Viper Game (GhostWalkers 11)

Nonny came in and took little Thym. She glared at Wyatt. "Not too old to wash out your mouth with soap, boy," she cautioned. "Especially when you talk like that in front of the young'uns."

"Sorry, Nonny," he muttered because it was automatic, but his mind and his gaze didn't leave Pepper. "Whose orders?" he repeated. His voice had dropped another octave. Low. Threatening.

She swallowed, frowning a little. He liked her frown. On her it was sexy. Especially the way she bit her lower lip. "Wyatt..."

"No one gives you orders but me. No one, Pepper. You're not a member of the team, and you're not Nonny's child. You belong to me. No one else has the right to give you orders. No one tells you what to do. You have free will, Pepper. Even to tell me to go to hell if that's what you want to do." He was furious all over again, but for her not at her. "Now tell me who gave you the order to steer clear of me."

A faint smile touched her mouth. "You just said no one can order me around, not even you, but you've got your bossy..."

"Mon Dieu. Fils de putain! Just fuckin' tell me." His head was going to explode.

"Trap. He did the surgery on you and he was worried about the wound in your chest. He said it was difficult and he didn't want the little ones jostling you. I figured if they couldn't, I couldn't."

She swept her hand through her hair, the action drawing his attention to her breasts. His cock jerked hard and her eyes dropped to the front of his jeans.

"You come to me when you're like this. Always. I don' give a damn what anyone else says. This is between us, no one else. They don' know what's right for us, what we both need." His gaze burned into hers. "Make no mistake, Pepper, both of us have needs, not just you."

"Because of me," she said, desperation in her voice.

She was making him crazy. Totally crazy. She still was thinking about running from him. Intellectually he understood. She blamed herself for his crass, idiotic behavior, that it had everything to do with her and not with him. Emotionally, he didn't understand at all. His cat DNA told him she belonged to him exclusively and she wasn't damn well going to leave him. The man, the hot-blooded Cajun, wasn't about to let the best thing he'd ever known walk out of his life.

He caught her wrist and turned, taking her with him down the hall. She tugged against his hold a couple of times, and he glared at her over his shoulder.

"Don'." It was all the warning he was going to give her. They'd had the conversation.

Once inside his room, he slammed the door shut and hit all three locks. Three, because the little ones seemed adept at getting through locks and he hadn't wanted any interruptions. He'd had Malichai install the locks the third day after he was knifed, expecting his woman to be sleeping in his bed.

He dropped her hand and leaned his back against the door. "You promised to talk to me. You gave me your word that we'd work things out. At the first sign of trouble - and we both know we'll clash at times - you're considerin' runnin' out on me." It was an accusation, plain and simple.

Her long lashes swept down. Yeah. She'd not only considered it, she'd planned it. He forced himself to take a breath. He shook his head. "You really are clueless, aren't you, Pepper? You have no idea of your own self-worth. You aren't a weapon to me. You're a woman. My woman. I'm going to act like a bastard sometimes. You need to learn how to defuse that shit."

She pressed her lips together. His heart reacted. Clenched hard.

"I can't make it stop. I tried everything. I tried staying as far away from the men as possible. I could see I was making them uncomfortable. They've all been good to me and they're your friends, but I couldn't make my body settle down. I noticed if I had physical contact of any kind, the most accidental, they winced and looked away from me. I can't make it go away, Wyatt. I'm not doing that to you."

"Damn it all, woman, I make it go away. That was the deal we had. You come to me when you even start to get uncomfortable and I handle it."

"You were incapacitated."

For the first time faint humor took hold. "Babe, I'm never gonna be that incapacitated. And if I am, I've still got a mouth and fingers and so do you. Don' listen to Trap, or anyone else when it comes to us. You share your concerns with me and no one else. And you don' run. You don' even think of runnin', not even when I'm bein' the biggest bastard in the world. You handle it."

"And when you're not here?"

"I told you, we'll find another way. But you stick with me. You stick with our girls. We're goin' to make a life for ourselves, and Braden and Whitney can go fuck themselves."

"Your mouth is terrible, Wyatt."

"And why do you think that is, Pepper?" he challenged, and folded his arms across his chest.

He didn't bother to hide his heavy erection from her. He was blatant about it. But even as he casually unzipped his fly and loosened his jeans to give his body a little relief, he knew she needed more. Something to hang on to when he was being a complete and utter bastard. Her eyes dropped to his groin as his cock sprang free. Her eyes shimmered with sadness when she looked up at him again.

"You don' know what you are to me, do you?" He dropped his voice even lower. Confessing should have been difficult. What man wanted a woman to know she held all the cards? It wasn't. He was asking a lot from her. He knew he was never going to be a picnic. Not ever. He'd try to tamp down his temper and learn not to let the monster loose. It was shameful and a little embarrassing to lose that kind of control. More, he didn't like hurting her.

"Here's the thing you should know and always hold in your head, especially when I'm being difficult," he said, his eyes on hers. "You're it for me, Pepper. You always will be. The air that goes in and out of my body, as necessary as that. My very breath. More even. You're my life. That's why I can't give you up or let you run away from this. I figure you're strong enough to live with me the way I am. I know I can live with you. I have to."

Her eyes went dark like the midnight sky. The look he loved, all soft and feminine. The starburst began to take form through all the dark purple.

"You're the reason I'm goin' to come home after I go out with my team into a hot zone. You're the one that's goin' to keep me safe, because I'll know you're here waitin' for me. I'll always know that when I'm not here to take care of you and the girls, you can kick serious ass if you need to. There are a thousand more reasons why you're necessary to me, and sex has nothin' to do with any of them." He flashed her a soft grin. "That's a bonus. A huge one, but still a bonus."

"I'm not running, Wyatt," she said quietly.

"Are you goin' to learn to handle the monster in me?" He slowly slid the buttons of his shirt open and pulled the material from h

is body. The moment his shirt was gone, he fisted his heavy, hungry cock.

She nodded slowly, her eyes on his chest, assessing. The wound was far from healed, but it was healed enough.

"No matter what happens, it's you and me. Got that? No matter how scared you get, or how worried about the things you don' know, it's still you and me. When I say mean, hurtful things, you're goin' to handle it. Hit me over the head, yell at me, kick me or fuck my brains out, you handle it because no matter what, it's you and me. You understand?"

She bit her lower lip, instantly centering his attention there. He loved her mouth. He'd lain in bed - alone - thinking about her mouth every minute of the day. Thinking about what her mouth did for him and how it led to other tight, scorching hot places on her body that showed him the way to paradise.

"I understand," she said, her gaze continually dropping to his hand wrapped around his cock.

He let his fist glide over the shaft just to watch her eyes change. Smolder. He loved that burn.

Her chin lifted and she gestured toward his groin with it. "Do you think I want to have sex with you right now? Especially after the way you acted? I've learned what sugar and honey is, and Wyatt, I'm not feeling particularly sweet right now."

He grinned at her. "I don' mind it when you're hot as hell, baby, that's good too. And you want to have sex. You're burnin up, I can feel that heat comin' from between your legs from here."

"With you," she reiterated.

For one second he saw red. Actual red. His hormones went crazy. He wanted to tackle her and take her right there on the spot, show her she belonged with him, to him, that the more she challenged him, the less she was going to win. He breathed through the reaction, although the need to dominate settled heavy on him.

"Who else, babe?"

"No one else, you idiot."

The crazy, insane monster striped in black and red settled back. "So this is your way of tamin' the beast, because, sugar, let me explain to you, it isn' workin'."