“I hope not. Ezekiel is sleepin’ on the floor right outside her door. It would kill him to have to hurt a child. He’s a roarin’ tiger when it comes to readin’ from the good book, but he’s a softie for women and children.”
“He’s scary,” Pepper said, her voice back to a thread of sound.
“I’m scary, and you’re here with me.”
A slow smile curved her mouth. “Is that what you are? I was trying to figure it out.”
Damn. Humor and a knife.
Chapter 5
Wyatt sensed movement. Danger. He didn’t move, but he knew he wasn’t alone. The danger was in the room with them – and he’d locked the door. Pepper appeared to be sleeping. He’d given her a second dose of painkillers when her body had cramped up again, every muscle locking up and fighting to shut her down. The fluids and painkiller had helped immediately¸ but she’d slept through it and that had worried him a little. Clearly her body wasn’t used to any kind of drug.
He waited, his body relaxed, his breathing even. Patience was a hunter’s weapon, and he had learned that from a very early age. At the end of the bed, the sheet bunched near his feet. He felt a slight weight ease onto the mattress. He knew immediately what had come into the room so quietly.
“Good mornin’, Ginger,” he said softly, keeping his voice low and using his ability to soothe shamelessly. “Did you come to see Pepper?”
He opened his eyes and slowly sat up, keeping his movements slow and nonthreatening. The child looked as if she’d been crying for hours. She didn’t look at all dangerous. She looked like a normal human seventeen-month-old baby who needed comfort. He could see how that would be a problem. Her eyes were large and very dark, but now were ringed with red. His instinct was to gather her up and cuddle her, but he didn’t want to startle or frighten her – knowing she could so easily inflict a lethal bite on him. Those little tiny baby teeth were going to be introduced to caps as soon as possible.
“Pepper is fine. Do you see how peacefully she’s sleepin’?” He shifted his weight, easing his legs out from under the covers. It was far better to be safe than sorry. He needed to be able to move fast if he had to. He didn’t want the baby to get the wrong idea, and she was looking over the fluids going into Pepper’s arm.
“She hurt last night. Her muscles cramped hard, so she needed fluids to help that go away.” He was counting on the fact that Pepper had said the child was extremely intelligent. Her too-old eyes told him the same thing, although she still looked like a baby to him, a very upset baby.
“Do you understand what I’m tellin’ you, Ginger? Pepper is fine. You made a mistake, but it’s all right now. She isn’ goin’ to die.”
The little girl’s eyes welled with tears and his heart clenched. He could never be the father of girls. They’d break his heart. He needed rough-and-tumble boys. That he could work with.
“Are you hungry? Do you need to be changed?” He felt like a fool asking her questions. She might be the smartest baby in the world and understand every word he said, but she couldn’t talk yet. Maybe a few words, but she was still mostly human and that meant even intelligent babies didn’t have a huge vocabulary of words they could actually say – understand maybe – but not pronounce.
Ginger lifted her hands and made a couple of gestures, clearly conveying something to him.
He frowned and leaned toward her. “Do you sign? Is that how you communicate with Pepper and the others? With your two sisters?”
The little girl nodded her head several times, her gaze clinging to his. He had time to study her face. She was beautiful, her little face oval with high cheekbones and large, very dark eyes. Her lashes were black along with her wavy dark hair. He thought her hair might be thicker than normal for a baby her age, but her hands and feet were very small.
“I’m not the best at signin’. My brothers and I used to sign when we were kids and didn’ want Nonny to know what we were plottin’.” He took a breath. “Which of course was very bad on our parts and we’d never do such a thing now.”
The baby smiled at him. For the first time he allowed himself to relax a little. She didn’t look as if she’d go all viper on him and strike out with those tiny little teeth that he already found quite charming in her.
She signed with her fingers. She had to do it three times before he caught what she was saying.
His heart clenched again. He shook his head. “No, baby, why would I want to kill you? I don’ want you dead. You’re safe here with Nonny and me. And we’ll keep Pepper safe too. Ezekiel and Malichai will help me get your sisters free if we can. As long as you’re in my home, I’ll make certain no one hurts you.”
He tried to sign as many words as he could remember, even as he said them aloud to her. He was going to have to build a seriously lethal arsenal and get his home secure.
Don’t mislead her.
Pepper lay quite still listening to the sound of Wyatt’s soothing voice. She loved his drawl. The slow easy charm. The smile in his voice. His cool confidence. She’d never come across a man like him, not in all the men she’d met in training. She wasn’t supposed to feel attraction to the actual man. He was supposed to feel attraction to her. She had a sex drive to end all sex drives, but it was only that – being in heat. She detested her body most of the time, especially around men. She didn’t want them to find her attractive. That only made it much more difficult to keep her resolution.
Until Wyatt. She had lain in the bed with him and breathed him into her lungs. She’d touched his soft, wavy black hair and her heart had nearly melted in her chest. Every time he spoke, whether it was in a low soothing voice he was using now, or his sexy, commanding one, she felt slick heat gathering between her legs. His voice also wrapped around her heart and became the thing of all her fantasies.
Still, she couldn’t allow him to charm Ginger into thinking he would stick around with his voice and his ability to make a child – or a woman – think they weren’t alone in the world. She couldn’t allow that to happen.
Don’t tell her something that isn’t true. She’s been lied to her entire life.
Wyatt turned his head to look into Pepper’s violet eyes. There was no diamond starburst, only pain. His gut knotted. He didn’t like his woman being in pain. He might tell himself different, but he was going to claim her whether or not it made sense.
Pepper’s voice slid in his mind, warm honey pouring into every empty, broken crack, filling him with warmth, with the knowledge that he wasn’t alone. His body reacted, coming alive, every cell humming, but not necessarily in a sexual way. Pepper was definitely stronger. He could feel the difference in her.