“Wyatt…”

He took her mouth. Gently. Tenderly. Because he’d read her file and he knew there was no gentleness or tenderness ever in her life. His hands brushed away lace and silk and settled over her breasts. He kissed her over and over, not giving her a chance to breathe. To protest. To do anything but hang on to him. He knew how to kiss, and this was his woman. He used his skills shamelessly.

She tasted like heaven to him. He wanted her to know that. He lifted his head and looked down into her eyes. Her beautiful, unusual eyes a man could get lost in forever.

“The thin’ is baby, you have to understand, I wasn’ alive until you came into my life. I went through the motions, but I didn’ feel the things I was supposed to. I saw you there in the parlor, your hair all over the place, your eyes wild, almost feral. The mother in you watchin’ over that baby. And then you did the one thing that sealed your fate. You threw yourself in between me and that child. You took her bite. You knew there was a tremendous risk, and you knew how sick you were goin’ to be, but you still did it.”

He brushed at the tears on her face with his thumbs, leaned down to sip and then lick one away. “You were never meant to be a soldier, babe. That’s not in your makeup. You protect people. You nurture. You weren’ trained for it, but that’s what’s inside of you. That’s why it hurts so bad when you have to take a life.”

His hand slid between their bodies and he dragged down the zipper of her jeans. “Whitney knew it, that’s why he sent you to the children. You’re not flawed, woman, you don’ want to kill people. That’s a good thin’.”

His hand slipped inside her jeans to the sweet French-cut lace panties he’d chosen himself. He curled his fingers into her, found damp heat, just as he knew he would. His mouth found her left breast as he pressed deep inside her.

Her body moved under his. Not to fight this time. Melted, just like she did whenever he touched her. He lifted his head again. “Tonight, after I make love to you, baby, I’m goin’ to fall asleep with my cock buried deep inside you. You lyin’ on top of me. I want you that close.” It was his favorite way to go to sleep. He’d done it several times, her on top of him like a blanket, him buried inside her. He loved that.

Her fingers stroked through his hair as she took a deep, shuddering breath. “You’re sure, Wyatt? Because it will break me if I stay and then somewhere down the line you won’t be able to look at me anymore because of what I am.”

“I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life. I was born for you. I was born to keep you safe. To love and protect you. To keep your body from burnin’ you up from the inside out. That was why I was born, baby, no other reason. I intend to do my job.”

His tongue licked at the nipple of her right breast. His teeth scraped gently, a little rough, just the way she liked it. She arched her back and a moan escaped.

“You’re seducing me again and it isn’t fair. Not just your mouth and hands, but your words as well,” she accused.

“I don’ play fair, sugar. You have to know that by now. And Whitney’s goin’ to come for our children. He actually had the balls to tell me that in his note to me. He’s lettin’ me borrow them. We need you. All of us.”

He turned his attention to her other breast, waited until she was panting and squirming, before he lifted his head again.

“You’ve got too many clothes on, honey. Let’s get them off of you. Shoes first, although I like those boots on you. But we need to go to bed.”

He shifted his weight, keeping his arm around her waist, still leery that she might try to run. She sat up gracefully and bent to reach for her boots. He couldn’t help himself. He pulled the clip from her hair and tossed it across the room. His hands came up to cover her breasts.

“We’re already workin’ on turnin’ this entire area into a fortress.”

“If he’s as wealthy as you say he is and has friends in high places…”

“So do we. The thing is, honey, we don’ have to worry about money all that much. I’m not even talkin’ about the money Trap will donate to the cause. I work with Trap all the time. I’ve been doin’ it for years. We didn’ meet up in the teams, we met in college. He was wicked smart. I mean I’m smart, but he’s fuckin’ off the charts. He’s been comin’ up with solutions to problems for years and he was smart enough to patent everythin’ and either develop it himself or sell it to a company for big bucks. I started helpin’ him in college. That means my name is on those patents and half the money goes to me. Later, when we worked with Joe, Zeke and the others, we offered them shares in whatever we were workin’ on.”

He skimmed his hand down her body, her rib cage and belly, feeling the helpless shiver run through her. He lifted her hair and swung it around to the front over her left shoulder so he could kiss the nape of her neck.

“Lift up, honey. Slide your jeans and panties off.” He whispered the command in her ear, kissing that too. “You’re so beautiful. Everythin’ about you is beautiful to me.”

She did what he said and that was beautiful to him too. She rarely got upset at his personality. She smiled at him sometimes with a look that said maybe he was skating the boundaries, but she rarely complained, and never in bed. In bed she always accommodated anything he wanted. Once, when he’d talked to her, asked her if there was anything she wanted different, she just smiled, shook her head and told him she trusted him to take care of her.