Predatory Game

  Jess propped himself up on one elbow to study the delicate perfection of her body. She was very small but she had curves and incredible lines to her figure. He bent his head, needing to taste her skin again, his mouth craving the sweetness. "We were meant to be, Saber. Whitney and his pheromones can go to hell. This was us. You and me loving one another."

  Saber turned her head, long lashes lifting to study his features carefully. Jess laced his fingers through hers. "I had no idea it would be like that," she whispered softly, slightly awed.

  "I'm sorry I hurt you." His fingers splayed across her stomach because he had to touch her, to see his hand on her skin, to feel how soft she was.

  "Only for a second," she assured. "Thank you for being so careful." Nothing was ever going to be the same. She wasn't ever going to be the same.

  "I meant what I said, Saber." His fingertips brushed the silky V between her legs, touched a tight curl. "I love you. I want you to stay with me."

  Just the feel of his fingers on her caused a ripple of intense pleasure, a rush of dampness. Beside her, his body was stirring to life and he allowed it, bending his head to a taut, inviting nipple. He would have all the time in the world to make love to her; he was not going to take chances on making her any more sore than she was already going to be. The excitement, the freedom to touch her was incredible.

  He lifted his head, feeling her shiver again. "Come on, angel face, let's get you into a hot bath. You're going to catch cold lying here." He leaned into her again to kiss the tip of her nose and then the corner of her mouth. "You'll have to get my chair. It's in the other room." He hated saying that. Needing her to get it for him.

  She frowned. "But you ran, Jess. I saw you. And you kicked that man in the garage. How could you do that if you need the wheelchair?"

  "It's a long story." He was going to have admit to agreeing to the bionic operation--and that so far, it hadn't worked all that well. This had been the first time he had had any degree of success. It gave him a measure of hope, but even now, instead of cramps and spasms and pinpricks, he felt no sensation at all.

  She sighed. "One you're going to tell me."

  "You won't like it."

  "Probably not." She caught his face and kissed him before getting to her feet.

  Saber gathered up her clothes a little unsteadily, out of long habit putting her shirt on to cover her back. She left it open, liking the stark hunger in Jess's eyes as his gaze dwelt on her creamy breasts and tight, black curls. He made her feel sexy and beautiful.

  When she came back with his chair, Jess wasn't the least embarrassed to pull himself, totally naked, into it. Saber was looking at him with such a sensuous, tender look, it made him feel as if he were the greatest lover of all time.

  She followed him into the master bathroom with its huge Jacuzzi. Jess could hardly drag his gaze from her body long enough to fill the tub. He got in first because it was easier to maneuver with more room.

  Saber stepped into the hot, steamy water. "Just stand still," Jess directed in a slightly husky voice. Very gently, using a soft cloth, he washed the blood and seed from between her legs. His hands were caressing, seductive, producing a rush of warmth, a curl of excitement.

  She slid down into the water beside him, gasping a little as the jets swirled bubbles like a thousand tongues licking erotically at her sensitized body.

  Jess pulled her to him, settling her between his legs, her small, rounded bottom pressed tightly against his fierce arousal. Her back fit neatly against his chest, his hands came up to caress her breasts floating half submerged, half above the water line. His thumbs feathered gently over her erect nipples, cupped creamy flesh into his palms, his mouth on the vulnerable side of her neck.

  "I've wanted you forever," he admitted, his teeth biting her shoulder teasingly. "From the first moment I saw you, I knew you were the one."

  "That was Whitney's pheromones."

  He nuzzled the top of her head. "I don't think his pheromones could make me feel this way about you, Saber. No, we were meant to be. Destined."

  Saber didn't respond. His hands cupping the weight of her breasts, his thumbs sliding in caresses over her taut nipples were driving her crazy. Whatever it was that had brought them together didn't matter anymore. She had committed her heart to him, and that terrified her.

