Page 47 of The Mech Who Loved Me
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He'd never beenapatientman.
A fierce need drove through him, his cock aching with regret, but Kincaid forced himself to stand still as Ava collapsed in his arms with astartledsob.
All it would take would be one simple step: to thrust her skirts up, part her thighs around her hips, and drive his throbbing erectioninsideher.
But Avadeservedmore.
Her body might be ready, but she herselfwasn't.
And it was that thought that stopped him. Swallowing hard, he wrapped both arms around her, dragging her against his chest as she shuddered from the aftermath. The scent of her arousal filled the air as he withdrew his fingers. He couldn't resist licking her wetness from them, the taste of her testing his self-imposed limitsoncemore.
"Oh,God," sherasped.
"Easy, luv," he whispered, feeling tremors work all the waythroughher.
Somehow he set her on her feet again. She leaned against the wall, still completely shocked. Or perhaps overwhelmed was a better word. Kincaid knelt at Ava's feet, his cock throbbing painfully as he set about straightening herskirts.
"That's it." He curved his hands around the backs of her calves, andlookedup.
There was a blush on her pale cheeks as she looked him in the eye, and thank God, but she finally knew what she was askingofhim.
"Not yet," he assured her, "but one day soon, I'm going to fuck you, Ava. Just don't give me your heart, for this ends when thecasedoes."
Ithadto.
Twelve
THIS ENDSWHEN thecasedoes.
The words echoed in her head as she spent the next twenty-four hours working with Dr. Gibson in the Nighthawks’ laboratory, studying vial after vial of vaccine to discover if someone at Kestrel Laboratories was behind the tampering, or whether it occurred purely at the clinicsthemselves.
Ava felt raw and on edge, barely able to concentrate. It wasn't like her at all, and she kept watching the clock, counting down the hours until this thankless jobwasdone.
Kincaid had opened her eyes to passion, and she felt like her body was in control now, demanding more of the enticing drug. The need for his body warred with her desire to complete the job. Rational impulses versus primal. It was probably a good thing he wasn't here, or she'd be virtuallyuseless.
"Well, that's the last batch," Dr. Gibson said, dusting off his hands and looking tired. "Not a single tamperedsample."
Kestrel Laboratories used glycerin to both conserve the vaccine and make the virus inert, which took time and a low temperature. The vaccine vials were kept in the icebox at the clinics, so it wasn't as though someone could have injected a live specimen of the craving virus into the vaccine. The glycerin would have acted to damage the new viral cells. So the saboteur had to have replaced the vial, leaving out the glycerin or any antiviral agent. Ava capped the last vial she'd been checking, and placed it in the tray to be destroyed with the rest of them in the Nighthawks’ incinerator. "Kestrel's innocent. All of their samples are perfect, and they claim the vaccine is transported under security from its facility to the clinics, following the picketing against the clinics that happened when they initially opened. So they don't think it happened ontheirend."
"So it's the clinics, lass," Gibson said, casting his apron aside. "Hell ofacase."
Considering the bomb planted in the drones, she'd already concluded a break-in had occurred, but they had to be certain. "Thank you for your help. Let's hope it was only the one batch of vaccines that weresabotaged."
Gibson flicked through the roster of patient names one of the Nighthawks had collected from Dr. Harricks. "There were one hundred vials of vaccine ordered in the batch that contained Mr. Thomas's afflicted sample. Marcus Long was also one of the patients seen that week at the clinic, so that makes at least two out of a hundred who were stricken with thecraving."
"Dr. Harrick's statement claimed the batch arrived on the nineteenth and he didn't unpack it until the clinic was closed, so it could only have been touched that night—or one of the following nights. He ordered a new batch on the twenty-third, as he was running low. If we presume that batch was the only one tampered with, then we have a four-day window during which someone broke in and sabotaged thevaccine."
"Both David Thomas and Marcus Long were seen on the twenty-first," Gibsonpointedout.
"So a two-day window, and potentially a hundred patients who might have been stricken, if it happened the firstnight."
"I'll mention it to Garrett and he can see all of the patients arequestioned."
Thank God. It was a monumental task, let alone the fact Francis Jenkins, the other vaccinated victim, had been a patient of the clinic on Church Street, in Marylebone, which significantly widened the victim pool. Ava rubbed her temples. "I have a headache just thinkingaboutit."
"Then don't. Go home, get some rest. I'll handle this end of the investigation and let you know the results." Gibson leaned against the steel workbench. "I don't entirely know what this is all about," he said, "as Garrett's keeping the investigation into the bombing quiet, but you're not getting in over your head, are you? With this mysterious employer you've leftmefor?"
