Page 6 of His to Take

“My details are on the back. I will be available to you anytime. Please, don’t hesitate to give my comm a ring if you need anything at all.”

His offer was innocent, but it felt indecent all the same. I smiled in return and shook his hand when he reached for mine, noting again his strong grip. When his skin brushed against mine, I jumped, an electric current of sensation racing up and down my arm. My cheeks heated and I couldn’t meet his gaze because I was afraid of what I might see.

Of what I might do if I looked at him right now…

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Gates,” I murmured politely, hoping to end this encounter before I utterly lost my head and did something I shouldn’t.

“Call me Ryker. Don’t make me remind you again,” he teased. With a wink, he turned away and walked out the door, leaving me with only one thought.

Or else what?

CHAPTER 2

Naomi

I hadn’t stopped thinking about Ryker Gates.

His strong hands.

His deep voice.

His all-consuming presence.

Honestly, I just wanted to see him again.

In the days since he had walked into my office, I’d catalogued as much of the crate as I possibly could. I’d stolen several images from the picture album and hid them in secret places in my home, including a few of the woman in the wedding dress as well as all the ones from the last few pages. I destroyed the manifest, leaving no record of the contents remaining behind.

I knew it was dangerous to keep the crate and what it contained in my possession. I spent as much time as I could skimming the books and picking through the mementos inside it, but I knew Iwas testing fate by doing so. I took notes, but eventually I knew what I had to do.

With extreme reluctance, I reported the findings to the protector forces. I told them I’d only just opened it after catching up with a backlog of unrelated work and they seemed to believe me. Before I knew it, the crate was gone.

I suspected neither I nor anyone else would likely see it ever again.

With that off my plate, I made a call to the council and informed them of Ryker’s request.

They called me in for an in-person meeting the next day. I put on my best suit and arrived a half hour early to meet with my city state’s elected officials.

While the men and women of the council made it clear that my agreement to the whole arrangement was key, it didn’t really feel that way. It almost felt like it was expected of me, that I wouldn’t be a proud, supportive citizen of my city state should I refuse Ryker’s request.

In the end, I agreed, but not before insisting on one very important thing: I wanted to accompany Ryker on his journey to the abandoned research facility.

It had been an impulsive request, but I couldn’t stop myself. I’d never left my hometown, and this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to travel the wider world and to experience what had become of it, to actually experience it rather than read about what once was in books.

If there was a chance to recover classified research that had been lost to history, I wanted to be the one to handle it. I had the training and expertise. It should be me.

Plus, it would give me an opportunity to get to know him better. I told myself that wasn’t the most important part, but I knew it was a lie the moment I thought it.

I’d taken the council by surprise. They stuttered a bit and called a brief recess.

After about an hour, the council approved my request, but they insisted on providing me with a security team of their choice. They reassured me that they would handpick each member themselves, ensuring my absolute safety on the journey with Ryker into the Mexican territory. I thanked them for the opportunity.

Their final words for me were to make New Englandia proud. I vowed that I would and went back to work after it was over.

I didn’t call him right away after that meeting. Instead, I sat at my desk, staring at that business card for a long while before I dialed his number. It beeped several times, and I almost hung up in my cowardice, but then he answered, and his voice rumbled through me once again.

I hadn’t realized that I had missed the sound of it until I felt the flutter of something unnamable in my belly.

“Dr. Vaughn! I was hoping to hear from you,” he purred.

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