CHAPTER 59
Luna
“I’m ready to talk terms,” I say, feeling much braver than I should.
Van’s big hand is around my waist. O and Allie, especially together, in person, wearing immaculate suits, O with glasses that I know are not normal, Allie tapping her ear piece off, not a hair out of place…
they’re maybe the most intimating human beings on the planet. But I lift my chin.
“I see why you love her,” O says.
“As do I,” Allie says.
O smirks at his wife, “I was talking to you.”
Van chuckles behind me.
“As tempting as your original offer was,” I say to the woman who is basically Van’s mother, “I don’t belong at a desk, even a super spaceship desk in the sky.”
“So, you’ve chosen the Irish, then?” O asks.
“No,” I scoff, and the couple in front of me frowns, “I mean yes, but the Irish barely exist anymore. I choose Van, obviously,” the man squeezes my waist. He’s like a wall beside me, all the support I could ever need.
“But you went on and on about me wasting my skills,” I say to Allie, “Yet you’ve been sleeping on Van this whole time. ”
She raises a brow, not pleased. Not used to this, probably. Too bad. I’m here now and I’m calling her on her shit.
“We reopen the cave, here,” I explain. O’s jaw ticks. I focus on him, “I’ve watched the film. Van is you.” I feel his chest puff out behind me. “You trained the boys, made them into men, into freaking machines, and he can do the same thing. And so can I. We…we’re going to be you, two point oh.”
I smile and wait.
After a long, awkward pause, Allie deflates a tiny bit and says, “Fine, you were right. Three credits.”
O just chuckles and says, “Not bad for a bumbling old quarterback, eh?”
Allie walks toward us, seeing the confusion on our faces she explains, “I lost a bet and my husband, apparently, did not care for my football analogy.”
“What was the bet?” Van asks.
“Allie wagered a significant sum that Luna would join her in the skies, I countered that she would come up with something neither of us had considered,” O gloats.
The gorgeous, formidable woman rolls her eyes and waves off her husband, “Yes, yes, you’re very smart, darling, we’re all thoroughly impressed.”
O and Van grunt the dismayed same sound at the same time.
“You want to train our recruits?” Allie asks.
“I want to run recruiting,” I correct. They both consider this, heads slightly tilted in unison.
Kind of adorable. I elaborate, “We’ll have to craft a new narrative for the Irish.
Quinn’s growing, advancing, gaining power.
” The man at my side squeezes me again. I go on, “But yes, we bring them all here. Assessment, combat training, placement in the organization. I looked at the command structure, the different branches. You’re weak in a few areas.
” Both Van’s parents are starting to grin now.
I add, “And I still want Zeno out. Mia as quickly as possible, no more moving the damn chess pieces. We bring her into the fold now. And we start to work on a strategy for Vix, too.”
“You see?” O grins at his wife, “She could be your twin in every way but looks.” He looks back at me, “Any other demands, Miss Mancini?”
“It’s Mrs. Quinn,” I correct him, “and no, not at present, but I may think of more.”
He laughs, a hearty, unexpected sound that bounces around the smooth edges of the underground garage space. “Not at present,” he repeats before he starts laughing again.
After he’s calmed himself, he asks Allie to run through what that would look like.
She asks me questions, makes suggestions.
I explain my vision and Van does too. It’s our vision, really.
I told him about my crazy plan in bed the night before last, laying there in his arms like we were just a normal married couple chatting and not two very beat up, bandaged, exhausted and heavily medicated spies.
He loved my plan. He had a lot of additions, which he explained in between making me sleep or giving me orgasms. Gentle ones. He plays my body like I used to play the cello. I love his skills a hell of a lot more than mine.
He and O begin talking through technical specs. We’ll need bunks, gear, lights, ropes, weights, a ton of crap. And Allie agrees that I’ll want a set of iPads and some screens, maybe even simulation pods to run scenarios with recruits. Van will train their bodies. I’ll train their minds.
“Robbie will begin the orders and shipments for all the equipment and Zander will help with overnight installation as needed,” Allie finally says after sending some messages on her iPad.
“Well, since we already covered your losses, the needs for the house rebuild, your demands, and the latest Remnant intelligence, I think you’re dismissed,” Allie says.
“And Mia?” I ask.
“We’ll schedule an all-hands with Mark and Ellie. In a few days. You all need a few days rest,” She says.
“Right, until then, well done. I look forward to seeing you rebuild the CAVE, Mr. and Mrs. Quinn,” O says over his shoulder as the couple heads toward the elevator.
I swear, I can feel the air change around me.
By the time Van turns to face me and the elevator door closes, his eyes are dark and heavy. Hungry.
I smirk at him, and wag my eyebrows to tease him.
He shrugs, “It just sounds really fucking good, Mrs. Quinn.”
“Yes, it does, Mr. Quinn,” I squeak, jumping up into his arms. “They went for it! We get to train and recruit, to really build something. Together.” I squeeze my thighs, arching to him for a kiss. He kisses me back quickly but pulls away.
He frowns down at me, “You’re still healing, Lasa.”
I glare back, “We’ve both done a lot worse while bleeding out. It’s been almost forty-eight hours, husband,” I say reaching my hand down to squeeze his massive dick through his pants.
He shudders and then growls out, “Tell me.”
“You can trust me,” I finally say, meaning it. He starts walking toward the bedroom. He kisses me once, a quick tease.
“And?”
“And I’m staying,” I say. I get another sloppy, happy kiss as he almost loses track of where he’s going and bumps into the wall. He stops at said wall to kiss the shit out of me. Each stroke of his tongue is claiming me and owning me but also loving me too. Needing me.
Finally he pulls away to focus on the last few steps between us and the bed. I toe off my shoes as we go, beyond ready to finally have sex again. I pepper his neck with kisses. Sucking, licking, doing whatever the hell I want to his warm, rough skin.
