Frederick, Maryland

7 p.m.

Fetch stared out the window of her hotel room at the empty streets. Soon life would get back to normal here and elsewhere. The end to the pandemic was in sight, thanks to Zoe, who was in a suite down the hall. Allegro and Lynx had been booked into rooms on either side of her, and Hayley was one floor below, resting until Luka’s condition improved enough for her release. Because of a shortage of beds at the AMRIID patient facility, they’d discharged Fetch as soon as they confirmed the effectiveness of the antivirus.

She felt worlds better. Her fever was gone, her coughing had stopped, and she was regaining her strength. The aches and bruises from her beating remained, but she was beginning to feel like her old self. Allegro had lent her some clothes, so after a long, hot shower, she’d put on clean jeans and a royal blue, long-sleeved T-shirt.

For the moment, they were all in limbo. All commercial flights had been suspended while they were in the jungle, so Zoe had been unable to book a flight to London. And Pierce was having trouble finding a military jet to get the EOO people back to Colorado.

When she answered the knock at her door, Zoe stood on the other side, a bag in one hand and a tray with two coffees in the other. She had been wearing a pair of hospital scrubs when they were dropped off at the hotel, but had apparently accepted Hayley’s offer to let her borrow a few things. She now wore a pale pink button-down shirt and blue jeans. She’d even, apparently, used a little of Hayley’s makeup, just some blush and lip gloss. But she looked stunning, though she still wore Fetch’s combat boots.

“May I come in? I have dinner.” Zoe studied Fetch’s face intently.

Fetch moved back a step and Zoe set the tray on a small table. Then she glanced at Fetch’s tightly made bed and asked, “You haven’t slept?”

Fetch shut the door. “I got up thirty minutes ago.”

“I had no idea the chamber maids came this late.”

“They don’t. I made it.” She shrugged. “Occupational hazard.”

Zoe looked around the room. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think no one had ever occupied this room.”

“I like order.”

“Is your house like this?”

“I don’t have a house. Never have. I stay at a hotel.” Fetch stood with her arms tightly at her sides and her chin up. When she thought she might have to explain herself, she always stood at attention.

“Why?”

“It’s easier.”

“What is?” Zoe asked.

“To shut the door when—”

“When you have nothing to look back at before you leave.”

Fetch nodded.

“Nothing to remind you to be safe, and no one to promise to return to.”

Fetch nodded again.

“Where does that leave you when you get too old to fight wars?”

“Wars never cease, and people always need to be saved. I’ll continue with a different kind of war.”

“Until when?”

“Until my body can’t keep up with my needs.”

“And then?”

“By then hopefully I’ll have fought enough wars and won enough battles to find peace with no longer being able to help.”

“And you’ll have lived a perfectly detached life. Is that what you really want?”

“I don’t have a choice. I cannot form emotional attachments.”

“And Sam?”

“Sam was a soldier. She understood that one day she’d get a phone call.”

“But she didn’t.”

“No. She never got the chance.”

“Because life is wonderfully screwed up that way.”

“What do you mean?” Did Zoe find Sam’s death a wonderful screw-up?

“That you’ve lived your life according to your own rules and fears and decided what’s best for you without ever considering life.”

“Explain.”

Zoe sat at the table. “You assume that the other will lose by being with you so you haven’t considered the opposite. No one knows what the future holds, but you’ve convinced yourself you can control it if you deny yourself a life.”

“That way no one gets hurt.”

“If you don’t want to take that risk again it’s up to you, but is it fair to decide for another? Isn’t that selfish?”

“I don’t want anyone to hurt over me.”

“But maybe they’re not willing to forego love and happiness, contentment and companionship because of what might happen.”

“But it’s pointless when—”

“Love is worth the pain, Gianna.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

Zoe held her gaze. “Because I’d die if it meant saving you.”

Fetch stared at her, silent.

“That’s how much you mean to me,” Zoe said. “You said I’d know when it happened. I know now.”

“You can’t, Zoe.” Fetch retreated a few steps and propped herself against a wall. “You can’t.”

“I can,” Zoe said adamantly. “I do.”

“You’re still in shock. You think I’m some kind of hero because I got you out of the jungle.”

“I know damn well what I feel,” Zoe said, “and it’s not shock. Yes, you’ll always be a hero to me. And not just because you got me out of the jungle, but because you got me out of my previous life. I can’t go back to that empty place. Not after knowing you.” She stood in front of Fetch. “Aside from my parents, I’ve never needed and I’ve never missed not having anyone in my life, but after knowing you I can’t exist in a world without you.”

