Of Eternal Life (23 page)

“Are you wanting to hire me so you can keep a close eye on me? Because of the…
relationship
I had with Eli?

Collins laughed. “Are you kidding me?” He chuckled again.

But she didn’t hear him over a new thought had planted itself in her brain. She groaned. “Oh God, does everybody out there know?” Her escorts? All of those scientists? Did they think she was a slut? Eli’s cast-offs?

You
left
him,
remember?
the Voice said.
If anything, he’s
your
cast-offs.
She winced. Ironically, she didn’t like the Voice talking about Eli that way.

Collins cleared his throat, which drew Abilene’s attention back to his face. She drew back in shock. He looked
pissed
. “Now you listen here, young lady. I thought you were smarter than this. Thought you’d proved so when you left Eli in the dust for doubting you. And now you doubt yourself? Hell, maybe you’re not smart enough for this position after all.”

He clucked his tongue. “I want to hire you because you’re a gol-dang genius with a microscope, as most of the country, and now the world knows, you crazy woman. And now we’re getting ready to begin testing the other tree, and we’re not willing to risk the integrity of the experiments on anyone less qualified than the current leading research specialist in immortality.” He pinned her with a glare. “That’s you, in case you forgot.”

Abilene swallowed and resisted the urge to look at her feet like a kid in the principal’s office. She heard Collins mutter something about being surrounded by “idjiots” and smiled.

He rose to his feet and headed toward the door. “Take some time to think about it while you tour the lab.” When Collins opened the door, he snapped his fingers at the blond recruit who was still waiting outside of the door. “Private Stevens here will be your guide. Take her wherever she wants, son,” he said to the soldier, and then he walked out while Abilene stared at his back.

He’d been right of course. Her confidence in herself still took some cultivating. She sighed and smiled at Private Stevens. “Ready whenever you are, I guess.”

He nodded and headed out of the door. She followed on his heels.

Over the next hour, Abilene fell more and more in love with the state-of-the-art facility that Collins was co-directing. They had everything she could ever hope to want or anticipate needing. She was becoming more and more convinced that she was going to have to accept this job or admit she was indeed an “idjiot.”

Then Stevens stopped in front of an observation room and led the way in. “These are our test subjects,” the young recruit said. Abilene gazed through the one-way mirror, anxious to see under what conditions the subjects were kept. Anything inhumane would, of course, be a deal-breaker.

“You’re not…killing anyone here, are you?” she asked curtly.

Stevens’s eyes widened. His mouth flopped open.

Thank God.
“Just checking,” she said.

The one-way mirror looked out over two separate rooms that were set up much like college dorm rooms, but with a lot more luxury. In the room on Abilene’s left, a mammoth man, even impossibly bigger than Eli, lay on his back on the extra-long twin bed. His forearm lay across his eyes. He exuded an aura of misery. Abilene’s heart went out to him.

“The subjects, of course, are here under their own volition. The co-directors would have it no other way,” Stevens said hastily at the look on Abilene’s face. She relaxed.

“Then why does he look so … .” she drifted off.

Stevens nodded. “That’s part of the reason he asked to stay on in the experiment. He’s Subject 1. Jericho. He lost his mate many years ago and has lost the will to live. As you know, the immortal subjects have no option but to live. He figured he may as well help the Operation as a willing volunteer than try to face the outside world without her. His door is always unlocked, but he never leaves his room.”

“Wow, that’s … .”
horrible
. Poor man.

Her eyes drifted to the left and she viewed the other subject for the first time. Her heart stopped.

Dahlia
.

Abilene stepped forward, her hands coming up to the mirror.

“What the fuck is she doing here?” Abilene snarled.

The young soldier stepped back. “Y-you know her?”

Oh yeah, she did. Abilene wished like hell that the mirror wasn’t there. That she could get her hands around the other woman’s delicate neck. She looked at the other soldier, confirming without a word that she did, indeed, know the woman on the other side of the glass.

