Retrieval (25 page)

“Skylar!” Again a loud yell from, well, from the hallway outside his bedroom door.

“Damn it,” Sebastian said and then groaned, releasing her nipple with a harsh sigh and resting his head against her chest.

He was breathing heavily but still had enough control to lift off her. His hands didn’t stop though. They continued to pet and knead her breasts as if he couldn’t stop touching her.

“Skylar Milania Veragova McKannon, you open this damn door right now, or I swear I’m busting it down!” Piper’s voice was a strident slice across her haze of desire.

“Go away,” Sebastian said in a hard voice.

“No. Open the door, Skylar,” Piper insisted.

Sky took a single second to get herself together. Then she pushed at Sebastian’s hard shoulders, shot him a look of intense regret and pulled her top back down.
Son of a monkey’s uncle!

“What the hell?” she asked in astonishment as she looked around the room.

Sebastian’s room looked like a tornado had whipped through. Had she done that? No wait. Had her lust for this man done that?

“I think it was us, together, that did this,” Sebastian answered ruefully before he pushed himself up and went to the door.

“You ready?” he asked her with a grimace as he straightened himself into a more comfortable position.

“I guess so. And stop reading my thoughts,” she sniped back. She was in utter shock at the disaster the room had become.

“Stop pushing them at me,” he countered in an equally exasperated tone.

He opened the door quickly, and Piper, Kinsey, Bleak, and Morrissey all literally spilled in together. The only ones not outside the door were Rover and Raina.

“Damn it. When we call you, you better damn well answer,” Piper said with menace. “What the hell’s going on in here?”

Looking around her, giving a cursory glance to the fireplace, then the pillows on the floor and finally to Sebastian’s mussed hair, Piper finally connected the dots.

“Oh. My bad,” she said, and wonder of wonders, her face reddened.

Sebastian grunted. “Yeah, it is, now leave.”

“You’re okay?” Piper stubbornly insisted.

“I would have been way better than okay if you hadn’t interrupted.” It was Sky’s turn to be rueful.

“TMI. TMI,” Morrissey said and shaking his head, walked out of the room, followed by Kinsey and Bleak.

Bleak winked at Sebastian as he left the room and threw him a high five.

“Don’t think I didn’t see that, Bleak Moore,” Sky called out in her best teacher voice.

“Okay, listen. Keep it down a little all right? I can’t be cleaning up the entire house every time you guys get frisky. Control yourselves,” Piper said, and then she too left the room.

Sebastian stepped outside the room and yelled out down the hall, “Anybody else have anything else to say?”

Sky heard a collective chorus of “no;” Sebastian finished with, “Then keep your assess away from my room.” He walked in and slammed the door shut.

He kept his back to the room, and she sensed that he was trying to collect himself, so he could handle this situation with aplomb. She wasn’t going to interrupt him; her sisters were almost more than she could handle, and she was really enjoying the view of his broad back tapering down to the finest ass this side of anywhere.

They’d destroyed the room, but she couldn’t muster the spare energy to care. Everything she had right now was solely for this man and for what they were creating together. She wasn’t sure how much time she had left with him, and she suddenly wanted to make the memories that would sustain her when she left him.

But right now wasn’t time for thoughts of leaving, and she opened her mind to his letting him hear, feel, and see her desire to be with him in all the ways that mattered in this moment.

He stiffened, turned, and then stalked to her side before settling down on his haunches slowly.

“You are naughty, Skylar,” he whispered almost reverently.

“Only with you, Bastian,” she whispered back as she moved close enough to breathe his air and not quite touch her lips to his.

“You’re damn right only with me. There are still so many things we need to talk about, but all I can do is
feel
around you, and that’s dangerous.”

To a man obviously unused to dealing with his emotions, especially these types of emotions, the admission seemed to be pulled from the deepest part of his soul.

“Hold on to me then, and I’ll keep us both safe,” she promised him, darting her tongue out to trace the seam of his lips.

“That’s my job, and we need to set some ground rules before this goes too much farther Sky,” he informed her as he moved his lips away from her and placed his nose in the hollow between her neck and collarbone.

