this, now’s the time to say so. I can still catch my brother and you’ll be out of it, free and clear.”
A faint smile touched his mouth, but didn’t reach his eyes. “I warned you I wasn’t going to give you up twice. You’re here. We’ll work things out.”
“I’m here so you can protect us. So I can learn survival skills, no other reason. You made it very clear to me that you weren’t a man who wanted a woman or a kid around-that I was a liability. Now that we both know the attraction was forced on us for breeding purposes… ”
“Didn’t I tell you that part? Whitney apparently wants a supersoldier, our baby. He’s been trying to manipulate us to be in the same place at the same time. I was supposed to go to Colombia when you were there, but didn’t, so he paid the music festival a great deal of money to arrange for us to be there. Once we met, whatever he did to make us attracted physically was supposed to do the rest.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“Luther said they wanted the baby and they wanted me for their continuing breeding program. He was willing to be the donor, so you may very well be expendable.”
“I thought you were on birth control pills.”
“So did I. Whitney supplied all of my medical care, and it was Dr. Sparks who gave me the birth control pills. They were mailed to me like clockwork. The file said they were placebos. I’m sorry, but I didn’t know, and now we’re in this situation, we both just are going to have to deal with it. Now that I know it’s just sex, we both can guard against any entanglements.”
For one brief moment, amusement flared in his eyes. “We can?”
“Yes.” Briony drew away from him, suddenly aware of being naked beneath his shirt-and he was aware of it too. She could see the knowledge in his eyes. She shivered. “I don’t have any clothes.”
“I have some things you can wear, and tomorrow I’ll go into town and get you a few things to tide you over until you can make me a list.”
“Make you a list?” she echoed. “I’m capable of shopping for myself. I have money.”
“I don’t want you seen in town unless we have to go for the baby. And are you talking credit cards, or cash?”
“I brought plenty of cash. It’s in my purse.” She spun around, taking two steps toward the forest, before he caught her arm to stop her. “Call Jeb back. I gave it to him.”
“We don’t need your money.”
“There isn’t a bug in my purse,” she protested. “I checked it. I’m not stupid, just pregnant.” On the other hand, she felt stupid for getting pregnant. Jack had been virtually a stranger, and birth control or not, she should have been more careful. She didn’t dare allow her body to overrule her brain again. She was part of an experiment. Nothing between Jack Norton and Briony Jenkins was real-or would ever be. “I need that money.”
“No, you don’t.” There was finality in his voice.
“Look, I’m not going to be stranded here with no clothes, no money, and no vehicle. I’m not a prisoner. I have to have a way to get out if it doesn’t work.”
Jack sighed, his expression bleak. “I’m not a man who argues. That’s the second time I’ve told you and I’m not going to keep reminding you.”
One minute she stood looking at him, the next she turned to run, opening her mouth to call out to her brother. Jack caught her in his arms, one hand covering her mouth hard, his arm biting deep into her body just beneath her breasts. That fast, the heat flared, enveloping them both, the need so strong, so primitive it was all she could do to stay on her feet; her body, of its own accord, melted into his. She tried to bite his hand, self-preservation stronger than her fear of retaliation.
“Stop it,” he hissed, his mouth so close to her ear she felt his lips moving against her earlobe. “You’re going to get someone killed.”
She stopped struggling, and he removed his hand from her mouth, but didn’t let her go, pressing his body closer into hers. He was rock hard, his body without any give to it, no soft spots, and his erection seemed merciless, a thick, long bulge pressed tightly into her flesh.
“It’s not real. It’s just chemistry,” Briony said desperately. Her own body ached, dampened, breasts too full and nipples too hard. Lust curled through her relentlessly, thick and needful, making her body throb and her womb clench. “It isn’t real.”
“It’s so fucking real, baby, I want to pick you up, wrap your legs around my waist, and bury myself deep inside you right here. Right now.” His voice roughened. “I can taste you in my mouth. I’m breathing you in with every breath I take. Don’t tell me it isn’t like that for you. It’s real and we both know it.”
She struggled again, this time more against her own body, than him. There was no controlling the fierce physical attraction arcing between them. It was electric, all consuming, crackling in the air around them, the intensity so strong, he actually shifted her in his arms, turning her around, his mouth coming down hard on hers. She was lost, the waves of need so powerful she thought she might die if she didn’t have him.
His tongue swept into her mouth, and there was nothing teasing or gentle about his kiss. It was purely dominant, commanding, taking her over until Briony was swept into a world of sensuality as his hands roamed possessively over her body and then cupped her breasts beneath the shirt, finding soft bare skin.
Jack abruptly jerked his head away from her, swearing eloquently. “Stop it. Stop crying. Damn it, Briony, I haven’t hurt you. Why the hell are you crying?” His hands framed her face, and he stared down into her wet eyes and spiky eyelashes before bending to taste her tears.
Even that small gesture was impossibly intimate, sexual, his mouth tracing the path of her tears. She felt the light touch of his lips on her face all the way through her body.
“Stop,” he pleaded again, more gently. “Come on, baby, you’re just tired. Maybe I was a little rough, but I couldn’t have hurt you.”
Briony hadn’t been aware that she was sobbing. She was only aware of her body, so unfulfilled, so needy. The craving for Jack was like a terrible claw scraping her raw, tearing at her insides, yet all the while her brain screamed a warning, screamed she didn’t really matter to him-or he to her. A madman had performed an experiment and they were the results. Two people in heat like animals. She was disgusted with herself.
She couldn’t blame Jack Norton, even if she wanted him to assume the responsibility-which she didn’t. He couldn’t help his reaction to her any more than she could hers to him. “Don’t you see what he’s done to us? He’s taken away everything. We won’t ever have a chance at a family. At love and marriage and all the things that matter in life. Once we’re away from one another, do you think this is going to stop? This terrible craving? It’s an addiction. He’s managed to make us into addicts for one another. You can’t tell me you haven’t thought about it night and day ever since you left. He’s taken our lives away from us and made us into mindless animals.”
Jack pulled her into his arms and held her tightly against him, wrapping his arms around her head as she sobbed against his chest. The sound wrenched at his heart and wreaked havoc with his normally nonexistent emotions. Hell. The woman was going to make him into a wuss. He put his head down on hers, holding her tighter. “Stop it, baby. You’re going to make yourself sick. None of that matters right now. We’re here and we can make our life whatever we want it to be. He isn’t going to get our child.” He put his mouth against her ear to whisper. “You hear me? He isn’t
She lifted her head to look at him. “I’m sorry. It must be all the hormones. I’m not usually such a crybaby.”
His fingers tangled in her thick hair. She looked so forlorn, her eyes too big for her face, still swimming with tears. For years he’d thought all gentleness had been driven out of him for all time, but it was there, hidden deep inside, rising as fast as his every protective instinct. Whatever Whitney had done to them might have been all about sex and coming together in heat, but for Jack, the relationship with Briony was developing into something altogether different. His feelings for her were every bit as strong and real as the need for sex. Briony had managed to slip past his guard and find that small spark of humanity, of tenderness he never knew existed.
Jack didn’t think too closely about how his emotions had become entangled with the violent chemistry sizzling between them, but he knew it was dangerous for a man like him to get attached to anyone. He wasn’t normal and he’d never be normal, no matter how much he wished it different. He’d given up wanting it to be different, until he’d walked away from Briony.
“You’re just tired,” he murmured.
“I’d like to tell you I’m sorry about the pregnancy. I should have been careful. It never occurred to me I could
