To be honest, she loved flying. It was an amazing feeling to be as free as a bird and see things from above as the hawks and eagles must perceive them. It made her long for wings of her own. Of course that was impossible.
She tried not to think about Grady. Being carried like a satchel across vast expanses of woodland without the ability to talk easily to her companions while in the air made for a lot of time alone with her thoughts. She wondered where he was and what he was doing. She wondered when she would see him again—if ever. And mostly, she wondered if a relationship with a warrior Prime was even possible for someone like her. They both had limitations. She was a secret inductee in a secret society. He was a closely monitored experimental test subject. How in the world could a relationship between them work? And did he really want a relationship, or was he being a romantic fool, carried away by the moment and the new emotions bombarding his system?
She grew depressed thinking that in all likelihood he’d find some other woman before they ever saw each other again. A hunk like him wouldn’t go unclaimed for long. Not if the Alvian females got wind of how truly gifted he was in the sack. She’d never had better. Heck, she’d never even dreamed of anything better than Grady Prime, between her legs, pumping them both into ecstasy. She shivered, just remembering the climaxes he’d given her. They were that good.
And likely never to be repeated. After a while, she decided to chalk it up to a great memory and try to get on with her mission. She had a complicated road to walk over the next weeks and thoughts of Grady, and what might never be between them, could only cause her problems. She had to focus. Things were bound to get dangerous in the next few days, and she had to be on her best game.
She only let herself think of Grady deep in the night, when she was preparing for sleep. She said a little prayer for him, hoping he was safe and hoping he’d meant what he said about finding her one day. It would be nice to see him again, she decided. Even if he’d moved on. But if he hadn’t…
She was making herself crazy with thoughts of him. She had to coax herself to sleep each night when she and the winged brethren made camp.
After a few days of near constant travel, they had arrived near their destination. They’d flown through mountain passes that allowed them to keep their altitude as low as possible. It was still heady. The air had been thin and the temperatures cold, but the high tech fabric of her uniform had been designed by Alvian materials engineers to withstand worse. The Patriarch himself had overseen her supply and had given her the best clothing and equipment, though her most valuable assets were her martial arts skills and her mind.
The same mind that plagued her with thoughts of Grady when she least expected them. She’d replayed their night together in her memory many times as the soldiers flew her through the sky.
She couldn’t go on this way—distracted by memories of a man who frankly scared her now that she had time to think about it. She had important work to do. She had to at least try to scour him from her mind and concentrate on the work at hand.
Hanlon set her down after the final leg they would travel together and gave her the smallest lift of one side of his mouth. She was right. He was charming when he smiled.
“We are instructed to go no farther with you. You will walk from here.”
“I know,” she said, smiling back and earning a quizzical look from the handsome angel. That’s how she thought of them. Angels. Though she tried hard not to call them that to their faces. But what else could they be? Tall, gorgeous, fair-haired and muscular with wings, for cripes’ sake. Those were angels in her book all right. “Thank you for taking me this far. I really enjoyed flying with you and Shaugness. It is an experience I will never forget.”
“It was our duty.” He didn’t seem to understand the concept of gratitude, but he was so cute, she couldn’t resist teasing him.
Gina stood on tiptoe and placed a kiss on his cheek that brought even more puzzlement to his eyes. She giggled. It felt good. She hadn’t had a lot to laugh about in recent years.
“Duty or not, flying is amazing. You are a very lucky man, and I thank you for sharing that with me. Have a safe journey back and please thank Shaugness for me too.”
“You’re welcome,” he said belatedly. They’d left Shaugness at the last stopping point where he’d made a small camp. Hanlon would fly back to meet him. They would rest a day or two, then begin the arduous journey back.
He left her without further ado, and Gina got down to the business at hand. She had a trek through the wilderness ahead of her and more than likely a confrontation of epic proportions when she reached her destination. She checked the compass on her wrist chronometer and oriented herself with the landscape. It looked very different from the ground, but she knew where she was.
She set out hiking and hoped she’d reach her destination within a few hours.
It was actually only three hours later when Gina recognized the first of the monitors that had been set around the perimeter of the old base. Her target was the old NORAD installation in the mountains of what had once been Colorado. The Patriarch and the seers believed there was a group of humans holed up inside the high security facility and it was her job to make contact.
The human inhabitants weren’t going to make her job easy.
She’d managed to go minutes at a time without thinking about her encounter with Grady Prime, which was an improvement. The silent forest weighed on her. She loved the outdoors, but the solitude sometimes led to too much introspection. This was one of those times when she wasn’t comfortable being left alone with only her thoughts for company. Grady Prime’s kisses were still fresh in her mind.
The very idea that an Alvian could possess emotions was foreign to her. Foreign and intriguing, God help her. Grady Prime was attractive in every way. She knew he was of the highest rank in one of the top soldier lines, but she’d never seen him fight. Gina surmised that he would be a gifted opponent in the sparring ring from the way he moved and used his body. She’d been around martial artists her entire life and found it a good way to judge men. The way they acted and reacted in the dojo often reflected the way they lived their lives.
She would never get a chance to learn that about him, and regretted it. The timing was all off. Neither of them was free to pursue the magic between them. And, oh, what magic it had been. For a little while, Grady Prime had made her forget everything. That he was Alvian didn’t matter. The world around them had ceased to exist and only the two of them mattered.
His lips on hers, his warm body pressing against hers, his passion, his emotion. It was all she needed and all she wanted.
There was more to her life now than that. More obligations. More duties. She couldn’t afford the distraction—and he was one hell of a distraction—of this complicated thing called a relationship.
They both had secrets to keep and people watching them. Gina couldn’t come out into the open in Alvian society. Not while the rest of the Zxerah remained hidden. For one thing, she was human and therefore perceived as inferior—fit only for imprisonment and study. She would never be accepted into the Alvian-dominated world, even for Grady Prime’s sake. He couldn’t keep a pet human. It just wasn’t done.
For another, Grady Prime’s life was monitored on a much closer level than other Alvians. He’d volunteered for a genetic study and that meant his life was no longer his own. He was at the beck and call of the High Council and the scientific community. He would never be permitted to be with her.