Birthright

just enough to find those clever lips with hers. To feel that shock of lust and promise.
    She pressed her body to his, and felt their hearts slam together. On a moan of approval, she locked her arms around him until he fisted a hand in her shirt the way he often had before. The fierce possessiveness of that grip had always excited and baffled her.
    The instant hunger, his, hers, was a kind of relief. That plunge into the heat they made together was a kind of baptism.
    She was still whole, still real.
    She was still Callie Ann Dunbrook.
    And, she thought, she could still want things that weren’t good for her.
    Then his hands came to her face, cupped her cheeks in a gentle touch that threw her off balance. And his lips rubbed hers in a whisper that spoke more of affection than passion.
    “It’s still there, Callie.”
    “That was never our problem.”
    “It sure as hell wasn’t.” Still holding her face, he pressed his lips to her forehead. “You want beer to go with that pizza? I’ve got some next door.”
    She stepped back, eyed him suspiciously. “You’re turning down sex for pizza and beer?”
    “Don’t put it that way. It hurts. You want the beer or not?”
    “Yeah, fine. Whatever.” She shrugged, then feeling oddly rejected, turned away to her laptop. “I’m going to finish logging in today’s finds.”
    “Do that. Be right back.”
    He waited until he was in his own room before rapping his head against the wall. He could still taste her, that unique flavor that was Callie. He could still smell her hair—the lingering scent of the rain she’d been caught in.
    She was inside him like a drug. No, he mused as he flipped open the lid on his cooler. Like a goddamn virus. There was nothing he could do about it.
    Worse, he’d come to the conclusion, months ago, there was nothing he wanted to do about it.
    He wanted her back, and he was damn well going to get her back. If it killed him.
    He sat on the side of the bed to calm himself down. The timing couldn’t have been much worse, he decided. She was in trouble and needed help. Not the steady, sneaky, subtle pursuit he’d had in mind when he’d joined the team.
    Taking her to bed wasn’t the answer—and wasn’t that too damn bad. He had to get her used to having him around again, then make her fall in love with him, then take her to bed.
    That was the plan. Or it had been the plan before everything had gotten muddled up.
    She’d looked as if she’d taken a hard right to the jaw when Lana had told her about the adoption. Still, there hadn’t been any whining, no woe-is-me. That was his girl, Jake thought. Steady as a rock.
    But now she needed him. She finally needed him. And he needed to show both of them he wouldn’t let her down.
    No matter how much he wanted her, they weren’t going to haze the situation with sex this time around.
    He’d been nearly a year without her, and in all those months had run the gamut from rage to stunned hurt, from bitterness to despair, from acceptance to determination.
    Some species mated for life, he thought as he stood. ByGod, he was one of them. He’d give her some time to figure that out. Meanwhile, he’d help her through this mess she was in.
    Then they’d start over.
    Feeling better, he snagged the beer and arrived back in her room just ahead of the pizza delivery.
    H e’d been right abo ut the work, Callie thought as she prepared for bed. Not only had it kept her mind off her worries, it had gotten her brain functioning again. The blurriness had cleared.
    She could see what she needed to do, how she needed to do it. She’d have Lana arrange for a local lab to draw her blood and ship the sample to her father’s associate in Philadelphia. She’d have Lana witness it, have the sample sealed and labeled. The same precautions—an independent witness—would be on the other end.
    There would be no opportunities for tampering. Keep it all very official.
    She’d say nothing of what Lana had discovered so far. Jake was right, there was no point until more data was gathered.
    She would handle her personal business the same way she handled her professional business. Methodically, scientifically and thoroughly.
    Discoveries would be logged. In fact, she would write a report daily. It would help keep everything organized.
    And just to keep Douglas Cullen throttled back, she’d have Lana draft out some legal document waiving or refusing, whatever it needed to be, any claim to any portion of Suzanne