His tongue darted out to lick away the stinging bites he was placing in what she’d determined was a serious erogenous zone for her. He followed an imaginary trail that led down the center of her chest, and just when he was about lower her bra another knock sounded on the door. Where had her shirt gone?

“Damn it!” he snarled as he wrenched up and away from her and stormed back to the door.

“What?” he growled as he ran a hand through hair she’d mussed.

“Oh chill the fuck out, dude. At least you get some leisure time here. Bleak needs to talk with you before you get too damn comfortable. Something just came across the wire. Think you can tear yourself away long enough to handle some business?” Morrissey’s voice was snide, but there was a serious note of envy in the other man’s voice, and for that Skylar was willing to not drop his ass like she had a few days ago when he’d first seen Kinsey.

“I’ll be down in five minutes,” he half warned, half assured Morrissey before he slammed the door in the man’s face.

His face was a study in agony as he turned to her. She was shaking her head, trying to cover a laugh.

“This isn’t funny, damn it. I’m walking around with a dick hard enough to nail boards together, and you’re laughing?”

Straightening her face and trying for a not-so-laughing tone of voice, Sky said, “Well if they’d leave us alone you could be nailing me.”

“Yeah, that visual is really helping me out, Sky, thanks,” he muttered darkly as he ran a hand through his hair to try to straighten it back up and then turned on her quickly.

“You better be naked and in bed when I get back to this room. First we handle our business then we talk. Deal?”

He was in her face as if he were delivering a threat. Did the man not realize how tightly she was strung for him?

She took matters into her hands, literally, by grabbing his package and stroking lightly before lifting up as far as she could and whispering, “Deal.”

He groaned heartily and made his way to the door as fast as his legs would carry him. If he turned around even once more, she wasn’t going to allow him to make it down to talk with Mo and Bleak.

She laughed as he closed the door with a slam. He was going to be the death of her. Unless she got him killed first.

Chapter 16

Forty-five minutes later, and Sebastian was in a rage so pure he doubted even Sky’s ability to bring him down from it. In less than two weeks time the woman had entrenched herself so deeply inside of him that just the thought of her was enough to calm him down. But after speaking with Bleak, Morrissey, and then Dray Bonner, he didn’t think that anything could resolve the anger he was feeling toward Dolan Smythe-Ward.

The doctor now knew that Sebastian and his team weren’t playing for him any longer. Each of his team members had decided to stay on for the duration of this operation, and each was dedicated to the safety of the sisters. Morrissey had his own personal reasons, Bleak had his, and of course, Rover was always down for whatever. But Sebastian had only one reason, and her name was Skylar.

He’d listened to several messages from Smythe-Ward left on his sat phone from over the past week. By the time the last message rolled across, Sebastian could easily ascertain that the man was pissed as hell and ready to do only God knew what to get to Sebastian and the precious package he now protected.

None of the man’s words, threats, or dire promises affected Sebastian. Bleak had discussed Sasha’s probable familial link to the sisters with Dray Bonner, and the man was thinking of a way to discuss the topic with his very pregnant woman without distressing her and getting his own head ripped off in the process.

Bleak had filled Sebastian in on the details of the woman’s harrowing ordeal two years ago, and how she and Dray had just recently been reunited. Sasha was refusing to marry Dray right now, but Bleak knew that with the love those two shared, and Bonner’s persistence, it was just a matter of time.

There were so many entities involved here, so many good people wrapped up in GenTech’s machinations. But there were bad people, too, and Sebastian wouldn’t be surprised to find out that some of the higher-ups in his own government were primary fundraisers for the scientific horror house that he knew GenTech to now be.

Sebastian still didn’t know General Post’s role in this entire situation, and until he was firmly assured of the man’s veracity he was unwilling to contact him. He’d spoken at length with Bonner about his concerns, but the man had not been willing to write off Post as a traitor quite yet. While he felt the circumstances were suspect, Bonner had vouched for Post’s actions when he’d discovered what Dempsey was. No way, Bonner said, was Post involved with scum like Dempsey and Smythe-Ward, and if he were, then it was an unwitting involvement. Maybe even a coerced one.

