Retrieval (39 page)

He was in silhouette to her now, and he was grateful she couldn’t see the sucker punch he received at the sight of her beautiful face.

“I knew you’d be angry, but will you be so stubborn that you won’t even hear me out?” she demanded, her own anger rising up to meet his.

“How dare you,” he said in her face.

*

His breath washed over her face, and her insides quivered at the delicious scent of him.

She’d spent too long with the wolves in Russia because the primal nature of her response to him might not allow for her to say everything she felt before she jumped on him.

“I’ll dare that and more if it means you listen to me Sebastian Graham.” She stomped her foot.

Just that quickly, he straightened and pulled away from her as if the nearness to her burned him, and his face registered nothing more than a polite blankness.

This was going to be much harder than she’d thought. She was willing to beg for a chance to earn his pardon if it meant she had an opportunity to convince him to spend forever with her.

“Please, Bas—Sebastian. Please, you don’t have to speak to me, but allow me to explain to you. Don’t throw me out without listening to me.” Her voice was hollow, the pain at his probable rejection already stinging her with sharp barbs.

He turned away and headed inside the house. The screen door slammed shut behind him, but she took his retreat to mean that she had at least a small chance to be heard before he kicked her off his property.

He’d rebuilt it even better than before. There was not even a hint of the destruction she’d wrought on his beautiful cabin. If it were possible the place was even lovelier.

Her sisters had warned her both before she’d done what she did at GenTech, and then after when she’d returned from Russia that Sebastian wasn’t a man whose heart you toyed with. She’d blatantly refused his help and shut him off and out at every turn. He was a man’s man, and the blow to his pride wouldn’t have been taken lightly. Never mind that she’d done it all because that was the only way she could’ve saved him. She had done it, and it had hurt him. It was only now that she was realizing the depth of that hurt for him and beginning to understand that he had to care as much for her as she did for him.

The question was: had she done irreparable damage? She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only person in this world for her was Sebastian. She’d tried time and again, while she was recovering in Russia, to speak with him along their mind connection, but each time it was as if there was a wall of concrete between them. What if he truly wanted nothing to do with her anymore?

Squaring her shoulders, she refused to let those thoughts prevent her from achieving her goal. Watching him enter his study and stride toward the big bay window there, she mentally steeled herself. It was all or nothing, and she refused to leave with nothing.

He finally turned toward her after several minutes of silence and simply stood looking at her.

She felt nervous and unsure, even with all they had been through, all the danger and the loving, she didn’t really know much about this man she’d given herself to. Was he quick to anger and slow to makeup or vice versa? Would he allow his pride to prevent a relationship with her?

“I came to you as soon as I was able. You know that Aleksei took me to Russia to recuperate. I almost died, but I guess you know that too.” She risked a peek at him. She inhaled sharply. There were flames in his eyes.

Was that a positive sign?

She cleared her throat as her nervousness made itself known in small ways. She couldn’t stand still and began pacing back and forth, unsure of where to start. Sucking it up, she did what came naturally.

“I’m sorry, Sebastian. So very sorry for leaving here the first time without letting you know my plans. I’m sorry for the pain I caused you and for ever putting you in danger. For so long, the only ones I had to worry about were my sisters. Then you and your men came along and I, well, I fell in love with you so damn fast. It was natural for me to include you in that umbrella of protection that I had over them, but unfortunately, it wasn’t very fair of me to shut you out of everything else.”

He just continued to stand there, not moving, his beautifully sculpted chest rising and falling steadily underneath a beige cotton-weave shirt. He could have been a statue for all his response.

“I wasn’t expecting you. I had no hopes of ever finding anybody who would understand and accept what I am. Then you showed up, and I thought surely the chemistry between us was an aberration. After all you were chasing after me to bring me back to my father, whom I hated. You were an enemy at first. Then you came rushing to my rescue in that cornfield, and you stole the biggest part of me—you stole my heart Sebastian. I fell so hard that I think I’m still falling, but Sebastian, you have to understand—after years of taking care of others, it’s been almost impossible for me to rely on someone else. To trust that someone really cares about me after knowing what I am—it’s still so hard to come to terms with.”

