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  A smile crept onto my face. "I'm just that talented, I guess."

  His expression softened a fraction, but it didn't last long. "I can't keep making these mistakes, Sophia. It's too dangerous. Sure, I saved you this time, but what about next time? Or the time after? This life offers no guarantees. I won't give it another opportunity to claim you."

  "So that's it, then? I don't even get a say?" Moisture rushed to my eyes. "Don't my feelings count for anything?"

  "Of course they count," he lamented, although he didn't seem to know how to finish the sentence.

  "So if we never had a chance, why tell me all those things then?" I asked. "Why bring me into your world? Why slip into my room at night and comfort me like nothing has changed?"

  He shook his head desperately. "I don't know. I don't know."

  For a few moments there was silence.

  "Do you remember what you said to me over dinner, the first time we went out?" I asked eventually. "'Nothing worth having comes risk free.' Well, that's how I feel now." I got to my feet and moved over to him, taking his hands in mine. "I'm a big girl. I can make my own decisions. I understand the risks, and I'm telling you I'm okay with them. I love you, Sebastian, and if that's the price for being with you, then it's one I'm willing to pay. The question is, are you?"

  The surge of emotion on his face mirrored my own. That was the first time I'd said the L word out loud to him. It hadn't been intentional, but the moment it left my lips I knew it was true. It was so perfectly right. I could feel it down to my bones.

  He closed his eyes momentarily. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to hear you say that. But not now. Not now!" Pulling his hands free, he turned away. "I don't know if I can keep fighting this, Sophia. It hurts too much. Seeing you every day, not being able to hold you or kiss you or love you. It's ruining me."

  "So stop fighting."

  For a few seconds, I thought I'd lost him again, but then he was spinning and his lips were crashing into mine.

  I'd never been kissed like that, not even by him. In that gesture, I could feel every ounce of his guilt, his pain, his love, and I found myself kissing back just as ferociously, my own torrent of emotions thundering through my chest. The joy I felt was almost enough to make me weep.

  In a few seconds, he'd worked my track pants free and lifted me back onto the desk. No words were necessary. Desperation and longing burned brighter than the sun in both of us. I needed that connection, that perfect affirmation that said more than words ever could.

  I was dimly aware that the door was still open, but nothing in the world could have stopped us at that moment. We were utterly lost in one another. With raw hunger, he yanked his fly down, freeing his shaft, and then buried himself inside me. My skin burned with the suddenness of it, but I didn't care at all. I savoured the pain because it came from him, a stinging symbol of the bond between us.

  He moved slowly, coaxing my body to life around him with gentle thrusts. I mewed softly against his mouth, feeling myself grow slick, but he didn't break the kiss. He devoured me, drawing my lips tenderly between his teeth and stroking them with his tongue. His hands found my legs, looping under my knees to lift them higher, allowing him to sheathe himself in me all the way to the root.

  Finally he pulled away, only to bury his head against my neck. "Say it again," he whispered, teasing me with a slow rocking motion.

  "I love you," I breathed.

  "And I love you," he replied.

  And then he was moving in me again, his mouth tracing fire across my collarbone, sending my capacity for speech spiralling away. His thrusts strengthened as the animal in him gradually broke free of its cage. He snarled against my chin, one hand slipping between my legs to find my clit, sending a new chord of ecstasy thrumming through me.

  His lovemaking was different now. Every time before, I'd seen a new side of him; sometimes dominant, sometimes soft, sometimes hungry, but this was all of those things together; fierce strength combined with loving tenderness. I felt like I was finally getting all of him, no more shields, no more secrets, he was finally letting it all go, and it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever experienced. In that moment I knew that I was his and he was mine.

  As his rhythm reached its crescendo, the pressure building in my core began to swell. I wrapped my hands around his neck, fingers digging into his flesh, his body tightening in time with mine as we came together.

  "God, I've missed you," he said, laying his forehead against mine as we caught our breath. Standing there above me, dishevelled and bathed in sweat, he looked absolutely radiant.

  I nuzzled my nose against his. "Me too."

  We moved over to the bed and lay, for a while, in each other's arms. The bliss I felt in that moment almost made it possible to forget everything that had happened; we were just an ordinary couple, snuggling together, after making love.

  "I love you," I said again, turning to stare him in the eyes.

  He smiled. "I'll never get sick of hearing that." His expression slipped a little, and I knew we were about to come hurtling back to reality. "I hate to break the moment, but we aren't done talking. If we're really going to do this, there's some things we need to think about."

  "Okay," I replied cautiously, half afraid he was going to go off the deep end again.

  He took his time choosing his words. "Even when we get through whatever is going on right now, I don't know exactly how we make this work." He raised his hand to cut off my objections. "I'm not saying we don't try. I can't deny this anymore, Sophia. I love you, and for some stupid reason you appear to return the feeling."

  "I'm a slow learner, I guess," I replied.

  He shot me a half smile. "The fact is, you're here and you're involved and you know things you shouldn't know. And my brothers... some of them are already worried about you. They're distracted now, but when things settle down, and we're still together, they're going to start asking questions of their own, and I don't think they're going to like the answers."

