Under His Guard (24 page)

I shed my weapons and clothes, placing one of my Smiths near where I'd sleep. I dipped my hands into the warm water of the washbasin and cupped them over my face, rinsing off the day's travel-weary grit.

Sliding behind Leon, I let out a low moan. He was naked, his skin silky. My hand moved down to find the tat on his groin by memory. He stirred and sighed my name.

Nuzzling the nape of his neck, I placed a kiss on his shoulder. “Hey, angel.”

He turned in to me and pushed one of his thighs between mine. His slow, sensual kiss made me scoop him closer. Tilting his face, I lashed my tongue into the wet heat of his mouth. He bit my bottom lip and tugged. That pull shimmied all the way to my stiff cock. With his fingers clasping my neck, he licked my top lip and the seam between before I took control of the passionate tryst of our tongues.

I rubbed my thumb over his mouth after he slipped his lips from mine. “Did you eat?”

“Yeah. Did you?”

“Yes,” I lied.

“Bullshit. Just 'cause you're the man with emo abilities doesn't mean I can't tell when you're lyin'.”

I went back to trailing kisses over his neck and jawline. I'd eat tomorrow or the next day. Food wasn't a high priority at the moment.

He pressed me away. “At least lemme take a look at the moko.”

I lay on my back while he retrieved the salve. He kneeled beside me, his thighs open. The deep pink column of his delicious cock rose hard and upright. He tended my moko with gentle sweeps of a warm damp cloth while I brushed the backs of my fingers across his soft sac. He shivered and squirmed. My fingertips danced behind, finding and flirting with his opening. His mouth parted on a gasp.

I took his length in a tight fist and slowly began to stroke it. Leon grasped my shoulders. “That ain't helpin'.”

“Ain't it?”

“I gotta tell you somethin'.” He wrung the washcloth in his hands, peering at me from beneath his eyelashes. “Will you hold me?”

Without a word, I took the cloth from him and tossed it on the floor with a wet slap. I gathered him to my side as I lay down and cupped his face to my chest, sifting my fingers through his hair.

Sadness flowed from him, enshrouding us both.

“It's going to happen in seventy-two hours,
cher
.”

“No, it's not.”

“You can't will it so. 'Sides, we already had dis conversation.” His fist hit my ribs.

“I'm not willing it. I'm going to make sure you're free of this fucking infection.” My voice rose above his.

“Darke. I love you. I want to stay with you. I've tried.” He propped himself up, his face ravaged by emotion. “It's August sixteenth in three days.”

I kissed my way to his mouth. “I'm well aware of the date.”

He wrenched free. “I don' want you near me when it happens. The chance of you being infected…”

A groan tore from me. “I am not going anywhere,
god-fucking-dammit
!”

“Promise me,
cher
.”

“I can't do that. You can't leave me. No one's gonna make me walk away. Not even you.”

His hands caressed my face. “Liz will take the kill shot on me if the virus goes live. She agreed,” he whispered.

That was why Liz had told me I needed to hear him out, why she was drowning in misery. My heart dove down to my stomach. I pulled Leon beneath me where he couldn't get free. I kissed him until he couldn't talk anymore.

His lips moved to my ear. “She'll make it clean. Dis is the only way.”

“Don't you ask me to give you up.” My voice broke.

“Don't keep my ghost around when I'm gone,
cher
.”

I was undone by huge, terrifying sobs. My body racked against Leon's. He comforted me, the stronger man in this. Soon all that was left was a dry tightness in my throat and his body surrounding me, awakening mine.

“I want you to make love to me,” I husked.

“What?”

I curved my arms around him to lick a path to the shell of his ear. “I want you all the way inside of me.”

He moaned. “But the virus? What if I'm not safe?”

I cut him off with a chuckle. “Baby, you were never safe for me.” I suckled his earlobe between my lips.

He shoved me back with his hands on my chest. “I'm serious.”

“So am I.” I gripped his arms. “You haven't had any symptoms. And I don't care anymore. I don't care about anything but you. I already told you if you die, I do, too.”

Leon suddenly melted against me with a cry of need. I felt the hot stab of his rigid length against my thigh, an echoing spear of need making my cock stretch upward.

He bit and lapped at my neck, growling and wild. “We do dis my way.” He thrust against me.

I heard a low whimper, after a moment realizing the unlikely sound of deep-rooted desperation came from me. I nodded.

“So I can suck you until you come. Den fuck you until you come again.”

“Please, angel, yes.”

