Predatory Game

CHAPTER 6

Jess had been all over the world and he had chosen Sheridan, Wyoming, as his home, not only for its warm, friendly people, but because of its rich history and the year-round activities. It was a beautiful city close to the Big Horn Mountains. It was home to him, and after he had been put in a wheelchair he had planned to stay-until Lily and Eric had talked to him about the bionics program.

He still had nightmares about how he’d gotten into the wheelchair in the first place. He often woke up drenched in sweat, his heart pounding, pain twisting his gut into knots and his legs jumping with the memory of first the bullets slamming into his bones, and then the torture that followed. It had seemed endless, a sea of pain, the pattern of blood splattering the walls, memories of the brutal men slamming objects into the mess that had been his legs. He remembered it so vividly. Time hadn’t dulled any of it. Nothing had helped until he opened his door and let Saber Wynter into his life. The nightmares hadn’t stopped, but since Saber’s arrival, they had eased.

Saber remained silent as they drove through the streets, but as always, he felt peace steal into him when he was with her. His response was strange, since Saber wasn’t exactly a restful person. She had too much energy and too many causes, but every time he was with her, he felt happy. On their evening walks, she often jogged beside him as he wheeled his chair along Main Street, past the scenic buildings.

She was enhanced. Whether he admitted it to himself or not-or even whether she did-she was a GhostWalker just like him. She was good-too good-and that meant she’d been trained, or she would have slipped up long before now.

Being a GhostWalker explained her voice, so popular on the airwaves that his little radio station was becoming a huge hit. It explained her need for solitude. She wasn’t an anchor and she couldn’t be around other people without pain. It explained everything but why she was in his home. Because no matter how much in love with her crazy ways he was, he couldn’t ignore the fact that she had to be a plant. That was the only explanation he could think of to explain why her fingerprints hadn’t kicked a red flag back at him.

He drove the van west on Loucks Street, but was so busy watching Saber he nearly missed the turn onto Badger. Kendrick Park was dead ahead. This time of year, with the air cooling rapidly but the snow not yet here, few people used the park. Big Goose Creek bordered the park, with its wealth of evergreens and tall, elegant cottonwoods.

“Perfect picnic area. All the tourists say so,” he commented, looking carefully, cautiously around. Suddenly his senses were prickling-nothing too big, but a definite hit. His hand slid over his pack to feel the weight of his gun.

Saber laughed. “This park is packed in the summer. I thought for sure you were taking me to Fort Phil Kearny. You’ve been promising for three months.”

“True, I also said we’d go to…”

“Buffalo Bill Museum.” She laughed. “There’s so much to do. We couldn’t miss the rodeo, that would have been a sacrilege.” And she wanted to do it all before she left-she wanted to do it all with Jess, because nothing would ever feel the same again.

“Would you rather go to the Fort? We could go exploring.” He paused in the act of gathering up their supplies. He had room here if an enemy attacked, both room and cover. He’d rather stay.

“No, this is perfect. I’d like a little peace and quiet, maybe take a nap since I didn’t get much sleep last night.” She shivered a little in the cool air. “You did bring blankets I hope.”

“I remembered everything with no help from you.”

She flashed a sassy grin at him. She hadn’t helped him pack for the picnic because she’d been trying to come to terms with the fact that Jess was more than a Navy SEAL; he was part of a GhostWalker team. It explained everything, especially why she could so easily be in his company. She had never been able to tolerate being around people for very long until she was with Jess. He was definitely an anchor and he drew energy away from her. She should have known. Well, on some level she had known; she just hadn’t wanted to bring it out in the open and examine it.

They made their way to a secluded area near the stream, where water bubbled over rocks and where they had a good view of anyone approaching them. After spreading the ground sheet out at the bottom of a thick tree trunk, Jess slid from his chair and sat with his back propped against the tree, blankets-and gun-within easy reach.

Saber sat a foot away, facing him, the wind playing with her hair. “I could stay here forever,” she said softly. And she wanted to stay with him.

“That could be arranged,” he agreed.

