Ghostwalker 08 - Street Game

vicious.”
    “No one asked you,” Jaimie groused.
    “You woke me up,” he grumbled. “What do you expect? Oh, all right, I’ll help you out. If she’s going to be so damned contrary, Mack, I’ll take the bed and you can have the couch,” Kane suggested slyly.
    “It’s my bed,” Jaimie pointed out belligerently. “I didn’t offer to share with either of you.”
    Mack nuzzled her silky hair, inhaled her fresh, clean scent. Like hell Kane was going to switch places. Kane knew it too. “I can’t believe your manners have disintegrated in such a short time.”
    “We worked hard to teach you,” Kane added sorrowfully.
    “It was the other way around. Without me, you two wouldn’t even know what civilization was all about,” Jaimie argued indignantly.

    56

    Mack took several silky strands of her hair in his mouth, tugged gently as he allowed them to slide off his tongue through his lips. He laughed softly when Jaimie took a poorly aimed swipe at him, missing by several inches. “This woman has such a temper, Kane.” Mack surrounded her arms with his own, crowding even closer, dwarfing her with his size. “So contrary.”
    “I don’t think so,” Jaimie protested. She pressed her smiling mouth into the pillow. They’d always been like this. Talking back and forth and making her laugh when she didn’t want to.
    “Fortunately we’ll have plenty of time to work on these little imperfections,”
    Kane said.
    “I’ve got a great idea,” Jaimie ventured. “I’ll take the couch and you two jokers can share the bed.”
    Mac’s arm muscles tightened perceptibly as he clamped her to him. “I’m not about to share this dinky little bed with that shaggy bear,” Mack objected. “He kicks like a mule.”
    “He wakes up throwing punches.” Kane imparted the information with relish. “I refuse to be anywhere near him.”
    “The arrangements are just fine.” Mack was emphatic.
    His fingers brushed her breast and she wasn’t smiling anymore. Just like that her body flooded with heat. She was certain it was an accident, but it didn’t matter. She couldn’t do this, slip back into the old patterns so easily, teasing each other and feeling the fire sweeping through her body, hot and wild and so tempting. She felt alive again and that scared her so much that for a terrible moment she couldn’t think or breathe. Her heart slamming hard in her chest, she leapt from the bed, right over the top of Mack, landing like a cat, crouched on the floor, and then scrambling backward, away from him.
    “Jaimie?” Mack sounded troubled. “Are you all right? We were just teasing, honey.”
    She forced words past the sudden lump clogging her throat. “I’m okay. I still get claustrophobia at times.” She was hyperventilating, just as she had all those nights for months when she woke up alone without Mack beside her. She could feel sweat beading on her forehead, dangerous now, because both Mack and Kane could smell fear. Cursing under her breath, she moved to the window, staring out over the water.
    The sea always calmed her. That was a good part of the reason for her chosen location. She wasn’t an anchor and the chaos of people could cause severe damage.
    The sea helped block the waves of energy coming at her, or maybe it just drowned out the worst of it. Whatever. She didn’t want to think about what Whitney had done and what she’d become thanks to him. She couldn’t lose herself, not when it had taken her so long to build her self-esteem and courage. Mack couldn’t just come back and steal it all away. She wasn’t that same innocent girl.

    57

    When she was with Mack, he overshadowed her. She knew she was intelligent, more so than both Mack and Kane, yet she never felt strong around them. They had a different kind of strength and for some reason, she could never quite feel equal to them. She couldn’t blame Mack for treating her as someone he had to take care of when she didn’t act like a partner, but she had stood on her own and she liked herself.
    She didn’t want to go back.
    A tingling awareness crept down the back of her neck and she took a breath.
    “Who do you have watching me, Mack?” There was accusation in her voice.
    Mack glanced at his watch. “It’s Gideon’s shift. In another hour Jacob will take over on the roof. We’ve got a ship coming in around eleven and the boys will be coming off that and securing residences around the neighborhood. We made certain the rooms we wanted