She wanted to take his hand. “I love you.” She was certain of it. The wild tumble of emotion she felt for Connor had to be love.
His eyes widened.
“But I can’t go with you. If Keegan is telling the truth, and those people die—”
“They’re paranormals,” Eric pointed out. “Not just people—”
“Same thing,” Chloe said flatly.
“Yes…” Eric murmured.
“I can’t live with that on me.” Okay, technically, she could pretty much keep living through everything. “I need to help them. It’s not just about me.”
“Baby.” Connor’s hand cupped her cheek. His claws never so much as scratched her. “I just want you safe.”
“And I will be safe because you will be there with me every step of the way. You and Duncan are stronger than he is. I know you are.” She trusted him completely. “You’ll have my back.”
“Always,” he whispered as his head lowered toward hers. “But don’t do this…don’t take this risk. We can leave. I want to go with you. Before, I wanted to go with you when we were upstairs. I want you.”
She kissed him. Right there. So what if everyone was watching. Her hands slid over the hard line of his jaw and she rose up against him. “I want you more than anything,” she said, meaning those words with every fiber of her being. “We’ll help these people. We’ll win, and then we can be together. We can look to the future.” Because she wanted her future to be with him. Whatever came her way, it would be with him.
His eyes closed. “I can’t deny you.”
Her heart raced faster.
“I wish I could.” His eyes opened and they were glowing with power. “If Keegan makes one wrong move, he’s a dead man.”
Yes! He was going to help her. Chloe threw her arms around Connor and hugged him tight.
He lifted her up against him and held her, so close. So close.
Over Connor’s shoulder, she saw Eric watching them. His head had cocked and his gaze had turned calculating.
Uh, oh.
“Before this mission,” Eric murmured, “Connor, I’ll need a word alone with you.”
Chloe pulled back. She shook her head—
“Only a moment,” Eric said and he smiled. That smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I have to make sure that Connor fully understands the mission.”
It was a recovery mission. What more was there to understand? Even she got that.
But the others were filing out of the office.
“You’ll all be briefed soon,” Eric promised as he rose from his desk. “Every precaution will be taken. Every single one.”
Connor squeezed Chloe’s hand. “Wait for me in the courtyard.”
She nodded. Her gaze searched his a moment more, then she slid from the room. When the door closed behind her, Chloe clenched her hands into fists. She looked up and found Olivia staring at her.
“Are you sure about this?” Olivia asked her, worry darkening her eyes.
“Yes.” It had to be done. And she wasn’t going to just hide in the shadows and wait for someone else to save the day. She tried to smile. “Are you sure you don’t have another wish in you? Maybe one that makes me indestructible and lets me live forever with the man I love?”
Olivia hesitated. “I wish I could do that for you…”
Chill bumps rose on Chloe’s arms. Olivia had just used the big W word.
Olivia hugged her. “Be safe, my friend.”
***
“So…you’re done with the Para Unit, huh?”
Connor glared at Eric. “If Chloe is going on this mission, I’ll be at her back. But after this…yeah, the slate was supposed to be clean, remember? Chloe was my last case.”
“She’s more than a case, isn’t she?” Eric opened his laptop and flipped it around to face Connor.
What was the guy planning?
Eric tapped on a few of the keys.
“You’re willing to give up everything for her, aren’t you?”
Yes.
He’d realized that fact when he’d seen her fighting with Harris.
“What do you think she’d give up for you?”
His chin lifted as Connor crossed his arms over his chest. “It doesn’t matter.” She’d said she loved him. With every bit of his tattered heart, he wanted that to be true. But with all the sins on him, hell, why would she love someone like him? Chloe was good. She was risking her life for people she didn’t even know. She was—
“I’ve got something for you to see,” Eric muttered. He tapped on the keyboard once more.
Chloe’s image appeared on the screen.
“This is from my security cameras. It was taken earlier, you know, before all hell broke loose.” Eric sat on the edge of the desk. “That right there…of course, is Chloe.”
Connor growled.
“She’s got a key card. Tricky little wolf. I didn’t even see her swipe it from my office.” He paused and glanced around. “Huh, wonder if she took anything this time?”
Connor leaned toward that small screen. “She’s…leaving.” Leaving me. Because I said I wouldn’t go with her. He knew this had been right after Chloe told him that she could love him…and I didn’t say a damn word back to her.
“See…right there…she only has one more door and she’s free. Watch it, watch—yes, that door is opening now.”
Freedom was right in front of her.
“This is when the screaming starts.”
He saw Chloe whirl around.
Eric paused the video.
“She could’ve left then. Just headed out into the night and vanished. We sure had our hands full. It would have been a while before we could search for her.”
Connor shook his head.
“But watch this…” Eric hit the button to play the video once more. The camera had a perfect shot of Chloe’s face and the fear in her expression stole Connor’s breath. So much fear and—
“Ah, did you see it? She said something.” Eric rewound the video. “Let’s watch again.”
And he could see it. Perfectly. It looked as if Chloe was yelling something.