Saber pushed silken strands from her face. “Sometimes I can’t tell if you’re serious or joking.”

“I told you, honey, I take you very seriously.”

His black gaze bored into her, causing her womb to clench. She looked away. “Can you imagine all this a hundred years ago? The battles fought in this country? The famous Indians and frontiersmen who walked this ground?”

“Red Cloud, Chief Dull Knife, Little Wolf,” he recited.

“General Cooke, Captain Fetterman, Jim Bridger,” Saber listed, not to be outdone. She knew her history. She could read a page and recite it verbatim.

Jess sighed. She was probably going to relate every historical event that had ever taken place in Sheridan County including the building of the Sheridan Inn and the stories of its resident ghost. He liked history but not right now. Saber was running from him just as surely as if her feet were burning up the pavement.

“Are we going to talk about the Fetterman Battle or about us?” he asked, his voice gentle.

“The Fetterman Battle.” Saber sent him a quick, almost desperate smile.

“How did I know you’d say that?”

Saber shrugged. “We could talk about cooking or restaurants.”

“I could shake you.”

“Restrain yourself.”

“Family, baby,” he suggested. “Let’s talk about family. Are your parents alive? You’ve never mentioned them.”

Saber scratched at the ground sheet, avoiding his probing gaze. “I grew up in an orphanage,” she said abruptly. “There’s not much to say, is there?” It was almost a challenge, as if she were daring him to push the issue.

She was going to run if he pushed; he could see the wariness in her eyes. Jess allowed the subject to pass, leaning with deceptive laziness against the tree, staring up at the clouds in the sky and then allowing his gaze to search every square inch around him that he could see. The ground. Brush. Even the trees.

Saber yawned, quickly covering it with her hand. “It was a good idea to come here, dragon king. It’s peaceful.”

Jess’s hand snaked out and tugged at Saber, unbalancing her. With a little squeak, she fell over against him, her head pillowed in his lap. His hand came up to caress her silky hair, lingering in the abundance of curls.

“Take a nap, angel face,” he coaxed. “I’ll watch over you.”

She relaxed against him, smiling as he tucked a blanket around the two of them. “You know, Jess, I love your house. If I haven’t told you that before, thank you for all the remodeling you did to make it perfect for me to live there. It was thoughtful of you and not at all necessary, but I’m so glad you did.”

“I thought it was our house now,” he replied mildly, intrigued by the blue highlights the sun was putting in the black of her hair. “It feels like our house.”

Her soft mouth curved. “It does, doesn’t it? I’ve been happy these last months, happier than I’ve ever been. You’re a good friend.”

His fingertip traced the velvet outline of her lip. “Is that what I am, honey?” Amusement colored the deep timbre of his voice. “A good friend? You’re beginning to sound as if you’re delivering a eulogy. ‘It’s been great, Jess, but I’m out of here.’”

Her teeth nipped his finger. “It’s not at all like that and you know it.”

“So tell me what it’s like.” He was careful to keep his voice quietly bland.

Her lashes swept down to lay like two thick crescents over her eyes. A jolt of electricity hit him hard in the stomach. For one moment his hand trembled badly as he forced his body under rigid control, then he was caressing her hair and earlobe with gentle fingers.

“I move around a lot, Jesse. You know that. I’ve been in New York, Florida, and several other states before here, not to mention different cities in each state.”

“Why?”

“Why?” she echoed. The tip of her tongue touched her full lower lip.

“Why,” he insisted, suppressing the groan threatening to rise in his chest.

There was a long silence, so long he was afraid she might not answer. “This is the most time I’ve ever spent in any one place. I’m getting far too attached to everyone. The people in this town are the nicest I’ve met anywhere. And if I stay much longer with you…” She trailed off with a sigh.

His hands moved over her face, tracing delicate bone structure as if committing it to memory. “It’s already too late, baby,” he said.

The long black lashes fluttered, lifted, and beautiful violet-blue eyes touched his burning gaze and then skittered away quickly. Her throat rippled. As she made a slight movement of withdrawal, Jess tightened his hold possessively and waited for the resistance to drain out of her.

