Chapter Twenty-Six

Ivy marked the location of the sap-covered trunk on the computer tablet that acted as her field map. When she got back to the cave, she’d find the tree in the database and use the data to teach CAM the infrared signature for sap-covered poison trees. With that data, she could isolate every weeping poison tree within the target area and it would simply be a matter of a second flyover with the drone and an intensive scan of the landform and tree-root system.

“This will take a few days,” she said. “To get the data isolated and extracted. If we’re wrong, and the AUUV is underwater after all, we’re screwed.”

“It’s the best lead we’ve got,” Dimitri said. “I say we focus on it instead of the broad survey.”

They finished exploring the island. If there was a tunnel in the rock, it was a natural void—she could find no entrance that led to the anomalous reading taken by RON the night before.

It was strange, the feeling of homecoming she felt when they returned to their island haven. Shelter, food, water, and Dimitri. This would be quite a life if it were sustainable.

But she had family in DC: her parents, two sisters, a niece, her cousin, and his fiancée, Isabel.

The wedding was next month at Alec’s estate. It would break her heart if she missed it.

She had a life, and a damn good one at that, even if the last two years had been difficult.

Plus, she’d promised herself she’d pursue artificial insemination once CAM was complete. Her marriage had fallen apart, but that didn’t mean she’d stopped wanting a child.

While Dimitri provided an emotional connection she hadn’t realized she’d been missing, he couldn’t replace everyone she cared about. Not that he was offering to run away with her. He’d made it more than clear that he’d never endanger his sister and nephew that way.

Best for her to focus on CAM and the search and forget about Dimitri altogether. She immersed herself in the work, her lifeline, sleeping only when RON’s batteries recharged, eating when Dimitri insisted. She’d probably forget to breathe if it weren’t an involuntary reflex.

When she wasn’t working or sleeping, she mentally mapped Dimitri’s contours, taking in his ridges and lines. Committing his body to immutable storage so he would remain unchanged and she could access the memories when he was long gone.

She dreamed about coding and crawled out of bed at four a.m. on the eighth day since she’d met Dimitri, the fifth day since they’d retreated to their own private island. An idea had come to her that required troubleshooting. Two hours later, having isolated a variable that would make it easier to separate vegetation layers, she crawled back into bed beside him.

He woke as the air mattress shifted. His reaction was startling considering he’d been deeply asleep a moment before. He pinned her to their air mattress. “You’re supposed to wake me if you get up. For your safety. Even if you’re only visiting the latrine.”

“I didn’t leave the cave.” They’d agreed she wouldn’t leave the safety of their hiding place without letting him know. Not even to relieve her bladder. Not because he needed to control her, but because she could be taken.

Others were on the hunt for the AUUV. The danger was very real. The longer they were in the cave, the easier it was for her to forget, become lax. Dimitri battled that with increased vigilance.

“Were you working?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me next time. Even if you don’t leave the cave. You were close to the entrance. Even if you screamed, I wouldn’t be able to get to you in time.”

She couldn’t see his face in the dark cave, but she heard in his voice something that reminded her of when she’d been wearing the headphones on the sunbathing deck on Liberty. His voice held more emotion when she couldn’t see him. Probably because without an expression to read, she listened better.

“I’m sorry. I’ll tell you next time.”

His hands cupped her face. She wished she could see his eyes. “I’m falling in love with you, Ivy, which means you’re in more danger than ever. More danger than my sister and nephew, because you’re here, while they’re in Russia and out of reach.”

All drowsiness left her.

“You’re falling in love with me? You’ve barely talked to me for three days. And we’re stranded on an island together.”

His lips were on her throat and trailed along her neck to the sensitive spot just below her ear. “Because I thought it would be easier for us both if I stayed away. But it didn’t make it any easier. And now I feel stupid because I’m on short time as it is, and I’m wasting it.”

He nibbled on her earlobe, then nipped at her jawline, moving toward her lips. Then his mouth was on hers, and she let him in.

He kissed her deeply. She reveled in it and kissed him back, taking over when he would retreat. She opened her thighs, and his body settled against hers, pushing her deep into the air mattress that needed more air.

He finally lifted his mouth from hers. “This isn’t fair to you. I’m endangering you.”

She ran her hands over the stubble on his cheeks and chin. Texture to add to her mental map. “I’m needed to run CAM. There is no interface. I’m the only person who knows the commands. And frankly, I keep changing them as CAM learns the terrain.”

“But once we have the AUUV, all bets are off.” He kissed her neck again. “I’ll kill anyone before I let them hurt you. Anyone.”

“I know.” After all, she’d seen him do it. Maybe it hadn’t been intentional, but all three men had died just the same. “What happens when we find it?” she asked softly.

“I contact my handler and arrange for the exchange. You’ll call whoever Dominick has sent for your exfiltration—my guess is Luke and maybe the former CIA operator, Ian Boyd. They’ll take you back to DC, and I’ll hand over the AUUV.”

“Nothing is ever that simple.”

“No. But close enough.”

He would be killed, likely executed on the spot. The thought made her want to vomit. Instead, she stroked his chest and tried to wipe away the vision of a Dimitri-less future. “Make love to me.”

“I shouldn’t. It’s not fair to you,” he repeated. “All I can give you is right now.”

“There’s something else you can give me.” The words were a low dry whisper, spoken before she even knew if she could follow through and state the wild, dangerous idea that had tickled at her thoughts for days.

It was a future, of a sort, for him, and also what she’d wanted desperately for years.

“What do you mean?” Dimitri asked.

“You could give me a child.”