He lays me down on the bed and stands, towering over me, he’s smirking, but his eyes are soft, almost like he’s still unsure. “And?”
“And I love you, Van.”
“Fuck,” he almost collapses down onto the mattress to kiss me again, like he can’t wait.
I arch into him and kiss him back with all that I have, gripping his bicep with one hand and fisting his shirt in another.
I pull, wanting the shirt out of my way.
He sits back to take it off. I lean up to take off my top and bra in one motion.
Van hisses a string of curses as he watches me.
“Your pants too,” I say before lifting my ass and slipping off my joggers and panties.
“No,” he says. “Not yet. I need to do this right this time.”
“It felt pretty right the first time,” I say, batting my lashes.
His mouth twitches but he doesn’t grin. He’s staring at me, eyes roaming everywhere, like he can’t choose what to look at. Like my slight frame and small boobs and newly-scarred skin are the sexiest things he’s ever seen. It’s a heady feeling.
“It did, because you’re made for me,” he says, “but I can do a hell of a lot better,” he starts to spread my thighs, like he’s done so many times before, but he pauses and looks at my hip.
I spread for him, ignoring the sting in my wounds.
He stares at my center and licks his lips.
I swear I can feel the motion deep in my body.
I know what his mouth is about to do to me. I tremble at the thought and he grins.
“So wet for me already,” he teases my entrance with one finger, and I expect the teasing, the torture, but instead he curses and dives down to my pussy like a man gone insane.
“VAN!” I say as his tongue assaults me, somehow hitting deeper than seems possible.
I grip his hair and watch as his neck and shoulders shift and bulge.
I can just see the start of his ink on his back as he moves, groaning.
Damn, he’s hot. I ride the sensations, growing almost delirious as he adds his fingers and moves his mouth to my clit. Then he looks up at me, his eyes black as coal. That’s it, one look from under those scarred brows and I’m coming on his face.
“Van!” I say again and again.
“Yes, baby,” he says into my sensitive skin. He licks me slowly through the tremors but when I tug on his thick, dark hair, hoping to tug him to me he just says, “Again,”
“Van,” I’m pleading now. But he ignores me. He uses his hands more this time, opening me up. He watches with fascination as he thrusts his thick fingers in and out. In and out.
“I want you,” I say, desperate for more.
“One more for me,” he says, still watching.
“Van,” I exhale, feeling the wave cresting again, “Kiss me?”
He does, hard. At the same time he twists his fingers, curls, moves something some way that…
I can’t…
“Van, baby, it’s too m—”
I explode before I can even say it, and Van chuckles, apparently knowing my body better than I do.
“Mo bhean chéile álainn,” he whispers as he gently pulls his fingers out of me. When I frown, he translates, “So fucking beautiful, wife.”
“Van, if you don’t fuck me right now,” I warn, unbuckling his belt.
“I will fuck you later,” he says, taking off his boots, then pants.
I sit up on my elbows, looking at his amazing dick, “Does this mean I finally get to return the favor?”
“That later, too. Definitely,” he says, stroking himself with his right hand. I watch in awe as he pulls hard.
“So then what are we doing?” I ask, my voice a whiny, breathy mess. I think I’m actually salivating. I’ve never wanted anything like I want this man in me right now.
“This,” he says, lowering his huge body onto mine and lining himself up at my entrance.
He pushes in slightly and then kisses me.
He pushes in more and trembles as a satisfied groan rumbles in his chest. He pulls out slightly, locks eyes with me, and pushes himself all the way into me.
Slowly. My mouth falls open. His does too.
He puts his forehead on mine for a beat before lifting off to pull out and thrust again.
He pulls out, his eyes never leaving mine. “I trust you,” he says.
Thrust.
“I want you, every inch. All day, every day.”
Thrust.
He grabs one of my nipples and pinches.
“Fuck, you’re the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Thrust.
“And?” I say, smiling.
“And I love you.”
Thrust.
“So much.”
Thrust.
Thrust again. Harder. More.
More more more more.
All the way in and out over and over, not faster but harder, harder, harder until he pinches my clit and pushes me over the edge just in time for him to erupt with a roar.
I keep my hands on his hot, solid chest, marveling at how it goes up and down so fast. Like he can barely breathe. Because of me.
Without pulling out, he grabs me and twists, collapsing on the mattress with me splayed out on top of him.
“I’m going to go clean up,” I say but when I pull up he holds me down.
“In a minute,” he holds my head to his chest.
“This isn’t…you’re not trying to get me pregnant already, are you? Do you want that right now?”
“I want whatever you want,” he says, releasing his hold on me.
“Liar,” I say as I ease off of him. He quirks one brow at me so I go on, “You want a million of them running around. A bunch of mini Vans and Mini Lunas.”
His eyes go wide, “Fucking hell. I’ll never survive.”
I look back and see him sprawled out, hands behind his head. He’s watching me, eyes and smile both warm and soft as I say, “You better, I can’t live without you now.”
I make quick work of cleaning myself up and then grab new bandages for both of us.
“I can’t live without you either,” he says when I reach the bed.
“You won’t have to,” I shrug. “The two of us together? After we get these little scratches healed up? Honestly, we’ll be unstoppable. My father, Delgado, the Russians, they don’t stand a chance, don’t you think?”
At that, Van laughs. It’s a big, free sound I don’t hear enough. But I don’t understand why he’s laughing. “What?”
“It’s just really hitting me that it’s real, you’re finally on my team. What you’re going to do with Allie, with all the recruits…” He grabs me and settles me back on his chest and adds, “Honestly, the syndicates, the whole rest of the world, against my wife? Well. They’re fucked.”