When I woke up, Leon was right where he was supposed to be, safely nestled against me. I must’ve slept for a long time, because bright sunbeams slanted into the room. I watched him for a while, measuring his breaths, his little snuffles. Pushing the hair from his face, I kissed him every so often, trying not to wake him. Everything was so new and fragile; I took the time to appreciate him in my arms.
Finally easing out of bed, I had a thorough cleanup. After checking on Leon one last time, I headed downstairs. The smell of food cooking hastened my steps.
Nathaniel manned a frying pan over the fireplace. I took a seat at the long wooden table next to Cannon, who watched his man with the usual unwavering attention.
Liz pushed a cup of coffee at me. “Good afternoon, sunshine.”
I blew across the piping-hot black liquid and tried to dial back my smile. Cannon inched away from me on the bench so he could get a good look at me, then nodded with a grin of his own.
Nathaniel and Linc did the cooking, serving up plates of fish and some kind of creamy, grainy mush. During the next ten minutes, the only sounds heard were grunts of approval, forks scraping plates, and coffee being gulped and refilled.
It was only when Cannon got up to clear the table and Nathaniel joined him across the room that I felt all eyes turn to me.
“He’s good. Leon’s fine. He’s sleeping.”
Liz folded her hands on the table. “How good? And I’m not talking about the sex this time.”
“We need to know if he’s solid in his head, Darke. Or should we put him on…?” Linc left his thought unfinished.
“We talked. I may have bribed him with my own life-and-death scenario if he ever succeeded in hurting himself.” I leaned back and folded my arms across my chest. “He doesn’t need to be on a suicide watch.”
“You’re sure?” Nathaniel asked.
“Yes. But that doesn’t mean he’s not all fucked up in his head about this shit, you know?”
“I think we’re all a little fucked up in the head about what might happen to him, man.” When Cannon’s gaze pierced mine, the dark brown of his irises glistened before he closed his eyes. “Seeing that, seeing him like that last night…” He clasped his hand over his mouth.
“I know.” My voice was rough.
Cannon looked up, weaving his fingers through Nathaniel’s. “My lover, Alejandro, was caught and killed by the Company five years ago. He…” Cannon chewed on his upper lip, letting his head fall back. “They hanged him in front of a huge crowd in Epsilon. Made a whole event out of it. I was there.”
“Jesus Christ.” Liz reached out to grab his free hand. She pressed it to her face. “I never knew. All those trips to Epsilon?”
“I went to see him. No one knew. I only ever told Blondie.” He searched his husband’s face before putting an arm around him. “I’ve been there, Darke, so if you need to talk, come find me.”
I walked to him and clasped his hand. “I appreciate that. And I’m sorry for your loss.”
Cannon peeked over at Nathaniel before lifting his palm to kiss the heart of it. “Jesus. Yeah. I’m sorry I brought that up.”
“Don’t be. I only wish you hadn’t gone through that.” Nathaniel kissed him on his mouth, earning a red blush Liz cackled over.
“Okay, uh, so…” Cannon stuttered.
“I told Leon I love him.” I filled in the gap before I even realized my mouth was moving.
“No shit?” He wheeled back toward me.
A grin stole across my face. “No shit.” Then I laughed, and damn, that felt good for a change.
Their voices swelled as everyone began talking over one another. I couldn’t make out the specifics, but the message was clear: the usual ribbing mixed with a healthy dose of pure happiness.
When everyone settled down, Linc asked, “So, Darke. You want the good news or the bad news?”
“The bad.”
Elbowing my ribs, Liz said, “Always did peg you for a morbid SOB, when you’re not being all lovey-dovey and shit.”
“Nice. Your man lets you kiss him with that mouth?”
She waggled her eyebrows in Linc’s direction. “That’s not all he lets me do with it.”
Linc flushed pink from his neck to his hairline and cleared his throat. “The bad news is Raine’s not so mysteriously missing.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Cannon muttered.
“Who’s on it?”