  Raging, he punched the wall over and over until his hands were bloody. Failed. It was easy, damn it. Easy. Kill the cripple and fuck her over really good. What was so hard about that? But no, they got the crap kicked out of them, and now they were in custody. He'd tried to follow so he could kill them before they could give out his description, but whoever had taken the idiots prisoner had lost him.

  Now what was he going to do? What? What? What? He slammed his head hard against the wall, spittle flying from his mouth. He couldn't get near the place, not with all the guards. He had to come up with another place, another location--the radio station. He punched the wall again, furious that his plans had to change.

  CHAPTER 12

  "Okay, now is the time, while I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy toward you, for you to tell me how you ran after me using your own two legs." Saber tilted her head back to look up at him. She couldn't talk about love. Not without feeling like her heart was going to be ripped out.

  "It's classified."

  "No kidding? What a shocker. You are classified, Jess. I'm classified. Of course whatever you've done to yourself this time is classified as well."

  "But technically, you aren't in the military because you don't exist."

  "You have my file," she pointed out with a small sniff of disdain. "And so does your lady friend."

  "Lily. Lily Whitney-Miller."

  Saber turned away from him and stared down into the bubbling water. "The doctor's daughter."

  "Don't you start on Lily too. Lily gave the file to me, not the other way around. And she's trying to find the other girls--women--that her father experimented on. She saved my life, Saber. I got to know her and I'm telling you, she isn't in league with him."

  "How lucky for you that you're so certain."

  His eyebrow shot up. "That was sarcasm."

  "You bet it was."

  "If it's any consolation, she doesn't trust you much either."

  Saber burst out laughing. "Actually, that does make me feel better. If she pretended to accept me immediately, I'd be alarmed." She tipped her head back to rub against his shoulder. "What is she doing to you? Dr. Whitney's daughter and the other one. What are they doing?"

  "Dr. Eric Lambert," he supplied. "Eric and Lily saved my life."

  "And?" she prompted.

  He sighed, but really, if Whitney already knew about his legs, what did it matter? "I'm in an experimental program for bionics."

  She whirled around, splashing water in all directions. "You're what? I saw Whitney's..." She trailed off. "Lily Whitney asked you to do this?"

  "No, she wasn't involved at all in the beginning. Eric and I were looking at the idea of using the external bionics the army is experimenting with. Eric made a few cracks about a couple of old television shows and how it really was possible to have internal bionics. He said that it had already been tried using a 'smart sleeve' to pick up and register movements of the existing muscles and use that to trigger movement of the appropriate part, but in theory it was possible to regenerate or stimulate existing nerves so the bionics would work completely with my own brain and body. The idea took off from there." He caught her chin when her gaze dropped away from his. "What did you see in Whitney's office? What were you going to tell me?"

  She closed her eyes briefly, shaking her head, not wanting him to know, but realizing she had no choice. Not if she was going to keep him safe. She was beginning to realize that loving someone was really difficult. She scooted away from him just in case, because she was going to have to confess to planning a premeditated execution. If Jess condemned her, if he couldn't understand, then there was no hope at all for them. She stared down at the bubbling w
ater.

  "Whitney gave me orders to take out a United States senator and his wife. I knew I had to escape. There was no way Whitney would just let me go. Eventually he'd run me down and either kill or reacquire me, so I decided that since I was an assassin and the best way to save my life was to kill Whitney, I would have to do it before I escaped."

  She stole a look at his impassive face. Jess waited in silence, giving her no hint of what he was thinking or feeling. She moistened her lips and forced herself to continue. "I knew his schedule at the facility, so I waited for him to come back. He always went into his office late at night to work. The security was unbelievable and he had his own personal guards--enhanced soldiers."

  "How many do you think take orders from Whitney personally?"

  "Maybe ten enhanced. He has two teams that he keeps with him at all times. They travel with him and answer directly to him for his personal use as well as for his protection. He has others, but they're sent out on assignments for the government. The men who are with him are completely different."