Leon pulled the sheet down my legs, and his mouth followed. He sucked my inner thighs and lapped the sensitive backs of my knees. His hands drifted to my abs, feeling each divide of flesh with fingers that stoked my desire in their wake. Come dripped from the slit of my cock—clear trails ribboning down my engorged shaft.

“Stand up.” He urged me to the floor, taking a place on his knees before me.

I pulled on his hair before he could draw my cock into his mouth. “I don't want you down there.”

“Too bad. My way tonight.” He knelt up to lick me with the tip of his tongue. His determination to have me the way he wanted trumped everything that sought to tear us apart.

His hardness pressed against my leg when he sucked me to the back of his throat. The wide oval of his mouth stretched into a smile when I grunted his name. Pulling my cock down with the tight hold of his lips, he sat on his heels. In that position, his throat opened. My entire thick length tunneled into a wet constriction that made me shake from head to toe.

I yanked back. Thrust back in. I listened to him moan and suck. Before I lost all control and became a savage, insane beast of pure fucking, I pulled out.

“You said I could eat your come.” His hoarse voice and swollen lips tipped me over the edge.

Without responding, I tossed him onto the bed. I couldn't articulate anything but grunts at that point. I backed my cock up to his face as he lay beneath me, then grasped his thighs and split them wide. My mouth was swallowing him before he had a chance to yelp.

When Leon did yelp, it was after I was so deep inside his mouth, the noise traveled up to my tightening balls. Circling my hand beneath his balls, I cupped everything, all of him in one fist. As I feasted my face on Leon's dick, he responded in kind with a frenzy of licking all over my cock.

He massaged my balls while slurping me down. Saliva and pre-ejaculate dampened my groin. I started pumping my hips. He spread my ass with both hands. My dick deep in his throat, I came in shuddering, yelling, yowling pulses the moment he circled my ring with a slick fingertip.

Leon pushed me off of him. His hard cock waved in my face before he flipped me over to my belly. I balled the sheets in my hands and rose up to my knees, giving him absolutely full fucking access to my ass. Feeling the hot wash of his breath against my backside, I laughed and dropped down.

His fingers raked along my hips. “Get back up here.”

“You wanna shove your face in my ass, angel?”

“Now,” he demanded.

Swinging my head back, I saw Leon focused on my cock, balls, and ass. I drew up and bent over, pulling my cheeks apart. Positioned for his pleasure, I was already on the brink of coming a second time.

His hands skimmed down my back. His lips, too. I arched and groaned. I spread my legs wide, lifting my ass the second his tongue touched the top of my divide. He kissed and sucked and gripped me open. He bit me. I watched as long as I could, stretched back, as his long fingers and pink mouth moved against my flexed muscles and ebony skin. When he licked my hole, I pulled a pillow to my face, hunkering down, humping my lower half up for more.

Oh Christ, did he give more. I bucked my ass against his face and then pumped my hips into thin air. His wiggling tongue lunged so hard, I shouted. Then he added fingers—three or four—coated in lubricant. He laughed like I'd never heard him before, splicing those fingers open and pushing on my inner glans.

“You dirty little bitch.” I gnashed when he palpated my nut. My cock stretched and strained to be touched. A funnel of clear fluid fell from the tip to the mattress.

“Who's my little bitch now?” He leaned low and grabbed my balls with his teeth, almost chewing on them.

His words, his fingers, his mouth were so fucking crazy wild hot, I almost shot my load.

“Where are the condoms?”

“Huh?” I could barely function. I just wanted him in me.

“Rubbers.”

I heard him moving off the bed, rummaging in my pack. “Don't need 'em.”

“Like hell we don't.” He returned with a fistful. “They're more important now than ever.”

I watched him wrap from tip to base. As I waited for him to take me, all the love I felt for him pulsed through me.

I shuddered when Leon moved between my legs. His hands swept down my back, to my thighs, which he prodded farther apart.

Leaning over me, the tip of his cock brushing my hole, he said, “
Mais
, I don' wanna hurt you.”

Reaching around, I slid him up and down over my bud. I'd never felt so open. “You won't.”

He took his time, inching in, sliding out, adding more lube.

His balls finally slapped my taint and I shoved back.

Leon held on to my shoulders, his long thrusts making me dizzy. No one had been inside me for so long. No one had ever been better.

“Is dis good?” He conquered me with another thrust.

When I managed to lift my head, Leon shined with triumph, taking me, having me. He grinned with exultation, with ecstasy, with sheer eroticism that thundered right down to my balls.

We'd fought so hard for each other.

“Baby. Angel…”

He thrust again.
“Bien?”

“Fuck yes. So fucking
bien
. I can't…”

My breath caught and held. That was all Leon needed to hear. Rough, hard, no-holds-barred sex tore yells from my throat and come from my cock within writhing, loud, hungry minutes.

