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Rachel was out of the room before he could catch her, and then he heard the screen door slam. Going to the door, he saw her disappearing into the pines with Joe right beside her, as usual. He cursed steadily as he jerked on his pants and started after her. She wasn’t going to be inclined to listen to him now, but listen she would even if he had to hold her down.
When Rachel reached the beach she kept walking, wondering how she was going to find the courage to go back to the house and act as if everything were normal, as if she weren’t a shriveled knot of pain inside. Still, it was probably only for one more day; she could manage that. She could endure it for twenty-four hours. Part of her was glad that it could be measured in hours; then she could forget about a stiff upper lip and cry until the tears were all gone. But the rest of her screamed silently at the thought of not seeing him again, no matter what he felt—or didn’t feel—for her.
A pastel pink shell was half-hidden by a clump of seaweed, and she paused to push the seaweed aside with her foot, hoping to find something beautiful to lighten her heart. But the shell was broken, most of it gone, and she kept walking. Joe left her side, trotting up the beach to do his own exploring; he had been changed by Kell’s arrival, too, for the first time allowing a man to touch him and learning to accept someone other than Rachel. She watched the dog, wondering if he would miss Kell, too.
A warm hand closed on her shoulder, bringing her to a halt. Even without looking around she knew it was Kell; she knew his touch, the rasp of his roughened fingertips. She felt him at her back, tall and warm, so intense that her skin tingled whenever he was near. All she had to do was turn around and her head would fit right into the hollow of his shoulder, her body would fit into his arms, but he wouldn’t allow her to fit into his life. She didn’t want to treat him to tears and hysterics, and she was very much afraid she would if she turned around, so she kept her back to him.
“This isn’t easy for me, either,” he said roughly.
“I’m sorry,” she broke in, wanting to make a quick end to it. “I didn’t mean to start a scene, or put you on the spot. Just forget it, if you can.”
His hand tightened on her shoulder, and he turned her around, sliding his other hand into her hair and tilting her face up so he could see her eyes. “Don’t you see that it couldn’t work between us? I can’t leave my job. What I do…it’s hard and it’s ugly, but it’s necessary.”
“I haven’t asked you to give up your job,” she said, her face proud.
“It’s not the damn job I’m worried about!” he shouted, his dark face furious. “It’s you! God, it would tear my guts out if anything happened to you! I love you.” He paused, took a deep breath, and continued more quietly. “I’ve never said that to anyone before, and I shouldn’t be saying it now, because there’s no use in it.”
The wind whipped her hair around her face as she stared up at him, her gray eyes fathomless. Slowly his fist loosened in her hair and he moved his hand down to her neck, rubbing his thumb over the fluttering pulse at the base of her throat. Rachel swallowed. “We could try it for a little while,” she whispered, but he shook his head.
“I want to know that you’re safe. I have to know that, or I can’t function the way I should. I can’t make a mistake, because if I did it could mean that people died, good men and women. And if you were kidnapped—” He stopped, his face almost savage. “I’d sell my soul to keep you safe.”
Rachel felt herself shattering on the inside. “No, it can’t be like that. No negotiation—”
“I love you,” he said harshly. “I’ve never loved anyone before in my life, not my parents, any of my relatives, or even my wife. I’ve always been alone, different from everyone else. The only friend I’ve ever had is Sullivan, and he’s as much of a lobo as I am. Do you really think I could sacrifice you? Sweet hell, woman, you’re my one chance in a lifetime—” He broke off, a muscle in his jaw twitching as he stared at her. “And I don’t dare take it,” he finished quietly.
She understood, and she wished she didn’t. Because he loved her, he didn’t trust himself not to betray his country if she were kidnapped and used as a weapon against him. He wasn’t like people who had loved before and would love again; he was too remote, too chillingly alone. For whatever reason, whatever particular chemistry and circumstance, he loved her, and it was the only time in his life he would ever love a woman. Living with him would make her vulnerable to attack; merely loving her would make him vulnerable, because for a man such as he, love was something both wonderful and terrible.
He took her hand, and they walked silently back to the house. It was time for lunch; Rachel went into the kitchen with the intention of trying to busy herself cooking so she wouldn’t be able to think. Kell leaned against the cabinets and watched her, his black eyes burning her flesh. Suddenly he reached out and caught her hand, removing the pot from her grasp and setting it back on the countertop. “Now,” he said gutturally, pulling her toward the bedroom.
