“Jason and Armand. Unfortunately, Jason was at Navajo Lake and Armand was stil at the Huntington outpost—where the interviews were taken —when the revolt happened. Both Sentinels are presently considered missing in action.”
She strode up to him and gripped his belt loops. “You can get the data.”
“If there’s anything left of the place, yes. But regardless, the names of those lycans are in the cloud. So even if Huntington is trashed, it won’t be the end of the road.”
Taking a deep breath, Vash struggled to get her emotions under control. If pressed, she wouldn’t have been able to identify them. Elation, maybe.
Fear, certainly. More than a little confusion, as wel . Where did one go when they reached the end of the road? And twining through the mess of her mind was her acute awareness of the man she held on to. She was working on something for Char while in a compromising position with another man and she didn’t feel guilty. She searched for the sense that she was doing something wrong…being disloyal…but she didn’t find it.
“I can’t tel you what this means to me, Elijah,” she said quietly.
His warm hands encircled her wrists. “Then show me.”
CHAPTER 12
Amused by his very male one-track mind, Vash scoped out the furnishings in the smal room. “The choices are limited here, sex fiend: desktop or the floor. I’m lacking a penis, so I can’t nail you against the wal . And every chair in this room has arms, so straddling you is impossible.”
“Where’s your imagination?” Letting her go, Elijah tugged his shirt over his head. She was so focused on looking for any lingering injuries that she missed him toeing off his boots. Her hands were sliding over his torso, feeling for wounds she might have missed with her night vision when his jeans hit the floor.
The ful force of his nudity hit her and she hissed, riveted by his blatant masculinity.
“Say it again,” he demanded.
She unstuck her tongue from the roof of her mouth. “Huh?”
“What you wanted me to forget you said.”
Her gaze lifted to his, found his eyes feverishly bright. She wanted those eyes on her, sliding over her with their heat and hunger. No one had ever looked at her quite that way, with a desire that was untamed and wild.
She shrugged out of her vest and tossed it aside. Balancing on one foot, she unzipped one boot, then fol owed up with the other. As she pushed her pants down her legs, he sank into a chair, settling back and watching avidly.
“Say it, Vashti.” The rumble lacing his words was almost a purr. It drifted over and around her like warm tendrils of smoke.
Straightening, she kicked her pants aside.
“I want you”—she deliberately paused— “to let me do al the work. You were torn up good today.”
“I’l promise not to overly exert myself and we’l cal it square.”
“Not good enough.”
“Don’t trust me?”
“I could tie you up again, maybe. But you’d f**k us both to death for it.”
“You can’t top me, Vashti,” he said harshly. “That’s not what you need. Not what you want. Don’t ever try again.”
She approached him. Gripping the back of his chair, she lowered her lips to his brow and breathed him in, letting the scent of his skin slide through her. Soothing her.
He knew her, saw through her. She didn’t know how, but he did… Whatever. It didn’t matter. This was the last time they’d have this; their association was coming to a close. Soon she’d be the Vashti she knew, the one everyone needed her to be. Once she had Charron’s kil ers beneath her boot heels, she’d honor her end of their bargain. They’d both have what they real y wanted, which—contrary to the way things were going at that moment—wasn’t each other. “Tonight wil be slow and easy.”
The fingertips of his right hand skimmed lightly along the outside of her thigh. The caress was barely there, yet it reverberated through her in waves of warmth and need. That he didn’t do more, didn’t take over, gave her the chance to wipe the slate clean between them.
I need that, too, she thought. Needed to leave him with a different memory than the one from Shred.
“Show me how to work around this damned chair,” she muttered, although just the thought of wriggling and squirming over his hard body made her wet.
“Stand back first. Lemme look at you.”