He sighed. "He's alive, sweetheart. We wouldn't let him die, no matter how much he wanted to."
"He was paired with her, wasn't he? That's why he kept trying to save her."
"That, and it's his nature. Joe is the man who is going to run right into the middle of the worst firefight and pull the wounded out. He's the man going into the burning building. Whitney knew that about his character. Joe would fight to his last breath for one of us, and he considered Violet a GhostWalker. It wasn't only about pairing them. You can get around physical attraction, but overcoming who you are at your fundamental core is something else."
"There had to be a part of him that knew he couldn't save her."
Ezekiel shook his head, wishing he could explain. "Men like Joe don't give up. Not ever. Regardless of how he felt about her, he would want to save her and he'd keep trying. He hesitated that little bit too long, and she was able to carve him up. Now he feels he failed everyone, you especially."
"Me?" Bellisia made an attempt to sit up, but when she winced, he put his hand on her belly, fingers splayed, stopping her.
"We're not talking about this if you're going to get agitated. You gave everyone a scare, baby. Especially me."
Her lashes fluttered and then she shook her head. "I'm used to running a mission by myself. I was fine. A little banged up, but I've been that way before and will be again."
Ezekiel didn't like that at all. "You're not alone anymore, Bellisia. You have people who worry about you. We work as a team, and when one member goes missing, none of us rest until we get him or her back."
"I'm sorry, Ezekiel. I know that sounded a little thoughtless. It wasn't that I didn't have someone looking out for me, I did, I just got beaten up now and then and took care of it myself. I counted on you coming. I don't know if I would have made it without you. It was pure luxury to have you come find me and bring me back to Nonny's home."
"Our home. This is our home until we get our house built. Just so you know, I brought in a local crew last week to work on the house. They'll do everything with the exception of building our safe rooms, hidden exits and entrances or the places on the roof to hide a sniper. We'll have an armory and explosives room. That's already been done by us."
Bellisia shook her head. "I'm fairly certain most couples don't have to have these extra features in their homes."
"Most couples aren't GhostWalkers. Our squadron bought up all the land around here from the Fontenot home to Trap's monstrosity, with the exception of one piece of property right in the middle between the two compounds. We can't find the owner. That's never a good thing. Whitney owned quite a bit of land here. Where Trap's home is, he owned a mental hospital with one patient, Dahlia. She's now married to a GhostWalker on another team, Nicolas Trevane."
Bellisia looked up at him from under her long lashes. He'd always noticed her eyelashes, but they seemed longer than ever. Taking one small hand in his, he brushed at her fingertips, feeling how soft they were, how unusual. His. He brought her fingertips to his mouth and bit down gently. Her eyes heated, went dark, moved over his face slowly, a little possessively. He liked that look.
"You need to tell me you're with me on this, sweetheart. You're going to make a life with me." Because he hadn't been able to breathe with her lying so still and small in the bed. He'd actually read up on the blue-ringed octopus. They were small and as a rule docile, but defended themselves aggressively. If she had any of that in her, she wasn't showing her docile side to him.
She took a deep breath, and his heart sank. When a woman was all about talking and not just giving a man everything he asked for, everything could go to shit fast.
"You get that I'm not someone who needs protection."
"Of course you do, we all do. I expect you to stand with me every single time. Have my back when I need it, and you should expect the same from me."
"You're like Joe in some ways, Ezekiel. I've seen you. I spent a few weeks studying you, that's how I fell so hard for you. You're all about protection whether you realize it or not. I love that trait in you, and I'd love it for me, but I just want you to realize that being small doesn't mean I'm not lethal."
"I've seen the evidence of how lethal you really are, baby, I'm well aware." He tucked the pale hair behind her ear with gentle fingers. "You were happy to see me."
"More than happy to see you. I knew you'd come for me. I wasn't afraid because I knew I just had to hold out until you came. I would have died without you. I know that. It's just I don't want you to think I'm a girlie girl. I'm not like Pepper." Her gaze slid away from his face.
