Chapter Fifty

Secure medical facility

Austin, Northern Territory

Two weeks later

Keiko Sato was dead.

And the only people who knew otherwise were the strange team who called themselves the Red Zone Warriors and her family—who knew how to keep a secret. They’d been keeping some pretty big ones from her for years. Her funeral had been broadcast live on prime-time news, and Keiko had watched, along with the rest of the world, as Miriam Shepherd eulogized over an empty casket.

According to the CommTECH CEO, she’d thrown herself off the building to save the reporter who’d helped her escape the siege. But it had been a futile sacrifice because the shuttle Keiko had aimed for belonged to Freedom, and as soon as they knew who was on board, they’d deliberately crashed it into the bridge in order to kill her. Keiko was now a martyr for the CommTECH cause—and she despised Miriam for it.

“You need to stop watching that crap,” Sandi said as she strolled into the medical center common room. “It isn’t going to change, and it just depresses you. Plus, I hate to see you sad. It’s like Tinker Bell when she believes no one will clap for her.”

Keiko concentrated hard as she waved an imaginary wand. “Begone, Amazon, go back to whence thee came.” Her shoulders slumped. “Nope, not Tinker Bell. You’re still here.”

Sandi grinned. “That vicious streak of yours just endears you to me more.”

There was nothing Keiko could do but roll her eyes. Since she’d saved Mace’s life, Sandi had decided that the best way to pay her back was to declare herself Keiko’s protector—until Mace woke up. Which, hopefully, would be very soon. Otherwise, he might wake to find himself minus a sister.

Sandi nudged Keiko’s toe with the tip of her boot. “I came to tell you that they’re letting the big guy out of the recovery chamber—”

Keiko didn’t hear the rest as she was already up and running through the medical facility.

For two long weeks, Mace had been in an induced coma while the medical nanobots healed his body from the inside out. In that same two weeks, her whole life had been upended, and he hadn’t been there to talk it through with her or to let her pummel him for getting her into the mess in the first place.

She slammed through the door of his private room to find the glass enclosure of the recovery chamber open and Mace sitting on the edge of his bed, dressed only in a pair of blue jeans that were buttoned halfway. His head snapped up, his eyes darkened, and he whispered her name. And she screeched to a halt. Staring at the man who’d completely changed her life.

“Good to see you back with us, big brother,” Sandi said as she came into the room behind Keiko.

Doc cleared his throat. “As I was telling Mace, the nanobots have done their job, and he’s good as new.”

“Doc, Sandi,” Mace said in that deep, growling voice of his. “Get out and lock the door behind you.”

Doc turned red and strode toward Sandi, herding her out of the room.

“Typical,” Sandi said. “Big brother is thinking with his dick again.”

The sound of the door closing after them seemed ominous. And still, Keiko stood frozen, staring at Mace. He was alive. Healthy. Larger than life. And for the first time since they’d met, she didn’t know what to do with him.

Mace didn’t seem to have the same problem. “Princess, get over here,” he ordered.

Keiko didn’t move. “You nearly died.”

It was an accusation, and he heard it as such. “I’m sorry. Now get over here.”

Like it would be that easy. “You can’t drag me into this freaky world of yours and leave me alone in it.”

“I know. I won’t do it again.”

Her heart fluttered at his words. “You’d better not.”

“If you don’t come over here, I’m coming over there.”

And then her heart started to pound loud enough for her to hear. “We have things we need to discuss.”

He was on his feet, prowling toward her, his gaze so hot it made her melt. “We can talk after.”

“Mace…” Anything she had to say was lost as he stood in front of her. Her massive Viking of a man, rippling with strength and power, seemingly indestructible.

Slowly, gently, he reached out to cup her cheeks. “Thought I’d lost you,” he whispered. “Said goodbye in my head while I watched you shoot your way across the terrace, running to get to me when you should have been running away. I told you everything when I was sure I was dying. And now that I know I’m gonna live, I need to tell you again, making sure you hear me this time. I love you, Keiko Sato. I love everything about you.”

“Mace,” she whispered as she drowned in the depth of emotion in his eyes.