His thickness hugged by my clasping channel, I fell to the bed.

“Flip over.”

I rolled to my back and took him inside again. He lifted on top of me, pinning me down with my hands in his. His swiveling, plunging cock never let up. He was the most amazing lover I'd ever had. My incredible love.

I kissed his lips and his neck. I bowed up to scrape my teeth across his nipples. I roused again, my dick so hard between our slamming pelvises, I shivered.

I was sure I could save him. He was certain this was the end. Our gazes searched into the other, and we never lost contact through his long, powerful thrusts. The intensity was almost too much to bear, but nothing in my life had ever felt so good. It was close to painful. Ecstasy soared through me as he stretched me, took me, owned me from the inside out.

My feet rode along the backs of his legs when I lifted my thighs around him. Sweat and come slipped between us with every deep pump of his hot cock. He took my hands in his, twining our fingers together.

Leon kissed me through heated, panting breaths and little moans of, “I love you.
Je t'aime toujours
.”

When he climaxed, I etched the thousand expressions crossing his face into my mind. I held his hair back and kissed the column of his neck.

“My God. You are so beautiful, Leon. So beautiful.”

After, he lay across me, motionless but for the rise and fall of his chest as he took in deep drafts of breath.

“You are so beautiful,” I said again. I'd say it forever.

Shimmying so his legs parted over mine, he moaned.

His eyes met mine, dazzling in a moment of serenity before they shaded with the hurt we both carried. There were no more words to say and only one way to connect where we couldn't be ripped asunder. We lay side-by-side and face-to-face, holding each other. I moved so tenderly inside Leon. I knew the day that would never end would ultimately bring morning too fast.

And too few days left after that.

Another orgasm broke over me while my heart tore apart.

T
ime moved at an alarming rate from that point forward.

On the afternoon of August 14, 2071, we all gathered around the large front room of Val's mansion. We checked our weapons once, twice, three times. We scoured over maps on our D-Ps, studying Delta's Quadrangle, looking for ways in while waiting for Denver's latest incoming.

We discussed how to get the cure from Cutler, who would take him out. Tomorrow night was go-time. That afternoon, everyone grew increasingly antsy but tried to hold it together.

On the periphery of my vision, sudden movement caught my attention. Leon had been standing by the grand fireplace, talking to Sebastian. As I watched, he swayed in slow motion, left then right, before his legs buckled, crumpling beneath him to the floor. Bas caught him before he landed. I rushed to Leon, taking his weight in my arms.

Laying him on the sofa quickly vacated, I inspected him. He was out cold. His eyes closed, skin pale and clammy, respiration a little haywire. It reminded me of the way he'd looked after we cut him down from the rope.

“What the fuck's going on?” I barked at Doc Val.

She crouched beside him, scanning him with her D-P.

“It could just be exhaustion.” Farrow swept the hair off his brow.

I wished I could believe that, but one glance at Val and her tense face put an end to that notion.

“His pulse is reedy but stable,” Val said. “Good O2 levels. No outward presentation of the infection.”

“Yet. You mean yet.” I grabbed her wrist in a punishing hold.

She didn't try to pull away from me, which was a good thing. I was liable to snap her bones in half. “All the data I researched on the virus and the special strain injected in Leon supports what CEO Cutler has told you. His infection will not become live until tomorrow, midnight. I specifically engineered it that way.”

“Can it be triggered any other way?”

She looked away from me.

“Answer me, goddammit!”

“No. There was no one else working on this. Cutler may be a political genius—”

“Tyrant,” Cannon spit out.

“But his is not a scientific mind. He could never have advanced the infection that far without my aid.”

“Well, thank our lucky fucking stars for that.” I released her to clasp both of Leon's hands. “So now what?”

“We monitor him. This is probably a side effect of the virus filtering into his body.”

I bowed over him, breathing slowly to hold my sobs deep inside my chest. “Please—” I broke off. I kissed each of his fingers, both of his palms. He didn't respond. “Please tell me he's going to wake up again.”

“Oh my God,” Liz whispered.

“I can't say for certain, Darke. I'm—”

I reared up. “Don't you fucking say you're sorry! Don't you dare. If you value your life at all, you will shut the hell up and get away from me right…fucking…now.”

Farrow and Cannon pulled Val away. I hunched over Leon, covering him.

“If I can say one thing?” Dr. Val asked.

I nodded my assent.

“I'd like to monitor his vitals on the hour.”

I must've growled or something because she stood straighter, holding her D-P with all the medical modules out to me.