He caught her chin and turned her head toward him, forcing her eyes to meet his. "You're like Nonny. You'll stand with your man. Pepper will too, but in a completely different way. She's right for Wyatt, but not for me. You're right for me."
"Pepper's . . . sexy."
He studied her face for a long time. "Sweetheart, Pepper can't help the way she is. Whitney did that. There's a chemical in her body that builds up and it's hell for her, especially when Wyatt's gone, but she's his. We care for her and look out for her, but none of us covet her. She's more like a sister we all protect. As far as sexy, if you're comparing, for me, she has nothing on you. Just looking at you gets me hard."
She blinked at his crude admission and then her smile came, that slow, sexy one that she gave him sometimes. The one that stole his breath. "So tell me where you are on this thing between us."
"I thought I did."
"Not in so many words."
She smiled again and rubbed her forehead along his ribs. "You like words."
"I do. Are you going to fall asleep on me again?"
"Mmhmm. But I'll say the words first so you don't worry so much. Yes, we're on the same page, as long as you know I'm going to drive you crazy when I want to do things like waitress and you think it's too risky."
"It would only be risky to the triplets and Pepper because I'd put half the team on you and the other half would have to remain here. I have no objections to that." Like hell she was going to waitress and dangle herself out there as bait for Whitney.
Bellisia smiled again. He realized that smile he loved so much was going to get him in trouble. "I think we'll talk about that when I'm not so sleepy. But, Ezekiel, I really want to get back to why Joe would ever think he failed me. I know you distracted me on purpose, but he has nothing at all to do with me."
He stroked soothing caresses in her hair because he could tell she was agitated all over again thinking she might be the cause of Joe's worrying. He'd braided her hair in the morning, so it was out of her face. He didn't want her to have any excuses to cut it. He liked her hair. A lot. He liked how it felt on his skin and bunched in his fingers. He especially liked how it sometimes was spread out on the pillow around her face in his bed.
"Of course he does. He's the leader of our squadron, and he takes that very seriously. You're one of us and you've elected to stay here. That means you belong to all of us. In Joe's mind, he put you in a position of having to kill Violet, because he waited too long. Everything that happened to you after that was on his shoulders."
"That's ridiculous."
"That's how he thinks."
"I made the choice to go after Violet. I didn't have to; I wanted to. She was just as bad as Whitney, or worse, in my mind. She betrayed every single woman she grew up with. And she betrayed the rest of us, including those little girls in there. Her absolute worst mistake was when she tried to get my man killed."
He laughed softly. "Who knew you were a little hellion?"
Her lashes drifted again, two little bluish blond fans against her pale skin. "I'm perfectly within my rights to do that horrible woman in. She isn't one of us. She tried to have us killed, and she would have allowed Cheng to torture and experiment on you and then kill you. So it was my choice to go after her, for you, the children and most of all for all the women she abandoned to a terrible fate."
If he hadn't been halfway in love with her before, right
then, in that moment, he knew he fell hard. Bellisia was a woman who would stand with him. She looked feminine and she acted it, but when push came to shove, she was a warrior through and through. He'd wanted a Nonny and he believed he had one.
He ran his hand possessively along her side, from her shoulder to her rib cage, rib cage to her waist and then hip. She might be small, but to him, she was gorgeous. She was going to lead him such a dance, but that was part of the fun.
"Sing to me, Ezekiel," she murmured, already drifting. "I love when you sing."
He glanced toward the door. The house was quiet. Outside, it had begun to rain. The windows were open to keep the paint smell from being overpowering and the sound of the rain was like music. He could work with that. He stretched out beside her, wrapping her in his arms and dragging her close, right into his body. She never protested when he did that, she just snuggled into him. He wasn't certain if it was because she was so tired and couldn't be bothered to protest, or if she liked being that close to him. He meant her to feel safe. He'd noticed she liked to curl into small places.
He sang softly, matching his melody to the rhythm of the rain falling, pouring his feelings into words he gave her. He made up the lyrics, giving her the song of his heart, the one she'd given to him when he first heard her in Jackson Square.
