Chapter 228: The Interview

First orgasm came for Eve almost without warning, a slow building that crested and washed over her like a wave. She clung to him, gasped his name, felt him adjust his angle to prolong it.

When it subsided, she thought he might slow down.

Instead, he pulled her legs up around his waist and began moving faster.

"I need more," he said, his voice rough. "I need you to give me everything. Because I need to know that even when I’m in that facility, I have the memory of this. Of you. Of what we have."

Second orgasm built faster. Eve felt it approaching and tried to slow her breathing, tried to make it last, but Dimitri had other plans. His hand found her clit and circled it with devastating precision, pushing her over the edge almost violently.

She came with a cry, her entire body shaking, her vision blurring.

Dimitri didn’t stop.

He flipped her onto her stomach and re-entered from behind, the new angle allowing him to go deeper. Eve gasped at the sensation, the stretching, the fullness, the way he filled her completely.

"Third," Dimitri counted against her shoulder blade. "Give me one more and then we’ll rest."

But Eve could feel that his control was slipping. His movements became less calculated and more desperate. She could hear it in his breathing, could feel it in the way his hands gripped her hips.

He needed this. Needed to be inside her. Needed the connection as much as she did.

Eve pushed back against him, meeting his thrusts, helping him chase the release he clearly needed.

The angle changed slightly, and suddenly he was hitting that spot inside her that made everything white out.

Third orgasm hit like lightning, unexpected and overwhelming and absolutely perfect.

She came screaming his name, her entire body convulsing around him.

And finally, she felt him let go. Spilling inside her, his groan muffled against her shoulder, his entire body shuddering with the force of his release.

They collapsed together, both gasping, both completely undone.

Dimitri pulled her against his chest and didn’t let go.

They lay like that for a long time, no talking, no movement, just breathing together. His heart rate gradually slowed. His breathing evened out. But his arms never loosened.

"Eve," he said finally, his voice rough.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For choosing me. For staying with me. For loving me despite everything you know about what I am." His hand came up and stroked her hair gently. "Thank you for giving me something worth fighting for."

Eve felt tears stream down her face, but she didn’t try to hide them.

"Come back to me," she whispered. "Please. Just come back."

"I will," Dimitri said, and pulled her closer.

They stayed like that through the night, wrapped around each other, holding on like if they just held tight enough, they could stop time. Could prevent Friday from coming. Could make this moment last forever.

But dawn still came eventually.

And with it, the knowledge that they only had two more days.

***

POV: DIMITRI

The penthouse was silent except for the hum of the encrypted laptop.

Dimitri sat at the desk in his study, the camera angled so that only his chest and face were visible. They had later decided that he should have the interview at home, Behind him, was a carefully neutral background....a bookshelf, nothing personal, nothing that would contradict Dr. Aleksandr Volkov’s carefully constructed identity.

It was 7:55 PM.

Five minutes until the call.

Five minutes until he either passed through the final gate or everything collapsed.

Dimitri’s hands were steady. His breathing was controlled. But beneath the surface, something was coiled and waiting, the predator inside him, the part that had built an empire, the part that was about to walk into The Covenant’s facility with the express purpose of burning it down from the inside.

The laptop screen remained dark.

He’d memorized everything. Every detail of Volkov’s fabricated life. The Russian accent, The research papers that Marco and Claude had created....42 of them, published in legitimate journals under false peer reviews. The employment history. The ideological alignment with "unrestricted research" and the dismissal of "ethical limitations as obstacles to progress."

Everything was perfect.

Everything would hold up to scrutiny because they’d built it to withstand it.

At 8:00 PM exactly, the screen flickered.

A face appeared. Female, early 50s, sharp features, colder eyes than Dimitri had ever seen. This was Dr. Elizabeth. Lead researcher. The woman who ran The Covenant’s primary facility. The woman who’d been developing a weaponized virus for over a decade.

The woman who’d killed his mother.

"Dr. Volkov," she said, and her voice was crisp, clinical, with a faint New England accent. "Thank you for making yourself available on short notice."

"Of course, Dr. Elizabeth." Dimitri’s accent shifted....Russian-inflected English, the kind that came from someone educated in Russia but working internationally. "The opportunity is... significant. I was very interested when PharmTech contacted me."

"Tell me about your interest," Dr. Elizabeth said, and she settled back in her chair. Behind her, Dimitri could see the edge of what looked like a laboratory. Sterile. Cold. Designed for maximum efficiency and minimum humanity.

"I have spent twenty years studying viral transmission," Dimitri said carefully. "Twenty years working within systems that prioritize safety protocols over scientific progress. It is... limiting."

Elizabeth’s eyes flickered. Interest. Good.

"Limiting how?" she pressed.

"Ethics committees. Regulatory bodies. Fear-based decision making." Dimitri leaned slightly forward, just enough to show engagement without appearing desperate. "I believe that real advancement requires freedom. Freedom to experiment. Freedom to test hypotheses without the constant interruption of moral hand-wringing."

Elizabeth smiled. It was not a warm smile.

"Many researchers say that," she said. "Few actually mean it when the stakes become real."

"The stakes have always been real," Dimitri replied. "I simply choose to acknowledge that. Some people are afraid of progress. I am not."

There was a pause. Elizabeth was studying him. Dimitri could feel the weight of her attention, trying to find cracks in his story, inconsistencies, signs of deception.