“So your plan is to have your homes in these buildings, with each man getting his own floor for his house.”
“We’d command this entire street. The water on one side would be an asset and escape route, plus we’ve got an underground escape as well. Once we secure the buildings, we’ll connect the tunnels.”
“What about the local police? How are you going to have a military compound in San Francisco?”
“Jaimie’s adept at getting through paperwork, and of course, we’re more than willing to help the local police any way we can. They know we’re military, but these are our homes. This is our neighborhood. Since we’ve been here, crime has gone down significantly, not only here but in a seven-block radius around us. We know every store owner, every bar owner. We make it a point to keep goodwill. We’ve already built up a network, and we’re friends with most of the fishermen and dockworkers. They’ll leave us alone.”
“So no tanks driving through the streets.”
Kane laughed and swept his arm around her. “Don’t sound so disappointed. We’ll have plenty of excitement.”
“Speaking of which, I thought I’d go shopping with Jaimie this afternoon. Sebastian will be safe with you.”
Kane felt every muscle in his body lock down. He stared down at her little pixie face. So innocent looking. So very devious. She’d dropped the bombshell on him without so much as blinking. And what the hell was he supposed to say to that? She wasn’t a prisoner. She didn’t need his permission. But he envisioned her first foray into their neighborhood with him as her armed guard. And maybe six or seven of the other team members.
Babysit? She wanted him to stay home and watch the baby sleep while she walked among the enemy. There was probably an entire battalion of Whitney’s men waiting to kidnap her. And surely some spy had contacted every bounty hunter both in America and overseas, giving her exact location. Along with that, the cartel probably had assassins blanketing the area.
“You look a little pale, Kane. Are you certain you should be walking around so much just yet? We should go in.” She took his arm.
There was nothing wrong with his physical strength. If he was pale it was because she terrified him sometimes. “Do you think that’s really wise?”
She blinked up at him, giving him that little frown he found sexy. “Yes, absolutely. I think you need to go back inside and rest. Wisest course of action for you, Kane. You’re working out too much. Even that rude surgeon says so. I hate to agree with anything the man says, but unfortunately, he’s making sense.”
He pulled her close to him, bending his head until their mouths were inches apart. “I’m not above putting you over my knee.”
She went up on her toes to cover the scant couple of inches needed to find his mouth with hers. “Sounds intriguing,” she murmured against his lips. She brushed kisses back and forth across his mouth. “But you’d better really enjoy it, because once you let me up, I’ll have to retaliate, just for the sake of all women across the world.”
He choked, laughter welling up. The day was foggy and a little windy, but right then, the sun seemed to burst over him. There was something about her that made him feel good. Her small stature, a little Asian porcelain doll with her dark chocolate eyes and her wild, shiny hair spilling around her face, was at odds with her tough core. She made him want to be her hero, the man who she depended on when everything around her fell apart, yet more than likely, it was going to be the other way around.
He framed her face with his hands—hands that were so big in comparison to her. He was twice her size, twice her weight easily, and yet in her small hands he was lost, completely lost. And he wanted to be. Somewhere in between running from the cartel and fighting Whitney, delivering their baby and lying next to her soft body in the middle of the night, he’d given himself, heart and soul, to her.
“I’m in love with you, Rose,” he said, looking into those beautiful, dark eyes. He felt as if he was tumbling into a dark, warm, bottomless well.
The laughter faded from her eyes, and she blinked as if her eyes were burning. “You don’t have to say that to me, Kane.”
“I don’t say what I don’t mean, Rose.”
She took a deep breath and blinked. This time he could see tears glistening on the tips of her lashes.
“Sweetheart.” He bent to kiss the tears from her eyes. “That’s a good thing, not a bad thing. We’ve committed our lives to one another. Loving you is good.”
“Is it real?” Her voice shook. A whisper of sound. Maybe a plea. Or denial.
“Are you asking me if it’s something you can count on? Because if that’s what you’re worried about, Rose, the way I feel about you isn’t going to go away. I’m in love with you. I’ve never thought it, let alone said it, to another woman. Pairing is about physical lust, not love. Whitney can’t manipulate emotion, only our bodies. What I feel for you is real, Rose. It’s about you and the person you are.”
She searched his face, a long, slow study. He stood very still, letting her see the truth in his eyes. She shook him to his very core. Her strength and courage. Her determination. She’d come to him, committed to him, to a life with him to protect their child. She’d asked Whitney to pair her with him, knowing there was the possibility that they wouldn’t find one another—and that she’d never be physically satisfied with anyone else, but she’d done it because she took responsibility for her choice.
How could a man like him, one devoted to duty and honor, not respect and admire her? Everything about her personality appealed to the man in him.
“You might have to say it several times a day for me to believe it,” she warned. “I’ve never been good with fairy tales.”
A slow grin teased his mouth. He could feel the warmth spreading through his body—her sun—slowly heating his blood. “So I’m the prince. I always wanted to be a prince.”
Rose continued to look into his eyes. Her slender arms circled his neck, and she brought his head down to hers. He watched her eyes go dark and dreamy as his mouth took hers.
Sebastian kicked him hard, squirming as their bodies came together. They broke apart, laughing.
“Sorry about that, son,” Kane said, taking him gently from the front pack to cradle him in his arms. “I can’t resist your mother. You have to admit she’s pretty darn sexy.”
Rose rolled her eyes, blushing. “Don’t tell him that. You don’t know what he understands yet. I’m still reading all those baby books. I have to tell you, Kane, there are so many contradictions with all these so-called experts.”
“Well, do we want to start off by lying to him? You are darned sexy. And what’s wrong with him knowing his daddy finds his mommy very attractive?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know the first thing about raising a child.” Rose shoved her hand through her hair in agitation. “I’ll probably mess up his little psyche.”
“By the time we have our fifth or sixth you’ll be a pro,” Kane teased. He nuzzled Sebastian’s head. “Do you hear that, son? You’re our experiment, so you’ll have all sorts of excuses to do very naughty things.”
Rose threw back her head and laughed, the sound music that seemed to penetrate through the fog and float right over the city.
“Listen, Sebastian,” he whispered. “That beautiful sound belongs to us for the rest of our lives. That’s your mother.
She’s sunshine. No matter what happens in our lives, we have that.”
Rose swallowed convulsively and tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow. “Enough lessons for the day. I know you’re getting stronger, Kane, but we don’t want to overdo it. Let’s go back inside.”
He could barely look into her eyes. She might not think she knew what love was, but he could see it shining in her gaze. There was happiness—and he’d managed—somehow—to put it there inside her.