Chapter 22 #2
“We can and we will,” Steel said simply, nodding at the rest of them, and they pulled out knives, Lion handing one to him, while Blade handed one to Maya, who eyed it for a second before wrapping her fingers around the handle.
Ready to get this done, Thunder kept his arm around Maya as they all stepped closer to the squirming scientist, circling him.
A few seconds later, it was done.
Seven blades sliced into Dr. Gardner’s body, both his and Maya’s, aiming directly for the man’s crotch, and he loved that their thinking was so perfectly matched.
Dr. Gardner screamed in agony, thrashed against Steel’s hold, until enough blood drained out of him that he hung limply, his body no longer capable of doing anything. His life was quickly bleeding out of him, and Thunder felt immensely satisfied.
“It won't be over, won't ever be over,” Dr. Gardner mumbled as Steel finally released him, letting him fall in a heap to the ground. “Not while she’s still out there.”
She?
What the hell did that mean?
“Who’s she?” he demanded, kicking at the man’s ruined crotch and making him moan weakly.
“She started this, it was all her. I did what she wanted, I’ll always do what she tells me to,” Dr. Gardner mumbled, his good eye fluttering closed, his life almost gone.
“His mother,” Maya whispered, drawing their attention.
As far as they were aware, Rose included, Mrs. Gardner was deceased since Rose was four years old. It was why she’d been raised by her brother. An explosion at the family cabin had wiped out everyone but the siblings.
“Mother would be proud of me, I did everything she told me to,” Dr. Gardner whispered before going limp.
What did that mean for them? Was that just the delusional rambling of a dying man, or was it true? Was Ridge and Rose’s mother still alive out there somewhere? Had she been the driving force behind this whole experimental drug program? Was she a threat that was going to come after them?
Was this not really over after all?
March 12 th
9:39 P.M.
“I’m sorry,” Maya whispered for probably the hundredth time in the last thirty-six hours, as Thunder guided her up the stairs.
Had there always been so many?
She might not have stayed at Delta Team’s mansion for long, but she thought she’d been up and down the staircase enough times to know it had never been this long before. Or maybe it was just that she’d never been this exhausted before.
It was a bone-deep weariness she couldn’t put into words if asked to explain it.
It was over, Master was dead, she’d helped kill him herself, and she’d never forget what it felt like sliding that knife through the man’s penis, the spray of hot, sticky blood against her skin, everything was supposed to be better now.
Yet she didn't feel any different.
Still the same Maya. Confused and uncertain. The lure of escaping into her mind hadn't disappeared, and even though she knew she’d fought back, set into motion the events leading to the scientist’s death, she felt weak, shaky, unworthy, pathetic, and dirty.
Why did she still feel this way?
Was it because she’d messed up by not telling them that Rose and Dr. Gardner’s mother was still alive?
That had never occurred to her, even though it sounded stupid now.
She’d been told that Rose had been raised by Dr. Gardner, but no one had specifically mentioned that it was because they believed the rest of her family to be dead, and she’d been too preoccupied with everything she was dealing with to ask.
But if she had, if she’d known they believed Mrs. Gardner was dead, she would have corrected them.
If she’d done that, they would have come up with a different plan, one that would have gotten them both Dr. Gardner and Mrs. Gardner.
But now the woman was still out there, and no one knew if she was a threat to them.
No one knew the extent of her involvement.
Not even she knew. Just because she’d seen the woman before she was Master’s sex slave didn’t mean she knew his business goals. She’d never even been introduced to his mother, although she knew the woman was aware of her existence and that she wasn't there by choice.
“You're not listening,” Thunder grumbled as he swept her off her feet.
“Sorry.”
“And you’ve apologized unnecessarily a thousand times already.”
“I would have thought closer to a hundred,” she joked lamely.
It felt weird, wrong almost, to make jokes, but Thunder was upset, and she didn't like that.
It wasn't that she was afraid of him, if nothing else, she truly believed that he would never hurt her, and would do anything for her, so she felt compelled to return that a little bit.
Rewarded with a chuckle, Maya snuggled closer as Thunder carried her up the stairs. When he bypassed the floor where her bedroom was, she tilted her head to look up at him. Was he taking her to the art studio? She was really too tired to paint right now.
Even though thirty-six or so hours had passed since Dr. Gardner had bled out in front of them, there had been no time to rest. Prey had been called in to help clean up the mess.
They’d learned that Dr. Gardner had bought the house because it was in the area where he believed Delta Team lived, based on where they'd tried to lure him into a trap when Rose played bait. They’d informed the others that while Dr. Gardner was dead, the threat might not be eliminated, and then travelled home.
“Where are we going?” she asked as he kept going up the stairs. “I thought we were going to bed.”
“We are.”
“My room is back down there.”
“Your place is with me. That means my room is now your room. Unless you don’t want that. You're in control, babydoll, say the word and I’ll take you to your room, tuck you in, kiss you goodnight, and then leave you alone.”
“No!” The word burst out of her, and she clutched at Thunder’s shoulders.