Dimitri stiffened against her, then pushed back as if to rise, but she grabbed his shoulders. “Please, Dimitri. I want a baby—I’d planned to attempt in vitro when I get back to DC. I’d already started reading through the sperm catalogue. And it’s not like there are any guarantees. I’m two weeks out from my period, so I’m probably ovulating, but that doesn’t mean it will take. Believe me, I know that better than anyone. But I’d like a chance. I’d like to think maybe, when all this is over, a piece of you will live on.”

“No.” His voice was hard. Cold. “Absolutely not.”

She cupped his face. “I would love your baby with every ounce of my soul.”

“But don’t you see? A baby is another weapon. My God, I can’t imagine what the GRU would do to my own child.”

The reverence in his voice on the words “my own child” told her he wanted what she offered, even though he feared it. “But they’ll never know it’s yours. And if you…if you really don’t survive this, they’ll have no reason to hurt the baby or me.”

“And if they take me prisoner instead of killing me on the spot, it would be torture knowing you were unprotected.”

She pressed her mouth to his. “Then we won’t let them take you prisoner.”

He buried his face in her neck. “It’s not that simple. My love is poison, and that’s all it can ever be.”

“Please, Dimitri. I want a baby. I want your baby. I want someone to love when all this is over. I want a piece of you to live on, for you to be a father.”

Dimitri could barely breathe. She was offering him the one thing he’d never dreamed he’d have. Which he still wouldn’t have. He’d be gone, and his child—if she conceived—would grow up fatherless.

And ah, fuck, if he gave her this, he’d have to try to live. He couldn’t give up when he had a son or daughter who needed him.

He closed his eyes and imagined Ivy pregnant with his baby, and a wave of possessiveness unlike anything he’d ever felt washed through him.

His baby. His Ivy. His.

All at once, he loved this child who didn’t exist. It wasn’t even an embryo, yet his body lit at the prospect. His primal core, his hard wiring, drove him to touch her, to slide his hand beneath her panties and stroke her clit. Biology told him to take her offering, fulfill a natural predisposition to reproduce. But his heart…that was where he lost the battle. His heart wanted to stake his claim by planting a child within her.

It was primal. Raw. Fierce. A perfect mirror for how he felt about her. He wasn’t lying when he said he was falling in love with her. He’d slipped over that edge days ago.

Now she was offering him the only form of immortality available to humans. And, oh God, it was embarrassing how he wanted it. Proof he was human after all.

“Make love to me, Dimitri,” she whispered. “Give me a piece of you.”

His voice was hoarse as he said, “No one can know the baby is mine. If you get pregnant, that’s the one thing you can’t tell anyone, not unless you’re certain I’m dead. As in you’ve seen my body with your own eyes, dead.”

“No one will know.”

He thrust his pelvis against hers. “If we do this, it won’t be sweet. It won’t be tender. It will be hot and animal. A fuck to end all fucks. I’ve never had sex without a condom before, and honey, I’m going to enjoy this in all its primal glory.”

He kissed her then, holding nothing back. As promised, his kiss was hard and primal. He owned her mouth as he would own her body. “You’re mine, Ivy. You’ll always be mine.”

She nodded. “Yours. Always yours.”

He explored her body methodically with his mouth. Enjoying every shape and texture. “Just so you know, when I was in the Coast Guard, we were tested regularly for STDs. I haven’t been with anyone but you since my last test. I’m clean.”

“You’re perfect,” she said in a husky voice as she slid her hand across his abs, under his briefs, and stroked his erection. “I was tested multiple times, months apart after I learned about the cheating. I’m clean too.”

He pulled her T-shirt over her head and licked her breasts. “These tits are mine.”

She laughed. “Yours.”

He reached to the side and found the power strip for the lights and flicked it on. “Dark won’t do. I’m going to see all of you.”

She was gorgeous, splayed beneath him. He sat up and moved to her side so she could spread her thighs and he could play. He stroked her clit, then slipped two fingers inside her vagina. “God, but you are beautiful. Don’t ever listen to anyone who tells you otherwise. They’re either blind or they have an agenda. You’re strong and tall, and you have these gorgeous curves.” He stroked her hip, his hand trailing upward to cup her breast.

He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “And when I’m done with you, you’re going to need to buy some serious hardware, because you won’t be able to imagine ever fucking another man.”

She panted out a laugh as he stroked her clit.

He nibbled at her lips, then slipped his tongue in her mouth, a tease, not letting her suck on his tongue. “Your mouth is mine.”

“Yours,” she repeated. “And I want to taste you.”

He scooted up on the bed and slipped his dick into her mouth. She took him, and he groaned with the sensation. He pulled out, but she sucked him back in.

Why had he wasted days when he could have been making love with her? Stranded on a deserted island in the tropics with the most amazing, sexiest woman he’d ever met, and he’d spent his days and nights working?

He pulled out of her mouth, then settled between her thighs. “Let’s do this, then.”

She gripped his shoulders and pressed up against his cock. He positioned the tip at her vagina. Unsheathed. What a glorious thing. He paused to look, to watch so he could enjoy the moment with all his senses.

He slipped the head in and groaned. He pulled out, just to savor the moment. He thumped his cock on her clit, dampening her with precum, then rubbed with his thumb, causing her to pant and groan.

He dipped his cock back into her opening. Again just the tip, watching her face as he stroked her clit and ever so slowly filled her, one thick inch at a time.

The sensation was exquisite. Just like Ivy. He paused when he was in as deep as he could go and leaned down and kissed her. Her thighs were wrapped tightly around his hips. He was home at last.

He lifted his mouth and held her gaze. He pulled out just as slowly as he’d entered her. She was slick and hot and everything he ever wanted.

“I love you,” he said, then thrust hard and fast. She met his thrusts with her own, and they rocked together in a rhythm as old as time.

Right now, this was the only multiverse he wanted to be in.