And now you’ve found the vice president of the United States’ daughter.
Hell, no one said life was easy, but fate did have a damned good sense of humor.
My parents had met because the fates aligned. Same for their parents and their parents before that. Everything love is fate, Mama used to say, and judging by the way Dad fell apart after she died, they’d been two halves that made a whole.
I was probably the most unromantic guy on the planet. I’d rather plan ambushes post-sex than chat or cuddle or shit like that, but Mama always worried that this love shit would hit me hard. I’d figured that once the Chaos hit, all bets were off.
Suddenly, Jessa’s legs wrapped tight around my waist, locking me to her. Locking me inside. Music swam in my head, mixing with her moans, making me crazy. I flipped to my back, taking her along for the ride, and letting her take control.
She looked a little shocked and then she smiled and purred. And then she started to rock, smiling and purring and murmuring my name.
I wanted it louder. I drove my hips up, pushing into her, filling her harder and faster until I felt her release and contract around my cock.
I wasn’t going to last, no matter how badly I wanted to. A silent howl escaped my lips, but in my mind, it was a fucking through-the-roof, vibrating echo. It ran through me into her and we were connected in ways that far exceeded sex.
Chapter Seven
Chose a gun and threw away the sun
Bish
I went down into the tubes, holding my breath until I reached the bottom. I used to do that when we’d been stationed on the subs for a while and, no, I don’t fucking know why I do it. Probably the same reason Mathias holds his breath when he passes a cemetery—another superstition we knew was foolish but weren’t sure wasn’t true.
It was easier to just hold your breath.
I knew Caspar was with Tru because storms were the best time for the men and their women to catch up and man, I hated interrupting them. Tru hated the tubes, less now than several months ago but still, she was claustrophobic and Caspar usually had to try several interesting and exceedingly private methods of calming her down.
Lucky for me, Caspar was walking the halls, barefoot and looking pretty well relaxed, despite the weather. I was tense as anything but damned good at not showing it and I wished I could trade places with Mathias right now. Then again, the damned guy hadn’t gotten laid in a while and he’d suddenly gone head over heels for Princess Jessa.
Which could, of course, be the biggest mistake for both our lives, because let’s face it, we were intertwined as hell.
“Get caught at the lake?” Caspar asked me, motioning for me to walk with him. We ended up in his kitchen, where he closed the door behind me, obviously knowing I’d been hunting him down. Subtlety wasn’t my strong suit.
“Little trouble at the lake,” I clarified, and launched into what happened. Tru came to listen at some point and I could see that Caspar was torn between letting her stay and telling her to go into the other room. Habits were ingrained in him not to let women hear the problems in Defiance. I thought it was a good plan, but the majority of the women disagreed heartily with me.
Tru wasn’t going anywhere. Granted, she already knew the problems Defiance had with Keller’s mafia crew and they’d started long before Mathias and I arrived. To say that Keller wasn’t happy with Defiance was an understatement. From what I’d learned, the relationship had always been semi-contentious but Lance, the former Defiance president, had mostly managed to smooth things over. Usually using Caspar’s blunt force. Then Roan, Lance’s son, had cut deals with Keller regarding the production of the tubes, and Keller expected that deal to be honored, despite the fact that Lance and Roan were dead.
When Caspar talked about it, I didn’t bother telling him that we were sorry. Caspar knew we were. “Woulda done the same damned thing,” he added.
“I wouldn’t’ve, if I’d been alone,” I told him, and both Caspar and Tru eyed me. I shrugged unapologetically. “This shit is exactly why we don’t save people.”
“You saved me,” Tru pointed out.
“No choice. Caspar would’ve killed us.”
“If he wasn’t around, you’d have handed me to the cops?” Tru asked me.
“I’m supposed to say no, right?” I asked, could picture Mathias signing, Say no, Bish, like my conscience and so I repeated, “No, Bish,” with a grin.
“Even when you two aren’t together, you’re together,” she said with a grin of her own , then sobered. “This is serious, Cas.”
Caspar nodded. “Need some time to think on this.”
“I hear you. Gonna go rest up for a while. Mathias is keeping her company and the president’s son’s all tied up,” I said and ignored Caspar’s groan, getting out of there calling, “Don’t shoot the messenger.”
Yeah, I might’ve seemed casual, but I was all tied up inside. I knew what Caspar was going to want from Mathias, and I also knew how far Mathias had fallen in that single moment of seeing Jessa. Saving her only cemented his feelings.
Chapter Eight
Fool them all but baby I can tell
Jessa
Mathias mouthed things as he made love to me, and I caught some of the words like pretty and gorgeous and want to fuck you and I could feel him talking against my neck. I didn’t know what he was saying but it didn’t matter, not when his hands lingered on my body like he had all the time in the world.
What do you want? he’d asked me earlier, and I’d told him, “To do whatever I want to until the storm ends. No consequences or guilt.”
Sounds like a plan, he’d mouthed.
Now, in the aftermath, I was shy, and all I could think to ask was, “Was it hard growing up and not being able to talk?”
He shook his head, mouthed, Dad, then put a finger over his lips.
“Your dad couldn’t speak either?” I asked and he nodded. “Is it hard for you to communicate with everyone here?”
He studied me for a long moment before answering and I wondered if I’d offended him. Are you finding it hard?
“No,” I told him. “Not hard at all.” As if to prove it, I ran my hands over his shoulders, pressed my lips to his neck and then fluttered over his throat like I was worshipping it. He bared his throat, granting me the access I wanted. And I wanted.
I was out of my element and yet, I somehow felt like I’d landed in the right place. The world might’ve turned dark and cold for a lot of people, but for me, it had always been that way. And finally, I’d found a light in Defiance, and more importantly, with Mathias.
I should be wondering what happened now, what happened next, but I remained in the safety of Mathias’s arms and shoved away everything else but the feel of his body against mine. I was relaxed and buzzed at the same time, and he was playing the beat of the music along my bare back and shoulders. Half massage, half caress, and I hoped the songs never stopped. The heavy bass tore through me, opened me up and broke me. Putting myself back together was up to me.
During the darkness, with the lights flickering overhead and inside the double safety of the van and the music, I felt like we were living in an entirely different world. I never wanted to leave this bubble, because when I did, there would be lots of questions and even more decisions to make. Wherever we were, there had to be a president and I’d have explaining to do.