Seduced by the Storm (46 page)

"She’s
trouble, this one. Mind of her own," Trance said, as though that was an
entirely bad thing and something that needed to be changed immediately.

"Always
has been, always will be," Wyatt muttered as he carried her over to the
bed.

"I
could work on her. Do a little training," Trance suggested. Wyatt had
heard of the excedo’s predilections as a Dom, and while the rumors of Trance’s
tendency toward hard-core kink were barely a blip on the ACRO radar, the idea
of Trance’s body anywhere near Faith’s made Wyatt clench his fists.

"Easy
there, SEAL. It was just a suggestion. I could always lend you the St. Andrew’s
Cross and the flogger. You’d be surprised how effectively, and quickly, they
can work when used in tandem."

The
idea of Faith bound and stretched out for Wyatt himself was suddenly strangely
intriguing. "Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got this. You can head
out."

Trance
laughed. "Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, Wyatt," he said
before he shut the door behind him.

"Are
you planning on tying me up and horsewhipping me, or was that talk just part of
the ACRO show?" Faith’s voice came from behind him.

He
turned to face her and she continued. "It’s not that I don’t deserve it,
really."

"I
asked them to bring you here because I need your help. Because you owe me.
That’s the only reason," he said, and he wondered if she could see right
through him, could tell that he was lying through his teeth—because, man,
seeing her again was like coming home. All he wanted to do was lie back on the
bed and let her take him, over and over, until his body was spent from passion,
not heartache.

Sitting
up, she bit her bottom lip and nodded.

"I’m
going to need help integrating my powers. I don’t know how to work the biokinesis.
I can’t seem to control it—it just keeps happening, even when I’m not
trying," he told her, and she stared first at one of his arms and then the
other. "What is it?"

"It’s
just that…I felt you—hugging me when I first came in here, but I thought it was
just wishful thinking."

Fuck.
"Fuck, I didn’t want to do that," he told her accusingly, as if that
part of it was her fault too. "I don’t want to hug you. I didn’t even want
to see you, but it’s either face you or be sidelined for the next couple of years
until I can figure myself out. And I’m done with that."

She
stood and moved toward him. "You’re so angry with me."

"Yes.
And at myself," he said, wondered why the hell he was still sharing things
with her. He didn’t have to prove his goddamned mental state to anyone, least
of all her.

But
she’d be the one who understood the most.

She
touched his cheek gently and he closed his eyes, because the cool palm felt so
good on his skin, smelled like sunshine, and this working together and not
feeling anything for her was never going to work.

He
opened his eyes and watched her watching him.

"Liberty’s
going to stay at the facility," she said. "There are people there who
can help her. Thing is, I don’t know if I can ever trust her again."

"Trusting
someone who betrayed you is damned hard, Faith. I trusted you enough, after you
told me about TAG, not to call for backup. I could have, easily, but I didn’t.
Because I didn’t want to risk what was happening with your sister. If it had
been anything else, that scene at the battleground wouldn’t have
happened."

"Are
you in trouble, Wyatt?"

"No,
I’m not in trouble. Is that all you care about, that my job is intact? Because
right now I could give two shits about that." A vase rose and smashed
against the window, shattering both, and Faith was holding her arm as though
Wyatt was squeezing it. Which,
dammit,
he probably was. "How soon
could you give me control over these new powers?"

"Can
we talk about us first? Please, Wyatt, I need to tell you…" She stopped,
waited to see if he would interrupt. But he didn’t. "When I found out
where my people put you, all I could think about was getting to you. I was
terrified of how you would feel when you woke up there—especially after you’d
shared so much with me about your past. God, Wyatt, I’m so sorry. I know what
that must’ve been like for you—I can never ask you to understand why I did what
I did."

"You
can ask," he said, aware his tone had turned harsh, and he forced himself
to swallow his bitterness momentarily. "I know why you did it, Faith. It
was for your family. I get that, probably more than anyone. I just
thought…"

"That
I wouldn’t betray you in the process," she finished.

He
nodded, wanting to believe her.

"I
knew when I woke up that I needed to destroy the machine," she continued.

He
studied her for a moment, seeing the truth of her words in her eyes. "I
wasn’t sure what would happen when we got to Liberty, but I knew you didn’t
have an easy decision in front of you," he said. "That’s why I’d
planned to take it off your plate—if I was the one to destroy it, depending how
things went with Liberty, you could always blame me, not yourself."

"Why
would you do that?"

"Because
I know what it’s like to blame yourself for things you didn’t do, things that
are out of your control." He sat down heavily on the edge of the bed and
stared out the broken window, the shattered glass producing a crazy
kaleidoscope of images, the way he’d imagined that his mind looked most of the
time.

"I
can help you." She sat down next to him, her cheeks flushed, the pull
between them still there despite everything. "I went through a lot before
I learned, made some mistakes. I can help you to learn about it much faster.
But…you’ll have to trust me. If you don’t, it’s not going to work."

He
knew that. He just didn’t know if he could bring himself to do so.

FAITH’S
HEART BROKE for Wyatt, knowing he wanted to trust her but was unable to do so.
Somehow, she had to convince him. Not for herself, but because she wanted to
help him with his new gift.

"Wyatt,
I didn’t put you in that hospital. Do you believe me?"

He
didn’t answer. Didn’t even look at her.

"Dammit,
Wyatt, look at me."

He
did, his eyes sparking. "I don’t know what to believe."

She
stood. "Focus on me. Open yourself up to your power. You’ll see my
aura."

"How
is this going to help me trust you?"

She
thunked him in the forehead with her fingers. His indignant "Ow!"
gave her a smidge of satisfaction.

