She’d been alone here, in this cheap and seedy motel room, for about an hour while he had run their errands. He hadn’t really realized until now just how tough it must be for her to sit here and read her brother’s posthumous notes, the wording and diction familiar to her in a way he couldn’t understand.
But, because she did understand Bobby’s language, she truly was the best choice to go through it, in spite of the grief it may trigger.
“Harper, I’m sorry.” Rome reached for her hand and held it in his, trying to convey both sympathy and encouragement in his touch. “I know this must be hard for you. But we’re making good progress. This is the information we need.”
“I know.” She sighed heavily and squeezed his hand back. “I just…I hear his voice saying these words.” Damn, how he wished he could erase the pain he saw in her intense eyes. She lowered them as she took a deep, unsteady breath. “I’m okay. I just wish he were here.” She gave him a sad but sure smile.
“I know,” he said soothingly, moving his hand to rub her bare arm just below the cuff of her short-sleeve Tshirt. Damn, she was steely solid under that silky skin. Strong yet all woman.
All he wanted to do at this very moment was to shove the food and laptop off the bed and draw her body against his, just to feel her against him. And from the swirling typhoon in the green of her eyes, he wondered whether she was thinking the same exact thing.
His fingers began to itch in anticipation and he quickly lifted his hand away from her enticing flesh. Mentally slapping himself, Rome sat up and resumed organizing the food pile.
“So, um, what went wrong?” Rome heard the hoarseness in his voice and cleared his throat. He jumped off the bed to put some needed distance between them. Well, as much distance as he could, which wasn’t a lot in the small room.
He was never going to make it through the night if he didn’t stop thinking about how damn much he was attracted to her. He imagined those lean tanned arms clamping his back. Those long legs wrapping around him. Those luscious full lips he was familiar with, running all over his…
Damn it all.
Rome raked a shaking hand over his face, struggling to clear his roving thoughts. He peeled his attention away from her and to the plastic clothing bags. Reaching inside one, he pulled out a pair of new cotton panties. And stared at them, imagining them on her. Off her.
Damn. Damn. Damn.
A husky chuckle floated from the bed. A hand flashed in front of his gaze to snatch the panties out of his grasp. She rolled the material around in her hands, checking them out. He almost moaned out loud. Maybe he had.
“Bobby’s last phase of research was to test the consumption of the enhanced vegetation,” Harper said, answering the question he’d asked before his fantasizing. “To make sure the plants weren’t harmful to ingest and all that.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Rome said, continuing to unpack the bag, trying to impersonally sort between his and hers. He tossed Harper the rest of the clothes he’d bought for her and then organized his own, tearing off tags and stickers.
“He was preparing trial experiments for volunteers when he stumbled across test data he referred to as ‘suspicious,’” Harper continued as she folded her garments neatly, then set them aside. “So Bobby dug around a little and found some files that outlined experiments that had been run on human subjects. Using copies of his serum. He also found that some of his plant inventory that he thought had been destroyed was missing.”
“Missing?” Rome asked as he picked up his small pile of clothes and set it on top of the dented thirteen-inch television. He had yet to see whether it worked. “You mean someone stole them?”
“Bobby’s notes said he’d found out about a faction within the Five Watch.” Harper lolled on her side. “From
what his notes say, Bobby didn’t know who they were, but he did uncover their less-than-scrupulous work.”
The Five Watch, though on the shady side, didn’t seem like a mutinous group to Rome. On the contrary, they seemed very tight within their obscure walls. Besides, who could pull off that kind of mutiny without other Five Watchers knowing? There weren’t a whole lot of them as far as he knew. Fifty, maybe sixty people within the elite group itself.
“According to my brother, this faction was hoping that the genetic alterations Bobby made for plants would have the same effect on human beings,” she said. “Hoping to make people stronger and self-healing. The data he uncovered suggested they wanted to create bioenhanced spies and soldiers.”