  I'd been wondering about that. I may have been saved from immediate danger, but the longer I spent in the Alpha house, the more I realised that I wasn't as safe as I'd thought. I couldn't just forget everything I'd seen, and these people knew it. "So what do we do?"

  He shook his head. "I don't know."

  "You kind of make it sound like we're doomed, no matter what."

  "No, no, that's not what I meant." He exhaled sharply. "I'll figure something out. For now, we just need to tread carefully. We both know a lot of people don't approve of your presence here, so let's not give them any reason to take it further."

  Once again I felt an uneasy feeling settle in my stomach. "Are you sure about the people who kidnapped me?" I asked carefully. "Because if there's any chance it was someone here, we might wind up playing right into their hands."

  "I'm sure," he said firmly. "These men are my brothers. Besides, whoever took you also killed Charlie and Simon. Nobody here would do that."

  His certainty put my mind at ease; well, as at ease as was possible with some kind of rogue terror group trying to kidnap me. "You've used the word 'council' a few times," I said, spotting another chance to sate my curiosity, "is that like the Alpha board or something? I've been trying to work out how you make your decisions."

  His jaw tightened a fraction. "I'm not sure I should talk about that."

  "Oh come on. They're already going to be super angry if they find out what you've told me so far, right? So how much worse can it get?"

  He hesitated, but eventually gave a resigned smile. "I guess you have a point. Yeah, in a nutshell, the council runs things in this area; it's in control of the Asia Pacific region. Other regions are run by different groups."

  "And you're on it?"

  He nodded. "Almost everyone here is, except the muscle, drivers, and house staff."

  "So that makes you kind of a big deal, then?" I asked with a grin.

  He laughed. "Kind of."

  It made sense. I struggled to pictur
e Sebastian anywhere but the top of the ladder, regardless of what he was doing.

  "So it's like a democracy? You all just vote on everything?"

  "Yes and no. For most decisions, the whole council has a say, but ultimately there still needs to be a figurehead, to settle disputes and keep the group operating smoothly. The official title is Archon."

  "Archon?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

  He shrugged. "Blame the Greeks. We're stuck with it now."

  I laughed. "And who is this Archon?"

  His face took on a strange expression. "I don't know."

  "You don't know?" I said slowly. "How can you not know?"

  "It's a secret, even amongst the group. The heads of each cell have an immense amount of power. For example, they're the only people with access to the full list of Alpha personnel worldwide. If that sort of power fell into the wrong hands, the damage would be catastrophic. So they stay hidden, just in case."

  I licked my lips as I tried to process this. "But how does that work?"

  "Well, the council has sixteen members, one of whom is in charge. By all appearances, they are just a regular member of the group. Anything that requires their attention as the Archon is dealt with through the Alpha computer network. The commands come anonymously, so nobody but the Archon and their lieutenant know the source."

  "Lieutenant?"

  He nodded. "The Archon chooses a second in command, someone to take over if anything happens to them. They're like a backup. Otherwise, there would be no way to choose a new leader when the existing one dies. The lieutenant is the only other person that knows who runs the show. It's a little eccentric, I know, but it works."

  "I was going to say paranoid, actually."

  "Maybe that too. We didn't always do things this way, but about five hundred years ago, one of our enemies managed to infiltrate the group and, through the Archon, they learned everything. We lost hundreds of members and years of progress. So we devised a system to stop that happening again."

  It all seemed incredibly mysterious, but then again, that was true of the entire situation. Besides, on some level, that just added to the coolness of it all. I was basically living in a conspiracy theory!

  I couldn't help but smile as the full implication of what he'd said sank in. "So, when you said you didn't know, was that you telling the truth, or you toeing the company line?"

  "That was me telling you I didn't know," he replied, a twinkle in his eye.

  "Right. But if you were in charge, I'm guessing you probably wouldn't tell me anyway, right?"

  There was a twinkle in his eye when he replied. "Perhaps not. I need to keep some secrets, Sophia."

  I sighed dramatically. "I suppose that's fair. Well then, mister councilman, what do we do now?"

  I'd intended us to talk a little more about the problems we faced, but apparently he had something else in mind. In response he gently rolled me away from him, then pulling me close until we were spooning. Although I still wore my top, I was naked from the waist down, and the position pressed my bare ass against the growing hardness between his legs. I felt my body stir again.

  "Now, we make up for lost time," he replied, his voice growing husky.

  And despite the weight of the discussion we'd just had, he quickly convinced me that that was exactly what I wanted to do.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Sophia

  The next few days were a mixture of frustration and joy. By night, I had Sebastian back. We ate together, we talked, and we spent a great deal of time reacquainting ourselves with each other's bodies. Although it hadn't been that long since we'd been intimate, it felt like I was discovering him for the first time all over again.

  However, while the sun was up, things were different. As much as we both wanted to just shut ourselves away and ignore everything, the fact was, Sebastian still had a job to do. The threat — whatever it was — wouldn't disappear on its own. If we wanted any hope for some kind of normality in the future, we had to take action.

