Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 110757 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110757 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“No clothes come off yet,” she says, reading my mind. “We’re just talking.”
I put my hands on her hips, tipping my head back slightly and locking my eyes with hers.
“If you’re wearing that tank top while we talk, can I take my pants off?”
She grins and steps closer to me. I tug her all the way onto my lap, and she lets out a laugh as she wraps her arms around my neck and her legs around the chair.
I close my eyes, more at peace than I’ve been in a long time. She knows what I’ve done, and she’s still here, in my arms.
I can’t completely relax until I know no one was hurt by what I did to the camp. As long as that’s the case, we can figure out the rest, including my emotional connection with endolithic life. Briar is Lucy Hollis’s daughter—she’ll be able to make a stabilizer.
15
“This is your assignment. Don’t do anything more or anything less. Get the intel and get out. I don’t care if you could take out the entire command at the push of a button. Stick to the plan.” Decoded message from ILF handler Hiro Tanaka to ILF undercover operative Nightingale
Briar
Sweating is a baseline on the island. The only time I’m not sweating is when I’m working in the cooled lab. Waking up entangled with a massive bear of a man this morning means I’m even sweatier than usual.
Worth it. Marcus is still sleeping peacefully, giving me a nice view of his thick, dark lashes. He was beyond exhausted when we finally went to sleep late last night.
Yesterday might have been the best day I’ve had on Blue Arrow Island, though. Marcus called everyone together for a meeting in the Hub, where he laid everything out in his measured way.
He admitted his former role in Rising Tide, confirming rumors that had been swirling around camp since the night I killed Virginia. He explained how he inadvertently caused the crack now splitting our camp in half, and how he seems to retain parts of his aromium bond even when it’s off.
One of our people who works in the garden, David, was an engineer before the virus came, so he volunteered to oversee a plan to make our camp safe again. He’s planning a wide bridge we’ll build through the main part of camp, and the rest of the open ground will be covered with planks.
Work began immediately after the meeting. Almost everything in camp that draws electricity—other than power to the Sub, where our shield device is—was taken offline to power the giant saws used to cut full-size trees into planks.
We had an assembly line where the planks would be delivered for use while they were still warm off the saw. People who aren’t strong enough for that kind of work refilled canteens and delivered food.
All of us were working together as a community. We kept at it until it was too dark to continue, and then Marcus and I took showers and got in his bed together. It felt right to be back there, talking and falling asleep with my cheek on his chest.
He needs the rest, so I lie there while he sleeps for almost another hour.
“You’re up?” he says when he finally wakes up. “What time is it?”
“Time for you to get a watch.”
It was one of my dad’s favorite jokes, and it doesn’t hurt to say it anymore. It makes me smile and remember how he’d crack himself up when he said it.
“Damn, I slept too late.” Marcus scrambles out of bed. “I need to get to work.”
I watch as he grabs clean pants and pulls them on over his boxer briefs. His legs are one of my favorite parts of him. Long and powerful, with the same dark hair as his chest. Everyone in camp sees Marcus with his shirt off, but only I see what’s below his waist.
He runs a hand through his hair, looking at me. “Sorry. Good morning.” Putting a knee on the large cot, he bends to kiss me on the forehead.
“Morning,” I say, amused.
He isn’t great at being idle. He’s always focused intently on something.
“I’m working on the bridge again today, no training,” he says. “You should go to the lab.”
“Oh, should I?” I arch my brows, holding in a laugh.
“I’m not telling you what to do, but if you want to. The stabilizer’s important, and you’re the only one who can make it.”
My amusement disappears when I remember McClain’s condition. It’s just me and Olin now, and I’m just changing up variables, using what McClain taught me.
“You’re on break from eleven to one today,” Marcus says as I get out of bed.
“But you’re not telling me what to do.”
A low sound escapes him. “I’ll take you over my knee and spank that sass out of you.”