The Man Within

by Lora Leigh

  “Get to the point, Kane,” Callan told him softly, but the very silkiness of his warning told Roni much more. The older Feline Breed was growing tired of the little digs Merinus’ brother was directing their way.

  The sniping didn’t make sense. The easy familiarity she had seen him display with the Breeds on other occasions had suggested he both respected and cared for the members of Callan’s pride. Yet his actions now hinted at a deeper tension.

  “Point is,” Kane set his coffee down and glanced down at the papers he held, “several radical members of previous race groups have decided to band together. They call themselves Liberators. Their main agenda is the death of any and all genetically altered humans. They don’t have a lot of money backing them, but they have firepower and several ex-military members. Looks like it’s hunting season, boys and girls. And guess who’s the catch of the day?”

  Silence reigned for long, tension-filled moments.

  “We expected this.” Despite his words, Callan’s voice was weary, saddened. “How close are we to finishing the security measures?”

  “Close.” Kane shrugged. “But no system is perfect, Callan. We have a lot of ground to cover and our perimeters are being tested from every angle. They’re quiet for the most part, not tipping their hands, but they’re watching. And rumor has it they’re attempting to put a spy in place.” Roni stiffened, her fists clenching in her lap as she fought to deny her own suspicions now.

  “So catch him,” Sherra snapped as she glanced over at Kane. “What are you here for anyway? You socialize in the house more than you actually get any work done.”

  “At least I’m willing to be sociable.” His smile was tight, hard. “Unlike some of us in this house, I can actually manage to remain civil for more than five minutes at a time.”

  “Oh, really?” she drawled sarcastically. “Funny, I hadn’t noticed amid all the little snipes and half-veiled insults. Forgive me, Kane. I’m certain you’re doing your best.” His eyes narrowed. The scene playing out before Roni’s fascinated gaze was better than any soap opera ever invented.

  “Keep pushing me, Sherra, and you might not like the consequences.” Undercurrents of emotion thickened between the two of them.

  “I don’t like you…period.” She rose to her feet, glancing at Callan. “When you have real answers, Cal, let me know. All he has is his damned conspiracy theories and I’ve grown tired of them.” She swept out of the room, her head held high, a mane of long, incredibly thick blonde hair swaying past her shoulders and catching the light as she passed through the doorway.

  “One of these days…” Kane muttered.

  “Leave her alone, Kane.” Merinus’ voice was flat and hard now. “You’re pushing too hard.” Her brother shot her a surprised look.

  “I’ll push harder before it’s over with,” he snapped. “And you can watch it or you can tell me what the hell the deal is. Your choice, Merri. Either way, I’ll get the answers I want.”

  “Enough already,” Callan ordered, his frustration level evidently reaching its breaking point as he stood to his feet and faced the other man. “Deal with your personal life off my time, Kane.” Then he turned to the youngest of the Breed males. “Tanner, get into town tonight. See what you can find out from those sources you have in place. I want to know who and what is involved in all this.”

  “I’d start asking our new visitor first.” The rough, grumbling voice that entered the fray came from the kitchen doorway.

  Roni recognized the Breed from the night before. Merc, she thought they had called him. He stared at them with placid, deep brown eyes, but nothing could hide the aura of death surrounding him.

  “Meaning?” Callan asked him softly.

  “Meaning, I caught him trying to sneak around the weapons shed earlier. When I put a stop to that, one of the men assigned to watch him caught him trying to break into the communications offices. That boy has the Grim Reaper sittin’ on his shoulder, Callan. And I’m of a mind to set that dark visage free.” Chapter Thirty-Two

  “I want you to makeReginald leave now.” Roni turned to face Taber as they entered the sheltered garden area outside the kitchen.

  It was the only outside area Taber and the others would allow the women to go to when the house became too stifling. It was a large courtyard, but stretching overhead, from wall to wall, were thick wooden beams holding a multitude of sheltering vines. Even in the full heat of the day it was a cool escape from the tension slowly filling the house.

  She moved deeper into the small grotto, brushing against the thick, sheltering shrubs and low growing trees that had been placed around a central fountain.

