Murder Game

CHAPTER SIX

They began fighting the moment they entered the house where Kadan had set up headquarters. Tansy was going to call her parents whether Kadan liked it or not. And he didn't like it. She tossed her head, her eyes flashing defiance.

"You can bark out orders all you like, big man, but I'm not under your command. I'm not exactly an amateur at this business, and I don't fall under the category of your underling, so get over that notion as well. Just who do you think you are, anyway?"

Kadan stepped close to her, purposely invading her personal space, inhaling her cinnamon scent, challenging her idea of what equality was. "I'm the only man who is ever going to lie with you at night and hold you close and keep you safe. I'm the only man who is going to make love to you anywhere, anytime, any way we both need or want it. More importantly, Tansy, I'm the man who is going to kill anyone who threatens you. So you can damn well listen to me."

She blinked at him, opened her mouth and closed it again, looking confused and entirely too seductive and bewildered for him to resist. Kadan leaned his head down and took possession of that soft, trembling mouth. Kissing her felt so damned good. He wanted to get lost in her, to just have the world disappear so he could spend his life skin-to-skin, kissing her.

"You know how to take the wind out of a woman's sails," she said accusingly, when she could talk again. "What am I supposed to say to that?"

"Nothing. Just kiss me again."

Tansy turned her mouth up to his. This time he pulled her close, his hand at the nape of her neck, holding her still while he took a long exploration, savoring her cinnamon flavor. "You are never supposed to argue with me." He rested his forehead against hers, looking into her strangely colored eyes.

She laughed softly. "I hate to burst your bubble, here, buddy, but all the kisses in the world are not going to stop me from letting my parents know where I am, who I'm with, and what I'm going to do. I don't hide things from them."

Kadan jerked away from her, pacing across the room. "I can't trust them. That's the truth whether you want to believe it or not. Until I clear them, I have to treat them like the enemy."

"My parents? Enemies? What do you think they're going to do? Contact the killers and say we're on to them?"

He spun around and gripped her shoulders hard. "I think they'll call Dr. Peter Whitney and inform him what you're doing."

Tansy tried to pull away from him, horror blossoming on her face, but he held her with his enormous strength, refusing to allow her to move away from his solid warmth. He gave her a little shake. "Did you hear me, Tansy? Did you understand what I said? What I meant. I'm the man who kills anyone who threatens you."

She swallowed hard and shook her head. "Not my parents. They would never betray me. Never. I don't care what you think, they wouldn't do that."

"Why would they choose a damaged child, Tansy, when they were wealthy enough to buy perfection? Any adoption agency would have given them whatever they wanted right down to the color of hair and eyes. Why you? When they got you, you probably couldn't stand their touch, or even using their utensils to eat with. Come on. You have a brain. Use it here. Figure out what the hell was going on back then. They took you to a doctor you clearly didn't want to see, and in spite of your tears and pleas, they left you alone with him."

Tansy closed her eyes briefly, trying not to remember the way her mother pleaded with her father, clinging to her before he took her firmly from her mother's arms and shoved her into the room with Whitney. Kadan couldn't be right. She wouldn't let him be right. Even thinking that way was a betrayal of her parents' love for her. "Shut up. I mean it, Kadan, I don't want you talking about my parents anymore."

"Then you promise me you're not going to call them."

"I have to call them. We have an arrangement. If I don't, they'll come looking for me." Tansy glared right back at him. "They love me, Kadan. They won't betray me."

"Then ask them what they're relationship with Whitney is and ask them why they didn't tell you he was still alive. Do that much. Don't make me have to track them down and find out myself, Tansy. You don't want me confronting your parents."

He looked so grim, so frightening, as if he was capable of walking in and putting a gun to their heads. Her parents. Two people she loved.

"Two people who are in this up to their necks," Kadan interrupted, clearly reading her mind. "Whitney experimented on children. On you. And they had to have known, but they said nothing. They did nothing to stop it. At least admit they had to have known."

She pushed at the wall of his chest. "Damn you, you just can't leave this alone. You're leaving me with nothing. They're my sanity. They're everything in my world and you're not going to take them away from me. This is a mistake. A big mistake. I was crazy coming here with you."

