Page 78 of Taken By the Convicts
“I’m not him, Melina. Whoever he was to you, I’m not him. I won’t hurt you.”
* * *
MELINA
While Ivan sleptin the isolation bay, Melina worked on a cure for the XRGN-723 she’d given him two years ago, or rather the drug her manager had given him and his men. He was lucky he never received the full treatment, but he’d been self-medicating with narkosine for years. That drug had known risks, but she wasn’t sure about the long-term effects on a patient who’d been given XRGN-723.
His current injuries gave her the perfect opportunity to extract blood, bone, and tissue samples for her research. She wouldn’t tell him she was working on the cure in case she failed. She’d already disappointed him in too many ways.
After their conversation yesterday, she’d given him a heavy sedative. Before the end of their conversation, really. Ivan needed the sleep, certainly, but she didn’t want to tell him about Namir.
He wouldn’t understand how she could submit to the punishment, the cruelty, how she’d allowed Namir to rip her will away and control her every action. Save one. The time she spent in the lab. Before she’d been forced to mate Namir, she’d been trained in medical research, an area The Company needed people. Not even Namir could keep her from working in the lab without having to explain himself to The Company.
Would Ivan be angry with her for sedating him to avoid answering him? Probably. He certainly should be. He deserved honesty from her, not subterfuge.
Yesterday, after a full day treating three prisoners from a minor tunnel collapse and then working in the lab, she’d pulled a chair beside Ivan’s bed and slept hunched over, her head against his thigh. The position had been nowhere as comfortable as a bed, but nothing felt as good as being next to Ivan and letting his breathing lull her to sleep.
She’d woken with his hand cupping the back of her head, and it had felt so right she’d run out and broken down, crying in the privacy of her lab. She wanted to return to the bunker with him, but she couldn’t be his prisoner again.
Tomorrow, she’d have to discharge him. The nanites had repaired his cheekbone and the hairline skull fracture. He had significant bruising on his face still, but that would fade in a few days. She stood outside the isolation bay, staring at him. She cared for him, but not from a place of guilt. She hoped he knew that. He was trying so hard to protect her, and she was fighting him on everything. She wished she could make him understand.
Quietly, she closed the isolation doors behind her and tinted them for privacy. She didn’t want the guards to see her break protocol, not when she’d finally negotiated a working relationship with them that would keep her safe from the med-techs and injured prisoners she treated every day.
Using the tool Vaughn explained was a Harvey Needle, a device that extracted bone marrow without surgery, she picked the lock on Ivan’s chains. He shifted in bed but didn’t wake.
Melina stripped as she watched his steady breaths. Ivan was always planning, moderating,leading; he never seemed to relax like now. She couldn’t let him go without showing him how she felt about him.
Before she could get on the bed, she noticed his searing blue eyes following her every move. Neither of them said anything as she drew the blanket off of him and straddled his thighs. His hands caressed her legs, never moving higher as he watched and waited. Perhaps he feared that if he spoke, he’d scare her away.
With her hand, she stroked his length, which responded immediately, hardening in her hand. There were so many things she wanted to say to him, to do to him, to show how she felt. But they didn’t have long before the guards would come by on rounds. Even with the privacy shading on, and the guards’ skittishness about entering the isolation room, the guards could enter.
She lined Ivan up with her entrance and slowly lowered herself onto him. Even as wet as she was, she had to go slowly. Ivan was bigger than expected. She loved how he filled her, loved how his eyes never left her even as she began to move on and off of him. His hands caressed her the entire time. Her legs, thighs, lower back, and ass.
When his eyes closed and she drew that first moan from him, she knew she’d found the man beneath the bravado and hard-ass attitude. He was letting go for her, showing her his vulnerabilities while letting her take control. She never thought he’d let her have control of anything, even sex. The very fact brought tears to her eyes.
His eyes flashed as if he knew she was crying. He bucked his hips, tossing her forward. Her hands landed on either side of his head, and his lips captured hers.
The kiss was slow and sensuous as he traced his tongue along her lips and then explored her mouth. Tongues met and stroked as one hand cupped the back of her head, holding her against him. She couldn’t break away even if she wanted to, and she didn’t want to. She loved how his entire hand splayed across the back of her head as if he were shielding her.
She began moving again, hoping to pull another delicious moan from him. As he released her lips, she pushed up on his chest, wondering if she should abandon her hopes and dreams and return with him. She didn’t want to lose Ivan, and her heart ached to see Reece. Her poor Reece, who’d left to go hunting and returned to find her gone. Even Jayce. She wasn’t done with him. She needed to know which was the real Jayce, the one who’d been so kind and sweet to her or the one who’d talked as if she owed him something. And Zev, she’d never really gotten to know him very well, but he made her laugh, and that was something she needed in her life. Hell, she needed all of them.
Ivan’s fingers dug into her hips, moving her faster. The orgasm ripped through her so fast she nearly lost her balance, but Ivan held her. He’d never let her fall. He’d never let any harm come to her, and she loved him for it.
An exquisite look of peace spread over his face as he found his release. She fell forward, not caring how sweat-slick her skin was. As she laid her head against his shoulder, looking away from him, he brushed her hair to the side and ran his hands over her scars and kept caressing her, without hesitation, as if they didn’t exist.
When she lifted herself above him, he cupped her face. “You’ll return with me, and I give you my word, you can continue to work here. We’ll find a way around Hawke’s men to get you here and back. You might have to adjust your times, but I won’t keep you a prisoner anymore.”
She couldn’t absorb the words she’d hoped to hear because something was missing, though she wasn’t sure what.
“This is not because you claimed me, Melina. I won’t ever lie to you, you need to understand that. I want you to be happy, but I need you to be safe. I can’t lose you. I won’t lose you. You’re too important to me.”
It was everything she needed to hear from Ivan, and more.
Chapter Twenty-One
ZEV
Zev hunkered down among the rocks a thousand feet from Hawke’s camp. The prisoner’s unit could pass for a squadron. Hawke may have had three men officially listed as his unit, but he had over twenty men living in housing that wasn’t Company built. The man had building materials not otherwise found on Veenith, too. Not even Manager Thorne had solar panels on his home or office. Most buildings on Veenith relied on the underground thermal fissures for heat. And Thorne’s guards never went near Hawke, as if they had orders to leave him alone.