“I thought you wanted to talk seriously.” He ruffled her hair because he couldn’t resist the corkscrew curls springing everywhere over her head.

“That was you.”

“Little coward.”

She caught his hand in both of hers, held it against her cheek, wild emotions racing chaotically. “I am, I’m sorry.” She choked the words out, sudden tears burning far too close. It was going to tear her heart out to leave him.

His hand cupped her cheek, thumb sliding firmly along her jaw. He bent his dark head slowly to hers, blotting out the sky, the light, until finally there was only Jess.

His mouth hovered inches from hers. “I won’t let you leave.” He said the words so quietly she barely caught them.

Her breath caught in her throat, mind and body at war. Everything in her yearned for this, craved him, while the sane part of her shrieked for self-preservation, screamed for her to jump up, save herself. His hand spanned her throat, felt the pulse fluttering wildly against his palm like the wings of a captured bird. He murmured something in an aching voice, his breath warm against her skin.

His lips slanted over hers, feather light, velvet soft, yet firm. At the first touch of his mouth her heart slammed in alarm against her breast, and her blood took fire. His teeth nipped at her lower lip. It was her startled gasp that gave him access to the warm, silky, moist interior of her mouth.

Everything changed. Everything.

His arms tightened around her, dragging her closer, the hand around her throat forcing her head to remain still, giving him exactly what he wanted. Pure black magic. He was everything male, sweeping her token resistance away, drinking her sweetness, exploring every inch of her mouth.

Pure feeling. The ground seemed to shift beneath her, colors whirled and blended. Her body was no longer her own, familiar, under control. It flamed into life, craving, crawling with the need to be touched, caressed. If any man in her life had ever kissed her before, Jess wiped him from her mind for all eternity. His mouth was on hers, hot and hard, so that her brain melted into mindless compliance, branding her as irrevocably his.

Saber moaned softly in despair. She was losing herself, clutching desperately at his heavily muscled shoulders to anchor herself to some reality.

Jess lifted his head reluctantly. She was so beautiful, staring up at him with such sensuous confusion he nearly ignored her distress. Saber pushed at the wall of his chest with her small hands, her strength easily overcome, but he obediently straightened, leaning back against the solid tree trunk. She sat up hastily, scrambled what she thought was a safe distance away, and kneeling, faced him.

“Lord, Jesse.” She breathed his name in awe. “We can never do that again. We don’t dare. We nearly set the world on fire.”

A slow smile curved his mouth. “Personally, I was thinking it would be a good idea to repeat the experience. Often.”

She touched her full lower lip with a cautious fingertip. “You should be outlawed, a woman isn’t safe around you.”

He resisted the urge to caress her face with his hand, not wanting to destroy her illusion of safety. “It wasn’t just me, angel face.”

She shook her head in adamant denial. Jess ignored the gesture, intrigued by the play of light in her shining hair. God, he wanted her. It was far more than a relentless physical craving. It was everything wrapped into one. He’d had beautiful women and flash affairs, but he’d never felt like this. Not where love and lust met, intertwined, and became so tightly woven together they were one and the same.

“This can’t be,” Saber said. “I have to go, Jess. Things are getting out of hand and I can’t control them. I don’t want to control them.”

As she started her retreating move, Jess’s hand snaked out with lightening speed and shackled her wrist. “Oh, no you don’t, baby, you’re not getting away from me.” His grip was immensely strong, but he didn’t hurt her-he never did.

Blue eyes flew, startled, to his dark ones. Dragon king, she always called him. He was wreaking havoc on all her senses. “Jesse,” she made a breathless little protest, already feeling lost.

“It’s too late, Saber. You’re in love with me, you’re just too damned stubborn to admit it to yourself.”

“No, no, Jesse, I’m not.” She sounded more frightened than convinced.

“Sure you are.” Relentlessly, he drew her back to him until she was so close the heat between them threatened to erupt into flames. Beneath his hands he could feel her trembling. “Think about it, honey. Who makes you laugh? Who makes you happy? Who do you run to when you have a problem?” His fingers found the nape of her neck, sending little tongues of fire licking along her spine.

