Page 126 of Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs 5)

Yeah, she was bruised. She could feel a nice one forming beneath her eye and had already glimpsed the ones on her arms. No doubt about it, Jason was going to have a healthy little meltdown over this one.

She was quiet as Daniel made his way out of the room, the door closing behind him, leaving her and Ian alone, the silence in the room weighing heavily between them.

She lifted her eyes to meet his, saw the edge of sadness and pain and wanted to weep.

"I talked to DHS while you were out," he told her softly. "Diego was warned months ago about what could have happened tonight. I'm amazed he didn't murder both of us before Sorrell arrived."

She shook her head. "He loves you."

Ian shook his head at that. "I don't know if that knowledge should terrify me or reassure me. One thing's for certain, he's out of my reach. His new agreement with DHS will curtail many of his games with government agents, according to the director. I have to content myself with that."

"And will you?" She ached for him, ached for the loyalties that tore him in two and the knowledge that the man who sired him was more a monster than a father.

"I won't go gunning for him." He shrugged. "He stays away from us, I'll stay away from him."

"Us?" she whispered. Until that moment she hadn't realized how terrified she had been that Diego would separate them, that her disagreement over Ian's decisions would drive him away.

"I wasn't going to kill him." He gave his head a brief, hard shake. "I wanted to, Kira. I wanted to so bad sometimes it boiled in my gut like acid. But you were right, killing him wasn't my responsibility. The agreement I suspected he made with DHS tied my hands and I knew it."

She breathed in slowly, deeply. "None of this is your fault, Ian," she told him softly. "Fuentes, Sorrell, Nathan. You couldn't have prevented it."

"I would have, if I had known Nathan was alive before I did. I would have gotten him out of there, no matter what it took." No matter how many times he had to sell his soul to Diego. Kira understood that; she would do the same thing if it were Jason or Daniel.

"So. What do we do now?" she asked almost fearfully.

He stared down at her silently. "What do you want to do?"

"Love you forever," she whispered.

Some of the tension seemed to ease from him then. "It won't be easy for a while, you know. The press is already converging on the island. The papers in the States were carrying pictures of us together a week ago. We've already caused a sensation. 'The deserter drug lord and the society princess.'" He sneered at the caption description.

She eased up in the bed, her breath hitching as he immediately eased her into his arms.

"The press will love us once they learn the truth."

He grunted at that. "I'm not reenlisting. There's no way I'd be effective now and I'll be damned if you're going to be off causing trouble somewhere without me keeping an eye on you. I'd go insane."

"My job is done, Ian." She stared up at him then, knowing in her heart it was over now. "I wanted Sorrell, and now he's eliminated."

His eyes narrowed. "Home and hearth and white picket fences?"

She would have been angry at the disbelief in his tone if she hadn't glimpsed the hunger in his eyes as well.

"I like white picket fences." Hope bloomed in her heart, the dream she had pushed aside, a home to share with someone who knew her, body and soul. A life that didn't involve bloodshed and disguises, and maybe, just maybe, a baby. She would like to have a family with this man, a man who understood her, who loved her.

"I like white picket fences too." A grin tugged at his lips. "I have a place, in Texas."

"I know," she drawled. "And I love it. There's even a white picket fence."

He chuckled, the sound rough, almost tentative, as he laid his forehead against hers, his tobacco-brown eyes, edged with hidden flames that had nothing to do with rage, warming her from the in

side out. "Go home with me?"

"You couldn't chase me off with a stick."

"No sticks," he promised, lowering his lips to hers. "But don't discount a spanking, I told you to stay put under that desk."

"I like it when you spank." Her laughter dissolved a second later beneath his kiss, beneath the passion and the love that suddenly filled her soul and burned through her mind. "I love you, Ian, desperately."

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