Ashlynn stood at the foot of her mother’s bed and grinned. Mummy lie on her back with one hand on her tummy, sound asleep. She barely stirred when Ashlynn climbed up beside her. The four year-old rested her head on Mummy’s “bump,” stifling a giggle when she felt her baby brother kick
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“Dr. Myers?”
The hesitant female voice interrupted Shane’s thoughts. His fingers, which had been flying over the computer keyboard, froze as his temper flared. Although Shane quickly regained his alien calm, he’d heard his best assistant take a step back. He faced her with a mostly genuine smile. “Yes, Joon?”
The two weeks since Harris had the
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Even before Daniel slapped her on the wrist in her own bloody office, Addison struggled with mortification. Maintaining her daily routine of cataloging artifacts, checking translations, and caring for Ashlynn hid the worst of it.
The hallway incident had supplied the Triptych rumor mill with fresh fodder. Many believed that Addison and
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Daniel concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other as he approached Archaeology. Should have done this sooner, he chided himself. Fortunately he was practiced at hiding discomfort and fatigue. The higher one rose in Triptych, the more crucial the skill became.
He’d been up for 26 hours when Chairman Butler
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Shane wasn’t concerned about the handful of Triptych employees who saw him entering his head assistant’s quarters in the wee hours of the morning. Sleeping with an unmarried, politically unimportant coworker didn’t rate high on the rumor circuit.
He’d first propositioned Joon a year ago, three months after she’d transferred to the alpha facility.
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Editor’s note: This is Vanessa’s first draft of the hallway encounter from Addison’s point of view (POV). I combined it with the bit I wrote from Shane’s POV for chapter 3 part 2.

For a few, brief exhilarating moments the world reduced to a haze of lust and hormones and Myers. Addison drowned
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For a brief, terrifying moment Shane surrendered to lust. He’d been on his way to his quarters after a 14 hour stint at the lab when Harris, who’d been parading around the facility horny and half naked, bumped into him. She latched on to Shane with arms and legs and tongue. He responded
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