She drew up an inch, and he followed, thrusting shallowly. She moaned quietly against his neck. When she moved, he matched her. Slow at first. It didn’t matter how they got there, only that they found it together.
He slid a hand up her back, fingers mapping the knobs and dips, then down again to cup her ass. He angled his hips and felt her clench, felt her breath stutter against his jaw. He did it again, and she rolled her hips in response, seemingly chasing the sensation with a little gasp that had him seeing white around the edges.
The sight of her riding him—head thrown back, throat bared, sweat catching at her collarbone—overrode him in some fundamental way. He dragged a finger to where they were joined, found her clit, and flicked lightly. Her whole body shivered. He felt it ripple through his palm.
"Gideon," she said. "Yes. Yes."
She clenched hard around him, and he ground up into her, holding her down through it, his own control shredding when her nails bit into his shoulders. She came with a shudder that rolled through her entire frame and dragged him right to the edge with her.
He didn’t follow. Not yet. He wanted more. Needed more.
"Turn," he whispered against her skin. "Please."
She lifted. He slid out of her and guided her down to the mattress on her hands and knees, pressing a kiss to the small of her back as she went. He ran his hands along her sides, fingertips skimming the curve of her waist, the flare of her hips. He fit himself behind her and eased back in slowly, almost painfully, until he couldn’t go any further and had to close his eyes.
He wrapped an arm around her, palm flat against her belly to pull her back against him. His other hand splayed on the mattress. Her hair stuck to the sweat at the nape of her neck. He kissed her there and felt her tremble. He moved. Deeper this time, each thrust deliberate, angled until his vision blurred with the sound of her breath scraping out of her. She pushed back against him in short, hungry little motions that made him dizzy.
"Tell me if?—"
"Don’t stop," she said. "God, please don’t stop." Her arms buckled, and she collapsed to her forearms, cheek turned to the pillow, body shaking hard. He held her right there, pressed deep, and rode her release with her. She squeezed him so tightly, he lost the tiny bit of control he’d been clinging to.
He groaned, snapping his hips twice, before he stilled and let the wave take him under. It rolled through him in sharp, blinding flashes—pleasure that bordered on pain, everything in him unwinding at once. He stayed buried inside her, forehead resting on her damp shoulder blade, trying to catch his breath, but his lungs burned.
He reached for her hand and laced his fingers through hers. Slowly, her body relaxed, and she let out a long sigh. He tucked her back against his chest and fell into the mattress on his side. Her soft curves settled against his hollows as if they'd been individually carved to fit together. He dragged the sheet up over them with clumsy fingers and pressed his mouth to the soft place behind her ear.
"That was…"
"Incredible? Amazing?" She laughed. "You’ve wrecked me."
"Is that a good or bad thing?"
"As if you even have to ask." She took his hand and pulled it around her body. "You’d better be destroyed. I’m a jealous woman, and I don’t ever want it to be that good for you with anyone else."
"I don’t ever want to be with anyone but you again," he whispered. "It will always be you."
She hugged his arm tighter but said nothing, and that was okay. There were too many unknown to start making declarations. But he meant what he said, and he knew he was falling in love with her. Knew that before he’d even known Hopper was Zadie.
If and when this thing with Finch ever ended, Gideon would show her what kind of man he could be. He’d prove to her he was worthy. It might take some time, but she was worth it.
Chapter Sixteen
Zadie tossed the last ammo bag into the back of the SxS and cinched the cargo net tight. Her ribs protested the stretch, and she bit down on the inside of her cheek until the ache dulled to something manageable.
The garage sat at the far end of the bunker—a concrete bay with a roll-up door that opened into a camouflaged access tunnel carved into the hillside. Three SxS vehicles sat lined up, side by side, packed with enough gear and supplies for a thirty-hour operation.
Neve stood at the hood of the lead SxS, checking the route map against a topo sheet she'd spread across the engine cover. Coulter loaded water and rations into the rear compartment of their vehicle. Every once in a while, he glanced in Scout’s direction but said nothing.
Scout leaned against the third vehicle and stared at the large garage door. She’d been quiet since she and Coulter had returned from their recon mission about twenty minutes ago.
Neve held up the topo sheet. "Scout, what's our fallback if the northwest approach is blocked?"
"There’s a fire service road. It adds forty minutes and comes in from the north." Scout continued to stare at the door.
"Does it give us cover the whole way, or are there exposed stretches?"
"Two exposed stretches. One at the river crossing, about two hundred meters. The other where the fire road meets the highway. Maybe three hundred meters of open ground before the tree line picks up again." Scout turned, snagged the last of the magazines and loaded them into the storage pouches, securing them. "I timed them as best I could without actually running them myself."
"We can do this in our SxSs?"
