Ghostwalker 06 - Predatory Game

burst with need. The wariness was ingrained in her—those violet-blue eyes, so unusual, so haunted, were always restless, searching for an enemy.
    He knew part of the reason she relaxed with him was because he was in a wheelchair and she didn’t perceive him as a threat. It wasn’t that she didn’t see—or recognize—the predator in him; she simply didn’t believe the threat existed any longer.
    “Are you going to swim all night?”
    “I’m thinking about it,” she conceded. “It’s this or the hot tub.”
    “I feel compelled to point out the hot tub is much warmer and that you’re turning blue. The color looks good on you though, it goes with your eyes.”
    She laughed, the way he knew she would. He loved that he could make her laugh—really laugh. Genuine and happy. It had taken months of patience, but she had finally let him in, just a little bit. She trusted him.
    But maybe she shouldn’t. She had a false impression of who and what he was, but he wasn’t about to scare her off by showing her the real Jess Calhoun. She could believe this life, the radio station, the songwriting. The man who treated her gently.
    Saber climbed the ladder, shivered, and hurried to the hot tub, taking a seat opposite him. “I didn’t realize I was so cold.”
    That was another thing he’d noticed about Saber—she ignored her comfort level, even pain, as if she could block sensation for long periods of time.
    “Where’d you meet Larry?” Because he was going to have a few words with the man.“What’s his last name and where does he work?”
    She made a face. “He’s a bartender, and believe me, Jesse, he’s not worth the trouble, so back it on down and forget the whole thing. It was my own fault anyway.” She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “I don’t know why I do half the things I do. Going out with Larry was a bad idea and entirely my fault.”
    “Why did you go out with him?”
    She looked relaxed, something Saber rarely did. She was in constant motion, like a hummingbird. Her Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    hands were always restless. She skipped or danced across a room rather than walked. Sometimes she’d leap over the furniture—she’d even cleared the couch one day, and it was longer and wider than most.
    She was a puzzle he couldn’t quite figure out.
    Saber opened her eyes to look at him through the rising steam.
    Because of you. She went out with utterly rotten cads because she didn’t dare fall in love with Jesse.
    That was so lame—so stupid. She couldn’t have someone decent, so she went out with men knowing she couldn’t hurt them—ever. She would never hurt an innocent.
    She didn’t have time to censor her thoughts. Not even to herself had she ever admitted that she couldn’t look at him anymore without wanting him. She wanted to trace every line in his face, memorize the shape and texture of his mouth, slide her fingers through that wealth of beautiful hair that fell haphazardly in all directions. She couldn’t close her eyes and not have him in her mind. She smelled him in every room.
    When she inhaled, he was there, drawn so deeply into her lungs that she felt possessed by him.
    Afraid he might read too much on her face, she looked away from him, studying the tiled mural.“Who knows why I do anything I do, Jesse.”
    He didn’t have the ability to read minds. She had spoken telepathically to him. Every cell in his body went on alert. Her words were clear, absolutely clear in his mind. Because of you. She was capable of projecting her thoughts into his head. Not only had she been clear, she had done it easily, with no energy spills at all, no surge of power to give her away. Never once in ten months of living with him had she slipped up. Not one time. And that spoke of specialized training—not merely specialized; it took rigid discipline to be good enough to go undercover and never make a mistake. He wasn’t going to buy it that she just happened to find his home, find him, and be trained in telepathic communication. God. Jesus. He couldn’t bear it if she was undercover playing him for a fool.
    He sat in silence, stunned at the revelation, furious with himself for not seeing it coming. Maybe all along he’d suspected, but he hadn’t wanted to know. She was so beautiful. So right for him. Who sent her?
    Who put those shadows in her eyes? The wariness on her face?Because of you. What exactly did that mean?
    He