Later came eventually.Another day of sleep and food, cuddling and watching old movies, before Miranda came in, scanned us, and declared we were allowed up and about—with a warning that at the first hint of a headache or fatigue we should go straight back to bed.
“Don’t be a hero and set back your healing,” she ordered, her gray eyes sharply assessing.
“Yes, ma’am,” Eli said with a wink.
She muttered something that sounded likepain in my assand shook her head.
“Can I have my laptop?” I asked.
It wasn’t the first time she’d fielded that query from me. Finally, I got a quick grin instead of a somber shake of her head. “Yes, if you promise you’ll close it as soon as your head starts bothering you.”
I lifted a hand. “Scout’s honor. It only just stopped hurting. I have no intention of bringing that headache back.”
Miranda turned and disappeared down the hall, returning a moment later with my laptop.
“Take it easy,” she said, her eyes on Eli. “I mean it. I’ve got to get back downstairs. You can work, but stay out of the office for another day.”
“You guys made any headway?” Eli asked.
“On what?” Miranda asked with a wry twist to her lips. “The guy who tried to blow you up, Silas disappearing into thin air, or whatever the hell Ghost Trace is?”
“All of the above,” Eli said.
Miranda shook her head. “Maddox and Emmett are still digging, but they haven’t come up with much. Wren is hunting down Ghost Trace. I don’t think she’s found anything. She’ll be up later. You can ask her.”
“Are we cleared to leave the building?” Eli asked, one eyebrow raised.
“No,” Miranda said sharply. “Not yet.”
A muscle in the side of Eli’s jaw flexed, but he didn’t argue.
“Stay out of trouble,” Miranda ordered before turning to head down the hall.
Eli got out of bed and followed. He returned only moments after he left.
“Where’d you go?” I asked.
“Making sure the door was locked and we’re really alone.” He flipped back the covers and slid into bed, pulling my laptop from my hands.
“Hey, I just got that back.” My fingers closed tight, too late to keep hold of it.
“You can have it,” Eli said. “But not yet.”
At the look in his eyes, my brain disengaged from the idea of research, locking onto the heat in his gaze.
“Oh,” I said, a flush hittingmy cheeks.
I caught a flash of Eli’s grin as his head dipped, his lips skimming across mine.
“I don’t know how long they’ll give us on our own. We should take advantage,” he said.
His lips slid along my jaw and down my neck, stopping to nuzzle my collarbone. I pulled at his T-shirt, and he sat up, stripping it off. I did the same with my nightshirt, tugging him down, loving the scrape of his chest hair against my nipples and the low growl in his throat as he hooked his hands in my underwear and tugged them over my hips, his long, hard body against mine. He was everything I wanted. Eli lifted his head and looked at me, his eyes hot with more than desire.
“When the bomb went off,” he said, “and half the wall came down, I thought you were dead. Your eyes were closed. You were bleeding. My ears were ringing. I couldn’t tell if you were breathing. I thought?—”
The moment came back to me as he spoke, a mini-avalanche of noise, pressure. Pain. Eli, on top of me, protecting me. My raw fear for both of us. I pulled him closer, even though we were already as close as two people could be.
He shook his head and raised his hand to cup my cheek. “Sylvie. This is fucking terrifying.”
