Hijacked by Lolita Lopez

Chapter Twenty-One

“Will you stop pacing?” Andro demanded, his voice halting and rough. “You’re making me dizzy.”

“Sorry,” Misko apologized. He sat down at the small table in the connected suite of rooms the three brothers shared. Almost immediately, he started fidgeting, drumming his fingers on the table and bouncing his knees.

“Can you get him a sediment?” Andro jokingly asked Branko.

Misko exchanged a look with Branko who carefully corrected, “Sedative.”

Andro frowned. “What came out of my mouth?”

“Sediment.”

Andro scowled. “Blondie better hurry up and get her plan mapped out for rewarding my brain.”

“Rewiring?” Branko suggested cautiously.

“Fuck me!” Andro swore angrily.

“Hey!” Branko said excitedly. “You got that one right!”

Andro threw his empty mug at Branko who easily caught it one-handed. The two bickered back and forth, the sound of their banter taking Misko right back to their childhood. How many times had he refereed his two younger brothers? It seemed some things never changed.

“Message incoming,” the chirpy automated voice of the communicator announced.

“Open,” Branko ordered.

“Misko! Get your butt-o down here,” Sara commanded. “It’s time-o!”

He was out the door before Sara had even finished her silly message. Branko and Andro called after him, but he didn’t slow down to wait for them. They would either catch up or not. He didn’t care. Only one thing mattered right now—Camila.

They hadn’t spoke since their last night together, but he had received a brief video message a few days earlier. It had been heavily encrypted and slightly choppy and compressed after the decryption. Not that it mattered. Hearing her voice and seeing her face had been the balm his wounded heart desperately required.

But, he would be lying if he said the sight of her battered face didn’t upset him. The fact that it was a recorded video message worked in his favor. He wouldn’t have been able to school his features if he had been talking to her live.

When Sara had described the way Camila had been rescued and what had been happening to her at the time, he had thrown multiple medical alerts from the fury that tore through him. Knowing that she had been this close to a lobotomy still made his stomach twist. Seeing the bruising around her eye and nose from the surgical probe that had stabbed into her face left him feeling useless and guilty. He still couldn’t shake the idea that he should have been there to protect her, that he had failed her by not leading the rescue.

He reached the airfield and spotted Sara waiting anxiously. He jogged toward her and stopped. She grinned up at him and pointed toward the streak of yellow and white against the shadowy dusk. “There she is!”

Arms crossed, he stood stoic and tall. Inside, he vibrated with nervous energy. When the mid-size cargo ship finally touched the tarmac and powered down, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She was safe. She was here.

The second Camila appeared in the open doorway of the loading ramp he rushed to meet her. She ran down the ramp in her strappy heels, the teasingly short fabric of her floral dress fluttering around her thighs. His fingers itched to comb through the loose waves of hair tumbling around her shoulders, to strip away the jewelry adorning her ears and neck and hands. He yearned to feel her soft body under his, to claim her mouth and taste between her thighs again.

“Mis!” She launched herself at him, and he caught her, whirling around in a circle as she peppered his face with ticklish kisses. “I missed you. I missed you so much!”

“Not as much as I missed you, Camila.” He slid his fingers into her hair, clutching the back of her head, and slanted his mouth against hers. She whimpered into his seeking kiss and wound her arms around his shoulders. She held tight as they kissed, and he never wanted it to end. He wanted to carry her right to her quarters and show her just how much he had missed her.

In the end, they were forced apart by Sara calling her name. He reluctantly lowered her to the ground and stepped back as the two sisters reunited. They both began to cry as they hugged and talked over each other. He caught the amused glances of his brothers behind them. Were they noticing the similarities in the bond between sisters and brothers?

After Camila was introduced to Andro, she reached for Misko's hand and tugged him close. She didn’t want to be separated from him, and he was happy to follow along beside her to the SCIF. Sara had most of the details of the ordeal she had survived, but Camila filled in the gaps during the debrief. She provided more facts that would be useful for planning future missions and offered some insight on the emperor’s current state of mind that was equal parts fascinating and terrifying.

He sat through dinner in the mess hall where Camila held court like a queen bee. Even though he wanted her all to himself, he enjoyed watching her in her element. He understood that there were parts of herself that she shared with everyone and some parts that she shared only with him. As the night dragged on, though, he grew more anxious about getting her alone so they could enjoy those secret parts.

“It’s been a long day,” Camila said after finishing her only glass of wine. Among the supplies on the cargo ship was a pallet of alcoholic beverages that Sara had enthusiastically unwrapped herself. “I think it’s time for me to head to bed.”

“Sure,” Sara replied with a knowing smirk. “I bet you’re going to get a lot of sleep tonight.”

Camila narrowed her eyes at her sister. “Jealousy is an ugly look on you.”

“So is the color pink on you, incidentally,” Sara retorted and gestured toward the dress Camila wore.

Camila’s jaw dropped, and Misko tensed, certain she would start crying or be upset by her sister’s waspish remark. Instead, he was taken aback when she laughed and leaned over to hug her sister. “I love you, Sara.”

“I love you too, Cammy.” Sara touched her head to Camila’s before shooing her off with both hands.

Misko practically jumped to his feet when Camila smiled at him. He interlaced their fingers and led her away from the mess hall. They made it to her quarters without anyone getting in their way. The serious look on his face probably helped. He doubted anyone wanted to chance it.

The moment they were safely locked inside her quarters, he pinned her against the door. She gasped, her eyes glittering with excitement and arousal. Still wounded, he said, “You left without saying goodbye.”

Her gaze turned apologetic and sad. “I’m sorry. I really am so sorry, Mis. I was a coward—”

“There’s nothing cowardly about you,” he interrupted. He kissed her nose and eyelid, gently anointing those areas that had been savagely wounded but beautifully repaired by nanobots. “Absolutely nothing.”

Desperate for her to know the depth of his feelings, he pressed his forehead to hers and confessed, “I love you, Camila.”

She exhaled a pent-up breath. “Oh, thank the stars! Because I’m really, really in love with you.”

“That works out nicely for us,” he murmured before teasing his mouth over hers.

“Quite,” she agreed with a grin.

Even though he wanted nothing more than to tumble her into bed, he held his desire in check. Her safety came first, always. “Are you healed completely?”

She laughed. “If you’re asking if I’m healthy enough to ride you like I stole you? The answer is an enthusiastic yes.”

Happy and loved, Misko let himself feel the passion that burned between them. He allowed himself to hope of a future filled with laughter and love. There were no guarantees about tomorrow, but as long as he was with Camila, he would be fine.

The End.