  Jess sucked in his breath sharply. "So you're saying aside from Ryland's team and ours, there are others?"

  "At least two other teams that I know of for certain and then Whitney's guards. The men on the teams aren't your enemy, Jess. They're in the same situation you are. They're military and they run covert missions."

  He nodded. "Keep going. What did you see when you went into his office?"

  "He had a couple of files lying on his desk. One was a file on bionics."

  Jess shifted, his eyes sharp and piercing. "What was the other file?"

  "The senator and his wife. My targets. He had a picture of them circled with a red marker and the file was very thick."

  The only sound was the flow of the jets and the clock ticking on the wall. Jess's gaze met hers. "Could you read the files?"

  She nodded her head. "I did. I thought I'd wait for him to come back, so I positioned myself beneath his desk and spent the time reading. He didn't come back. Apparently he had locked the office and left the facility on other business."

  "Saber." Jess studied her face, his eyes like that of a hawk, so intent they burned right through her--except that they were cold and distant. "Dr. Whitney's files are encrypted in numerical code."

  Saber let her breath out slowly, a chill skittering down her spine, although she was sitting in hot water. "You don't believe me." She crossed her arms over her breasts, suddenly aware of her naked body. She had tossed the shirt aside, it was somewhere, but...She looked around a little helplessly.

  "He changes the code all the time, but it's always numerical. Always."

  Her chin lifted, and her teeth came together with a small snap, but she forced herself to breathe away her anger. How many times had she believed he was her enemy? Not after making love, but still. "It wasn't code, it was typed neatly in plain English and I lay under that desk for four hours reading both files."

  "One of the reasons we have such a difficult time knowing what he's doing is because we have to decode everything on his computer. Lily knows him best, her brain even works in numerical patterns, but it's still time-consuming."

  Okay, now her temper was kicking in. She smacked the surface of the water before she could stop herself, sending a plume right at his face.

  The water stopped in midair, hung there, and dropped back into the Jacuzzi. There was a small silence while she just stared at him.

  "Holy crap, Jesse." There was genuine awe in her voice. "Why couldn't I get to do something like that? That's just awesome."

  "It isn't nearly as useful as you'd think. It takes too much concentration. If anything else had been going on I wouldn't have been able to do it."

  "Besides being an anchor, you're a shielder too, aren't you?"

  He raised an eyebrow. "We're getting a little off the subject, don't you think?"

  She shrugged as casually as she could. "What's the point? I'm obviously not going to convince you, so anything I say is suspect, isn't it? Because, you know, it makes so much sense that Whitney sent an assassin to spy on you. That's not a waste of a serious weapon, is it?"

  Jess could see the raw hurt in her eyes and no matter how hard he tried not to let it get to him, his heart was in serious jeopardy. He swore under his breath as he suddenly comprehended the implication of her question. "Saber, you're a shielder. That's why in all the months you lived here, I never felt a rise in energy." He hit his forehead with his hand. "How can you shield, but not anchor?"

  She cleared her throat. "He said his masterpiece was flawed."

  His fists closed and he kept his hands out of sight. It made more sense to him now, the way she could kill and not suffer immediate and severe repercussions. A shielder was rare. They could keep an entire team from detection. They could shield areas from weapons attacks for a short period of time. Whitney wouldn't want her dead. But if he thought she was flawed..."He'd want another one, to work with," Jess murmured aloud.

  Saber's fingers curled around the edge of the Jacuzzi, as if she might bolt, but she remained where she was, looking smaller than usual, but her eyes were defiant and her chin looked stubborn and set.

  Jess shook his head and raked his fingers through his hair again. "He sent you to me because he wants another one. He arranged for an opening at the radio station and waited for you to take the bait."

  Saber shrugged. "You're not telling me anything we haven't already suspected."

