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)
Finally, his mouth moves to my stomach, the brush of his stubble giving me goose bumps. When he gets to his knees between my legs, a few seconds of frustrating silence pass. He’s just looking at me, need coursing through me like an electric hum.
“Spread that pussy for me,” he rumbles. “Show me what only I get to see.”
A little moan of desperation slips out of me as I comply, parting my legs as wide as I can.
Finally, he moves.
“You’re so beautiful, B. I waited my whole life to feel this way.”
He runs his tongue over my clit and I cry out, my back arching up even farther. He has me so wound up that I’m already on the edge.
“I only want one thing,” he says gruffly. “Say my name when you come.”
When he puts his mouth on me, it only takes a few seconds. He knows exactly how to draw it out, sucking my clit with just the right amount of pressure. Pleasure courses through me as I yell his name, breathless when my back drops to the ground and I whimper.
I’m boneless when I pull my underwear back on a few minutes later and we jump through the waterfall. When my head breaks through the surface of the water, Marcus is swimming toward the shore, moving faster than I’ve ever seen him go in the water.
“The radio,” he calls over his shoulder.
It’s in his pants. Nova told him she would only call if there was a true emergency. I swim as fast as I can. The radio is in Marcus’s hand when I get out of the water.
“We’re on the way,” he says into it.
“What is it?” I ask, frantically grabbing my shirt.
“It’s McClain.”
16
“That last assignment was an insult to my skill set, but I dropped you know what you know where. Can I do something a little more interesting next time?” - Decoded message from ILF undercover operative Nightingale to ILF handler Hiro Tanaka
Marcus
We run the entire way, Nova’s somber expression when we meet her at the Sub entrance making my chest constrict.
“I’m sorry,” she says to me. “Ellison wanted me to call you. She said he doesn’t have much time.”
“You did the right thing.” I look over my shoulder at Briar and say, “Let’s go see him.”
She hesitates. “You and Ellison have known him a lot longer. I’m not sure I belong there.”
“You belong wherever I am. Come on.”
I lead the way into the Sub, my thoughts jumbled. My anger toward Randall McClain is easy. He earned it many times over. It’s the other feelings that are more complex.
“Hey.” Briar stops me outside the room Ellison has McClain in. “Are you sure you should do this? We’re underground right now, and if you lose control—”
“I won’t. Stay in there with me no matter what, and I’ll be okay.”
She nods, takes my hand and brings it to her mouth, kissing the back of it. “Don’t say anything you’ll regret.”
“I won’t.”
When I open the door and see my former mentor, I freeze.
He’s just a shell of a man, his face and body nothing but skin and bone. More than fifteen seconds pass before his chest rises with a hard-won breath.
“He’s comfortable,” Ellison says softly from a chair in the corner.
I step inside and Briar follows, closing the door.
“Can he hear us?” I ask.
“I don’t know. But I’ve always believed it’s possible.”
He was never a physically large man, but he was a giant to me. Soft-spoken and wise. A pioneer in genetics. A good listener. A selfish bastard.
I sit down on the stool beside his bed, taking his bony hand in my much larger one. “It’s Marcus. Ellison and Briar are here, too.”
So much time passes before his next breath that I think he’s already gone. Slowed breathing is part of the body’s process of dying, but it’s hard to see on someone you know and care for.
“You’re on the threshold. We talked about the afterlife a few times, and I know you don’t believe in it. I do, though. I don’t know what it’ll be like. Obviously.”
I hang my head, Briar coming up behind me and putting her hands on my shoulders. It’s a fight to get the next words out.
“I ... love you, Randall. I never called you that, even though you told me to.” I swipe my thumb beneath my eyes. “There were times when I hated you, but love ...” I swallow hard. “It was there, too. I know you’d undo all of it if you could. And whatever comes after this, go there at peace. We’ve got it. We’re going to end what we started six years ago. I hope you can watch it all burn from wherever you go next.”
Ellison stands beside me, a steady reminder that I’m not the only one who struggled with what McClain did. We’ve talked about it, and she told me she had to let go of the past in order to move forward.