Ghostwalker 06 - Predatory Game

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 Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    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