Ghostwalker 09 - Ruthless Game

giving her exact location.
    Along with that, the cartel probably had assassins blanketing the area.
    “You look a little pale, Kane. Are you certain you should be walking around so much just yet? We should go in.” She took his arm.
    There was nothing wrong with his physical strength. If he was pale it was because she terrified him sometimes. “Do you think that’s real y wise?”
    She blinked up at him, giving him that little frown he found sexy. “Yes, absolutely. I think you need to go back inside and rest. Wisest course of action for you, Kane. You’re working out too much. Even that rude surgeon says so. I hate to agree with anything the man says, but unfortunately, he’s making sense.”
    He pul ed her close to him, bending his head until their mouths were inches apart. “I’m not above putting you over my knee.”
    She went up on her toes to cover the scant couple of inches needed to find his mouth with hers. “Sounds intriguing,” she murmured against his lips. She brushed kisses back and forth across his mouth. “But you’d better real y enjoy it, because once you let me up, I’l have to retaliate, just for the sake of al women across the world.”
    He choked, laughter wel ing up. The day was foggy and a little windy, but right then, the sun seemed to burst over him. There was something about her that made him feel good. Her smal stature, a little Asian porcelain dol with her dark chocolate eyes and her wild, shiny hair spil ing around her face, was at odds with her tough core. She made him want to be her hero, the man who she depended on when everything around her fel apart, yet more than likely, it was going to be the other way around.
    He framed her face with his hands—hands that were so big in comparison to her. He was twice her size, twice her weight easily, and yet in her smal hands he was lost, completely lost. And he wanted to be. Somewhere in between running from the cartel and fighting Whitney, delivering their baby and lying next to her soft body in the middle of the night, he’d given himself, heart and soul, to her.
    “I’m in love with you, Rose,” he said, looking into those beautiful, dark eyes. He felt as if he was tumbling into a dark, warm, bottomless wel .
    The laughter faded from her eyes, and she blinked as if her eyes were burning. “You don’t have to say that to me, Kane.”
    “I don’t say what I don’t mean, Rose.”
    She took a deep breath and blinked. This time he could see tears glistening on the tips of her lashes.
    “Sweetheart.” He bent to kiss the tears from her eyes. “That’s a good thing, not a bad thing. We’ve committed our lives to one another. Loving you is good.”
    “Is it real?” Her voice shook. A whisper of sound. Maybe a plea. Or denial.

    “Are you asking me if it’s something you can count on? Because if that’s what you’re worried about, Rose, the way I feel about you isn’t going to go away. I’m in love with you. I’ve never thought it, let alone said it, to another woman. Pairing is about physical lust, not love. Whitney can’t manipulate emotion, only our bodies. What I feel for you is real, Rose. It’s about you and the person you are.”
    She searched his face, a long, slow study. He stood very stil , letting her see the truth in his eyes. She shook him to his very core. Her strength and courage. Her determination. She’d come to him, committed to him, to a life with him to protect their child. She’d asked Whitney to pair her with him, knowing there was the possibility that they wouldn’t find one another—and that she’d never be physical y satisfied with anyone else, but she’d done it because she took responsibility for her choice.
    How could a man like him, one devoted to duty and honor, not respect and admire her? Everything about her personality appealed to the man in him.
    “You might have to say it several times a day for me to believe it,” she warned. “I’ve never been good with fairy tales.”
    A slow grin teased his mouth. He could feel the warmth spreading through his body—her sun—slowly heating his blood. “So I’m the prince. I always wanted to be a prince.”
    Rose continued to look into his eyes. Her slender arms circled his neck, and she brought his head down to hers. He watched her eyes go dark and dreamy as his mouth took hers.
    Sebastian kicked him hard, squirming as their bodies came together. They broke apart, laughing.
    “Sorry about that, son,” Kane said, taking him