His fingers dug deeper, not allowing her to escape. "You're damn right. You don't seem to have the first idea of security, even when you've had plenty of reasons to be afraid. But I'm not your problem, Tansy, and you wouldn't be so upset if you didn't already know that. Don't blame me because there's something very smelly about the way your parents acquired you."

"You're such a bastard. Take your hands off of me. I'm calling my dad."

"Put him on speaker phone. This number is blocked and will be difficult to trace, but even so, you only have a few minutes to talk. I'll be timing you. If you start to say anything that compromises our mission or your safety, I disconnect. Do you understand?"

He held her in place, his eyes blazing down into her with that relentless, implacable, very annoying expression. She had a wild urge to kick him hard. Finally she nodded. He dropped his hands immediately. She muttered a repeat of the not so nice name she'd called him earlier, only this time she added not so nice adjectives to go along with it for good measure. He simply ignored her.

Tansy swung away, stalking across the room to the phone. She stabbed out her parents' number, refusing to look at Kadan as he came up behind her and pushed the speaker phone button. Her mother answered.

"Hey, Mom," Tansy said in greeting, her fingers twisting together. "Is Dad right there with you?"

"You're on the phone, not the radio," her mother observed. "Where are you?"

"Is Dad there?" she repeated.

"He's right here. I'm going to put you on speaker phone so we can both hear," Sharon added. "When did you get off the mountain?"

"Hi, Dad. I need you to answer a question for me," Tansy said, gripping her wrist hard, digging in her nails. "Why didn't you tell me Dr. Whitney was still alive?"

There was a silence. She closed her eyes picturing the shock on her parents' faces.

"Did that son of a bitch bother you, Tansy?" Don Meadows demanded. "What has he done? Tell me, honey, and I'll take care of it."

She looked around for a chair to sink into. Kadan shoved one under her and Tansy collapsed into it. "Why didn't you tell me about him, Dad? I've gone through enough that I deserve to know. Why do you have anything at all to do with a man like that? You've got to tell me the truth."

"What has he done? Tell me where you are and I'll send Fredrickson to pick you up. Don't trust anyone else," her father insisted.

Kadan dropped his hands on Tansy's slumped shoulders in an effort to show camaraderie.

"What does he have on you?" Tansy asked quietly.

There was silence again. Her mother choked back a sob.

"Come home now, Tansy. I'll tell you everything, but come home."

Kadan gripped her harder and shook his head when she tilted back to look at him. They need to get out of there, somewhere safe. He's probably monitoring this conversation. Tell them that. Tell them to get out.

"I have to go now. He's probably monitoring the conversation, Dad, and it isn't safe for you. Take Mom and go into hiding. Do it now and don't trust anyone."

Her mother screamed.

"You don't have to do that," Don Meadows bellowed. "She'll come back."

Tansy jumped to her feet. "Mom?"

"Tansy?" There was another male voice on the phone. "I'm afraid Mommy can't talk right now. Neither can Daddy. You have twenty-four hours to get back here or they're both dead. Say you understand."

Fredrickson, Dad's bodyguard, she identified to Kadan.

"What are you doing, Fredrickson?" she asked.

Her mother screamed again; this time the sound was filled with pain, not shock.

"I understand," Tansy said and hung up the phone. She didn't want to give Fredrickson, or anyone else, a chance to cause her parents further pain. "Get me a plane."

"Take a breath. Let's get a plan first."

Tansy knocked his hand away. "The plan is, I do whatever Fredrickson wants me to do. I'm not letting him kill my parents."

"He's not going to kill them," Kadan said. "As long as they don't have you, no one is going to kill them. When they acquire you, your parents' usefulness will be gone. That's when they'll be in real danger."

"You heard my mother scream."

"That was deliberate to frighten you into immediate compliance."

She glared at him. "Well, it worked. Get me a plane."

Kadan regarded with that cool, impassive gaze she was coming to dislike. "Sit down, Tansy. We need to think, not run off half cocked."

"Screw you, Kadan." She turned away and headed for the door.

His fingers settled around her wrist like a steel handcuff. "You're too emotional for this kind of work. Settle down."

She swung back, using her momentum to put power behind the punch she threw at him. Her fist went straight and true for his jaw, but he caught it, the sound loud as her knuckles slammed into his palm. He simply turned her, locking her tight against him.

