She glanced up at him from under her lashes, trying to judge how angry he was—or if he was at all. It was impossible. He didn’t give much away. His gaze was steady on hers. Compelling. She sighed. There was no getting around Gino when he wanted something. He’d just stare at her until she caved.
“Okay, fine. Bellisia has a venom. I do as well. It’s kind of a fail-safe. Whitney’s first idea with us was combat. He wanted to see what we could do in the field together, an all-female team, water, desert, climbing, air, whatever was needed. There were two other women with Shylah, Bellisia and me. They were killed first time out. He was furious. They’d tried to escape rather than fight his army of supersoldiers.” It had left the three of them to fight alone against the team he’d sent against them. “After that, when we were sent out, he held one of us back.”
“You’re stalling.”
She was. She hated telling him the truth because she knew he’d look at her differently. Right now, he looked at her as if she needed him—and she did. He looked at her as if she could be the center of his world—and she knew she could be if given the chance. Her ability to drop someone in seconds would change everything.
“I can call up venom under my nails if necessary. One rake and my enemy is dead.”
He studied her face. “You had the ability to kill Zhu and you resisted. You allowed him to torture you.”
She nodded. “I had to. If I didn’t, Cheng would know for certain I was an agent. He didn’t believe I was. Zhu convinced Cheng I was what they thought I was—the woman who developed the VALUE system and came to various businesses to talk about it and answer questions. As long as my cover was intact, the GhostWalker program was safe. If they knew I was an agent, Cheng would have a GhostWalker to take apart and study. I couldn’t allow that to happen no matter what.”
He shook his head. “And you say you’re not brave.” He caught her chin with two fingers and lifted her head. His mouth brushed hers gently. “So, when I’ve got you coming apart in my arms and screaming my name while you rake my back with your fingernails, are you going to make certain you keep that venom under control?”
Her heart accelerated. It was a wonder she hadn’t had a heart attack around him yet. She nodded. “I think I can do that, but I’ve never actually been that out of control. Maybe we should try to find an antidote before we try it.”
“What poison did he use?”
“Deathstalker scorpion, but he multiplied the strength of the venom. It’s lethal under most circumstances. I try to control it, but it doesn’t always work, depending on my level of panic.”
“You had to be panicked when Zhu was torturing you.”
“There were others to think of, Gino. All of you. Bellisia and Shylah. Every person Whitney experimented on. We don’t need another Whitney, and trust me, Cheng would have been far worse with his experiments. Whitney is a patriot; Cheng has no one he is loyal to, unless it’s Zhu.”
“I can’t get over you, woman, thinking you aren’t brave. Does Bellisia know you have enough venom to protect yourself if needed?”
She nodded. “She encouraged me to try to learn to control it. She thought if I was out on a mission and someone did catch me, I could possibly scratch them lightly and get away. I’m not that good. I would never harm an innocent person or take the chance of harming one in order to protect myself like that. They’d never find the SSD so they could never prove I stole their work. If I’m caught, I just have to ride it out, and in this case, it was a rough ride.”
She looked down at her hands. “When we were on missions, it wasn’t easy on either Bellisia or Shylah. I hated killing others. I could take them down, but I rarely could make myself finish them off. Bellisia or Shylah had to do it, whichever one was with me. The two of them covered for me all the time because Whitney detested that I couldn’t do what he wanted. He would keep me up for days, having one of his soldiers screaming at me while I stood at attention that all I had to do was scratch the enemy’s arm or neck or any part of his body and he was dead. Bellisia and Shylah sometimes lied and got caught and then they’d be punished in front of me.”
Now he knew what a thief, a coward and a fraud she was. Yes, she had venom, but no, she didn’t use it. Deep down she knew she could under extreme circumstances, like saving someone else’s life. She would do it to save Gino. Or Bellisia. Or not do it to save them.
“Let’s go for our picnic.” Abruptly he changed the subject.
She was desperate to get out of the room. “Yes, please. I’m really excited about our trip. I like it here and want to get to know everyone better, but being inside is making me crazy.”
“Give me a minute to finish putting the mosquito repellent on you.”
He was touching her legs now, smoothing on the repellent. His hands were large and calloused. She liked the way his fingers glided over her skin, almost possessively. She wanted him to be possessive. “You stay here at this house,” she said, trying to sound causal. “Do you have a home somewhere else? A place that’s yours?”
He had turned away, rummaging in a drawer. “I’ve got a few of them. I bought property up by Trap, in the swamp. I’ve got a crew building now. All of us are establishing homes here. We’re building a fortress, trying to put the Fontenot home in the middle. Wyatt has three kids and another on the way. He’s got Nonny. We all claim them as family as well, so we’re working to ensure their safety. Trap’s place is nearly impenetrable now. That’s our go-to in an emergency. I want to be close to that so my woman and any children we have together can get there fast. This is the swamp so underground tunnels require a lot of work. The water table is very high and it’s dangerous, so we’re coming up with other solutions.”
He turned back to her with a fresh shirt. This wasn’t the usual T-shirt. The blouse was a pale mint color with a small laced edge up either side of the front, closed by a knotting the lacy edges under her breasts, really more of a cover-up than a blouse. It was hot outside. Sultry. The humidity in the swamp was off the chart. “Put your arms up.”
Zara did so and he pulled the shirt she’d been wearing over her head and tossed it aside. He always was impersonal when he dressed her, and that was a little annoying. Still, it made it easier on her so maybe it was easier that way on him.
The blouse was sexy, no question about it, and she wasn’t certain who had bought it. He hadn’t left her side for very long, a couple of hours here and there, maybe while she slept. It was very difficult to slide her arms into the sleeves and have him settle the material over the swell of her breasts and tie the knot just below them without reacting. Her nipples peaked, two hard temptations, pushing at the thin material as his knuckles rubbed her sensitive skin.
“There’s a matching thong and sarong.” He crouched down on the floor and put first one foot and then the other into the thong, pulling the scrap of mint green up to her thighs. “Can you lift up, princess?”
He wasn’t as unaffected as his features said. His eyes had darkened with desire, with a lust that took her breath away as his gaze moved up her body. She lifted off the bed and he slid the thong over her hips, settling the thin mint lace just under her belly button.
“Turn over.”
Heart beating hard, she complied with his order, rolling over and stretching out on the bed. His hand smoothed over her buttocks and then settled the little scrap of lace between her cheeks. His fingers dug into her flesh for a moment. “Does that hurt? At all? Tell me the truth, Zara.”
She had to fight for air. “No.” She didn’t want him to take his hand away.
“I love the way you look laid out like this on my bed, sexy as fuck, woman. I’m warning you right now, as of today, things are changing between us.” He smoothed his hand over her buttocks again and then caught at her arm to help her roll over and sit up.
Zara looked up at him, her body feeling hot and flushed. Deep inside that persistent throbbing beat at her.