Chapter Thirteen
One week
Liminal Rising
Hud
“Mmm. Déjà vu.”
I kiss her head. “No other men named in our bed, my Charlie’s Angel. I’m not on until later. Your meet at Elite is at noon.” I remind her.
She rolls onto me. “What time did you get home?”
“About three. The Mass and Prince Brothers are relentless but it paid off and we got them all. Alpha-Bits will always have a threat but the two-day roundup hit national news and the kids have it playing Internationally.”
“You haven’t slept, have you?” My girl knows me.
“No, baby. I was watching you and thinking about the answers for your giant list of questions. It’s only been weeks but our time together already shows how true those answers are and how it works when we have a plan.
” I love that giggle. It’s so out of character with the determined, intense, competent soldier she is.
“I need to pee and we have to move off the bed to talk.” She must have a man’s name in that convo.
Holding her against me, I stand, glad I left the brace on. “Go, beaut.” I respect the hell out of her for showing me she heard me.
Everything makes me smile today, including the sound and her run to the bathroom. Leaving her to it, coffee is next on the list so my next moves are purely to get another smile from her.
She bounds in with her hair pinned up, wisps falling around her face and one side of her neck getting missed in the clip. She’s comfortable and never needs to look perfect so of course I think the look is always perfect. I hand her the first coffee and make the next.
She gives me a kiss for it. “Mucimi said it’s a list that guides.
He’s right. I read it and just dismissed Brothers in the Club or that I met out of work.
They show tendencies or traits that are just a no from me, but I didn’t realize I was using the list to make that decision. ” She’s right, I felt it too.
“While you were asking me questions, I thought I was an idiot for knowing so little about Mika. With you, I’d fight tooth and nail to get you back, knowing you’re mine and that it’s for life.”
Her beautiful eyes shine. “Seren said it’s all in and obvious to everyone else.”
I nod because the Brothers told me, even Danny and Knight. “I heard the same.” I drop the news that I hope she’s up for. “We get time to go to the Badass lagoon for a few days. Cort is clearing schedules for us. LP has all the Bits on the ABSZ this weekend so they’re covered and contained.”
Her giggle bubbles up again and I’m struck with her imperfect perfect being just what I want and I think need.
“That sound, the giggle, with your eyes shining happy, hair dripping from the clip, beautiful because it’s you.
I think you made my foot not important. I don’t need to be perfect; I’m me and it’s enough. ”
She tilts her head and half her hair falls out of the clip that’s sliding down.
“It wasn’t me. Mika made you think it’s an insurmountable issue.
It’s a foot. You got a job, me and a dog.
I don’t think it’s caused the issues she built in her head.
She’s a hoser and that’s a her problem, not a you problem and definitely not a problem in Badass.
No one is perfect and the smart girls learn that life isn’t perfect so we shoot for happy. ”
My girl. “I fuckin’ love you.”
She stands and grabs the front of my tee in her fist. I don’t say it again but I fuckin’ love her.
She pulls me to the room and strips my tee off me, then the tee she borrowed off her.
The clip hangs off one side of her head but her eyes are on her hands that are on my dick.
I am not stopping this for a clip she doesn’t give a fuck about.
Moaning, I put a hand on her head. Those eyes look up at me while my dick is in her mouth and I swear I’ll remember this moment and that look for ever. She’s perfect and mine.
§*§*§
Liminal Rising
Sophia
The man is going to kill me. “Hud, please,” the long breathy sound really came out of me.
“Please what?”
Ugg! I bear down and growl my frustration while pulling him in fast and hard with my legs crossed and feet on his ass. “Hard, enough, to feel it, in my, molars.” Pulling him in punctuates my words.
Finally, he’s up and making my point his way.
I love his way and scrape his ear with my teeth when he lifts me.
I’m pounded down hard enough to feel it and make sure he does too, using my hands to grab his back right where his holster sits.
He said he felt it a few days ago. He likes the reminder of our lovemaking and I like knowing that he feels me even on a job.
He grunts, “Hold on.”
My hands hold tighter, legs lock around him and body goes rigid — not because he said it, because everything in me is holding on for dear life while my insides feel like they’re blown apart.