“Darwin went out with Bas and Farrow,” Nathaniel reported. With the sun shining in behind him in this stone cavern kitchen, his blond hair glowed and the earring at the peak of his ear picked up the light.
“Is it safe for them?”
“Let’s face it. It’s not exactly safe for any of us.” Cannon scratched irritably at the stubble shading his jawline.
“So we wait. What’s the good news?”
Nathaniel rummaged in his pack, retrieving a bigger D-P than the handheld devices we carried. He set it up in the middle of the table, the one-dimensional tablet going 3-D and upright at the scan of his thumb.
“We watched this earlier. The Voice put together a little promo of his own following yesterday’s events.”
“Does anyone else think the Voice is a lame name?” Liz leaned one elbow on the table while Nathaniel fiddled with his fancy gear.
“Here, here.” Cannon winked.
“Really. He or she—we don’t know for sure—could at least have put a little spin on it when the Voice started to get popular. I mean—”
“Lizbeth?” Blondie smoothly cut in.
“What?”
“I’m tryin’ to work here.” He scrolled back through the incoming data and the day’s notification history.
“You know, that’s the same thing I tell your brother when I’m—”
Linc hauled her onto his lap and clamped a hand over her mouth.
“It’s on.”
Everyone became serious as the Voice began his broadcast.
“The CEO tried to drive the Revolutionary leaders out into the open today by forcing them to do something that went against their honor. He grows impatient. The fact is CEO Cutler is the one killing us, not the rebel angels of mercy.”
“I think this Voice has a hard-on for us,” Cannon said in a wry tone.
“The fact is his ploy backfired. Here are the scenes from all around the world. The aftermath of Cutler’s threats.”
The triple-sided screen burst into vibrant life with events I watched in openmouthed wonder.
Shehu and his warriors along with a hundreds-strong battalion of Omega Corps infiltrated the Omega Quad. Executives, soldiers, medical officers stood down. We saw similar action take place in Territories across the world, the names of Kappa in Central Europa, Sigma in the Southern Americas, and Zeta in the Siberian frozen land running across the bottom of the D-P monitor as they fell to the rebel army.
I blinked at the screen, unsure if what I was seeing was real.
The best part came next and—holy hell—I jumped off my seat and plastered my face to the D-P to get a closer look because retaliation of this magnitude was sweet.
“The Company’s getting shut down, shut out, locked up. You, the citizens and Reformed Corps combined with the Revolutionaries and Freelanders, are standing up! Pushing back! Changing our world!”
Triumph on this massive scale was so much more effective than the invasive Plague Cutler was ready to unleash. Citizens all over the world, on every continent, throughout all the lands, were shown celebrating. Not running scared, not hiding in their gray government houses, not hunched over and shuffling along to their next workhorse assignment. Then the scene zoomed out to show six squares, each from a different Territory. In every one, all at once, red ribbons lifted to the sky. They flew on the wind like the raised voices we listened to: Live in Freedom! Love at Will!
“I’ll be goddamned.” I plunked into my chair and shook my head, overcome by emotion. “How many Territories are left?”
“Eight,” Liz answered.
“And Cutler?” I asked as Nathaniel turned off the D-P.
“On the run, in a hole—who knows?” Cannon tapped his fingers restlessly on the table.
“I don’t think Father was ever here. It’s not his scene.” Linc pushed back from the table. “Not enough amenities.”
“Or a big enough population to brainwash,” his twin added with a twist of his lips.
“So Denver sent us on a wild-goose chase with Raine as well as Cutler.”
Placing both palms on the arms of his chair, Linc met my stare. “And he’ll get his comeuppance, too.”
“Darke?” Leon’s throaty voice called from up above.
I hit my feet before my coffee cup clattered to the table. Smirks were plastered on every single puss in the room.
I pointed my finger at them. “We stay put today.” That was another one of my edicts.
“Aye-aye, Captain.” Cannon saluted. Wiseass.
“Good to have you back in the saddle.” Nathaniel sucked in his cheeks to stifle his grin.
