Ty nodded and moved aside. “Come on in.” Once Dev had stepped into the room, filling it with his considerable presence, Ty made introductions. His older brother was worried; Ty could see that in the set of his mouth, the way shadows hung like a veil in his green gaze.
Catt asked them to sit down on the Victorian couch near the open windows and asked Dev if he wanted coffee.
Dev held up his square hand. “I’m sorry, Dr. Alborak, but I don’t have that kind of time. This is a touch-and-go.”
“I see,” Catt murmured. She looked at Ty for direction. She wasn’t sure that Dev wanted her presence. The feeling around him now was one of edginess.
“Go get your bath, Catt. You need to rest,” Ty suggested gently. “I’ll fill you in later?”
Relieved, Catt nodded. “Sure. That’s a good idea.” She looked at Ty’s brother. “It was nice meeting you, Dev. Good luck on your mission and stay safe.”
Nodding toward her, Dev placed his large hands on his narrow hips. “Thanks. I’m planning on it,” he assured her seriously.
Ty waited until he heard the door to the bathroom down the hall close. “What the hell’s going down? This isn’t like you to suddenly drop in like this.”
Rubbing his jaw, Dev growled, “Morgan just tag teamed me with one of his hotshot women mercs. I’m not happy about it. He wants us to do a little bird-doggin’ for him.”
“Oh? What kind of decoy work?” Ty demanded, feeling his brother’s tension. Dev worked alone. That was the way he liked it. Morgan knew that. So why had he teamed him up with a woman merc? Dev liked women; there was no questioning that. He had more women hanging around him than any other man Ty had ever known. Ty wasn’t jealous of his older brother; it was just a fact that Dev’s devil-may-care attitude seemed to draw women’s attention.
“Black Dawn,” Dev rasped.
Instantly, Ty’s gaze narrowed. “I was in the Perseus jet giving Morgan a final update on what we’d found out in Manaus. Authorities located the blue-and-white plane that delivered the genetically altered anthrax over the Juma village. They traced the numbers on the plane back to the owner, a man who lives in Kauai, Hawaii. An Albanian refugee who was given political asylum here in the U.S. ten years ago.”
“That’s right. A very rich, mysterious retired chemist, as a matter of fact. There’s suspicion that he’s one of the leaders of Black Dawn. Morgan is going to send me with this woman merc to see what we can find out.”
“How?”
“I’m not at liberty to say. I just wanted to let you know what was going down.”
“He’s sending you to the island of Kauai?”
“That’s right.” Dev’s mouth twitched. “The Garden Isle of the Hawaiian Islands. And in the midst of all that legendary beauty is, potentially, a bioterrorist. Sort of shoots the hell out of the paradise angle, doesn’t it?”
“No joke. Damn. Black Dawn must be gearing up to release that genetically altered anthrax on a city. They were successful with the Juma. Now they’re going to stop testing and attack.”
Grimly, Dev said, “Not if I can help it. If Morgan’s scheme works, we’ll choke hold them before it gets to that point.” Reaching out, he gripped Ty by the shoulder. “I’ve got to get going. I have a last meeting with Morgan up in Washington, D.C., where I meet the infamous Kulani Dawson. Though if I have my way about it, I’m flying solo on this mission.” Releasing him, Dev said, “I heard about you and Catt Alborak. She was the woman you loved ten years ago, right? How’s it going?”
Ty shrugged. “One step at a time, Dev. Catt and I have a lot of history to work through.”
“I remember,” he said seriously. “And she’s pregnant? I’m going to be an uncle?”
“Yes to both questions.”
Dev smiled, then concern creased his features once more. Looking at the watch on his dark-haired wrist, he muttered, “I got a flight to catch…so when’s the wedding?”
Caught off guard, Ty grinned and walked him out into the hall. “That’s something else we have to talk about. Look,” he warned Dev, “be damned careful out there. Black Dawn people aren’t stupid, blind terrorists. They’ve got think-tank intelligence. They’re ruthless, cold-blooded thinking machines dead set on accomplishing their goals. There’s no emotion misguiding them.”
Dev held out his hand and shook Ty’s. “I’ll be careful. If I get my way, this female merc will be history before I go on this mission. I don’t need anyone tripping me up on this one. See you later.”
Catt wrapped herself in her dark blue silk robe after finishing her bath. The steam escaped as she opened the door and padded down the gleaming cedar hall to the living room. Ty was standing at the window, looking out. His hands were on his hips, and she could see the tension in his shoulders.
“Is everything all right?” she asked as she walked toward him.
Ty turned. He’d been so caught up in worry for Dev that he hadn’t heard Catt approaching. “Yeah…I’m okay….” His hands slid off his hips and he gazed hungrily down at Catt. Her face was flushed from the heat of the bath. A subtle fragrance of lilac reached his flaring nostrils. He studied the way the silk robe grazed the tops of her well-formed thighs, his eyes moving up to the border of colorful flowers along the collar, before coming to rest on her face. She looked better. Some of the shadows had disappeared from beneath her eyes.
