AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Each step was wonderful, and she’d linger there for long moments.
First off, she was lying on something hard and warm. Most hard things were cold, but not this. Nope. It was like lying on a heater, only contoured. Shaped in a way that she could fit perfectly. She moved her head and discovered that it was lying on that hard surface but with, like, a grassy mat.
Hmmm.
Her internal clock said it was about five a.m. The sky was pewter, lightening by the minute. There should be some urban noises, traffic, music somewhere, but the place was really sound-proofed.
There was utter silence in the room, completely different from her own apartment, which had traffic noise, barking dogs and usually kids’ voices. Now it was a magical silence except for a dull, regular thudding. Reassuring. The most reassuring sound on Earth. A heartbeat, right under her ear.
And oh, yum. This amazing smell. Soap and shampoo and oddly enough, a touch of leather. Totally enticing, coming from all that heat and hardness.
She was lying on a human being. A male. Pierce. And it was the most pleasurable surface imaginable.
He was holding her tightly, both arms around her back and she was half on, half off him and she never wanted to move. Wanted to stay in this position forever. Warm and comfortable and protected.
There was Pierce and her and nothing else in the world. Just the two of them
She hadn’t made a sound and hadn’t moved, but all of a sudden, his arms tightened.
“You awake?” His voice was low, deep. She could feel the vibrations of his voice in his chest, the first time she’d ever felt that.
“Yes,” she sighed. “How could you tell?”
She couldhearhis smile though she couldn’t see his face. Which was a pity because it was a really nice face. But she could see two amazing pecs covered in chest hair, which was just as nice.
“The air around you changed.”
“Oh yeah?” What a charming thought. That the air around you changed, depending on whether you were awake or asleep.
“Mmm-huh. How are you feeling?”
“Surprisingly good, considering.”
“Considering?”
“Well, we could be going to war and I might be wanted for murder.”
His hand lifted and covered the back of her head, running his fingers through her hair. Massaging her scalp. Oh, man. She felt like purring.
“I think you can stop worrying about being arrested. Jacob talked to local law enforcement and I think they realized you couldn’t have shot Henry Yu. When this is over, I expect you might have to go into the local police department and testify, but there won’t be any consequences.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank Jacob. But I don’t think he’s expecting thanks. He was angry as hell that that was even on the table and spoke quietly with a couple of high-up police brass.”
She lay on him for a minute or two. Let that fear float away. But the other one remained.
It was so horrific. She’d worked in national security all her working life, and part of what she’d done at NSA was construct scenarios. If this, then that. War scenarios were common. They were usually for minor skirmishes or conflicts that might interrupt maritime shipping for a while or empty out a part of some third world city or interfere with trade for a month or two. Serious, but not lethal.
But sometimes those scenarios became more serious. Touched upon consequences to the Homeland. Scenarios where whole sections of the country experienced famine and chaos. Where medical care completely broke down. Food supplies were totally interrupted. Scenarios where hundreds of thousands died.
Those were the serious scenarios but not the most serious. Those were nuclear. She’d been part of a massive study of the potential effects of nuclear warfare and it had been devastating. The estimates were of a 90% reduction in food production and the death within a year of five billion people. Making the Black Death look like a summer picnic.
And then, later—the total breakdown of civilization. The people who lived would envy the dead. No more travel, no more medical care, no more education. No more cities. No food or medicine. No books or theater or films. The next five or six generations would grow up completely illiterate, completely without art or science. It was entirely possible they would live in caves. Everyone would suffer from radiation sickness and die young.
Riley’s heart broke when she read the scenario because she could imagine it all, very clearly.
“Hey,” Pierce said gently. “Don’t think about it. I’m not going to say that everything’s gonna be all right. You’re a smart woman and you know that is not always true. But what is true is that you can’t change most of what is happening or going to happen. There are a lot of factors in play besides the truth. Your job will be to convince people that you are right, and the more rested you are, the better you’ll be able to do that.”
