Samurai Game (GhostWalkers 10)

"Where is this coming from?" Sam asked.

He opened and closed his fist, a gesture she was certain he wasn't aware of, but his eyes had dropped from her face to drift over her body. He didn't look disgusted, if anything he looked tender and loving. His erection wasn't quite as hard as it had been, but it was still there, still attracted to her in spite of . . . What? What was she doing? Why was she determined to shove him away from her? To throw happiness away?

"I need something to wear." He didn't mind her body, the evidence of her shame, but she couldn't stand him looking at her, not now when she was so panic-stricken.

Sam glanced around the room, found her a shirt, and tossed it to her while he pulled on a pair of jeans, half buttoning them. Azami pulled his shirt around her body, hastily buttoning it up the front to cover herself and found his scent surrounding her, comforting her.

"Azami." He whispered her name, an ache in his voice. "Talk to me, baby. Just say it out loud. Give us a shot at this. We're both fighters. Fight for us. Am I so easy to throw away?"

Her head snapped up, her stomach sinking. Was that what she was doing? She shook her head. "This isn't about you, Sam, it's me. I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to get rid of her. My father said . . ." She trailed off, choking back her greatest shame.

She couldn't look at him, she didn't dare. She was being a coward. Running. So she wouldn't have to tell him the rest.

Sam took a step forward and caught her chin in his hand, forcing her head up. "Tell me, Azami. No one else is here, just the two of us. What is this about?"

She took a deep breath and lifted her lashes, allowing herself to meet his eyes. She knew it would be a mistake. She wouldn't be able to resist him, resist that look of such tenderness. He was offering her a world she was terrified to walk into. She knew her worth where she was. She could never go back to being useless, to feel as if she was nothing but garbage, deserving of being thrown out.

"Sam, I'm not meant for this kind of thing. You. Me. I wanted it--I still want it--but even my father believed I could not please a man." The words came out in a little rush, but she got them out. The truth. Her shame. The one man she loved and respected above all others had decreed her useless as a wife and mother. There was only the battle for her, the protection of her brothers and their genius. Her father wouldn't lie to her. He'd seen the damage done to her body and he knew the minds and hearts of men.

"You were meant for me."

"You may feel that you want me now, but . . ."

He put his finger over her mouth. "You're so wrong, Azami. So wrong about so many things. Wrong about your father. About your past. And especially about me." He bent his head and brushed a kiss on top of her head. "Wait right here. Don't move. And I mean don't move. No leaping out the window and running away. Just wait here."

He was gone before she could protest. The window did look inviting, but she wasn't that big of a coward as much as she'd like to be. What did Sam know about her father? How could he know more than she? He made no sense at all. She should have ignored his order but she had some pride left and refused to take the coward's way out. She stood exactly where he left her as if the soles of her feet were rooted in the floor. Her heart pounded and her mouth went dry. Even the palms of her hands felt clammy.

She was in full-blown panic mode. She hadn't had a panic attack in years. She'd had them all the time when her father had first found her, but samurai didn't panic. Lungs didn't burn for air and one didn't claw and fight inside where no one else could see. She wanted Sam to just walk away from her and let her sort the entire thing out. She just needed space. Distance. Somewhere safe.

You are safe with me.

He stood in front of her, holding out his hand, palm up, his dark eyes locked on her face. She studied his face, so still he could have been carved of stone, but for his eyes. So alive. So tender. This man stood before her, offering her everything, offering her paradise, and she'd thrown it back in his face because she was still that white-haired child a brutal, inhuman monster had declared useless. She'd allowed her own fears to overcome what she knew of him. He was a man of honor, and yet she dishonored him by not believing he could handle the things she needed to tell him. In truth, it was Thorn who couldn't handle them.

"Not Whitney, Azami," Sam disagreed, obviously still reading her thoughts. "You are considering rejecting me, not because of Whitney, but because you mistook what your father said to you because you believed in a monster and that was the only way you could make sense of everything."