"Don't be stupid, Tansy. I'm not the enemy. If you want your parents to survive, sit the hell down and let's figure out how to get them out alive. We need to know what's going on here. Is it connected to the murders? Is this about Whitney and you finding out about him? Fredrickson was obviously a plant in your house, but who put him there? Who does he work for?" He whispered the words, low and cool, in her ear. His breath was warm, his body hot, his grip too strong to break. "Use your brain."

Tansy hated that he was right. Hated it. She wanted to take another punch at him just for being right. "Let go. Just let go. I'm sitting down."

Kadan reluctantly released her, his eyes narrowed, watching her closely. Waiting. She felt him in her mind and glared at him.

"I need the layout of the house and grounds, with as much detail as possible, and that includes position of furniture and lighting. I need to know about security. Cameras. Guards. Alarms. Codes for alarms. Everything you can give me."

Tansy leaned her forehead into her hand. "You were right."

He was the devil as far as she was concerned, and he couldn't really blame her. He waved her admission aside. "Let's hear what they have to say before we condemn them. You just have to be very careful. Whitney is a monster."

She flicked him another quick look. "I know he's a monster and he must have something on them. Whatever it is, it has to be bad for them to go along with anything that man has done. I've been the insect under his microscope. What are we going to do to keep him from killing my parents?"

At least she had included him. "We're going to take them back. I'll make a couple of phone calls and get some help." Kadan didn't want to think too much about the way her father had said to Fredrickson, You don't have to do that. She'll come back, but the words were engraved in his mind and the ramifications a scary thing.

She dragged air into her lungs. "The GhostWalkers. You're going to ask them to help us." There was fear in her voice.

"And you're going to know they aren't involved. We won't be able to prove it, but you examine each of the game pieces, and when you meet the team, you'll know if any of them match any of the game pieces, right? You have strong impressions of personality."

"Of course I'll know. What happens if one of them is involved?"

"You signal me; I take out a gun and execute him."

There was another small silence while she examined his face, looking for a sign that he was joking. "We bring him in for trial," she corrected.

"There isn't going to be a trial for any GhostWalker caught murdering civilians. There's an execution order. Every GhostWalker is on the chopping block, thanks to these killers. When I know who they are, I'm authorized to hunt them and terminate."

"And you're okay with that?"

For a moment something hot swirled beneath the cool ice of his gaze. "These men are soldiers, more than soldiers. They are superweapons, sworn to protect this country and everyone in it. They are betraying every soldier who has gone before them, the soldiers fighting now, and all who come after. We have a code. They've broken that code. And more than that, Tansy, you better know exactly what we're up against."

"It's always difficult to go up against psychos."

He shook his head. "Superweapons. Never forget that these men we're chasing are not just well-trained soldiers, which would make our job difficult enough. I've had every kind of training possible. So have these men. I'm enhanced psychically. So are they. I'm enhanced physically. They are as well. If someone comes after me to kill me, they have one chance. One. They have to take me by surprise; after that, I'm hunting them and they're dead. These men are like me. Once they know we're on to them, they'll disappear and we'll never find them unless they surface to retaliate."

She nodded slowly. "Unfortunately, I have to agree with that assessment after handling the stallion. The man who owns that game piece definitely thinks he's superior and above all laws. His sense of entitlement is absolute. I believe he would come after us in a heartbeat, and it would never occur to him that he would lose."

"He's going to lose," Kadan said, no inflection in his voice.

There was no inflection in his mind either when she touched it. Only resolve and a belief that he was far more intelligent than his adversaries and that his code demanded the men committing the murders pay for casting a shadow over his fellow GhostWalkers. They would pay for betraying their country and the honor of every soldier the GhostWalkers represented. A shiver went down her spine. Just like the murderers, Kadan believed he was superior and far more intelligent. Faster. Stronger. That his training could see him through any situation. He believed in his teammates and he had a strong patriotic sense of duty. More than anything, these men had betrayed all soldiers, their country, and their code. Sentence had already been passed. To Kadan, they were walking dead men.

Kadan reached out and captured her hand, tugging until she was close to him. A breath away. The heat of her body meeting and amplifying the heat of his. "Tansy, don't be afraid of me. You have access to my mind…"

She shook her head. "I don't. I have access to what you let me see. You see all of me."

