Gabe: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 3) (3 page)

Then his hands were on her hips, lifting her up like she weighed nothing, his palms sliding under her bottom. She wrapped her legs around his waist.

She felt the brush of his cock between her thighs and all thought rushed out of her head.

She had no idea what the hell was going on between them, but she knew she wanted him with a need that bordered on desperation.

***

Gabe looked at Emerson, her pale skin gleaming in the faint light coming from the other room. She was like a beacon pulling him in.

As it did every time he was with her, that tight, hot ball of pain, rage and grief that lived inside him shrunk, easing back a little and letting him breathe.

He pressed her back against the wall and the head of his cock brushed her slick folds. He swallowed a groan and watched her tongue dart out to lick her lips. Her skin was still damp—from her shower as well as the slightest blush of perspiration from when he made her come. Her normally sunny blonde hair hadn’t yet dried, and it was shades darker than normal. It was slicked back, showcasing that interesting face of hers. She wasn’t beautiful, but she was attractive with a sharp jaw, and bright-blue eyes and full lips he thought about far too much.

He could taste her on his lips and he wanted more.

Needed more.

He took a brief second to admire her curves. And boy, she had good ones. She usually had them hidden beneath her sensible trousers and white lab coat. Damn that coat. He always wanted to strip it off her…or see what she might look like wearing only skin beneath it.

Gabe wasn’t sure when this obsession with Dr. Emerson Green had started. Maybe the day he’d met her, when he’d gone in for his first medical checkup not long after coming to Blue Mountain Base. Or maybe one of the many times she’d patched him or one of the squad back together. Or perhaps it had been when he’d lost Zeke…and something inside him had broken.

Whenever it had begun, it had driven him to the one thing he’d known deep down could keep that ugly darkness in him at bay. Lately, the only time he could think clearly was when his cock was lodged deep inside Emerson’s hot, tight warmth.

He pushed her thighs apart and moved until his cock rubbed against her damp folds. She cried out, arching into him. Damn, she was wet. All that slick desire, just for him. The head of his cock slid inside her. He took his time, thrusting in just another inch, using every ounce of his control to stop from slamming into her. He was a big man and he knew that he had to take it easy, let her adjust to him. She cried out again, her hands clenching on his shoulders. He’d have scratches tomorrow. Who knew that logical, smart Dr. Green was a wildcat in bed? He loved seeing the marks she left on him, and hated when they faded.

She tried to lower herself down on him, but he held her in place, pushing inside only another tortuous inch. God, she was tight. He took his time, slowly easing in farther and farther. With one final slide, he was seated all the way. She gave a long moan.

Now, it was time to move.

He felt it building, that driving, desperate feeling. The need to possess her. Claim her.

He starting thrusting. Her nails dug into him again, her legs clamping around his waist. Soon, Gabe couldn’t think. He just thrust into her, his gaze moving to her face.

Her skin was flushed, her upper teeth biting down on her full bottom lip. She arched into him, and in her eyes he thought he saw the same desperate need he felt inside him.

“Oh, God.” She tensed and then her orgasm hit her. She screamed and as her body clamped down on him, Gabe’s own release roared through him.

He thrust again, deeper, harder, and poured himself into her.

He had enough sense to stumble the few steps to the bed. He lowered them both onto the mattress, dropping most of his weight to the side, but still leaving her partly pinned beneath him. He buried his face in her hair and rode the blessed wave of bliss of feeling nothing but good.

One of her hands stroked his back. He took that to mean he was forgiven after her little snit in the infirmary. He had to kill the raptors, it was a driving imperative he couldn’t ignore.

And he knew his strengths and weaknesses. Knew he was built to take a lot of damage. He knew he could take down a hell of a lot of them. Maybe not the exact one who’d shot his brother, or the one who’d left Emerson beaten and sobbing in Gabe’s arms. But others would die.

Remembering the horrifying quadcopter crash and waking to find her missing, his arms tightened around her. It had been a few of the worst hours of his life. He and the rest of the squad, injured, on the run behind enemy lines, and he’d had no idea if Emerson was alive or not.

Until he’d seen her on her knees in the dirt before a raptor commander.