Fetch ran her fingers through her hair, trying to absorb what Zoe was saying. She felt helpless and exhilarated. She wanted to run to and from Zoe all at the same time. This was crazy. Zoe needed a constant in her life, someone to give her a steady, stable relationship. Not someone who showed up every few months and left again with a million uncertainties about her next return.

Zoe reached out to touch her arm, but Fetch pulled back. “This can’t happen. You and… me… it’s impossible.”

“Why?”

“Our lives are so different. Yours is full of—”

“Cheap thrills and frills. Nothing meaningful.” Zoe sighed. “Can’t you see that I can’t…I won’t go back to that. Not after everything that’s happened. Not after knowing you.”

“Eventually, you’ll get tired of waiting for me to come back to you. You’ll hate not knowing where I am, what I’m doing, and how long it’ll be before I return.”

“I know how much your job means to you. I’ll learn to accept and live with it. What you do… it’s… who you are, and I want all of you. Not just the parts that are convenient and uncomplicated.”

“I won’t be there when you need someone to talk to. When you need someone to hold you.”

“So we’ll take advantage of every moment we can share.”

“Zoe, I can’t give you what you need.”

“You can. But you don’t know how.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

Zoe placed her hand around Fetch’s neck. “You will if you walk away.” She pulled Fetch’s head to her until their foreheads touched.

“Don’t you get it? That’s what I do. I walk away. Every few months, I walk away and I don’t know if I’ll be coming back.”

“You’ll go away, Gianna.” Zoe kissed her cheek. “Big difference.” Her lips felt so warm, so soft. Zoe moved into her until their bodies were tight together. Fetch practically jerked at the contact. How often she’d dreamed of those lips, and now they were so close, so inviting. She could look at nothing else. Her hands started to shake. The emotions were too strong, too powerful to command, and she didn’t know how to cope with them without meds.

“You won’t walk away, because that means running from me.” Zoe kissed the corner of her mouth. “I don’t want you to run.” She rubbed her lips against Fetch’s neck, then put her warm, moist tongue there. Fetch’s whole body started to shake.

“You’re trembling,” Zoe said breathlessly, and brushed her lips against hers.

“I know.” Fetch murmured. The nearness of those lips intoxicated her. She placed her hands on Zoe’s hips to stop the shaking.

Zoe kissed her softly. “Is that good or bad?”

“I need you.” Fetch pulled her head back to look at her. “I need to touch you so much it hurts,” she said, feeling as though she was coming apart at the seams.

Zoe looked at her through half-open lids. “God, I hope you will.”

Fetch groaned and devoured her lips and tongue with the hunger of a starved predator, probing the inside of her warm mouth. Her lips were still split and bruised, but she didn’t notice. Zoe kissed her back with equal ardor, making up for all the times their masks had separated them.

Fetch squeezed Zoe’s ass so hard she might have bruised her. When Zoe moaned in her mouth, Fetch tore Zoe’s shirt open, silently cursing when she felt a bra. She tore that off as well and soon her hands were on Zoe’s breasts.

Still kissing her, Fetch backed her up against the wall and disengaged only long enough to pull off Zoe’s jeans and panties. Then she was kissing her again and thrusting her thigh between Zoe’s. Zoe moaned and writhed against her, demanding more.

With one hand, she raised one of Zoe’s legs, holding it against her waist while she used her other hand to penetrate her. It was the kind of sex Fetch was familiar with, the type of encounters she’d had so often in bars. But after a while, it wasn’t enough. She wanted better access and a better view, so she picked Zoe up and put her on the waist-high mirrored dresser. Spreading her legs, she continued to fuck her, both of them breathing so hard now it was difficult to sustain their passionate kisses.

Zoe tried to take her shirt off, but Fetch was in such a frenzy she pinned Zoe’s wrists over her head with one hand, while she continued to penetrate her with the other.

When she pulled her head back for a moment to breathe, Fetch saw herself in the mirror and was struck by her almost detached expression. Suddenly, what they were doing was too similar to all the impersonal sex that had been the norm. She wanted more with Zoe. More contact, more intimacy, more of everything that was missing in her previous encounters. And for the first time since she’d been with Sam, she was as concerned, or more, with Zoe’s pleasure as her own needs. Did Zoe want a rough, fierce fuckfest on a hard piece of furniture? She slowed her strokes and released Zoe’s hands and hoarsely asked her just that.

“God, yes,” Zoe moaned, her eyes closed and head thrown back in ecstasy. Blindly, she threaded her fingers through Fetch’s hair and led her lower as she spread her legs farther apart. “I love what you do to me.”

