Page 55 of Cipher: Lethal Algorithm

“Hold on.”

He drives into me. A single, heavy thrust steals all the oxygen from my lungs.

My nails dig into his shoulders. A fractured sound escapes my throat. He fills the empty space completely, grounding me in the immediate, violent reality of the moment. He pulls back and thrusts again, setting a relentless, driving pace mirroring the ticking clock we race against.

Every slide of his hips is a strike. Every heavy breath he takes against my skin strips away another layer of my armor. The world narrows down to the slide of skin on skin, the grip of his hands bruising my hips, and the crushing pressure mounting in my lower stomach. He angles his hips flawlessly, striking the exact friction point that makes my vision blur.

I drag his mouth back down to mine, taking his groan into my mouth as the tension coils tighter.

“Julian.” My voice cracks, foreign and desperate.

He shifts his grip, sinking deeper, faster, driving me toward the edge. The collision of our bodies is completely unrestrained. The climax splinters through my nerve endings in a sharp, blinding spike of heat. I arch hard against him, my muscles caving into the devastating release.

Julian’s breath hitches. He drives deep one final time, burying his face in the crook of my neck as a rough, guttural sound rips from his chest. His arms clamp around me, holding my weight entirely as the adrenaline crash rolls through both of us.

The ocean is loud when we finally break apart. My chest heaves. The cold air bites against my skin, violently offset by the heat radiating from him.

He lowers me slowly to the deck, pulling me back against his chest. His arms wrap around me, establishing a secure, unyielding perimeter.

I let him hold me. For a moment, I just let the armor stay dropped.

His chest rumbles against my spine. It takes me a second to process the vibration. He laughs. A low, dark sound in the cold air.

“What?”

“I just had the best sex of my life.” He rests his chin against the top of my head. “And we have to cut things short to get the hell out of Dodge.”

His arms tighten around my waist. The laugh vanishes, replaced by a ruthless, heavy gravity.

“We still have time.” His voice drops to a dark, deliberate rasp. “That was just the appetizer. I’m going to ruin you until you can’t stand. Until you can’t walk.”

A violent shiver traces my spine. The promise hangs in the air between us, a defiant refusal to let the impending extraction be the end of the line.

“You know I’m going to disappear after this.”

“I know.” His mouth presses against the curve of my neck. “But promise you’ll give me one night after this is done before you disappear.”

“Promise.”

Neither of us believes I’ll keep my promise.

16

The Transfer

JULIAN

The coastal windpulls straight off the water, cold and laced with salt. I zip the heavy canvas of the go-bag shut. The interior of the island house is stripped completely clean of our presence. Forty-two minutes ago, the space belonged to us. Now it’s a sterile box waiting for the Architect’s net to drop.

Ivy steps out of the hallway. She secures the HSM in an anti-static envelope inside her jacket.

She stops in the center of the living room. The urgency of the extraction hangs heavy in the air, but the heat between us is immediate. I cross the hardwood floor. I crowd her back a step, taking her mouth in a hard, demanding kiss.

She makes a soft sound in the back of her throat, her hands instantly fisting in the front of my shirt to pull me closer. The taste of her is a raw hit to my system. I want her back in that bedroom. I want the extraction to burn so I can keep her right here.

I break the kiss, breathing hard against her mouth. Neither of us steps back. My hands slide down to grip her hips, pulling her flush against the hard ridge of my erection. My brain scramblesthe extraction timeline. Can I buy us five minutes before Wraith clears the trees?

“I’m ready for round two.”