“Let’s go sit down on the couch,” Catt suggested as she slid her fingers into his hand. It didn’t take much to get Ty to follow her to the wonderful old antique couch. This was one of the few pieces of family furniture saved from Catt’s life at the ranch. It had belonged to her grandmother and had been lovingly passed down through the generations. The fabric was faded but showed pink-and-maroon roses with dark green leaves on a cream-colored background. Easing down on the couch, Ty drew Catt down next to him. His arm went around her and she leaned willingly against his tall, strong frame.
“Dev dropped over,” he told her worriedly, “to tell me he was going after Black Dawn.” He shared most of what he knew, leaving out the quandary about the woman mercenary teaming up with his rebellious older brother.
“Whew,” Catt murmured, “I don’t envy him, Ty. We know how dangerous Black Dawn is….”
Moving his fingers gently along the curve of her silk-covered shoulder, he nodded. “We both think Black Dawn is preparing to drop the genetically altered anthrax on a city.”
Shuddering, Catt said, “That seems like their next step.”
His arm tightened around her. “Let’s talk of happier things,” he urged, and slid his fingers along the clean line of her jaw. Her skin was still flushed and moist from her recent bath. The sparkle of sunlight coming back to her eyes made Ty smile.
“I sat in that tub soaking out nearly a month’s worth of jungle sweat,” she laughed softly. “And I wished you were in there with me. It’s a big claw-foot tub, you know. Plenty of room for two.”
The deviltry in Catt’s eyes took away some of Ty’s fear for Dev. Moving his thumb across her cheek, he asked, “And what thoughts and feelings were swimming around in there with you, Dr. Alborak?”
Absorbing his tender touch, Catt sighed and held his dark gaze. “How happy I am. How incredibly wonderful I feel.” She moved her hand lovingly across the swell of her abdomen. “And you’re here, with me. It’s like a dream come true, sweetheart. I wanted to pinch myself a couple of times to see if I’d wake up from this wonderful dream.”
Studying her in the afternoon silence, Ty relished the endearment. He’d always been her sweetheart; that was what she’d called him in the past. “I think our past has met and melded with the present, don’t you?”
Catt nodded. “The good things from the past are surfacing again.”
“I don’t think either of us forgot about any of them.”
“No, we didn’t…and I’m amazed. I really am.”
“Because we never stopped loving one another, that’s why.”
Catt couldn’t disagree. Sh
e turned and faced Ty, her hands on his upper arms. “Why don’t you get cleaned up? I’d like to lie down and just sleep in your arms. That’s all I want.”
The quaver in her tone touched him deeply. “I’d like that, too.”
“It’s a start,” Catt whispered as she held his narrowing gaze. “I just want time alone with you. Uninterrupted. Ours.”
Framing her flushed face with his hands, Ty met and held her luminous gaze. “I’m yours, darlin’, forever, if you want me. I want to be father to that child of ours you’re carrying. I want to be husband to you. Somehow, I want to make up for all the lost time between us. I want to make you happy….”
Tears burned in her eyes as she heard the tremble in his deep voice, which moved like a lover’s caress through her. “We want the same things, Ty.”
Happiness flooded him as he leaned over and gently took her mouth. She moaned softly and surrendered as his arms went around her. Drawing Catt against him, Ty could feel her softness and her womanly strength simultaneously. As her lips parted beneath his heated exploration, he silently promised her that the years of pain, hardship and suffering while she’d struggled alone would be rectified. He would spend the rest of his life making her life happy.
He felt her smile beneath his ministrations, and hot, wild sunlight sizzled through him. Catt tasted sweet as he moved his tongue across her lower, full lip. She was a hellion of the first order, but one with a mission and purpose in life. Ty was proud of her, respectful of her courage and backbone. And within her lived a baby. Their baby. Their future together. Forever…
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4395-2
HUNTER’S WOMAN
Copyright © 1999 by Lindsay McKenna
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
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*Kincaid Trilogy
*Kincaid Trilogy
*Kincaid Trilogy
†Love and Glory
†Love and Glory
†Love and Glory
†Love and Glory
**Women of Glory
**Women of Glory
**Women of Glory
††Moments of Glory Trilogy
††Moments of Glory Trilogy
††Moments of Glory Trilogy
‡Morgan’s Mercenaries
‡Morgan’s Mercenaries
‡Morgan’s Mercenaries
**Women of Glory
°Men of Courage
°Men of Courage
°Men of Courage
‡‡Morgan’s Mercenaries: Love and Danger
‡‡Morgan’s Mercenaries: Love and Danger
‡‡Morgan’s Mercenaries: Love and Danger
‡‡Morgan’s Mercenaries: Love and Danger
◊Cowboys of the Southwest
◊Cowboys of the Southwest
◊Cowboys of the Southwest
ΔMorgan’s Mercenaries: The Hunters
ΔMorgan’s Mercenaries: The Hunters
Hunter's Woman Page 20