I press my palms against his shoulder, stopping him before he can go farther. His brows knit in confusion until I slide off the table and onto my knees in front of him.
“This time,” I whisper, tossing my jacket aside, “I want to taste you.”
Surprise flickers in his eyes, quickly replaced by heat. He lets me tug his pants away, and when I reach for his thick, hard cock, he exhales a broken sound that makes me ache everywhere at once.
I stroke him slowly with my hand, savoring the way hismuscles tense, the way his hands flex like he doesn’t know what to do with himself. Then I lean closer, my lips brushing him, tasting the salt on the tip of his head with my tongue.
“Fuck,” he breathes, head tipping back, one hand finding its way into my hair. Not pulling but holding like he needs the anchor as much as I do.
I twirl my tongue around his head, then take him all the way into my mouth and suck. I repeat the motion, sucking and twirling my tongue over and over again, loving the way he tenses when I take him deep.
“If you keep doing this, I’m not going to last long,” he groans, his voice strained and low, and it only encourages me to suck him harder and take him deeper.
Before I can react, his hands grip my arms and he pulls me to my feet in one fluid motion. My pulse stutters, heat flooding through me as he lifts me onto the table. His mouth finds mine again, urgent and consuming, and I can taste his need in every kiss.
His body presses close, strong and sure, and then he parts my knees with his own, settling between them. His breath is hot against my ear when he whispers, “I want you to come with me.”
He thrusts inside me, and I gasp at the fullness of him, reaching up to wrap my arms around his neck so I have something to anchor me.
He lifts me off the table, pulling me down on him harder and faster, filling me deeper. I bite onto his shoulder to contain the sounds he’s drawing out of me.
“I want every sound you make burned into me. Don’t you dare hold back,” he says. I let my head fall back as ragged breaths and moans escape my lips.
“Malachi, you feel so good, oh my god,” I cry out, and he backs me up to the wall, one hand wrapped around me, holdingme to him. He brushes my hair back from my face with the other, and I open my eyes to find his fixed on me. I can’t hold on anymore—I shatter, my orgasm ripping through me, heating my insides and causing me to tremble.
Malachi finds his release at the same time, and then stills inside me. My head drops to the crook of his neck, and he holds me while I catch my breath.
“I love you,” I whisper. His arms tighten around me.
“I love you more.”
He pulls out of me gently and holds me while my feet hit the ground, and I steady myself. I wrap my arms around his waist and press my face to his warm chest, damp with sweat.
“Hey, are you okay?” he says, coaxing my chin up to look at him.
“Yeah. I don’t want to let you go yet. I want you to keep holding me,” I tell him, and he pulls me tighter, leaning down to kiss the top of my head and stroking my back with his hands.
He doesn’t pull away or try to move until I finally release him and walk over to the bathroom to clean up before getting dressed. I don’t know why I feel needy all of a sudden, but I can only guess it’s because this could be our last chance to be together.
Chapter Twenty-Six
LOG TWENTY-SIX – AUTHORITY COLLAPSE: SHE WAITS UNTIL WE LEAVE THE ROOM TO DISPLAY HER FULL STRENGTH. IT IS DELIBERATE. SHE WANTS US TO BELIEVE WE STILL HAVE CONTROL.
“That may have beenthe longest trip to get firewood on record,” Bash says as we step into the living room, his smirk faint in the glow of the stove.
Malachi drags the sled in behind me, tugging the weight across the worn floorboards before stacking the wood in a neat pile by the fire. “I had to cut down the damn tree by hand,” he says, and I can’t help the small laugh that escapes me.
Aurora sits curled up in one of the mismatched armchairs, her grin a little too silly to be innocent. She knows.
The potbelly stove roars with flames, heat radiating through the space until the air feels thick and soft on my skin. My cheeks warm instantly, the icy sting of the shed fading into memory.
It’s nighttime, the windows black with snow pressed against the glass, and the kitchen smells like heaven. Aurora and Cade raided the pantry earlier, and somehow, they managed to put together spaghetti for all of us. Canned tomato sauce and noodles, but the scent is rich, tangy, comforting—the kind of meal that reminds me there’s still a piece of normalcyleft in this ruined world. My stomach growls so loud it draws a laugh from Nasha.
“Come on, we waited for you guys to eat,” Bash says, motioning us over. We all settle around the table, quickly digging into our plates of spaghetti. The sauce is thin, the noodles a little overcooked, but it’s warm, filling, exactly what we need after the day we’ve had.
“So what’s the plan for tomorrow?” Cade asks, looking to Malachi, who sits across the table from him.
“At first light, we need to get eyes on the estate,” Malachi says, focused. “See what my father and brothers are doing. Then we make our move on the lab. Ideally, we’ll catch them both when we infiltrate so we can take them out at the same time.”
