Her little laugh escaped. “I think you just like the way I look.”
He bent his head down to nuzzle the valley between her full breasts. “I know you’re right about that. I love the way you look, but I meant what I said, Rory. I want you to allow Paul to look at your lungs because he thinks he can remove the obstruction, but I want you to get to a place of feeling confident in Paul’s judgment.”
Rory froze, her hands on the zipper of her skirt. “Did I sound like I wasn’t confident in him?” She looked and sounded horrified. “I must have hurt his feelings. I don’t feel that way at all, Gideon.” Tears shimmered in her eyes. “I haven’t been around people other than my friends from the apartments for so long, I don’t think I know how to act properly. You should have stopped me.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Rory. You expressed your concern for someone you care about. That came through.” Gideon unzipped her skirt and helped her step out of it. “I’m sure you made Paul feel good.”
“You won’t leave the room, will you? If anything goes wrong, if Whitney did set a trap for a doctor, you’ll get Paul out.” Rory made it a statement, as if she had every confidence in him.
Gideon covered his wince by moving around her to unhook her bra. He would be saving Rory before anyone else. He wasn’t making promises unless he knew he could keep them.
“I forgot to tell you, your boss called again,” he said, deliberately changing the subject. “Lydia is working full-time and holding her own. He said whenever you’re ready to go back, the job’s waiting. He loves Lydia and thanks you a thousand times for recommending her. She’s a major asset to him.”
Rory’s eyes lit up. “I’m so glad. They all love the new apartment building. Cindy raves about it. Thank you for giving them such a deal on the rent. I know those apartments can’t possibly go for the same we were paying at the other building. They’re so much nicer and roomier. The security is better.”
“You haven’t been there.”
“They send me pictures all the time. The fundraisers brought in enough money for new furniture as well for them. And they all had renter’s insurance. So when they get a payout on that, they’re going to be fine,” Rory said. “I know you had a huge hand in that, Gideon.”
“The team played a big part, Rory. It wasn’t all me.”
He helped her into the gown. The moment she had it on, the look of apprehension returned. To distract her, he caught her around the waist and lifted her onto the bed. The moment she was up on the edge of the bed, he gripped the back of her hair in his fist and tipped her head to take her mouth.
Sparks flew. Rockets went off. Not little sparklers. The full-blown sending-rockets-to-the-moon space-age powerful streams of white-hot energy. Lightning streaked through his bloodstream, aiming straight at his groin. Thunder roared, drowning out the sound of his heart pounding in his ears. She took him to another place with just her kisses, setting him on fire.
Abruptly he pulled back, knowing what they were doing was dangerous. He had slept beside her night after night, waiting for her to gain strength. Waiting for her body to heal. It was getting to the point where he could barely stay in control. Now wasn’t the time, and tempting fate was pure stupidity.
Her arms remained around his neck, her green eyes moving over his face with that look she reserved for him alone. Her expression got to him every time.
“Thank you for finding me, Gideon. When they kidnapped me, I was afraid Whitney had caught up with me and was trying to hurt you, or he wanted Rose’s little boy. I was never going to give you up. I would have died first.”
His heart squeezed down hard like a vise in his chest. He’d feltthat absolute resolve in her. When Rory made up her mind, she could be like Paul, or like Gideon; she had a will of iron. She wouldn’t have given him up. Or Rose’s son. That was his woman—soft, compassionate and kind, yet with a core of absolute steel.
“I was never going to give you up, Red,” he admitted. “I wanted to be that man, stepping aside for my sins and giving you what you wanted and deserved, but all along, I knew I would follow you to the ends of the earth and try to win you back. The moment I knew you were in trouble, all bets were off.”
“I couldn’t help but feel bad that Bill Morris committed suicide when they came to arrest him,” Rory said. “I know he was as guilty as the others, but he did try to stop Westlake. I knew there was one of them protesting what was going on.”
Gideon wished he was as compassionate. He did feel bad for the man’s wife. She didn’t deserve to face the backlash alone, especially as ill as she was. She wasn’t in any way to blame for what her husband had chosen to do. Deana had sent a note to Rory telling her she was sorry for what had happened to her. That had been unexpected and just made the circumstances seem even more tragic to Gideon. Rory had cried for the woman. That made Gideon even less compassionate toward Bill Morris. He hadn’t been thinking of his wife when he’d left her alone to face his crimes.
“They have evidence to convict Leo Carver, but do you think they have enough to convict Jerome Michigan?” Rory asked.
Gideon ran his palm down the back of her head over all that thick dark cherry–colored hair he loved so much. She no longer winced when he touched the back of her scalp, where the men had hit her so hard and given her a concussion.
“Red.” He kept his voice gentle, his gaze on hers. “You know it isn’t going to matter one way or the other. They’re never going to go to trial. We can’t allow that. Wilson, Larrsen and Abbott deservedto follow through with the arrests, but you’re not going to sit on a stand and relive a nightmare. Those men were dead the moment they put their hands on you. You have to know that.”
He’d given her that truth and she’d even acknowledged it. At the time, she’d still been mostly swinging in and out of consciousness.
“Gideon, are you positive this is the life you want? Do you ever consider getting out?”
He kept his expression blank, but his gut knotted. He’d promised honesty no matter the cost. He didn’t know what she was thinking. She had that faint little frown, her brows slightly drawn together, full lips turned down just enough to be a temptation for him to coax them upward. He always found her frown irresistible.
“Never. Not once,” he admitted. “Even before Whitney enhanced me, I had a darkness in me when those around me were threatened. I had already developed several of my psychic talents and continued to strengthen them in order to use them to hunt when I needed to. I have that in me, Rory, and it isn’t going to go away. As a GhostWalker, I can use those skills for my country. I can guard my team. If I were a civilian, what would I do? I’m not the kind of man to be idle.”
GhostWalkers couldn’t just walk away from the service. He would explain that later. For now, it was important to him to understand what she was thinking.
“I just want you to be happy.” Her finger traced the line of his jaw, her touch featherlight. “I don’t want to sit in a courtroom and face those men or have to think about what they did to me, but I’d rather that than have you do something that would haunt you for the rest of your days. You don’t have to look after me, Gideon. Let me be the one person in your life who looks after you.”
She might just be capable of ripping out his soul. He brushedhis lips over hers, recognizing the emotion he was feeling was tenderness. He hadn’t known he was capable. “You’re looking after me, Red. Have no worries on that score.”
