The Huntress (35 page)

Even without metal on his bones and genetically enhanced strength, he’d learned a few things from Conley. Surprised by the ferocity of Stone’s attack, Hammond fought defensively. Stone broke his knuckles again on the man’s face, but when Conley restrained him, Hammond was bleeding and clearly in pain.

“Still think she’s yours?” Stone snarled as Conley pulled him off, thrusting him in the other direction.

“Hunter Hammond, you are hereby on suspension indefinitely for leaving Belata without permission. Get your stupid ass off this station and back to HQ before Stone and I start taking turns.”

Blue eyes murderous, the blond hunched out of the room without a word.

Conley flashed a hard grin over his shoulder at Stone. “Felt good, didn’t it?”

“Hell, yeah.”

“Let’s get those knuckles fixed before Regan sees you.”

Stone used the station’s med lab instead of dealing with Ema. He knew what she’d have to say about it. Besides, he didn’t want Regan to know, and Ema wasn’t good at keeping secrets.

The high from the fight didn’t last long. It had been a good release of aggression, but it didn’t solve anything. Mea still refused to see or speak to him, and she was still adamant that he leave the station.

He barely ate and barely slept, waiting for a reprieve. As time passed, that hope dwindled away to nothing, but he still couldn’t leave. On the fourth day after Mea’s miraculous recovery, Regan bounced into the lounge, smile bright and eyes sparkling. Her face dimmed when she saw him.

“Hey, Dad. How’s it going?” Perching on a nearby seat, she watched him expectantly. When he did nothing but grunt, she frowned, nibbling on the inside of her lip.

“Say, Dad, I’m hungry.”

“You know where the cafeteria is.”

“I don’t want to go by myself. I want you to take me.”

Confused, he frowned at her. “You go by yourself all the time. What’s different today?”

She rolled her eyes. “Jeez, Dad, you really are dense! I thought Mom was just being mean.” Bouncing to her feet, she grabbed one of his hands. “Come on, we’re going to the cafeteria.”

“What the hell—” he started, but she was tugging on his hand in a determined way and it was just easier to get up and follow her. “What else did she say about me?”

Not looking at him, she widened her eyes innocently. “Mom? Nothing.”

Then she rambled about the staff. He was pretty sure she was making half the shit up. Shaking his head in baffled irritation, he followed her to the cafe. She fixed two plates, one for each of them, and set them down at a little table, continuing to ramble.

Resigned, he sat. Watching her have this one-sided conversation, he became aware that she was avoiding his gaze. She ate most of her plate and frowned at his untouched one but only muttered something under her breath before grabbing his hand again. “Come on, you need a shower.”

He raised his eyebrows in silent offense, but she didn’t seem to notice. She led him to a room with a sanitary, still chattering on about nothing while he showered and changed. Her only comment before she herded him back out the door was, “That’s better. You were pretty stinky.”

They wandered back to the lounge and sat in silence for a long time, Regan shooting him looks out of the corner of her eye.

Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore.
“What?”

“Dad—” She gnawed on her lip and frowned at him earnestly. “Why don’t you just tell her how you feel?”

He opened his mouth to tell her it wasn’t that easy then snapped it shut again.

The kid was right. Mea needed to know that it didn’t matter how many times she told him to get out. He wasn’t going anywhere. He couldn’t. She was just going to have to accept that, and he was through waiting for her to come to it on her own. He’d made a mistake when he’d left them on Xerxes, but he couldn’t let her force him into making another one—he couldn’t let her push him away. He deserved…he didn’t know if he deserved anything, but she was going to damn well listen.

Surging to his feet, he marched out the door, ignoring Regan’s low, triumphant
“Yes!”
behind him. Riding a wave of determination, he stalked down the corridor to Mea’s room and burst in.

The sight of her sitting on the bed in one of those wraps that drove him so crazy froze him in his tracks. Her lustrous, dark hair curled over her shoulders in luxurious abandon and her skin glowed with health. She looked as though nothing had happened to her. He wasn’t prepared for the helpless desire that slammed into him.

She glanced up from a digital pad in her hand and eyed him as casually as if he was just one of the staff. “Still here?” Tossing the pad onto the bed, she slid off the side and started toward him. “I guess I’m well enough to remove you myself.”