She stopped pacing and turned to face him fully. She let the love she felt for him show clearly on her face and shine brightly in her eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Sebastian, that I ever locked you out of my mind, that I hurt you when I severed our connection, that I ever prevented you from protecting me. But I love you with all that I am, and there is nothing on this earth more important to me than you. I hope that you can forgive my stubbornness and my insecurities, and let me back into your heart.”

There. It was all out in the open, and the ball was in his court. Only he did not look happy about competing.

“Is that all?” he asked her quietly. Too quietly.

She cocked her head, unsure of where that question came from. “I don’t know,” she answered hesitantly.

“You don’t know?” he said, and this time she could hear the barely concealed rage in his voice and knew that he was much angrier than she’d ever anticipated.

Maybe even angry enough to throw away what they had for the sake of his pride.

“What else do you need me to say, Sebastian? I’ve apologized and told you how I feel. What else is there that you need to hear?” she asked in an agonized voice.

She was deathly afraid that he was not going to give them a chance to work this out. Her heart was beating furiously, and the wind had picked up outside and was rattling the panes of his new windows giving indication to her inner turmoil.

“Do not fuck up my house again, damn it.”

He didn’t yell it. He didn’t have to. His rage was communicated in his tone of voice, in the tense lines of his shoulders, and the fire leaping from his blue eyes.

Her back straightened. She was perilously close to losing her own temper now. She’d come here with her heart in her hand and handed it to him, and this was how he treated her? Then she remembered. She’d been the one to deceive and lock him out, not the other way around, and just as quickly as her anger came it evaporated, leaving her more tired than she could ever remember being.

“Seems like I’ve said this a lot tonight, but I’m sorry. I never meant to destroy this place the first time. Look, maybe I should leave. It’s plain to see that you don’t want me here, and I don’t want to cause you any more pain than what I have already. I just wanted the opportunity to tell you how I feel, and I’ve done that, so I’ll get out of your hair, okay?” She finished in a near whisper, pain whipping through her and tearing her to pieces.

He continued to stand there, saying nothing, not moving. Hell, he was stone cold, and she knew then that it was over.

She turned to leave and was surprised to see Morrissey, Bleak, and Rover all standing in the doorway. What were they doing there? Protecting him? From her? Did none of them realize she had almost given her life to protect him herself?

The look on their faces would’ve been comical had she not been hurting so badly. She lifted her chin as she passed them and whispered one thing, “Take care of him,” before she walked out the kitchen door and down the steps of the porch.

She didn’t know where she was going to go, but it didn’t matter now. Her sisters, all of them were safe in Georgia, but she knew that wasn’t where she belonged. Maybe she could go back to Russia. Ma’am would take her back in. Her father’s very first experiment in genetic mutation was still alive and looking for ways to protect the others that had been created.

She could return to Russia, maybe carve out an existence helping them, but her heart? It would always be wherever Sebastian was. She’d tried and failed, and there was nothing she could do but leave now. Her sisters would be fine without her for a while. They were all, even now beginning, to embark on new lives out from under the protective shield she’d held them under for so long.

No it was time to leave, try to find a place for herself, by herself. Alone.

Not knowing her destination yet, she lifted her arms and scattered herself to the wind, letting it carry her far away from the pain of Sebastian’s rejection.

Chapter 23

Four Months Later

Gainesville, Georgia

“Sasha,” a man behind her called out excitedly.

Turning she encountered a large, incredibly good-looking man who was looking right at her but calling her sister’s name. She was here tonight in the popular Ray’s Blues House at the request of her sisters. She’d just gotten here, had come in straight from the airport in Atlanta, and walked in looking for them all, when she’d heard a man calling out Sasha’s name.