  A variety of flowering bushes filled the air with the heady scent of their blooms. The fountain splashed playfully, infusing the area with moisture, lending to it an air of sensuality and relaxation. An atmosphere she fought desperately as she tried to convince Taber to have her father escorted from the estate.

  She laid her palm against her abdomen, trying to still the nerves that roiled within her stomach. The severe heat that had afflicted her over the past days was steadily easing. She was pregnant and she was terrified. More frightened than she had ever been in her life.

  “Roni, let us do our job,” Taber told her softly as she turned back to him, watching her with a warmth, a caring she couldn’t face yet.

  “And what exactly is your job?” she asked him bitterly. “Standing around waiting on someone to kill you? Waiting forReginald to do whatever he came here to do?”

  “My job is to contain any threat to this estate.” His voice was pitched low, but she heard the rough grumble that echoed in his chest. “Do you think I can’t protect you?” Roni rolled her eyes in frustration. “It has nothing to do with my faith in you and everything to do with what I knowReginald is capable of.” Her hand sliced through the air between them as she went nose to nose with him.

  She could feel the fear building in her, feel the sick, awful sensation in the pit of her stomach that warned her thatReginald was scheming at his worse. It had been in his gaze, in the calculating demand as he was pulled from the house the night before. He was neck-deep in trouble and determined to pull her into it as well.

  “You forget, I know him just as well as you do, Roni,” he reminded her carefully. “I know what he’s capable of.”

  She hated that restrained sound to his voice. As though he was choosing each word, each move with her. As though he only gave her the parts of himself that he wanted her to see.

  “Why give him the chance, Taber?” She wanted to scream at him, but she kept her voice to a careful hiss as she paced farther along the courtyard. “Why? The risk is too great.”

  “What can he do?” Taber asked her logically. She hated logic. She hated his logic. So cool and confident. “We need to know who hired him and what he wants. If we run him off, we may not know until it’s too late to contain the threat. We can’t risk that, Roni.”

  “You’re risking your life instead.” She shook her head, pushing her trembling hands into the pockets of her jeans as she sat down on one of the wide stone benches at the farthest edge of the courtyard.

  “My life is at risk every day, baby.” He sighed roughly as he sat down beside her, pulling her into his arms. “You think I don’t know what you’re fighting so hard? That I don’t know you’re carrying my child, Roni? That I couldn’t sense the change in your body as it happened?” She stiffened in his arms. “You can’t be certain of that.”

  “Merinus went out of heat when she conceived. The desperate need isn’t driving you insane now, Roni.

  It’s easing.” He nuzzled her neck, his warm breath blowing across her skin with such pleasure she shivered.

  “That doesn’t mean anything.” She tried to shrug him away, to keep her mind from becoming clouded with need as another, more intense heat began to fill her. “Just because Merinus is pregnant doesn’t mean I am.”

  The natural desire was something she thought she would never feel again. Somet
hing she could have done without. She could have denied the hold Taber had on her so much easier if he didn’t make her crazy to fuck him with just the feel of his breath on her neck.

  She arched involuntarily to the caress, her breath catching on a sigh of longing. The shaded grotto-like atmosphere suddenly turned heated, too moist, sensitizing her, sucking her into the earthy lust that always shook her at the mere sight of him.

  He chuckled. The sound was low, heated, as he lifted her against him, turning her until she sat draped across his lap.

  “Let me up.” She struggled against him, but knew her heart wasn’t in being released.

  His arms held her easily as he looked at her, his eyes narrowing, becoming darker, more intense. Roni shivered under the look. “I still want to fuck you crazy. Right here, Roni,” he whispered wickedly as his hand slid up her thigh, beneath her soft cotton shirt then curled around the curve of her breast.

  Roni felt her nipples peak in throbbing expectation. They throbbed, ached for his touch, his mouth, anticipating the feel of his tongue rasping over them erotically. Her womb clenched in need, her pussy weeping, preparing for the invasion that every cell of her body screamed out for.

  “Someone will see us.” She fought not to pant. “Besides, we were arguing…”

  “You were arguing. I was disagreeing,” he pointed out, his voice less than patient as he pushed her shirt over the full mounds of her breasts. “And I have finished disagreeing and will now begin feasting.” Her cunt throbbed at the sound of his voice, her nipples aching as his head lowered. Roni watched, seeing the sudden sensual fullness of his lips as they opened, his tongue as it curled around the stiff peak first, searing it with a blistering pleasure.

