Ghostwalker 09 - Ruthless Game

look into my eyes, you know when I’m speaking the truth.”
    Baby. He’d never cal ed her by that specific endearment. She wasn’t a baby, but she felt newly born. The caress in his voice shook her almost as much as the tenderness. Rose took a deep, steadying breath and forced herself to lift her head. If he hadn’t heard what her body had said to him, he would see it when he looked into her face. She loved him with every breath she took, and she was terrified. She’d put herself into his hands without meaning to do so, and now he had al the power.
    Kane’s green eyes searched her face for what seemed a long time before meeting her gaze steadily. “I can only guess how scared you are right now, Rose. I am too. Not of Whitney. Not of being a father. I can handle both of those things, but of you—us. I’ve never felt so vulnerable to another human being. You have my heart, Rose. It sounds stupid and corny and I’m not that kind of man to say pretty words women like to hear, but if I could—if I could find the right way to say you terrify me without sounding like an idiot—I would.”
    Happiness swept through her. He was right; she could see the naked truth in his eyes. She liked that he deliberately made himself so vulnerable to her, exposing his feelings and trusting that she wouldn’t ... betray him. He was tel ing her he understood, taking the chance before she could find the courage.
    She found his mouth almost blindly, melting into him, uncaring that her milk was beginning to flow, something that embarrassed her and made her feel decidedly not glamorous or sexy. She felt his firm lips heat, and her heart skittered in her chest. Kissing him was rather like tumbling into a beautiful dream. She could kiss him forever, for always. His hand bunched in her hair, sending a thril down her spine. There was an instant response, his arms turning to steel, caging her, his mouth moving over hers, deepening the kiss until she thought her heart might explode from her chest.
    She raised her head slightly and looked down at him, the tip of her tongue sliding along his bottom lip, savoring the taste of him. “I’m scared too, Kane,”
    she admitted. “I thought you were a logical choice for the father of my baby.” A slight smile wel ed up. “You’re very good-looking, and you have strength of character and integrity. There’s no cruelty in you. No subterfuge. I thought we’d live together and be happy and comfortable.”
    She watched the smile soften his beautiful mouth and creep into the vivid green of his eyes. “Comfortable?” he repeated and squirmed a little so that she felt him, semi-hard, moving deep inside her. “That might not be the best word to describe us together.”
    The sensation along with that teasing, suggestive grin, set off tiny explosions throughout her body. “My point exactly. My body’s reaction to you might be more than I expected, but with Whitney pairing us, I knew we’d be compatible sexual y. I just didn’t know how deeply I would feel about you. I thought it was too soon. Too fast. But I realize it’s been growing in me since the very first day I saw you.”
    “We’re in this together.” His voice was so tender, so gentle, she almost felt the sound like a caress washing over her skin. “And it wil get rough, Rose.
    Whitney isn’t going to let up just because we found each other. If something happens, you know I’l never stop looking for you. I would find both you and Sebastian. I’d come for you.”
    She studied his face. He hadn’t raised his voice. There was a quiet strength in Kane. A core of steel. He would never back down, never swerve from his chosen path. She shivered, thankful that she was his chosen path.
    “I know that,” she replied, surprised that the conviction was strong in her.
    “You have to trust me, no matter how bad it gets, Rose. We can do it if we’re together. That’s the entire point of a pairing. We should have al the tools to defeat anything or anyone in battle together. He manipulated our DNA and enhanced us both physical y and psychical y to fit together in every conceivable situation, so together we’re strong.”
    Whitney had always been the al -powerful figure in her life. She’d never conceived of the idea of actual y defeating him. She had run, but in the back of her mind, she’d accepted the idea that in the end he would reacquire her. She had wanted to make it as difficult as possible, and if she could, hide the baby where