"You have access to all the places that belong to you. I'm not hiding how I feel about you. I want you, not for one night, but always."

"Because of Whitney. You think your attraction to me is because of Whitney, and you aren't happy about it."

"I did think that," he admitted without flinching, "and I was angry at the manipulation. But Whitney can only manipulate physical attraction. He has no power over my emotions. And you," he framed her face with his hands. "Have no doubt that the intensity and depth of emotion I feel for you, Whitney could never have dreamt of, let alone managed to produce in me. I don't feel emotion as a rule. I didn't even know I was capable of such depth of feeling. So never worry that my feelings for you are manufactured. I could never harm you, not under any circumstances."

Her eyes searched his, looking for something, some reassurance that went beyond what he told her, what she saw in his mind. "My parents?" she asked softly, unable to stop worrying. Kadan was ruthless and a man without mercy. She knew he would execute anyone, friend or not, if they were guilty, and he would do it without hesitation.

He shrugged. "I'm not willing to lie to you, Tansy. I hope they aren't guilty of anything other than stupidity, but if they try to harm you, if their intention is to betray you and turn you over to Whitney, they'll have to walk through me to do it."

His thumb smoothed over the contours of her bone structure, tracing her jaw and high cheekbones, dipping down to float over her lips. The pads of his fingers felt hard, yet velvet soft, and she couldn't stop the shiver of need or the inevitable arousal that leapt from breasts to thighs. He was mesmerizing, and the lure of another human's touch was inescapable, but more than all of that was the intense sensuality, the way his gaze went hot and moved over her with such possession, the way one flick of his eyes seem to remove her clothing.

In his head he touched her, brushing her breast or stroking a caress down her thigh at the most unexpected times. In the helicopter, earlier, when they'd been picked up, she'd huddled, knees drawn up, head down, making herself small. He sat beside her, his large frame protecting her from prying eyes, although he'd seemed to be asleep. Every now and then, she'd found him in her head and he was caressing the inside of her thigh. Stroking fingertips over her breast, leaning in to kiss her throat. He could melt her heart without half trying.

"You're a very dangerous man, Kadan."

"But not to you." He bent his head and kissed her. "Never to you."

Her eyebrow went up. She didn't smile. "You're very wrong about that." Because he was stealing her will, whether he realized it or not. She sighed. She couldn't stop her physical reaction to him, but she needed to start thinking with her brain if she was going to help her parents. "How do we know your friends will help us?"

"They'll help. We don't have a lot of time. I'll make the calls. You write down everything you can about the security and floor plans. Ryland and Nico are amazing at infiltrating hostile territory without being seen. This will be a good chance for you to see GhostWalkers in action and see what we're really up against."

"I'm taking a shower." She was still a little achy from her mental battle with the voices, and while the water ran hot and cleansing over her, she hoped to practice the mental exercises he'd given her to strengthen her barriers.

"Take a look around," he invited as he turned back to the phone.

Tansy did just that. He'd set up a war room. Pictures of murder victims lined all four walls. Each crime was documented carefully with the camera, the body positions, the scene itself, the blood spatter, it was all there. She closed the door, refusing to step inside the nightmare without him to help shield her. As it was, her stomach rebelled, and she hastily backed down the hall to the master bedroom, where Kadan had tossed her backpack onto the bed.

The hot water felt good on her sore body. She took her time shampooing her long hair. It had been months since she'd felt really hot water on her body. Bathing in the natural pool had been a shock to her system until she'd gotten used to it, but she'd forgotten how good hot water felt. It was sheer bliss.

"I tossed your clothes into the washing machine," Kadan said, holding out a towel. He didn't avert his eyes, but rather drank in the sight of her body, noting each mark he'd put there the night before. "We're only going to be here a few hours, so I figured it was best to get it done quickly."

She wrapped the towel around her. "Thanks, I've been washing them in buckets."

He indicated with his finger for her to turn around. Tansy turned her back to him and he slipped another towel over her head, rubbing at her scalp and the mass of long hair. "Ryland Miller is married to Whitney's daughter, Lily." He ignored her stiffening shoulders and kept massaging. "Rye's got her stashed with other GhostWalkers so she'll be safe while he comes here to give us a hand. They just had a baby."