Her gaze dropped to the object in Sam's open palm. Her heart jumped. She'd recognize her father's work anywhere. He was as famous for his intricate jewelry as he was for his swords. She didn't touch that very small ring, but actually stepped back to look up at Sam.

It took a moment to find her voice. "Where did you get that?"

"Your brother gave it to me. He said your father made it for the man who would bring you happiness. He knew the right man would come along and fall like a ton of bricks for you. You're so easy to want, Azami, so easy to love, but you still reject who and what you are. You are Thorn, that incredibly brave girl who has grown into a remarkable woman. Look at the ring and tell me your father didn't see the true Azami for everything she is and everything she stands for. He loved Azami because she's Thorn."

She didn't want to look at the ring. She wanted to look at his face. This man who believed in her when she'd momentarily lost herself. This was a man who would always find that small child huddled in a corner and he'd lift her up, shelter and protect her.

"How blind could I be? How reckless?" she murmured in wonder.

"Your father knows how brave that child is, he always knew. He took you home because he knew your worth. He saw it even as you lay in that street. He put his life on the line to take you from those men. That's Thorn, Azami. That courage of spirit. That will to survive. Whitney couldn't break you as a child. Don't let him do it to the woman."

Still, she didn't take the ring. Instead, she looked at the man holding her father's gift out to her. Sam was really the gift. The sun would always rise in his eyes. He would always be the man who saw her. Almost from the first moment he laid eyes on her, he had looked past her physical body and really embraced her--who she was as a person. She hadn't done the same to him. Had she looked carefully into his mind, she would have seen unconditional acceptance, but she'd been so certain he wouldn't want Thorn. Little Thorn with her misshapen body, carved up by a butcher, with her freakish white hair, useless and thrown away like garbage.

Sam had given himself fully to her, everything he was, right from the moment their minds connected. He didn't try to hide the loyalty he had to his team, or the struggle he felt knowing he had to tell them about her, but he'd stayed true to his character. He let her see who he was while she tried to hide herself from him.

"I'm sorry, Sam. I really am. I don't know why I can't seem to let go of Whitney's evaluation of me."

"Because every child wants their father's approval, and for all intents and purposes, Whitney was your parent," Sam said.

She hated that he spoke the truth. She'd had no one else but Whitney for so long. "He kept me away from the other girls for the most part. There was one girl he called Winter. She was able to stop a heart from beating just with a touch. He made her practice on me, and she would cry and tell me she was sorry. She tried to protect me, but he'd punish her, terrible punishments if she didn't do what he said. She snuck food to me sometimes, and once she gave me a blanket. Whitney took it away from me when he said I was bad."

Sam curled his hand around the nape of her neck. He had a big hand and instead of feeling trapped, she felt safe.

"I should be over it, Sam. I'm a grown woman."

He laughed softly. "Do you really think that the past doesn't shape who we are? Everyone has moments of weakness. You didn't believe you would ever be with a man who would love you, which by the way, makes no sense to me. You have a view of yourself skewed b

y the things Whitney drilled into you as a child. He was wrong about your gifts, Azami. Totally wrong. If he was wrong about that, then he can be wrong about other things as well. Whitney makes mistakes. And he made a big mistake about you."

"He destroyed my body," Azami said, clutching the shirt-tails, her hands two tight fists. "Not just my scars on the outside. My heart was destroyed by him as well." She raised her eyes to his. "It isn't normal." The truth was going to come out whether she wanted it to or not. She had to tell him. It was only fair if she wanted a life with him. No lies between them, not even the sin of omission.

Sam stepped closer to her. "Azami, do you think that would drive me away from you? I want you, just the way you are. If your heart is weak, we can . . ."

She pressed her lips together and shook her head. "Not weak. He thought I'd die from his experiment, but I didn't." She was going to have to tell him. If she was going to truly give them a chance together, he had to know how much of a mutant being Whitney had made.

"What did he do to you?"

