Free Relentless (The Hero Agenda, #2) by Tera Lynn Childs, Tracy Deebs Page A

feeling as if there’s no oxygen left in the world as I wait and wait and wait for him to respond.
    “I’m sorry,” I finally say. “You don’t have to… I shouldn’t have… I didn’t mean…”
    My humiliation seems to spur him to action because suddenly he’s wrapping his arms around me. Pulling me to his chest. Pressing soft kisses to my forehead, my cheeks, my mouth.
    “Don’t,” he tells me between kisses. “Don’t take it back, please. Don’t—”
    “I’m not taking it back,” I tell him, turning my face up to his so he can kiss me properly.
    And he does. Oh God, he does, his lips hot and sweet and desperate against my own.
    I whimper a little when he pulls away and try to follow his mouth because I don’t want the kiss to end. Not yet. Not when there’s still so much heat and fear and jealousy between us.
    It’s his turn to groan as he shoves his hands through my hair and pulls me in for another kiss, this one even deeper than the last.
    I press myself to him and slide my hands around his waist and under his shirt to stroke over the smooth, hot skin of his back. Deep inside I know that this isn’t the time or the place, know that it’s too soon, that neither of us is ready for this. And yet I can’t force myself to stop, can’t let go when I went so long without him. There was a part of me that was terrified I’d never see him, never hold him, never kiss him again.
    Draven doesn’t pull away until we’re both gasping for air, until our hands are shaking and our lips are swollen. And even then, he doesn’t go far. He rests his forehead against mine and just breathes. In, out. In, out.
    “I’m in love with you too,” he says when we can both finally speak again. “I love you so much that those days I spent in Rex’s prison, not knowing where you were or if you were okay… It was bad. It was so bad. All I wanted was to find you. To make sure you were okay. To never let you out of my sight. And now you’re asking me to let you go again and for me to stay here, waiting, wondering if you’ll make it back alive. I can’t do that. I won’t—”
    “You’re right,” I say, cutting him off with more soft kisses. “I won’t ask you to stay. I won’t let the fear of something bad happening to you keep us apart.”
    “Because that’s not how this works,” he says gently. “We both want to keep each other safe, but there’s no such thing as safety anymore. The whole world is upside down and getting more screwed up every day. There’s no way to guarantee that all of us—that any of us—will make it out of this alive. For as long as we have, I don’t want to be separated from you again. Not if I don’t have to be.”
    He’s right. I know he’s right. And still I’m terrified that something’s going to happen to him if he comes with me to the lab. Still I’m terrified that Rex will find him again, and again I won’t be able to protect him. Like I couldn’t protect my mom.
    But at the same time, do I want to go to the lab without him? Do I want to do any of this without him? I’ve spent the last twelve days like that, and even though I’ve done what needed to be done, I would have traded almost anything to have him at my side.
    “I’m scared,” I tell him. It’s not easy to confess, but it’s true. I’ve lost my mother. I don’t want to lose him too. I can’t. Especially not when I just got him back.
    “I’m scared too,” he admits. “The more control Rex loses, the more dangerous he gets. We’d be idiots if we weren’t afraid of him. But the only way to overcome that fear is to take action. To make a plan and follow through. Step by step, we do what needs to get done.”
    He says it so matter-of-factly that I have to believe him. I have to believe in him.
    Rebel screams, and we hear things breaking in the other room.
    “The first of which,” I say with a weary smile, “is to get that immunity serum cooking.”
    He steps back and holds a hand out to me.