Master No (Masters and Mercenaries, #9)(107)

She could imagine a man as lovely as Ten could pretty much sleep with anyone he wanted to. He wouldn’t have to charm women. They would fall into his arms, but she would bet they wouldn’t touch him emotionally. With her other lovers, she generally chose them because they had a lot in common. They were almost always in the medical profession and when they weren’t playing, they were talking business.

She’d been forced to talk to Ten about other things, to push past her own surface and reach deeper, give him more, find the things they had in common. “Those three weeks meant a lot to me, too. How many lies did you tell? We talked about the things we like. Did you make that up, too?”

She wanted to know the real man. She needed to know what had been false. It was a burning need.

“No. I really do love to read mysteries and I have a weird affection for movies with dinosaurs in them. I like to cook. It calms me. I like you. That’s pretty much a list of all the things I like in this world. Like I said, if I’d had an easier path, I would have taken it right up to those three weeks, and then it didn’t matter anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

His gaze caught hers. “I was going to have you, Faith. I’d never wanted a woman the way I wanted you.”

When he looked at her like that, she couldn’t think straight. “I don’t know that I believe you.”

“Why would I lie to you now? I promised never to lie to you again and I won’t. It’s why I told you, well, that stuff I told you when your father came for me. I don’t want to lie again. I want you out of this mess. When you’re safe, I’ll be able to breathe again.”

That stuff he’d told her had been him saying I love you. She wanted to believe him so badly. Even when her heart had been battered, she’d wanted something between them. “Why didn’t you fight when my father came for you?”

Ten sighed and sat up. “Because he killed your mother and if he had to, I think he would kill you. He’ll do what it takes to protect his secrets, and you need to remember that. Until he’s dead or behind bars, he’s dangerous to you.”

“You could have tried to get away.”

He brought his hand up to brush against her cheek. “He’s a smart man, darlin’. He would have known how to bring me back. All he would have to do is threaten you and I would have been back, so I was just being lazy in the end. I cut out all that useless running since I couldn’t leave you like that.”

Tears threatened because his words were so sweet. “I don’t understand, Ten.”

“I know,” he replied, a sadness inflecting his tone. “Which is why I want you out. I want you to go back to Dallas and let McKay-Taggart protect you until this business is done. Then you get your life back. You can go back to your clinic.”

She could. It was what she needed to do. Once all of this was over, that clinic would be all she had. When she thought about it, it was really all she’d ever had.

What did he have? What would Ten go back to after everything was done?

Something banged against the side of the house, making Faith nearly jump out of her skin.

Ten reached for her hand. “Hey, it’s all right. It’s only the storm. Hutch has the whole place wired with video. Even if the power goes out, the security system and those monitors are on a generator. We’re safe here.”

Only because her father had no idea where they were. “Once the storm blows over, he’ll come looking.”

“It won’t only be him. Those Chinese agents won’t let me go easily. I’m not the only one who wants a little revenge. But we’re safe for tonight. According to the reports, the storm should blow over by tomorrow afternoon. You’ll take off tomorrow evening.”

“I will?” She’d thought they were leaving, but then that had been Theo’s plan and he wasn’t here anymore. Ten was back in charge and it looked like the plans had changed.

“Yes. You and Erin and the rest of the team are heading back to Dallas. I have some things I need to clean up here.”

There was distance in his voice that made her question if tomorrow would be the last time she would see him. “You’re not coming back, are you?”

“No. I won’t go back to Dallas again. I broke those ties by getting Theo killed. I’m not going to be a reminder to everyone of what they lost.”

“Theo made the choice to go after you. You didn’t get him killed. You didn’t fire the bullet and you didn’t order him to go to that compound.” As far as she could tell, all Ten had done during his rescue was yell that he shouldn’t have been rescued at all.

“But it was my op. It doesn’t matter. He died on my watch and that’s all that counts. Ian will watch over you until the objective is achieved, and then you can go wherever you want. I’m going to make it safe for you.”

But he wouldn’t be with her.

The lights flickered and then died. His hand gripped hers. “It’s all right. It’s actually better for us to go dark. Just in case.”

Just in case her father’s men had braved the storm to look for them. Just in case the Chinese agents were out there right now. She’d been informed that this was the safest location they could find and all the locals believed it was empty this time of year. They only had to survive a few hours and then she wouldn’t see him again.