“Or you can do it. I'll show you how. I also think it might be a good idea to quarantine Leon. You won't want to risk anyone else's lives.”

Lots of grumbles resounded, but I tucked Leon against my chest and stood. “Fine. And I'll be quarantined with him in our room.”

“And I'll be taking watch in the hall,” Liz said.

“So will I,” Linc joined in.

“And Blondie and me,” Cannon volunteered.

Sebastian rose last to stand beside the others.

They all followed me out the door with my precious cargo. I grabbed Val's D-P on the way. I thought my knees would buckle like Leon's had, not because of his slender form in my arms but from the family surrounding me. The friends who didn't give a shit about any infection. The people who would always fight for my man.

The intervening hours were interminable but not wasted. I cherished every moment with Leon throughout the night and into the next day, even though he never so much as moved. His stillness terrified me. In the absence of anything else, I tried willing him awake, willing him as I said I wouldn't. I begged him to open his eyes. He never did.

Talking to him in a low voice, I took those hours to tell him all the unimportant little things about me that I could think of—stupid shit I'd have died of embarrassment over had he been awake and listening. That my favorite color was gold because it reminded me of the glinting specks in his eyes. How I wished he'd wear those godforsaken threadbare cutoffs for me alone. That I wished I could sing like my mother had or play saxophone like my father, simply so I could put to music the way he made me feel so alive. That he was so sexy, he made me speechless; that he was so loving to those who'd earned his loyalty, I was humbled.

I lay next to him, placing his head in the crook of my shoulder, while I whispered the most important things to him. How I'd spent almost every night since I first met him dreaming about him. How he enthralled me with his courage and his heart and his soul. That his desire to look out for me hit me as hard as his desire to be with me as my lover.

I held his hands, caressed his face, cooled his skin. I even managed to catch some shut-eye when sheer exhaustion snuck up on me and pulled me under.

A soft knock on the door woke me to instant alertness. I checked on Leon. Still unconscious. Pulling on a pair of pants, I edged the door open to find Cannon pacing outside.

I left the door ajar and joined him.

“Cutler knows we're here.”

“Here in Delta or here with Val?”

“Delta.” He stopped marching and hauled back to punch the wall. Eyeing the cracked door, he halted his fist just before he made contact.

I bit out a harsh curse. “Do you think Denver—?”

“No.”

“Val?”

“No. I don't. You know I don't trust most people as far as I can fucking throw them, but I got a feeling about them, Darke. Besides, there are eyes and ears everywhere.” He backed up against the opposite wall. “There's more. Lots of shit's going down in Delta.”

“Care to elaborate?” Like I really wanted to know. He rubbed a hand over his jaw. “Other names have been released. There are about twenty more right here in Delta getting ready to unleash the virus tonight at midnight. Surprise.”

“He's backed us into a corner.” I didn't show Cannon's restraint, slamming my fist into the wall.

“It's bad, man. Everywhere. Riots in the last CO-held Territories. Names and faces of all the infected on the promos. Cutler says he'll inoculate every citizen who turns in a rebel. And vaxes for the whole extended family of the person who captures the biggest rebel crew.”

“That would be us.” The hope for a cure had just turned into a tool to defeat the Revolution—and us. Despair roiled all the way down to my stomach. I thought I'd retch all over the carpet. I must've looked like it, too, because Cannon took a step toward me. I held it in one more time, warding him off with my hands raised. “You shouldn't come any closer, just in case.”

“As if I give a fuck about that bullshit. You're gonna make it. So is Leon.”

I tried to believe his confident words, the same ones I'd been repeating to Leon. “It's at critical mass now.”

“Yep.”

“What time is it?” I asked.

“Sixteen hundred hours.”

“Eight more to go. Any word from Denver?”

Cannon crossed his arms over his chest. “Nope.”

“I need to know as soon as he makes contact.” I finally straightened, having conquered the churning nausea in my gut.

“How's he doing?” He nodded toward the bedroom.

“Same.”

“Darke—”

“Don't…” I met his gaze. “Man to man, don't feed me any lines right now. Just tell me when we get word from Denver so I can be ready to move out.”

He pushed out his fist and then opened his fingers at the last moment. Our hands met with a loud clap.

“Beb?”
A guttural voice escaped from the bedroom. Leon's voice.

A wide grin bloomed across Cannon's face as he grabbed my shoulder and pushed me inside.

Leon sat in the middle of the bed. I crawled up in front of him, taking his lips in a ferocious kiss that seared me to my soul. He leaned back with a gasp.

“What? You act like you haven't seen me in days.” Confusion and disorientation wafted from him in thick clouds.