"Are you sure…?"

"I'm sure of him. I've known him a long time, and remember, I can read minds. He knows I have telepathy, but not to the extent of penetrating minds. No one but you knows I can do that."

"Why would you trust me with any of your secrets?"

He rested his hands on her bare shoulders and then caressed her vulnerable neck, his fingers strong, stealing along the soft skin. "All I have to give you is the truth of who I am. You have to know what you're dealing with."

She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. There was fear in her eyes. Excitement. Confusion. Need.

"Kadan, I came here to help solve these murders, not to give myself to you."

His hand slid around her neck to her throat, his palm forcing her head back, tipping it against his chest so she was looking into his cool gaze. "Really? Because that's not what I see in your mind."

"My mind is confused." Tansy tried to lift her head, but he countered the movement, stepping back, forcing her weight against him so she was off balance. "Kadan." She said his name softly. A plea. There was pleading in her eyes. All shimmering violet again.

"We fit. You don't want to be alone and neither do I. Give us a chance, Tansy. I'm not easy, but I'm loyal, yours, all the way."

"I'm afraid of you. Not that you'll hurt me, but your code is-different. I'm afraid."

"Don't you think I know that? I'll be gentle with you."

He bent his head, tracking down her face with kisses, licking at her mouth until she opened for him. His lips settled over hers. Her heart fluttered. Her stomach muscles bunched. Liquid heat flooded her core. She wanted to cry that he could get around her mind so easily. She hadn't known she could be so influenced by physical attraction.

"Kadan, is it real? Do we dare believe it's real? I don't want to feel things for you, to love you and have it all disappear. I finally found peace in my life. I could live the way I was living. I'd never be able to go back if I gave myself to you and lost."

She'd been in his mind, saw what he was like. A hard-ass. Merciless. Ruthless. A warrior once sent on a mission, who would never stop until it was completed. A man who craved her the way he might sunlight and air. He wanted to consume her. And he wanted her body-was obsessed with knowing every inch of her, with giving her every pleasure he could think of and taking his own. He'd been a man who never believed he would have his own woman, a woman who would share more than his body. But she could take his mind, and she could be his. She could belong to him wholly, and now that he knew, he refused to back away from the one chance he had.

"Whitney cannot manipulate our minds. You see me as I am and you still want me. I see you and I'm desperate for you. He isn't anywhere in the equation."

She turned in his arms and rested her head against his chest. The way he felt about her, so completely ensnared, was both exhilarating and frightening. The fact that she could touch him, lie in his arms, make love with him, and have the added pleasure of mind-sex enhancing what was already explosive physical chemistry, was such a lure she doubted if she could resist-but self-preservation demanded she try. If she loved him-really loved him-let him all the way in, tie would be so difficult to live with.

But worth it.

She shook her head. "How would you know?"

He caught her chin with two fingers and tipped her head up again, taking her mouth with much more possession this time, teasing and dueling with his tongue, sending tiny flames licking over her skin.

When he lifted his head, her eyes had gone from blue to that beautiful violet color he particularly loved. Her face flushed, breasts rising and falling, breath coming in a ragged little telltale rush. Tansy stepped away from him, wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand, shaking her head at him. He could go from ice-cold to fiery hot in seconds.

"When are your friends coming?"

"We have a few hours. I'll need the layout and security as soon as possible to plan our entry. They won't be expecting resistance. They don't know about me-yet."

His tone chilled her. His eyes never seemed to blink, cold and mesmerizing at the same time. "Someone sent a couple of assassins after you and they tracked you to my mountain; maybe they do know," she pointed out.

He shrugged. "It's of no consequence. We'll get your parents out." And he intended to have a quiet chat with dear old dad before the man ever would be allowed to be alone with his daughter again.

"I want to see the game pieces. Take a shower and then we'll see if I can find out anything that will help us before your friends get here."

He caught her wrist as she turned away from him. "Tansy." He waited until her gaze met his. "When this rescue goes down, don't interfere with whatever we do. Follow orders."

She frowned at him. "I don't know what that means."

"That means, on a mission, we run it the way we do a military op. Very precise. I can't have a lose cannon running around. You agree to follow orders or you stay here and wait."

Swift impatience crossed her face. "Oh really? And how do you expect to accomplish that?"

