safe.
The helicopter takes us to an airport. From there, we board a luxury airline. Not commercial. The entire inside is built with nothing but first-class accommodations on board.
“Welcome, Miss Deverough.” A tall, mountain of a man with shock white hair greets me inside the plane.
“Forest, leave her alone.” A diminutive brunette pushes the man to the side. “Can’t you see she’s in shock?”
“Just being friendly,” he says.
“Be friendly later. Max, get your girl settled, then let me take a look at you.” She turns toward me with a smile. “You’re safe, Eve. You’re with the Guardians now, and we’re going to make sure nothing like this ever happens to you again.” She makes a shooing motion and Max guides me all the way to the back of the plane.
Max gets me settled into a seat in the back. He tucks me in with a pillow and blanket. There’s a click as he fastens a seat belt over my lap, then he settles in beside me and holds my hand.
The engines wind up and then we’re moving. The large plane bumps over the pavement. There’s a slow turn, then a roar as the jet engines engage. I’m pressed back into the seat as we take off.
It’s only then that I relax and close my eyes.
It’s over.
The nightmare is finally over.
Forty-Two
Max
A Few Weeks Later
“What did Skye say?” Eve peeks over the couch as I wander in after a long day of getting poked and prodded. She puts the book down that she’s reading and pops to her feet.
“Everything looks good.”
I’m encouraged by my checkup with Doc Summers. I had immediate surgery once we got back to headquarters and spent the next few days in bed with a concoction of antibiotics flooding my system to fight off the infection.
I described the pills I took, and after a brief image search to identify them, Doc Summers concedes it wasn’t a total boneheaded move to take pills some strange healer in a village doled out.
“Good enough to go back to work?”
“I’ve got a few weeks on Medical Hold. She wants a little more physical therapy before clearing me for duty.” I drop my bags on the floor, toss my keys in the bowl sitting by the door, and go to greet my girl. “I understand why Griff was such a pain in the ass when he got sidelined.”
I hate not operating.
I hate not being able to work out with my team even more. I go to the gym with them, do what I’ve been cleared for, but I miss our runs.
“You really are amazing, you know that?” Eve meets me halfway. Her arms wrap around my waist and she lifts on tiptoe to kiss me.
The light floral scent of her perfume, combined with her natural essence, is a heady intoxication that my dick can’t ignore. I’ve gone from flaccid to fully erect in the span of a nanosecond.
But that’s the way it is with Eve. My body aches for her all day, every day.
And she’s all mine.
She’s been in meetings with Sam and Mitzy, going over what she knows about her father’s business. The ledgers we retrieved are great, but they’re built on a cypher Mitzy’s team has yet to decode.
On our return, I assumed Eve would stay at The Facility, where all our rescues go, if that’s what they want. She lived through incredible trauma, and while she meets with the therapists at The Facility to talk that shit through, Eve decided on her own to stay at my place.
I didn’t know that until Doc Summers finally gave me the go-ahead to leave the hospital. That’s when I realized Eve moved in.
And I absolutely love it. I end each day holding her in my arms. I wake each morning with her beside me. I can’t imagine living any other way.
“You taste like heaven.” I claim her mouth with greed and hunger. Drawing her to me, the kiss deepens as I splay my hand across the small of her back, holding her possessively while devouring her with a kiss.
I need her in a soul-desperate way, craving to make her mine in a way that goes beyond the pleasures of sex.
Eve appears to need no encouragement from me. Her head tilts back. Her mouth parts. Her breathy sighs send me higher and higher, lifting me to breathtaking heights.
I swear the temperature in the room rises, but that’s not the case. This is the heat between us growing into a firestorm of need. I rub my tongue