“It is,” she agreed.
“Blade, he’s got a lot running through his mind right now, battling a lot of stuff internally.”
“I am too,” she reminded him. Standing up for herself like this was an odd feeling. Whitney was someone who always went with the flow. But she’d built that secret identity with the intent of building a new life, becoming a new person, she didn't want to waste that even if things hadn't worked out the way she’d planned.
Dragon’s unusual violet eyes gave her an assessing onceover, and then he nodded. “Then it’s a good thing you just got adopted into a ready-made family who gets what you're going through and has your back. I really am sorry about last night. It won't happen again, I'm no threat to you, Whitney. None of us are.”
With that, Dragon left the room, and she stood there staring after him. He’d just said that she was part of their family, but there was no way that was true. Was it? And had her kissing Blade ruined that? He didn't want her, and she couldn’t imagine that he wanted her to become part of his family.
Chapter
Fourteen
January 14th
12:24 A.M.
He couldn’t settle.
There were definitely times when Blade hated enhanced hearing that never gave him a moment of peace. Sound was a constant, he wasn't like Lion, who could close his eyes and shut off his enhanced sight, and although Dragon was also constantly able to smell things, the man seemed to have honed his skill and enjoyed having it.
It wasn't that Blade didn't like his ability to hear things in near-perfect detail, even from a distance, and there were definitely times when it had saved the lives of him and his teammates, but at times it wore on him.
Like when he heard Whitney’s soliloquy as she crept through the halls after hiding out all day. He’d heard her the second she was out of her room, but he hadn't been ready to face her yet, which made hearing her words that much worse.
Why are you still thinking about it? No. Bad girl. Stop thinking about him. Guaranteed he’s not thinking about youright now. He had all afternoon to come and find you if he wanted to, but he didn't. Didn't even come and say thank you for all the information. Crickets. It’s stupid anyway, you're being kicked out of here as soon as they know there’s no danger left.
Blade assumed theitshe was talking about was their kiss, and it had taken every ounce of his self-control not to storm down the stairs, shove her up against the closest wall, and crush his lips to hers. That should erase any doubts in her pretty little head about whether he was still thinking about her.
But it was the complete and utter conviction in her tone when she said she thought she was going to be kicked out that had broken his heart.
If he hadn't heard Dragon heading toward her, he probably would have shoved his fears aside and gone to her. As it turned out, he didn't have to. Dragon had told her exactly what she needed to hear, and coming from the man who had tried to kill her when the leash of control he had on his anger slipped, it would mean so much more.
After Dragon had left, he hadn't heard Whitney talking to herself again, but he’d tracked her to the kitchen, heard her prepare herself some food, eat it alone, and then retire to her bedroom. He’d listened as she showered and imagined her hands, covered in soapy suds, roaming her body as she cleaned herself. Wished it was his hands instead, trailing across that petal-soft skin.
Of course, if it were his hands on her body, he wouldn't just be washing it.
Instead, his fingers would be plucking at her nipples, kneading her perfect breasts, dipping between her legs, and teasing her bud before sinking inside her, grazing that spot that would make her see stars. He wouldn't stop until he had her panting and writing against him, begging him to let her come.When he’d drunk in the sight of her flushed skin and heavy-lidded eyes enough, then he’d let her come.
No way would he stop there, because Blade already knew that if he let himself have just one taste of her, he’d become addicted.
If he let himself become addicted to the petite blonde, what happened when she left? What Dragon had told her was true, she was part of their family now, another victim of the crazed scientist who thought he got to play God. But it didn't seem fair to make her stay there, caged all over again, when she’d been trying to break free, find her own way, her own path, and figure out who she was and how she wanted to live her life.
Staying away from her was safer for her and for him.
Because while Blade would never ever deny Whitney pleasure in the bedroom, if anything, he’d make her come over and over again until her system was thrown into overdrive and she was pleading with him to give her a break, his tastes in the bedroom were no doubt more than she could handle.
He and his team had never discussed their sex lives. He had no idea if before Rose, Steel had gone to one of the nearby towns to seek out a woman to share his bed, or if Dragon had before Cassandra. Just like he hadn't told the guys that some nights, when his need for blood got too much for him to handle, he headed into town, sought out a seedy bar, and picked up a woman he knew wouldn't mind him indulging himself.
But Whitney never was and never could be one of those women.
Her sweet, innocent little mind couldn’t comprehend his need to draw blood, to see it stain the skin of the woman sharing his bed as he pounded into her, seeking a release that seemed harder and harder to find each time he tried.
In fact, chasing that release had gotten so hard that he hadn't bothered going into town for that particular purpose in over a year. There had been plenty to keep him busy with everythinggoing down with the Charleston Holloway family, then getting the name of the doctor who ran the program, that he hadn't even had time to think about sex.
Until Whitney.
His pretty little captive, who wasn't really his captive anymore, with her wide blue eyes, so innocent and vulnerable, her pouty lips, and those blonde locks he wanted to tangle his fingers in as he guided her mouth to his. Whitney had zero idea that she was the sexiest thing he’d ever laid eyes on, and that she thought he hadn't kissed her back because he didn't want her and wasn't attracted to her made him want to howl out his frustrations.
