Red Night ((Book 1) Timewalker Chronicles) (6 page)

Alexa’s only thought was that she was going to die of pleasure. Without conscious thought, she shoved her hips against him, pushed forcefully against the dual onslaught of his hands and mouth. She moaned. She writhed. She whimpered with need.

Relentless, savage, he claimed complete ownership of her body. Flicking faster, the heat of his mouth incinerated her flesh. Moving in and out, his fingers stroked her to a frenzy. When she was close to shattering, his mouth closed over her, sucked, pulled rhythmically. Deep inside, he attacked the tip of her womb with his fingers, rubbed against her deepest core until she shattered in his arms.

Without giving her a chance to breath again, he inched his way up her body, rubbed his heated skin over hers, settled his hips in the cradle of hers. She lifted her hips in welcome, giving him a better angle. Moving feverishly, he coated himself with her juices before ramming home in one strong thrust.

Searing heat leapt between their Shen, binding them together. Alexa felt the difference in her body, knew she’d be able to find Luke anywhere on this earth. Bonded until death. Luke moved harder, faster, burying himself so deeply inside of her she knew she’d never get him out. The power of the Shen surged through them, heightened their senses and sizzled their blood, until her body exploded with pleasure. The muscles of her core clenched and pulsed around him, pulled him over the edge with her.

* * * * *

“I’ll go in alone. I don’t want you in there.” Luke knew he looked like a fool whispering to himself as he walked down the hallway. He didn’t care. Alexa could hear him. Her hand was scorching the skin on his shoulder where she hung onto him, making him remember things he’d rather not be thinking about right now. Like her…naked.

She pinched him.

He paused at the door to the men’s locker room, then punched in the security code. How had she talked him into this? He should’ve left her at home, like he’d wanted to. There wasn’t a chance in hell he was going to risk her life, or anyone else’s, by allowing her into the Hot Zone. But he hadn’t thought of the locker room. The thought of her looking at the other naked men made him crazy. Undressing himself, knowing she was watching. Wishing she’d touch him. Wondering if she would.

This was a terrible idea. Time to turn around and drive her home.

As if she could read his thoughts, she shoved him through the door and three friendly faces looked up in greeting. They were all partially undressed, their clothes thrown haphazardly into the steel lockers. He hurried to the far side of the room and the oversized locker with his name on it. Gritting his teeth, he fumbled with the combination lock. Cold awareness nearly made him shudder when her hand abandoned his shoulder. Now he had no idea where she was, what she was doing. Who she was looking at.

The friendly banter of his buddies didn’t help his mood. He tried to sound normal, to speak when spoken to, but he wasn’t sure how successful he was. They were all going in to feed the mutants this morning. Make sure all the cultures were growing. Count bacterial colonies. Count cells. Count petri dishes. Count death.

With great care, he peeled the clothing from his body slowly, thankful for all the hours he’d spent in the gym. Hoping she was watching, he took his time and made damn sure the others were gone by the time his pants came off. They’d all wonder why the hell he had an erection if they saw him. He hoped Alexa saw him. Saw him, and wanted him slamming home.

Get a grip, Lawson.
He had a job to do. The sooner he destroyed all the mutant cultures, the sooner he could pursue his other, much more enjoyable, interests.

His research career with the Army was going to be over after today. Today he was going to deliberately break an order. He had pending orders to destroy M-6, but he was going to jump the gun a little. In light of everything Alexa told him last night, his career was irrelevant. Money wasn’t an issue. More than enough was stashed in investment accounts. He’d get a job teaching at a university. Something low key. Low stress. Somewhere a single mistake couldn’t get him, and the rest of the world, killed.

He’d found heaven with Alexa last night, holding her in his arms while she slept. Lying there, awake all night, his fingertips memorized the soft curves of her face while his analytical mind pieced together their future. Afraid to go to sleep. Afraid if he did, when he woke up, she’d be gone.

