DIVISION 52 - BOOK II

CHAPTER LV

M A K A Y L A

I put my head on my forearms as I watched her twist a wrench against the bike.

"Didn't Proximo want to speak with you?"

"Probably." She answered, unbothered. The dark leather riding gear along her legs was doing wonders for my imagination. Something clicked and she released it going for another glowing tube.

"Alex, is this safer than the last one..."

She paused with the glowing tube in hand and smirked at me from the floor.

"It's definitely faster."

I couldn't help but match the smile she wore as she fitted it in next to four others. It didn't need to make sense to me but it did to her. She had walked in and dismissed the rest of her engineers to see it for herself.

A stark red, mean looking piece of machinery. Nothing less for Scorpion.

I pulled myself off the boxes of spare parts and god knew what else. She was still snapping in the fusion canister when I strolled over to scan the intricate network of metal and holo design of the dash. It had no clear ignition this time. There was a grunt of approval beneath me before the metal clicked again and she began the process of sealing it shut.

I dropped my gaze down to her and crouched beside her hip.

A trail of dark oil ran across her neck and I smirked. Without warning she moved her thumb off the metal and ran a line directly across my face. My smirk vanished and a glare took its place.

"Such an improvement." She noted dryly, turning the screws in place again.

"I clean myself up for you and you manage to ruin it before we go anywhere." I stated, watching the muscles of her arm flex with the tool.

"I'm taking you for a ride–not ballroom dancing." She smirked, setting down the tool in her hands and pushing out from under the bike. She scanned the dark smear on my cheek all the same.

"Both sound pretty good to me." I shrugged with a knowing smile.

Alex leant back on her arms and raised an eyebrow, "My intentions were innocent... yours however seem to be different."

I ran my eyes along her with a shrug and caught the corner of her lips twitch. Smeared with oil or not this was Alex we were talking about. She pushed off her arms quickly and pulled me up out of my crouch with her. I was dropped onto the seat of the fusion cycle and left looking up at the woman who left her hands on my thighs as she watched me.

God damn it just kiss me.

She smiled slowly and flicked her eyes to the dash of the bike.

"Put your hand on my dash." She said evenly.

"Is that an innuendo?"

"You wish it was."

She wasn't wrong there.

I complied and placed my palm on the screen between the handles. It came to life under me all at once. The power of it hummed and a complicated computer system announced my presence by full name.

"Control granted." A male sang back.

I took my hand off quickly. Alex leant over me and touched the screen. I was more focused on the way her leg pinned the side of mine against the bike and the hand she left on my leg–but I'm sure she was all too aware of her own actions. The side of her face contorted with focus as she ran diagnostics on the system but all my senses were geared towards the sweet smell of her proximity and the cut of her jaw line.