Page 44 of Dark Gambit Reliance

"How do they get power?" Toven asked William. "Are they connected to the grid?"

William nodded. "They are. Power is fed via pole-suspended conductors, which makes for an easy target to take it down, but I prefer not to touch it. That would trigger an investigation from the Russian electric company, and it wouldn't do us much good to take it down anyway."

"What about the exoskeletons?" Toven asked. "Are we taking those as well?"

William laughed. "Do you have any idea how big and heavy they are? As it is, we are already maxing out the jet's cargo capacity. We will need a big plane to carry the suits, the Guardians, and Kalugal's men. I hope that Jade will eliminate Igor and that they won't be needed."

31

SOFIA

"Ihope you don't want to return to the retreat." Marcel stopped at the gate to the private enclave where his bungalow was located.

"I don't have a choice," Eleanor said, even though his question hadn't been directed at her. "I have a class to teach." She winked. "I'll see you two when I see you." She hugged Cecilia to her chest and kept on walking.

After talking with Valstar, Sofia was too distraught to pay attention in class, and the distraction that Marcel offered with his skillful lovemaking was very appealing.

She wound her arms around his neck. "What do you want me to do instead?"

He smiled. "I have a few ideas."

She'd noticed that he'd been smiling a lot more lately, and she wondered whether it was because he'd finally shared his guilty secret with someone or because he was in love with her.

It was probably both, and knowing that she was responsible for his newfound happiness made her heart swell with gratitude and love.

What would happen if she didn't transition, though?

"Think positive," she murmured. "Ask, and you shall receive."

"What's the matter?" Marcel opened the door to his bungalow. "Bad thoughts again?"

She didn't want to spoil his mood. Meeting his gaze with a coy smile, she tilted her head. "Why do you assume that I was thinking bad thoughts? Maybe I was asking the universe for orgasms?"

His eyes blazed with an inner light. "You can ask me, and I shall deliver." He picked her up by the waist and deposited her on the kitchen counter.

The thing was small, no more than five feet across, and that included a sink.

"What are you doing?"

"Answering a request." His lips feathered over her neck. "I never told you this before, but you have a beautiful neck. And even though your hair is magnificent, I like that you keep it up, exposing this graceful column. I get hard imagining my fangs grazing your smooth skin right here." He kissed the spot.

As she opened her legs wider, making room for him between them, her hands found the back of his neck, and she drew him closer. "Kiss me."

The hard ridge of his arousal pressed against her sensitive tissues through the fabric of his slacks and her leggings, both of them made of thin material that did little to take away from the sensation.

As his tongue tangled with hers, his hands slid down from her waist to her ass, and as he pulled her harder against that straining erection, she lifted her legs and hooked them around his hips.

The moment his hands left her bottom, she mourned the loss of his touch, but then he was tugging at her T-shirt and pulling it over her head.

When she was left with only her push-up bra, she reached for his turtleneck and pulled it out of the waistband of his slacks. "Take it off."

When he pulled away to do as she commanded, she leaned back, propping herself on her forearms to watch him expose his magnificent chest. Lean muscle with a light smattering of blond hair that was barely visible against his pale skin.

Leaning over her, Marcel pushed his fingers under the elastic of her leggings, and as he pulled them down, she toed off her sneakers.

He tossed the leggings on the floor and then removed her right sock but didn't let go of her foot. He kissed her ankle, then her calf, then the inside of her knee, and just as she thought that he would keep going to where her panties were soaked through, he lifted her left foot and repeated what he had done with her right.

"You're such a tease."