That’s why he’d been so easy to persuade this morning. She insisted this was her mission and she needed to see it through. Only one thing had swayed him into allowing her to tag along. Plain and simple, he didn’t want her out of his sight.

Hell of a lot of good that logic was doing him now. He couldn’t see her anyway.

The other men moved into the next room to suit up. Alone at last. “Alexa, I want you to wait in here. Don’t move. It shouldn’t take me more than a half hour to get them all in the oven.”

Silence.

“Alexa?”

Cold fear squeezed Luke’s diaphragm, making it difficult to breath the canned air. She wouldn’t. If she went in there… She didn’t have any training in the suits. She was going to get them all killed. “Shit.” Pulling his pants off in a frenzy, he threw them in the general direction of his locker. He wanted to strangle her. But even more powerful than his anger was his fear that he’d lose her. “God, woman. You’re going to get yourself killed.”

“Relax. I’m not an idiot.”

All the air left his lungs in a giant whoosh. Alexa was taking him on one hell of a roller coaster ride. The touch of her hand on his bare shoulder jolted him back into high gear like an electric current. “Don’t even think about going in there.”

“I admit, I was going to try. But after your lecture last night, I’d have to be suicidal to go in there with no training.” Soft, delicate, her hand glided down his back to linger on his left buttock.

“Damn right.” There was only so much torture a man could take. Whirling around, he grabbed at the spot where he knew she must be standing. Closing his arms around her soft frame, he pulled her to rest against his naked flesh.

“This was a bad idea.” Shimmering into view, she locked her blue eyes onto his. “I’m sorry. I’ll be a good girl now and wait out in the hallway.”

“Too late.” Lowering his lips to hers, he breathed a question into her mouth. “Do you like what you see?”

After a quick kiss she shoved him away from her. “Go.”

He reached for her, but she vanished. In vain he tried to grab her, but she was bent on hiding from him now. Her voice echoed off the cold tile floor. “Go. Kill them all, Luke. Kill every single one of them.”

Why did thirty minutes have to feel like an eternity in this cold locker room where her own heartbeat echoed too loudly in her ears? She hoped she wasn’t making a mistake, trusting Luke to finish it. But she couldn’t go in there. She didn’t know how to put on the suit or run the equipment. She didn’t know where the cultures were kept or how to destroy them. Not a chance in hell she was going in there. Talk about a fish out of water! A guppy flopping around in a room so dangerous just breathing the air would kill her. “C’mon Luke.” Raw nerves drove her sandaled feet across the cold tile floor. Back and forth. Waiting.

She didn’t dare let down her guard and allow her cloak of invisibility to fall. Anyone could walk through that door at any time. The men’s locker room wasn’t somewhere she wanted to be found. Might be a little tough explaining to someone what she was doing in here. But holding the energy pattern was beginning to take its toll. Her eye was twitching again. It wouldn’t be long before she was blinking in and out of sight. Before that happened, she had to be out of the building.

A loud rush of sound alerted her that the decontamination showers were on.
Thank God.
Six minutes of chemical disinfectants pounding him inside the suit. Then he’d be back in the locker room, naked. Heat rose to her cheeks. Her pulse leapt. The memory of her breasts sliding against his hard body drove every sane thought from her head and made her birthmark heat up. “Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.” There was no time for this. They had a job to do. Her feet quickened the pace and she bit her knuckles.

The breath she’d been holding escaped in a rush when the door finally opened. Wearing nothing but a towel slung low over those sexy hips, he stepped into the room. “Alexa?”

“I’m here.” Her voice sounded strangled, even to her, and she was glad he couldn’t see her staring at the sculpted muscles she was dying to touch.

He didn’t appear to notice anything wrong with her voice and didn’t bother trying to look for her. “We have a problem, angel.” First he ran his hand through his damp hair, then rubbed a kink in his neck. “I destroyed everything in there, but two of the cultures are missing.”