He dropped her wrist and began unbuttoning his shirt. "Lock you up. It doesn't matter. I run a tight op and I'm not going to have you fuck it up because you get scared for your parents. You'll be in on the planning every step of the way, but once we're hot, we go by the numbers."

"You're so unexpectedly charming, Kadan. Do you think I'm an idiot?"

He balled the shirt into his fist and tossed it toward the laundry basket he kept beside a bureau. "No, I think you're emotional. There's a big difference."

She opened her backpack. It was empty. "You put all my clothes into the wash?"

"Use my shirt. It's long enough to cover you."

Tansy tried to avert her eyes as he peeled off his jeans and kicked them aside. Okay, it was impossible. He was well endowed. And there were scars. Lots of them. Knives. Guns. Marks she couldn't identify.

"Maybe you ought to learn to duck."

A ghost of a smile teased at his mouth. "Maybe I will. It isn't polite to stare."

She had been staring. She was still staring. And his endowment was growing bigger by the moment, which meant she could be in trouble. She needed time to sort out what she was really doing with him, because he was too overwhelming and she couldn't think straight.

Resolutely she went to his closet and pulled out a shirt with long tails. She dropped the towel, keeping her back to him, and shrugged into the shirt. There was no sound to warn her and she nearly screamed when his hands came around her back, drawing her against him so that there was only the thin cotton between his rigid shaft and her bottom. His fingertips brushed her breasts as he closed the shirt, fastening one button at a time. Deep inside, her womb clenched hotly.

Kadan swept her wet hair aside and pressed a kiss into the hollow of her shoulder, the side of her neck, and then his lips whispered over her ear. "You're so beautiful, Tansy, you make me ache." His hand slipped down the contour of her back to shape her bottom. "And your skin is even softer than it looks."

"Don't seduce me." She leaned back into him, feeling helpless under the onslaught of molten lava pooling low and wicked in her body. "Not now. I've got to sort things out."

His lips skimmed her ear again. "I don't want you thinking too much. You'll realize I'm a poor prospect as a husband and run."

His words, or maybe it was his mouth, caused a shiver of awareness. Her nipples tightened and she felt liquid heat gathering. She'd never considered having a husband. She'd never thought she could ever be touched-or touch.

"Take a shower, Kadan." The words came out strangled. There was no way to hide what he was doing to her.

He nipped at her shoulder, felt the tremor that rocked her body. He wanted her to know that she belonged to him, that he could seduce her if he chose. Her eyes told him she knew it already. Satisfied, he brushed a kiss along the corner of her mouth and gently stood her back up straight. "A shower it is," he agreed. "Don't go into the war room without me."

"I really do have a brain." She made a little face at him. "Evidently I haven't shown it to you yet, but it's there."

Tansy found her way to the kitchen. Every door had a strange device across it, and she suspected the device was some sort of bomb. Thin wires ran along the windows. She picked up the phone and found no dial tone. He'd done something to prevent her calling out. Frowning, she went back into the bedroom, to her backpack. Her cell phone should have been inside, but it was gone as well.

She stomped into the bathroom. "Where's my phone?"

The shower door was transparent glass. He turned toward her, giving her a full frontal view. Even anger didn't stop the surge of excitement at the sight of him. She swore under her breath, close to tears that she could be so stupid. He'd made her virtually a prisoner. He looked at her very calmly, his expression remote, his eyes cool, and that only added flames to the flash of temper and panic surfacing. The two emotions were twisted so tightly together she didn't recognize either one.

"I thought it best to keep it for a while, until I'm certain you aren't going to lose your mind."

Her breath hitched. The door in her mind creaked. Whispers filled her head. She barely registered his changing expression as she jerked around and back out the door.

"Tansy!" Kadan shoved the shower door open and caught up a towel as he ran after her, water flying all over the floor, his bare feet slapping as he raced through the house toward the front room. Stop! You cannot move. He drove each word like a nail into her mind, fear knotting the muscles in his belly and his voice unrecognizable.

Tansy halted just ahead of him, one hand outstretched toward the door, her body frozen in place. He crossed the distance in a single jump, taking him over furniture and her head, to land solidly between her and the door. He dragged her into his arms, right off her feet, cradling her body against his chest, breath coming in ragged gasps. "Damn it, Tansy. You could have fucking died. What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you do that?"