Fetch pulled Zoe to the edge of the dresser as she got down on her knees. She traced the tip of her tongue down Zoe’s abdomen, moving lower, pausing to bite and nip at the soft skin, until she reached Zoe’s center. Her hands on Zoe’s thigh’s, she spread her wide and inhaled the scent of her arousal. Fetch met Zoe’s eyes. “You’re amazing,” she said, before claiming her clit with her mouth. Zoe shuddered at the first contact and moaned, gripping Fetch’s scalp tighter.

Fetch took her time, lavishing attention on every sensitive area, alternating firm strokes of her tongue with light ones, sucking Zoe to swollen readiness, then backing off to prolong her pleasure. Zoe moaned and bucked, urging Fetch with her hands to deliver her, until finally she did, stroking her to climax with her tongue while she thrust quickly, deeply into Zoe.

Zoe cried out as she came, and the sound reverberated through Fetch, amplifying her arousal tenfold. She carried Zoe to the bed, throwing her down on the mattress to cover her with her own body. Kissing her again with fierce intensity, she edged her thigh between Zoe’s legs as she fondled one of her ample, magnificent breasts. “Tell me what you want.”

Zoe’s hands, which were around her waist, pulled at the back of Fetch’s T-shirt and the waistband of her jeans. “I want to feel you. Take your clothes off.”

Fetch hesitated for several seconds. She wasn’t used to being touched. But she rose to her knees, straddling Zoe’s waist, and pulled off her T-shirt. As she did, she felt Zoe’s hands on her breasts over her bra. By the time she’d shed the shirt and tossed it aside, Zoe had risen to a sitting position, pulled her bra aside, and had her mouth on Fetch’s right nipple. The intense, unfamiliar sensation drove Fetch higher, until her heart was thumping hard against her chest and her hard, fast breathing was audible. In her haze of lust, she didn’t immediately realize Zoe had unbuttoned her pants and lowered the zipper. Only when she felt the tug of denim against her thighs did she become aware Zoe was trying to remove her jeans.

She cradled Zoe’s face in her hands and gently pulled her mouth away from her nipple. Zoe stopped tugging at her pants and looked up at her with a puzzled expression. Her pupils were dark, nearly obscuring the blue surrounding them, and she was breathing as heavily as Fetch.

Zoe was bewildered by Gianna’s hesitation to undress or allow her the same free rein of touch she’d had. “What’s wrong?”

Gianna gently stroked Zoe’s cheeks with her thumbs. “I don’t…I’m not used to this.”

“To what?”

“Being touched.”

Zoe tried to mask her shock. “Never?” She remembered what Gianna had volunteered about her sexual past. It was understandable that the strangers she’d picked up in bars hadn’t touched her, or the call girls she’d said she’d used more recently. But she couldn’t believe it possible with Sam, though she couldn’t bring up that painful part of her past right now.

“Only with one other person,” Gianna answered, confirming her suspicions but apparently just as reluctant to mention Sam.

Zoe tried to reconcile Gianna’s hesitation with her obvious arousal. She had removed her shirt, and she hadn’t stopped Zoe when she touched and sucked her breasts. So although Gianna seemed uneasy with the unfamiliar, she didn’t necessarily want her to pull away. Perhaps she just needed gentle coaxing and some time to adjust.

She had her arms around Gianna’s waist. Very slowly, Zoe began to caress Gianna’s lower back, while she kissed her stomach. The kisses became small nips and licks. She slid her hands forward, up Gianna’s sides, until she was caressing the bottom curves of Gianna’s breasts with her thumbs. Gianna moaned.

“Do you want me to quit?” Zoe asked softly, then continued to lick Gianna’s stomach, moving lower.

Gianna didn’t respond, but her breathing accelerated, and she moved into Zoe’s touch.

“Do you like this?” Zoe palmed Gianna’s breasts, skimming over the erect nipples and licking her with long strokes of her tongue.

“Yeah.” It sounded like a sigh.

“And how about this?” Zoe descended farther, nipping at Gianna’s lower abdomen until she reached the V of flesh exposed by the open fly of her jeans. She darted her tongue over the delicate soft skin.

Gianna groaned.

“I take that as another yes,” Zoe murmured. She smoothed her hands down Gianna’s sides to the waistband of her jeans, and as she continued to move her mouth over Gianna’s lower abdomen, she started edging down the jeans. As she tugged at them in small increments, she thoroughly enjoyed gradually viewing Gianna’s body.

She glanced up as she gave the jeans another tug, bringing the waistband halfway down her ass and exposing her center. Gianna’s eyes were closed, her expression one of rapture. Zoe squeezed Gianna’s ass as she ran her tongue lightly over the neatly trimmed triangle of dark hair and heard another moan.