Maya was perfectly aware that it wasn't emotionally or psychologically healthy to cling to Thunder the way she was, to allow him to become her everything when she was in such a vulnerable state, but she didn't care.
She wanted him now, she wanted him tomorrow, she wanted him forever. If that was unhealthy, then so be it.
“Okay, babydoll,” he soothed and kicked into his enhanced speed, and the next thing she knew, they were in Thunder’s room.
It was dark in there. Not just because the curtains were drawn, but the walls were painted black, the floor was dark wooden floorboards, and the furniture, which seemed to consist of nothing more than an enormous bed, two nightstands, and a dresser, were also painted black.
“Your room could do with a little redecorating,” she teased as he carried her toward the bed.
“Whatever you want to do to it you can. It’s your room now too.”
“So you're perfectly okay with me redecorating everything in pink?”
Those beautiful lips of his curled into a smile, and he let her body slide slowly down his until her feet hit the floor.
There was no way she couldn’t notice the massive bulge in his pants, and despite everything, arousal suddenly flooded her system.
Maybe her system had been permanently screwed up by the last thirteen years, but when it was Thunder standing before her, looking like he couldn’t wait to devour her, Maya didn't even care.
“If decorating my room in pink makes you smile, then nothing would make me happier,” he told her as his large hands framed her face, his calloused fingertips feathering over her skin.
“You mean that. Really,” she said as she searched his dark gaze for anything that might indicate he was just managing her, coddling her, telling her what he thought she wanted to hear. She didn't see any of that, though. Only honesty, truth, and making her happy made him happy.
“More than anything.” Slowly his hands slipped from her face to her shoulders, pausing to knead for a moment before continuing on.
Skimming over her breasts, he found the hem of the borrowed T-shirt she hadn't been able to make herself take off even when someone had presented her with clothes in her size.
Once he’d pulled it over her head and tossed it aside, he removed her borrowed sweatpants, and then his own clothes.
For a moment, he just stood there, his gaze roaming her body, and she was glad her front was to him instead of her back so he wouldn’t be upset when he saw the welts left behind by Dr. Gardner’s belt.
“Come ride my face, babydoll,” he said as he drew her onto the massive bed.
“Ride your face?”
“I'm filled with this need to erase what he made you do, I don’t know how else to do it. I don’t ever want you to have to put your lips on anyone again unless it’s what you want to do.”
He sounded so serious that Maya found herself nodding more to appease Thunder, to soothe him, than because she needed him to erase what Dr. Gardner had made her do.
It wasn’t the first time she’d had to go down on his knees before him and suck him off, wasn't the first time she’d had to do it with an audience.
It wasn’t even the worst thing he’d done to her.
But it upset Thunder. While she was somewhat numb to the horrors she’d lived through after so many years, it was still fresh for him.
So she allowed him to lie flat on his back, then grab her hips and drag her over so her knees were on either side of his head, his warm breath whispering across her most intimate area.
That rush of arousal from earlier grew into a desperate need, and she whined a little, making him chuckle before swiping his tongue across her center.
It felt so good that her whine of need quickly morphed into a moan of pleasure. Those moans soon morphed into cries as Thunder closed his lips around her bud and began to suck, flicking his tongue against her bundle of nerves every so often, each touch shoving her closer toward a release.
Her body moved of its own accord, as if she were a puppet for her pleasure, rocking against Thunder’s magic tongue, grinding down against it as she rushed toward the inevitable conclusion.
“Come for me, babydoll, I want to hear you scream,” Thunder said against her bud, and when he scraped his teeth across the sensitive nerves, she detonated like the most perfect and delectable bomb.
A scream fell from her lips, and Thunder didn't let up, continuing to suck and lick at her until she couldn’t take it anymore, and a second orgasm tore through her, leaving her shaking.
The only reason she hadn't collapsed against him, cutting off his ability to breathe, was because he had a firm hold of her hips.
Always there to catch her.
To hold her.
“What are you doing?” she murmured, suddenly very sleepy, as Thunder shifted her away from his face and down his body.
“Need to be inside you,” he answered as he lined her up with his thick, hard length and slid easily inside her, making her sigh in contentment.
“You don’t have to. I'm okay.” Maybe that was a little bit of a lie, but she wasn't terrible even if okay was a stretch.
“I'm not. We both need this.”
Well, she wasn't going to argue with that. Instead, she just nestled closer, while Thunder somehow got the covers out from underneath them without sliding out of her and then tucked them both in.
Snuggled together like this, her cheek resting on Thunder’s chest, above the steady beating of his heart, with his arms wrapped around her, Maya felt safe, content, happy even.
Despite the unlikeliness of it, her acceptance of what she’d assumed would be her fate, she’d been saved, and now she had an entire lifetime laid out before her.
“Thank you for catching me,” she whispered, tilting her head sideways to touch a kiss to Thunder’s chest.
“Always,” he whispered back, pressing a kiss of his own to the top of her head.
And shockingly, she believed him.