Sebastian didn’t give a rat’s ass which it was. Somehow, someway, Post had maneuvered him into this clusterfuck, and once he had this threat eliminated he was going to visit with his former Commander and question him at length about it.

Bonner was also going to get back to Sebastian about Sasha. Sebastian knew that within the next few hours he was going to have to tell Skylar everything he knew about her sister. Bleak and Rover were right now using their computers to gather intelligence on GenTech, their facilities, Smythe-Ward’s personal and financial assets, Warren Goolsby and his multiple aliases, the list went on and on. Senator Cobb was a concern for Sebastian. The man was powerful and said to be one of the top names to run for President in the next election cycle. That kind of power so close in association with GenTech and Dolan Smythe-Ward was a dangerous combination, and it made Sebastian wonder just who was funding who. As the Senior Board member for GenTech, a fact that was publicly kept off record, Senator Cobb was directly responsible for private funding of GenTech. Sebastian had heard stories that he’d chalked up to nothing more than urban legends about cloning and genetic mutations; he’d dismissed them as fodder. He could well imagine the federal government giving public funds to support horrific experimentation that resulted in death and destruction of innocents. But if the little information he had gotten from Sky about the Haitian immigrants combined with his memory of other vague stories were true, they were doing it freely, and with no fear of sanction by any government entity.

It just kept getting deeper and deeper.

Rover was putting together timelines and information that would hopefully give the team an idea of where to strike in an attempt to get Smythe-Ward off their backs. Sebastian had wondered several times over the past week how the sisters had managed to hide for as long as they had without being caught. Smythe-Ward spread a wide net, and he apparently had resources that went deep. If he could find Sebastian last time, it was just a matter of time before he found this house. Sebastian had to get a plan together. Whatever Skylar was, her father wanted her badly and was willing to break laws and even kill to get her in his grasp.

And he was going to kill that son of a bitch before he laid one hand on Skylar.

“Dude, you need a break from this shit. Dray said he’d call us back in twenty-four hours,” Bleak said as he continued to peer into a computer screen.

“Morrissey? You heard from Micah lately? What about Craven?” Sebastian asked his friend.

“Micah’s in Atlanta pulling a job for the DOD, and Craven said he’d get in touch with us when he’s back Stateside. I don’t know when that’ll be. He said he had some information on Peter Dempsey, but we got cut off last call, and he hasn’t called back.” Morrissey reported from his perch in front of the big bay window that looked out over the valley below Sebastian’s cabin.

Shit,
Sebastian thought. Both of the men he’d asked Mo about were not only friends, but they would bring more hands into this fight. And no matter what it might look like, those two always fought for the good side. They had to mire down deep in the shit sometimes, but both men had integrity out the wazzoo and fists made of steel. Whatever they were doing, if it weren’t necessary to world safety, they would have hopped the first plane to wherever Sebastian’s team was to support them. World safety must be pretty damn compromised, because they weren’t here, and Mo didn’t seem to know if they would be able to come at all.

“Okay then. It’s just us. Bonner said he and his men would want in if a link was established between Dempsey and our situation, or if Sasha turns out to be the lost one Skylar has talked about,” Sebastian said. “I think it’s pretty damn obvious she’s their sister. Both of the Bonner’s are hardheaded motherfuckers though, so it may take them a minute or so to work it all out in their minds and jump on board with us. For now, it’s just us, and whatever goes down, the women come first. If you aren’t on board with that, tell me now,” Sebastian demanded of his men.

Nobody said a word, and satisfied, Sebastian turned and left the room, headed with a determined stride to the stairs that would take him back up to Skylar.

* * * *

Skylar was singing loudly from the bathroom, something about freedom and giving what you take, whatever the fuck that meant.
Damn, she’s got a great voice.
Sebastian heard water splashing and could only assume that she was even now naked and sitting in a tub full of water. He hardened instantly, thinking of the warm water caressing her skin while the cooler air pebbled her coral colored nipples.