“I want you to stay with me, baby, to spend your life with me. I can’t promise you an easy life, but I can promise that I will love you through every minute of it. You know everything there is to know about me. I don’t belong in this time, and I doubt I ever will. I’m an outlaw without a country. And because of my weird-ass DNA, I don’t know what the future will hold. In all honesty, I’ve got nothing but negative prospects to offer you, and yet I’m still asking you to stay. I’ll beg, if that’s what it takes. Because I don’t want to deal with this new world without you.”

Keiko sniffed back tears that threatened. “How am I supposed to tell you no when you say things like that?”

His thumb gently stroked over her bottom lip. “Were you planning on saying no?”

“That’s not the point. I have things I need to shout at you about.”

His lips twitched. “Can you tell me that you love me first, and that you’re going to stay with me, because I’m kind of hanging here?”

Reaching up, Keiko wrapped her arms around his neck. Instantly, Mace grasped her hips and lifted her, allowing her to wrap her legs around him. As he pressed her against the cool, hard wall, she ran her fingers through the overgrown hair she loved. Just like she loved the man.

“You’d better not disappoint me, Mace Armstrong,” she ordered.

“I wouldn’t dare.” His smile was devastating. “I have it on good authority that you know kung fu.”

Now that was just cheeky. She bent her head and bit his chest, hard.

“Hey.” He tugged her hair to angle her head back. “What was that for?”

“For sassing me and to even things out.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Seems I have a bite mark, too. One your bat planted on me when we were in Houston.”

“Oh, that.” His cheeks turned pink. “I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t notice that before I woke up.”

“Which means you already knew about it.” Something she’d guessed after putting two and two together over his strange reaction in the communications room when he’d first explained about his bat.

“To be fair,” he said. “If you’re going to be mad at someone, it should be the bat. It wasn’t my idea to bite you.”

She tried to frown at him, which was hard because she was wrapped around him, feeling all those wonderful muscles, hot against her. “That’s a convenient argument. I thought you were one entity. Something new. A hybrid. Your bat bit me and infected me. Which means you’re both to blame. And now my genes are changing, and Friday is treating me like her own personal lab rat. I don’t think I like Friday very much.”

“Welcome to the club,” he muttered. “What did Friday say?”

And this was the part that made her stomach clench and her need to hyperventilate go into overdrive. “She thinks the same thing is happening to me that happened to her. She thinks I’m becoming half bat, that I’ll have an animal to match yours.”

He stilled under her touch, staring at her intently. “Do you have a tattoo? Like Friday’s baby snake tattoo?”

She swallowed hard. “I have some marks that have appeared on my back. They’re faint, but Friday thinks it’s the beginning of a tattoo.”

“That’s a lot to take in, princess. Are you okay?”

“I’m doing what a wise man once told me to do,” she said drily. “I’ve locked that shit up in a box, and I’ve thrown away the key.”

His smile was slow and sexy. “I am a very wise man. Wise enough to know a good thing when I see it.”

A delightful shiver went through her body at the look in his eyes. “Well, you might want to use some of that wisdom to keep the fur ball away from me, because I still have the urge to sit on him.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Keiko trailed her fingers down his cheek. “You weren’t the only one who said things because they thought you were dying.”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah.” Her heart stuttered at the memory of watching him fall. Watching him die. Before she’d saved him. “I told you that I was mad at you for leaving me. That I’d follow you into the next life and make you suffer for eternity. That you’d cost me my job and my life and you weren’t getting off that easy.”

With a smile, he leaned in and nuzzled her throat. “Sounds brutal. Anything else you felt the need to tell me while I was unconscious?”

Sighing, she angled her head to give him more space, delighting in the soft kisses he trailed up to her jaw.

“Only that you’re the most infuriating man I’ve ever met and a poor excuse for a Viking.” Her voice was breathless as her eyes drifted closed.

Mace’s hands dipped under her shirt to caress her back, his touch searing her skin and making her desperate for more. He nipped at the edge of her jaw. “I’ll work on my Viking skills.”

“You do that.” She wound her fingers in his hair and tightened her legs around him, feeling his hard length pressing against her soft, hot center. A needy moan escaped, and she heard his answering gasp.