“She’s testing the other fruit. The co-directors didn’t reveal much, but it’s clear that she chose to work for the Operation to get out of jail time for something pretty bad. The rumor is she killed someone.” He looked at Abilene hopefully, as though she would confirm or deny the gossip.

Dream on, kid
.

Dahlia sat on her own bed, her elbows braced on her knees, her face devoid of emotion. The bed she was sitting on shared a wall with the bed in Jericho’s room, and Abilene felt protective of the man who lay prone in his room by himself. She didn’t like that Dahlia was so near to him.

That woman was pure misery herself.

Stevens cleared his throat. “Would you like to meet with the other director now?” he asked, obviously not sure if he’d done something that would sway Abilene’s decision to join the Operation or not.

Abilene nodded. She was ready to get out of this room.

At least, she was until she saw the name on the other director’s door.

Eli Johnson: Co-Director.

Abilene’s mouth went dry in a mix of anticipation and trepidation.

“I’ll just leave you here, ma’am,” the recruit said as he beat a hasty retreat. She felt sorry for the kid. She’d not kept a handle on her emotions well. Again, her hand went to her abdomen.

Well, she’d have to face the man sooner or later. She did have news that he deserved to hear.

This is not going to be easy
.

She twisted the knob and tried to leave her heart at the door.

She didn’t succeed.

Eli Johnson sat behind a mahogany desk. His dark head was bent over a pile of paperwork, and the pen in his right hand moved back and forth. He didn’t look up when she entered, so she had a moment to view him uninterrupted.

Her eyes drank him in.

Her heart hurt. She’d known she’d missed him, had craved him, loved him. But she hadn’t been prepared for the experience seeing him again after months of separation would be.

“I’ll be with you in just a moment,” Eli’s spoke into his pile of paperwork in that deep voice that turned Abilene’s legs to jelly.

She moaned before she could stop herself.

Eli’s head flew up. His pupils dilated the moment his eyes found her huddled against the door, and his lids widened. His mouth parted.

“Abilene,” he breathed.

He shot to his feet and took two steps toward her before catching himself and stopping. He leaned against the corner of his desk as though his legs couldn’t quite hold himself.

They stared at each other way longer than was acceptable for future co-workers.

“Hi,” Abilene squeaked to break the silence.

Eli’s eyes closed at the sound of her voice, and just like that, Abilene knew the flurry of activity she was feeling in her own system at the sight of this man — the increased heart rate, the shortness of breath, the
instant
arousal — was happening to him, too.

“You came,” he whispered.

She blushed at his word choice, and he noticed, his cheeks dotting with their own flush of color.

“Again with this notion that I had a choice in the matter,” Abilene said, not as sternly as she would have hoped.

Eli’s brows drew together. He looked confused, as though he didn’t know she was not here under her own power.

“I had a military escort,” she said.

Eli’s expression turned into a dangerous glower in the span of one of her frantic heartbeats. He took another step toward her. “They forced you here? I want the name of every soldier who put his hands on you.”

Abilene sucked in a breath. She’d forgotten how intensely this man guarded her. She’d forgotten how amazing it felt to be cared for so ferociously.

She shook her head once. “No one hurt me,” she assured him. His glower went down in intensity only slightly, and Abilene was warmed all over again.

She offered him an awkward smile. Coming into this office had been a mistake. She was doomed. She should have turned and walked away the moment her heart told her Eli was here when she’d first come into the building.

She had tenuous control over her traitorous body. Her mind was screaming for her to launch herself into his arms and wrap her body around his.

Her knees grew weak at the idea.

Want. I want so bad
, the primitive part of her brain piped up.

The silence between them became too awkward for Eli to handle. “Please come to work for us, Abilene,” he said so, so softly. “I know we don’t deserve someone of your scientific caliber, but it would put this Operation on solid ground. We need you.”

His confidence in her washed over her like a balm, touching her more deeply than any other person’s feelings about her ever had. She closed her eyes and basked in the glow of his inadvertent praise.

