Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Survive. He was a grown man and a doctor. He should have recognized all the signs of a child indoctrinated with a parent’s depression and near hatred. Luther was right. That old man had tried through the years to save Rubin. To save him. As a child he hadn’t recognized that his mother was mentally ill. He hadn’t realized how much her opinion of him shaped him into thinking he was worthless other than as his brother’s protector. Had he accomplished what he’d set out to do, he would have missed meeting an incredible woman—a survivor against all odds. That would have been the true tragedy of his life.
Diego opened his eyes, focused on the ceiling of woven branches and vines, and then turned his head slowly to look at the woman lying so still beside him. He felt the heat of her through their touching thighs. Her palm curled around his wrist. He didn’t move his arm away from her as he studied her. He had excellent night vision, thanks to all the enhancements done to him, and it was easy for him to see her high cheekbones, that delicate curve along her jaw, the length of her lashes and her full, bow-shaped lips. She’d called him a gorgeous man. She’d gotten that wrong, but he knew beauty when he saw it.
He found himself admiring her all the more. She was lying in a makeshift shelter with a total stranger, totally vulnerable after getting shot all to hell, nearly raped, and operated on in a manner she had no knowledge of, but she lay with a gun at her fingertips and one hand on him. On his pulse. Looking after him. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that she would have shot anything poking its head through the entrance to their den. This was a woman who would protect her children. He knew with absolute certainty that she would never single one out and label them a demon from hell.
He studied her face, feature by feature, while the rain played a symphony to him. There was both strength and softness in that ultrafeminine face. This woman would be a wonder—a miracle for a man to wake up to every morning and fall asleep with the image of her in his mind to carry him through the night.
With some reluctance, he forced his body to move. He was careful. Taking on life-threatening injuries was always risky. Seeing the severity of her wounds, he’d known there was a better-than-average chance he wouldn’t make it, but the compulsion to heal her was far too strong to deny.
He took his time checking every muscle, stretching to loosen his stiff body before he sat up. His body didn’t like the new position, his insides protesting, but he needed to get outside and then do a few chores, hopefully before she woke.
The cool, wet air was refreshing to him. He rarely was inside. His preference would always be the outdoors, where he could see and feel anything coming at him or anyone he loved. There was a freedom he felt deeply when he was in the forest—or swamp. He’d adapted to the swamp in Louisiana, and it felt like a second home to him. Never the city. He couldn’t breathe there. He faked it, using his enhanced abilities to get by. Charming, smiling and appearing easygoing when none of it was real.
Diego buried Leila’s bloody clothing, along with the shirt of his that had bloodstains on it from carrying her. He didn’t worry about wild animals finding them through the scent; he could control the animals. But if the soldiers sent to find the others were enhanced trackers—and he was certain these men were sent from the laboratory Luther and Leila had been enhanced in—then one of them could easily have an acute sense of smell. He did. Gino Mazza, one of his teammates, could track anyone with drops of blood lingering in the air.
He replenished their water supply after he thoroughly washed and cleaned the basin he’d provided for Leila to relieve herself. After hydrating and spending more time staring down at her face and admiring her, he knelt beside her and spread his hands over her, reaching for the well of energy inside him. At once, heat rose, moving through his body to his mind and hands, allowing him to examine her.
Her long lashes fluttered and then lifted, a distraction he didn’t need.
“That’s very warm.”
Her voice was drowsy, sexy, sending a different kind of heat down his spine. “Don’t distract me, woman. Give me a few minutes to make sure everything is going to hold before you go getting all flirty with me.”
“I don’t get flirty. Not ever.”
Even just coming out of a deep sleep, her sense of humor was at the forefront, recognizing he was teasing her. That was another point in her favor. He needed a woman with a sense of humor. The thought came before he could censor it. He shook his head and tried again to focus, shoving his strange addiction to her away so he could take care of her.