Connor!
He rubbed a hand over his chest.
“She was free and clear to leave. But she ran right back into hell for one reason,” Eric said.
When Connor looked over at Eric, he saw that the other man wasn’t watching the video. Instead, Eric was staring straight at Connor.
“Now you know what she’d do for you.” Eric’s gaze swept over Connor. “The question is…what would you do for her?”
“Anything,” he promised.
Eric smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
Chapter Fourteen
The night truly was beautiful.
Chloe stared up at the stars. Bright and glittering. She didn’t see the moon, not yet, but she could feel it. A starry, moon-filled night.
Her arms wrapped around her stomach as she stood there. She didn’t like the silence. It was giving her too much time to think and to fear. To wonder…what if?
What if I die and don’t come back?
What if this is my last night with Connor?
What if we don’t have a chance at forever?
What if this moment is all we have?
The door opened behind her. She looked over her shoulder and saw Connor. His eyes gleamed in the darkness.
She turned toward him. Opened her arms. Tipped back her head.
When he kissed her, the what if’s in her mind finally quieted. She drank him in, loving his touch, needing him so much that her whole body ached.
So this is love.
She’d always wondered what it would be like. For some reason, she’d thought it would be sweeter. Softer. Kind of like a sappy song on the radio.
She hadn’t known it would be so hot and wild and consuming. She hadn’t known that it would twist her up in knots. That it would wreck her.
That it would make her stronger.
It had.
&
nbsp; “We don’t have much time,” Connor said. “Baby, I need to be with you…please, let me have you again. Right here.”
She wanted to be with him a thousand more times.
“Here, now…with the stars on you. No one else can see. It’s just us. Baby, always us.”
He lifted her into his arms. Carried her back to the side of the building. They were hidden there, behind the door. He stripped her. His touch tender, his desire obvious in the fire that lit his gaze.
Her hands weren’t as tender on him. She was frantic to feel him. She shoved up his shirt. Her hands slid over his hot, muscled flesh. Then she moved down, down, and opened the button of his jeans.
He was strong. He positioned her, held her easily, and her legs curled around him. One thrust—and he sank to the hilt inside of her. She was so full that Chloe felt stretched and it was amazing. She loved the way he filled her. When he withdrew and thrust in again, her eyes nearly rolled back in her head. He was holding her, surrounding her so totally, consuming and dominating as he controlled the rhythm. The guy was driving her out of her head.
Chloe’s nails bit into his back. She offered him her neck. “Bite me.” Because she knew just how to push them both over the edge.
His breath blew over her neck. Hot. Making her tremble.
Then his fangs sank into her.
Pleasure ripped through Chloe and her body went bow-tight. Her right hand flew out. She grabbed the fence, not even thinking about the silver until it was too late—
But it didn’t burn.
He thrust deep.
Her sex clamped around him, holding so tight.
She rose up, pushed back against him, and his teeth stayed in her neck. Pleasure hit her, rolling through her again and again and Chloe cried out, unable to stop herself because it was too much.
Her sex contracted around him as the orgasm blasted through her. She couldn’t breathe, for a moment, she wasn’t even sure if she could see. The pleasure was so intense it was almost painful. Almost…
“Connor!”
He poured into her. He shuddered and held her so tight. She wanted to freeze that moment. To hold it close because as he lifted his head and looked at her, Chloe could have sworn that she saw emotion—love—flash in his eyes.
I want him to love me. I want him to feel just a little bit of the emotion that I feel for him. I want—
The pleasure crested again.
He held her close.
Her legs were trembling when the waves of release finally ended. Ever so carefully, Connor righted her clothes. He brushed back her hair. He kissed her cheek.
Then he yanked his jeans back into position.
Chloe stared at him. Her heart was still racing in a triple-time beat. “He’s…he’s going to know what we just did.” She should have thought of that before. Keegan would catch the scent, he’d know—
“Fuck what he knows. You’re mine, and the whole world needs to recognize that fact.”
She was his. And he was hers.
He stood before her. So strong and powerful. Brave.
“I’m scared, Chloe,” Connor confessed.
She shook her head, sure that she’d misheard. Not Connor. Not—
“You’re the one thing I can’t lose,” he said.
“You won’t lose me.”
He swallowed. “What I’m about to do…if there was another choice, I wouldn’t…I wouldn’t do it.”
Okay, those words were not good. Some of her bright post-sex and post-multiple orgasm glow began to fade.
“If something happens, if Keegan bites you, he will compel you.”
Her worst fear.
“Today, we learned that another compulsion can cancel out his power.”
Yes, right, but that compulsion had been given after Keegan’s.
“Eric wants me to try something with you.” His breath exhaled on a ragged sigh. “He wants me to compel you, and baby, I think I should. I just…I can’t do it without telling you first.”
He’d better not tell her to forget the mission. Or to forget him. Or to—
“I want to compel you…to ignore any suggestions or orders that Keegan gives you. Hell, this shit might not work, it’s just a shot in the dark. But Eric and I think that any additional chance we have—”
She threw her arms around him. “Do it.”
