“Yeah, by risking what belongs to me and betraying his team.”

“I can see why you’d be angry.”

“Really, Grace? You can see why I’d be angry? I was fucking furious. You don’t get it, do you? He took what was mine. He took what was important to me and he used you. He could have killed you. And you see why I’d be angry.”

“He betrayed you,” she whispered.

Rio rose up on his elbow, his eyes blazing. “It has nothing to do with me, goddamn it! Don’t you get it? I love you and he tried to suck the life right out of you. Yes, he betrayed me, but I wanted to kill him because he nearly took you away from me.”

She swallowed, opened her mouth and then snapped it shut again. He didn’t give her another opportunity. He slid his hand around to her nape and pulled her to meet his kiss.

It was fierce and possessive. She felt branded and marked. He kissed her like he was swallowing her whole, devouring her and pulling her into himself.

He turned her fully onto her back and then he was over her, pushing into her, hot and hard. He slid into her body, locking them together, and then he stared down at her, his eyes burning with emotion.

“Do you get it now, Grace? You’re mine. I’ve never felt this way about a woman, and I don’t like how goddamn crazy it makes me.”

She smiled and arched up with a sigh, taking him farther insim f thisde.

“I’m glad you find this so damn funny,” he growled.

Her smile got bigger. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down into a kiss.

“Would it make it better if I told you that I’m just as crazy over you?” she whispered.

“Maybe.”

“Or that I’m pretty sure I love you just as much?”

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” he grumbled.

She stroked his cheek. She wrapped her legs around him, wanting him closer still. Wanting to find that warmth that burned from the inside out.

“Or that my reason for finding the will to live after wanting to die is you?”

His eyes darkened and he went still above her. For the longest time he simply stared down at her as if he was trying to collect himself.

He was still deeply embedded inside her. She was tight around him and he seemed to swell larger even though he hadn’t yet moved.

“I don’t know what to say,” he said hoarsely. “I’ve never mattered to anyone. Not in this way. No one has depended emotionally on me. I’m depended on for leadership and strength. Discipline and determination. No one has ever needed me for who I am. Just what I am.”

“I do,” she whispered. “I need you, Rio. You saved me. I’ve never mattered to another soul besides my sister. No one has ever cared about me or about what happens to me. Not until you. I wasn’t just someone with special abilities to you. You saw the real me, and you cared about her. Not what I could do for the world or for someone you knew. You looked inside and saw me.”

He lowered his forehead to hers until they were touching. “Say it. Say the words, Grace. I don’t just want to hear them. I need to hear them. I need…you.”

She smiled, tenderness filling her heart. “I love you, Rio.”

His nostrils flared and his jaw went tight as if he were fighting to maintain his control and composure. There was such vulnerability in his dark eyes, and she realized in that moment that for all his strength and resolve, for how protective and possessive he was of her, he needed those same things from her.

“I love you too, Grace Peterson.”

He withdrew and then pushed forward again, more gently this time and without the urgency he’d displayed when he’d first taken her.

He kissed her lips then moved to her cheeks, giving each a kiss in turn. Then he kissed her nose, her eyelids and each temple. All the while he continued his gentle thrusting, gliding in and out a

s he restaked his claim all over again.

Slowly he ran his hands down her body, then underneath to cup her behind. He held her in place, positioning her for his thrusts as he worked deeper.

“Don’t ever risk yourself like that again,” he admonished. “You can’t save everyone, and I won’t lose you so that you can save one more person. Maybe that’s selfish of me, but I don’t really give a damn.”

She smiled at the gruffness of his tone because underneath was a layer of fear. Fear for her. Fear that he’d lose her. She kissed him again as the first waves of her orgasm rolled over her.

She held on to him, her anchor, the person who’d taken her from death’s grasp more than once. He’d protect her. She had absolute faith in him. How could she not? He’d faced death down for her and won.

CHAPTEnada etersonR 29

“YOU better have something good to report,” Farnsworth growled into the phone. “With what I’m paying you, you should have had Grace Peterson to me weeks ago.”

“I don’t respond well to threats, Mr. Farnsworth. You’d do well to remember that.”

Farnsworth froze at the icy implication in Hancock’s voice. He hated that this man intimidated him. And he didn’t simply intimidate him. He bloody well terrified him, and that pissed him off because he feared no one. People feared him.

Except this man who headed up Titan. Farnsworth was certain there wasn’t a man alive that Hancock feared.

“Well? Have you located her yet?”

“I have,” Hancock said simply. “Rumor is she healed a child in a village on the Belize River and that it nearly killed her. Nothing is known of her current condition, but I have a lock on her location. My contact there says they’re moving her out soon. If I’m patient, they’ll come to me.”

Farnsworth swore savagely. “I can’t afford to wait a minute longer. What if the little fool had killed herself trying to heal this other child? If she’s going to die healing someone, it’s damn well going to be my daughter.”

“I understand your impatience,” Hancock said in a mild tone. “But impatience won’t get you what you want any faster. You hired me to do a job. I’ve never failed a mission yet. Think about that when you’re issuing idle threats because my next mission will be to come after you if you continue your present line of discussion.”

“Just get her here. I’m running out of time. I’ll double your price. I don’t care what it takes. You can have all I have because if my daughter dies, I’ll have nothing anyway.”