She didn’t limp, but he could see by her slow movements that she wasn’t fully recovered. If she tried to throw him out, she’d hurt herself. Desperate to keep her at a safe distance, he blurted the first words that popped into his head. “Tell me what’s wrong with me.”

Her eyebrows rose as she studied him coldly, folding her arms across her chest. At least she’d stopped moving towards him. “You want the long or short version? Never mind, the long will keep us here all day. You are a stubborn, pig-headed, obstinate, unfeeling, unreliable son-of-a-bitch, so blind you couldn’t see the truth if it bit you in the—”

“I can’t eat.”

She stared at him with her lips parted before pressing them shut and eyeing him with a wary expression.

“I can’t sleep.”

She dropped her eyes to bare toes peeking out from under her wrap and leaned against the bed without comment.

“I can’t stop thinking about you. What’s wrong with me?”

“Well,” she murmured without looking up at him, “if you were a normal person, I’d say you were in love. But we both know you’re not normal.” She lifted her head and his heart sank to see her eyes still cold and her mouth in a bitter line. “So I’d say either you need to see a doctor or you’re mocking me. Either way, it’s now going to hurt a lot when I kick your ass out the door.”

She began moving toward him again and he backed away, desperation roughening his voice. “Damn it, Mea, I can’t survive—” He broke off with a growl of frustration. In her present mood, she wasn’t likely to believe him if he finished that sentence without an explanation. “Okay, I am stubborn and blind and stupid.”

She halted, tipping her head to one side and narrowing her eyes at him.

Using this reprieve, he began to pace, working to get it out before she booted him. “Look, I didn’t believe you at first. I couldn’t. My life’s survival and that’s all. Always has been. I grew up in a place where there were two kinds of people, predator and prey. I was a predator—I killed to stay alive. It’s not an excuse; that’s just how it was. I didn’t deserve any better, so how could I think somebody would offer me better? You were too good to be true, so I couldn’t believe that you’d care about me or want me in your life. Then you left me on Xerxes and I—”

Stone ran a shaking hand around the back of his neck. Would she understand? Would she see how he needed her? Not looking at her, he continued to pace and forced the words out of his dry throat. “I figured out that you were telling the truth. I figured out that—that without you, I was gonna end up back in the hole. Without you, I’d
want
to be there.” He stopped pacing and looked at her, fists clenched at his sides. “I wasn’t mocking you. I don’t have a clue what love is. Doesn’t matter. I need you in my life. I can’t do this without you. I can’t
survive
without you.”

Heart thundering, he waited.

She watched him without expression for what had to be the longest minute of his life. Then she paced over to the controls on the wall and dimmed the lights to a point where they wouldn’t hurt his eyes.

He slowly tugged the goggles down, watching her walk toward him with increasing anxiety. Her silence was terrifying. She paused in front of him, studying his features long enough to make his head pound with sick tension. Whatever she saw in his eyes and face made a small smile curve her lips and her green eyes began to warm. He felt his throat close with relief and desire.

“Say that again,” she murmured.

But he couldn’t speak, captured by her beauty, her warmth, and
oh, god
the scent of her… Reaching out with shaking fingers, he buried his hands in her hair and pulled her close, mouth slanting across hers desperately, saying it again without words. Her response almost dropped him to his knees as she wrapped her arms around his neck, stood on tip-toe to fit her body with burning perfection to his, and returned his kiss in a hot-honey rush of desire.

Starved for her after so long, Stone ran compulsive hands along her curves, groaning when she arched into him. She began making those little noises in the back of her throat that drove him so insane. He couldn’t wait, needed to be inside her, needed that moment when he’d reached inside her as far as he could and was whole. The bed was too far away—the floor would have to do. Until she flinched. He tried to gentle his touch, restrain himself not to hurt her, but her hands slipped under his shirt and over his hot flesh…

She flinched again. Tearing his mouth away from hers, he lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed. She didn’t realize his intent and wasn’t going to make it easy for him, purring in his ear and nibbling at his earlobe. He shuddered as goose bumps chased each other along his skin, placing her carefully on the bed before wrenching away. Stumbling two large steps back from the bed, he stood shuddering and gasping as though he’d run a race.

