Page 29 of The Player

Seth watched her work, the glow from the screen casting shadows on her face. He could see how worn out she was, the hours of stress and tension taking their toll. But he also knew she wouldn’t stop, wouldn’t rest, until she had uncovered every last piece of the puzzle.

Feeling more protective than he feared he should, Seth placed a hand on her shoulder, gently but firmly. “Hope,” he said quietly, “you’re exhausted. You need to rest.”

She shook her head, not taking her eyes off the screen. “I’m fine. I just need to?—”

“Hope,” Seth interrupted, his voice soft but insistent. “If we don’t get some sleep, we’ll be useless tomorrow. We’ll pick this up in the morning. Right now, we need to rest.”

She hesitated, torn between the drive to keep going and the undeniable exhaustion that was pulling her down. Finally, she exhaled, her shoulders slumping in defeat. “You’re right,” she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. “But I hate leaving this unfinished.”

“We’re not leaving it,” Seth reassured her, reaching over to close the laptop. “We’re just pausing. You’ve done incredible work tonight, but we can’t afford to burn out. We need to be sharp when we move forward.”

Hope gave him a weary smile, the fight draining out of her. “Okay,” she murmured. “But first thing in the morning, we dive back in.”

“First thing,” Seth promised, sending a secure message to Cerberus with a summary of what they’d discovered. Once that was done, he gently took the laptop from her, set it aside out of reach, and powered it down.

Seth led her up to the bedroom in silence, holding her hand as they went. The tension of the day slowly gave way to the need for rest. When they entered the room, Hope turned her back to him, lifting her hair and offering him her back for help with the zipper. He leaned forward and kissed the nape of her neck as he pulled the zipper down and helped her to undress. Turning back the covers, he helped Hope into bed, removing his own clothes and sliding in beside her.

“This is nice,” he said, pulling her into his arms. As he did so, some of the tension left her body, her breathing slowing as she began to relax.

Remembering she liked the feeling of being bound in his ropes, Seth wrapped his arms more tightly around her. He could still feel the adrenaline buzzing just beneath his skin, but as he held her, the edges of that urgency began to soften. The warmth of her body, the steady rhythm of her breathing—it was all a reminder of what they were fighting for, of what they couldn’t afford to lose.

He brushed a strand of hair away from her face, leaning down to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. Hope looked up at him, her eyes half-lidded with fatigue but still filled with that ferocity of spirit he’d always admired so much.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice soft and full of emotion.

“For what?” Seth asked, his hand running down her back in a soothing motion.

“For being here. For… for everything,” she murmured, her eyes drifting closed as exhaustion finally claimed her.

Seth’s heart ached at her words, a deep, powerful feeling of protectiveness swelling within him. He didn’t respond with words—there were none that could adequately convey what he felt for her. Instead, he leaned down and kissed her, a slow, tender kiss that spoke of promises and devotion.

Hope responded with a soft sigh, her body relaxing further into his embrace. And then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, they moved together, their bodies finding a rhythm that was as old as time itself.

It wasn’t rushed or frantic. It was slow, deliberate, every touch, every caress, a reminder of the connection between them. Seth poured all of his emotion into that moment, into the way he kissed her, the way he moved against her, the way he held her as if she were the most precious thing in the world.

And she was. To him, Hope was everything.

As they reached the peak together, Hope buried her face in his neck, her breath hot against his skin as she whispered his name over and over like a prayer. Seth held her tightly, his own release shuddering through him, leaving him breathless, his heart pounding in his chest.

For a long time after, they lay together, tangled in each other’s arms, the silence of the night wrapping around them like a blanket. Seth could feel Hope drifting off to sleep, her body finally succumbing to the exhaustion that had been building all night.

But as he lay there, listening to the steady sound of her breathing, his mind was still racing. The information they’d uncovered was terrifying, the implications too vast to fully comprehend. The Cobra was planning an attack that could devastate cities, take countless lives, and they were the only ones who could stop it.

They had the who, what, why, and would know the when once they knew when the Sarin would be released. They also needed to uncover the how and the where. And they needed to do it fast.

Seth tightened his grip on Hope, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. He knew she would fight tooth and nail to get that information, just as he would. But he also knew they were walking a razor’s edge, and one wrong move could send them both plummeting into the abyss.

He closed his eyes, willing sleep to come. But even as he began to drift off, the weight of what they were facing lingered in the back of his mind, a constant reminder of the danger that loomed just beyond the horizon.

In the middle of the night, Seth woke to the sound of Hope shifting in her sleep. He opened his eyes to find her trembling beside him, her body curled tightly against his, her breath coming in short, uneven gasps.

Without thinking, he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her and murmuring soothing words into her hair. Slowly, her breathing steadied, and the shivering subsided. Seth held her until she settled back into a deeper sleep, the tension finally leaving her body.

He stayed awake for a long time after that, holding her close, his mind racing with the gravity of what they were up against. They had five days—maybe less—to stop a catastrophe that could change the world forever. As he finally drifted back to sleep, he knew one thing for certain: the Cobra wouldn’t know what hit him.

CHAPTER 13

HOPE

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