But Hell Squad had kept fighting, and Gabe had gotten her out. He hated seeing a woman’s tears, and Emerson’s heartbreaking sobs that night had almost broken him.

Yeah, he knew what he was good at. Killing. The United Coalition Army had made sure of that. First with his training, and later with the experimental enhancements they’d made to him.

He also knew he wasn’t good with people, especially women. In the past, when he’d needed one, he kept it to a hard, fast fucking and then he left. Most people knew he was dangerous, sensed it the way small animals did when a predator was around, and he was fine with people avoiding him.

But Emerson had never looked at him like that.

He thought, for a minute, about pulling her close in his arms and sleeping beside her. Maybe talking a bit.

But he knew he couldn’t do it. He let her go and slid out of the bed. He was dangerous, and anti-social. She didn’t need him messing up her life. If he had real balls, he’d not sneak back into her bed again. As he dressed, he felt her gaze on him. He didn’t say anything. What was there to say? It was safer for her if this…entanglement didn’t get worse.

He shouldn’t come back, but he knew he couldn’t help himself. When that ugly ball of pain in him got to be too much to bear, when it was choking him, he always ended back here. In her arms.

He turned to leave.

He heard her sigh. “Gabe.”

Gabe hesitated, then he walked out. He wouldn’t stay. Couldn’t stay.

Besides, it wasn’t like she ever asked him to, anyway.

***

Emerson lay in the dark, still naked, the scent of sex clinging to her skin and Gabe’s seed drying on her inner thighs. She heard her front door shut and she closed her eyes.

She felt… God, she didn’t know how she felt. Sad, angry, confused.

Sex was a biological function. But she knew it gave people much more than that. Since the invasion, people’s attitudes toward sex had changed. Casual sex wasn’t frowned upon. It was a way to feel close to someone, especially when most people had lost their loved ones. It was a way to cope with the stress of their lives, and a way to continue the human race. Not that she had many pregnant women. Most were too afraid to bring a child into such an unsettled world. But soon the contraceptive implants most people had would start to wear off. It was up to Emerson to devise a way to replicate them, give people the choice if they wanted to start a family in the middle of an apocalypse.

She sighed and rubbed her face. Gabe was just coming here for a release. That much was obvious. It was clear he didn’t even want to talk to her.

And just because she was confused and feeling upset about it wasn’t his fault.

She sat up and spied something on her bedside table. A single flower. A beautiful white lily.

Oh, Gabe
. God, the man confused her. She picked up the flower and breathed in its scent.

Not relishing another night of raptor-induced nightmares, or sensual dreams about a man who was close but at the same time so far out of reach, she got out of bed.

Her desk was waiting and she had work to do. And it helped her ignore the raw pain inside.

Chapter Three

“Hey, Bryony. Nice shirt.” Emerson smiled at the young girl and waved her into the infirmary.

The ten-year-old shot her a shy smile. Her dark hair was cut very short due to the fact that the raptors had shaved half her head and drilled into her brain. But she was recovering nicely. Her shirt was olive-green with Hell Squad stenciled on the front of it.

“Cruz got it for me.” The girl turned her head to look up at the man behind her.

Cruz shrugged a shoulder. “Wouldn’t fit me.”

The woman standing beside him snorted. “That girl has you wrapped around her teeny tiny finger, Ramos. She could ask you for a tropical vacation and you’d get it for her.”

As Emerson ushered the trio inside the exam room, she thought Santha’s observation was right. But while the soldier might be deeply fond of the small girl, his heart very clearly belonged to the tall, slim woman with him.

Santha Kade had survived alone for months, living in Sydney’s ruins, fighting back against the raptors any way she could. After helping Hell Squad, she and Cruz had teamed up to rescue human prisoners from the raptors’ labs. And those prisoners had included young Bryony.

Since then, Santha had moved into the base with Cruz, and was now heading up a new reconnaissance division. She and her small team were sneaking in and out of raptor territory and feeding intel back to the squads.

But it was the way Cruz looked at her, like she was his end and his beginning that made Emerson’s throat close.

She looked away and focused on her patient. “Okay, hop on up here, Bryony.” Emerson patted the exam bed. “I’m going to check you out.”

The girl hopped up, her sneakered feet swinging. “I’m feeling better.”