“Bay, get back here!” Demand and entreaty etched her lovely face and made him ache to obey.

“No. I hurt you.”

“You think having you is not worth a little pain? Please!”

He nearly caved at mirrored desperation in her voice. “No, damn it, you’re not done healing. I need you too much. I’d hurt you.”

“That’s—” she started breathlessly then stopped to swing her legs with languid grace over the side of the bed. “Telling me you need me is not the way to cool me down.”

He looked away from the heat in her eyes, but couldn’t escape the enticing purr in her voice.

She leaned on one hand and crossed her legs. The wrap slipped, baring one long, silky limb all the way to her hip. Feline eyes studying him with predatory intent, she murmured, “As I recall, there was a time you held me down and drove me crazy. I suppose it’s my turn.”

The thought burned through his center and he twisted away, agonized. “Goddamn it, Mea, do you want me to hurt you?”

There was a long pause. He refused to look at her, painfully aware of how close he was to caving, to pouncing on her like an animal. Just the sight of the smooth skin of her thigh and her inviting smile would be enough to push him over the edge. Even the memory was too much enticement.

“All right, fine. I see you’re just as stubborn as ever,” she muttered. He heard a rustling and glanced over to see her tucking her legs under the covers. “I’m only going to spontaneously combust. Where’s the harm in that?”

He watched her take a deep breath and hold it, eyes closed. After a moment she let it out on a sigh, and he took the opportunity to take a few deep breaths himself. Then she slanted a look at him out of the corner of her eye, and he stopped breathing again.

“If I promise to behave, will you sit?” She patted the bed next to her.

“That’s not a good—”

“I’ll keep my hands to myself. No seduction, I promise.” She folded her hands primly in her lap and smiled at him.

He stared at that smile like a dying man. “Doesn’t take much,” he mumbled.

“Please? I’ll be good. I just want you near me.”

His feet moved before his brain had decided—he needed to be near her, too. He sat and she immediately scooted forward and laid her head on his shoulder. She kept her hands in her lap but rested half of her body against him. In tense silence, he struggled to keep his hands off her, but his need was too great. Slipping one arm around her waist, he buried his face in her hair with a low groan.

At first, his desire tormented him, burning through his resolve. He sat with his hands fisted and body trembling. But after a while, he fought his way through it. Holding her satisfied different needs than just the physical, and little by little his muscles loosened.

As he relaxed, though, she tensed more and more. “I don’t believe in love at first sight,” she finally said into the silence. “I didn’t understand until later that I was in love with you. What I felt when I first looked in your eyes was recognition. Do you know what I mean?”

He nodded into her hair, because he knew exactly what she meant, had felt the same. An animal knows its mate, and she was his. It just took him a while to admit it.

She didn’t wait for his reply, though. “I recognized you for what’s been missing in my life, in me. You are what completes me. We’re two of a kind, you and I, and we belong together. I do love you, Bay, but I also need you. That’s why I can’t and I
won’t
tolerate you leaving again.” Those last words sounded as if she spoke through clenched teeth.

He chuckled. Just like her to tell him to leave and then turn around and arrogantly refuse to let him go. “As long as you don’t drug me again.”

She didn’t respond to his dry humor, stiffening even further. Burying his fingers in the silk of her hair, he tugged gently to tip her head back. He saw something new and unexpected in her features, something he’d never thought he’d see in his hunter.
Fear.

“Mea, didn’t you hear me? I can’t survive without you. I’m not going anywhere, ever, unless you kick my ass out. Even then I’d crawl after you. I’d—I would beg to stay.” He flushed a little at that humiliating admission but didn’t take it back. “I’d beg now if it’d help.”

She studied his eyes for a moment, her lovely face open and vulnerable. Then she smiled. It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen and it damn near stopped his heart.

“I love you,” she sighed, and clasped his face in both hands, pressing her lips to his in a chaste kiss.

Chaste or not, it stirred him as much as their earlier passion, reaching down into him with soul-sucking heat. He had no idea how he kept from pressing her down into the bedding and claiming her for his own. But he managed not to move when she pulled away and lay back against the pillows.