She took a deep steadying breath. “It doesn’t matter. Even if you’re right, which you’re not, it wouldn’t matter. I have to leave.”

His fingers curled over her shoulders, gave her the gentlest of exasperated shakes. “Stop saying that. I don’t want to hear it again. Don’t you think I’m aware you have some deep, dark secret in your past? Somebody you’re running from? That’s what doesn’t matter. You belong here, Saber. In Sheridan, Wyoming, with me, in my home, right by my side.”

She went pale. “You don’t know what you’re saying. Jesse, I don’t have any deep, dark secrets, I just like to travel. I can’t help myself. I just get restless and pick up and go.” He knew. He knew about her. How? Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe she was panicking and he really thought she had a creep for an ex-husband and she was hiding from him. Let it be that. Please, please, let it be that.

He released her with a smile. “You can’t lie worth a damn, Saber.”

“Really?” She stuck her chin out at him. “Well neither can you. You have a few deep dark secrets of your own.”

He nodded. “I’ll admit it. I have a high security clearance and can’t talk about my work much, but that shouldn’t affect the two of us or our relationship.”

He was admitting it. Her heart went into overdrive, pounding so hard she pressed a hand to her chest to alleviate the ache. He was a GhostWalker, highly trained in dealing death. And he was skilled in psychic abilities. Wheelchair or not, she wasn’t safe with him. Pressing her lips together, she ducked her head. She didn’t want to pursue the matter any further. Not now. Not today. Most of her life was pretense. This was her one chance at a day with Jess. The only one she might ever have.

Jess could sense the panic in her, the confusion and reluctance. He sighed and let it go. “We’ll drop it for now. Just make me a promise; give me your word of honor you won’t ever try to leave without discussing it first with me.”

“You won’t discuss it,” she said in frustration. “You’ll stop me.”

“Promise me.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Saber.” He tapped her chin with his index finger.

“Oh, all right. I promise,” she gave in with bad grace. “I’m hungry. I didn’t have breakfast, lunch, or anything else in between. Are you going to feed me or what?”

Jess would take his small victory. Backing off, giving her space, seemed the lesser of two evils. Saber’s mood swings were mercurial. He could easily read her rising panic. He needed to soothe her, alleviate her fears. She was desperately hiding the truth from him, but it didn’t matter, because he already knew she had to be one of Peter Whitney’s experiments.

Whitney had taken girls from orphanages around the world, kept them locked up, and performed psychic and genetic experiments on them long before he had done the same to grown servicemen. He’d given them the names of flowers and of seasons-Winter. She used the name Saber Wynter. Winter was more than likely what Whitney had called her.

He had entered the GhostWalker program of his own free will. And he’d known when he’d made the decision to enhance his psychic abilities that he would remain government property for the rest of his life. Wheelchair or not, he was still a powerful and dangerous weapon. No one was going to just forget about him and let him live his life out in peace. He had agreed to the bionics experiment partly for that reason.

Okay. He’d agreed to it because he missed the action of combat. Riding a desk just wasn’t his thing and never would be. But then along came Saber and he suddenly wasn’t thinking about saving the world anymore. Settling down seemed much more appealing, and she’d been with him long enough now that he couldn’t imagine his life without her. But he’d made the choice as a grown man. Whitney had taken these girls, these infants, and instead of giving them a decent home, he’d made them into science projects.

He felt the hot surge of anger and deliberately forced it down. “You’re closest to the picnic basket, angel face,” he said very gently. “Pass me a sandwich.”

Saber, grateful for the change of subject, dug into the wicker basket. “Cream cheese?”

“That’s yours. I get ham,” he said.

The color was slowly coming back into Saber’s flawless skin, the tension easing out of her. She avoided touching him when she handed him his sandwich. He let her get away with it. “Drink, woman,” he commanded. “Where’s my drink?”

Saber handed him a mug of hot chocolate. “Tell me about Chaleen.”