“Holy shit.” Rome sighed as a somber weight dropped onto his shoulders. They needed to find out who was the mastermind. Who engineered this faction and who turned against Bobby. Could Jeff really be a part of it? Maybe this was what had been making Jeff so antsy. Damn. The suspect list was vast, but narrow all the same. “That complicates things. There are limited people who even know about the Five Watch, but none of those people really knows what anyone else knows. It’s the stuff that’s made for conspiracy theorists.”
Anyone could be behind this and no one would know about it. The only person who did know was now dead. This amazing woman’s remarkable brother was snooping around in places he had every right to be and was killed for it.
“These people, this faction, killed Bobby because he found out,” Harper stated quietly, watching him closely.
“Most likely, yes,” Rome confirmed.
She closed her eyes and bowed her head for a mo
ment. Then she nodded and looked up at him again, a hard resolve behind her gaze.
“Harper, we’ll find them.” He tried to instill every ounce of certainty he had in his voice. No matter how vast this sinister trek was going to be, they at least had a starting point now. And each other.
“I know we will.” Her low voice chilled him. The tone was filled with more than the confidence he’d come to expect from her. It now contained a touch of…hunger.
At the very beginning, she’d told him she was going to get her revenge. And from the way she lounged there—like a lazy jungle cat, resting now, but primed to kill in an instant—he knew it to be true. Her vow for vengeance was very much alive.
“There’s more,” she said after a quick shake of her head. Great. More. “The human experiments didn’t work quite right.”
“What the hell does that mean?” He was getting very tired of bad news getting worse.
“The human subjects would develop the psionic power and be able to heal minor injuries, just as the plants could repair themselves. But soon after…” Harper’s voice trailed off.
“What?” Rome asked, lying down on the bed, mirroring her pose to face her. Whatever was coming was the worst part. He traced his fingers over her shoulder lightly. “Tell me.”
“Soon after they used their powers”—she looked away for a silent moment and then returned her gaze to his—“they died.”
“You’re not going to die,” Rome said firmly, shaking his head. No. He wouldn’t even begin to think about it. “You’re different from them.”
“How?” Harper asked quietly, narrowing her eyes in what looked like terrified but controlled anger. “How am I different? Those men did the same things I could do. I have the same serum flowing through my body. In my blood. Just like them. The subjects would die when they used their power to the fullest. The energy basically overpowered their bodies. Burning them up inside. Killing them.”
“You were able to overpower them.” He ran his hand down her arm, grabbing her hand and holding it tight against his chest, twisting his fingers through hers. “Not once, but twice. That has to mean something.” She kept silent, just staring at him. “How long is ‘soon after’?”
She just shrugged. “I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. I just need to stay alive long enough to make them pay for what they did to Bobby.”
“No,” Rome said fiercely, clutching her hand tightly to keep her with him. “You need to stay alive for more than that.” He leaned in closer, just a breath away from her lovely face, every pinpoint of green in her eyes lanc
ing into him, cutting away every line of defense around his heart. “You need to stay alive for me.”
The biting thought of losing her terrified him more than her violent powers ever could. He closed the brief distance between them and sealed his lips against hers, willing her to taste his basic primal need for her. In the short time since she’d literally blasted into his life, she’d come to mean everything to him.
Releasing her hand, he brushed his fingers along her smooth cheek, her neck, her bare arm, down her ribs to her hip, all the while enjoying long, soulful kisses.
Slanting his body slightly, he rolled across the bed, fitting himself against her sinewy length. The heat from her body blanketed him as he cupped the rounded firmness of her tight rear and reached lower to tug her powerful thigh across his, nestling her closer into him.
Deepening the kiss, Rome moaned and pressed against her. He felt a shiver pass through her body as she curled her thigh around the back of his leg, encouraging further contact. Frenzied contact.
His body grinded into hers in response, answering her call. She pulled him closer and swept her tongue into his mouth, making him dizzy with desire.
He broke away, desperately needing air, and then returned to trail hot kisses along her neck to the hollow at her throat. She gasped and writhed beneath him.
A soft chime floated through his aroused haze.
What the hell was that? It sounded again, and Harper stilled.
“Oh, for crying out loud.” Harper’s low voice was raspy. Her chest heaved against his. “My download is done.”
