Ghostwalker 09 - Ruthless Game

Whitney. As a team, a family, we’re stronger than he can possibly imagine.”
    He was right. When she’d been in the compounds, if Whitney separated al of the girls, it was much more difficult to fight him, but together, they had too much strength and too many psychic talents for him to control.
    “I grew up with every single man and woman in this team other than Paul. You’ve met Paul. He’s no plant. His talent is incredible, and we al watch over him, especial y Javier.”
    Her breath caught in her throat. She knew Paul was no threat. He was too honest—he felt too good—not that he wouldn’t fight if he was forced to do so.
    But Javier ... He scared her, and yet it had been Javier who had ultimately been Sebastian’s guardian. She’d seen the look on his face when he dropped in to see the boy. He always referred to himself as Uncle Javier, and she had secretly cringed.
    Rose shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I didn’t trust them. I didn’t want to like them or give them a chance.”
    “Rose.” His voice was a velvet caress, stroking over her skin. “What did you expect? You’ve never been around a man who wasn’t keeping you prisoner or torturing you. Did you think it would be easy? Al of us knew we’d have to earn your respect and trust. It’s never automatic, not when our lives depend on one another.”
    “But you trusted them. I should have ...”
    He drew her up, blanket and al , pul ing her shivering body against his, and she let him, wanted to melt into him, to draw from al that male heat and strength. She let herself be fragile and vulnerable, she already was—to him. She let herself open to him. He was so deep inside her that she’d never get him out, nor did she want to.
    “Why should you trust anyone you don’t know? Especial y with our child? Every member of my family would be shocked and horrified if you’d easily accepted them. They want you, just as I do, to be leery of strangers.” He massaged her shoulders, and then slid his hands down her back, pul ing her closer. “Look at Eric. He’s been our chosen doctor for al the teams, and yet not one of us realized he was an enemy.”
    She leaned into him, wanting shelter in his arms, in the strength of his body. He was like an enormous oak tree, solid and unyielding, a sentinel she could always count on. “You were uneasy around him,” Rose said. “That’s one of the reasons I had trouble with him. I didn’t like that he was so interested in DNA. He was always so obsessive about taking Sebastian’s blood, even after I explained my worries. But had you trusted him implicitly, I might have acted differently.”
    When he framed her face with his large hands and her eyes met his, her heart nearly exploded with love for him. There was no censure there, only respect and admiration. She swal owed the lump in her throat. “I don’t deserve you to feel like that about me, Kane. Not now. I can’t forgive myself for nearly losing Sebastian. If I’d been better with everyone . . .”
    He stopped her with his mouth, that sinful, tempting mouth that she often fantasized about. The moment his lips, so cool and firm, settled over hers, her heart shifted, and her stomach did a long, slow somersault. Her heart stuttered. His body heat warmed her. The steely strength of his arms caging her made her feel safe—as if she had truly found a home. The taste of him drove her wild.
    Her eyes burned and her throat clogged with tears, even as her body went into familiar meltdown. She nearly dropped the blanket as she kissed him back, sliding her arms around his neck, clinging tightly to him. She gave herself to him, to the white-hot heat rushing through her veins in a fever of need, al owing the sensation to drive away guilt and fear and replace it with— him— with Kane.
    She fed on him, on the rising tide of feeling, so she didn’t have to think, didn’t have to relive those terrible moments when she knew she’d failed to protect their child, and Whitney had succeeded in taking him. It took a few moments before her head cleared enough to realize he was swaying a little.
    Abruptly she pul ed away from him to look up at his face. So strong—even powerful. She could see what had always attracted her to him, that intense integrity, the loyalty and honor that was stamped so plainly into that strong man’s face. He was no boy; maybe he’d never been one. He was like her little Sebastian, thrown into a world of violence,