PS02 - Without Regret (22 page)

She’d planned to answer their questions anyway, granted on her terms, but right now felt like a good time to talk, especially if

it meant he would continue to kiss that surprisingly sensitive spot just below her ear.

“Um,” she said, absently giving his arms a gentle squeeze to encourage him. Not that he seemed to need much encouragement.

She licked her lips as she forced herself to concentrate on his questions and not on how good his warm wet mouth felt on her.

“They contacted me two days ago to buy my program.”

“What’s so special about your program?” he asked, taking his lips away from her neck and she almost cried until he moved to

the other side of her neck and started making if feel all nice and tingly.

“It’s um, it’s um,” she swallowed, closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she continued. “It’s called Tattletale. I started

it over a year ago when I was bored.

I just wanted to see if I could create a program that could learn from its mistakes as it was used and send constant updates

between the source and the application so that every time the program was used anywhere it was up to date, but without human

interference.”

“I see,” Chris said, pulling back from her neck and tilting his head slightly so that he could press a kiss to her forehead. “And

did it work?”

“Did what work?” she asked, feeling slightly dazed and on fire, needing him to continue kissing her, touching her and doing all

the things that she’d always hated and a few that she never allowed any man to do.

He chuckled lightly as he pressed a kiss against her chin. “Did your program work, Izzy?”

She had to snort at that. “Of course my program worked.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she chewed on her

bottom lip and let out a long drawn out sigh before she admitted, “It actually did a lot better than I expected.”

“What can it do, Izzy?” he whispered softly, pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth.

“Everything,” she admitted on a small gasp as he kissed her bottom lip before he flicked it with his tongue.

“What’s everything?” he asked, brushing his lips against hers slowly, teasingly. When she moved to return the kiss he pulled

back and she was tempted to tighten her hold on his arms and take what she wanted, but all his attention, her exhaustion and

hanging upside down was really taking its toll on her so stayed where she was, hoping he’d return those surprisingly warm soft

lips back to hers.

“It can find out anything about anyone. The Tattletale can break into any file, program, and track activity no matter what.

Encryption no longer works against it.

Actually, it becomes stronger when it comes up against an encrypted file because it learns and remembers everything adding to

its program. The best part is it’s undetectable. It doesn’t work like a virus so all the scans miss it,” she said excitedly. For a

year now this had been her secret, and other than the FBI agent and a few colleagues she’d stupidly hinted at her program to,

who’d apparently sold her out, she hadn’t spoken about this program in great length with anyone. It was actually kind of nice to

be able to speak so freely about her greatest creation.

“And what did the men who contacted you want with it?” he asked as he framed her face between his large warm hands and

rewarded her with a brush of his lips against her mouth before pulling back to study her as she answered.

She hesitated, but for only a second. At this point it really didn’t matter what this man and his friends knew. It wasn’t like she

was going to give it to them.

She wasn’t. No matter what it was too dangerous to release, something she really should have realized before, especially with

the way her program evolved.

“They were interested in its ability to break into a large global network,” she said softly, her eyes never leaving his lips so she

didn’t miss it when his lips curved up into a very pleased smile.

“And did they get it, Munchkin?” he asked, his already hypnotic voice dropping another timber and sending a delicious shiver

through her body.

“Uh uh, I changed my mind before the meeting,” she said, releasing her grip on his arms to cup his face instead. “Now kiss

me.”

With a pained groan he leaned down and took her mouth more firmly this time, but it wasn’t enough. For the first time since her

first kiss at eighteen she wanted a real kiss, because she was pretty damn sure that Chris’ kiss wouldn’t leave her bored or

grossed out.

Gripping his head a little tighter, she tilted her head to the side, unsure how this was going to work with her upside down, but

more than willing to give it a shot as she suckled his bottom lip between her teeth. With a low deep moan he took over the kiss,

sliding his tongue in her mouth in a sensual move that left her gasping and panting for more.

His movements were slow, but no less hungry as he devoured her mouth as if he were studying her. When she ran her tongue

over his he made a sound somewhere between a groan of satisfaction and hunger that had her toes curling. This kiss felt right,

perfect. It was like someone threw a switch and her body came alive. She wanted more.

She wanted him.

“Are you a virgin?” he suddenly asked, breaking the kiss and pulling back just enough so that he could look at her.

Why was he talking at a moment like this when they should be looking for the nearest bedroom? she had to wonder as she

struggled to figure out what he’d asked.

Frowning, she shook her head as best as she could, considering it was still locked firmly between his hands.

“No, why?”

Just like that all the hunger in his expression disappeared and the controlled warrior was back in place. He released her and

grabbed her wrists gently, forcing her to release him as he stepped back.

The tick beneath his eye was back along with a new one in his jaw as he stepped away and turned, storming off, leaving her to

wonder what the hell just happened and when they were going to let her down.

“Um, hello?” she called out a minute later. “I’d really like to get down now!”

Chapter 17

“You’re tearing your stitches to shreds,” Jill pointed out as she pushed aside a crossbow on one of the many weapons tables

lining the right side of the long, deep basement and sat down on the edge of the table, careful of the silver dipped daggers to her

left.

“I need to train,” Chris said, ignoring the sharp pain as his stitches stretched when his fist connected with the sparing dummy,

causing it to rock hard on its steel base. He ignored the sound of rubber splitting and continued pounding his fists against it.

Between him and his father they went through a half dozen of these things a month.

“Joshua will have to sew you back up,” Jill said, picking up one of the small daggers they’d had blessed last month.