  Or should I say, he had to take action. Although he tried to keep me in the loop, my involvement was strictly second hand. There was no way for me to attend their meetings without putting us both at risk. He'd return to his room, which was now our room, and brief me on what had happened that day. They had a few leads, but so far they'd hit nothing but brick walls. Aside from that they apparently spent most of the time fighting about what the next step was.

  I tried to amuse myself while he was gone, but it was hard. I wasn't used to being left to my own devices. I hadn't had more than a few days to myself since high school. It didn't help that I was confined to quarters. Until things were safe, Sebastian insisted I did not leave the building. I read a lot and watched more TV than I had in my entire life, but within a few days I felt dangerously close to breaking point. I began having visions of myself as one of those creepy old ladies in Victorian period dramas, who can be seen haunting the windows of ancient manor houses, but never venture out into open air.

  Then there was the tension with the group members. Ewan and his cronies continued to make sure I was aware how unwelcome I was. It wasn't outright aggression, but the dark looks and biting remarks told me exactly how they felt.

  "Have they said anything about us?" I asked Sebastian, after a particularly bad day.

  He frowned and shook his head. "No, actually, they've been strangely silent."

  "So that's good, right?"

  "I guess," he replied, although he didn't sound convinced.

  Most of the others didn't seem to know how to react to me, so they simply ignored my presence. And Joe, the only one I assumed might have talked to me, had gone overseas to attend to some family problem. I felt a little like a ghost, floating unseen and unacknowledged, around that buzzing house.

  After several days, my boredom got the better of me and I went in search of a computer. I figured that if I had to kill time, I could at least do it laughing at cats with hilarious facial expressions. Sebastian had a laptop, but he carried it with him during the day. I'd seen a few desktops scattered around the building, and nobody ever seemed to be using them, so I didn't think anyone would mind.

  Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as just sitting down and turning the system on. The PC lit up when I hit the power button, but the screen only got as far as displaying a blinking cursor on a black background, and no amount of resetting or playing with the cables would fix it.

  I'd seen Sebastian power up his laptop before, and at some point during the process he always swiped his thumb across the little biometric scanner that hung off the side. This PC had one too, sitting on the desk next to the keyboard. Perhaps the system wouldn't start without the right person in the chair.

  Part of me wanted to swipe it myself just to see what would happen. I even got as far as poising my thumb over the pad, but then a voice from the doorway interrupted me.

  "I wouldn't do that, if I were you."

  I jolted back in my chair. It was Trey. I hadn't seen him since the night I arrived. Apparently he wasn't part of the inner council, so he wasn't holed up here with the rest of them.

  "Sorry," I said.

  "It's alright. No harm done. You're just lucky I found you when I did. A word of warning, though. Anything that needs a thumbprint you should probably stay away from."

  In spite of my embarrassment, my curiosity was now peaked. "Why?"

  He smiled. "If you don't have the right authentication, the whole system will shut down until someone comes and checks it out. I figure you could probably do without that attention."

  Well, that answered that question. "Right. Thanks for the warning."

  He stared at me for a few seconds, and I felt my skin begin to prickle. It was another of those awkward moments where we were both aware I knew something I shouldn't, but we weren't discussing it. He didn't look concerned at all, but it still made me uncomfortable.

  "So, what brings you here anyway? I didn't expect to see you around these parts," I said, trying desperately to
fill the silence.

  He shrugged and gave a conspiratorial eye roll. "Thomas needed something. You know how it is; the bosses call and we come a-running. Any idea where he is?"

  "Actually yeah, I think I saw him chatting to Marcus in the kitchen, before."

  Trey's expression darkened a little. Perhaps he and Marcus weren't on the best terms. "Alright, thanks." His smile returned. "Stay out of trouble, hey?"

  I gave a little laugh. "I'll do my best."

  In spite of how awkward I'd felt, it was nice to have an interaction with Sebastian's colleague that didn't involve any death stares. It made me feel like perhaps there was hope yet on that front.

  But, the next day, Sebastian came to me with some news, and that theory promptly went to shit.

  "We're leaving," he said.

  I rocked back in surprise. "We are? Does that mean it's all over?"

  He grimaced. "Unfortunately, no. Several of the council members simply feel like it would be better if you stayed elsewhere until we finish sorting this out." The words came out through gritted teeth. I got the sense it had been another long and bitter argument.

  So, I was being exiled. On one hand, it was actually a bit of a relief. I was sick of being trapped here, constantly feeling like the awkward relative nobody actually wants around. But, on the other hand, the danger outside these walls was very real.

  "I thought it wasn't safe out there," I said carefully.

  He sighed. "It's not. But don't worry, they're not sending you home. I talked them into a compromise. This isn't the only secure facility Alpha owns. We've got several other places, scattered around the city, so we're going to move to one of the empty ones. It won't be as heavily guarded as this place, but it has all the same security measures. We'll be just as safe as we are now."

  "Okay," I said, although there was a slight tremble in my voice. What other response could I give? There didn't seem to be any point arguing.

  He gazed at me for a few seconds before lowering himself onto the bed next to me and taking my hand in his. "Hey, it'll be okay. Trust me. I'm coming too, and I'd die before I let anything happen to you."