Eli continued talking. “We kept your name out of everything, Abilene, I swear. No one here knows of what happened with Major Taylor, or that,” he swallowed, “you were forced to take the fruit.” His voice dripped with sorrow and regret at this latest. “And no one,
no one
, will ever know of our … i-interaction. I promise.”

He’d protected her even in her absence. Protected her completely. She realized with a start that she had never once questioned what would happen to her if the authorities found out she had killed Major Taylor. She had known that she would never be connected to that incident. That Eli would always ensure her safety.

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Eli whispered, “to work with a genius like you.”

She winced.
Genius
was as bad as
perfect
. “I’m only human, Eli. Not a genius. Not perfect. Just Abilene.”

Comprehension dawned on his face. “I’ve always known that, Abilene. You think with a temper like yours I would have ever mistaken you for perfect? And you snore. Pretty loudly.”

She gasped in outrage. He chuckled.

He took another step toward her. “And you eat McDonalds every meal you can.”

He was in front of her now. She could smell the soap he used. Feel his body heat. She swayed toward him.

“And you have the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen. You care for the people in your life with formidable courage. You hold others accountable for their actions and
force
them to be better people. You drive me out of my head with lust.”

His blunt fingers moved to brush her cheek. “And I was the worst kind of idiot to ever think you were something other than who you are: the woman I can’t live without.”

An embarrassingly loud sob escaped Abilene, and she was pulled into Eli’s crushing embrace a second later.

He felt
so
good. He arms were tight and firm around her. Her hands clutched at the muscles of his back as she buried her nose in his wide chest and cried, and cried, and cried.

His murmured sentiments rumbled through his body, and one of his hands moved to the back of her head to finger-comb her curls. He held her for what seemed an endless amount of time as his words, his actions, his character worked to heal years of Abilene’s hurt.

“Abilene, I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered into her hair. She drew back to look up at him.

“I’m pregnant,” she blurted.

He froze. “W-what?”

She nibbled on her bottom lip. “I’m pregnant, Eli. Twelve weeks,” she added, lest the stupid male get the wrong idea.
I’m carrying your baby, idiot
, was the subtext.

“I got you pregnant?” he asked.

He’d still shown no emotion. Abilene nodded. She didn’t know what she would do if he handled this badly. Her emotions were on a wild roller coaster as it was.

“Ah, God,” he groaned, and then she was caught up in his arms again, held more gently this time, and his breath came in ragged bursts. “You’re killing me here, woman. How are you going to convince me you’re not perfect if you keep making me the happiest man in the world?”

And then he was kissing her. Tenderly. Thoroughly. His tongue stroking into her mouth. His fingers tunneling into her hair. “I love you. So much,” he whispered into her mouth.

Abilene melted into his embrace even more. She’d hoped in a million different ways that someday Eli would say and do something to put her back into his arms. The reality far outweighed any of her fantasies. “I love you, too,” she whispered back. “I always have. Even when you were an ass.”

He smiled into her eyes, but before he could kiss her again, she stopped him with a hand to his chest.

“So, maybe we should go over the company dating policy,” she said with a wink.

He chuckled and pulled her closer. “Whatever it is, I’m sure marriage will solve any questions.”

Abilene froze and waited for the panic to hit at the idea of being trapped with someone for the rest of her life.

She waited.

And waited.

Eli continued to hold her and stare into her eyes.

And that was when she noticed.

He was looking at her. Really
looking
at her.

He saw her.

It’s right
, the Voice whispered to her.
This time, it’s right
.

Tears flooded her eyes again. “Sorry,” she choked, waving a hand in front of her eyes. “Hormones.”

He kissed her cheek and one of his hands trailed down her back to cup her ass. “Well, let’s see if we can get some different hormones firing, hmm?”

The desire to cry fled. “Bring it on, baby,” she whispered.

And he did.

Micah Persell holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a double master’s degree in literature and English pedagogy. She is an avid reader of all types of literature, but has a soft spot for romance. She currently teaches high school language arts classes in California where she lives with her husband, two dogs, and two cats. She loves to answer e-mails and connect with readers on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Visit her website at
www.micahpersell.com
.