“I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“No. I’m glad you did.” She held out a hand to him, and he moved into the room to take it. When she scooched over, he crawled into bed with her, still fully clothed but for his boots. It was a tight fit. Erik’s bedroom was almost as large as his living room. He could have easily fit a king-size bed, but he only had a twin. Though she supposed, since he’d told her he usually slept in the living room, he hadn’t seen the need for anything bigger.
Unlike the other room, the walls were bare in here, with nothing to break up the expanse of white. Just a TV mounted across from the bed and a sliding glass door that led out to a balcony, where she was willing to bet, he did a lot of his painting when the weather cooperated. Otherwise, the space was filled with art supplies, canvases – some stretched over wooden frames while others wererolled – and easels. Before she’d given in to her exhaustion, she’d looked through his paintings eagerly. Some of them had been dark, disquieting, and she’d known instinctively that those were the pieces Erik had painted to purge the violence of his past.
“Is everything okay?”
There was a detached quality to his voice when he told her he’d gone to see the geneticist in the brig, and they may have a way to heal Jayla’s injuries. There was a storage facility in New Mexico, and they were putting a retrieval team together.
“Will you be going?”
“Yes.”
Chloe frowned. This should have been good news. Why didn’t he seem happy? Or, at least, relieved. “What else? Something else happened. What?”
“She’s my mother.”
“Who?” He couldn’t possibly mean…
“Doctor Dietrich. She told me tonight. She’s my biological mother.”
The woman who had sprayed acid in his face? It was horrifying enough when she was just the scientist who created him and experimented on him, but to know that she was hisactualmother and committed such travesties? Was there a word to even describe that level of betrayal? Chloe couldn’t imagine the emotions Erik was grappling with right now.
He let out a rueful laugh. “I always knew I was a monster. I guess I come by it naturally.”
“Don’t talk about yourself that way,” she scolded, hating that he saw himself like that. “You are not a monster.” Closing the small distance between them, she kissed him, their mouths clinging for a moment before she drew back slightly. “I love you, Erik.”
He let out what Chloe could only describe as a low growl before he returned his mouth to hers, kissing her hungrily.
Within moments, Erik’s clothes were on the floor, joining the t-shirt she’d borrowed from his closet to sleep in. Naked, they pressed together, both of them letting out a little sigh of relief at the contact. Their arms wound around each other, holding close. Her hands moved over the warm, silky-smooth skin of his back. Raising her knee, she hooked her leg over his hip, as his palm slid down to her backside and squeezed.
She’d needed this. Needed him. This connection. In his arms, everything was okay. It was warm and safe, and for a little while, the rest of the world ceased to exist. He was her shelter in the storm.
Their mouths broke apart, and Chloe moaned as he kissed his way down her throat. His fangs grazed her shoulder, then his lips and tongue as he moved down to her breast. He took her nipple into his mouth, and a small cry of pleasure broke free.
She rocked against his erection as need built, becoming an urgency. She didn’t want to wait; she wanted him inside of her. Reaching between them, she took hold of his shaft, and Erik letout a groan as she maneuvered him into position. Chloe closed her eyes as she sank onto the thick length of him, and suddenly, Erik was moving them, rolling onto his back so she was straddling him.
Biting her lip, she kept her eyes on his face as she raised herself and slid back down. She couldn’t hold back her gasp; it felt so good. Erik was panting, his hands cupping her breasts as he watched her ride him.
His eyes squeezed shut, and he let out a hiss as his hips came off the mattress, and his hands dropped to her waist, guiding her, encouraging her to move faster. She felt it too. They were both on the razor’s edge. Then his hand was between them, his fingers stroking her, and with a choked cry, Chloe splintered, the orgasm spilling through her in a hot, liquid rush.
“Chloe!” His arms gathered her to him, holding her close as his hips jerked beneath her, and she felt his erection kick inside of her as he found his own release.
For several minutes, they lay there, holding each other, with Chloe sprawled on top of Erik. The only sound in the room was their harsh breathing, as they savored the aftereffects. Every muscle in Chloe’s body was limp, and she didn’t have the slightest urge to move.
“I love you,” Erik breathed against her ear.
Her lipscurved into a smile.
The sun wasn’t even up when Erik had to leave, and Chloe went with him to the helicopter. Aside from the pilot, it was a four-person team, including Erik. She recognized Kong, and the woman who was going with them had been part of the medevac team who had picked up Jayla at the opera house, but there was also a man with a mechanical prosthetic arm she didn’t recognize.
All too soon, Erik was kissing her goodbye, and then she watched, hugging herself as the helicopter lifted off, and continued to watch until it was long out of sight.
He’d be fine, she told herself, so there was no reason for the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. When they’d been getting dressed, he’d told her that they didn’t expect trouble. The storage facility was secure, but they had all the codes they needed to gain access. “And if we get there, and find the codes don’t work,” he’d told her. “We have someone with us who can break through even the most complex security measures.”
Chloe made her way to the infirmary to see Jayla. The doctor was in with her, so she needed to wait, but as soon as the man left, she headed inside. Jayla looked tired, her face pale, which only made the broken blood vessels in her eyes and bruising on her throat stand out in sharp relief. But her face brightened when she sawChloe. “Hey.” Her voice was hoarse, making Chloe want to wince in sympathy. Jackson had done so much damage.
She approached the bed, took Jayla’s hand, and squeezed it gently. “How are you doing?”