He holds me down; makes sound he must think I understand then holds on like I’m trying to run away when I’m just trying to remember how to breathe.
I close my eyes with my face up against his neck held by his jaw and wait for my brain to function again.
§*§*§
Elite at Rising2
Sophia
The silo catches Hud’s attention in a big way and he's asking questions about how it was built. I’m fascinated at his enthusiasm over a house, but he’s talking more than I’ve ever heard from him in other peoples’ company.
He loves the wine cellar but doesn’t drink much wine and mentioned books.
Loves the rope banister in fiberglass but was a Ranger so he asks about using a chopper blade.
Loves the tiki hut and stands at the edge of it watching a big metal bird open its wings with light shining on it.
The man is too cute for words when he’s genuinely showing interest in the unusual made to function for everyday use in a home.
I guess the house being a silo does bridge the unusual but functional idea comparisons he’s made. His focus is on everything unusual.
Copper brings me to her Lab at the big Club. I almost don’t want to miss what Hud and Brolin get into. Copper says Brolin makes everything from jewelry to furniture in his shed. I believe it after seeing the silo and the industrial look to the few knick-knacks they have displayed.
“This is amazing, Copper.”
She smiles looking around like she’s trying to see it from my eyes.
“The building got bombed but it was rebuilt exactly as it was before the missile. OPs and training took the hit, but I think everyone forgot the building and remember only that Ben and Cort are Badass and that night showed it. They were in the OPs part of the building.”
I feel my eyebrows go up. “Wow. I’m glad someone did something to make that happen.”
She nods and walks to the counter picking up her laptop, then sits at the table and points to a chair beside her. “My father is the one who sent the bomb so I felt relieved and so damn happy the freaky live here and the Presidents made it out. This is the power grid on a normal day…” Seriously?
She’s talking like her dad didn’t almost blow up two Badass POTs. I don’t ask, but try to catch up with her quest for more power to sustain the new AI supported programs and bots.
“Solar over long stretches of desert land, wind in the canyons around the ABSZ and anywhere else they can get them. Honor is covered in renewable energy because of the mountain winds.” I stop because she’s nodding like she knows.
“The canyons are a new one, so that could be viable. Long stretches of land, I bet highways would help but we’d have to share with every town or county.”
Share? “Because of the wind collectors or panels?”
“Yeah, but some may want to put it to a vote.” Great. She’s not making this easy.
I nod then smile. “BSC area is huge, let’s use that.
Wind collection is being done now. I see the new tech they keep adding at the air strips.
We can show how much energy is generated monthly right on whatever – turbine, panel, that is in towns or cities.
Oh, ooh, or on a live sign at the end. People love interactive even if it’s not interactive but just giving live readings.
They feel like they contributed to their own savings. ”
She nods. “We need a considerable amount of energy without wiping out water supplies, generating pockets of heat that kills foliage or water. We need it clean so contamination possibilities…”
I get it. “The nuclear I was talking to Web about. The fission or fusion. Fission is clean and safe. Zero emissions with the whole process of splitting uranium atoms. The SMRs are small modular reactors. The US military adopted commercial microreactors under the Defense Innovation Unit. The Army and Air Force launched the Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program.”
She nods. “I’ve never worked with nuclear but know it was used in ballistic and other missiles the company produced for the drones.”
“What? Your company produced nuclear drone missiles?” I worked with energy. I’m not up for nuking people.
“Relax, I wasn’t part of it. I got kidnapped and sold to another country. Badass saved me and I’ve been here trying to stop the crap my father was into. His manufacturing company works for Badass now. I gave them everything my dad touched.”
That’s commendable. “Thank you. We’ll need uranium…” I stop again for her nod.
“We have a mine that produces. What I need is the how. Like how is it transported, how do we split the protons and neutrons? Brolin said he can get the uranium here but we need facilities and…”
I hold a hand up. “There are reactors in New Mexico. I bet there’s more than one in the Badass territory but the one I know of is part of the land the government owns and rents out.”
She sits back. “Where and how do you know this?”
“It’s between Elan and Rising Squared. I looked for it because I didn’t want to be in the backdraft area for the radiation fallout the government is still paying for.”
She’s surprised so I wait for her not to be. “Tell me I’m not in that area?”