  “Oh God, Taber.” She couldn’t stop her desperate moan as his mouth then covered the engorged tip.

  His tongue swirled with wet heat around the sensitized bud, his mouth drawing on her, cheeks flexing.

  Roni couldn’t help but watch. It was the most sinfully sensual sight she had ever seen. His dark face flushed with arousal…for her. It was for her. His attention solely on the pleasure he took from suckling her nipple, the pleasure he gave was nearly orgasmic.

  His hand held the sensitive flesh, pushing the mound higher, intensifying her sensations as his tongue stroked over the elongated tip. She could feel her juices gathering from within her suddenly clenching vagina then spilling past the narrow channel, coating the rapidly sensitizing lips of her cunt. Her clit ached, pulsed in time to the rhythmic suckling of his mouth.

  He moaned against her, the sound vibrating along nerve endings that screamed out for relief.

  “Delicious.” He lifted his head, her nipple falling from his mouth with a smooth, moist popping sound.

  “Come here, baby, let me undress you. I’ll show you…”

  “Taber, I need you back in here if you have time.” Callan’s voice called through the courtyard. “We’ll be waiting for you in the office.”

  The intrusion was like a bucket of ice water, sweeping over Roni as she stiffened in Taber’s arms, her eyes widening in alarm. She couldn’t believe she had forgotten about the inhabitants of the house. How easily they could step outside and be witness to the erotic loveplay behind the shelter of the thickened foliage surrounding them.

  “Dammit, he left me the hell alone while you were in heat,” he muttered. “Now he’ll be interrupting me every damned chance he gets.”

  “What?” She shook her head as she moved quickly from his lap, jerking her shirt back over her breasts.

  “Why?”

  Taber winced as he stood, the ridge of his erection pressing thick and hard against the front of his jeans.

  “I did it to him.” He shrugged with an unapologetic grin. “We all did. Hell, still do if we get the chance.

  He gets irritated.” There was a shrug to his powerful shoulders, an almost lighthearted grin that tugged at her heart.

  How often had she seen such a smile on his face? His eyes were almost glowing with humor, his lips tipped into a comfortable smile. Boyish. Amazement washed over Roni as she realized what was so different about this smile, this look. She had never seen it on his face before, had never known him to relax enough to allow any playfulness out.

  “I wish he had just kicked you, instead of waiting to punish me as well,” she sighed roughly. “Go on, do whatever you were going to do. I want to sit here for a while.” She sat back down on the bench, her knees weak, her heart beating roughly as she stared up at him.

  God help her, he was too handsome for words and she was terrified of losing him again. Maybe this time, permanently.

  “I’ll be back soon.” He knelt in front of her then, his gaze meeting hers as he placed his palm against her lower stomach. “Stay in the house, Roni, until I can get back. Take care of our baby.” Static pleasure washed over her body at the sound of his voice. It was husky, deep, caressing her nerve endings like a physical touch. But even more than the husky throb of his words was the unvoiced emotion behind them.

  “You can’t be sure.” She shook her head, confused by the shifting awareness that she felt.

  It wasn’t just the lessening of the unnatural arousal; it was the acceptance within herself. She was learning it wasn’t so much her body that couldn’t stand life without Taber; it was her heart, her soul.

  How bleak and empty her life had been before he made her live again. Made her fight, made her learn to be who she was. In a few short days, he had given her the very things she had longed for the most: his heart to nurture, his soul to protect, his body to enjoy and love to her heart’s content, and a family. With Taber and the child they had created she had all she had ever dreamed of.

  “I can smell the changes in your body,” he whispered. “Just as I could smell your heat, I can smell our child. Do you have any idea the pleasure that brings me, Roni? I, who had nothing, no one to call my own in all the years of my life, now have not only you, but the child we’ve created together.” She could see the hopes and the fears that filled him at that moment. He stared at her, everything he was, everything he dreamed, reflected in the brilliance of his eyes. His brows lowered, his expression becoming intent, fierce. Then he lowered his head, his body bending further until he could place his lips where his hands had been.

