I threw my arms around him in a hug. “That’s why I smelled like you,” I said, inhaling him at his collar. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because we weren’t being nice to each other,” he said, kissing my cheek.
Pulling away, I had to remind him that the reason I wasn’t being nice was because I’d been abandoned. Although it could’ve been argued that fucking him was a nice act, but the scratches down his back certainly weren’t.
“I heard the put you through the test,” he said, coming inside my place. There was somewhat a knee-jerk reaction of wanting to be on my knees, but he wasn’t in charge of me now. “I got you something else as well.”
I sat on the end of the bed with both teddy bears now in my lap. “They told me I could work for their intel, or leave.”
He laughed, fishing around in his pocket. “It’s to make sure you’re decisive, in this line of work, second-guessing and dancing around a decision are a death sentence.”
“It’s underwhelming,” I said. “I thought my last job before coming out of training would be taking out one of the people on the list.”
Donovan sat beside me and pulled me into a side-on embrace, and reached for the TV remove. “They’re counting the hit you did before you came in,” he said. “I talked to Mercy and Marzia about it. They’re still worried we shouldn’t work together, but I’ll tell you the truth, I think working with you makes me stronger. I know I can trust you implicitly, and I hope you can trust me the same.”
I nestled my head against his head, the thump of his heartbeat with rhythmically pleasing. I just wanted to fall asleep to it, even the occasional race and pound in my ears were nice. “I do,” I said.
The light of the TV flickered on, he was changing the channels. “They’ve made an arrest,” he said. “Julian Ashford.”
On the TV, Julian Ashford in his expensive charcoal suit was walked out of a hotel in Manhattan. Camera flashes from paparazzi. Reporters shoving microphones in his face with their questions. The headline read.Julian Ashford Arrested in Human Trafficking conspiracy. It wasn’t a conspiracy, I could already see them trying to help him wiggle out of it.
“I guess Maya was right about them finding a fall guy,” I said. “Mother fuckers are going to get away with it. They’ve got to pay.”
“Have you been to computer lab?” he asked in a soft tone, combating with my anger, it annoyed me.
I shook my head. “You didn’t take me.”
He clicked his tongue. “My bad then, I don’t go there often, but if you’re looking for a job to get your anger out, it’s the best place for it,” he said.
“I thought Mercy assigned them.”
“Special assignments, yeah, but there’s a whole lot going on behind the scenes,” he said. “There are hundreds of people here, Art, she can’t micromanage everyone. So, do you want to find someone to take your anger out on?”
Maybe he understood me better than I thought. He was helping me stay calm, even in the face of Julain looking smug. It made sense, he was an Ashford, of course he was smug.
“I forgot, one more gift,” he said, hand in his pocket again. He pulled out a gold chain punched through a golden coin. It was all shiny and slippery between my fingers. “This is a lucky coin.”
“Oh.”
He turned it over. “And it has our initials in it,” he said, revealing with the slide of his thumb to our initials. ‘D & A’.
“That’s cute.”
“I needed something on you, to show you’re mine,” he said as I planted a wet kiss to his cheek, almost exfoliating on his scruffy facial hair. It was best felt between my legs. “Because you’re mine, Art.”
“And you’re mine,” I said. “A two-way street.” Wiggling my brows at him.
“Except nothing, but the tip of your finger goes in my street,” he said, winking. “You should go take this new found freedom to really explore Sanctum, and make sure to get training in. I might not be in control of your schedule officially, but I am still—”
“Daddy, Sir, Master,” I blurted in a giggle. “Of course, you’ll always be that to me.”
“Good boy,” he said, unlatching the clasp on the necklace. “Turn, I don’t want another second to go by without this symbol of ownership on you.”
Protected, held, belonging. I felt it all from a singular action. From a singular gift. I touched it as it laid over my t-shirt. It was comforting. “Does it also have tracking?” I asked.
“No,” he said with a smirk. “You’re already tracked from Sanctum. I don’t need anything to do with that.”
I’d forgotten that fact. Mercy and her wife scared me, but Donovan relieved it all. I wouldn’t beherewithout him, in life, or in Sanctum. It was nice. But that didn’t mean I could rest easy, I still had a point to prove to them all. I could do the work, in fact, I could do better work than Donovan.
