The Chimera Project (Chimera Protocol Book 1) (5 page)

CHAPTER NINE

Eisley couldn't breathe. His mouth captured hers in the softest, teasing caress of her life. She could let it go on forever without stopping once, she realized. He cupped the back of her head, hand curling into her dark, straight hair that was a gift from her Salinan mother who'd been the darling of the elites in their country, until they'd come to the Central Council Territories during the occupation.

She found herself unable to do much but hold on, as his mouth grew more and more insistent. In between lingering kisses, she noticed his eyes were glowing yellow around dark pupils. But, he didn't seem crazy, she thought.

His tongue darted across her lips, and she pressed closer, feeling his erection pressing against her abdomen. It drew her closer like a magnet till she realized she moved in a slow glide up and down, making his breathing speed up like he’d been running a race.

His hands suddenly caught her under her arms, lifting her up with a thump against the wall. She had no choice but to wrap her legs around his hips. He was so strong. "Oh, god," she whimpered as the hard part of him met the soft parts of her.

She opened glazed eyes to look at him. He looked wild, but she didn't see anything to fear as his gold eyes scanned over her with absolute precision, grazing over her jaw, her neck. "Say no now, Eisley," he growled.

His mouth tracked down her skin, setting her on fire from the neck down. She let her eyes drift closed, and said softly, "I won't."

"You won't what. Eisley?"

She drew in a deep breath. "I won't say no. Not in a million years." And, she meant it. This was just too shiny a bauble for her. She couldn't put it down now that he'd finally kissed her for real because he was right. The other kisses hadn't compared to this. There was something different about his intent here.

She ran her hands up around his neck to cross behind his head, as she raised herself up till her face hovered over his. It was her turn to kiss him out of his mind. Her mouth descended on his. She intended him to lose whatever held him back from his own desires. The kiss she gave him was designed with that goal in mind. She wanted him to never forget that moment. She wanted him to feel what she did; pure want.

He pressed her against the wall with his mass, while his hands began to pull off the pretty pink shirt. She panted a moment, then the worry about her body set in. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

He crowded her body with his own, pressing the evidence of how much he wanted this into her. "Do I feel like I have doubts?"

"I just... I'm nobody's ideal."

His hands gathered her hair on either side of her head and guided her to look him in the eyes. He speared her with an uncomfortable intensity. "Eisley, give me a minute, and you won't have anymore questions about my wanting you. Trust me?"

She touched his cheek with one thumb. "I do. I think I have to, otherwise why would I want you this badly."

He pulled her weight entirely in his arms and left the wall behind. She clutched at his neck and laughed a little nervously. “Now, you’re showing off,” she said breathlessly.

He stopped, still holding her by her long hair. Samuel pulled her mouth to his. His fist in her hair allowing no argument, and he made love to her mouth standing there holding her, anchored with her legs around his hips.

She moaned into his mouth, a low, feminine sound that she didn't know she could make. He started to move again. They got as far as the short steps that led into her sunken seating area where she had a reclining, overstuffed bench seat.

He slid down the steps and laid her out before him on the top step. Methodically and with great purpose, she watched him undress her, and run his hands over her curves in worshiping strokes, till she squirmed beneath his hands.

She reached for him, called him to come to her. He refused, rather, he pressed her back to the floor and spread her legs wide.

Embarrassed, she protested and shut them again. "I'm busy," he said. "Don't interrupt."

After that, she could barely remember her own name. His mouth began to work over her softest flesh as if he couldn't get enough. He ate at her, causing the pleasure to spiral upward, until she couldn't remain still on her own. He had to keep his arm over her hips to keep her where he wanted her.

Samuel's mouth was wicked on her body. He hooked a finger deep inside her and dialed up the sensation enough that she thought she might do something new and scream out her pleasure. No man had ever made her lose control this way.

He slipped a second finger to hook even deeper and, simultaneously, worked her clit with his tongue. Lights exploded behind her eyes, and she did scream for the first time in her adult life.

"Perfect," he whispered, pulling her back into his arms. He carried her over to the bench chair and turned her till she straddled the bench and told her to brace using the back of the seat. She felt him behind her, staring at her exposed backside.

Then, she heard his pants and shoes hitting the floor, and that sound dialed up her want, making her whimper. She couldn't remember a time she'd felt this way. He stood behind her and ran his hands over the curve of one hip. "Do you have an implant?"

