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CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Knight

The text on the screens is starting to go out of focus. We’ve spent hours planning every detail of tomorrow’s infiltration, running on nothing but coffee and determination since dawn.

Eva stifles a yawn behind her hand, and shifts on her chair.

"Food is on its way." Rook looks up from his phone.

"Would anyone like more coffee while we wait?" Eva pushes herself up from her chair.

The moment she's out of earshot, Bishop turns to me. "So ... You and the girl whose brother we're rescuing."

"Don't."

"She’s an interesting choice." Rook's tone carries equal parts amusement and concern. "Considering what Bishop told me he saw when he last visited?—"

"We're not discussing this."

"The fact she's wearing your clothes suggests we should." Bishop leans against the side of the workstation. "Are you sure you can maintain focus with her involved?"

"She's proven she can handle herself."

"That's not what we're worried about." Rook exchanges glances with Bishop. "You've never let anyone this close to you before."

"I didn’t this time either. She broke in, and things … escalated." But the excuse sounds weak even to me. "It’s because?—"

"Because you care about her." Bishop cuts through my deflection. "Which turns her into a vulnerability."

The truth in his words burns. "It doesn’t matter. She's already involved. Has been since they used her to deliver that phone to me."

"And now she's in your bed." Rook's bluntness makes me tense. "Knight, that changes things."

A security notification chimes, informing me that the food Rook ordered has arrived. I push a button, summoning the elevator, and Rook heads down to collect the food. He passes Eva coming back with coffee. She must pick up on something in the air because she glances at me, then Bishop, and frowns.

“Let’s go into the other room to eat.” I push up from my chair, and stalk out of my workspace.

Rook returns a couple of minutes later, and we spend the next five minutes spreading out containers of pasta and garlic bread across the coffee table.

We continue working on the extraction plans between bites of fettuccine.

"These response times seem optimistic." Bishop wipes sauce from his mouth with a napkin. "Five minutes for armed backup?"

"Standard protocols," Rook replies.

More time passes as we refine details, moving back into my workspace once everyone is finished eating. Eva contributes suggestions about medical supplies, pointing out things we might need for different scenarios. Her practical knowledge, while basic, impresses my brothers. I see it in the way they slowly begin to include her in tactical discussions.

"We need to take a break, and get some rest. We’ll be back here at oh-two-hundred hours." Bishop finally stands. "We'll bring everything with us."

"Do you need anything else?" Rook looks at me.

"We're good." I keep working on shutdown sequences. "See you at two."

Eva walks them to the elevator, their quiet conversation carrying hints of approval I'm not sure how to process. When she returns, something has shifted in her expression.

"Your brothers are ... intense." She moves closer. "But I don’t think they hate me.”

"They respect capability." I rest my hands on her hips and pull her between my legs. The scent of her fills my nose. "And you’ve shown plenty of that today."

Her fingers trace my jaw, the touch igniting sparks beneath my skin. "Is that what made you trust me? Capability?"

I stand, forcing her back step by step, until her ass connects with my desk. Her body is soft where mine is hard, her warmth seeping through our clothes. I press my lips to her throat, and her gasp sends fire through my blood.

"You did that by refusing to break." My teeth graze over her skin. "By pushing back when I pushed you."

My hands find the hem of her shirt, and creep beneath it, finding skin that burns against my palms. The small sound she makes fractures my control.

I lift her onto the edge of my desk, careful of the equipment as I step between her thighs. The oversized waistband of my sweatpants sits low on her hips, and the sight of her wearing something of mine only sharpens the hunger building inside me. Her legs wrap around my waist, locking me against her, and I can feel the heat of her through the material separating us.

"Knight ..." Her hands find my shoulders, sliding upward until her fingers are buried in my hair, tugging lightly as I dip my head.

I start at her throat, tasting her skin, warm and soft, under my lips. Her shirt rides higher as my hands move beneath it, tugging it up, revealing her inch by inch, until I can pull it over her head and toss it to one side. The sight of her in just a bra and my sweatpants does something to me, awakens a possessive satisfaction that I can’t ignore.

I kiss her, swallowing the soft gasp she lets out as I drop one hand to her hip. My fingers curl around the waistband of the sweatpants.

“Stand up.”

She doesn’t argue, and I drag them down her thighs, then let them fall to pool around her ankles.

“You look better in those than I do … but I much prefer you out of them.”

Her laugh is breathless, cut off when I capture her lips again, one hand braced on the desk to steady us. Her hands drop to the waistband of my pants, her urgency matching my own, and I shove them down just enough to free my dick.

The desk creaks beneath her as I push her back, and lean over her, trailing kisses along her throat, across her collarbone, down until I reach her breast. My tongue circles her nipple before I suck it into my mouth. Her breaths grow shallow, her hand stretching out to wrap around my dick.

“Don’t tease me, Knight.” Her voice is low and breathless. “I don’t want to wait.”

I lift my head, eyes tracking over her face. “No condom.”

She shakes her head, arching up until my dick slides against her clit. “I don’t care.”

That’s all the permission I need. My hand reaches between us, finding her clit and stroking until she gasps, her body jerking against me. I tease her just long enough to hear her broken pleas, to feel her nails digging into my skin, and then I guide myself into her, slow and deliberate, filling her inch by inch.

Her head tips back, a broken moan escaping her lips as I push deeper. Her thighs lock around me, pulling me closer, her body arching to meet mine like she was made for this.

Made for me.

She meets me thrust for thrust, her rhythm perfectly synced with mine, every movement stoking the fire between us. Her gasps turn into cries, my name falling from her lips over and over, each one more desperate than the last.

Her nails rake down my back as her body shakes. The sound she makes when she breaks—the gasp that leaves her lips—is enough to push me over the edge. I bury my face against her neck, as I follow her, the intensity of it leaving me breathless.

For a moment, neither of us moves. Her legs stay locked around my waist, holding me there, while her fingers trace slow, absentminded patterns up and down my spine.

Her hair is a mess, her skin flushed, and she’s wearing nothing but her bra and my sweatpants bunched around one ankle.

It’s a mess. We’re a mess.

And I want to do it all over again.

"Knight?" Her voice carries traces of vulnerability that makes something tighten in my chest.

"Hmm?"

"Promise me something?"

I should say no. I should try to regain the distance I need. I should remember all the reasons attachments are dangerous in my world.

Instead, I brush my lips across her temple. "What?"

"Promise we’ll make it out tomorrow. Promise this isn't all we get."

But I can't promise that. I can’t guarantee either of us will survive what's coming. I can’t pretend that tomorrow's mission isn't potentially suicidal.

But I can give her this moment. This connection. This moment where nothing exists except us.

My arms tighten around her, drawing her closer until she's pressed completely against me. She fits against me like she was designed for this space, like every wall I've built was just waiting for her to breach them.

Tomorrow we face whatever Victor's warning is leading me toward. Tonight, I let myself admit that Eva isn’t just another variable in the equation anymore. She's become essential to my code.