Chapter 10
I’m in the field at the farm, turning soil with the trowel and trying to will water into existence. My stomach has been in a tight ball for days. I won’t have enough to keep anyone happy. What are they going to do if I can’t deliver? Will they take the land away? Will they split us up? Take my sister away from me?
The rumbling sound of trucks doesn’t concern me at first. Trucks come down our rural road all the time, carrying goods from the storage barns to the city. They’re so loud today, though, I head around the barn to see what’s going on.
I turn the corner and see the machines—huge metal monsters filled with soldiers.
I wake in a cold sweat.
Thankfully, I’m not alone. Riley is curled on her side, next to me in the small bed. She’d worked late to get all the data from our most recent training mission into the computer, and I’d practically begged her to just spend the night with me. With her here, the dream, along with the fear that came with it, fades quickly.
I press my chest to Riley’s back and slide my arm carefully under her neck. With the other arm around her stomach, I pull her closer to me. I’m hard as a rock. It’s hard to resist the urge to rub my erection against her ass, but I manage. At least for a little while.
As she begins to stir from sleep, I kiss her neck and shoulder. She hums softly and presses back against me. I slide my hand over her stomach, down to her thigh, and then back up to cup her breast. Her hum turns into a moan, and she turns her head to give me better access to her neck.
Moving my hand lower, I slip it between her legs and hold her thigh up enough to gain access. I enter her slowly from behind, easing my way forward until I’m encompassed by her. I pause and press my lips to her shoulder, holding her close to me. Riley sighs and turns her head to meet my lips.
I move slowly, listening to the changes in her breathing and basking in her scent. It’s different in the morning, stronger and slightly muskier. I can smell myself on her, too.
Riley raises her leg a little more and shoves her backside against me, driving me deeper. I pick up the pace as I feel her come with a small, high-pitched gasp. I quickly follow, grunting my pleasure against her throat.
I wrap myself around her tightly, holding her to my chest as our breathing returns to normal.
“That was quite a good morning,” Riley mumbles with a sigh. “For a minute, I thought I was having a dream.”
“Best kind of dream,” I respond. Images from my own dream try to invade my head, but I push them away. I just want to focus on the here and now, primarily, Riley’s warm skin up against my own.
“It was very nice.”
“Just nice?”
She snickers and rolls over to snuggle against me.
“We could just stay like this all day.” I know my suggestion is pointless, but I say it anyway.
“I do have work I need to get done.”
I sigh and relax my grip. Riley crawls off the bed and gathers her clothes from the floor while I get myself over to the shower. By the time I’m dressed, she’s already pounding away on the computer.
“The techs are performing some maintenance on the virtual systems,” Riley says. “I need to run home and check on a few things, and then I have a meeting later. Do you want to hang out in the lounge while I’m gone?”
“Sure.”
Now that we have met, Isaac, Pike, and I are able to meet with each other in a lounge near the virtual training centers. It’s a good place to talk about the missions we’ve done and compare tactics. Most of the time, we all agree on what approach to take, but on the few occasions where we disagree, I find their reasoning interesting.
Riley escorts me to the lounge, where Isaac is already sitting at a table, leafing through a manual of some sort. It’s a pointless activity—he could just have the information loaded into his implants, but he says he likes the tactile sensation of the paper.
I drop my ass into the chair beside him, and he pushes the manual away.
“Boring day,” he says. “No training.”
“Me either. The virtual systems are offline.”
“I heard. I was going to go to the gym, but Shweta said she had a meeting to go to.”
“Riley, too.” I reach over and flip the manual so I can see the cover. It has the Mills Conglomerate logo printed on the top corner, and the title is Healthy Today, Brighter Tomorrow. I thumb through a few pages. All the articles are about the benefits of synthetic food sources.
I’ve found Isaac to be a very relaxed guy most of the time. He’s thoughtful and soft-spoken but an animal when threatened. When he talks about Dr. Rahul, he gets a glazed look in his eyes. He says he’s in love with her.