She tried a smile, but knew by the expression on his face she hadn't quite pulled it off. "I'm kind of like the modern-day Frankenstein monster. Whitney loved his little experiments. When my heart gave out from all the experiments, he decided to make a synthetic heart--one that would prove stronger than a human heart. Well, not exactly synthetic in the normal sense of the word. I wasn't the first person he tried it on, and the others apparently died. I was a child and the heart he used would 'power' an adult. My body tried to reject it, and he didn't think it was worth it to keep me around long enough to see if the heart worked and my body eventually accepted it."

Sam frowned, studying her face. She could feel him move through her mind, a soft warm force that made her feel safe. With him filling her mind the way he was, she couldn't possibly feel alone. In some ways, the sensation was foreign, but already familiar. He was already becoming so dear to her. She felt as if she'd known him forever. He waited her out, knowing there was more--there had to be. How could she teleport with a synthetic heart? It would be impossible for the molecules to break down and then restore themselves--unless they really did move faster than light . . . He shook his head and waited.

"What do you know about nanotechnology?"

He shrugged. "I studied it of course. It's fascinating and has the potential for changing the world in a number of ways. Basically, it's engineering functional systems at a molecular scale." He paused, his breath catching in his lungs.

She nodded slowly. "Whitney is wild about nanotechnology. He's working on perfecting a way for a device that would travel through the body on a seek and destroy mission of cancerous cells."

"But he uses humans for his experiments."

She nodded. "I read one file where he'd deliberately infected one woman several times with cancer."

"Flame. Iris. She's married to Gator."

Azami's dark eyes regarded him steadily. "Whitney considers that a great waste. He believes she can't have children, so she rendered Gator useless to him other than as a soldier to prevent the deaths of other soldiers. Basically, Sam, he said the same thing about you. And you're attracted to me."

"Even if he could have somehow paired you with me, after you were long gone, how could he have paired me with you? He didn't know me then. He didn't have access to you. And you're attracted, Azami, no matter what you say. Both mentally and physically, you're attracted."

A small smile escaped. "I am not arguing that fact, Sam. I'm merely trying to get you to see the big picture before you leap with both feet and your eyes closed."

"Are you saying he gave you cancer?"

"You know what I'm saying. Nanotechnology doesn't defy the principles of physics. The possibility of moving or maneuvering something atom by atom in theory can be done. Just as teleportation is not against the laws of physics. Already, nanosystems are being developed with thousands of interactive components, and Whitney is going a step further, developing integrated systems functioning like our own cells with systems inside systems."

"Are you saying he found a way to construct a heart using carbon nanotube scaffolding?" Sam tried not to sound excited, but who wouldn't be? "That's impossible. Bone reconstruction is barely beginning and bones are linear. Carbon nanotubes are one-dimensional. No one has figured out how to shape them." His gaze locked with hers. "Have they?"

She didn't answer and his mind was racing with the possibilities. He shook his head, wondering aloud. "One would have to solve toxicity and rejection problems. They'd have to grow the cellular and noncellular components outside the body before replacing the damaged heart with a fully functioning nano heart. How the hell could they do that before transplanting it?" He caught her arms. "It would be a miracle, Azami. It can't be possible. How the hell would Whitney manage to construct a heart from carbon nanotubes?"

"A heart would only have to function like a human heart, not necessarily be shaped like an organic one," Azami pointed out.

"No, but the heart still has to perform the same function as a human heart," Sam argued. "It still has to beat in a cardiac cycle, which puts constraints on the shape. Right now scientists are just beginning to think in terms of using carbon nanotubes for bones because they can't shape them. A heart can't be linear."

"No, even a nano heart would have to go through a pumping cycle that alternates between bringing in the deoxygenated blood and pumping the newly oxygenated blood out to the rest of the body," she agreed.