His lungs burned for air, and he took a deep breath to steady himself. She was doing it to him again. In under two seconds she could destroy the control he'd spent a lifetime building. He sank down onto the sofa and caught her chin in his hand, forcing her to meet the ice in his eyes. "You ever do anything that stupid again, I swear I'll beat you within an inch of your life."

Even as the harsh words left his mouth, he was raining kisses over her face, down her cheeks, following the path of tears, and all the while he rocked her gently back and forth. "I'm sorry, Tansy. My word choice was poor. I don't believe you're going to lose your mind again, and I know that's what you're thinking. I didn't trick you into coming. I didn't seduce you into coming with me. I would have let you go."

"I can't go back to that place."

She could barely choke out the words. The fear of the door in her mind splintering, allowing the killers to escape, terrified her. For a moment she had thought he'd lied to her about the exercises, about his ability to help get her through the solving of the murders. If he believed her mind would fracture again, she had no hope left.

He felt her terror, heard the increase in the sound of the whispers. She was so fragile, and he'd brought her into this mess, and now her parents were in danger as well. "Listen to me, baby. If you can't handle the investigation, you're done. That's it. We'll sideline you immediately before anything goes too far. I'll be with you every step of the way, buffering your mind. If you work on the exercises, they'll also help strengthen your barriers. Know this absolutely. Before anything or anyone else, I'll protect you. Look at me, Tansy." He forced her gaze to meet his. "Understand I'm telling you the truth. The one thing in your life, from now until the end, is that you can always count on me."

She searched his face. He knew what she saw couldn't be that reassuring. He wasn't a handsome man by any stretch of the imagination. Several scars had added to the menacing appearance. His jaw was strong, his mouth hard. He'd long ago learned to keep his face without expression, and his eyes were as cold as the ice water running in his veins. As a rule, he felt little to nothing, until Tansy. He couldn't explain that to her, because he didn't fully understand it himself. Beneath the ice seemed to be a volcano that only erupted around her.

"Don't handle me, Kadan. I don't like to be handled."

His eyes flashed with something raw that made her stomach flip. She reached up to trace his mouth. There was always such a cruel edge there, as if he was capable of terrible things, yet one small movement, just a slight turn, and he could appear incredibly sensual. The look in his eyes held a dark lust that just intensified when he held her like this. His arms felt like steel, his body both protective and possessive. She turned soft, melting against him, into him. She lost herself in his steely strength.

His hand slid over the curve of her bare hip, those incredible fingers, hard yet velvet soft, brushing against her skin erotically. His head dipped lower to find her ear again. "I think you're lying to me. I feel your need beating at me, Tansy. You like the way I handle you."

"You weren't supposed to seduce me."

He bent his head to her neck, his teeth nipping, first the hollow of her shoulder and then her earlobe. "Look into your mind, Tansy. You seduced me, not the other way around. How could I possibly resist you?"

She closed her eyes, knowing he was right, knowing she was enticing him, stroking at his mind with hers, enhancing his needs because she so desperately wanted to be held. To belong somewhere, with someone.

His teeth bit down, flashing pain through her body, then his tongue swirled, taking away the sting. "Not someone, Tansy. Me. You belong with me."

Her eyes met his and her stomach flipped.

"Say it."

She wanted to resist him, but she couldn't resist her own needs. "I belong with you."

His fingers smoothed up the inside of her thigh, teased her soft, damp mound. "Open your shirt." The fingers continued their journey, sliding into her, curling and teasing, stroking and circling her sensitive bud.

Again, she wanted to resist, just for pride's sake. She didn't altogether trust him. He was too cold, too able to turn off emotion, and she wasn't entirely certain she could trust that he would be all the things he said to her. His hunger for her was absolute, but there was a driving need in him for complete possession. She didn't understand what he wanted from her. He confused her. She confused herself, craving him desperately, wanting to escape the way he mesmerized her.

His fingers stilled. Her womb spasmed. Desperation won. She slowly unbuttoned the shirt, revealing the swell of her breasts and narrow rib cage, the flat of her tummy and finally the vee of curls at the junction of her legs. When the shirt was open all the way, his fingers did another slow curl inside her and began to stroke again, pushing deep.