Page 20

R yker

I guided a very flustered and aroused Naomi out of her house. There was a black SUV waiting for us outside and we couldn’t dally much longer. I dropped my hand from her back, and she looked over her shoulder, a wistful disappointment written all over her lovely face at the loss of my touch.

It was for the best though. Even now, I questioned what I had done, if showing her what it was like between a man and a woman was too much of a risk.

I’d become keenly aware of exactly how completely inexperienced Naomi was; every single bit of this was new to her, including my making her breakfast, let alone making her submit to me so completely, or making her come so many times.

I still wasn’t certain I should have even touched her in the first place.

Back in Pacifica, I wouldn’t have held back.

I’d let the world know she was mine, but this was her home, and I didn’t want to put her in danger.

There were stories about what happened to people from New Englandia who had been caught in a relationship or a compromising position or worse, pregnant.

Years ago, I hadn’t been sure if they were just gossip or folktales meant to rouse fear and suspicion of their city state, but since then I’d been exposed to something that was most definitely real.

I’d heard the evidence with my own ears more than five years ago. I hadn’t been able to forget about it since.

I still remembered that day like it was yesterday.

I had been called into the Central Intelligence Tower as a top weapons engineering expert so that I could give my comments on a new weapons design technology.

I remember sitting at the conference table when, not fifteen minutes into the meeting, an emergency situation interrupted our discussions.

Before that meeting, I had thought that New Englandia was just something of an oddball.

Sure, they were obsessed with work productivity and frowned upon certain things, but my opinion completely changed that day.

I thought back to those dark memories and the sounds and emotions came back to me like it had happened yesterday.

A woman in a suit strode into the room.

“Our monitoring devices picked up this transmission less than thirty minutes ago. We need to decide whether or not to intervene,” she spoke with a tone of dire seriousness in her voice.

She lifted her chin, cool and confident despite the concern on her face.

Clicking a button, the sound of static blared loudly once over the speakers in the ceiling, then once more before leveling out.

All was quiet for a long moment before I heard the soft sound of crying.

“Please. I didn’t mean to. I just wanted…”

It was a woman. She sounded hurt and my hackles rose.

More shuffling. More static.

“It’s not her fault. It’s mine. Take me. Don’t punish her for this,” a male voice pleaded.

“She is pregnant. That is a criminal offense,” another voice replied, but there was a distinct computerized tone to it that made it clear that the speaker wasn’t entirely human. An android maybe? I wasn’t certain.

There was a muffled scream and a single loud gunshot. An uncomfortable feeling blossomed in the pit of my belly, and I wished they would turn it off. I didn’t want to hear anymore.

“Please don’t,” she begged.

Another gunshot echoed in the room, and I wanted nothing more than to cover my ears.

Neither man nor woman spoke again.

The computerized voice continued talking about laws and regulations, playing for several seconds too many until someone mercifully shut it off. I sighed in relief, but still the sounds echoed in my head long after it was over.

“This is the third instance this month,” the female agent said.

“We do not have the strength to intervene right now. They would crush us,” a senior male agent countered.

She gritted her teeth.

“We need more information: names, locations, methods. We can’t decide on a course of action blind. Get me that and then we can do something,” he pushed.

“I’ll get you more information,” she replied immediately, a hard edge to her tone. With a polite nod, she closed the door and left the conference room. I shifted in my seat, not knowing what to do.

“Who is ‘they’?” I asked hesitantly.

The male agent had turned to me. He looked almost surprised that I had spoken.

“New Englandia,” he answered.

Since then, the tension between the two city states had only risen. Pacifica had grown in power at a frightful pace. Now, we weren’t too far behind New Englandia, which was easily the most powerful city state in the world.

I watched Naomi climb into the car as I held the door open for her. The heart-wrenching thought of her being taken captive and killed because of what we’d done together, what I’d done to her, flashed before my eyes and I gripped the door so hard my fingers ached.

I would never allow it. If they touched her, I’d kill them myself.

My feelings for her, my attraction to her, had escalated surprisingly fast; I was captivated.

As much as I wanted to claim her and make her mine, I couldn’t put her at risk like that.

Here, she was renowned for her skills, her knowledge of the old world unparalleled.

She had a life in this place and as much as I didn’t approve of it, she was happy.

I wouldn’t be the one to destroy that. I couldn’t do that to her.

I climbed into the car beside her. I could feel the driver’s eyes on us, so I did my best to keep my distance from her. I wasn’t sure if she knew the danger she would be in if there was even an ounce of suspicion that we had been together.

Sometimes, it was better to keep silent than to tell the truth. Telling her about the conduct of the controlling class of New Englandia would just frighten her and probably put her more at risk than ever. Worse, she may not even believe me.

This was one of those times to be silent.

I knew she was thinking about the things I’d said to her. Even now, her cheeks were still slightly flushed, and her pupils remained dilated. She caught my gaze and smiled softly in my direction.

“Today will be the first time ever that I’m leaving home,” she mused, her expression quickly transforming into eager excitement.

