Page 21 of The Hijack

“You’re Lukas’s man?” Theo guessed.

“Later,” I instructed, appreciating Linc’s instinctive move to reduce the number of people on board.

“I came to find him,” Theo said as we watched Linc pull the second boat closer and slide across the divide. He disappeared down into the hold, leaving us alone with our thoughts.

“Why? How?” I asked, relaxing my hands against his shoulders. Now that I knew he was real, it seemed like it was enough to maintain contact.

“Lukas had a tracker on him,” Theo explained. “He said that your guy might know something about where you were. I never imagined that you would be with him.”

“Jasmine told me you were dead,” I said on an exhale, still not believing my eyes. I had hoped that she was wrong. I was also supposed to be dead, and I knew that was false. But I didn’t expect to be reunited so quickly, much less in the middle of the ocean.

“They told me you were dead too, but I didn’t believe them,” Theo replied, gripping my hair at the back and leading me into a heated kiss.

“What happened back at the cabin?” I asked when we broke free. I still had to wrap my brain around his reappearance. Not that I doubted him, I just wanted to hear the whole story before finally releasing my anxiety over his absence.

“I got knocked out,” Theo responded. “When I woke up, they were taking me down the hill. I managed to escape and connected up with Lukas. I’ve been to your house at the Abernathy Estate.”

I grinned and shook my head. There was no one else in the world that I would have been comfortable knowing the location of my childhood home. Only Theo with his lopsided smile and his pompous British accent could have thrown something so monumental on me without blinking. I didn’t mind that he knew where I came from. In fact, it was kind of sweet.

There were no more secrets between us. He knew about my previous boyfriend who had been killed on the job. He knew about Lukas and Z and all the other children who had learned spycraft in elementary school. He knew about the lengths to which I had gone in my search for revenge, and how I liked to approach my targets. And despite all of that, he loved me.

I wrapped my arms around him, resting my elbows on his shoulders. Kissing him gently, I turned down the heat. We didn’t need to rush. We were out in the middle of the ocean without a ship in sight. Linc was being a gentleman, and he would be fine on Theo’s boat for the foreseeable future. The cabin below called to me with its massive bed. Though it had been commandeered by New Dawn for nefarious purposes, the real intention of the yacht was clear. It was a place for couples to get away and enjoy each other’s company under the stars. That was exactly what I intended to do before taking any further action. I needed to feel Theo on top of me, around me and inside me to reassure myself that he was real.

“Come with me,” I said seductively.

Theo scooped up his weapon, ever the spy. I walked him down the stairs and to the back of the boat where the bedroom was. We each set our guns down on opposite sides of the mattress, prepared to defend ourselves if the situation arose.

“What about Linc?” Theo asked, undoing his ridiculously proper button-down shirt as he spoke.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I think he’s okay.”

“You weren’t harmed, were you?” Theo asked, catching me up by the wrist and pulling me close.

I felt the heat of his skin against mine and relaxed against the solid wall of his chest. This was what I had been missing. This was home for me in a way that no building ever would be. I wrapped a hand around his bicep, squeezing gently. It was like I was studying him for the first time, trying to figure out what made him tick. I pressed my lips to his shoulder, tasting the cologne he used even while he was out racing across the planet. My man was nothing if not prepared.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” I whispered, coming up for air, dizzy from the close contact.

He swept the hair away from my neck and kissed my throat. I moaned, feeling lightheaded as he grasped the hem of my shirt and pulled it up over my head. Our lips met in the middle, searing a hole straight through to the bottom of the ocean with our passion.

“Tell me you killed everyone involved in your abduction,” he breathed, planting kiss after kiss down the length of my jaw.

“No,” I moaned. “Unfortunately, they’re all alive.”

He clucked disapprovingly, sliding one bra strap off my shoulder to kiss the bare skin. I combed my fingers through his hair, grabbing fistfuls of those beautiful, feather soft locks.

“What about you?” I whispered, closing my eyes to focus on the tight circles he was drawing with his tongue.

“All alive,” he confirmed.

“We’ll have to fix that,” I muttered.

“I agree,” he said. And that was the end of our conversation.

It was thrilling to plan a series of murders right before climbing into bed. I’d never been with anyone who moved on that same level. I knew that together, we could hunt down the men who had kidnapped me and seek revenge on Theo’s handler for orchestrating the whole catastrophe. They would rue the day that they’d allowed us to escape, and even worse, the moment they allowed us to come back together again. Alone, we were lost, but as a couple, we were unstoppable.

I twisted in his arms, nudging my way between his neck and his shoulder to nibble on his ear. He peeled the last remaining bra strap off my shoulder and undid the clasp behind my back. The restraining device fell off, and I lost track of it somewhere above the sheets.

Theo eased his way onto the bed, pulling me with him. There was an awkward transition from our feet to our knees. I couldn’t help but laugh before his lips closed in on mine again and the humor was forgotten.