She grazed her slick center along his erection as she moved her breasts over his chest, the surge of sensations driving her absolutely crazy. Reaching a hand down, she circled her fingers around him, guiding his thick shaft to her and lowering herself to take him inside of her.

They moved as one, joined together in a timeless moment, sheltered by the resilient bond they’d forged.

The pace suddenly picked up by mutual consent. With a powerful joint thrust, the crest of the stormy wave came crashing down. The sheer force of their shared climax rivaled that of the energy that flowed from her psi powers.

He’d said he loved her.

And as Harper collapsed onto Rome’s heaving body, spent and sated like never before, she believed she might be in bigger trouble than she thought.

Because in spite of everything, she had to admit to herself that she was falling in love with him, too.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Harper peered at the laptop, scrolling through the files that had finished downloading as she lay on her stomach on the rumpled bed, naked beneath the down comforter. As soon as they’d awakened, they’d engaged in another round of lovemaking. Well, honestly, really hot and mind-blowing sex. But this time it had been slow and easy, even playful. When it was over, they’d just dozed until her empty stomach growled for some attention.

Rome had made them something to eat, and then they’d gotten down to some more research to plan their next move. It was the first time she’d been able to get back to the laptop and finish scanning over Bobby’s files. Reading the same paragraph for the third time, she rubbed her strained eyes, easily figuring out why she was so unfocused.

The reason was sitting against the sturdy headboard, his lower body covered by the other half of the comforter.

She’d known he was hurt at the compound, but it just now came to her how close he’d come to getting killed. Rome was willing to die for her. Yes, he’d betrayed her once, but even knowing that she didn’t have long to live herself, he’d now risked death to protect her.

Shaking her head, she glanced over her shoulder and saw his intense gaze focused on her. She smiled at him, which earned her a matching grin. He added a heated leer and then returned to reading one of the file folders they’d taken from the lab. There was no longer any doubt that he was committed to helping her in a way she was just beginning to understand, and she was eternally grateful for it.

She reluctantly turned her attention back to the bright screen and switched gears. A few extra seconds and the data began to register. The picture and scope of what her brother was doing flashed by as if she were on an interstate highway, soaking in the landscape as it spoke to her.

The serum, once bonded with the plants, couldn’t be transferred from them. Meaning you could eat the fruit, but not extract the formula. The plants wouldn’t pass it along. No wonder the creepy woman torturing her couldn’t get what they needed to replicate it. Bobby hadn’t got around to testing that for sure, but she was living proof.

As normal plants, they needed the natural elements to thrive. That’s why Bobby had constructed unique lights inside his lab to emulate natural sunlight. He’d built them sunshine. And it had worked. Perfectly. Plants that had received his sunshine had flourished just as if they’d been outdoors.

Just as she had. Her psionic power had worked in his lab and outside in the natural light. But in any dark confines, she’d been unable to summon it. And every time she’d stepped outside, she’d felt rejuvenated.

No damaging side effects had been found. Well, not to the plants. She, on the other hand, was in for a different fate given the results of Jeff’s trial. But at least the plants wouldn’t be shooting out angry psi-powered waves at people as they picked fruit or sprinkled water on them. She guessed that was a bonus.

Bobby had kept everything top secret so the serum wouldn’t get in the hands of people who would abuse its power. People like Jeff. He had intended the test plants and serum to be delivered to a few hand-picked secret agricultural regions for trials, but nothing could move forward until the final tests proved the serum’s perfection.

Harper smiled fondly. It was so like her brother to want to be absolutely, positively, one hundred percent, inescapably sure before he launched it.

The next folder she opened housed one lone document. She clicked to open it and was rewarded with a request for a password. Harper had to laugh. She should have known that Bobby would do the unexpected and make the final step straightforward instead of the most complex one of all. Any other hacker would be fooled. Sometimes she got so caught up in encryption and breaking codes that the basic password protection delighted her.

Until she realized she had no idea what that password could be.

Oh, for crying out loud. She closed her eyes and thought of her brother. Pictured Bobby sitting at his laptop securing this folder with the simplest of protection. Yet the most difficult to crack by her standards. She could hack it, but that would take time, and she was running low on patience.

Okay, so she wouldn’t hack it. She’d reason it.

He’d probably been in a hurry, so it would have to be something that came to him quickly. And something he knew only she would know.

They had so much history to choose from. So many inside jokes. What would he think only she knew?

Maybe her name? It was simple enough. She typed it in but was denied. Darn.

Okay. Think. It would be a direct message from him to her. Olympics? Ever since she started training again, he’d e-mail her just one word: Olympics. Reminding her that he was with her every step of the way. That had to be it. She entered the word.

Denied once more. A simple password would lock out after three unsuccessful tries and she’d be back to square one. She had to get it right this time or maybe lose the data forever.

With a frustrated sigh, she glanced outside the window at the misting whitecaps of the frigid river.

A sudden memory flashed to her mind. A few years ago, they’d gone hiking on Mount Shasta. She’d slipped, slid down the slope, and splashed into a glacial pool at the bottom. Bobby had tried to reach her, descending carefully, but had ended up falling into the pool along with her. They’d laughed until their keisters began to freeze from the icy-cold water.

Ever since, whenever one of them tripped or fell, they had called out “Shastaboom.”

With a fond smile, she shifted her thoughts back to the present.

Wait. Shastaboom. Could it really be that easy?

She typed the crazy word in and held her finger over the Enter key. Hesitating, hoping she knew her brother as well as she thought.

But no. She was sure. She had to be. Pressing the key, she held her breath.

And let it out slowly with a grin as the document opened without fanfare.

The formula.

Maybe now that she had the actual recipe, someone could develop an antidote. Bobby’s notes mentioned that he hadn’t yet reverse engineered the serum. He obviously thought he had the time to do it right. He’d been proven wrong.

She carefully committed his formula to memory, then closed her eyes and recalled it in her mind a few times. Opening her eyes, she peered at the formula again. She knew it now. And knew she’d never forget it. She erased the document and saved it, completely blank. Then she deleted it.

Closing the file, Harper rubbed her face with tired hands. The more data she uncovered, the more she resented the situation she’d been thrust into.

Bobby’s research was beyond important, but she had no experience dealing with this kind of thing. Jeff and his faction were twisting the honorable research into an ugly vestige of its original intention. And before she could even begin to deal with her new life-whatever that new life may be-she was determined to avenge her brother.