Conspiracy Game

stupider than I gave you credit for. Briony felt her cheeks grow hot remembering Jack’s accusation. Damn it all. She’d already fallen into his seductive trap. He just looked at her, touched her, and she practically threw herself into his arms. What was wrong with her? Didn’t she have any pride? How was she ever going to be able to stay in his home-his bedroom-with the scent of him driving her into some kind of mindless heat?

She sighed, flung off the covers, and padded barefoot to the window to shove it open and lean out to inhale the night, trying to clear her head. The air was far cooler than she was used to, but it felt good on her hot skin. She sat on the windowsill and watched the trees dancing in the wind, ignored the tears that streamed down her face. She was so emotional lately someone should just put her out of her misery. She blinked until she brought the landscape back into focus. The branches swayed and bowed, leaves glittering silver in the moonlight. Sitting quietly, she saw several deer wander into the yard, and something larger, almost horse-size, much farther off.

Curious, Briony climbed out the window and padded barefoot across the porch to the railing, leaning out to get a better view. She didn’t dare go wandering around the property until she knew where any alarms or traps were hidden, but she was intrigued with the large animal foraging in the forest so close to the house. She’d never seen an elk wandering free before, and she was fairly certain she was looking at a herd of them. For the first time in what seemed like weeks, she could breathe again, not have her mind in a whirling chaos of emotions. Out in the night air, there was no scent of Jack and no reminders that she was so susceptible to him.

Hand to her throat, she walked softly along the wraparound porch, keeping pace with the herd, following them around the large house, determined to think of something other than Jack-other than her situation. The covered porch was wide and the railing high enough that, holding on to one of the support columns, she was certain she could push off, swing up to the roof, and get an even better view, without disturbing anyone. She climbed up on the railing, keeping one eye on the huge animals, afraid they’d retreat farther into the forest before she could get a good look at them.

She wrapped her arm around the pole and judged the distance to the roof. It wasn’t very far for someone as enhanced as she was, but she’d have to swing out and flip her body up to get above the overhang. She leapt and caught the edge of the roof.

Two hands bit into her waist and yanked her back down, pulling her tight against one very hard body. Jack’s eyes glittered like twin diamonds, slashing at her angrily. “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The man was built of iron, no give in his body, and where she was cold, he was hot, heat radiating off his skin. Her heart immediately went into overdrive. Worse, her body reacted, breasts full and aching and her womb clenching. She tasted him in her mouth, felt him in her body. The memory was instantly vivid and alive. Just like that-so simple for him to reduce her to nothing but need. Desperate to escape her own reaction to his scent, Briony struggled to break his grip, but even with her enhanced strength, he didn’t budge.

“I wanted to see the herd of elk-at least I think they were elk. Thanks to you, I didn’t get a good look at them. Let go, Jack.” He was the last person she wanted to see. She needed to be alone-and she wasn’t sleeping in his room-or in his bed, where his scent was everywhere. She wanted to weep with frustration. She wanted to strike out at someone. This was a totally impossible situation. She wasn’t strong enough to be around him and not want him. And why was he always touching her?

“Anyone creeping around my house is liable to be killed.”

“I’m not a prisoner, am I? If I want to look at some animals in the forest, I don’t think that’s a killing offense. Go back to bed. I’m fine out here alone.” Because she couldn’t lie in that bed and not want him with every cell of her body. If you came to challenge me to a duel because I fucked your sister… Deliberately she repeated the words in her mind, needing something to keep her from being an even bigger fool than she already was.

“It’s cold, Briony, go in the house.”

She pressed two fingers just above her eyes, feeling humiliation that she couldn’t control her own physical needs. He had to get away from her, had to stop touching her body. “Go to hell. I have every right to be out here if I prefer it.”

He tipped his head to one side to study her furious expression. “Why are you trying to pick a fight with me?”