He nearly choked. “Why would you want to know about her?”

Because she was still hanging around and Saber didn’t trust her for a moment. But she didn’t mind playing the jealous woman if it got her what she wanted. “She’s after you. I think that was made pretty plain. She gave me the look women reserve for competition. So tell me about her.”

“If you want to know about Chaleen, I’ll tell you, although there’s really not all that much to tell.” Because he had to be careful.

She could tell he was reluctant. “You don’t have to.” She tilted her head. “But I did overhear part of your conversation and it sounded as if she was warning you about an investigation you’re conducting.” She held up her hand when his piercing eyes went flat and cold. “I’m not fishing for details, but I think she’s a lot more than she wants you to know. She’s coming off as your friend warning you, but I could feel…”

She had a million secrets she couldn’t tell him, so it seemed unfair that he would have to reveal something obviously private to her-but she did want to know. She needed to know, because Chaleen was a dangerous woman, and she had to figure out just how dangerous she was to Jess.

Jess shrugged. “I met her skiing in Germany. It seemed innocent enough and she was beautiful and intelligent and loved doing all the things I did. She seemed perfect. Of course she was too perfect and I should have seen that, but I was too wrapped up in the sex to be thinking I might have been set up.”

Saber winced. Sex. She didn’t want to think about him having sex with perfect Chaleen, but she’d asked for this. She bit her lip hard to keep from interrupting.

Jess leaned back, pressing his head against the wide base of the tree. “It was so stupid, really. I knew better. I wasn’t some dumb kid. She began asking me questions about my work. Nothing big, nothing to raise alarms, but still, it should have. I just took it that she was interested, and believe it or not, I actually felt guilty that I couldn’t tell her anything.”

Saber drew up her knees and rested her chin on them. She could see clever Chaleen manipulating a man into feeling guilty.

“At least at first I felt guilty. Somewhere along the line I realized she really didn’t like all the things she pretended interest in. She was only acting.”

Chaleen had probably studied him, found out his every interest, and become the person he would be attracted to before she’d moved in on him. Chaleen-black widow spider. Saber twisted her fingers together, already afraid for him. If the woman had come back, she’d come for a reason.

“An assignment went bad. I was taken prisoner, and tortured. I’d been shot in both legs so they smashed what was left of my lower legs to try and break me. They wanted me to give up a colleague.” He looked at her, wanting her to know what kind of man he was. “I didn’t.”

She rubbed her palm over his thigh in silent sympathy.

He still felt it sometimes, those blows landing on the raw gaping wounds, felt the bones shattering inside his skin. His stomach knotted and for one moment bile rose. He fought it down. “I stared at the ceiling for three straight weeks after they brought me to the hospital. Just stared at it, without seeing or speaking.”

Instantly her eyes clouded and she caught his hand in both of hers. “Oh, Jesse, how terrible for you. I didn’t mean for you to relive a horrible memory.” She knelt close to him. “I’m sorry, so sorry I brought this up.”

His hand shaped her face, caressed her soft skin, traced her delicate cheekbones. “Don’t be sorry. I wanted to tell you or I wouldn’t have.”

“Were your parents with you?”

“I wouldn’t see them, I couldn’t. I had to decide on my own what to do with the rest of my life. I didn’t want anyone to pressure me one way or the other. The decisions I made had to be mine, ones I could live with. But Chaleen came. And went. I wasn’t of use to her anymore, or to her bosses. I couldn’t give them anything, so there was no point in our engagement.”

Her heart dropped. He’d been engaged to Chaleen. Had he loved her? Really loved her? Perfect Chaleen was probably perfect in bed. Saber was so far from perfect at everything there wasn’t even any contest.

His thumb slid over her mouth. “I realized that I didn’t love her, that I never really had. So I didn’t retaliate. I just let her go and chalked it up to a lesson learned. I have a job that someone out there is interested in-a lot of somebodies. And they want to know what I’m doing.” His fingers slid to her curls and fisted there, holding her still while his gaze drifted over her upturned face, inspecting her expression.