Like a shock of cold water dumped on her steaming libido, his words sank in. She shook her head. No. This couldn’t happen. “Trent.”

“Yes.” Luke strolled over to his locker and pulled his shirt on. “The other guys told me he was really worked up when he came in earlier this morning.”

“Why?”

After pulling a pair of boxers on underneath the fluffy white towel he threw the towel onto the floor. “He got canned.”

Shaking her head, she tried in vain not to stare at Luke’s bare legs. What did that mean? “I don’t understand that term. What’s canned?”

“They fired him. Took him off the project. Gave him his walking papers. Told him to get his shit and get out. Canned.”

Alexa was surprised the seams in his pants didn’t rip open, Luke was shoving his legs into them with such force. “His employment was terminated? Why?”

“Because I had to be an ass and make a few phone calls.”

Was Luke clenching his teeth? She drifted closer, close enough to touch him, but didn’t. “I don’t understand.”

“I don’t either.” Fully dressed and ready to go, he slammed his locker closed. “Damn it! They weren’t supposed to do this until after tomorrow night. I guess the Colonel hated him too much to wait.”

Tomorrow night was the big party. The time and place, it was believed, where the Red Death launched its attack on the world. “So, Trent got mad and managed to walk out of here with M-6? Why? What’s he going to do with it?”

“Sell it, probably. He’s the only one who could’ve taken the cultures. I’m sorry”

Her knees buckled and she sank down onto the hard metal bench. “We have to find him.” The bug was out. She’d failed. And now, they only had twenty-four hours left to find Trent and stop him from killing them all.

“Damn it. I hate this. Where the hell are you?”

Alexa gladly allowed her energy pattern to return to normal. The moment she did, he pulled her into his arms.

Her mind in turmoil, Alexa rested her head against Luke’s chest and allowed the steady beating of his heart to calm her. Hell. It looked like she was going to have to kill a man after all. Trent had to be stopped. She couldn’t let anyone, or anything, stand in her way. And that included her own traitorous heart.

Reluctantly, she disentangled herself from his embrace. “Who’s he going to sell it to?”

“I have no idea.” Luke looked like he wanted to reach for her again, but thought better of it. “But he’ll be at the fundraiser tomorrow. That’s where the initial outbreak takes place.”

Alexa nodded. “How would you like to be my escort tomorrow evening?”

His smile turned her bones to jelly. “We’re going to need a plan. It’s not too late to stop this thing.”

“What I’m going to need is a dress for the party.” And a gun.
Definitely a gun.

“How long should we wait out here?” Alexa asked. They’d been parked a half block away from Trent’s home for over an hour. It was after midnight and they hadn’t seen any sign of him. Alexa shifted uncomfortably in the soft leather bucket seat next to Luke and looked through his binoculars toward Trent’s two-story colonial style home. The house was new, but built to look old. Red brick spanned the front and was accented by two white columns. Climbing rosebushes and vines covered the front of the home up to the top of the first floor windows. Several lights were on, but every single curtain was closed.

“Hell, I don’t know. Let me check my spy handbook.”

The annoyed look she cast his way made him want to kiss her. Before he could, she focused her attention on the house again. “Got a copy of ‘Breaking And Entering For Dummies’?”

“This isn’t funny, you know.”

“I know.”

Of its own volition, his right hand caressed her neck and his thumb feathered over her left cheek. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t stop touching her, couldn’t stop thinking about her. She was the only thing standing between the entire world and Death. And she’d trusted him. It was humbling. And terrifying.

Lightning quick, she pressed a kiss into his palm, then opened her door. “I’ll be back.”

She was out of the vehicle before he could protest, her black slacks and shirt melting into the shadows. If not for her hair, he’d have lost track her. Then, with a little wave, she vanished. “Damn it.” How was he supposed to keep her out of trouble if she kept disappearing? At least this time he knew where she was going.