“That’s what Leon said.” Liz just couldn’t help herself.
“One last thing.” I turned at the threshold. “What’d you do with the rope?”
“How do you think I started the fire?” Nathaniel gestured behind him to the big open hearth.
Although I’d made plans to use that hanging rope to hog-tie Raine, burning it was good enough.
“Go check on your man,” Linc commanded, placing a covered plate in my hand.
* * *
Leon was fresh from a shower, alert, clear-eyed. After I set the tray down beside the bed, I couldn’t resist sampling his pouty lips. “How are you feeling?”
He winced as he sat down on the bed. “A little sore.”
“Aw, shit. I’m sorry. I was too rough.” I kneeled in front of him.
“Nah. I like it. I like knowin’ you were in me, all the way.”
My cock plumped up. I swallowed thickly. My eyes strayed from the slow lick of his lips to the discolored purple skin encircling his throat. “How’s your neck?”
“S’okay. Remind me to use a gun next time. Less hang time.” He gently fingered the bruises.
“Jesus, Leon. That is not funny.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you like dat.” He urged me up to the bed next to him.
“Don’t. Don’t say sorry again. I’ve got to tell you what happened yesterday.” Getting up to retrieve the food platter, I tried to distract myself from his growing apprehension.
“It’s bad.”
“It’s not good, that’s for sure.” Guilt spread its ugly disease through me. “Here.” I handed him the plate and a fork. “Maybe you should eat something first.”
He tucked in with a hearty appetite that pleased me. Nathaniel’s breakfast disappeared in a matter of minutes, leaving me with nothing but the truth to tell and no way left to stall. A frown burrowed into my forehead as I faced him.
“G’on. I can take it.”
I settled beside him. “The coordinates Raine gave us led to a field hospital on the Corps base. We had to kill a lot of people.”
“The enemy.”
“I don’t think there are any enemies anymore. Just Cutler and…Raine.” My lips curled in disgust.
“He’s still missing?”
“Yeah, but not for long. When we find him, I’m gonna—” I stopped myself. The need for revenge and retribution cranked up my rage.
“He din’t do anything wrong.”
“The hell you say.”
“Nothin’ worse than what I did.” He dropped his head.
I tilted his chin right back up, high in the air, where it belonged. “Bullshit. He used you, and I need to know why. What he did was practically murder, knowingly giving you a fake antidote. What you did? That was misguided and goddamn stupid and…At least you were trying to save others, not kill them.” I grasped his chin harder. “Not that I condone that shit. You are not to try anything like that ever again.”
“I know,” he whispered.
I released him to burrow my face in his hair. “The people yesterday, they were…like you. Not military, not the enemy. Civilians infected with a new, even more rapid strain of the Plague.”
When Leon pushed me away, I wasn’t surprised. As I replayed what we’d seen and what we’d done—my voice subsiding into a gruff, hoarse tone—his eyes grew as big as the dinner plate I’d brought to him, then as empty as it was after he cleared it.
He folded his arms around his chest and sat away from me. “Why did you revive me?”
“I don’t know how you can even ask that question.”
His chin notched higher. “If you can kill them, why not let me do it to myself?”
“It’s not the same thing. It was ugly, Leon. What Cutler did to those people and what we had to do. But there was no choice. They were about to be sent into Omega. They were going to die in a matter of hours, only after they spread the infection.” He remained silent and I forged on. “You…you cannot kill yourself. I won’t let you.”
He gave a derisive snort.
I grabbed his face. “You have to live.”
His laugh was harsh. “Just ’cause you say so?”
“That’s right.”
“I’m not sure you’re strong enough.” Suddenly his stony face shifted into such utter sadness, it overwhelmed me. I let his face go to bring him to me. He didn’t resist.
“I assure you, I am.” I cupped the back of his head. “You are, too. You know you are. Only a powerful man could pull that shit you did yesterday. The broadcast? Standing up against what Cutler did to you? You are a hero, Leon. And I need you to be heroic for me.”
