He slipped a hand behind her neck, pulling her closer. He wanted nothing more than to taste all of her, but he knew they had to take this slowly. For both their sakes. He made himself pull back and look at her.
Her eyes danced, and she had a smile on her lips. “I guess if you can kiss like that, I really didn’t hurt you.”
“You didn’t. This is okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. It’s okay. More than okay. I just…need to take it slowly.”
“Of course.” Mark leaned in and stole another small kiss. “Just one more for the road.”
He let her up, and she stood, brushing invisible dirt off her sparring clothes. “I guess I’m going to go to bed. You were right, this was better than drinking coffee if I want to get some rest.” She cleared her throat and disappeared.
Mark was glad she couldn’t see how wide his smile was as she walked away. There was something between them, and he was going to do his best to explore it. He would take all the time they both needed, but he wasn’t going to shy away from whatever they were building.
But first, he needed a cold shower.
Chapter 10
Jenna blinked open her eyes. They currently felt like they had two-ton weights attached to them. Glancing over at the clock on the nightstand, she noted it was six in the morning.
She groaned. Why was she awake right now? She’d only gone to bed two hours ago, and even for her wonky sleep schedule, two hours was a bit slim.
Finally, the sound that woke her penetrated the haze around her brain. Her phone was ringing. Somewhere at the end of the bed, tangled in the blankets where she’d tossed it before collapsing, still in her clothes.
The number was blocked, but then again, most of her clients had blocked numbers for various reasons. “Hello?”
“I’m surprised you’re awake.”
Jenna recognized the voice and clenched her jaw. She was tempted to hang up but knew she couldn’t. “Callum, it’s six in the morning. It better be damned important. And why are you calling rather than sending a message.”
He cut right to the chase. “This shit phone I have allows me to fly under Joaquin’s security radar, but it has no internet connection. It can only make calls. We have a situation. There’s another robot, but this one is alive.”
“Alive?” All sleep fled. Her heart pounded in her ears.
A robot that wasalive. Her brain ran over all the possibilities. Perhaps whoever programmed the robot forgot to put the tail in. Or if the tail had been edited into the robot’s genes, maybe he or she had gotten lucky—had a genetic structure Joaquin’s scientists hadn’t calculated correctly.
If it had been Joaquin’s people’s mistake, he would rectify it quickly and kill the robot.
“Yes, alive. Male, twenty-three years old. Albuquerque. Ian already has his plane en route. It will meet you at the regional airport and take you to New Mexico.”
She pressed her lips together. If Ian’s plane was already on the way, it meant he knew and approved. His private plane was the only way she could get to Albuquerque in time to be useful. She wouldn’t be able to get a commercial flight now, even if she was able to put herself through the trip—which she wasn’t. She’d be a basket case by the time she arrived.
“Okay. We’ll be there.”
Callum disconnected without another word. She wasn’t sure where he’d been calling from or if he was still undercover.
She took a deep breath and stood up from her bed. She had to move, couldn’t afford to give her mind too much time to think or the fear would begin to suffocate her. Yes, she’d traveled on Ian’s plane before and had been okay. But she couldn’t forget that she hadn’t even made it one minute outside a few days ago.
There was so much she couldn’t control once she left the safety of this house. But still,not goingwasn’t an option. Not if she could save this person’s life—separate the robot from the human.
She pushed out of her bedroom and padded across the house to Mark’s room and knocked. The door opened a few seconds later, and Jenna was rendered completely speechless. Mark was there, staring down at the phone in his hand. He looked sleepy and tousled, with no shirt, and sweatpants that looked like they were clinging to his hips by the whisper of a prayer.
He looked up at her, eyes clear. “I just got a message from Ian that he’s sending a plane. Are you all right?”
Jenna managed to tear her eyes from the body on display in front of her. She’d felt enough of it when he’d kissed her, but seeing all his bare skin was an entirely different experience, and she wished they didn’t need to leave immediately. She’d be tempted to push him inside and find out if those muscles felt as delicious as they looked.
She shook her head, forcing away the thoughts. “Yes, Callum called. There’s another robot in Albuquerque. Alive. They need me—” Her breath hiccupped, and she twisted her fingers to get the words out through the building anxiety. “They need me to get there to see if we can save him before his body starts shutting down. Thus, Ian’s plane.”
He glanced down at his phone. “Plane should be here in less than an hour.”