  "He has a breeding program, Saber. He wants babies. I'm a shielder and an anchor, and although you aren't an anchor, you are a shielder too. He knows we'll be physically attracted because when he was busy adding to our genetic code and bumping up our psychic abilities, he made certain of it. He's busy playing God again."

  Beneath the bubbling water, Saber pressed a hand to her stomach as if feeling for a child. "I'm not certain what you're trying to say."

  "I'm saying you're right, he wouldn't want to get you back, not without you being pregnant."

  "He wants me to have a baby?"

  "My baby. He wants you to have my baby. He has to be convinced that our traits are going to show up in the child, possibly stronger than in us."

  She pressed her hand harder. "We didn't use protection, Jesse. I didn't even think about it. How totally irresponsible is that?"

  She sounded so close to panic, Jess reached for her and pulled her back to him. "I thought about it, I just didn't care. If you have my baby, I'm fine with it."

  Saber shook her head. "This is crazy. Do you see what he's done? He's taking away all our choices. I don't want to get pregnant and worry every second that he's going to take my child away from me."

  "He's always going to be hovering around the edges of our lives, Saber. Whitney isn't going to go away because we want him to, no matter whether we're together or whether we choose to have children."

  Jess wrapped his arms around her. She was trembling and he needed to comfort her even as he was telling her the truth as he saw it. "He's there, and he'll always be there until he's dead. And even after that there could be others working with him we don't even know about."

  She let out a strangled gasp, and he nuzzled the top of her head.

  "And that brings me back to the files in his office. Why would he plant something in his office for you to find when he knew he was sending you to me? Because if it wasn't coded, Saber, it was there for you to find and read. Whitney doesn't ever make amateur mistakes. He wanted you to read those files."

  "On bionics? I could type it all out for you, every single detail in both files, but I have no idea why he would want to give me medical information."

  "Unless he knew I was going to be having the operation and needed to get information to me."

  "What are you saying, Jesse? That you think he was trying to help? And that would mean he knew months ago that you were going to have the operation. How would he know something like that?"

  She sounded frightened and his heart lurched. She was beneath the water, her breas
ts floating invitingly, her eyes almost violet in her alarm. His hands slipped to her upper arms. "Come here, baby."

  He wanted to hold her, comfort her, take the fear from her eyes and replace it with desire. He kissed the side of her neck, bit gently at her shoulder, slid his hand down her arm to try to bring her around in front of him.

  Saber's blue eyes darkened. Heated. She moistened her lower lip. "Jess. We have to think about what we're doing here. We're caught in the middle of some giant spiderweb. I'm really afraid."

  "Come here." He tugged on her arms to bring her closer.

  This time she came to him, a little reluctant, but she moved to stand in front of him. Water pushed between them, the bubbles ferocious, fizzing against his skin, adding to the slow buildup of heat spreading through his body. Keeping her gaze captive, he pushed her legs apart and drew her over him, so she was straddling his lap. She braced herself, using her hands on his shoulders as he cupped her bottom to bring her over his body.

  "I know you're afraid of Whitney, angel face, but in the end, only we matter. He's always going to be our bogeyman, but we can't let him stop us from leading our lives. That's our choice. We don't let him rule us or make us afraid to live life."

  Her lips trembled and he leaned in to kiss her, capturing her bottom lip between his teeth and playfully nipping and tugging. All the while his hands cupped her bottom, massaging and kneading while the bubbles burst against her bare skin. She rocked her hips, back and forth, a deliberate or compulsive motion that rubbed over the broad head of his cock. Each time she slid over the sensitive head, his body jerked and hardened more.

  Jess leaned forward and nibbled on her neck and then teased her earlobe. "I want you to sit on me, Saber, and wrap your legs around my waist." His voice was husky, almost hoarse. The need for her swept over him fast and furious, a vicious fist of lust that only seemed to build as he watched the bubbles fizz and break around her body. He kissed his way down her neck and the slope of her breast. Her body shuddered as he licked the side of her breast and traced the curve with his tongue.