He pressed his face against my shirt. “Couillon.”
“Cursing me again?”
“Crazy fool.”
“Crazy in love.” We reclined together. “What happened yesterday was not done lightly.”
“If it comes down to me?”
Even though I assured him it wouldn’t, I had a sick feeling that was CEO Cutler’s plan from the start.
“Will we ever be okay?” He blinked big honey-brown eyes at me.
“Yes.” I cuddled him closer. His hands skimmed over my shoulders, landing on the sensitive scar tissue on my upper back. I shivered with his warm caresses and something more potent. With time running out, there was one way to convince Leon of my love. “Do it…the moko.”
“What?”
I ripped my shirt off. “I want what you want. You, on my skin.”
His gaze roamed over my chest. Pink tinted his cheeks.
“You sure this is a good idea? If you gotta fight, you’ll be in pain—won’t be at your best.” His hesitation didn’t mask the overwhelming joy radiating from him.
This felt so right.
“I’m not going to cry, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Emotion made my voice brusque.
“Oui.”
Leon practically danced from the bed to his rucksack. I barked a loud laugh at his eagerness. Joie de vivre. That’s what this was all about. I remembered that long-lost term, something my mom had said to me once about how it felt when she was singing—no matter who her audience was. The joy of life.
The will to live. I could give that back to Leon as he’d done me.
“Where?” When he returned, his hands trailed along my back.
I lay down on the bed and placed my hand on my upper chest. “Right here.”
“What do you want?”
“Angel wings. And your name.”
Nodding, Leon said, “D’ac. Okay. Dat’s good.”
I spread his palms across my pecs. “You sure you want your name here?”
“Mon Dieu. Yes.” He leaned in to my mouth, flitting his tongue along my lips and deep inside. “’S’all I want.”
“My little devil with angel’s wings.”
“Not so little.” He grabbed his crotch, highlighting the hard-on clearly visible beneath faded denim.
“Not so little,” I agreed.
With his tools laid out, Leon shaved my mostly smooth chest. To sanitize me, he used the same alcohol swabs Raine had given him for the injection. Each touch was tantalizing torture. Keeping still made me ache while my cock hardened to full capacity, getting slick and thick inside my pants. Leon knew it, too. His hands grazed my groin, multiplying the exquisitely sensual intimacy of this moment.
The first puncture was the worst. He started at my sternum, moving slowly outward over my left side. As the bone chisel and small mallet gouged into my flesh. Leon’s gorgeous face was lined with intense concentration. Blue-black dye dripped into my skin while his eyes screwed up over every painstaking detail. He swiped away the blood and the sweat on my face and his.
He was an artist at work, the masterpiece of our love on my skin. My chest puffed up, and he slapped my side. “Don’ move.”
“Yes, sir,” I blurted.
He arched one of his eyebrows in amusement.
An hour elapsed. Two and then three. He designed my torso freehand. Every so often, he pressed a kiss to my lips. Those light brushes were powerful enough to be some sort of numbing agent or aphrodisiac. I didn’t know. I didn’t care. His kisses soothed me into a mindless substate of relaxation beneath the continuation of pain.
Leon got up and stretched so high that his shorts rode dangerously low. Just the sort of hot visual I needed to keep this statue-like stillness up for the rest of the moko. When he hunkered over me again, his fingers were less sure, like he’d lost the moment.
“If your hand shakes, you’re gonna fuck it up.”
He gave me a tsk and steadied himself.
I grinned.
He’d tied back his hair, so I had an unimpeded view of his artistry. The design spread across my breastbone, over my pectorals, down my diaphragm. The lines on the outside were thick. On the inside he etched smaller, tighter patterns. At one point his forehead rested against my neck so he could get close enough to put in the fine detail. That was when the enormity of this deed delivered a pure shot of emotion to my heart.
I shuddered beneath his touch.
Leon raised his head. “You said you weren’t gonna cry.”
“I’m not crying because it hurts.” I brushed the backs of my knuckles across his cheek, careful not to disrupt his work but desperate to touch him. “You are so damn beautiful. I am honored to wear your mark and your name on my body. I love you.”