His eyes went flat and cold. “I won’t be so nice if I find out you’re deceiving me, Saber. You, I care about. You got under my skin. So if you’re working undercover, now’s the time to tell me, because if you ever betrayed me, I would break your neck.”

The tone of his voice and the look in his eyes sent a shiver down her spine. She didn’t doubt that Jess would come after her if she deceived him in the way Chaleen had.

“I don’t care about your secret life, Jess, not the way you mean it. I care about you.”

His smile was slow in coming. He was probably the biggest fool in the world, but damn it all, he believed her. He believed those large, beautiful eyes, even with the shadows in them. Deliberately he glanced at his watch. “We’d better eat if we’re going to. The temperature out here is dropping rapidly.”

Instead of drinking the warm liquid, Saber put the mug down and stretched out, snuggling under the cover, close to him. “I think I could take you in a fight.”

“Oh really?” Amusement crept into his voice, and his arm curved around the top of her head, fingers tangling in the silken strands of her hair. “You could take me?”

Her fist thumped his hip. “Don’t say it like that. Do you have to make everything sound sexual?”

“I’m feeling that way.” His hand stroked her temple. “You drive me crazy.”

He’d never just come right out and said it before. She wasn’t stupid. She certainly knew he was physically attracted to her, although after seeing Chaleen and knowing she and Saber were complete opposites, she wasn’t certain why.

She tapped her fingers on her knee and stared at the surrounding mountains. She had to give him something of herself. It wasn’t fair otherwise. He’d told her things, hurtful things that mattered, that were real, and just once, she wanted to give him something of herself.

Saber was silent and Jess remained so because of the little giveaway nervous tattoo of her fingers.

“I was trapped in a sort of hole in the ground once. It was completely black.” She watched his face carefully. She was giving him…too much. Enough to hang herself, yet there were abused children every single day. He would naturally think that of her, rather than something so bizarre and coincidental as that she was also a GhostWalker.

Jess went still inside. He could hear the catch in her voice as she revealed a traumatic event in her life. There was the faintest of tremors in her body. This was the real thing, not something made up to appease him. The suppressed emotion in her said it all and he felt rage-ice cold rage. He wasn’t certain he was prepared to hear this.

“I couldn’t see my own hand in front of my face. After a while I thought I was going crazy. I couldn’t even breathe.”

She didn’t look at him, but kept her gaze on the mountains. “There were bugs. Oh God, so many bugs. They crawled on me.” She brushed at her arms and face as if to remove them. He saw her throat convulse as she swallowed hard and knew she was unaware of the tears gathering in her eyes. “I didn’t think I could stand it. I lost track of time. A minute, an hour, days. I could hear myself screaming, but not out loud, only in my mind. I didn’t dare make a sound. I would have never gotten out.”

The silence stretched between them. He was afraid of speaking, afraid his voice would break. He couldn’t touch her, couldn’t move his hand those scant inches separating them. He was shaking with anger unlike anything he’d ever experienced, and if he didn’t stay in control, the results could be deadly.

Saber became aware of the ground undulating beneath her. The trees trembled and the water in the fountains shot up like geysers. A branch in a nearby tree cracked ominously. She leaned into him, laid her head against his shoulder, and put a calming hand on his thigh. Instantly his hand covered hers and he took a deep breath.

“It’s all right,” she soothed. “I’m all right.” He was furious on her behalf, close to a loss of control-no good thing for any GhostWalker. It should have reminded her that Jess was dangerous, in or out of a wheelchair, but all it did was make her happy.

“How old were you?” His voice was very quiet. He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm, trying to find a way to make it all better.

“I think I was about four the first time. We weren’t allowed to show fear and I was afraid of closed in and dark places. That sort of weakness just wasn’t allowed where I grew up.”

He didn’t have to ask who had done such a thing to her. Whitney, damn his soul to hell. Peter Whitney had taken this child and tortured her to make or break her.

“That’s why you like every light in the house on.”

