Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (top fiction books of all time txt) 📗

“We’ll be close enough to protect her if Cavendish comes after her. That’s the most important thing at this point.”

Simon had pissed him off so thoroughly he hadn’t thought to point out that it was going to be damned impossible to scan her place for bugs and plant some of their own without getting near her. Especially if she spent all her time in the house like she’d said she did or at least suggested she did. Her garden, lab, and living quarters were in the same house. There wasn’t a lot of reason for her to go out.

Ok, so they couldn’t watch her from inside the house … not that he’d had any intention of doing that to start with! He wasn’t a damned rooky! It was almost as damned insulting that Simon had suggested he didn’t have any more sense than that as his snide personal remarks!

He supposed after a while that what was really bugging him was that he had an uneasy feeling Simon might be right. He hadn’t thought too much about how scared she was that first night. He’d figured it was them that had scared her and a trip down to Atlanta for an air-breather without a tank strapped to their back was bound to be a scary proposition on top of the fright they’d already given her. The sub had scared her too, though, enough she’d bitten his head off when he tried to distract her. That didn’t actually augur well for a potential Atlantean—the fact that everything about being in the sea unnerved the hell out of her.

He’d dismissed it, figuring she wouldn’t have any reason to be afraid once she had the change, but then Simon had just had to bring up that shit about her hating mutants again. He didn’t believe she did. He hadn’t seen anything about the way she’d looked at them, spoke to them, or behaved around them to suggest such a thing. She’d said she didn’t have a problem with mutants, but was he right? Or was Simon right?

He was inclined to go with his gut. She hadn’t just let him kiss her. She’d responded, god damn it! Yeah, she’d lit him on fire, but he was damned if he believed he was the only one feeling that way.

So Simon was right about her not being on the market and he was a dumbass because he hadn’t considered that when he’d decided she would do nicely for him.

Granted, it would’ve been a different ballgame if she had been on the mart, maybe an entirely different game. Women who allowed their families to badger them or beg them into selling themselves on the bride market had a tendency to go for the highest bidder, but that wasn’t always the case, especially when a man had an opportunity to do a little wooing beforehand. That didn’t mean he, or one of them, couldn’t convince her, though, and all it would take was one. They had a deal. Ian and Joshua had already agreed they were in. He had an idea that Simon wasn’t going to hold out if she capitulated. He was just leery because that bitch Roxanne had burned him so badly.

Anna wasn’t like that, though. She wasn’t glamour, glitz, and fluff. She was a real woman—brains, beauty, a body to kill for, and sweet as candy, with just enough fire to keep a man on his toes.

Of course, Simon had been the recipient of most of that fire and it had been damned uncomfortable when he’d gotten a taste of it, but he figured, what the hell?

There was bound to be a little vinegar to go with the honey and if they’d seen her worst, and he figured they had, then he could deal with it.

It pissed him off big time that he thought he had it all figured out and that it was all but a done deal and Simon had thrown a wrench into it by pointing out that she might not be interested!

Joshua brought him out of his dark thoughts by punching him on the shoulder.

“What?” he growled.

“Are we going to do this or what?” Joshua demanded irritably.

Considering the direction of his thoughts, it wasn’t a great leap from there to where he wanted to be—in Anna’s bed—and he stared at her house speculatively through the front porthole. “We should wait until after dark,” he said finally. “He could have somebody watching her house and we’ve already shown ourselves one time today.”

“In that case, I guess I should take it down a little.”

“Yeah, just not so much that we don’t have a view of the house.”

Joshua headed to the food lockers when he’d settled the sub low in the water. “I stocked up since we were going to do a stakeout. You want something?”

“A beer would be nice.”

Joshua chuckled and tossed him a bottle of water. “Sandwich?”

“Sure … whatever. If you made them they all taste the same anyway.”

Joshua shot a bird at him and grabbed two sandwiches. “What did Simon say that pissed you off so much, anyway?”

Caleb grunted, unwrapping his sandwich to examine it. “Reminded me she wasn’t on the market,” he muttered, “among other things.”

“Shit!” Joshua said, nearly dropping his sandwich. “I hadn’t even thought about it! Damn! I guess we’re fucked … or not to be, as the case may be.”

“You’re taking it damned lightly!” Caleb snapped.

“Do I look like I’m taking it lightly?” Joshua demanded tightly. “What the hell am I supposed to say?”

Caleb shook his head.

Joshua frowned. “I guess that’s what comes of never seeing a woman that isn’t attached already or on the market. You get to thinking there’s only