“I don’t like being told what to do.” Because he was all she thought about, and he had already made it clear he didn’t want her. Because he’d said… fucked your sister. She shouldn’t want a man who’d been programmed to sleep with her. It was utterly humiliating. A man who wanted nothing but a cheap, mindless fuck.

Damn it all to hell. That’s not true. That was never true. Jack stepped close, and Briony backed away from him, throwing up one hand to ward him off.

“Don’t!” She said it sharply, terrified she’d burst into tears. Already her eyes were burning and she felt a lump rising in her throat. “Just don’t say anything more about it.”

Jack reached for her anyway, not giving her personal space, but crowding her body so that the heat of his skin seeped into the ice of hers. “You’re shaking like a leaf.” He ran his hands up and down her arms in an effort to warm her. He forced gentleness into his voice. Why the hell had he ever said such a stupid thing to her brother? “Your body is freezing and you aren’t even aware of it. What were you going to do? Get up on the roof?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.”

“And did it occur to you that you might slip and fall and hurt the baby?”

“I’m a flyer. I do stunts for a living. I think I can manage to climb up on a roof.”

“Well, don’t. I thought you were tired.” Jack wanted to comfort her, but she was too far away from him emotionally, trying to distance herself, and he wasn’t good at this sort of thing.

She reached up to her earlobe, needing the comfort of touching her mother’s earring, found bare skin and dropped her hand. “I am. I just need space. I can’t do this.”

“Yes, you can.”

“Well, maybe I don’t want to do this.” She backed away from him until she was up against the railing. He couldn’t touch her again. Every brush of his fingers brought acute awareness of his body and the desperate needs of her own. She’d come outside to escape him, yet there seemed to be no escape.

“You should have thought of that before you came to me.”

Briony clenched her fists. “At the time, I didn’t feel I had a choice.” Her chin went up. “Look. Obviously this isn’t going to work. I can leave. There are other ways to disappear, and there’s always Kadan Montague. He offered his protection.”

Jack’s jaw tightened, the gray eyes suddenly turning a peculiar silver-ice cold-frightening. “Kadan Montague is not going to be protecting my child or its mother. That’s my job, not his. Don’t try bringing another man into this mess, Briony. We have enough to worry about without that.”

“Oh really?” Furious, not even knowing why, she turned and in one smooth move leapt over the railing onto the ground below. “This mess? My being pregnant is such a mess, isn’t it? I don’t need your help and, quite frankly, I don’t want it.”

Jack swore and leapt after her. So much for tact-he didn’t have it, never would. He shackled her wrist in a viselike grip and she whirled, throwing a punch at his face. He caught her fist in midair. “Keep it up and I’m going to turn you over my knee. What the hell is wrong with you? You should know better than to pick a fight you can’t win.” She looked wild, angry, and embarrassed. She looked vulnerable, young, and all too fragile. She felt alone and frightened. The fear moved in his mind-not of him, but of the situation. Of him callously saying he’d fucked her. Of expecting a baby and having no one to turn to. She was terrified Whitney would find her and take her baby from her. Jack glimpsed the roller coaster of emotions jumbled in her mind.

He gentled his voice in spite of his exasperation. “I didn’t say the mess was your being pregnant. Stop putting words in my mouth. And, baby, you know damned well I wasn’t fucking you. Not like that. Not how I made it sound to your brother.”

She shook her head. “I can’t breathe here. I can’t. I’m just going to go.”

Jack’s expression hardened. His jaw flexed and the gray eyes glittered silver. “You’re going to calm down and go into the house and get some sleep.” He made another effort to gentle his voice. “You’ve been under a tremendous strain. Once you get a good night’s rest, you’ll see things differently.”

“Stop talking to me in that superior tone. Do you think it was easy to come here and ask for help after the things you said to me?” She shoved at his chest, barely rocking him when she put all her strength behind it. “I left everyone I love. My child’s in danger. I’m sick. I have no clothes or money, and I’m at the mercy of a man who