Spider Game (GhostWalkers, #12)(42)

From the moment he bought the place, he had suspected she was staying in the building, so he’d asked Wyatt’s grandmother to make it especially nice. He’d inspected it and the bathroom had smelled really good and the walls were painted a soothing blue. The claw-foot tub he’d brought in was wide and long and he made certain several hot water heaters had been installed, so there was hot water on demand throughout the entire building. The shower was spacious, and the towels were particularly soft.


He moved with fluid grace to the gate. It was locked. He kept it that way. He could easily go up and over the fence, and he preferred that to bothering with unlocking the lock. He crouched, prepared to leap over it, when he noticed the almost invisible skeins of silk. She wanted to be warned when he moved onto the property.


Yeah, baby, I’m moving in, he whispered softly, intimately, into her mind. He knew the path to her. It was so ingrained in him, almost as if she were already a part of him, that it was easy connecting with her. I’m home.


There was silence. That made him smile. She was upset with him for taking so long. A good thing. He took the fence. It was high, but he had no trouble jumping it and landing softly on the other side. He deliberately broke a few of the fine silken threads, letting her know he wasn’t going to be careful about it.


This is my home, Cayenne, he said firmly. Everything in it belongs to me. Including you. I told you that the other night.


Her breath hissed out. She moved in his mind, a stirring, and for the first time, she felt a little like a spider instead of the sensuous woman he knew her to be. This is my home. You should have come when you said you would. Now I’ve claimed it.


She was upset with him. He had taken too long. She’d given herself to him, cried in his arms, and he’d taken too long to get back to her. He had to do damage control, and he had the feeling he was starting all over again.


That’s right, baby. And I’m in it, so that means I belong to you. That’s the way it works, so get used to the idea.


He unlocked his front door, using the keypad. Just inside the entryway was a second door and his palm was coded in. Babe, you’re going to have to have your palm programmed in. I’ll have to do that now that I’ve activated this. You’ll be able to use it at all entrances, including the vents and tunnels you like to travel in.


There was a small silence. Is he coming after us? Whitney? You said he was the mastermind of the laboratory in France. Do you think he’ll come here? She sounded vulnerable again. She’d met Whitney and she despised him, sensing his madness, and his cruelty. That was before she’d witnessed it firsthand.


He felt a curious melting sensation in the region of his heart. He was a scientist and had never believed in those types of physical responses. He’d had his share of women, and never once did he have the type of emotional feelings that manifested as physical. Cayenne could make his heart stutter and his gut knot up. She could do a lot of things to his body without even trying, but he was beginning to realize it wasn’t just his body that was affected by her.


I think he might – eventually. But we’ll be ready for him. Wyatt’s place is nearly finished. When you feel up to it, I’d like you to help me figure out some of the holes in his security. You got in, that means someone else might, and we have the girls to protect. Deliberately he acted as if he knew she would help them, that it was a fact, a given that she would be part of their team. He knew protecting the girls mattered to her, because already, once, she’d come out of the shadows and risked her life to help them.


What are you doing right now? he asked, as he strode through his home to the master bedroom.


Sitting in the chair looking out the window. I like that I can see out but no one can see in even if I have the lights on. I didn’t know that was possible. The windows make me feel as if I can reach out and touch the plants. Have you noticed how beautiful the nights are here? I couldn’t see outside from my cell. Not here and not in France.


He felt a surge beneath the ice, the one that told him his volcano was still present, would always be present and hidden beneath the glacier inside him. Fuckers, he whispered softly. You’re free now. And I’ve got tons of plants up here, he enticed her. Because he wanted to see her. Even needed to see her. Even though he could acknowledge that to himself, it still bothered him, because to need any woman made him vulnerable.


It isn’t the same thing as being outside.


That was true, but he didn’t want her outside – especially at night. He wanted her there with him. Close. In his bedroom if at all possible. He made a mental note to add an abundance of plants throughout the building. With them came an automatic watering system so they wouldn’t die. He’d forget to water. He was like that. He forgot a lot of things when he was working.


What are you wearing? He dropped his voice even lower. He had always been good with women because he had a voice that could seduce or compel as well. Tell me, baby. I’ve been working night and day, but I thought of you. So many times. Wondering what you were up to. What you were wearing. Do you wear clothes to bed?


He could feel her moving in his mind. This time there was no hint of the spider, only the woman. The seductress – that beautiful woman who was just as drawn to him as he was to her. He smiled as he placed his duffel bag on the floor and made his way to the kitchen. He had a few more treasures in store for her.