“It gives him more hours,” Chris said, wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his uninjured hand before taking

another swing at the dummy, which looked a few hits away from losing its head.

“True,” Jill agreed with an absent nod. “But it will just piss him off that you wrecked his work again. You know he hates to

leave a scar.”

“He’ll just have to get over it,” Chris said, already picturing the glare Joshua would give him in a few days if he ended up with

a scar. The man would just have to get over it, but he knew Joshua wouldn’t. The man was a goddamn perfectionist when it

came to his work.

If he’d known ten years ago when Joshua asked if he could have a look at his IV lock that the kid would turn into a control freak

over ever little band-aid and bruise he would have……

He wouldn’t have done a damn thing differently, he thought with an inward groan.

When he woke up strapped to a bed with tubes and wires attached to every available patch of skin on his body he’d been

admittedly worried, even more so when he realized that he couldn’t feel or move his legs, but nothing had frightened him more

than his first look at Joshua. The little boy who was always so full of energy and had become his little shadow before the home

invasion was gone, leaving a nervous, easily frightened little boy who was too thin and pale in his place.

He remembered forcing a smile for the little boy as his eyes adjusted to the too bright hospital room. When Joshua just stood

there at the end of the bed looking terrified it had freaked Chris out. He tried to talk to him only to have the words come out

mangled and barely louder than a whisper. Frustrated, he’d gestured weakly for Joshua to come to him, but the boy only stood

there shaking his head slightly as he continued to stare at Chris.

When a nurse came in and saw that he was awake and rushed Joshua out of the room he could have strangled the woman. He’d

had no idea what the hell was going on at the time and what was wrong with Joshua.

Everyone’s forced smiles and promises that Joshua would be all right didn’t do a damn thing to calm him down. The kid didn’t

look good and after two weeks when nothing had changed, Chris had been scared shitless.

Joshua wouldn’t speak or hardly eat. The third week after he woke up he heard his grandmother asking the nurses and doctors

in the ICU where he’d been stuck until it was safe to move him to a medical suite at one of the Sentinel compounds for advice

about Joshua. When he heard one of the nurses suggest that they commit his brother he flipped out and in the process tore out

his IV’s, but he forced himself to calm down and stop telling the nurse to shut her fucking mouth when Joshua quietly walked

into the room and went to his little corner where he silently watched Chris.

By the time a nurse came in to fix his IV’s he hadn’t had a clue what to do. He’d tried engaging his brother in conversation,

putting the television on and even threatening to kick his ass if he didn’t talk or eat soon.

Nothing worked and he was close to admitting that the nurse, who’d he’d sent running off crying might have been right. So

when Joshua’s soft voice suddenly asked if he could watch the nurse change the IV Chris ignored the nurse’s polite refusal and

told Joshua to climb up on the bed so that he could get a better look.

After a short hesitation Joshua did and Chris nearly wept with relief. Joshua kneeled near his leg as he quietly watched the

woman change his IV. Within days Joshua was asking questions about every wire, tube, and piece of equipment in the room.

When a few of the nurses refused to answer Joshua’s questions Ephraim told them to get the hell out of his son’s room and

within the hour hired two private nurses who were more than happy to answer Joshua’s questions and even let him try things.

Joshua slowly went back to being the carefree kid he used to be, but after Chris left the hospital he knew his brother had found

his one true love. The kid couldn’t get enough of the Learning Channel or the internet. If it was about something medical Joshua

wanted to read it or see it. Hell, Chris had barely been able to hold the kid back from “assisting” their father when Madison’s

water broke. The kid was just so damn smart, gifted and genuinely wanted to help people.

No one was at all surprised when Joshua graduated high school a year early or when he announced that he wanted to be a

doctor. For years he’d been the one to patch Chris up and any visiting Sentinels when the shit hit the fan and they came home a

little bloody and broken. It had surprised them all when they discovered the Council had plans for Joshua’s talents.

At just seventeen years old Joshua signed a contract with Sentinel council to work for them. During the school year he’d busted

his ass getting good grades and working as an intern with one of the Sentinel surgeons in Boston where he attended college.

During the summers he went to Europe and trained with some of the world’s oldest doctors, Sentinels who hadn’t quite reached

two hundred years yet and they taught him every damn thing they knew.

It was still hard to believe that in less than a year Joshua could very well be a trained doctor working for the Council. After

everything life threw at the kid he’d come out on top and Chris couldn’t be prouder. It still amazed him that his siblings who’d

been given a fucked up start like him had come out on top, especially his little bratty sister, who was just dying to get him to

talk to her.

He knew that look, that innocent-I’m-not-up-toanything look that she was giving him right now as she absently played with the

little dagger in her hand.

“This is really pretty,” she said, holding it up for him.

“Take it,” he said, continuing his assault on the dummy that wasn’t going to last the night.

“Thank you,” she said, sliding it back into its sheath and placing it back on the table by her hip.

“You’re welcome,” he muttered, wondering when she was just going to stop the bullshit and get to it.

“Do you want to go hit the dinner afterwards?” she asked, probably hoping to distract him with food while she plowed him

with questions.

“No, and you shouldn’t be out during a full moon. You know we’re not going to let you leave here before sunrise.”

She snorted. “I wasn’t planning on going by myself. I asked if you’d go with me.”

She had, he agreed with a reluctant nod.

For a moment she stared at him, her eyes ever so slowly narrowing on him while he continued his assault on the doomed