Ghostwalker 09 - Ruthless Game

haven’t even discussed this.”
    “Would you discuss this with me?” Rose asked quietly. “If your time was up?”
    “It’s not the same thing.”
    She smiled at him, that serene, sweet smile he was coming to know meant real y bad things for him. “You know better. And it’s added protection for Sebastian. I’m serving our country just as Whitney wanted. I’m more apt to bring up our son as a soldier, another thing he wants. He knows I’l teach Sebastian everything I know, just as you and every member of this team wil , and he’s more apt to leave us alone to see how Sebastian does under a ful team’s tutelage.”
    Kane bared his teeth at her. He hated that it was sound reasoning. His dream of the little woman sitting at home waiting for him was about to shatter.
    “We’l talk this out before you commit.”
    She arched an eyebrow at him. “Does that mean you’l talk until I agree with you?”
    “At least give me the chance to persuade you. Jaimie doesn’t go out on missions, and she contributes.” He was grasping at straws and he knew it.
    “Jaimie has a very specific set of skil s I don’t have. My skil s are al in the field, Kane. I’l be an asset to you there, not sitting here at home.”
    Jaimie bent and kissed his jaw. “I think this is my cue to leave. Mack’s going to be down later with Paul, and he’l tel you everything he’s found out.”
    Kane watched the two women walk to the door together. He wanted them close but not conspiring against his wishes. He’d seen Rose in combat. She was fearless and didn’t hesitate, as good or better than any soldier he’d worked with, but didn’t she want to stay home and be a mother? What was wrong with that? His mother hadn’t wanted to stay home either. What the hel was wrong with women these days? Didn’t they understand someone needed to be in the home with the children, keeping the family together? Having dinners together? Do al the family things he’d envisioned but never had?
    Rose closed the heavy door and turned to lean against it, regarding him soberly. They lived in a renovated warehouse, a massive building with large doors, and draped against it that way, she looked smal er than ever. It was difficult to imagine her in combat, yet he’d seen her, and she was too damned competent, with nerves of steel, for him to pretend she wasn’t.
    “Damn it, Rose.” He pressed his fingers to his suddenly aching eyes. He hadn’t even noticed that his head was pounding and his gut hurt like hel .
    Maybe he was just tired. “You should have at least waited to discuss this with me.”
    He felt the weight of her stare and looked at her. It was impossible to read the expression on her face. Not breaking eye contact, she pushed herself off the door and walked over to him. Her feet were bare, smal and delicate, like the rest of her, making no noise on the floor as she came toward him. She was short enough that with him sitting, they were almost staring directly into each other’s eyes.
    “You’re right, Kane, I should have. We’re a team, and I should have given you that courtesy.”
    “I don’t want to be a team. I want you to be my wife. Mine. Whol y mine. Not part of this big team, a soldier. I want the woman.”
    She smiled and very gently brushed at the hair tumbling across his forehead, tenderness in her touch. “You have both the woman and the soldier, Kane.

    They aren’t separate.”
    “Damn it, I know that.” He knew that. He did. “It’s just that ...” He trailed off, feeling damned stupid. He wasn’t a little boy or even a teenage boy. He’d grown up hard and fast, and maybe that was the problem. He didn’t want that for his son. He shook his head and looked away from her. “I’m tired, Rose. I think I’l lie down for a while.”
    “Look at me, Kane,” she ordered softly.
    He did, dropping straight down into those large, fathomless, melting chocolate eyes that threw him every time he fel into them.
    “Tel me. I want to know.”
    He shoved a hand through his hair, betraying agitation when, with anyone else, he would have remained absolutely stoic. “I just always had this idea—
    this fantasy—about coming home to my wife, to dinner, to her waiting there for me. To her being a mother to my children. It’s stupid, I know, but when I looked at the possibility of a family, that was it—not our son being left to fend for himself.”
    She framed his face with her hands. “I don’t even know what family is,