Ben hadn’t moved. Not an inch.
She looked at him, the soft light of the candles doing nothing to take away his stark masculinity. “You okay?”
“No.”
Despite the fact that he was angry with her, she couldn’t let him stir in his own misery. She was in love with him and it might never work, but it was real for her. “You need to have a little faith. We’re stuck. There’s nothing we can do, but our people know what’s going on. They won’t let this happen.”
“But there’s no way for them to stop the bomb that’s five feet away from us.”
She’d already accepted this. “No. I don’t think they can, and they know what their priorities are. I’ve already assessed this and the most likely outcome is that my team takes out the big bomb and we die in here anyway.”
“Yes, I think you’re right.” He touched her, his hand moving over her hair. “I wish you weren’t here with me.”
“That’s funny because I was thinking that there was no place I would rather be.” She stepped in closer, tilting her head slightly up. “I’ve thought of nothing but that night at Top for weeks. I wish you had picked up on my signals long ago. I wish we’d had more time.”
His fingers tightened, and she knew he’d made some kind of decision. “Your signals suck, baby. All you ever had to do was this.”
He lowered his head and brushed his lips over hers. Fire sparked through her, but it was a warm, loving thing. There was passion in his kiss, but longing, too. A longing that matched her own.
Somewhere in the back of her head she knew the clock was still counting down, but time stopped for her. They hadn’t gotten the whitepicket fence and two point five kids. They hadn’t had a big wedding. They wouldn’t get to watch each other grow old and face it all together.
But they could have this.
One moment. One perfect moment where they were together.
When his tongue swept across her lips, she welcomed him inside, her hands going to his hips. A long, satisfied sigh came from her chest as he deepened the kiss. She wrapped her arms around him, giving herself up to the moment. To this one bit of joy in all the hours of horror. This was the way she wanted to go out. With him. Finally with him.
Somewhere out there her sisters were working, saving the world. They would never know the gift they gave her. Knowing her team would get the job done meant she could spend this precious time with him. She would be able to feel him inside her just once.
She could love him in the time they had left.
“Don’t cry, baby. You know I’m crazy about you. If this is all we get…” he began.
She rubbed her cheek against his. “We’ll take it. I want to be with you. Just once.”
“Maggie, I’m crazy about you. I’ve wanted to touch you since the moment I saw you. Well, most of the time,” he whispered against her mouth. He dragged his tongue across her lower lip, and she shuddered in his arms. “Sometimes it’s like you’re a different person.”
Because she was a different person those times, and her twin could be a lot. “Don’t think about that. That was all work. This is different, Ben. I want you so badly sometimes I can’t stand it. My friends know it, too. They know you’re the reason I haven’t had a damn boyfriend in forever.”
He kissed her over and over, drugging her with his closeness. They’d never tangled their bodies together before, and the rest of the world seemed to fall away. Nothing mattered except this moment with him. Her parents would want her to try to get out, but she knew there was no getting out of this. This was fate.
His hands roamed over her back and down to cup her ass, pulling her against his body and letting her feel exactly what he was offering her. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to work with you? I get this way any time you’re around.”
She did not like the thought of him getting hard around Kala. Sheloved her sister, but Ben was the one thing she wanted for herself. Kala…she was happy. She had Cooper and Lou and Tash and she would be okay. They would all be okay. “Even when I’m busting your balls?”
“There are times when you seem more pissed off than others. I often wonder who hurt you.”
She let her hands find his chest. “One day I’ll explain everything, but for now, please kiss me again, Ben.”
There wouldn’t be time for explanations. Their bodies would do the talking, but she had faith that he would understand. When it was over and they were wherever spies went, he would know everything—including the fact that he was half of her soul.
He kissed his way from her mouth to her cheek and down her neck, each caress lighting up her skin.
“Baby, I want to see you.” There was a pleading frustration to his tone that let her know how on the edge he was. “I want to touch you. I know we don’t have much time, but I want to spend every single second we have left getting inside you. It’s all I want now.”
She could handle that.
“You know we have all the best toys.” She turned slowly, showing him there wasn’t a zipper anywhere and yet it fit perfectly. “Nanites. They conform to whoever’s wearing them. They’re also resistant to bullets and weapons. Oh, push hard enough and you can still get a knife through there, but it gives me some protection.”