Her hand clutched his shirt, fingers curling around the edge of the material, brushing his bare skin. She didn’t seem to notice so he left it there, covering her hand once again with his own and pressing her palm into his chest.

“I guess they never managed to scare the fear out of me,” Saber admitted. She touched his leg with the tip of her nails.

“Bastards.” He was careful not to ask who “they” were.

She had no idea why his reaction sent a heat wave crashing through her entire system. She took a breath and let it out, catching at his wrist to distract them both. She looked at his watch. “I need to get ready for work.”

“You have hours, take a nap.”

“Out here?” Did she dare when they might be under surveillance?

“Sure, listen to the water, you were just saying it was peaceful. You tell me something from your past and immediately get nervous and want to run.” He slid down, pillowing his head on a rolled-up blanket. “Come on, mystery lady, get over here where you belong.”

Saber hesitated only a moment, then snuggled close to his side. The feel of his body curved protectively around hers was fast becoming familiar, comfortable, as if this was where she belonged. She was tired and the fresh air and absolute beauty of their surroundings, along with Jess’s presence, made her intensely happy. She cradled her head in the hollow of his shoulder, one slender arm flung across his broad chest, and closed her eyes. “If you hear or see anything suspicious, or anyone else comes near us, promise you’ll wake me up.”

So she felt it too, then, Jess noted. He let his gaze drift around them, quartering the area to make certain no one was near. “I will. Go to sleep.”

Jess held her, caught somewhere between heaven and hell. Having already tasted the honeyed sweetness of her mouth, he craved more. His mind was at peace, holding her in his arms, but his body was crawling with need. Slow, he reminded himself, slow and gentle. Saber was worth every ache, every sleepless night. She needed protection whether she knew it or not, because if Whitney had put her in a hole in the ground and she had escaped, then he would be coming after her.

He didn’t want to think of the other possibility-that Whitney had sent her to spy on him, to report how close to the truth he was in his investigations. God help them both if she was betraying Whitney, yet that didn’t feel right to him. She was too close to bolting. A spy wouldn’t be running, she’d be trying to get closer to him.

Saber didn’t like snow, certainly not to drive in. First a series of bad storms, and the weather would be breaking sooner than usual. Once the snow fell Saber would be less inclined to take off and he would have all winter to tie her securely to him.

The words of his song echoed in his mind, a reality to him.

Oh, but those haunting eyes

They make me realize

The depths of my emotions stirring inside

Haunting eyes, haunting refrain, and all so true. Every time he looked into her violet-blue eyes his heart turned over. This was one woman he would never be over. Every day strengthened his feelings for her, his assurance of how completely he was committed to her.

Saber slept with the innocence of a child. Deeply, quietly, still in her sleep, where awake she was quicksilver. It was dark when she opened her eyes, and he knew the very instant by the way her body tensed, her swift intake of breath.

“You’re all right, baby.” He breathed it softly in her ear, firmly turning her in his arms. “I’ve got you. If you open your eyes you’ll know you’re perfectly safe.”

His hands were possessive, his breath warm against her skin, his husky, sexy voice swirling a fierce heat in the center of her body. Saber moved against him restlessly, an unconscious enticement.

“Am I?” She whispered the words, craving the feel of his mouth feeding on hers, needing him there in the darkness.

There was no hesitation. Jess needed her every bit as much. He caught her head firmly in the crook of his arm, fist beneath her chin, and brought his head down to hers. There was nothing of the sweet gentle persuasion he had coaxed her with before. He was too hungry for her. He took possession of her mouth without his usual self-imposed control. Male domination pure and simple. Hot, heated, demanding, an assault on mind and body, his tongue an invasion, mating wildly. It was a turbulent storm sweeping her into a primitive world of pure feeling.

A rush of damp heat, her breasts swelling, aching, her skin ultrasensitive. Jess’s hand moved under her shirt, rested on her narrow rib cage, fingertips brushing the underside of her breast, sending a wave of fire darting like tongues across her skin.

Saber wrenched herself away with a little despairing cry, rolling away from him, from his fully aroused male body and hard threatening muscles. “Jesse, we can’t do this.” It was a heartbreaking moan. Hopeless, forlorn, tinged with desperation.