She tried to focus, but said, "Hmm?"

He pulled her back to his hard front. Eisley pressed back. In her ear, she heard his amused laughter. "Do you have an implant?"

Pregnancy, she realized vaguely. That’s what he was asking. She nodded. "Good," he growled, and he put her back in position, driving home in her body with a merciless hunger that made her clench around him almost immediately. She heard him speak, but couldn't tell through the fog what he was saying as he pumped in and out of her, and she pressed back wanting so much more, chasing that glittering feeling she'd already had once.

"Oh, God." She clutched tighter to the back of the metal she leaned on. Her low, guttural words seemed to incense him to go harder, faster, until she felt the fluttering fire of her orgasm clench him tight, and she called out his name. He groaned his release behind her, slowing. She dropped across the chair when she could no longer hold herself up.

He followed her, sitting behind her, and pulled her up to drape over him like a limp towel. Her hair spread between them, so he gently brushed it to one side of her sweat-sheened face. "You believe me now?" he asked.

She nodded because, how could she not? Even now, she felt the brush of his teeth on her shoulder, as if he wasn't quite done with her. She reached up and ran a hand along the back of his neck, feeling the short, neat edge of his hair.

"I believe you. You said something about losing control during sex."

"Yeah, I thought I did. It's happened before," he said to her, turning her face toward his. "Maybe, I find you calming."

She waved a hand in exhaustion. "That's me. Security blanket for the tough guys."

His fingers gently cupped her face as he stared down at her without a trace of gold in his eyes. He pressed his forehead to hers. "Maybe. Just perhaps. I just know you're not like any woman I've ever known."

CHAPTER TEN

Eisley had hidden in her rooms to try and read over the files she had on each patient, her new way of thinking of each of the men of chimera detachment, and she had organized the information into her tried and true system. And, she'd determined something.

There was something here in the science that she didn't understand. The mutation of the gene material was too rapid and too unpredictable. She had a theory she had yet to test, and it was time to do that.

She commed Samuel. "I need you in the infirmary. You are donating today. Time to start blood work."

He grimaced on the screen. "I'd hoped you wanted me for something else entirely."

She smiled. "Just be a good boy. Maybe, you'll get a treat."

He would probably beat her to the lab. She laughed, hitting the comm.

Their night together played through her mind, even as she tried to focus on the work. He wasn't going to be good for her concentration. She’d never been the type to get lost in a relationship before now, but she thought maybe you were supposed to. Something about this felt so right, so natural.

She finished getting dressed and threw on slipper soled shoes before leaving her quarters. She looked down the hall to see him standing at the door of the lab, and she laughed loudly. He smiled as he looked her way affectionately.

"I knew you'd beat me here."

"Happy to serve."

She laughed again and opened the simple lock with her key card.

They entered to find John shirtless, revealing a well muscled form covered in the occasional metal accessory. Olivia was laughing at something he'd said to her. They were sweetly devoted to each other. Also, how it should be, she thought again. The injustice of the situation stuck her again.

Eisley gestured for the Chief to take off his own shirt and sit on a neighboring gurney, while she prepared her extractor.

When she'd returned, she'd put on one of the long lab coats. Samuel sat facing the others, while Eisley readied her supplies. Once she raised the very gun like extractor, he put his hands beneath her jacket and hauled her closer saying, "I'm scared. You'll have to hold my hand through it."

She felt his hand slip down over her ass suggestively. "That's not my hand."

"Well, your hands are full, so I'm improvising." He grinned widely.

She hadn't expected this playful lover to emerge from the stern and solemn Section Chief of Chimera Detachment. Yet, here she was being happily groped in her own lab.
Right,
she thought.

Eisley scanned the arm and mapped the vessels and veins, then the extractor would do the rest, inserting its own flexible tubing and taking out exactly the right amount of blood for the tests she wanted to do. It also applied local anesthetic. She breathed in the smell of Samuel's hair as she stood there between his legs with his hands roaming under her coat deliciously.

He tweaked a nipple through her shirt causing her to squeak. "You're the one who's got a needle in his arm," she warned.

He leaned in next to her ear. "I fear nothing with a beautiful woman before me."

