Chapter 11 #3
Grant stepped out of his dirt-spattered jeans and into the hot spray of the shower. He’d told Everly that he’d only be a minute, that he needed to wash off the sweat and grime from tilling Abel’s garden. But right now, even a minute felt like too long to wait to be inside her again.
The now-familiar warning sounded again somewhere in the back of his mind, the voice that cautioned him that giving into his desire like this would only cause them both more pain in the end.
Truth was, though, he was almost too far gone to care, and his heart refused to see logic where Everly was concerned.
She and Abel had managed to become friends in the short time he was outside, and spending the evening together as a group had been more comfortable than Grant had expected.
Everly fit so seamlessly into this part of his life that he had to ask himself why she couldn’t be a part of the rest of it too.
He’d told himself that she deserved more, that he couldn’t drag her back into the military lifestyle.
But maybe he’d been wrong all this time…
The shower curtain rustled behind him, and then Everly was there, gloriously naked.
He drank in the sight of her as she laid a small silver packet on the shelf built into the tile surround and then twined her arms around his neck.
His hands molded to the curve of her waist, her body taut and warm underneath his touch.
“Getting started without me?” She stroked the full length of him, and he sucked in a breath.
“Not a chance,” he replied, backing her against the shower wall. He dragged his mouth along her jaw, nuzzling the sensitive place beneath her ear. “Just thinking about this. About you.”
“Grant,” she breathed as he explored her body with his mouth. He thrilled at the sound of his name on her lips, his fingers gripping her tighter. Not tight enough to hurt–he would never, ever hurt her–but enough to tell her that he wasn’t about to let her go. Couldn’t let her go.
He grabbed the condom from the ledge, but his wet fingers slipped uselessly as he tried to tear the foil wrapper. With a growl of impatience, he stuck it between his teeth and ripped it open.
“That’s so hot,” Everly said, stepping into his space to caress him while he rolled on the condom.
“No time to waste, babe.” Grant picked her up and braced her against the tile again, then held her in place. Her legs wrapped tight around his waist, and then he was inside her, pumping wildly as her muscles clenched around him.
Everly gasped as he withdrew and then plunged in again to the hilt. “God, you’re insatiable,” she panted.
“I can’t get enough of you, Ev. Can’t keep my hands off you. Can’t keep my dick out of you. Especially when you take it so well.”
She ran her thumb over his lips, and he leaned into her feathery touch. “Such dirty words from such a polite man,” she said, her voice breathy.
“Words are nothing compared to the thoughts I have about you,” he ground out. “Those are definitely not polite.”
“Show me.”
So he did. He worshiped every inch of her, losing himself in the way she gasped his name, the way she let go, no longer hiding herself. She unraveled in his hands, and the moment seared itself into his memory, a permanent mark left by the woman he’d never stop needing.
◆◆◆
Everly reached for a towel, her eyes heavy and lips flushed and swollen. “Let’s go to bed–”
A sudden buzzing noise interrupted her next words, and they both looked towards the source: Grant’s discarded jeans.
“Hold on to that thought.” He pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder and then retrieved his phone from the back pocket.
Evan’s name flashed on the screen like a beacon, and Grant swallowed hard.
There was only one reason he’d be calling at this hour.
He slid the bar to answer and kept his tone casual. “Hey man, what’s up?”
“Grab the computer,” Evan said, his voice tight.
Grant motioned towards Everly and was out the door in an instant.
She wrapped the towel around herself and followed him, handing him one of his own as they reached the kitchen where the laptop sat on the table.
The encryption program had stopped running, and rows of icons now appeared on the screen.
“We’re here,” he told Evan as he put the phone on speaker and laid it beside the laptop, then hastily wrapped the towel around his waist. “What have you got?”
“Take a look.” Evan’s grim tone was at odds with the files popping up on the screen–bank statements, investment records, lists of passwords.
Grant skimmed the contents of each file as Evan opened them on his end, but nothing looked out of place.
It was all so…benign. This was what Holland had been protecting with a complex encryption program?
“I expected more,” he admitted. Everly pressed into his side, and he wrapped his arm around her and felt her trembling beneath him.
“That’s what I thought, too,” Evan replied, his keyboard clacking in the background. “Until I found this.”
A new window opened, and a chain of emails unfolded. Ice sluiced through Grant’s veins as a schematic drawing filled the screen. “Shit.”
“What is this?” Everly stared at the screen with glassy eyes.
Grant responded before Evan could. “The blueprint for a weapon that STAG’s been testing. Highly classified.”
“Exactly,” Evan said, his voice somber. “Brace yourself. It gets worse.” A final email appeared, and Grant felt the blood drain from his face.
“What the fuck ,” he breathed as he realized what was in front of him. A detailed map of a military base–the base that was attacked after STAG’s doomed mission. The base where Jeremy had died.
“We’ve gotta tell Lockhart now, McDowell.” Evan sounded distant as the truth of Holland’s betrayal washed over him in waves. “This affects all of us. This is some treasonous shit.”
Everly shook her head, clutching onto Grant’s arm now. “Why are these things in here?” she asked, voice trembling.
Grant stared at the files, the weight of what they meant pressing down like a stone on his chest. He didn’t want to believe it. Couldn’t believe it. But there it was, plain as day.
He turned to her, knowing the words would land like a blow, but there was no other way to say it. “Because Jeremy was selling this information to DropKom.”