“It’s going to be an experience, that’s for certain,” I grinned. The tension between us felt lighter. She turned her head as the car pulled away from the curb and I breathed a sigh of relief. I would have to be more careful from now on. I’d need to resist temptation for her sake.

I prayed for the strength to do that.

“I can’t wait,” she added.

An hour later, the car drove through a set of heavily guarded gates onto the grounds of the militarized airport.

There was a long runway and a freight plane belonging to Pacifica poised at the head of it waiting for us.

The driver pulled onto the tarmac, driving as close to the airplane as possible.

Naomi looked at the plane with a bit of a shocked expression for the briefest moment before she covered it up with muted interest.

“I didn’t know they still had planes like this. I’ve only seen them in pictures in old books,” she whispered low enough so that only I could hear.

“Wait until it goes up into the air,” I winked.

Her eyes got as wide as saucers as she looked up into the sky and then back down at me again. She was pretty adorable in her innocence. Her expression hardened when she turned her head, and I looked to see why. There was a team of six men waiting for us beside the plane.

That was probably the security team she’d alluded to.

I stood a bit taller as I looked them over.

They were all decidedly big men, the kind that serve as bouncers at rough bars and clubs.

They were all wearing the same uniforms- black t-shirt and dark gray slacks- making them look like a line of muscles all in a row.

One of them stepped forward. His expression was hard and flat. Instantly, an extreme dislike simmered in my belly, and I did my best to swallow it down, covering it up with a tight smile.

“Dr. Vaughn. Mr. Gates,” the man greeted. “My name is Seth, and this is my team, Roger, Jamie, Brandon, Vince, and Martin.” He pointed down the line with each name and I nodded in welcome to each one. They stood there with their arms behind their backs.

“We have been appointed to keep Dr. Vaughn safe from harm along the journey,” he added.

“Happy to have you along,” I bald-faced lied.

I couldn’t pinpoint why, but I didn’t like the way they looked at her and I especially didn’t like the way they looked at me. I didn’t trust any of them. Not one bit.

“The plane is almost ready for you. Once you’re on board, we’ll make the final preparations,” Seth continued. Naomi looked to me seemingly for guidance, uncertainty on her face, and I nodded casually toward the rear of the plane.

“Sounds good,” I replied, and I walked toward the plane slowly so that she could keep up with me. We both rounded the back and walked up the gangway to board. Much of the plane was stocked with supplies and tools that we might need out there.

I’d traveled before in planes like this one, so the layout was familiar to me.

I walked through the rear storage to the front of the space, leading her up the stairs and through a metal door where there was a section that was more suitable to passengers.

There were a few seats against the wall, as well as more private rooms that were usually used for upper class passengers.

I guided Naomi into one of those, relieved that there wasn’t room for the entire entourage that was our new security team.

Hopefully, it would just end up being Naomi and me in that room.

“Why don’t you settle in by the window? I think you’ll like the view when we get up into the air,” I offered.

“Thanks! I think I will,” she exclaimed enthusiastically.

She settled in and clicked her seat belt into place.

In this room, the seats were bigger than in the rest of the plane, with room to spare on either side.

I took the seat next to her, placing a few things on the table between us.

There was a fridge in the front of the room.

I got up and poured each of us a glass of water before settling in.

I heard the engines power up and knew the plane was soon going to be preparing for takeoff.

“Is it going to be a long flight?” she asked and there was a jittery undertone to her voice that hadn’t been there before. She was nervous, but she was trying to do her best to hide it.

“Nine or ten hours, by my estimate. A plane like this flies a little on the slower side,” I answered. Her fingers grasped the handles of the seat hard enough to turn her knuckles white. “Don’t worry. It’ll be over before you know it,” I grinned.

She looked a bit less wary, but not as relaxed as I wanted her to be.

I got up and walked over to the entertainment compartment and opened the latch.

There were several books inside and I picked out one that I thought she might enjoy.

I came back to my seat and passed it over to her.

Her eyes opened wide when she saw the couple on the cover.

“Why don’t you read for a little while?” I suggested gently, and a look of nervous excitement passed over her face.

“What if they see?” she asked quickly, glancing in the direction of the door. There were voices not far off, probably just the security team getting settled in their seats before takeoff.

“They won’t. I’ll make certain. You just worry about enjoying yourself,” I directed.

She turned to look at the door then back to the book in her hands. When that wasn’t enough, I got up and locked the door to our cabin. I pulled the curtain over the little window, giving us complete privacy from those men.

“Okay,” she smiled, still a bit anxious.

“Good girl,” I praised. Her expression softened immediately. She almost melted right before my eyes.

Fuck. This girl was dangerous for me.

I leaned back against my seat, buckling myself into place as she settled in to read the book that I’d chosen for her. The engines rumbled a bit louder, building up power so that they could propel us down the runway and up into the air.

When we finally started to move, Naomi reached for my hand.

I closed my fingers around hers as the plane took off, letting her squeeze me as tightly as she wanted as she experienced flight for the very first time.

When the wheels left the ground, her eyes opened wide, first with fear and then glee.

She stared down at the ground, watching everything get smaller and smaller with every second until we were thousands of feet up.

I hated the moment she pulled her hand away from mine. I had wanted to hold it forever.