I didn't answer. Instead, I placed my hands on the sides of his face and kissed him more slowly, letting my tongue linger against his inside the wet heat of his mouth. Leon awakened completely. He grasped the back of my head, returning my kisses. On his knees, he rubbed against me, all that sleek tawny skin against my steel-hard muscles. Blinking, he pulled his lips from mine with a soft suck. He was seemingly unaffected by whatever had laid him unconscious for more than twenty-four hours, as if he'd just woken from a long, restful sleep.

I remembered then stories of people who were at death's door experiencing a few last golden hours of vitality. I swallowed through the stone in my throat, whispering nonsense in between kisses I placed on his shoulders up to his cheeks.

“What happened?”

“You passed out downstairs. Almost twenty-four hours ago. Val thought it best to quarantine you. I stayed.”

“You're just determined to get yourself killed.” His fingers trailed to the seat of my pants and he squeezed my ass. “Bad timing, eh?
Mais
yeah, now I got you to myself.” He peeked at me through the tumble of hair, licking his bottom lip.

“We're headed to Company Headquarters as soon as the sun sets.”

“A couple more hours. I'll take 'em.” Sliding his hands inside my pants, he sent his fingers down my cleft.

“Leon…” I groaned.

“
Shh
. I already know every'ting you wanna tell me.”

“Not everything.” I disengaged his hands and eased off the bed.

His head tilted to the side. “You gave me a bath while I was out of it.”

“Yeah.” I smiled. Heat surfaced on the skin of my chest and face.

“
Hmm
. What else? Oh, you love me.”

“Yes, I love you, Leon.” My heart began to pound, and I returned to him after shedding my pants. “I love you,” I murmured against his mouth.

Those final hours with him awake were treasures. Talking, savoring soft touches, making the gentlest love…before it became more and more difficult to ignore the enormity of what might transpire.

In the end, we twined around each other and held on through the pain of knowing we'd be parted soon. Possibly forever.

We were both aware of the clock counting down. The moment daylight turned to dusk, Liz peered inside.

“Denver's ready. We've got an in.”

“Give me ten.”

I dressed in black from head to toe. Leon handed me my guns.

“You take one.” I laid the butt of a Smith & Wesson into his hand. “It's better than your Colt. We'll get you a proper firearm when this is over.”

“I can't. I'm not…” He holstered the weapon at my side. “I'm not a killer. Even if they're makin' me one.”

I draped my arms around him, hating the armor and artillery between us. “No, you're not. You are a survivor. Val is staying with you. She's the most capable of—”

“Taking care of me?”

“Give me two hours, angel, and I'll be back.”

He nodded without saying a word.

I pushed him against the wall. “Just need you to be sure.” I covered his mouth with mine. “This beats for you.” I pulled his hand to my heart. “This will die without you. I love you.”

“Je t'aime.”
His eyelashes lowered over his eyes.

Twisting my fingers in his hair, I guided his head up. “And I need you to know, this is not good-bye. It's not the end. We are not finished.” Every word I said cracked my voice.

“Bien sur.”
Reaching up, he fervently kissed me. “It's not good-bye. Just
à
tout
à
l'heure
.”

Leaving him was the hardest thing I'd ever done. As my boots hit the top of the stairs, I turned back. He watched from the hall, trying to hide the haunted look in his eyes.

No more words were said. Nothing else was possible. We had covered every contingency. All that was left was winning his life back.

We performed our good-luck rituals before heading out of the mansion. Liz double- and triple-checked her Eagles. Linc patted a small pocket where he had something secret tucked away. Cannon rubbed his wedding band around his finger three times while Nathaniel slipped his fingers along the suede cuff of his wrist. It was all meant to ward off bad omens that could fuck with our mission. We'd need all the luck we could get.

I closed my eyes. All I thought about was Leon, briefly kissing my fingertips and bringing them to my heart. Then I centered myself as the focal point for the feelings of my comrades, getting a read on each and every one of them. This group was tight. Everyone was solid, as determined as me.

On the way into city center and the Quadrangle, we skirted every possible tracking device. The night was as black as soot, a dusting of Delta's permanent cloud cover keeping the moon under wraps. If our faces were captured on one of the many cameras lining the streets, our mission would be dead in the water.

Unrest was alive and well in the streets of S-2 and S-1. Unlike several days ago, the civilian presence was as strong as that of the Corps soldiers. We remained in the cover of blackness, winding around the high walls to a section that faced the unpopulated side of Delta. Denver assured us he'd make sure this particular piece of the Quad wall was unmanned, that the razor wire on top would be cut to provide an opening, that the wire itself would be shorted out from its electrical current.