Predatory Game (28 page)

Jess moved then, gentle long strokes designed to keep that beautiful, sultry look in her eyes. Her breathless little cries added to the surging heat. “God, you’re beautiful,” he said, meaning it.

This was her first time, and despite all the women in his past, he felt as if it were his as well. Not sex. Not lust. Pure magic. Body, soul, mind, hot silk, raging fires, he never wanted this to end. Never. Her body gripped his convulsively, liquid velvet, white hot, and he cried out, all his love, his life, his future in the husky call of her name.

“This is how it’s supposed to be, Saber.” He could feel his body tighten, heat sweeping up from his legs and pouring through his body. God. He loved her.
Loved
her, with everything in him, everything he was.

He didn’t want to stop, wanted to stay in her body, skin to skin, his heart pounding right along with hers. This was love, this agonizing fist of lust that gripped his body and wouldn’t let him go. And it was love, the same fist, wrapped around his heart and squeezing with such strength and emotion. This was what coming together with a woman was meant to be, the frenzy of hunger and tenderness. He had thought it impossible for a man like him to love a woman and have a family, that his need for combat would supersede all feeling for a woman. But he knew now that if Saber asked it of him, he would walk away from the service, give up everything he’d ever worked for in his life, to be with her.

He pulled her closer and bent down to find her lips with his. Long kisses, mouths mating, over and over, losing himself in her velvet heat. He wanted her to feel the way he was feeling, the heat and fire, but more, the overwhelming truth that they were meant for each other—that they belonged. She moved under him, her body tightening around his, the muscles rippling with her orgasm, taking him so that he thought he might be imploding from the inside out.

Saber felt as if she were exploding into fragments, earth-shattering quakes rippling through her body, colors and lights flashing wildly in her head. She clung to Jess, her safe anchor in a raging storm of pure feelings. She had no idea she made a sound, yet her voice mingled with his in the silence of the gym.

Jess eased off of her to lie at her side, one arm curved possessively around her waist. He could smell the combined scent of their lovemaking, a musky sweetness that seemed to enhance the feeling of joy, of completeness sweeping his body. He felt Saber shiver and realized he couldn’t simply jump up and get her a blanket with his legs back to their useless state.

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.

R
aging, 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.

C
HAPTER
12

“O
kay, 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 water.

“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.”