Ghostwalker 05 - Deadly Game

onto the bed beside her, hands running over her body to assure himself she was in one piece. "Your courage terrifies me." In truth she humbled him. To endure the things she'd endured her entire life, to stand there and face Sean and what he meant to do to her, to give herself up so fully to Ken, a man she knew to be every bit as dangerous – maybe more – it was almost more than he could comprehend.
    He suddenly stiffened. "Oh, God, baby, you're crying. You going to break my heart. He's gone now. You're safe. You're safe with me."
    He wrapped his body protectively around hers, feeling her tremors, the tear-wet face against his chest. His fingers tunneled in her thick hair as he dragged her as close as he could get her, trying to shield her from any further harm. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I tried to get here as fast as possible. They put you through hell and I wasn't here."
    He couldn't breathe with her crying. His chest felt tight, his throat raw, and panic rose.
    "Stop now." His hands stroked caresses in her hair. He rained kisses over her face and licked at the tears in an effort to stop them. "I tried. I swear I tried."
    "You were here, Ken, you were; you saved me when I didn't think it was possible." Now that he was with her, alive and well, she should have been able to stop crying, but somehow, the floodgates opened and she was worse, alternating between hiccupping and sobbing, clinging to him like a child. Mari knew she would be ashamed in the morning, but the cover of darkness gave her the courage to be honest. "I was so afraid for you."
    "Afraid for me ?" Ken brushed more kisses over the top of her head and down her face.
    His teeth scraped her chin, and then he was kissing the corners of her mouth. "I was safe.
    You were the one in danger. I thought I might go out of my mind." His thumbs brushed at her tears.
    Mari tried hard to regain control. He wasn't joking; he was very shaken up by her tears.
    She took several deep breaths to calm down. "Will Sean realize you used mind control on him? Because if he does, Whitney will know I couldn't possibly have done it and he could go berserk and kill all of us."
    "No, he won't have any idea. You knew because I stopped before I gave you the command to forget what had happened to you. I can implant memories."
    "Did you with Sean?"
    "To protect you, yes. He believes the two of you had sex. He believes you cooperated with him. I didn't want him coming back in the morning."
    "How could you make him believe that?"
    "It was easy enough. His desires were very powerful, and the pictures of you naked in his mind were vivid. It wasn't difficult to manipulate them once I was wired to him. I didn't want to, Mari, but I felt I had no choice. It was the only way I could think of, besides killing him, to protect you. And if I killed him, Whitney would discover we'd broken into his stronghold. I did set Sean up and if we're lucky, he'll be taken care of when he makes a try at Whitney."
    "Are you apologizing to me?" She tilted her head enough to look up at him, shocked that he would be upset when what he'd done had cost him so dearly.
    "I'm sorry, baby. He's a powerful enemy, and I should have found a better way to remove him permanently, but we only had a few seconds to make a decision and that was all that came to mind if we wanted your family safe." And he had agonized and cursed over that decision every moment since. He wanted Sean dead. He needed Sean dead, but he had to live with the fact that he'd left the bastard alive and Mari wasn't safe.
    "I have no idea what I would have done if you hadn't helped me," she said. Her nervous fingers stroked his hair, an unconscious caress. She buried her face against the warmth of his neck. "Whitney said the senator is coming here, that he specifically asked to talk to me.
    I don't have any idea how he would know to ask for me, but Whitney was really angry. I'm certain that's why he had Sean come to me tonight."
    It took effort not to keep the hot surge of fury from spilling over where she might feel it.
    He brushed a kiss against the soft strands of hair at the top of her head. He'd never been so choked up in his life. It was terrifying how this woman made him feel so much. He had been careful all of his life never to get emotionally involved, and yet she'd wrapped him up so tight he could barely breathe – and he had no idea how it happened, or even when.
    "Senator Freeman is coming here?"

    "That's what Whitney said. I don't think it's a