Christine Feehan - Conspiracy Game

Damn. He wanted her with every cell in his body. Every part of his brain. She walked out of the night looking too young. Too innocent. Too soft and sweet for a man like him. She was the epitome of everything he wasn’t, would never be. Home. Family. Children. She was good and he’d lost that so long ago. All he had left was his honor, and if she didn’t get the hell off his mountain, she’d rob him of that. She’d fight his possessive nature and eventually he’d break her spirit. In that moment, as she came closer, he truly hated the monster he had become.

“What the hell do you want?” he spat out, remaining in the shadows, knowing Jebediah wouldn’t be able to spot him. He was less certain of Briony. He knew she was every bit as enhanced as he.

Jebediah and Briony exchanged a long look. Jack could smell their fear. It oozed through their pores and permeated the air around them. The tension shot up a notch. Jebediah stepped protectively in front of Briony, and that annoyed the hell out of Jack. He wanted their fear, but at the same time, if anyone was protecting her, it should have been him. She belonged with him .

“If you came to challenge me to a duel because I fucked your sister, Jebediah, you’re a hell of a lot stupider than I gave you credit for.” The words were out before he could stop them. The rage, usually hidden deep, boiled over with Briony being in such close proximity, his craving for her driving him to stupidity. He detested standing there watching Jebediah put his hands on her. For a man with the need of tight control, she was dangerous, shattering Jack’s every protective shield. He needed to drive her away. Even as the thought came, his heart sank. It was too late for him-for her.

Fierce anger clouded her face, and she leapt across the distance at him, her hand moving so fast it was actually blurred. The slap was loud, reverberating through the clear night. Fear galvanized him into instant action. “Down, Jeb, get down!” He yelled the command even as he slammed his body hard into Briony, driving her backward to the ground, covering her smaller frame with his larger one. Stand down! Stand down!

The bullet tore through the tree right where Briony’s head had been, splintering wood and sending bark raining over them. Jack kept Briony pinned down, holding her still beneath his body. He knew she could feel the merciless hard-on pressed so tightly against her stomach, and it gave him the utmost satisfaction to see the edge of fear mingled with her fury. His fingers dug into her shoulders and he gave her a little shake. “Damn you for your stupidity. Did you think I wouldn’t have someone out in the shadows with a scope on you? You could have been killed.”

His body blanketed hers. Imprinted onto hers. Wanted hers. The scare of nearly losing her sent a deep tremor through his body, shaking him. He was never shaken, yet just her closeness had him off balance. Damn it to hell, Ken, don’t you shoot at her again. I’ll fucking kill you myself.

His brother’s amused laughter echoed through his head. It was a warning shot .

My ass, that was a warning shot.

“Get the hell off of me.” Briony’s eyes, so dark with anger, nearly threw off sparks. “I forgot what an utter bastard you are. Get off now.” There was a definite threat in her tone.

Somewhere deep in his gut, the admiration rose, just as it had when she’d shot a man to protect him. Briony might be sweet and innocent and far too good for the likes of him, but she was a fighter through and through. “Or what?”

Behind him, Jebediah sat up cautiously, looking around him for the shooter. “Or I’m going to beat you to a bloody pulp. Get off of her.”

The shadows shifted with the trees, the moon spilling across her face. Jack saw the swelling, the bruise spread across her jaw, chin, and cheek. He’d noticed the gauze wrap on her arm, but someone had hit her? Raw fury poured through his body-raged ice cold and deadly. “Who hit you? Damn it, don’t lie to me either. If your brother dared lay a hand on you… ”

“My brother wouldn’t hit me, you moron. Let me up now.”

“Get the hell off my sister or I’m going to knock you off of her,” Jebediah threatened, uncaring of the shooter.

“Who hit her? Tell me now, Jebediah, or Ken’s going to blow your brains all over the place.”

“A man named Luther hit me. Get off before I hurt you,” Briony snapped.

“What were you thinking bringing her here?” Jack demanded, ignoring the threat.

“He was thinking about saving your life, you jackass.” Briony shoved at the wall of his chest, this time hard enough that it rocked him. Touching his chest brought back the memory of fresh knife carvings, of kissing her way down the jagged wounds, lower and lower until… She slammed her mind closed on her wayward thoughts.

Jack had forgotten how strong she was. “That was thoughtful of him. Who is Luther and who wants to kill me?”

“Who doesn’t,” Briony snapped. “You’re hurting me. Get off.”

Jack shifted his weight immediately, dragging her up with him, retaining possession of her arm when she tried to get to her brother. “Who is trying to kill me? Jebediah, stay right where you are. You wouldn’t want my trigger-happy brother to take another shot at you.”

Jebediah froze in the act of getting up. Sweat trickled down his armpits. “We had a recent visitor, Jack,” he explained. “A man calling himself Kadan Montague. He told us about experiments a Dr. Whitney had performed first on orphan girls and then on men in the military.”

“Keep talking.”

“Apparently Whitney is still alive and looking to reacquire some of the ones who’ve slipped away from him.”

Jack studied Jebediah’s face. There was righteous fury there. And truth. But not the whole truth. He switched his gaze to Briony. She was still, no longer struggling against his hold, but she didn’t meet his gaze. Up so close to her, he could smell the heady scent of her, reminding him of satin sheets and candlelight. Of finer things. Things he couldn’t have.

His fingers tightened on her arm and drew her closer, until they were nearly skin to skin. His gaze narrowed on Jebediah. “You wouldn’t have brought your sister to tell me that. You would have come alone.” He leaned closer to Briony, inhaled the scent of her hair, of her body. Something was different. Subtly so, but different.

“I insisted on coming with him.”

Her voice was low. The faint tremor running through her body shook him enough that he had an urge to pull her into his arms and comfort her. He studied her face for a long time. Jebediah was afraid of him. Briony might fear his possession, but she hadn’t been afraid of him. Where was all the fear coming from? He let out his breath slowly. “You’re one of the orphans he experimented on. That’s why Kadan told you. It’s all classified information.” He’d suspected all along that Whitney had experimented on her and adopted her out, but he hadn’t pursued it. Being so close to her had had him thinking of other things. Like the taste of her in his mouth. The sound of her laughter.

Briony hesitated so briefly he nearly missed the quick glance she shot at her brother. “Yes. Kadan came to warn me. He’s legitimate then? The things he said were true?”

Kadan . He didn’t want Kadan Montague anywhere near her. Kadan was an anchor and a hell of a lot better man than he was. Jack’s thumb slid over Briony’s bare skin in a small caress. The feel of her soft skin set his heart pounding. What was different? Her scent. The chemistry of her body. The feel of her body. The air rushed out of his lungs. Where before her stomach had been rock hard and flat, she was now soft and round. Knowledge flooded his brain. Adrenaline flooded his body. His hands slid up her arms to her shoulders.