“You can stop me if you want,” Zoe said, between more licks and nips of Gianna’s newly exposed flesh. “Is that what you want?” she asked as she lightly raked her nails over Gianna’s lower back and ass. Lick. Suck. Nip.

Gianna mumbled something incoherent.

“I didn’t get that.” Suck. Nip. Lick. “Was that a no?” She pulled the jeans down several more inches. “I sure hope that’s a no,” Zoe said, “because I really want to taste you.”

Gianna cupped Zoe’s face and gently raised her chin until Zoe was looking up at her. “Please don’t stop.” Her voice was low and hoarse, almost unrecognizable, and her eyes were glazed. Her breasts rose and fell with every rapid breath.

Zoe tugged the pants sharply until they were low on Gianna’s thighs and buried her face in the triangle of hair, licking lower, flicking her tongue over the hood of Gianna’s clit. The tight jeans prevented Zoe from complete access, but her strokes were having an undeniable effect. Gianna thrust her pelvis forward, seeking greater contact, and moaned again, a low rumble from the back of her throat.

“I think it’s time you removed your pants.” Zoe gripped Gianna’s ass and pulled her down, on top of her, then rolled them until Gianna was beneath her. Rising, Zoe pulled off Gianna’s jeans to find she was wearing nothing beneath. Going commando, she thought, and almost smiled, until she got a close view of Gianna fully naked. A number of long-healed scars marred the otherwise smooth, muscled flesh, including a three-inch one above her left knee.

And though most of the bruises inflicted by Barriga and the rebel who’d punched her had faded, several large purple-yellow reminders of the abuse she’d suffered to protect Zoe remained, especially on her thighs. She bent to softly kiss the worst of them. “Do they still hurt?”

“Not when I’m with you.”

She crawled back on top of Gianna and their bodies made full contact for the first time since their brief encounter at the waterfall. Gianna pulled her close and kissed her, a passion-filled kiss of hunger and need, her tongue probing the warm interior of Zoe’s mouth.

“You feel so good,” Zoe murmured when they parted. She raised herself slightly and started to slide her hand between their bodies, but as soon as she did, Gianna rolled them again until she was on top.

Gianna attacked her neck with kisses and bites while she shifted her weight to one side, then urged Zoe’s legs apart with her hand. Zoe gasped and shuddered when Gianna entered her, filling her, driving her wild. She clutched at Gianna’s shoulders, pulling at her with every thrust.

“Please,” she managed, as she neared climax again. “Let me touch you.”

Gianna pulled out of her and reached for Zoe’s hand, leading her to the apex of her thighs, giving her consent.

Her first feel of Gianna’s warm, wet center made them both tremble. “Tell me what you need,” Zoe said.

In response, Gianna gazed into her eyes and reached for her again, slowly stroking her, exploring her wetness, and Zoe mirrored what she was doing. They watched each other as their pleasure built, and the prolonged eye contact fueled Zoe’s arousal even higher.

“You’re so wet,” Gianna whispered as she pushed inside Zoe. “So open.”

“That’s how much I want you,” Zoe replied, as she penetrated Gianna for the first time.

Gianna arched her back, rocking into Zoe’s thrusts. “Can you feel…” she said, panting for air, “what you’re doing to me?”

A rush of wetness coated Zoe’s hand. “It makes me want to taste you, feel you in my mouth. Will you let me?”

“I don’t think I can stop you.” Gianna gritted her teeth in pleasure.

The muscles of Gianna’s jaw moved with each of Zoe’s thrusts. “Tell me how you want it.”

Gianna inhaled sharply and withdrew from her. She rose to her feet, took Zoe’s hand, and pulled her up, too. Maintaining eye contact, but saying nothing, she sat on the edge of the bed, her feet on the floor, her legs spread apart. As Zoe went to stand in front of her, Gianna reclined on her elbows.

“I want to watch you when you make me come,” Gianna said.

Zoe knelt in front of her, stroking Gianna’s legs, then bent to lick her inner thigh. She took her time, exploring with her mouth, while she stroked Gianna’s abdomen with her hand. Gianna’s stomach clenched until the hard surface spasmed under her touch and her whole body shook. She glanced up to find Gianna watching, her eyes either meeting Zoe’s or fixated on her tongue. Zoe stopped to look at the amazing woman who had so willingly surrendered to her touch. “Please believe me when I say you are so beautiful. In every way.”

“I do.” Gianna replied in a raspy voice, never taking her eyes from Zoe. “Please, Zoe, I need to come.” Zoe moaned, working Gianna’s clit in earnest, and Gianna thrust her pelvis forward. When she fisted the bedsheets and arched her back, nearing climax, Zoe entered her with deep strokes and sent her crashing over the precipice.