“Your devotion to your daughter is admirable and I’ve already said that I would have Grace Peterson delivered to your daughter’s bedside in a timely manner. She won’t escape. I know the man who protects her far too well. I know how he thinks.

I know his next move. I should. He taught me everything I know.”

The line went dead and Farnsworth threw it across the room. He hated how this mercenary reduced him to feeling insignificant and powerless. As if Hancock held all the cards and he knew it.

Time was running out. The doctor had seen her again today and had faced Farnsworth with a grim expression and a shake of his head. She didn’t have long. She was growing weaker. Her body could no longer fight off the cancer. It was insidious, growing and multiplying at an alarming rate. There was simply nothing to be done.

She had days, maybe weeks, but nothing more. She could die tonight or she could die next week. He was afraid to enter her bedroom for fear that he’d find her already gone.

He slumped into his chair and buried his face in his hands, and for the first time since learning of his daughter’s illness, he wept.

CHAPTER 30

“RIO, I’m perfectly capable of walking,” Grace protested as he carried her out of the bedroom and into the living room.

He ignored her and she sighed, though she really didn’t mind him carrying her. She was still living in the new and shiny revelation of knowing this man cared so much for her. It was a little frightening and yet it made her giddy, like a teenage girl with her first crush.

She was deathly afraid of having that bubble burst. They were not living in a dream world. Not everything was hearts and roses. They’d hollowed out a little niche, a temporary break from reality, but the real world waited like a predator. Teeth gnashing, evil. Those who pursued her hadn’t given up. And they wouldn’t.

Soon they’d go back into that harsh, cold reality, a place where people died, a place where people gave no thought to humanity. She’d be caged, used, the equivalent of a monkey taken out when it was time to perform and then shoved back into her cold, impersonal prison.

“Grace.”

Rio’s impatient voice cut through her maudlin thoughts and she realized it wasn’t the first time he’d called her name. She blinked, also realizing that he’d already put her on the couch and apparently he’d been trying to get her attention for some time.

“What the hell is going on in that head of yours?”

His frown was deep, his lips set into a firm line. It was clear he had no liking for her expression, or perhaps the darkness of her thoughts had transmitted themselves to him. He looked worried and a little pissed.

She closed her mouth mutinously, not wanting to be a huge damper. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know all of what she’d been thinking anyway. It was a reality he lived with each and every day. He didn’t need her adding to his worry with her whining.

He sighed. “We’re seriously going to have to work on communication. This clamming up when I ask you what you’re thinking drives me insane. I’m a result-oriented guy. When I ask, I’m not used to being told no.”

She grinned. “Guess there’s always a first time for everything.”

He gave her a dark scowl.

“I’m not one of your men or your underlings,” she said with a snort. “I don’t take having orders barked at me too well. It’s the rebel in me. Shea used to try to boss me around all the time, especially after we split up and went our separate ways for safety reasons. We see how well that worked out.”

Rio tipped her chin up so they were eye to eye. “The only time I expect you to obey me without hesitation is when your life is on the line and we’re in a combat situation. The rest of the time, you’re perfectly free to argue all you like. But I’ll tell you now, if I tell you to do something when it counts and you balk, I’ll tan your behind. You don’t get a free pass from me just because you’re gorgeous and I happen to be in love with your ass.”

A giggle escaped and she clapped a hand over her mouth.

“Now, you want to tell me what had you looking so worried a minute ago? It has nothing to do with you being submissive to my overbearing arrogant self. I can’t exactly reassure you if I don’t know what the hell you’re worrying over.”

Her heart softened and she reached out to touch his cheek. “I love that you don’t want me to worry, but until this is over, until I know for certain that I’m safe and can lead a normal life, I’m going to worry. Because now, I don’t only have myself and Shea to worry about. I have you and your men. Shea’s new family and her loved ones. You’re all involved and I hate that I’m responsible for so much danger to so many people.”

He started to protest, but she silenced him with a finger to his lips. “You asked and I’m just being honest. I know that we’re in this kind of bubble right now where time is standing still and that, all too soon, at any moment, we’re going to be thrust back into the harsh reality that is my existence. y existeAnd I hate it. I dread it. I’m sick with worry. Before, I was ready to die. I had given up. I didn’t care what happened to me because I couldn’t imagine ever being free and I’d rather have died than to continue to live in captivity being used on a daily basis.

“But now I have people who matter to me. People I care about. And I don’t want them to die for me. I don’t want them to make sacrifices for me. So I dread losing the temporary reprieve, the fantasy of a normal life with a man who loves me. Because I know tomorrow, it may all come to an end.”

Rio framed her face in both hands, his eyes as fierce as his expression. “I’m not going to lie to you, Grace. I don’t know what will happen. I’m not going to offer you any guarantees and say that we’re going to be able to keep you safe from any threat or that nothing will ever hurt you again. I can’t do that. I know what we’re up against. But what I can promise you is that, as long as I’m breathing, I will do anything I can to protect you. With my dying breath, I’ll always be between you and whatever is threatening you. And if, God forbid, you’re ever taken from me, I will go to hell to get you back.”

She pulled him to her, kissing him fiercely, allowing the depth of her feelings to pour out physically and emotionally. She opened the path between them, showing him not only with her body but with her mind what his declaration meant to her. To have this proud warrior pledge his very life to keeping her safe was more than she could even process.