Her what? Rome glanced menacingly over his shoulder at the damn laptop near the bottom of the bed, blinking an innocent cursor at him.
Damn it all. He almost kicked the thing across the small room.
She shifted slightly and allowed her to untangle from their more-than-eager embrace. He backed away to watch as she stretched her perfect body across the bed to pull the electronic pest toward her. He gave serious thought to pouncing on her back. She then twisted around to lean against the wall and set it on her lap, her fingers running over the keys.
He sat there, staring at her, his body still tight with arousal.
Was it that easy for her? Weren’t they just about ready to tear each other’s clothes off and get their money’s worth from this cheap by-the-hour motel room? Rome knew he had been more than ready. And he was pretty damn certain she’d been, too.
Rubbing the light sheen of sweat off his forehead, he kept his slowly cooling focus on her. Her face was tinged blue from the digital display, but it gave her eyes an ethereal glow. Unearthly sexy.
Her gaze broke away from the bright screen, meeting his own, softening and igniting all at once. A smoldering shiver laced his body. He wanted her as if he always had and always would.
“It’s not over,” she said. And then she gave him the sexiest wink he’d ever seen. Promising more.
And he’d be ready. Harper, more than anyone he’d ever known, was worth waiting for.
Clearing his throat, he rolled off the bed and grabbed two sodas from the minifridge, hoping the chilled cans would help cool him off.
“So, what were you downloading?” He walked to the other side of the bed and plopped down next to her, but kept as much distance as he could manage. Her fingers brushed his as she took the Coke, sending a sizzle down
his arm. Pulling back fast, he opened the can and took a long, cool drink, ignoring the tickle of fizz as it burned down his throat.
“Some of the files in the Harpie folder had extra levels of encryption,” Harper answered after a big gulp of her own. He watched her read as she pushed the laptop lower on her thighs so she could place the can between her legs.
Holy shit.
Didn’t she know he was trying to simmer down? “I had to create a little program to decode and extract those files.”
Rome stared as she leaned over and set the laptop on the floor. Then she stretched her arms high above her head, pulling the fabric of her T-shirt taut against her chest, clearly outlining her perfect-sized breasts.
His gaze fell to the hem of the shirt as it lifted an inch or two to reveal tight abs rolling under silky, tan skin. He couldn’t wait to taste the tempting flesh there.
“This next download will take some time,” she said, bringing her arms back down to rest on her thighs. He had to shift his position on the bed a little when she reached between her legs for another swallow. “Maybe we should get some rest. I think my eyes are about to stick shut from reading that screen.” She scrubbed her face and turned those eyes to him, taking his breath away with their emerald allure.
“You’re right,” Rome said, looking for a place he could sleep that was a safe distance from her, where he wouldn’t be sorely tempted to ravish her body. He couldn’t find one.
“I’m showering first,” she declared as she stood and sauntered to the tiny but surprisingly immaculate bathroom.
He tried so hard not to think about her stripping off those clothes and standing in that tiled stall, the hot wa
ter running all over her naked body. Shaking his head, he tried to change the subject in his mind to what they should be concentrating on instead of how much he wanted to jump in the shower with her. She obviously didn’t need to trust him to have sex with him. But surprisingly he realized he wanted her trust first.
“Harper,” he called softly. She halted, half in, half out of the bathroom door with a questioning look. “I think we need to get a second look at the facility where Bobby’s lab was. Put some proof with that data. After we shower and rest, let’s plan.”
“Sounds good to me,” she agreed, and laughed playfully. “I’ll be out in a few minutes. Keep the bed warm for me.” And then she gave him another one of those scorching winks that boiled his blood and seared his insides before disappearing behind the chipped door of the bathroom.
A deep moan escaped his lips. She was obviously flirting to lighten the mood, but just the thought had him very close to bursting through that door and joining her, keeping her warm instead of the sheets. He was going to offer to sleep on the floor, but it sounded like she planned on sharing the queen bed.
Lying flat on his back on the ugly bedspread, Rome knew that he wouldn’t be getting much sleep with Harper’s tempting body next to his under the sheets.
He just couldn’t decide whether the night was going to be ecstasy or agony.