Disciple: DreamWalkers, Book 2 by Jody Wallace

panties, she’d follow wherever he led. Her pussy thrummed, eager for that first touch. How would the tangible enhance the sensations?
    He stroked the crease of her thigh. “You want me to touch you. Say it.”
    “I want…” Dammit, he’d almost had her. “You think we won’t see each other again after this. That’s why you’re breaking the rules.”
    “Not true. I told you. There’s no reason to reassign you.” He removed his hand from her pants, which helped her concentrate. “It’s not a concern.”
    “Don’t lie to my face and expect me to have sex with you,” Maggie said. “At least be honest.” She understood the Somnium’s restriction against student-teacher relationships, but if Zeke cared for her, she was willing to compromise. They’d figure something out.
    “I don’t know if I could stop them from taking you,” he admitted. He rested his forehead on her chest, his blond-tipped hair mussed from two sets of fingers—his and hers. “Curators can find anyone, anywhere.”
    “And you didn’t want me to disappear without fucking me first?”
    His head shot up. “It’s not like that. Jesus, Maggie.”
    “Get off.” She shoved his shoulders, and he clambered into his seat. As the hard truth hit her, she secured her zipper.
    “I’ll do everything I can to keep you with me.” Inelegantly, he adjusted the large bulge in his pants. “I’ll lie about your progress.”
    “You shouldn’t have to lie.” Maggie returned her seat to an upright position and leaned against the headrest, closing her eyes. “If my progress is so problematic that I need to be reassigned to a curator, it’s for my own good.”
    “Well, it’s no fucking good for me,” he snapped.
    “You’ll get your bed back.”
    “I was being an asshole. I’ve been an asshole. I couldn’t let this…” He gestured at her body. “Distract me from training you. Like it did before. With her.”
    “I know.” They’d discussed this in the beginning. She just didn’t understand why having a relationship afterwards—why remaining friendly during training—had ceased to be an option. “It’s fine. Forget it.”
    “I’ll ease off,” he promised. “I won’t be such a bastard. But you’ll have to be strong for both of us if you don’t want…”
    He stopped talking and started the car. This whole time, not one single vehicle had passed them on the dark highway.
    “If I don’t want what?”
    He slammed the SUV into gear and jolted it onto the highway. “When you’re mad at me, it’s easier.”
    “Easier to what?” Be a shithead? Erase any possibility of them being friends after her training, much less lovers?
    He scowled at the road ahead. “Easier to be tough on you. I have to teach you to defend yourself, when every part of me wants to protect you.”
    His confession only soothed her a little. “Well, when you’re mad at me, it’s harder.”
    A disciple’s mentor was the person every neo depended on during training. Zeke’s horrible attitude had increased Maggie’s difficulties by half again, especially once the other alucinators and employees had begun to distrust her. The one person who was supposed to have her back was always threatening to let her fall.
    Of course, he never had. It was likely he never would. He just made her feel like he resented her presence.
    “I’m never all that mad at you.” His voice roughened. “Let’s get to the coma station and find out what’s going on. You can beat me up about this later. I deserve it.”

Chapter Five
    Adishakti Sharma, her ugly, plastic clogs scuffling on the concrete floor, led Zeke and Maggie through the large facility’s austere corridors. She walked so fast her scrubs practically flapped in the wind.
    “Where we going?” Zeke asked.
    She’d wasted little time after they’d arrived, rushing them through the required processing and herding them away. In fact, Adi was almost—dare he say it—twitchy. Zeke had never seen her so out of