Crawling through the heavy layers of consciousness, bits and pieces of memories sparked like fireflies before falling away. Other sensations trickled in, finally breaching the last suffocating layer, forcing me to wake. My mind was curiously empty but clear. Unwilling to leave the strange peaceful reprieve, I kept my eyes closed and breathed. Winter-laced soap and the faint hint of male hit first, filling every breath I took with a familiar scent. Turning my head, I buried my nose against the heated spot covered in soft cotton. Something warm and strong curled around me. Not quite awake, I rubbed my face against the comforting brush of material and slowly opened my eyes.
Rich chocolate stared back, framed by thick lashes, their depths filled with something indefinable that sank beneath my skin, warming me from the inside out until my lips curved. I reached up and traced the high cheekbones, feeling his burnished skin, then stroked his coarse beard. He turned into my hand, pressing a kiss against my palm.
“Bishop.” A chaotic mix of emotions rose, making my voice husky.
“Hey, babe.” He rubbed his jaw against my hands then shifted his body along mine, forcing me to my back until I was lying beneath him, well and truly captured. Not that I minded. His wild curls fell around his face, adding an irresistible charm that melted my already compromised heart.
He lowered his head and took my lips with a fragile intensity that was quickly replaced by the dual demands of hunger and need. Clothes disappeared in our rush to touch, which slowed as his hands moved over my bare skin, leaving a devastating trail of fire in their wake. His tongue stroked and tangled with mine, leading me through a seductive dance I was more than willing to follow.
His weight settled between my thighs as he indulged. I tangled my hands in his hair, the soft strands like cool silk against my heated skin. His tongue left a line of damp skin as he traced his way down my neck, and erotic chills followed. At the base of my throat, he drew my skin into the heated dampness of his mouth before continuing over the slope of my breast. He cupped the other one, his fingers playing over the aching crest, deepening the restless hunger burning through me.
Hunger, need—it all coiled together, leaving me restless and searching. As he played, so did I, licking where I could, stroking what I could reach, filling my senses with nothing but the strength and heat of Bishop. He was there with me, alive and breathing. Every taste, every touch anchored me, reminding me that this was very real, not some tormenting mind game, and that he was safe and solid in my bed with me. The fear and worry that had been clamped so tightly around my heart slowly eased, replaced by soft gasps and husky moans as desire spread into a wildfire, burning everything it touched.
Bishop was relentless, sending me higher and higher until there was nothing left to hold on to but him. Safe in his arms, I held on tight, letting the feeling sweep me over the peak and send me into a free fall of breath-stealing beauty. All the protective barriers raised in the aftermath of a nightmare and the desperate whispers of a broken mind fell away, leaving me nothing but a single truth that escaped on a soft cry. “I love you.”
After a shared shower that drained most of the hot water, we were back on the bed, but this time, I was in baggy sleep pants and a tank top and he wore low-riding sweats. I curled into his side, not able to stop touching him, reassuring myself that he was really there. I did my damnedest not to think about my blurted confession. It helped that the strange peaceful distance I woke with was long gone and my head was filled with a tangle of questions.
Bishop was carefully stroking his fingers through my wet hair as I listened to his heart’s solid beat under my ear. “I can hear your mind spinning.”
I was tracing distracted patterns against his bare chest, avoiding the newest additions to his battle wounds from the previous night, only hours old. My pulse stuttered. “It’s a mess in there. Sure you’re ready for it?”
His arm tightened, pulling me closer, as he chuckled. “Hit me.”
I started with the easiest one. “Is everyone okay? The colonel? The team?”
“Yeah, everyone’s good. Doc told the colonel to take it easy for a couple days. Guess Hawes used an injection to keep her compliant because she was pretty out of it when they found her.”
Relief swept through me. “What happened?”
The hand in my hair stilled for a moment. Then it resumed. “What do you remember?”
His question unlocked the gate holding the memories back. It swung open under the rush of images, and my muscles tensed as I remembered, fear washing aside my earlier relief. “I thought I’d pulled you into the dreamscape and screwed everything up. You were furious, and I knew…” The mouth-drying fear and sickening guilt made a comeback. I shivered and tried again. “I knew I’d betrayed you and the team.”
He stopped petting and wrapped me in a tight hug. “I thought I’d killed you.”
Startled by his statement and by the pain coloring his voice, I craned my neck to see his face. “What?”
“I shot Hawes. I wasn’t aiming for a kill shot, but he tripped, and the bullet took him in the chest. By the time I got to him, he was critical, but…” A dark look swept over his face. “I thought he took you with him when he died, and it would’ve been my fault.”
Unable to resist, I cupped his jaw and looked in his eyes, pulling him back from whatever nightmare he was watching. I didn’t say anything. It was up to him if he wanted to share, and nothing I said would help ease what he believed. This whole situation was rife with guilt and pain on both sides.
