Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel 3)

Fixing the shower had been a mistake, but knowing that hadn't stopped him from doing it. At the time he'd been more worried about her comfort and warming her up than what the hot moisture in the closed room would do to her scent. Now he couldn't think of anything else.

It was intoxicating.

Even a half hour or however the hell long it had been since their shower, he could still smell her mouthwatering aroma. This was hell. Any other woman and he would have drained her to save himself from this misery, but this was little Danni. When it came right down to it he'd promised to always take care of her. Granted, she'd been five years old at that time and afraid of what the dentist was going to do to her, but he'd meant forever.

No doubt it was the real reason he hung around for so long. He liked to say that it was out of boredom, but the truth was he couldn't leave behind the little girl who once offered him fifty cents to beat the shit out of the dentist for telling her that sugar was bad for her teeth. He smiled at the memory of her crossing her little arms over her chest as she demanded that he take the job. Sometimes he missed that little girl so much that his chest ached for days. Now she was this woman he hardly knew.

He may watch after her and do his damndest to keep her safe, but there was just so damn much that he didn't know about her these days. The few things he knew weren't very helpful. He knew that she was a workaholic and mostly kept to herself. For some reason he didn't think there was much more in her life. She'd have to work on that once he got her out of here. He didn't like the idea of the little girl he used to adore throwing her life away.

There was no use worrying about that now. They had other things to focus on, like getting out of here. Once they escaped he'd set her up somewhere, but for now he needed to put his energy into getting her out of here before he did something stupid like rip her throat out.

His fangs slid down when he knelt in front of the small red cooler. Compared to the aroma she was giving off this bagged blood tasted like shit, but he'd deal with it. He popped a bag to his mouth, closed his eyes and pretended that the cold blood didn't turn his stomach. At least in his room back at the compound he had a microwave. It didn't taste as good as it did when it came straight from the source, but it was better than this cold shit.

"What do you think their new game is?" she asked.

He didn't bother answering her as he finished off another four bags. If it pissed her off he really didn't care. It was either gulp this cold shit down or go for the source that had been haunting him for years. For his own damn sanity he needed to get the hell out of here and away from her.

When he was finally done he walked over to the section of the wall that he called his own and sat down. He didn't bother looking at her as he answered.

"They think they've made progress and as long as we let them think that they'll feed you so that's what we're going to do," he explained, feeling suddenly exhausted.

"I'm not going to sleep with you, Caine," she said evenly.

Sighing, he shook his head. "I wasn't offering."

"Just as long as we're clear."

"Crystal clear," he said, glaring at the woman when she simply shrugged and went back to picking through her food. After another minute he looked away, feeling like an idiot. The damn woman was going to try his patience. They needed to get out of here before he ended up throttling her pretty little neck.

Chapter 12

"Don't make me kill you," Caine growled.

Danni of course ignored his protests and grabbed his hand and gave it a yank that he easily ignored. He narrowed his red eyes on her, but she simply chose to ignore his grumpy mood and gave his hand another tug.

"Come on, get up," she said, eager to get rid of some of the excess energy that she seemed to have. After three days of recuperating and building her strength up she needed to move. She tried pacing the room, but after ten minutes it became painfully obvious, at least to her, that she needed something else to do. Then her eyes landed on Caine and she decided that she was going to live out one of her fantasies.

She was going to kick his ass.

Not because she had any built up animosity towards the man, well, maybe just a little, but because she'd always dreamed of sparring with him for real. When she was a teenager they sparred, but he held back big time and it had been more about her learning than anything. Now she wanted to see if she could give the man a run for his money.

He would totally kick her ass, she knew that. She wasn't an idiot after all. The man was a Pyte. He was stronger and faster and would probably wipe the floor with her in a few minutes, but curiosity was a bitch and it had her giving his hand another yank. When she finally got him to his feet she couldn't help but smile.

"You can't be serious," he said, sounding bored which was a tad insulting, but she didn't care. She was too excited. Finally, after all these years, she was going to see if she had what it took to hold her own against a Pyte.

"Damn straight," she said, backing up and gesturing for him to come at her. "Let's go."

He arched an eyebrow as he studied her. "I won't hold back this time, Danni."

"I didn't ask you to," she pointed out as she forced her body to relax the way he taught her all those years ago.

"You're no longer a child, Danni, so I won't hold back. Are you sure about this?" he asked, cocking his head to the side to study her.

"I don't need you to hold back anymore," she gritted out, feeling her body starting to tense. She forced herself to relax once again as they tried to stare the other down.

It didn't take long for her to figure out that he was stalling and why. He didn't want to do this. Whether it was because he didn't want to take a chance hurting her or because he didn't think she was up to the challenge she didn't know and didn't care. Not only was she curious to see how much she could take, but she also wanted to keep her skills up. If they were going to escape then they needed to do it soon and she needed to be ready. The only way to do that was to practice with him and the only way to make him do that was to provoke him. She tried not to smile as she did just that.

"Did I mention that I like your tattoo? It's very cute and let's not forget the piercing. Did you do that for someone special or were you just bored?" she asked innocently, knowing she was on the right track when he clenched his jaw tightly and glared at her, so of course she kept going.

"I especially like the way the tattoo looped around the base before it-"

She was forced to stop talking. It was either that or get her ass kicked, which was probably going to happen anyway, but not this soon. When he swung and she easily ducked the move, she knew he was still holding back. The next weak punch confirmed it. With a bored sigh she ducked out of the way again, dropped to her knees and grabbed him by the goods. It was a very large handful, but she managed to fit the important bits in her hand. She gave him a squeeze of warning that caused him to instantly go still. Sure, he was a Pyte and would heal, but no man wanted his junk damaged.