Page 42 of Tracing Her Stolen Identity
“We can do that,” she promised, unsnapping the button on his jeans without dropping his gaze. It was now or never if she wanted to show him that while a life with her might not be typical, that didn’t mean it couldn’t be enjoyable.
Check yourself, Skylar. There’s no life with him. There’s only tonight, because when the sun comes up tomorrow and reality comes floating back through those windows, nothing will have changed.
With all her might, she tried to ignore that voice of reason as she unzipped his pants, the chattering of the teeth sending a visible shiver through him. Just for tonight, she wanted to pretend she could have a life with this man.
“You’re killing me, baby girl,” he ground out, lifting his hips to lower his jeans and then his boxers.
She was holding him in a breath, his warm skin connected to hers in an elemental way that told her nothing would ever be the same between them again, and she didn’t want it to be. She wanted him, and all of her reasoning about why she shouldn’t went out the window the moment he throbbed against her. She stroked him, his hips thrusting as she did, and his moans long and low. She had no question that he was enjoying their time together. Then he cried out in pleasure, his desire throbbing rhythmically in her hand as she carried him up onto his own waveof pleasure. After his release, when he gazed down at her, she saw everything he couldn’t say. She prayed her eyes told him the same story.
Chapter Twenty
Reece woke slowly, his gaze taking in the woman in his arms. Sky was still naked, as was he, and they were wrapped together in a blanket he’d pulled over them after she’d made him a very happy man. She was gorgeous, all of her, and it killed him to think she believed she wasn’t. If she gave him the chance, he’d tell her she was beautiful every day for the rest of his life. He suspected that would be harder to do than to say. When this was over and she had her life back, he expected her to push him away again. This time, he wouldn’t let that happen.
He noticed she was still clutching her charcoal pencil and the pad lay off to the side, having fallen from her lap in sleep. She must have woken up with an idea she didn’t want to forget and sketched it out. He gingerly lifted the sketch pad and paused as he went to close the book. It wasn’t a mosaic she’d been sketching. It was him. His jaw dropped slightly at the image in his hands. He was alive and vibrant, even in black and white. She’d managed to represent his two different-colored eyes using only shadows and light. Stroke by stroke, she’d built him as she saw him, half the boy she used to know and half the man he had become, and married them perfectly into what heembodied as a man today. She had incredible talent, but she also had incredible insight into people and drew them from the inside out.
“Secure Watch, Whiskey.” Mina’s voice filled the room from his walkie-talkie, and he grabbed it carefully to avoid waking Sky. A check of the clock told him it was 2:00 a.m., which meant they’d been sleeping much longer than he’d realized.
“Secure Watch, Riker,” he responded quietly.
“This is an all-call alert,” Mina said. “I need you and Skylar here immediately.”
“What’s up?” he asked, eyeing the woman in his arms as she began to stir.
“We’ve got a new video. Things have escalated. Can you meet me in the conference room in ten?”
“We’ll need twenty. We were sleeping, so Sky needs time to get ready.”
“Ten-four.”
He sat up and shifted a sleepy Sky to the pillows. “Mina doesn’t do an all-call at this time of the night unless there’s a massive change in the situation. We need to move.”
Skylar grabbed his arm before he could leave the bed. “We need to talk, Land.”
“When this is over,” he said, praying the words didn’t sound as harsh to her ears as they did to his. “Until you’re free of this threat, that’s where our concentration needs to be.”
Without another word, she shifted her wheelchair and transferred into it. Watching her struggle to get her legs onto the footplate, he walked around the bed and tenderly lifted them down. She wouldn’t meet his gaze, and he knew she’d heard the sharpness of his tone.
He leaned in on her wheels and forced eye contact. “Let me be clear—if I had a choice, I’d still be in that bed holding your warm body and kissing your sweet lips. First, it’s my job to keep you safe and eliminate this threat. Don’t misconstrue my shift in attitude to anything other than wanting to protect you and give you your life back. Got it?”
“I want the same thing, both your warm body and being free of this threat. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do to make that happen.”
“Good,” he whispered, leaning in and stealing a kiss from her lips. “Because when this is over, we aren’t going back to the lives we used to live. That’s over. Fair warning.”
Rather than answer, she gave him one nod and turned her chair, wheeling into the bathroom in a way that said she wasn’t as convinced of that as he was. That was okay. He was a patient man. He’d waited fourteen years to be with her. He could wait a few more days.
* * *
WHEN HE ANDSky arrived at the conference room, the team was assembled, meaning this video undoubtedly changed the game.
“Sorry to rouse you so early,” Mina said as a greeting, “but we’ve got a situation.”
“How bad is it?” Reece asked, pulling a chair away from the table so Sky could roll in.
“Explosively bad,” Iris said without looking away from the table. “I was on duty when it came in on the Facebook page. Whoever it is, they know we can see the page.”
“Can we see the video?” Sky asked, glancing at Mina and Cal.
“I’ve got it ready to show you,” Mina said. “Fair warning. It’s traumatic, and we will protect you no matter what.”