“Good.” Emerson gently tilted the girl’s head, studying how well the bone was being repaired by the regen therapy she’d used. “Do you like your new room?”

“Oh, yes. Santha’s helping me decorate.”

Behind the girl’s back, Santha grimaced. “I’m doing my best.”

Emerson hid her grin. She guessed a former SWAT-team member didn’t have much interior-decorating experience.

“And Cruz and Marcus smashed down a wall.”

Emerson’s eyes widened. “They what?”

Cruz smiled. “We put a door in so Bry’s new room is linked to our place.”

As Emerson clicked on her m-scanner, she felt a surge of happiness. To see two tough warriors like Cruz and Santha take a young girl under their wing…

“Your vitals all look good. Today, I’m going to run a more in-depth scan on your head. Okay?”

“Will it hurt?” Bryony’s voice held the slightest tremble.

Damn the raptors. “No, it won’t hurt.” Emerson swung the larger resonance scanner around on a flexible arm. “I’m just going to put it near your head. It’ll make a little humming noise and send a picture to that screen there—” she pointed at the comp screen “—and you won’t feel a thing.”

Santha grabbed the girl’s hand and squeezed. “When you’re ready, Bryony-girl.”

Bryony looked at Santha, then Cruz. “You’ll stay?”

“For as long as it takes,” Cruz promised.

Bryony straightened her thin shoulders. “I’m ready.”

“Good.” Emerson turned on the scanner. “It’ll take a few minutes, so just relax. Anyone need a drink?”

Santha and Cruz shook their heads.

“I’m okay,” Bryony said.

“Hell Squad off today?” Emerson asked casually.

“Yeah.” Cruz crossed his arms over his chest, the tribal tattoos on his arms visible under the edges of his T-shirt. “Everyone needed a bit of downtime. They’re in the gym, beating each other up. It’s Reed, Claudia, and Shaw versus Gabe. Marcus is refereeing.”

Emerson stilled. “Three against one?”

Santha made a noise in her throat. “Yeah, they should have made it four against one. Gabe is super strong and super deadly.”

A scowl took over Cruz’s face. “And lately…well, Gabe’s gotten even more intense, more driven.”

Emerson’s stomach turned over. Yeah, he was very clearly winding tighter and tighter, and when he finally snapped…

“How are you, Emerson?” Santha asked quietly.

“Fine. Busy.”

“You were trapped with the raptors and took quite a beating—”

“All recovered.” She smiled, and wondered if it looked as brittle as it felt.

“Yeah, physically, maybe. But it takes time for the wounds inside to heal, for the terror to fade.”

Santha’s quiet tone resonated with understanding. Emerson knew the woman had been forced to watch her sister be attacked by raptors, and later dealt with the shock of finding her dying in a raptor lab.

But Emerson knew Santha threw herself into her work fighting the raptors.

And Emerson was doing the same thing, albeit on a different battlefield. “I’m really okay.”

The other woman didn’t look convinced, but before she could talk again, the scanner beeped. With a frown, Emerson turned her attention to the monitor.

What the hell? She studied the screen, and tapped it, double-checking the odd result.

“Doc?” Cruz asked.

“There’s…” She glanced at Bryony, not sure if she should bring this up in front of her. But steady, pale-green eyes stared at her. Eyes that had already seen too much and seemed far too aged for a ten-year-old. It was Bryony’s head, and after everything she’d been through, she deserved some honesty.

“There’s something lodged in your head.”

Santha gasped and slipped an arm around the girl.

Anger flashed over Cruz’s face. “What?”

Bryony swallowed. “But my head doesn’t hurt, and I feel okay. So, what is it doing there?”

“I don’t know.” Emerson felt like such a failure with that answer. Despite treating and monitoring all the lab survivors, she still didn’t know exactly what the aliens had done to these people, or why. Yet.

She tapped the screen, running an analysis on the object. She frowned again.

“It appears to have a crystalline structure.” She looked over the girl’s head at Santha and Cruz. “The computer says it’s made of the same substance as the information crystals the raptors use to store information on.”

Cruz cursed.

Bryony glanced up. “Naughty word, Cruz.”

“Sorry.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Doc Emerson?”