“Chloe?”
She looked up at him. “Compel me. I don’t want to be used against you or the other agents. I want to help. I want to be strong.”
“Baby, you are strong.”
She tried to smile for him.
He kissed her once more. Such a soft, gentle kiss.
Then Connor looked into her eyes. The stars behind him didn’t seem to shine as bright. They turned a little hazy, but his voice was so clear…
“Chloe, you will not let Keegan into your mind. You will not let him control you. He will not compel you to follow any orders. If he tries you will only hear my voice…”
His voice was all she could hear right then.
“You will hear my voice, Chloe, and you will resist him. You will hear my voice, and you will ignore him. You will hear my voice…”
She waited, her body locked down…
“And you will know how much I fucking love you.”
***
“Another armored van?” Keegan murmured when he was led inside—and then shackled in place. “How not surprising.”
Connor kept his gun ready and aimed at the bastard. One wrong move, and he’d pump the guy full of so many drugs that Keegan would be drooling on the floorboard.
Beside him, Duncan was armed, too. Duncan was on his left. And Chloe was on his right.
The back door swung closed and Connor heard the distinct sound of Eric locking that door as he secured them inside.
A small window was overhead. One that let the moonlight spill into the transport van.
Keegan stretched a bit, as if trying to reach for that light. Then he sighed and glanced over at Chloe. “You screwed him again. I hate it when you wear his stench.”
Connor’s finger tightened on the trigger.
Chloe patted his leg. But she told Keegan, “Start giving us directions.”
That had been the deal. Keegan was conscious because he had to give them directions to his little house of horrors. His voice wasn’t slurred because Eric had eased off on the guy’s dosage.
A bad idea.
Keegan looked up at the window. “We’d better hurry. At midnight, everything will end.”
Chloe pulled out her radio.
“We’ll drive down the main road here…for about forty-minutes. Then head west.”
Chloe relayed those instructions.
“I’ll give you more directions as we go,” Keegan said. “Wouldn’t want to give too much away, too soon.”
Connor really wanted to shoot the guy.
The truck lurched forward.
Silence.
“Bet you and Duncan didn’t even know about me…I mean I did my research on you two. You were so young, it makes sense you didn’t remember me. And Duncan?” His laughter was low. “He was so fucked up after our father killed our mom…hell, he didn’t remember much of anything did he?”
Connor just stared at the bastard. But, yes, the guy was right. Connor didn’t recall a damn thing about him and as for Duncan…Duncan didn’t even know me when we first met.
“Do you remember our mother dying?” Keegan asked. “I’ve always been curious about that.”
Connor could hear the echo of screams in his mind.
“Are the stories I’ve heard true? You and Duncan were supposed to stay in the closet, but you ran out?”
He’d been so young. A lost kid. Afraid of the dark.
“Did she die protecting you?”
Connor’s chin lifted. Chloe’s shoulder brushed against his. “Yes,” he said flatly. “She loved me.” He’d always clung to that one truth.
Keegan looked back up at the window. “What a fu
cking waste.” Silence. “All her family? Guess why they died?”
Connor didn’t want to guess.
“Because they didn’t love me,” Keegan murmured.
Duncan shot off the bench.
Connor grabbed him before Duncan could take Keegan’s head.
Keegan laughed. “This is going to be such a fun night. I’ve got so many surprises planned.”
***
Eric stared at the screen in front of him. “I’ll just bet you do.”
Chloe didn’t have to radio the directions back to him. That whole armored van was wired for sound and video. But Keegan didn’t know that…and anything that bastard didn’t know…
Gives us an advantage.
“All right, people,” he said to the group in his van. “We’re looking at a destination we can access by midnight. As we keep driving, we’ll work to narrow this shit down. We want to know the location as soon as we can. The last thing we want is to send our agents in there blind.” The sooner they knew the location, the sooner he could get an air patrol in to sweep the area.
His gaze stayed locked on the monitor. Keegan should be secured, for the time being.
But worry still gnawed at him because he’d learned long ago…when it came to paranormals…should didn’t apply.
***
“We’re nearing Wessex Road,” Keegan murmured after they’d driven and driven for at least two hours, following his sketchy directions. “Turn right on Wessex.”
Connor heard Chloe speak those same directions into her radio.
“Ah, Chloe…” Keegan shook his head and pulled lightly on his restraints. “I have to confess, I thought you’d be too afraid to come on this particular mission.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” she said, voice flat.
“Liar,” Keegan accused. “Ever since Eclipse, I bet I’ve been starring in your nightmares.” He licked his lips and studied her. “Though you did surprise me there. I was so enraged that you’d screwed Connor, my emotions got a little out of control.”
“I didn’t just have sex with him,” Chloe said, still in that calm, unemotional voice. “I mated him.”
Rage twisted Keegan’s face—just for an instant. “Mating isn’t really for life. It’s just until one of you dies. But, in your case, death doesn’t take, does it, sweetheart?”