Something had slipped into place that had been missing before. “Your hair was flaming red and you were wearing that ridiculous green dress that had every man in the room panting after you.”
“Including you?”
“Oh, so including me. That was when I knew I wanted you. You were distant before and then we clicked.” They’d danced all night and brought that man down. Together.
Her head came up. “I should explain that. Why I seemed like two different people at times. Ben, I want to be honest with you.”
Their time was running out. So fast. God, he needed more time with her. She looked over and her face fell.
1:10
She shook her head and wrapped her arms around him. “It doesn’t matter. Just know that I always wanted you. I knew it from the moment I saw you. I knew you were the one for me and even though it was complicated, I was always going to end up right here. With you. This is how we end, Ben Parker. We end together.”
He held on to her and found her lips with his. He kissed her again and again, this time with no expectations of anything but to die in her arms. His cock thickened, but he could ignore it in favor of telling her how gorgeous she was, how lucky he’d been to meet her, to know her.
To love her.
She wrapped her arms around him and held on.
For way longer than a minute.
What the hell was going on? He glanced over and the clock read 0:00.
It held for one second and then another.
And that was when he heard the clang of someone knocking on the door.
“I’m coming in. Dear god, please cover up and don’t be doing something that will make me vomit,” a familiar voice said.
“Oh, shit.” Maggie turned and practically leapt out of bed.
The door came open and he was facing…well, he was facing a second Maggie, except her hair was a brilliant purple.
“Okay, sis, there’s good news and bad news,” Second Maggie said.
Maggie was reaching for her clothes cube. “I take it the good news is that we didn’t blow up, and that’s awesome. How did you manage to shut down the bombs?”
“I didn’t,” Second Maggie said. “Tris did. He and that Canadian dude worked some serious mojo while Coop and I took the helo up and tried to take the bomb somewhere safe. Luckily we didn’t need to because the techies came through. By the way, the comm problem was totally one way. We could hear everything, and also, there are cameras that fed out even after the power went off, so way to make a sex tape, sis. Dad’s probably getting hold of that one, you know.” She finally looked his way. “He’s going to kill you, dude. And you should know that it was totally me who shot you and kicked you in the balls.”
Yes, he could see that now. Damn it. She was twins. His head was kind of reeling because they weren’t dead, and now there were two of her and apparently she had some crazed father who wouldn’t appreciate his sexual performance.
“Maggie?”
She was dressed again, the nanites covering her gorgeous body in an instant. She gave him a brilliant smile. “It’s Kenzie. Kenzie Taggart.”
His brain caught on that last name, and his stomach kind of took a deep dive. That last name was iconic in his world. It couldn’t be a coincidence. “Taggart? Tell me he’s not your father.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes and looked like that perfect brat she’d called herself. “He’s not that bad.”
Ian Taggart was known as the single scariest dude in the whole of the intelligence community, and apparently he’d just made passionate, end-of-time love to the man’s daughter. And it had been caught on camera.
The other Kenzie grinned but managed to make it slightly sinister. “Oh, he’s so going to want to meet you, dude. Now let’s go because we still have a crazy scientist to hunt down. I have no idea how he managed it, but he took a helo off the mountain twenty minutes ago while we were trying to make sure he didn’t blow up the world.”
Ben stood, not caring that he was naked. “Huisman is dead. His body is out there in the office.”
“Nope,” the twin said. “He faked it all and got out with the formula. We’re starting from scratch. I believe you’re wanted in a debrief and then our agencies are going to form a team. That should be fun now