“You can’t know that, Wyatt,” she whispered. “You don’t even trust me.”

He carried her through the house back to his bedroom. “I don’ know you – yet. But I intend to, after all, you’re the mother of my children. I think we owe it to them to get to know one another, don’ you? We’ll need to know each other so well that we’ll be able to read each other’s every move. We’ll have to be that close. I don’ think we have a choice.”

She leaned her head back against his shoulder, her eyes searching his. “Why? Why do you say that?”

“We’ll be the ones protectin’ them from men like Whitney and Braden. Who else is goin’ to do it? You know how dangerous and determined the men we’re dealing with are. It will take both of us. Maybe others as well, but we’ll do it.” He injected absolute confidence into his voice.

“Are you really going to help me take care of the children?”

He deposited her gently back on the bed, carefully laying her down on his grandmother’s homespun sheets. “Yes. I believe I’m their father and you’re their mother. They trust you. If they see you interactin’ with me, they’ll accept me more readily. The only person I really worry about is Nonny. She’s not so young anymore, and even if I were to manage to develop an antivenom, I would be afraid to use it on her.”

Pepper frowned. “There’s something about Nonny I can’t explain. It’s a feeling I get when I’m close to her. I know Ginger feels it too. It’s the same way we both feel when Ezekiel is close.”

Wyatt scowled at her, a dark shadow moving through him. “What the hell does that mean? Exactly how does Ezekiel make you feel?”

“It isn’t how he makes me feel. It’s how he feels to both of us. He has this energy of sheer calm. It’s very soothing and not a threat or a food source. I can’t explain it any better than that.” Pepper’s gaze searched his face. “You don’t have to be jealous, Wyatt. You give off that same soothing energy. Ginger would never have tried to bite you, but she thought you were a threat to me.”

“I am jealous, darlin’,” he admitted. He wanted her to know how dangerous it would be with her tempting other men. “You need to get it into your head right now, that there isn’ goin’ to be any other man for you. You aren’ goin’ to be usin’ your charms to seduce my friends or anyone else to get your way. You look to me if you’ve got an itch. I’ll take care of you.”

“How lovely. How does that make you different from any of the others?”

He swept back her hair, his hands framing her face. “I am different. I’m offerin’ you a family. A man who will work a lifetime to make you happy. To make us work. I’ll keep you happy in bed and out of it. But I’m no pushover. You’re not goin’ to be able to use sex to get your way.”

Her lashes fluttered, a sign, he was coming to know, that her temper was rising. “I do not use sex to get my way. Why do you think they threw me away?”

Her voice, if anything, had gone softer. It found its way right under his skin and stroked his cock into a very hard demand.

“I know they created me with the idea of seducing the enemy, getting close to him with seduction, but I didn’t cooperate and I’ve never been remotely interested in a man.” Until I came across you.

He heard the words distinctly in his mind, only they weren’t words, he actually caught her thought. She blinked, veiling her expression with long lashes.

He frowned at her. He didn’t know what he wanted from her, but she seemed absolutely guileless in that moment. He usually knew lies when he heard them, and Pepper sounded honest. Puzzled. Confused. Joy had never been honest with him. He’d left his home and gotten himself into a mess because he’d been wrapped up in thinking he loved a woman. That wasn’t going to happen again. She wasn’t going to run his life, that much he wasn’t confused about.

He stroked a finger down Pepper’s face, feeling her soft skin beneath the pads of his finger. Sex with Pepper was bound to be off the charts. He could already taste the passion in his mouth.

Pepper jerked her head away. “I’m sorry you caught that. It wasn’t a green light. You did connect us in some way and I can read you just as easily as you do me. I’m not looking for anyone to be my children’s father.”

Her voice sank into him. All heat. “I am their father, little darlin’, whether you like it or not.”

“I meant you don’t have to do this because you think you can seduce me. I don’t want that from you. Just because I don’t have a last name, and I’m a failure as a soldier, a seductress and an assassin doesn’t mean I have such low self-esteem I’d take a man who loves another woman and thinks of me with such contempt. More than contempt. With suspicion. I have no intentions of seducing you. You’re perfectly safe and so are your friends.”

He winced. He deserved every word she said. He wanted her attention centered on him, not looking at any other man, yet he didn’t want to feel anything back for her, not real emotion, but it wasn’t for the reasons she thought. He told himself it was her enhancements that drew him, that sexual lure she wove – except she didn’t seem to be weaving it for him or anyone else. At least she claimed she wasn’t and that meant some – or most – of it could be coming from him. She was the kind of woman a man didn’t walk away from – ever. She would always have the upper hand whether or not she knew it – if he loved her. And he would love her if he let himself.