There was a hairsbreadth of space between them, and she used her tongue to close it. He groaned, angling his head and taking her mouth in a slow, sensual kiss.

“I missed you,” he whispered against her lips.

She nipped at his bottom lip, then soothed the sting with her tongue. “You were unconscious.”

She felt the snap on her bra give way, and then those big hands of his slid around to her front to cup her breasts, rasping over sensitive nipples, making her groan.

“Not unconscious,” he said as he nuzzled her throat. “Asleep. And all my dreams were of you.”

“You’re making it hard to think straight,” she complained at the onslaught of sensation his hands, mouth, words caused within her.

His lips descended on hers again in a kiss that was demanding and just a little desperate. She lost herself in it. In the feel and taste of him. In his sandalwood scent that engulfed her senses, wrapping her in him. She was so far into him that she didn’t realize they’d moved until her back pressed against the soft sheets of his bed.

Breaking their kiss, he moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “This time,” he said, “I have to see you.” And then, with teasing touches, he undressed her.

Keiko kept her eyes on his face, unwilling to miss a single second of his reaction. What she saw there made her feel beautiful, loved, desperate for more.

“Kiss me,” she demanded as he ran his hands down her body, caressing each curve, learning her.

He shook his head. “Nuh-uh. This time, we’re taking it slow.” And then he leaned forward and sucked her nipple into his mouth.

She clasped his head to her breast as she arched up into him, desperate for more, moaning her pleasure. Wondering if she would ever have her fill of this man.

“I need you inside me,” she begged.

“We’ll get there.” He stretched out on the bed beside her, leaning over to take her other nipple into his mouth.

Keiko threw a leg over his hip, vaguely noting that his jeans were gone. She ground against him but couldn’t get close enough to satisfy herself. She tightened her hands in his hair and yanked hard.

“I need you now.”

“Patience,” the devil admonished as he kissed his way down her stomach.

Strong hands gently spread her thighs, and then his mouth was on her in the intimate kiss of lovers. His tongue teased and danced over her clit, making her gasp and wail and call his name. Over and over and over again.

She was breathless, panting and desperate when he climbed over her, his hips nestled in the V of her thighs, his hard length poised at her entrance. The muscles in his shoulders strained and flexed as he held himself above her. Overgrown hair flopped down onto his forehead, and there were beads of sweat at his temples. His harsh jaw was clenched with restraint, his full lips making a thin line as his eyes blazed with need. He was wild and untamed, his power and strength barely contained. She’d never seen a more beautiful sight.

“Answer my question.” He grated the words. “Will you stay with me?”

She lifted her hips, trying to take him into her, but he had her constrained. “You’re evil, teasing me like this.”

“I know, baby, but I’m also a desperate man, and you’re a hard woman to pin down.” His hips flexed, giving her the barest tip of his cock.

A long, low moan escaped as her nails dug into his waist, pulling her to him, unable to move him an inch.

“This is blackmail,” she grumbled.

“That’s how we run this relationship.” He pressed deeper and retreated just as fast.

“Fine,” Keiko howled. “I’ll stay.” She frowned up at him. “For your information, I’d planned on staying even before you asked.”

His smile was wide, sexy, and deeply worrying. “I know,” he said as he surged into her, filling him with his length.

“Yes,” she moaned, wrapping her legs around him. Keeping him tight within her.

“Mine,” her Neanderthal growled before slamming his mouth over hers.

They rocked together, moaning into the kiss, desperately trying to claim every single inch of each other.

“Never letting you go,” he promised when he broke the kiss.

Keiko dug her nails into his shoulders as his hips began to move. Perfect. Just perfect. “You are such a throwback,” she groaned. “It’s a good thing I love Vikings.”

He stopped mid-thrust, proving once and for all that he had a will of steel. “Not just any Viking,” he amended.

Reaching up, she cupped his face and stared deep into those brilliant blue eyes of his. “You’re the only one I love, Mace.”

A look of pure satisfaction filled his eyes. “Mine,” he said again.

“Idiot,” she replied. “Now move those hips.”

“Anything for you, baby.” And he did as he was told.