Safe (The Shielded Series Book 1) by Christine DePetrillo Page B

that looped in his brain. It was her surrounding him. It was her
digging her fingernails into his shoulders. It was her gasping in pleasure. It
was her bringing him to the edge and pushing him over as he thrust into her
again and again.  
    “Wonderful.”
    The sound of the other woman’s voice wrenched him out of his fantasy. He
opened his eyes and stood, giving her barely enough time to dislodge herself
from him.
    “That was amazing.” She fluttered her eyelids at him as she sat on the
couch and folded her legs beneath her.
    “And now it’s over.” He picked up her dress and handed it to her. “You
can go now.”
    She opened her mouth to protest, but he turned away, and whatever she was
going to say died on her lips. She must have gotten up because he heard the
sound of skin shifting on leather. A few huffing breaths escaped from her as
she slipped on her dress, and her heels clicked on the floor. Their quick tap-tap-tap let him know he’d pissed her off.
    The slam of his door let him know he’d probably done more than piss her
off.
    After removing the condom, cleaning up, and getting dressed, he settled
at his desk and brought up Darina’s picture on his tablet. She probably had too
much patience to get so pissed over nonsense. She definitely reminded him of
someone, but who? Tracing the edge of her jaw, he vowed to find her.
    Find her and claim her.
    ****
    Foster had shown Darina almost every corner of the cultivated property
from the farmland and gardens to the greenhouses to the hydro-electric station
that ran off the powerful stream cutting through the land to the field of solar
panels used as additional energy. He’d taken her into the woodshop where Roben
and some of the others who were skilled with building things worked. They’d
toured an outside area where a ring of smaller cabins sat, and he’d explained
that some of the GECs chose to live together, while others had their own
places.
    He only had two more spots to show her—his lab and the rest of the main
house. His house.
    “What do you think so far?” He wasn’t sure what was going through her
head. She’d been quiet through most of the tour, only asking practical
questions about electricity, water, and roles and responsibilities of those who
lived there.
    She stopped walking. “It’s impressive. I mean, you’ve got a
self-sustaining community here, Doc.” She turned in a circle, looking out at
the land around them. “And if you can build this here…”
    “It can be built elsewhere,” he finished, nodding. “It takes time and
hard work, but it can certainly be done. It could easily be unplug proof. Fuck
the Anarch and what they did to the globe.”
    “I like the sound of that, but in order to prove it can be done to the
government,” she turned back to him, “you’d have to provide evidence.”
    She fit the pieces together perfectly.
    “And if I provide evidence, I have to reveal this place.” Foster shoved
his hands in his pockets. He couldn’t recall how many times he’d had the
internal debate on this very dilemma.
    “And all those you keep safe here would be at risk.”
    “I’d like to think the government would look beyond my illegal harboring
of GECs in light of the fact that we could have a solution to rebuilding our
nation here, but you and I both know it won’t go down that way.”
     “Emerge Tech wouldn’t help?” she asked.
    “Emerge Tech serves the government, just as all the other corporations
had before the Unplug, the fighting, and Mikale’s plague. When Emerge Tech was
the only one left standing, the government took more control of it. After the Unplug,
we only worked on restoring technology. During the fighting, we worked on
weapons. When the virus was unleashed, I got assigned to find a cure. We’ve
been reacting, not looking for solid solutions.”
    He ran a frustrated hand through his hair and Darina stepped closer.
Throughout the tour, she’d been careful to keep a distance away from him.