Time Eternal Read Online Free PDF Page B

couldn’t process the event, so it manifested in my dreams. It stopped about a year later, around the time I started at Columbia and right before I met you and Vivi.” She looked away from him. “Last night, out of nowhere, I felt the same terror when you…your…well, you know.” She trailed off, feeling her face getting warmer by the second.
    Knox drew her back down and wrapped his arms around her protectively. “It’s okay. You don’t have to explain anything. I’m just glad you’re better now.” He sounded worried, and there was a hint of hurt in his voice. She felt even smaller at that moment. What was wrong with her? She cared for and loved Knox. They had been going out for over a year now, were each other’s best friend. Why couldn’t she take their relationship to the next level, to lovers?
    After that night, their relationship changed. Knox never tried to do more than give her a quick kiss on the lips. Then their senior year, final exams came, and they both got busy with their schoolwork. The intimate emotional bond she had with Knox faded away rapidly. The day after their graduation, she and Knox said their good-byes. Neither of them spoke of breaking up, but they both knew it was the end.
    That was seven years ago. Skyla had never really dated anyone since then. Causal flirting, yes, but nothing that ever came close to exclusive dating like she and Knox had. When she ran into Knox at TSCCA a couple years ago, she just didn’t feel right about picking up where they had left off. But Knox thought otherwise. He had been subtly hinting that he still wanted her and that he wanted a second try. And lately, his behavior toward her was borderline territorial. She knew most of the guys at TSCCA already thought Knox was staking a claim on her. The misconceived notion did come in handy. It helped her evade unwarranted romantic attention from both inside and outside the Agency. The thought made her smile a little.
    Before she could give Knox the same speech about how their time together had run its course and that she was comfortable being single, the doors to the medical quarters opened.
    “Hey, guys.” Vivi walked in with a stack of boxes. “Knox, here are the tissue samples from our last mission.”
    Skyla was relieved by the interruption. Yep, she was a master at avoidance.
    Vivi was the pet name she and Knox had had for her since college. Vivi adored it, but only Knox, Skyla, and the rest of their team were allowed to use it. The last time a new recruit made the mistake of trying to be friendly and called her Vivi, he ended up stuck in some godforsaken medieval period during a mission. Vivi simply, conveniently, left him behind after the mission was completed and didn’t go back to retrieve him for twenty-four hours. It was a quick surveillance mission with just the two of them. Their gear hadn’t included any survival packages, nor did they carry any weapons—not that modern weapons would have worked when travelling back in time, anyway. So the new recruit had to survive the rough, ancient terrain, fending off wild animals and blood-thirsty warlords with nothing but his bare knuckles and a couple of daggers for almost a day and night. After that, the new recruit only addressed Vivi as “ma’am,” and no one else had tried to call her by any other name but Vivienne from then on. Skyla smiled fondly at the history she shared with the twins.
    Knox looked at her a moment longer, as if he was trying to look into her soul, before he got up and took the boxes from his sister.
    Vivi immediately took her brother’s seat on the sofa. “Skyla, you look pale. Has Knox checked you out yet?”
    “I was about to when someone barged in,” Knox answered for her as he walked to the back of his lab.
    “Don’t worry, Vivi. I’m fine. Just a bit disoriented. That’s all.”
    Vivi was not as tall as her brother but was still no shrimp. At five-feet-ten, her legs were miles long. She had the perfect supermodel