She didn’t take her mouth from his, but she protested, and that made him all the more crazy. Thunder roared in his ears. He slammed his palm against the wall beside her head. He had never wanted a woman so much in his life. Not just wanted her – needed her. No one else was ever going to satisfy the craving inside of him, a terrible empty hole that only she could fill.
You damn well aren’t goin’ to change your fuckin’ mind because I’m angry with you. You had no business throwin’ out a lure to him and you know it.
She startled when he hit the wall, trying to draw back, but there was nowhere for her to go. Wyatt had her there, captured between the wall and his body. His prisoner. He held her there, his brooding gaze drifting over her face.
“You belong to me and no one else.”
“You don’t own me,” she denied.
He could see the panic in her eyes, feeling it rising like the tidal wave of sheer lust had risen in him. “I do,” he said softly. “You’re mine and I’ll be damned if I’m ever goin’ to give you up, so just know that, Pepper. Know as much as you belong to me, I belong to you. We’re in this together. We had this conversation. We talked it all out. I’ve been inside you dozens of times. You knew when we first started this that there was no goin’ back.”
“What is this?” She sounded as scared as she looked. “Doesn’t this scare you, even a little bit?”
Her body trembled, shivering against his. He leaned down and brushed a much gentler kiss over her mouth. Her eyes were huge, her breath coming too fast. She was very close to panic and seemed more vulnerable than ever. Wyatt realized her fear was very genuine. Pepper hadn’t been made to feel passion and attraction – only to make men feel it. She had no idea what to do with the intense chemistry sizzling between them. She had no idea what to do with him, especially when he was angry.
“You’re safe with me. You are. I’m a loyal man, a family man. You don’ have to be afraid of what you’re feelin’. I’ll take care of us.”
She shook her head. “How do you know what you’re feeling is genuine, that I didn’t cast a lure for you too?” She touched her mouth with shaking fingers. “Because a week from now, I don’t want to hear you say that.”
He captured her hand and brought it to his mouth, his teeth scraping gently at the pads of her nervous fingers. “I can not only feel the lure when you test the waters, but I can see it as well, a thin line of energy going from you to your victim. No one else in that room spotted it and they’re all GhostWalkers. What does that tell you?”
She winced visibly and lowered her lashes. They were wet. Spiky. His heart contracted hard in his chest. He pushed back the stray tendrils of cloudy waves that just refused to stay tamed in her braid.
“Don’t say ‘victim,’ Wyatt. Don’t use that word.”
“I know you didn’t deliberately seduce me, Pepper, because you’re scared to death of me – of what you feel when you’re with me. I connected us when I attempted to heal you, but you connected us long before that, when you jumped between Ginger and me and took that bite. I knew in that moment that you were the one for me. There was no sex involved right then. None. Just a woman showin’ tremendous courage, the kind of courage a man livin’ in the bayou needs when he wants to raise his family here.”
He tugged at one of the strands of silk. “Now, when I look at you, I want you with every cell in my body. Again, that isn’ you comin’ on to me, because you don’ ever do that with me. You feel what I’m feelin’ and that terrifies you. I know because there’s no denyin’ that connection between us. I can feel the intensity of your emotions. You want me just as much. I just scare you a little when I get angry, but I’d never hurt you. No matter how angry I get, I’d never hurt you.”
Chapter 13
Pepper stared up into Wyatt’s face a long time, her body at war with her mind. Could she trust him? Did she dare? If it was only her, but there were three little children who had been locked in laboratories all their lives. She was making a decision for them. When Wyatt was close to her, when his mouth was on hers, she couldn’t think reasonably.
Right now, his body was hard and aggressive. She could see the warrior in him, a predator who hunted the swamps and bayous, went out on his missions and came back with more scars, but triumphant. He was a throwback to the Vikings she’d read about in the history books. He appealed to her on that level.
Who was she kidding? He appealed to her on every level. She’d grown up in a world where everyone was deceptive and wanted something from her. Not just her, the babies. She hadn’t been able to give them any kind of life. She hadn’t even known what she wanted for them until she’d entered Nonny’s house. Until she’d seen the love Wyatt had for his grandmother.