In all the years he’d watched her, checked up on her, ensured that she was safe and as happy as possible, she’d never known he was there. He’d brushed up against her, moved silently into her apartment as she slept, and more than once he’d allowed himself to tempt the hunger he’d realized he was feeling for her after she began maturing into a woman.
But he’d never gotten close to her in any way that would have allowed her to recognize him, or to come to know him until the past two months since the search for Gideon had led them to Window Rock.
So far, he had reined in his impulse to take her as a lover and ignored the restless sexual awareness plaguing him.
He should have taken advantage of the numerous offers for a one-night stand, given by both the human and Breed females. There were certain things a man learned about specific women quickly, though.
What he’d learned about Miss Gypsy Rum was the fact that she refused to bed any man or Breed known to have a promiscuous lifestyle or one who had already slept with a female she knew.
That had obviously narrowed the playing field for her.
But, he had to admit, it was refreshing to know a woman who actually stuck to her own rules, no matter the obvious flaw in them.
Rule was damned certain that she’d never had a lover, though.
But she was going to have one soon.
Women, their hearts, their luscious bodies, every aspect of them and every part of them that made them the amazingly complex creatures he so enjoyed, never failed to please him.
Perhaps that was why she drew him.
He knew the intelligence and the complexities behind the façade she presented. That mask of a shallow young woman was just that—a mask.
He suspected that was why she had made the list of possible Unknown contacts. And now, he was going to have to find a way to get her off that list.
To convince Jonas that she was just what she seemed to be. Even if he did know better.
The hurt she carried behind her bright smile and sensual, flirty demeanor haunted her waking moments as well as her nightmares.
He saw the woman who craved something she had no idea how to reach out for. A woman who imprisoned all her wild hunger behind a bottle of beer, a flirty smile and every party or good-time bar that could offer a spark of excitement instead of erotic heat.
And what she never displayed, was the deception and games that came with being a spy.
Not to mention the ability to sleep with whoever was needed to gain the information she sought.
No, the spark she needed had nothing to do with being a spy for anyone, let alone some group that no one could even confirm existed.
Rule had decided weeks before that he had her spark, and he intended to watch her burn once he set fire to her hunger. He’d just needed a reprieve from the investigations taking so much of his time first.
And the assurance that the desire hardening the flesh between his thighs wasn’t Mating Heat.
The wild, animalistic genetics that often felt like a caged lion inside him were completely unimpressed with her. That shadow creature inside him was too damned busy searching for the Coyotes it so loved to fight, because that was one of the rare times Rule allowed it to come out and play.
Restless, driven to rid the world of the creatures that still gave their loyalty to the Genetics Council, his animal senses rarely even took notice of Gypsy unless he had the time to become aroused.
And that made for a very happy Rule Breaker.
And potentially, a very f**ked Gypsy.
CHAPTER 2
ONE WEEK LATER
Gypsy slipped into the underground entrance of the Navajo Covert Law Enforcement Offices and made her way tiredly through the steel-lined corridor leading to the elevator to the upper floors.
She checked her watch. Five minutes to spare.
She’d made it, but it hadn’t been easy. And it sure as hell hadn’t been a sure thing that she would make it back before nightfall to begin with.