“Wrong one,” she laughingly called out, and when he looked at her questioningly she pointed to herself and said, “Skylar.”

“Oh. You guys should be illegal. It’s too much hotness. Hi, I’m Eric Dole,” the man said and bowed low over her hand in a gentlemanly gesture that had her laughing in delight.

“Sweet. I’d heard you were a lady-killer, and now I believe it,” Sky responded, removing her hand as quickly as she could.

She could no longer handle the touch of another. Since Sebastian’s rejection of her, even the thought of another man touching her made her queasy.
Stop it
.

She was not going to ruin her first night out in, well, forever it seemed, with thoughts of the man she still loved, but who did not love her. It’d been months since she’d seen any of her siblings, and she was here to have fun and celebrate their birthday. She’d gone to Russia for a couple of weeks when she’d left Sebastian’s place in Idaho. Then she’d decided to put out feelers, so she could begin practicing medicine again. Since the people at Northwestern thought her dead, she’d had to concoct a plausible story about a twin who’d died of heart failure. It worked, and she was back on rotation at her old hospital after taking her Board exams. Now she worked all the time, sometimes she pulled twenty-four hour shifts just to remain busy.

Work no longer held the same appeal, but then again, not much of anything had any appeal for her these days. It was a way to stay busy and not agonize over the loss of her heart every minute of the day. It helped her that she was saving lives and healing others. She’d lost none of her inherent abilities when she’d killed her father. In fact, she seemed to be stronger than ever.
Yay me
. She no longer had a heart, but man could she save a life like nobody’s business.

Shaking off her reverie she watched Eric Dole straighten in front of her and offer her an arm that she politely ignored. He looked at her a bit strange but shrugged his broad shoulders and indicated she should follow him.

“The rest of your party, and if I may stress,
party
, is this way.” There was a smile in his voice as he led her across a vacant dance floor and toward a large group of people, many of whom she’d never seen before.

“Sky.”

“Skylar.”

“Sky.”

A chorus of her name resounded. There were her sisters, as well as another woman who had her own face and form, just a different color hair. All of the women practically tackled Skylar and were hugging and kissing her, squeezing tight, offering her the type of unconditional love only sisters could offer.

She laughed and was surprised to find her face wet with tears as she settled into their embraces and gave her own in return. She felt a curious click in her heart and for the first time in almost six months, felt the appendage begin to beat again.

It hurt so badly that she almost couldn’t catch her breath. The loss of Sebastian had devastated her, but these women, these four incredible women she was linked to by DNA, were giving her succor. She was awed by their unconditional love for her.

One by one they stepped back until only Sasha remained still embracing her.

“Welcome home,” her sister, the lost one, S2, Sasha said to her.

“No, welcome home to you little sister,” Skylar said quietly, and then the boo-hooing started all over.

All of her sisters were crying and hugging, and pretty soon even more people whom Sky didn’t know surrounded them.
These other women must be Sasha’s adopted sisters.

“Ladies. Is it possible for me to maybe get in the middle of this?” Sky heard a man with a sexy, surfer dude accent ask from the fringe of their group hug.

“Connor Parks—you’re such a ho’,” one of Sasha’s adopted sisters, Sadie, yelled.

Skylar vaguely remember the man from the battle at GenTech. He was one of Bonner’s men.

“Only for you baby, only for you,” the sexy man said. He followed that with an outrageous wink at Sadie, who blushed furiously and looked away.

Sky shook her head as she was led by her sisters to a huge table that looked like it could seat a hundred people and was already populated by quite a few really big, attractive men.

“Skylar. Good to see you,
petite souer
,” Rover called out as he got up and came to hug her.

“Rover. It’s so good to see you. How’re Mo and Bleak?” she asked him after she carefully avoided a full-on hug from her friend.

“They’ll be here shortly. They pickin’ up another friend of ours to bring him here. How you been?” Rover asked her with knowing eyes.