Page 59 of The Program

She shot him a look full of reproach, but there was an undercurrent of guilt. Her standoffishness as Arthur Mercer made a lot more sense now that I understood more about her situation. She was likely trying to keep an emotional distance from everyone since she was lying about something as big as hergender,not to mention she hadn’t planned to stick around.

Yet she’d still let people in. Or rather people had barged their way past her sky-high walls whether she liked it or not. And now here she was, risking everything to make sure we all got out as well.

This woman was something else…

‘Yes, I’m a woman. I can answer any questions you have for me later, when people’s lives aren’t in danger, yeah?’

Shocking the shit out of me, he actually backed down looking sheepish and properly chastised.

Who cared about her past offences when she could put Mister Entitled in his place so efficiently?

I grinned at her as I gestured for her to lead the way. She cast me a sidelong glance like she couldn’t figure out why I was smiling under such dire circumstances, but I had seen her in action before. While undercover she’d punched right through what was supposed to be an indestructible punching bag and welded a metal door shut with her bare hands to keep us safely locked up during the hostile take-over.

And then there was the surveillance footage of her leaving nothing but death and carnage in her wake, all the while ensuring the innocent victims in that scenario were freed safely.

Yeah, I didn’t know her as well as I could, but I trusted in her capabilities to get us all out of here alive and in one piece.

We marched out into the dorm’s common room as a united front, but I immediately called them to halt. ‘Wait. Artemis, you can’t be seen yet. Until we have everyone together we still need to aim for discretion.’

She frowned but nodded, conceding to my point.

I turned to the guys. ‘Surround her but make it tight. We need to make it look like we’re just walking as a team of four.’ Then I faced Artemis, my brow raised in question. ‘That good with you?’

‘Being surrounded by a team of attractive men in uniform? However will I cope?’ she snarked, taking me aback. This new version of her was difficult to process and merge with what I thought I knew. I was going to have to reprogram my brain to see her as who she was and not who I expected her to be.

‘I can surround you any time you like,’ Cadmus flirted with a wink. Aaandhe was back.

‘All right, Cassanova. We’re about to collect her boy toy, so rein it in.’

Bringing me right back to the first encounter we’d ever had, Artemis flushed a deep crimson. She was such a juxtaposition of badass and innocent that it gave me whiplash but also made me admire her all the more. I didn’t know much about what she’d already survived, but I could see how much it had affected her socially.

I let my heart ache for all she’d lost and missed out on the way she’d been raised, but only for a couple of beats. Then I focused back on the task at hand.

Safely ensconced in the centre of the group, she was pushed right up against my back so far that I could feel the swell of her breasts as they brushed against my shoulder blades, and I worked very hard not to picture her nipples swelling beneath her shirt and pressing up against me from behind.

She was a tall woman, but we men were thankfully taller than her enough to block her from sight, and we moved away from our dorm towards the infirmary where Bromm had been taken, Foryk in tow. They were about to be in for a bit of a shock, but at least we’d be together in the coming adventure.

An adventure that involved a bunch of kids, I reminded myself, and my brain supplied images of snot-nosed toddlers running around with special abilities just like Artemis. Oh, the havoc they would wreak.

Ah, shit.

CHAPTER 22

CADMUS

The first thing I noticed about Artemis when she was standing right in front of me was that she was hot. Like, one of the sexiest women I had ever seen, even though her attire was one of the ugliest, most boring things to ever exist. And she was terrifying which created an added allure of danger.Andshe was still a mystery to me, which made her literally my ideal woman.

And let’s not forget that she’d watched me playing with my dicks before I had the chance to even consider wooing her. Unacceptable.

Now, with my half-risen erections rubbing against her delectable ass as we walked as a closed unit to collect the man who’d already had a taste of her, the friction combined with my jealousy got my blood pumping enough for half-mast to become rock hard.

Not the time,I mentally scolded them, willing them to go back down, but I had to settle for tucking them in the waistband of my pants to keep them from jutting out and stabbing her right up the ass. Just as we reached the infirmary, too.

Definitely not the time.

We did our best to look like we were on official business as we entered the medical wing since fraternisation that didn’t involve studying was strictly prohibited. It had been so long since I’d been able to just have a chat, or flirt, or anything that it was what I was most looking forward to after we left this place in our dust.

Unfortunately for us, it was neither Bromm nor Foryk that we encountered first.

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