He stripped down her shorts but didn’t take the time to remove her shirt; nor did he take the time to shed his pants, merely opening them and shoving them down. They didn’t make it to the bed. He took her on the floor, so desperate to be inside her, to sheathe himself in her and eliminate all distance between them, that he couldn’t wait. Rachel clung to him as he pounded into her, every inch of her flesh, every cell, branded by his possession. And even then they both knew it wouldn’t be enough.
Late that afternoon she walked out to the garden to gather a few fresh peppers to add to the spaghetti sauce she was cooking. Kell was taking a shower, and Joe, oddly, was nowhere in sight. She started to call him, but decided that he must be asleep under the oleander bush, taking refuge from the heat. The temperature had to be pushing a hundred, and the humidity was high, prime conditions for a thunderstorm. With her hand full of peppers she crossed the small backyard to the house. Later she could never decide where he came from; there had been no one in sight, and no place for him to hide. But as she went up the back steps he was suddenly there behind her, his hand clamping over her mouth and jerking her head back. His other arm went around her in almost exactly the same movement Kell had used when he had jumped her from behind, but instead of a knife this man carried a gun clutched in his fist; it glinted in the sun with a dull blue sheen.
“Don’t make a sound and I won’t hurt you,” the man murmured in her ear, his voice easy on consonants and pure liquid on the vowels. “I’m looking for a man. He’s supposed to be in this house.”
She clawed at his hand, trying to scream a warning even though Kell might still be in the shower and wouldn’t be able to hear her. But what if Kell did hear her? He could be shot trying to help her. The thought paralyzed her, and she sagged against the man, struggling to organize her mind and think of something she could do. “Shhh, that’s right,” the man said in that low, soft voice that made chills run over her body. “Open the door now, and we’ll go in nice and easy.”
She didn’t have any choice but to open the screen door. If he had wanted to kill her he already would have, but he could still easily knock her unconscious, and the end result would be the same: she would be unable to help Kell if the opportunity arose. The man pushed her up the back steps with his big body, hold
ing her so securely against him that she couldn’t struggle. She stared at the gun in his hand. If he tried to shoot Kell, she could hit his arm, throw off his aim. Where was Kell? She tried to listen for the shower, but her thundering heartbeat made a roaring in her ears that blotted out sound. Was he dressing? Had he heard the back door close? Even if he had, would he think anything of it? They relied on Joe to let them know if anyone was close by. Hard on the heels of that thought came another one, and pain welled in her again. Had he killed Joe? Was that why the dog hadn’t come around the house when she went out to the garden?
Then Kell walked out of the bedroom, wearing only his jeans and carrying his shirt in his hand. He stopped, his face very still as he looked first at the man holding her, then at her terrified eyes above the hand clamped over her mouth. “You’re scaring her to death,” he said in a cool, controlled tone.
The hand over her mouth loosened, but the man didn’t completely release her. “Is she yours?”
“She’s mine.”
Then the big man let her go, gently setting her away from him. “You didn’t tell me anything about a woman, so I wasn’t taking any chances,” he said to Kell, and Rachel realized who he was.
She held herself very still, fighting for control and taking slow, deep breaths until she thought she could speak without her voice trembling. “You must be Sullivan,” she said with admirable calm as she gradually relaxed her clenched hands.
“Yes, ma’am.”
She didn’t know what she’d expected, but it wasn’t this. He and Kell were so much alike that it staggered her. It wasn’t the way he looked, but they both had the same stillness about them, the same aura of power. He had sun-streaked, shaggy hair, and his eyes were as piercing and golden as an eagle’s. A scar cut across his left cheekbone, testimony to some past battle. He was a warrior, lean and hard and dangerous…like Kell.
While she had been looking at him, he’d been giving her the same treatment, studying her while she struggled for control. One corner of his mouth kicked up in an almost-smile. “Sorry for scaring you, ma’am. I admire your self-control. Jane would’ve kicked me in the shins.”
“She probably did,” Kell commented, his tone still cool, but now with an undercurrent of amusement.