  Roni gasped as her fingers gripped his shoulders, his arms going around her, holding her close as he pressed his face into her lower stomach. He was so strong and sure in her arms, bending to her, his attention on the child he knew was forming within her.

  “I love you, Roni.” The words could only barely be heard but they nearly stopped her heart with emotion. “Know that. For years I have longed for you. Loved you. You complete me…” He didn’t give her time to answer him. No time to accept the emotion he whispered against her flesh. He rose quickly to his feet and stalked away from her. No kiss. No touch. No chance for her to reject what he had given her. As though she could ever reject him.

  Roni lowered her head as she fought her tears, fought her own steadily rising emotions. No matter how much she feared the consequences, she loved him. Had always loved him. But damn if he wasn’t too stubborn for words.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “Did you think you could hide from me forever, girlie?”Reginald’s voice was a serrated intrusion into the peaceful atmosphere of the mansion’s living room.

  Roni knew she should have expectedReginald to do something stupid. He had never been the smartest man she had ever known but she hadn’t expected him to be one of the dumbest either. Actually, she hadn’t thought he would be inventive enough to slip past the Feline Breeds on guard while Taber was out of the house, but he did.

  One minute she was alone in the living room watching the arrival of several wounded Breed males outside, the next second she was jerked around roughly to face the father she had always loathed.

  “What are you doing here?” She jerked away from him, her eyes going to the open door of the room.

  “Do you think so
meone won’t know you’re here,Reginald?”

  The look in his eyes made her stomach pitch in nervous awareness of the danger he could represent.

  “Doesn’t matter if they do find out,” he sneered angrily. “I’m just here visiting my little girl. Or did you forget you had a father?”

  “Every chance I get,” she snapped back. “What the hell are you up to here? Don’t you have any more sense than to piss these men off, Reggie?”

  His smile was terrifying. Confident, assured, stretching lewdly across his face as his blue eyes glittered with malice.

  “What have you done, Reggie?” Roni could feel the last thread of hope she ever possessed where her father was concerned snap.

  “Listen to me, Roni, they aren’t natural. They aren’t human,” he hissed with a fanatical fervor that terrified her. “I know he put that mark on you. All I need is for you to leave with me. Just for a little while, girl, and let my friends have some blood work. Just some little tests, that’s all.”

  “You can’t be serious.” She shook her head slowly, edging away from him, suddenly more terrified of him than anything else she had ever faced in her life. “I’m not going anywhere with you. If this is why you came here, then you may as well give it up now.”

  He frowned, a dark, sinister lowering of his brow that had her heart rate picking up nervously. He had never looked at her like that. She had never seen such hatred, such utter contempt in another human’s eyes before. And she had never imagined it would be directed at her.

  “You will come with me, Roni,” he snapped, watching her with a feral intensity that bordered on the insane. “There’s no telling what he’s planted in your belly while you’ve been in his bed. Do you think I’m going to allow the world to know a kid of mine is a dirty animal fucker?” She flinched at the disgust, the terrible fury in his voice.

  “You’re insane,” she whispered. “They have as much right to live as anyone else,Reginald. More so.”

  “Oh, spare me your pretty little speeches,” he spat contemptuously. “Tell me, girl, how long have you been fucking the bastard anyway? Was that why he threatened to kill me if I let any of my friends around you? Wanted his pussy all to himself, did he?”

  Roni backed up as he edged closer to her. She could feel the hatred, black and vile, pouring from him.

  “I won’t answer that,” she snapped, refusing to allow her fear of him to show.

  “How old were you when he first found you, anyway, hiding like a snot-nosed brat in those hills? Ten?

  Eleven? Was he fucking you then, Roni? Is that why you followed after him every chance you got?” She shook her head desperately, wondering where the hell the men who were supposed to be in the house were.

  “I won’t qualify that with an answer.” She fought to put as much space between them as possible. “Not everyone has the perversions your friends do, Reggie.”

