  Then Brenner hurled his own body into the barrier with bone-crushing force.

  “Let’s go,” Asa said. “All three of us in here is too much stimulation for him. He dials it down when he’s on his own.”

  They followed him out and stood there in the corridor in dismayed silence.

  Asa shook himself with a harsh sigh. “So that’s what I’m dealing with,” he said to Simone. “Ideas?”

  “Some,” she said. “After seeing what they did to my wands, I’m not surprised he’s in this condition. They inverted the process I designed it for. Turned it into an instrument of torture.”

  Asa nodded impatiently. “Yeah, that much I figured out on my own. But can you help him?”

  “I have no idea,” she said. “Certainly not unless I get close to him. I’ll have to attach sensors and hook him up to the neuroscanner to find out more.”

  “Good luck with that,” Zade muttered.

  Simone shot him an irritated look. “I have to have physical contact.” She turned to Asa. “And ideally, I’ll need a 3-D imager and a scalp sleeve to interface with it. I have a prototype at my Batello lab, but that doesn’t help us much.”

  “I’ll show you what we have,” Asa said. “Follow me.”

  He led them further into the underground complex, to another room, heavily shielded. It took Asa several minutes to open all the biometric locks on its door.