He beamed with warm pleasure and pride. “I don’ think I’ll ever get tired of hearing you say dat.”
“You won’t have to. Gonna say it every day.”
“I thought you din’t want me to fuck this up.”
“You won’t. We won’t.”
It took grueling hours. It was painful. It would need finishing touches. But watching Leon throughout the entire process, I was enamored. Daylight was long gone by the time he finished, but I didn’t regret a single minute of being spread out and at his mercy.
After his careful cleanup, he led me to the mirror in the bathroom. He lit the pillar candles and stepped back.
The black-indigo ink stood out on my skin. Wings opened in flight from one side of my chest to the other. In clear script, his name wound through the feathers that looked like they ruffled in a breeze.
I touched my tender skin, grazing his name. It was such a heavy moment, yet it made me feel so light. “It’s perfect. Like you.”
“Like us.” His fingers rested at the shallow dip at the bottom of my spine.
Stiff after being still for so long, I gave my back a stretch. I bunched my arms forward, clenching and releasing muscles.
Leon hissed behind me.
I glanced at him. The same immediate famished need reflected back at me.
Quickly losing my pants, I stretched out on the bed. My body was stinging with pain, but the hurt was so damn good, and the love resonating between us was worth every moment of it. I couldn’t wait until my skin healed over and his name was right there for all to see, front and center on my chest, intertwined with the wings that represented everything he was to me.
But right now I needed to claim him. Give myself to him.
“Get over here.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t do anything too strenuous.” His eyes were glittering and deviously dark.
“If you don’t get over here and fuck my cock right now, I’m gonna show just how strenuous I can get.” Arching my back, I stroked my aching rod.
“Well, I guess. Since you aren’t givin’ me any choice.”
He took his damn sweet time undressing. Swiveling his hips, running his hands down his well-muscled body, covering his cock, cupping his ass.
The final straw was when he sucked a finger into his mouth and let out a small moan.
The second Leon stepped next to the bed, I hefted him on top of me. With lubed fingers I quickly stretched his wanton ass to accommodate me while he sheathed me in a condom and stroked slickness over me.
I gripped his hips as he straddled me. “Ride me.”
There was no tease or buildup. The entire day had been foreplay. He squatted above me, grasped my cock, and sent it home with a guttural cry. Each time he rose up and sank back down, I pried him open. His head fell back. His velvet tunnel enveloped my shaft.
In heat. I was in heat. I sat up until we were face-to-face, close enough to kiss. He linked his ankles at the base of my spine, using the leverage to force me deeper, faster.
“Leon!”
He dug his fingers into my hair and yanked my neck back. Teeth nipped at my throat and across my collarbone. The heated wet passage of his ass contracted. He thrust upon me, his dick slapping my stomach. Balls banging my groin. The thatch of his pubes rasped mine. I grinded into him and reveled in his bite—the one from his teeth and the one that sizzled grooves of heat from my cock all the way up my back.
Our hands clasped around each other’s biceps. We longed to get closer, but the fresh tat prevented it. Our skin was slick, and my chest burned. With my hands skimming on to both sides of his ass, I opened him further and sunk so deep inside there was no turning back.
His eyes opened wide. He arched in my arms. “Yes!”
Leon’s moans and whimpers came faster and louder and longer, my cock dragging the incredible sounds out of him.
“No one’s gonna be inside you like this, angel,” I grunted.
The high-pitched moan that met me was music to my ears. “Only you, Darke. Always.”
“Damn right.”
I smoothed my hands over his back, doubling them across him, holding him, covering him, loving him. Forever.
I lost it. As I pounded up into him, I fisted his shaft at the same punishing pace. Crashing my mouth to his and moaning within the wet heat, I gave everything. My skin for his name, my soul for his heart, my love for his life.
“Angel, angel.” As I pulsed into him, seed propelled from my shaft in an outpouring of one soul to the other.