"Exactly." Sam watched her closely. She was telling him she had a nano heart and his mind couldn't wrap around the possibility. "That particular aspect of the heart's functioning can't really be changed, as the entire rest of the body is set up around it." But it was possible. Every scientist working with nanotechnology had specific goals in mind, and replacing a damaged heart was on the list. No one could figure out how to shape the carbon nanotubes. The heart would be far stronger if all problems surrounding the growth and transplant could be solved. Whitney had experimented on little Thorn for years. He would have access to cells and anything else he would want or need from her body. But was it possible he'd done what others were just imagining?

"If he managed to give you a nano heart, Azami, the world would . . ."

"No one else survived. And the world would treat me just as he treated me. I'd be a freak and an experiment." She crossed her arms over her chest and stepped back, her eyes dark with pain. "I have no idea how long the heart will last. I can't go to a mainstream doctor, not for any reason. What would people call me? Some would go so far as to say I'm not human."

Sam stepped close to her, covering that small distance with one easy step. He caught the nape of her neck and pressed his forehead against hers. "Listen to me, Azami. Whatever you are, wherever you are, that's where I want to be. People don't get chances like this often. I'm no kid, and I never expected to find a woman I would cherish." He straightened, dropped his hands, and paced away from her and then back to stand in front of her. "I don't need much, Azami. I built this house because I wanted a home. It didn't feel like one until you were in it. I want your body just the way it is. And as for your heart, as long as it's beating, I swear you could have a cyborg's heart and I'd be happy. Stay with me. The hell with Whitney or anyone else who wants to step on our happiness. When those doors close, it's just you and me. No one else."

Sam took both of her hands and pulled them to his chest, holding them tight against him. "I can make you happy. I know I can. Whatever it takes. Whatever you need. Give yourself to me, all of you. Thorn, Azami, good and bad, let me have you."

"Sammy." She whispered his name in the stillness of the night. Azami's heart twisted inside her chest. The mutant organ might not be all human, but it didn't stop her from falling in love with this man. How could she not? "Are you so certain that you really want me? Have you considered that if he gave me such a heart and the DNA of an animal, that any child we have might be . . . different?"

Sam studied her face. There it was. Her

real fear. The number one fear. She'd let him see the truth of her and now she'd just exposed the one thing that made her most vulnerable. This was the reason she thought her father didn't feel she was fit to become a wife. Not the scars. Not the white hair. A child. Her child. Their child.

"Damn it all to hell, Azami," he said, between his teeth. "Don't you ever fucking protect me like this again. Hell, woman, I could have had a heart attack at the thought of you leaving me."

And wasn't she good to keep it all out of her mind, hiding her true fear from him, masking it with red herrings. She did feel vulnerable. She did feel all those things she'd told him, but combined, they weren't enough to send her running, especially when he was making love to her without protection. He hadn't even considered protection. He planned to marry her as soon as it was possible and having children was part of the program. But he hadn't asked. He hadn't discussed it with her.

Azami moistened her lips, her gaze still locked with his. "You're angry now."

"Damn right, I am. At you. At me for being so dense that I didn't even discuss children or protection with you." He shoved a hand through his hair and regarded her flushed face. "Why would you think you couldn't have a child?"

She took a breath and let it out. "Whitney said I was useless, a throwaway. What does he want most, Sam? Children. Superbabies. He conducted all sorts of experiments on me and then he threw me away. Doesn't it stand to reason that he believes I either can't have a child or that it would be defective?"

Sam opened his mouth to protest but snapped it closed before anything could escape. This was a big deal to her. A huge deal. Whitney had colored her entire image of herself. He'd parented her in her formative years, those vital years, and he'd treated her as if she wasn't human. He took away her self-esteem, her worth as a human being. To a woman, at least to Azami, having a child obviously meant something important.

He took a deep breath, let it out, and pushed away the rage that churned in his gut. Fury at Whitney, that monster who would dehumanize a child so he could use her for experiments, and even more at himself for pushing her so fast because she'd turned his body into a fucking walking hard-on. What he needed to do was defuse the situation and let both of them calm down a little bit and think things through. To Azami, the subject was obviously very emotional and frightening as well as being significant to her. He was sexually frustrated as well as feeling like a complete selfish idiot.