“He had no reason whatsoever to be upset with me,” Katie repeated as a flare of anger lit her senses. “I didn’t even attempt to bother him, Khi.”
Damn him. It wasn’t her fault she’d wanted him. He was the one that had been rubbing his hard cock between her thighs and making her ache for him.
She didn’t know what the hell his problem was, but she intended to find out. She refused to allow him to spoil the haven she’d found on the Reever ranch. If he wanted to bitch about her to others, then he could begin with telling her what his bitch was, exactly.
“Wow, you’re as defensive over him as he was over you when Lobo questioned him at his irritation. What’s up with you two?” Khileen moved quickly to draw beside her as Katie headed for the house.
“There’s absolutely nothing up with us,” Katie bit out furiously before giving a muttered little “yet.”
Why was Devil Black so determined to get rid of her? He was one of Lobo Reever’s most trusted men, second only to the missing Tiberian, which now made him the most influential of those surrounding Lobo. If he told Lobo she was a danger to have here, then he may well have her removed.
She couldn’t afford to be sent away. If she were, then the Irish authorities could well send a team to have her collected and forced into testing.
There was a reason why Breeds hid in Europe now. A reason why they were loath to allow their government to know who they were, or where they were.
Because there were those who had come out of the facilities so changed, so traumatized that they simply were not the same. And none of them could remember what had caused the trauma to their minds, or why they may have forgotten certain passages of time during their stay.
That was what awaited her if Devil had her removed from Lobo’s protection. She would be without resources, and unable to reach her family. A sitting duck, so to speak, for those determined to destroy her.
“No, Katie, I’m certain Devil doesn’t mean any harm,” Khileen argued behind her as they reached the house. “Maybe he just likes you. I bet as a little Breed he pulled the pretty little Breed girls’ ponytails just to get their attention.”
“Stop defending him,” Katie demanded. “I’ll deal with him myself rather than following his example by going to others.”
“He’s in his study. I saw him go there earlier,” Khileen informed her with all apparent helpfulness as she headed into the house. “He might have mentioned paperwork at breakfast this morning.”
She had missed breakfast, Katie thought furiously, because she’d been up half the night aching for a man who didn’t even care that she had no place else to run to.
“Well, be careful,” Khileen advised as Katie strode angrily toward the hall leading to Devil and Reever’s offices. “He has a mean bite, I hear.”
“Well so do I.” Especially since she’d begun allowing her fangs to grow and shape correctly after the news of her genetics had been revealed.
She was only barely aware of Khileen stepping back as she neared Devil’s office. She’d finished focusing on her friend. Nothing mattered now but the man who was becoming a threat to her existence and the need burning inside her that was threatening her control.
This couldn’t continue. She could easily stay the hell away from him if her arousal offended him. It would hurt, but her family’s safety was more important. If she were taken and forced into the testing facilities, then her parents would do anything to have her released. No matter what it did to their lives or their safety.
And that she simply couldn’t allow.
Her own safety aside, she refused to see her family threatened because some damned Breed male was offended by her lust for him.
A lust he caused.
She wouldn’t have it.
How did it go?” Cassandra Sinclair opened the door to her guest suite to allow Khileen Langer into the room.
She was one of the few women Cassie had met that she actually identified with. Perhaps it was the black hair, blue eyes and similar features.
They could have passed for family members.
Khileen was also generous natured and loving, though, attributes Cassie found she herself didn’t possess in quite the same quantity.
“Just as you said it would.” Smiling, Khileen propped her delicate hands on her hips as she braced her legs apart.
Dressed in jodhpurs, a cool white sleeveless top and riding boots, the other girl looked ready to enjoy a day riding across the desert. In no way did she look the part she played so often, that of Cassie’s confidante, and one of a few rare friends. But, Cassie had found, Khileen tended to give in to the same lovingly placed manipulations and gentle nudges that Cassie herself often found hard to resist.
“Excellent.” Cassie moved to her desk where she shifted through several papers until she found the small wireless mic and receiver she’d hidden there earlier.
Flipping the antenna down to connect with her father, she waited until he answered the call.
“Cassie?” There was concern in his voice. It was rare that he didn’t worry whenever Cassie convinced him to accompany her on one of her little “adventures.”
“When is your meeting with Mr. Reever?” she asked him.
“I’m waiting outside on the patio attached to his office,” he answered her, the growl in his tone attesting to his irritation.
“Keep him out of the office. Ms. O’Sullivan is at the Devil’s doorstep at the moment.”
“You have to be related to Jonas Wyatt,” he all but snarled.
“Well, he did help a bit in raising me,” she reminded him with a fond smile. “And you know, I’m prone to adapt to certain instruction quite well.”
There were many instances when she’d been forced to stay at the Lion Breed compound in Virginia while her parents fought to ensure her and her brother’s safety over the years.
“Don’t remind me,” he retorted, though she could both hear and feel the love he held for her. “Lobo isn’t so happy at the moment, either, that we’re questioning his protection of this girl.”
“As long as we get the desired results, then he’ll be okay with it later,” she promised.
If they didn’t accomplish what she had come here to do, then there would be problems. It was those problems that had convinced her father to do as she asked.
“Let’s hope,” he grunted. “I have to go, he’s stepping into the office.”
They disconnected.
Turning back to Khileen, she saw the other girl watching her, a frown tugging at her brow.
“Do you ever get tired, Cassie?” she asked softly, with far more compassion than Cassie thought she had the right to.
“Tired?”
“Of trying so hard to hide from what you’re trying to hide from?”
“And what do you think I’m trying to hide from?” She had to force the amusement and unconcern into her tone. What had this woman seen that no other ever had?
“Yourself,” Khileen answered softly, surprising her. “You’re hiding from yourself, Cassie. I was just wondering if you were tired of it yet.”
Khileen turned and left the room then, not bothering to wait for an answer. It was a good thing, Cassie thought, because she didn’t have one.
FOUR
Devil narrowed his eyes on the young woman that stepped into his office before closing the door with careful emphasis behind her.
The long spiral red curls that fell around her head and down her lithe, toned body should have reminded him far too much of Lobo’s stepdaughter for the reaction that immediately knifed through his body.