Feeling warm and safe, Bellisia's lashes drifted down as she inhaled Ezekiel's scent and drew him deep into her lungs. When he sang to her, she always felt as if she was in the middle of a dream--and maybe she was. After following him in the swamp, once back on the island she had spent an obscene amount of time daydreaming and fantasizing over Ezekiel. She sat on the porch of Donny's old camp cabin staring up at the stars, wishing on them that Ezekiel belonged to her. It was almost too much to believe he did, especially when he was singing to her.
She opened her eyes to look up at his face. He was beautiful. All man. His eyelashes were long, his jaw strong. His nose had been broken more than once and his mouth could have a distinctly cruel edge. He could look as cold as ice or as hot as hell. His voice was the voice of an angel, if one believed in such things. She believed in him.
"What is it, sweetheart? You're not sleeping."
"I love your voice, Ezekiel. I really do." She didn't want to complain. He'd waited on her hand and foot and all she'd done was sleep. She still needed to sleep, but truthfully, she kept asking for the water because she couldn't breathe in the house.
"Tell me."
She moistened her dry lips. "It's silly."
"Another bath? I don't mind." He pushed strands of hair from her face and bent to brush a kiss on her forehead. "I get to have you naked in my lap."
"I love the bathtub, especially when you're in it with me," she hedged.
"So not the bath." He cocked his head to one side. "I'm telepathic, in that I can push thoughts at you, but I can't read your mind, baby, so just tell me."
She sighed and rubbed at his forearm with her fingertips. She loved touching him, especially since she'd gotten to know him. "You've done so much for me already, but sometimes, if I'm cooped up for too long, I can't breathe. We had a dorm and it was fairly large, but we were locked in. I hated it, especially at night when it rained. I needed to be outside. I couldn't get to the rain."
"Of course you would want the rain. I should have thought of that. Give me a few minutes and I'll take you outside." Ezekiel pressed another kiss to her forehead and slipped off the bed.
She loved watching him move. He was like her beloved water, fluid, every muscle rippling as he donned clothes. She could watch him walk around naked all day and all night if needed. No problem. If he sang her a little song while doing it, so much the better.
Smiling because she couldn't help it, happy just to be with him, Bellisia forced herself to sit up. The pain she'd had when moving was mostly gone. The wound just below her heart pulled a little, reminding her she'd been too slow. She was going to have to improve her skills on land. She always considered that her actual missions were in water, but the lesson learned from this incident was she had to train harder on land.
Standing wasn't as difficult as she'd first anticipated. The pain was there, but it didn't streak through her body like white lightning, robbing her of breath and making her nauseated. She started over to the closet with the intention of pulling on her clothes, but out of the corner of her eye she caught a flash of color. Various shades of green, from vibrant to cool.
Bellisia made her way slowly to the wall with the light switch. She'd always had good vision through the water and in the dark, but she wanted to see what Ezekiel was up to. She'd woken often during the night and he had always been there in the room with her, but he was at the wall. She'd smelled the odor of fresh paint, and she knew he was painting, but she'd been too tired to pay attention before. Now she wanted to see, because, clearly, he wasn't putting a fresh coat of paint over what was already there.
She flipped on the light switch and gasped, her gaze sweeping around three of the four walls. Her man had created a masterpiece in the bedroom, surrounding her with an underwater sea. Her heart clenched and then began to pound. The walls were telling her a story. A love story. Ezekiel had turned her room into an under-the-sea wonder, but more importantly, she read love in every stroke of the brush.
The mural was actually painted onto something attached to the wall, not the wall itself, and she was grateful, because she wanted to spend her life surrounded by the painting. It was very detailed, with kelp forests and reefs, sea urchins and various fish. She found the tiny blue-ringed octopus curled up along a conch shell. Tears burned behind her eyes. No one had ever done such a thing for her. It was the most beautiful gift she could possibly conceive.
