Free RISE - Part Two (The RISE Series Book 2) by Deborah Bladon

"Your mind is like one of those. You have so many different compartments working at the same time. It's expected that your wires would get crossed sometimes."
    "I guess so." Her shoulder half-shrugs as she points at the card she brought me that's still sitting on my desk. "We're going to have a small ceremony for Haven's christening next month. You need to come since you're her Godmother."
    I glance at the card before I look at her again. "I'm so honored that you and Clive picked me. It means everything to me, Lilly."
    "You are like a sister to me." Her voice wavers slightly. "I haven't had a friend like you before. You're my family, Tess."
    "You're my family too," I say as I wrap my arms tightly around her. "I won't let you down, Lilly. I'll always be here for you and for Haven too."

Chapter 19
    ––––––––
    "I 'm going back to work tomorrow." He grazes his lush lips over my stomach. "Gabriel told me that you need to go back to L.A. in a couple of weeks. I'm going to pilot that plane."
    "What you're actually trying to say Captain Beckett is that you're going to make love to me thirty thousand feet in the air."
    His head falls back with a hearty laugh. "I just fucked you and you're already looking forward to the next time?"
    "Are you saying I have to wait weeks for it to happen again?" I drop my hand to my wetness. "I can take of myself in the meantime."
    His hair tickles the flesh of my side as he looks down. "Don't touch yourself right now. I can't take that."
    It's my turn to laugh. "You can take it. You're a machine."
    His eyes dart up to mine. "Only with you, Tess Marlow. With anyone else I'm one and done."
    I smile even though the words slice through me. I know he's slept with others. I doubt that our number of past lovers compare. He's nine years older than I am and he's traveled the world.
    "No one else matters, Tess." He inches up my body. "I didn't mean it that way."
    "I know," I say quietly as I curve my body into his. "You're not sleeping with anyone else right now."
    "Our intimacy is different." He sighs as he rests his lips against my forehead. "It's so intense. I want you all the time. I just want to be around you."
    I sigh at the admission. It's the same for me. Even though our relationship to this point has been far from normal, I've relished each moment that we've spent together. The drama surrounding his family has only created another level of trust between us that may not have been there for months otherwise. I can tell that he's as comfortable with me as I am with him.
    "I love being around you too."
    "My father's lawyer wants him to do an interview." His shoulders tense as he brushes his lips against my brow. "He wants the world to know what really pushed my father to fake his death."
    It's the most he's shared with me since he told me that his brother and mother went with him to see his father in prison. I've held up my promise to not share any details any his father's reappearance in his life with anyone.
    I know myself and even though I've remained patient to this point, that's been wearing thin. I'm no expert on the legalities of the situation. I don't know anything about statues of limitations but I do know that Frederick is paying for his crimes in every sense of the word.
    Landon's voice has no inflection of compassion anymore when he talks about his father. If Dane is anything like his brother, he has little regard for the fate of his dad either. A man who was once respected and adored by his sons now sits in a prison cell waiting for his world to implode on him.
    "What happens to you, Dane and your mom if your dad talks to the press?"
    He lifts my hand to his lips. "We hold our heads up high. The father I had died in the water that day."
    I nod faintly. I sense that any momentary thrill he may have felt when he first saw his father was instantly replaced with the desperate sadness of knowing that the man who had raised him, and taught him to ride a bike and fish had willingly