Leon shuddered on top of me. The sweet scent of his come sprayed between our bellies.
My thrusts slowed. I flopped back. “Holy shit, baby.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay?”
“Ungh.”
“I’m not moving tomorrow.” I was all loosey-goosey. I managed to just about bring him to my side, where the wet tip of his cock hit my hip. He was still firm and hard for me. I stroked another few drops from him, bringing the lush male taste to my mouth.
“Today.” Leon gathered more of his release and fed it to me one finger at a time.
I lapped and sucked and asked, “What?”
“It’s way past midnight.”
“God. What did you do to me?”
And please do it again and again.
* * *
Of course, life waited for no man, and neither did former First Lieutenant Liz Grant of the Alpha Elite Tactical Forces.
Too few hours later there was a rap of knuckles on the door, quickly followed by, “Knock, knock.” Surprise.
“Fuck off,” I returned by rote.
“Darke.” Leon hopped to his feet, completely naked.
“What?” I rolled into his warm spot. “Can’t I just have a few minutes alone with you?”
“You had the whole day and last night, too.”
Of course Liz chose that moment to stick to our old routine, opening the door and barging right in with everyone behind her and Leon naked as a jaybird. I wrangled him to the bed and covered us up.
I was relieved to see the group that had gone after Raine were present and in one piece, lingering on the side. But when everyone gaped at me instead of Leon, I had to make sure I wasn’t busting a new tent-by-erection beneath the blankets.
Leon laughed against my ear. “They be lookin’ at the moko, cher.”
“Finally got my angel wings,” I said to all with a sweet affirming kiss on Leon’s lips.
I felt like a goddamn leader of my people. Truly capable for the first time with Leon my consort, my lover. We sat side by side in the bed. Pride puffed my chest as I held Leon’s hand above the blankets for all to see.
“Report,” I ordered.
“Fuck. Are we supposed to bow now?” Cannon said to Nathaniel, who gave a little smirk.
“I don’t do curtsies.” Darwin shot one eyebrow up.
Liz heckled, “Oh, that’s okay, because Farrow does.”
Sure enough, Farrow performed a small dip of her knees with the elegance and grace of her fine breeding, all the while shooting a simmering glare at Liz.
“Is there news on Raine or not?” Because if not, I had other plans that had to do with Leon’s hand, which was wandering up my inner thigh.
“Shehu spotted him in Omega,” Cannon said.
“So we move out together.” Linc tapped his holstered weapons.
“No one’s moving out but me.” I wriggled from the bed, intent on finding clothes, weapons, bullets designed to make Raine’s brain splatter.
Everyone was quick to voice their support, but Leon’s low voice drew me in. “I don’ want you to do dis.”
I turned toward him as I dragged on my pants. “This is about avenging you, and that’s mine alone to do. There’s no telling when or if we’ll be attacked here. Everyone stays.”
“Just take a backup, man. I volunteer.” Cannon thumped his fist to his chest.
All the rest stepped forward.
“No. This is something I’ve got to do.” I strapped a knife to my waist. “Give us a moment?”
Leon’s anguish swirled around us as the room emptied. He unrolled gauze and tape. Then he carefully sheltered my new wings under clean bandages. Afterward I drew on a shirt and finished arming up.
“I’ll be back soon. Nothing and no one can keep me from you.” The kisses I stole from him pulled a deep groan from my throat. I moved back, but he followed, landing in my lap on the bed. I twisted strands of glossy hair between my fingers, helpless beneath the onslaught of his mouth. “I can’t get enough of you.”
The delicious curve of his bottom lip nudged against mine. His tongue swooped inside, seeking me out. Our faces angled for a better fit. Each twirl of his tongue, every murmur from his lips was seared in my mind when we broke apart.
“You are too damn sexy,” I said.
“You are too dangerous.” He yanked me against him by my shirt when I tried to stand up on unsteady legs. “Remember last time? The explosion in Beta? I said no more. I don’ need my honor defended or whatever. I need you alive, so you best be careful out there.”