Jess laid perfectly still, staring up at the thousands of stars blanketing the sky, afraid if he moved he would shatter into a million fragments. His body raged for release, his head pounding savagely. He wanted her with every cell, every fiber of his being. Inside, warning bells were shrieking at him. He could not lose her through clumsy handling.

What the hell was wrong with him? He knew she was afraid. The furthest thing from her mind was any sort of commitment.

He struggled for control, forced a note of amusement into his voice. “Sure we can, honey.” He pulled himself into his chair with the ease of long practice. “It’s the perfect night for it. You’re a woman, I’m a man. Those little twinkling things overhead are stars. I believe it’s referred to as romance.”

Saber sat a few feet from him, arms across her chest. She was fighting just to breathe normally and there was Jesse, laughing at her inexperienced reaction. She had an uncharacteristic urge to slap his handsome face. Patsy was right. He was a cad. Her body was crying out for his, uncomfortably not her own, and he was calmly gathering everything up, ignoring her obvious distress. She sure as hell wasn’t perfect Chaleen whom he had perfect sex with.

Jess watched Saber rake an unsteady hand through her hair and bite at her full lower lip. In the moonlight she looked wildly erotic, impossibly sexy. He had to look away, his jeans so tight they hurt, his body actually trembling.

“I think talking about Chaleen darling and her perfect sex put ideas in your head,” Saber grumbled. “Either that or Patsy, with all her talk of bimbos.”

“You hardly qualify,” he said dryly.

Saber tested her legs, standing up to gather the picnic supplies into the basket. Her blue eyes flashed purple sparks at him. “Is that an insult, Jesse? Because if it is, you can take the big slide.”

He laughed softly, the sound inviting. “You have such a way with words. Here, I’ll carry that,” he said as she took the basket from his lap. It looked nearly as large as she was.

“Don’t start with the short jokes,” she cautioned. “I’m not in the mood.”

He followed her, keeping up easily with a single thrust of his powerful arms. “You mean like: Hey! I’m sitting down and I still have a couple of inches on you.”

She stopped so abruptly he ran right into her, catching her waist, laughing at her squeal of outrage as he pulled her down onto his lap. “What’s wrong, Saber, does it hit too close to home for comfort?”

Saber circled his neck with her arm. “Oh, shut up,” she snapped, but he could hear the answering laughter in her voice.

She couldn’t help but admire the easy way he maneuvered the chair over rough terrain with her added weight and the awkward load of blankets and picnic basket. They were both laughing when they reached the van. But by the time they were home, Jess was quiet, thoughtful, almost remote.

Saber tried desperately to push away the feel of his mouth, his hands, as she dressed for work. It was a good thing she wasn’t trying to go to bed. There would be no such thing as sleep.

Elation, euphoria poured through his system along with sheer adrenaline. He was so much cleverer than Whitney’s precious enhanced soldiers. He could have walked right up to them and sliced their throats. He’d stalked them, together, and neither had been aware of his presence. He was so good. The best. So skilled and yet had none of the training the two of them had. All that time he had circled them, fantasizing about how he would end them both, laughing to himself, feeling so high. He almost couldn’t come down from it. All that money spent, all that training, and here he was, a mere foot soldier without a single enhancement, just brains and skill, eluding both of them.

It didn’t surprise him in the least. He’d always been superior to others, but this should prove it even to Whitney. Whitney, who put his intelligence above everyone else, who believed himself a god. How many mistakes had the man made? His pheromone receptor research had made fools of the soldiers and whores of the women. Look at Wynter kissing the cripple when she should have killed him. Calhoun was inferior now. Useless. He should have had a bullet in his head a year ago, but no, they wanted his DNA. He was going to have to take over her training, because Whitney certainly hadn’t gotten it right. It was becoming harder and harder to wait, to play the game and play the role of a puppet. He wanted to up the stakes and shove it right under their noses now that he knew he could. Oh yes, this was going to be fun.