Page 40 of Black Bay Defender
But Lark needed to eat too. She’d just woken up from a coma, and despite appearances, she likely still needed more time to recuperate. He thought of that bastard Ridley, saw him turn and shoot that nine-mil at Lark’s head. Grinding his teeth together, he fisted his hand, but the red haze of rage didn’t consume him. Was he angry? Hell, yes. Would he like to kill Ridley all over again? Definitely. But all of that felt real, natural, his own anger rather than a product of the chip in his head.
Good. It looked like the Doctor had done what he’d said he would.
He was about to say as much to Lark when he noticed she was staring rather fixedly at the door to the mess hall. He looked, but even with his enhanced vision, he couldn’t see anything worthy of such attention. No one was coming in or leaving at the moment and nothing out of the ordinary was happening outside.
“What is it?” he asked.
Lark shook herself as if she was emerging from deep thought. Tapping her fingers on the table, she frowned thoughtfully. “I was just thinking about the AI.”
Something Grady would just as soon forget – not that he could – but his mouth quirked up with a fond smile of amusement. “Dog with a bone,” he uttered.
Her return smile was one of surprise before she barked out a short little laugh. “I remember that day, telling you that.”
“It’s a good quality to have.”
Her cheeks pinkened just a tiny bit as if she was embarrassed by the praise, but she quickly recovered. Leaning forward over the table, she imparted, “What if you can talk to the AI? Open a line of communication. Doors work both ways.”
“Ask it to sever the connection?”
“Why not?” Lark shrugged. “It may not be a person with feelings but it’s an intelligence. It wanted to know why you altered your programming and seemed to understand when you explained. Talk to it. Tell it why you want to be free. Why all the Resurrection soldiers should be free. Maybe we can make it understand. And maybe,” she added with a speaking glance, “we can get it on our side.”
ORION working with Black Bay? Now that was an intriguing thought.
She reached out and snagged his hand. “But not tonight. Tonight, you’re mine.”
Oh, hell yeah.
Chapter Twenty-One
Larkstillhadholdof his hand when he rose and she pulled him back down. “Eat first.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively and teased, “You’ll need your strength.”
So would she if she wanted to do all the things she’d been imagining herself doing to Grady. She wanted to learn every inch of that strong, hard body. Commit every bit of it to memory.
He began shoveling food into his mouth so fast it was comical. With a giddy laugh, Lark picked up her fork and did the same, the two of them making a game out of who could finish first.
When they were done, they were both laughing like teenagers as they ran out of the mess hall, their fingers laced tightly together.
At some point, while they’d been eating, it started raining, and their booted feet splashed through the puddles as they ran. With a grin, Lark pulled Grady to a stop and she tipped her head back to feel the cool, fat droplets of water that splashed her face. She loved the rain, loved storms, and bearing witness to the ferocity of nature.
Growing up in a lab, she’d been denied the sky. Until the day she’d been freed she’d never once felt the sun on her face or the cool kiss of rain. Just being able to go outside had been a dream, and right now, she wanted to experience Grady under that open sky. Taste that intoxicating freedom with him.
Grady’s hand cupped her cheek as he stepped in close. “Beautiful,” he breathed, their lips a hairsbreadth apart. “That look on your face.”
With a jagged exhale, Lark closed the distance, her lips meeting his with a voracious hunger as the sky opened up fully and unleashed its fury. Thunder rumbled in the distance and Lark’s heartbeat picked up at the sound.
The rain pelted them hard, but neither one of them cared as they clung to each other, their mouths devouring as their bodies pressed closer.
Lark’s feet left the ground as Grady picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist, her hips rocking against him. Her hands gripped his head, slid over the short, wet hair, down to the back of his neck, and then firmly kneaded those strong shoulders.
With a low, sexy growl that made her core throb and her toes curl in her boots, he broke the kiss. The heat of his breath skated over her cheek as he moved to her ear. “I want to strip you bare.”
The sound of that gruff, deep voice sent a shiver down her spine. He nipped her earlobe and Lark let out a little groan of pleasure.
“But not here.”
He was right. They were smack in the middle of the busiest section of Black Bay and she wasn’t the only one who loved the rain. But she still didn’t want to go inside.
“Over there,” she said, barely recognizing her own voice that had dropped to a sultry, seductive register. Not wanting to remove her hands from Grady for even a second to point, she jutted her chin in the general direction. “Behind the security building.”