She stood staring at it, her heart so full and her eyes brimming with tears. She could barely catch her breath. Ezekiel Fortunes really loved her. More, he got her. How, in such a short time, she had no idea. She'd had weeks to fall in love with him, to see the man inside where no one else did, but how could he know her so well? The wall was their love story. Ezekiel and Bellisia.
"Sweetheart?" Ezekiel's voice came from behind her. His arm curled around her waist and pulled her back against his solid body. "You're crying. You're not supposed to cry, baby. You're supposed to feel comforted."
"And loved," she murmured, turning her head to look at him over her shoulder. Her vision was a little watery, but he was there, real and solid.
"That too."
"I don't have anything to give you, Ezekiel."
He turned her around and cupped her chin, bringing her face up as he bent down. He took her mouth gently, his tongue teasing at the seam of her lips until she opened for him. Then his kiss wasn't so gentle. She tasted possession. She tasted beauty and perfection. Fire. Most of all she tasted love. She knew what it looked like. She knew what it felt like because his arms were around her. She knew what love tasted like because it was all Ezekiel.
She kissed him back, her arms creeping up around his neck. The moment she lifted her arms high, she felt the protest in her body and winced before she could stop herself. Instantly Ezekiel lifted his head, his eyes searching hers. "Something hurt."
"Don't go all doctor on me. It was a twinge. Let's go back to doing what we were doing."
He laughed softly, kissed her nose, and picked her up. He was dressed in a light shirt and his blue jeans. She was naked, her skin rubbing over the soft material, sending a little shiver of awareness through her body. She hadn't felt sexual desire the entire time she'd lain in bed, curled so tightly into him. Now, it was there, humming through her body, heat rushing through her veins.
"Ezekiel. I like kissing you."
"Good, because you're going to be doing a lot of that. Just not until you're feeling a little better."
"I knew it was a bad idea getting involved with a bossy doctor. Mordichai sort of warned me."
Ezekiel pulled a light sheet over her. She caught the thin material and dragged it around her as best she could as he strode down t
he hall.
"I'm naked," she whispered into his ear, afraid, even though it was night, one of the GhostWalkers with their acute hearing would be able to discern what she said.
"I'm well aware of your lack of clothing," Ezekiel said. "I wasn't stabbed. My body is in full working order. In case you didn't know what that translates to, I'll be more than happy to show you in another minute."
She buried her face against his shoulder. He wasn't in the least bit modest, but he was fully clothed and she wasn't.
"What exactly did Mordichai have to say?"
"It wasn't just Mordichai. Pepper and Cayenne warned me about your bossy ways." Purposely she made her tone snippy. "Mordichai just happened to come in and confirm it."
"He did, did he?"
He bent his head and nipped at her neck. The sensation of his teeth scraping over her sensitive pulse, his tongue easing the sting and his lips following with a kiss, sent more heat rushing through her veins. She squirmed a little, her body becoming much more aware of him.
"I really will have to beat the crap out of him."
She pulled back as far as her arms would let her, with her fingers linked together at the back of his neck. "Have you always had violent tendencies?"
"Yes." He was unapologetic. "Here we go, baby. Into the rain."
He walked right out the front door to the porch, using his long strides. The night was perfect. The rain came down in soft sheets of silver, falling into the trees where the drops hit the leaves and played a soft melody. The rain hit the surface of the river, creating pictures and adding to the rhythm of the song. More drops hit the pier, house and other structures, providing a drum for an accompanying beat.
Everything in her reached for the natural water. Rain. He carried her right off the porch into the middle of the yard. She turned up her face, held up her arms. The deluge saturated both of them. He didn't seem to mind in the least. He watched her face as she offered her skin to the downpour. She felt the impact of his gaze and looked down at him, drops on her lashes.
"Isn't it wonderful? So perfect? Thank you, Ezekiel, thank you a million times." The sheet was becoming transparent, but she didn't mind. The wet material clung to her skin, giving her body the chance to absorb the water so that she felt wholly alive and completely hydrated.