"Do
it."

Muttering
something indecipherable, he concentrated on her. The muttering became curses.
"I can’t see anything."

"Slap
me."

"What?"

"Slap
me. In the face. Hard."

He
narrowed his eyes at her. "Don’t think that thought hasn’t crossed my
mind."

"Then
do it." When he just sat there, she rolled her eyes.
"Insufferable." She snared a shard of broken glass off the floor and
slashed her cheek.

"Jesus
Christ, Faith!" he shouted. His hand shot out to grasp her wrist,
squeezing hard enough to make her drop the glass. "What the fuck are you
doing?"

She
jerked out of his grip. "Now look at me. Look at the cut. Concentrate on
it."

He
didn’t look happy, but he did it. "Hey," he murmured. "I see
your aura."

"Good.
Now look for any thin spots. Should be one over the cut." She waited, and
he nodded. "Okay, now envision a needle. Or a laser beam. Something small
and narrow. This will only work if you find a very sheer patch in an aura. If
there isn’t one, you’ll have to probe with your power until you find a
relatively weak spot, and then you’ll pick the aura’s threads apart. Takes a lot
of time, so your best bet is to find a thin area."

"Okay."

"Now
use your needle or beam and pierce my aura."

She
felt the penetration the second he did it. Felt the sudden vulnerability, as
though she were a ship with a breach in the hull.

"Now
what?"

"Now
you can kill me."

His
gaze snapped up. His head snapped back. "I can what?"

"I’ve
exposed my throat to you, Wyatt. If you want to, you can stop my heart. Sever
my spinal cord. Puncture my lung." She closed her eyes, let herself be at his
mercy. "I didn’t order your admission into the hospital. The moment I
found out you were there, all I could think about was getting you out. I
attacked TAG’s doctor when I thought she ended my pregnancy. I stole the
motherboard from my own agency’s lab—"

Hard
hands came down on her shoulders. "What did you just say?"

"I’m
in a lot of trouble, Wyatt."

The
hands on her shoulders began to tremble. Wyatt pulled away, scrubbed one hand
over his face. "I’ll be there for you. No matter what."

"Um,
okay. But really, there’s nothing you can do. I risked my agency and my career
to get that motherboard to you. I think the British government will give me a
slap on the wrist since I’ve smoothed things out with ACRO, but my partner, the
people I work with…they won’t be so forgiving."

His
brows drew together. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I’m
trying to tell you why you should give me another chance." She reached up,
felt his forehead. "Are you all right? You’re not making any sense."

"Me?
I’m not making sense?" He grabbed a tissue off his nightstand and wiped
the blood from her cheek. "You’re the one talking about the weather
machine when you should be talking about the baby."

"What
baby?"

"You
said you’re pregnant."

A
pang of realization stunned her. He thought she was pregnant, and he wanted to
be there for her. And he wasn’t upset. If anything, he looked pleased.

"I’m
not pregnant," she murmured.

"But…you
attacked a doctor…"

"Because
I misunderstood her. I thought she said I was pregnant and she’d ended the
pregnancy. I attacked her," she whispered, "because I wanted to
be." She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat.

"You
wanted…Why?"

She
turned away, unable to bear seeing the same disgust in his eyes that had been
there the last time she told him she loved him. Right before he smashed the
motherboard and then showed her how little her admission meant to him.

"I
told you…I love you." A shuddering sob escaped her, and shit, she felt so
stupid. She’d bared her body, soul and heart to him. A man who needed her only
for her ability to teach him to use his new gift.

"Look,"
she said, still facing the door, "you don’t have to believe I love you.
You don’t have to believe that I didn’t send you to the mental hospital. But
dammit, you’d better believe that I wanted to be carrying your baby. You’d
better believe that I chose you over the weather machine, even if it was a
little late."

She
spun around, planted a finger on his sternum hard enough to make him take a
step back. "And you’d better believe that losing my parents to a storm was
the single most devastating event in my life—until you fucked me like a whore
and told me you didn’t care." The memory of the sex outside the mental
hospital, when she’d been foolish enough to believe that they still had a chance,
was like a bruise on her brain. "So now I’m laid out as open as I can
possibly be. I have nothing to hide. I have nothing to lose. So you’d better
fucking trust me to help you, because I’m all you’ve got."

His
hand curled around hers. His big palm was warm, a little rough, and it reminded
her how much pleasure his hands had brought her.

"You’re
all I’ve ever had."

"That’s
right, so you had better—" She blinked. "Excuse me?"

Throwing
his head back, he stared at the ceiling. "I’ve spent my entire life living
like some kind of vagabond. Even my house isn’t a home." He dropped his
head, searched her face, his own expression a mix of hope and hesitation.
"But loving you is like being home. And when you opened yourself up to me
just now, I saw more than just your aura. I saw your heart."

Which
was now pounding against her breastbone like it wanted out of her chest and
inside his.

"It
sounds corny," he said, blushing a little, "I know. And I can’t
explain it."

"You
don’t have to. I know."

A sad
smile curved his mouth. "I’m sorry for what I did to you outside the
mental hospital." Before she could protest, he touched one finger to her
lips. "Shh. It was cruel. Not like me at all. I think in a way I hated you
not because you betrayed me, but because you were brave enough to do something
I couldn’t do. I couldn’t face my past. But you chased yours. Hell, you slept
with a stuffed animal from childhood. You didn’t forget your past, and you
wanted to keep anyone else from going through what you did. I didn’t anticipate
the lengths you’d go to in order to honor your family, because I couldn’t
understand it."