His gaze drifted over my face. “Right before we cornered Hawes, Ricochet warned Wolf that Hawes had you trapped—that we needed to take him alive.”
He stopped again, but it didn’t matter. I understood what lay behind the emotional chaos hovering like a storm cloud. He’d tried to protect me, going for a nonlethal hit, and thought he’d failed. Just like I thought I had failed. If Hawes hadn’t been dead already, I’d have happily dragged his ass back and killed him all over again just as payback for the pain on Bishop’s face.
Bishop vibrated with fury. He said in a low, hard, tone, “The fucker smiled at me. He couldn’t say shit, since he was drowning in his own blood, but he looked so damn smug… I was sure he was taking you with him.”
We held each other’s gaze, the quiet between us filled with so much. I had no idea where to start, but I wasn’t about to rush in with some inane comment. Instead, I went back through those heart-stopping moments after I’d thought Hawes had won. “He fooled me,” I admitted softly. “He does that… did that. But it never lasted. He always screwed up when he took the faces of those I love. This time, it was nothing major, just little things.” I gave him a small smile and hoped it wasn’t shaky. “It took me a few seconds to realize it wasn’t you screaming at me. It helped that Ricochet decided to dive-bomb us.”
“Dive-bomb?” Bishop asked.
I rubbed my chin against his chest. “Yeah, he decided to hang out in the dreamscape as a raven. He figured Hawes wouldn’t pay attention to the animals.” Because the arrogant ass had been a telepath and not a dream-walker, he’d never clued in to the subtler imagery dream-walkers excelled in, and Ricochet was a freaking master. I had a hell of a lot to learn still. “But the distraction worked because Hawes was so busy trying to avoid Ricochet’s talons that he was ignoring me. His control slipped just long enough for me to regain control of the dreamscape.”
Bishop frowned. “Ricochet thought you’d lost control, which is why he wanted Hawes alive.”
A blush rose to my cheeks. “Yeah, that was my fault. When I snatched the dreamscape from Hawes, I accidentally pushed Ricochet out.” I still had no idea how I’d managed that.
Bishop’s looked at me sharply. “Wait, so when Hawes tripped—”
“It was probably when he was dodging Ricochet.”
“Well, shit.”
“Yeah.”
The AC kicked on, and we just lay there. All my whirling questions slowed and drifted away, leaving one question behind. Trying not to reveal just how important it was, I fought to keep my tone normal. “Now what?”
“Now we deal with the fallout,” Bishop answered, totally misinterpreting my question, as he rolled me under him. It seemed to be his preferred position, and having all that sexy heat and muscle blanketing me tended to make my brain skip. When it got back on track, and before I could find a graceful way to redirect, he continued. “It won’t be easy. The colonel’s going to be stuck answering a ton of questions. We still have no idea who else was working Hawes or if he was really connected to Falcon, but Rabbit’s determined to unearth every one of Hawes’s secrets. Once he does, we’ll have to figure out our next steps.”
I caught his face in my hands, and he paused. I leaned up and kissed him. It didn’t take much—a soft nip to his lower lip—before it turned heated and carnal. I got lost in his taste, the rising need setting my body on fire.
When he lifted his head, red rode his cheekbones, and his eyes were dark with hunger and humor. “Not the answer you wanted?”
“Not exactly.” Now that I had his attention, I couldn’t find the right words, and my nerves came back with reinforcements.
His humor faded, replaced by a heart-stopping gentleness as he framed my face, holding me still. “You told me before that if it wasn’t for all this shit, you’d be willing to see where you and I would go.” He studied my face with a disconcerting intensity. “Did you mean what you said?”
There was no mistaking what he was referring to. There’d been no holding those three words back when we came together. Maybe it was too soon, but so much had happened in such a short time.
Start as you mean to go. My newly embraced mantra whispered through me, bolstering my faltering courage. Swallowing hard, I nodded, my voice frozen. His place in my heart had been carved out during those hellish months at Hawes’s hands, and when I began picking up the pieces, Bishop had proven he was much more than my wishful imaginings of a shadowy protector. His ability to see my flaws as strengths, his faith in my determination, his humor, his willingness to share his doubts—all of that created something much more than the undeniable attraction between us. I wasn’t ready to walk away from it. I prayed he felt the same.
He dropped his forehead to mine, and I curled my arms around his neck, holding on for dear life. He brushed his nose against mine in a heart-melting touch. From mere inches away, he whispered, “Trust me?”
“Yes,” I said just as softly.
He smiled as something precious filled his eyes, easing the wary lines of his face, and left my heart all warm and squishy. “Good, because I love you, too, Megan.”
Thank you for reading FRACTURED BY DECEIT. Get your next PSY-IV Teams fix as sparks fly when Rabbit and Jinx play intimate criminal partners and risk turning illusion to truth in LINKED BY DECEPTION. Escape into Rabbit and Jinx’s story HERE
Don’t miss out on exclusive reads & new release information by subscribing to Jami’s newsletter HERE.