She hid her smile and tried to look severe as she pulled the extractor away and ejected the vial. "Can we set up a schedule of blood tests today? Everyone involved in the experiments needs a baseline blood test today,"

He nodded and blew a tendril of dark hair away from her neck before running two fingers along the spot that made her go weak. "You know, I feel perfectly fine. I feel great, excellent even."

She leaned into him just a little, with her eyes tightly closed, letting herself enjoy the indulgent feeling of being special. She opened her eyes and sighed.

"All right. I have to get to work here, and you are a distraction."

His comm started beeping. He looked down at it on his wrist, annoyed. "Do I get my treat later?" he asked her.

"I'll be here this evening. I really want to get this baseline done."

He looked at the comm screen. "You may have to wait on some of your donors. We're going out."

She nodded. Then, as he started to get up, she pressed his arm and stepped into his line of sight. He'd already begun tuning the world out. "Be careful. Come back."

His slow smile spread like a sunrise. Her breath caught. He'd looked at her sometimes in the last few hours like she might be a miracle. "Oh, I'm coming back." He kissed her and was gone.

Eisley stared down at the vial still in her hand. Maybe, there would be answers here that could distract her from the certain knowledge he was headed out into the world to risk his life. Again. And, that was his job.

*

Several hours later, Eisley had results from Samuel's blood and many more questions. She wasn't sure what the ramifications were, but she had to talk to him soon.

She wandered in behind Star's comms desk. She needed to know how long this mission was going to take. The woman's short blond hair was, as usual, elegantly cut and completely in place, unlike Eisley's drooping bun. It wasn't just the woman's acidic nature that put Eisley on her guard around the comms officer. She was so… perfect. Such an ideal girl. How could she ever relate to Star being such an opposite?

Two screens filled with images hung above the desk and several other screens she didn't understand. The comms officer kept a tense calm over the comm. "Thompson, you have hostiles on your flank, at three o'clock."

Eisley could hear Samuel's voice in the background, and it sounded wrong; anxious, excited. "Malina, guide us out of here,” one of the men shouted. She couldn’t tell which one.

Eisley caught a fleeting glimpse on one of the two displayed helmet cams. Thompson was holding onto Samuel whose eyes glowed golden like a cat’s. Eisley put on a comm headset and tuned it in. "Thompson, this is the doctor. Plug me into Sam's comm."

"A little busy, doctor."

"Just do it!"

Star started to protest and Eisley shot her a look. "Samuel, can you hear me?"

"Eisley."

"Yes, you can hear me? You have to stop fighting Thompson, Baby. Do you understand? You promised. You said you were coming back."

She stared wildly at the cam his face was turned toward as if he could see her on the other end, even though she knew he couldn't. "You promised you were coming home. You swore. Keep your god-damned promise, Samuel. Stop fighting. Let them get you to the helo." She used her doctor voice. The one that usually got her what she wanted out of a patient.

He settled, his golden eyes turned in confusion toward the cam. She heard him whisper, "Promised."

"Star, cut the chief's comms for a moment."

Star looked at her in amazement and, perhaps, some concern. Very few ever got to see her stern side. It was reserved for when it was really needed, like this moment.

"Thompson, as your medic, I'm giving you an order, okay? Stun him. You stun his ass and get him on that transport. I think I know what's wrong. Get him back here."

Thompson grinned as he fired at oncoming enemies. "Yes, Ma'am," he answered crisply. She understood full well that it was an order he agreed with or he wouldn't do it.  Thompson looked at his partner, who she thought could be Tanner. The light was dim where they were, and punctuated by quick bursts of gunfire.

She saw Thompson pull out a stunner and hit Samuel who jerked and fell into the bigger man's grip. She watched tensely as the remaining members of the team put down cover fire, surrounding Thompson who hefted their commander onto his shoulder for the run to the helo.

Eisley watched until the transport rose into the air and shot away with Samuel still unconscious inside. "How far out are they?"

Star touched one of the comm controls, then turned to look at her. Confusion written on every inch of her face. "Bout two hours."

"I'm gonna go prep my lab. Get two of the men to come get a gurney to take to the roof, then tell them to double time it back with my patient."

Eisley left with the expectation that it would happen because no one wanted to be the one to send her into a temper today. This problem with Samuel may be beyond her skill set. She hated feeling behind the game.