  “If I had known that was your fascination for him, I’d have given it to you myself,” he sneered. “I could have used a little excitement in my bed after that stupid bitch mother of yours died…”

  “Stop.” Roni shook her head desperately. “Leave Mom out of this, Reggie.” Her frail, weary mother. Roni trembled at the memory of her. She rarely allowed herself to remember her mother. The memories were bleak, painful. Margery Andrews had been too delicate, too gentle, for the lifeReginald had dragged her into.

  “Leave Mom out of this,” he mocked her cruelly. “Fine, we’ll leave dear old Mom out of it. Get your ass out the door and in my car so we can take our little trip.”

  “Why?” The couch was between them, but her way to the open doorway was still blocked. “Do you really think I’m stupid enough to go with you? To let you or anyone you know touch me, Reggie? It’s not going to happen.”

  “How ‘bout a trade then?” He paused, watching her intently, his expression triumphant.

  “What?” He was insane. Roni could only blink at him in astonishment that he could even consider she would trade her own soul for anything he had.

  “A trade,” he repeated softly. “You come with me, Roni, and let the boys do their tests, and I’ll tell you why your momma fought so hard to stay hidden on that mountain. I’ll tell you why she let me use her however I wanted to and however my buddies wanted to. I’ll tell you, girl, who your father really is.” Time seemed to stand still for Roni. She watchedReginald with a sense of fascinated horror, and yet a grain of thankfulness. A thankfulness that went so deep it nearly made her knees weak.

  “You’re not my father.”

  “I can see that just breaks your heart,” he snapped dangerously. “What, you think you’re too good to be my girl?”

  “I think a snake would be too good to be a child of yours, but that’s just my opinion.” She needed to distract him, to get him to shift position just enough for her to sprint over the couch and run for the door.

  As long as he faced her from the other side, though, she was trapped. “So tell me, Reggie, why would I care who my father is? He can’t be too important or you would have sold the information already.”

  “Would I?” He cackled. God, he actually cackled like some old crone. Weren’t crones women?

  “Course you would, Reggie.” She kept her voice soothing, hoping to keep him from becoming too insistent on grabbing her. She could see the intent creeping into his expression, his body bunching in preparation.

  “Naw, I wouldn’t tell you this, Roni. Not for all the land in Texas, little girl. Not without a reason.

  ‘Cause it would have meant my own life. But I’ll tell you now, if you come with me nice and peaceful like.” Calculating and feral, his gaze reminded her of a rabid dog she had once seen.

  She couldn’t let him get her out of the house. If she did, his advantage would be that much greater.

  “I’m not leaving with you,” she told him carefully, moving farther back, watching him, knowing he had to be insane. “And Taber won’t let you take me,Reginald. You won’t be able to leave the estate with me.

  You should leave, while you can.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Your stinking little cat is too busy to worry about you, little girl. And I won’t take no for an answer.”

  He jumped for her then. Roni knew she would have only a second to evade him, only the slimmest chance to dart past him and run for the door. When his hand swiped for her hair she moved. Any time Reginald became furious with her he would grab her hair first. Hold her in place for whatever punishment he deemed necessary.

  She felt his fingers brush by her head as she sprinted over the couch, screaming Taber’s name. Where the hell was everyone, anyway?

  “Bitch.” She almost made it. She was clearing the couch when he caught her ankle, jerking her back with enough force to take her breath as she fought to turn her body, to shield her abdomen and the fragile life growing there.

  She bounced against the cushions, kicking out with her other foot as he fought to retain his grip on her.

  There was no breath left to scream for help. She needed her strength, her wits about her, to try to escape. If no one had heard her screams, then no one was close enough to help her.

  She kicked for his groin and missed, but the force she landed on his thigh had him stumbling back. She jumped and rolled over the couch, her ankle an agonizing ache from the harsh twist he had given it.

  Stumbling, she bolted for the door, screaming out Taber’s name again as she heardReginald curse viciously behind her.

  “I said you’re going with me.” He caught her hair again, this time delivering a sharp blow to the side of her head that left her dazed and crumpling to the floor from the pain.

  “Taber,” she tried to cry out his name again, to warn him, to warn someone. But darkness was closer around her, sweeping through her mind, and she knew she only imagined the bloodthirsty animal’s roar that echoed in her head.