Gianna fell back on the mattress, breathing hard and fast, and Zoe crawled on the bed to lie on top of her. After only a minute or two, Gianna opened her eyes and looked up at her. “I’m not done.”

“I can give you more,” Zoe replied, stroking her arm. “Much more.”

“I’m not done with you,” Gianna said with a mischievous smile.

The look in her eyes sent a heat of anticipation through Zoe. “What do you want?”

As Gianna slipped from beneath her and got off the bed, Zoe lay on her side, watching her. Gianna flipped her onto her stomach, then lifted her hips and pulled her to the edge of the bed. Zoe, on all fours, looked back as Gianna spread her legs and went down on her from behind. Gianna’s mouth on her sped her into another heightened state of arousal. When Gianna started raking her nails over Zoe’s back and ass as she worked her with her tongue, a rush of moisture poured out of her.

Gianna climbed up onto the bed. As she kissed Zoe’s back, and neck, licking and nipping at her skin with soft bites, she entered her and thrust into her with slow strokes.

“More,” Zoe murmured, her body awash in sensation. “Harder.”

Gianna quickened and deepened her thrusts, then brought her other hand around Zoe’s front to work her clit, and within seconds, a powerful orgasm coursed through her and sent her crashing, spent and boneless, to the bed.

Zoe had never surrendered to anyone with such abandon, had never been so aware of someone’s every move and sigh. And she’d certainly never been more aroused by a touch or mere gaze. Gianna had turned the embers of her life into flame.

Gianna lay beside her, embracing her while Zoe’s heartbeat calmed. She breathed in the scent of their lovemaking, more content than she could ever remember. She never wanted this moment to end.

But just as she was about to doze off, Gianna’s cell rang, shattering their bliss.

Fetch stiffened but didn’t move from Zoe’s embrace. The tremors in her hands had stilled. For the first time in memory, she felt safe enough to stay exactly where she was.

“I don’t want you to move.” Zoe traced Fetch’s shoulder with her finger.

“That makes two of us. But I don’t have a choice.” Finally, after too many rings, Fetch grabbed the phone and checked the display. She kissed Zoe. “I have to take this.” Naked, she went into the bathroom and shut the door before answering.

“The Brits haven’t been able to get anything out of Miss Howe’s uncle. His brother tried, too, but he’s still not talking,” Pierce told her as soon as she answered. “They’ve been in touch with authorities in every country he’s been known to have done private consulting work in the last year, and teams have been dispatched to all those labs, but so far, they’ve found no evidence that any of them were involved in creating this virus or the antidote. They also struck out when they searched his residence and office at Cambridge. Have you spoken with Miss Howe since you checked in?”

“Yes, sir,” Fetch replied. “She’s here with me now.”

“See if you can get anything further from her that might be helpful, and let me know.”

“Roger, sir.” She disconnected and returned to Zoe, who was watching her intently.

“Is something wrong?” Zoe asked.

“It was about your uncle.”

“God, what’s he done now? Drop an A-bomb?” Zoe sounded infuriated.

“He won’t talk,” Fetch said calmly so she wouldn’t re-ignite Zoe’s guilt. “He won’t tell the authorities who he’s working for…or with.”

“Blundering idiot.” Zoe sat up. “Why is he willing to protect whoever is in on this? I mean, it’s over. He was caught. His whole plan of world domination has been shot to shit. What’s he still trying to protect?”

“Himself, I think.”

“But he’s already destroyed.”

“Someone’s probably out there he fears even more than prison,” Fetch said. “Fears enough to let a lighter sentence for cooperation slip through his fingers.”

“Have they spoken to my father? He might be able to get Edward to talk.”

“They’ve tried that. Can you think of anyone or anything that might help? Has he ever mentioned anyone to you or your father?”

“I’m not usually there when they talk about business. He just talks to me about his dreams of curing diseases and helping others. He’s always appeared so noble. I find it hard to believe it was all a lie. He’s always been so comfortable around me and has often said that I’m the only one who seems to be proud of him.” Zoe bit her lip wistfully.

“But he’s never mentioned—”

“Take me to him.” Zoe stood up.

“I don’t think I can do that.”

“If he’ll talk to anyone, it’s me. If I can’t reach him, no one can.”

“I don’t think they’ll allow you.”

“What do they have to lose? I can’t guarantee anything, but I’m willing to try.”

Fetch dialed Pierce’s number. “It’s Fetch, sir. Zoe thinks she can get her uncle to talk. How fast can you get us there?”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 664