girl. Have you seen an Irish girl?” Just enough mockery filled his voice to assure them that Graeme had denied knowledge of her but was concerned.
Who the hell was Graeme?
Devil jerked away from her as though it had taken the last measure of strength he had. And in the next breath he was lifting her from the desk.
“Get dressed,” he ordered, his voice low. “Get to your room. Don’t let anyone outside the house see you and don’t make any calls until I find you.”
Katie nodded, though she doubted he saw her as he quickly straightened his clothes before striding to the door.
Jerking it open, Devil stepped into the hall, opening the door no farther than necessary as she quickly dressed. Seconds later, Katie slipped out as well and raced to the guest room she’d been given.
Stepping inside, she could see that the curtains had been drawn, blocking so much as a hint of the late afternoon sun or anyone brave enough, or lucky enough, to get a view.
Closing the door behind her, Katie curled into the large wingback chair next to the door, wrapped her arms across her breasts and stared into the darkness of the room.
Would this be her life from now on? Running? Hiding? Always searching for safety and never being certain it existed?
She couldn’t imagine such a life for herself. Because that life would mean leaving the Reever ranch and leaving the Breed whose eyes seemed to stare straight to her soul and whose touch could make her forget everything but her need for him.
She’d never known a connection to another person as she felt with this Breed. She had never wanted to be with another person, not just sexually, but just near him, as she did with Devil.
For the first time since she’d learned exactly what she was and how she had come to be, Katie began to regret it. Because the very fact of her creation could very well be exactly why Devil was fighting the desire between them so hard.
Perhaps he simply didn’t want a woman whose life, whose very existence came with the kind of problems that hers would come with. He could want a nice, normal woman who would present no problems and no additional dangers to his own existence.
She could understand that.
The hell she could.
No nice, normal woman could ever tolerate a Breed male. They were arrogant, dominant, forceful, and so damned aggravating they made a woman want to kill at times. She knew exactly what they were like. She’d been dealing with them since she was sixteen years old during her first training year with the Breed Security Network.
Breed males were always certain they were right. They rarely, no, they never, at any time accepted that a woman, whether she was Breed or human, could survive without a male’s protection, and they were prone to prove it in a variety of ways.
They were peculiar, particular and perverse.
And she had a very bad feeling she might well be falling in love with one.
* * *
G raeme, secure the grounds,” Devil ordered quietly as he watched the Jeep rumble from view, the high-range camera mounted on the top pointing back at the grounds.
It had been pointing forward when the vehicle stopped at the gates.
“They’re secured,” he answered, and Devil knew if Graeme said they were secured, then they were damned well secured.
The Lion Breed was one of the few recessive Breeds Devil had known with actual Breed traits. He’d arrived six months before with nothing more than a change of clothes in a small pack, a knife and a sense of security weaknesses that had immediately found favor on the estate.
Tall, broad, laid-back and rarely displaying a temper, Devil was beginning to rely on the exacting precision in which the Breed did everything he set out to do.
“The girl’s still in her room,” Graeme reported as he consulted the wireless electronic security monitor he carried. “She left your office just after you and went straight to her bedroom.”
Devil glanced at the other man briefly. “You knew she was
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