There was a helipad outside with a state-of-the-art helicopter, several armored vehicles and a private plane waiting at the small private airstrip he’d purchased. The hangar there housed a small jet as well as the plane.

Security cameras had been installed everywhere throughout the house. He had access to the security screens from his own computers as well as every other device he owned – and he owned a lot of them. He’d done a sweep of the house before he’d moved his things in. The furniture was untouched, but Cayenne had been in the kitchen. She’d been hungry enough to eat the food Nonny had fixed for her.

He’d sent Wyatt over with more groceries when he was working longer than he’d expected. Instead of a couple of days, it had taken four long days and three nights working on an antibody that hopefully would neutralize any toxin she might inject in him. To his shock, he’d worried about Cayenne every moment of that time. That was unheard of. As a rule, he focused so completely on what he was doing, nothing else entered his mind. He knew the pull between them was strong, but strong enough to disturb him while he worked? That was… unsettling. Disturbing. Ominous, when he thought about the days and nights ahead.

She’d eaten some of the groceries he’d sent, mainly the fruit and vegetables. That made him inexplicably happy. It was the first thing she’d taken from him without protest, and he thought it was a good sign that she wouldn’t try to kill him for being so late the moment she laid eyes on him.

She was staying in the lower level – the apartment he’d designed. He knew she was because the spiderwebs crept up the stairs and the cameras showed large veils of white silk covering the various rooms. He took it as a good sign that she had made herself at home there, especially after he’d confessed he’d had the apartment built just for her.

The space took up the entire lower story. He could fit two houses in her apartment. Clearly she wasn’t used to the space, because she occupied only one room and the adjoining bathroom. She obviously slept behind that heavy veil of silk, and more webbing was strung across the room from wall to wall, but it wasn’t dense and allowed her to sit on the cozy furniture.

The bathrooms – and there was a dozen of them – were mostly stark, ready to be decorated, but Nonny had begun to do just that in four of them. His master bedroom had a bath connected to it and there were three in the apartment on the lower story. Nonny had completed one downstairs – the one closest to the bedroom. He hoped Cayenne liked it. The only thing the cameras could see was the draped silk, beautiful masterpieces of silk, hanging everywhere.

From the moment he bought the place, he had suspected she was staying in the building, so he’d asked Wyatt’s grandmother to make it especially nice. He’d inspected it and the bathroom had smelled really good and the walls were painted a soothing blue. The claw-foot tub he’d brought in was wide and long and he made certain several hot water heaters had been installed, so there was hot water on demand throughout the entire building. The shower was spacious, and the towels were particularly soft.

He moved with fluid grace to the gate. It was locked. He kept it that way. He could easily go up and over the fence, and he preferred that to bothering with unlocking the lock. He crouched, prepared to leap over it, when he noticed the almost invisible skeins of silk. She wanted to be warned when he moved onto the property.

Yeah, baby, I’m moving in, he whispered softly, intimately, into her mind. He knew the path to her. It was so ingrained in him, almost as if she were already a part of him, that it was easy connecting with her. I’m home.

There was silence. That made him smile. She was upset with him for taking so long. A good thing. He took the fence. It was high, but he had no trouble jumping it and landing softly on the other side. He deliberately broke a few of the fine silken threads, letting her know he wasn’t going to be careful about it.

This is my home, Cayenne, he said firmly. Everything in it belongs to me. Including you. I told you that the other night.

Her breath hissed out. She moved in his mind, a stirring, and for the first time, she felt a little like a spider instead of the sensuous woman he knew her to be. This is my home. You should have come when you said you would. Now I’ve claimed it.

She was upset with him. He had taken too long. She’d given herself to him, cried in his arms, and he’d taken too long to get back to her. He had to do damage control, and he had the feeling he was starting all over again.

That’s right, baby. And I’m in it, so that means I belong to you. That’s the way it works, so get used to the idea.

He unlocked his front door, using the keypad. Just inside the entryway was a second door and his palm was coded in. Babe, you’re going to have to have your palm programmed in. I’ll have to do that now that I’ve activated this. You’ll be able to use it at all entrances, including the vents and tunnels you like to travel in.

There was a small silence. Is he coming after us? Whitney? You said he was the mastermind of the laboratory in France. Do you think he’ll come here? She sounded vulnerable again. She’d met Whitney and she despised him, sensing his madness, and his cruelty. That was before she’d witnessed it firsthand.

He felt a curious melting sensation in the region of his heart. He was a scientist and had never believed in those types of physical responses. He’d had his share of women, and never once did he have the type of emotional feelings that manifested as physical. Cayenne could make his heart stutter and his gut knot up. She could do a lot of things to his body without even trying, but he was beginning to realize it wasn’t just his body that was affected by her.

I think he might – eventually. But we’ll be ready for him. Wyatt’s place is nearly finished. When you feel up to it, I’d like you to help me figure out some of the holes in his security. You got in, that means someone else might, and we have the girls to protect. Deliberately he acted as if he knew she would help them, that it was a fact, a given that she would be part of their team. He knew protecting the girls mattered to her, because already, once, she’d come out of the shadows and risked her life to help them.

What are you doing right now? he asked, as he strode through his home to the master bedroom.

Sitting in the chair looking out the window. I like that I can see out but no one can see in even if I have the lights on. I didn’t know that was possible. The windows make me feel as if I can reach out and touch the plants. Have you noticed how beautiful the nights are here? I couldn’t see outside from my cell. Not here and not in France.