She grinned. “You’re the one who wanted me to sit on your dick.” She rolled her hips. “I’m just doing what I’m told.”
Christ, this woman ran hot. Even with the layers of clothes between them, he felt her heat. He leaned forward, and with Halia cocooned between them, he took her mouth in a soft kiss. Her lips parted, and she opened to him, their tongues meeting, eager and wanting.
He needed this kiss. Needed her scent. Her voice. Her touch.
Four days. Four days since he’d had his hands on her. Way too fucking long. Hell, he’d started missing her before he’d even left the bed. He’d missed Halia too. They’d wrapped their tiny selves around his heart, and now it beat with one purpose for two reasons.
Keeping his girls safe was the only thing that mattered anymore.
CHAPTERTHIRTY
Stunnedby everything Jamie had told her, Summer sat straddling his lap, overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the danger they faced. She didn’t know how to feel or what to process first.
Her mind whirring. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. Everything was connected. The mass shooting in Boston. The vice president’s assassination. All part of a conspiracy to seize control of the white house.
Add in a computer virus capable of toppling the world’s superpowers or sparking a global apocalypse, and they were facing an uncertain future in which no man, woman, or child would escape unscathed.
Governments would fall. Societies crumble. Infrastructures fail. Supply chains grind to a halt. Food and medicine sources dry up. People would starve. Turn against each other. And if there was a nuclear fallout?
Oh God!Her heart knocked against her ribs, and her vision blurred. She didn’t want to think about the atrocities. Didn’t want to imagine Halia in a world gone mad.
“Hey,” Jamie’s palm cupped her cheek. “Deep breaths, buttercup.” His eyes held hers. Ice-blue irises, burning in their intensity.
He’d told her the truth. Made sure she understood the scope and complexity of the threat they faced. Then he’d asked her a question. Stay or go? The three of them. Together. “You would leave with me?”
“If that’s what you want. Yes.”
“Why?” No one had ever asked her what she wanted before, and she’d certainly never been given the choice to stay or go. Leaving Oshram’s compound had been a necessity to avoid being handed over to a man who would have taken her virginity, demanded subservience, and offered her nothing but a lifetime of servitude.
She’d seen how his other wives were treated. How the children they bore him were treated. Servants, every single one of them, expected to cater to his every whim. Not the life she wanted for herself—or her babies.
Even at the tender age of fifteen, she’d known she had no choice. Staying at the compound and trusting her mother to protect her hadn’t been an option. One blow job in exchange for a ride, and she’d snuck out in the dark of night and never gone back.
Circumstances had made the decision for her. There’d been no alternative.
Jamie’s hand on her thigh held her together, his thumb rubbing back and forth as he took his time considering his response and choosing his words. Between them, their hearts continued to beat, their blood running warm in their veins, their lungs filling with air. Natural. Normal. Comforting. And through it all, Halia slept.
Her gaze slid to the baby. A little peach star in the center of her father’s broad chest.
Held safe beneath the palm of his hand.
They belonged together. Family. Father and daughter. Not by blood. But by choice. She dropped her eyes to her own fingers, twined together in the cradle of her lap. She’d never known her own father. Never felt safe and secure in the arms of another. Not until she’d come to live with the JTT.
And even then, she’d felt Jamie’s absence because his team had felt his absence.
Jay, Adam and Eve, everyone had wanted him to come home. Needed him to come home. He was an integral part of their unit. He had to know it. And yet, if she asked him to, he’d leave. With her. With Halia. The three of them. Together.
Yes. The why mattered.
He shifted beneath her. His grip on her thigh tightening as he smoothed his hand higher. Another slight adjustment and his cock rubbed against her pussy with enough friction to send a blast of heat radiating from her core.
“Eyes on me, Summer.” Her heart pounding, she lifted her chin and met his gaze. “Good girl.” He raised his arm and caressed his fingers from her temple to her lips. “I’m not going to lie to you. Not ever. So here’s the truth, I’ve made mistakes in the past. Made unilateral decisions resulting in consequences for the people I cared about. I can’t do that anymore. There’s too much at stake. You and Halia come first becauseI have toput you first. If I don’t, and something happens to either of you…I won’t survive. I won’twant tosurvive. All I know for sure is—I care about you. And I care about Halia. Honestly, it scares the fuck out of me how much. But all we have is right now. This moment. Sixty seconds from now, one tap on a computer keyboard, and everything changes. If the worst happens, I need to be where you are. Where Halia is. So we do this together. We decide together. We stay with the JTT, and I fight. Or we go, and we try to survive on our own. Both choices have risks. Both will have consequences. But we choose together. You and me.”
“You and me, as a couple?”
He replaced his hand on her thigh, the warmth of his palm reaching her through the thin fabric of her pants. “If that’s what you want, but either way, as friends or lovers, we stick together.”
“The three of us?”
