At this point, nothing was certain except the need to learn the truth.
CHAPTER 5
Why was she letting him do this?
She was never this weak. It wasn’t acceptable.
Scheme stiffened her body, attempting to lift her head, to deny the erotic thrill of calloused fingertips working over her scalp.
“Shh. Relax.” Those diabolical hands gripped her neck, and strong fingers began to work the tense muscles as she forced back a moan.
She had never had a man bathe her. Ever. And now she knew why. The intimacy of the act was a weakness itself.
Swallowing tightly, she kept her head down, forcing her breathing to become regular while he wrung the water from her hair and twisted it expertly into a towel.
“Lean back.” His voice was insidiously soft, his hands firm as he gripped her shoulders and forced her to recline against the back of the porcelain tub.
“There you go. Just rest,” he murmured. The sound was a purr of male satisfaction, one she wanted to fight.
She was in dangerous territory here and she knew it. Her father could have more than one spy in Sanctuary, and she knew that at least the one she knew of was in a very high position. She couldn’t discount Tanner.
At this point, anyone within Sanctuary was suspect. Especially Tanner. He was trained in non-weapon warfare. Before he was fifteen years of age he had excelled in guerilla infiltration and subversive techniques. The Council scientists had determined he had the mental capabilities and lack of emotion to excel at it. He could just as easily be one of the spies her father had managed to secure within Sanctuary as any other Breed could be.
Trusting him was too dangerous.
Just because Tanner had rescued her from Chaz didn’t mean he could be trusted. Her father knew about the message she had destroyed; he knew she wouldn’t break if he hurt her, or if he buried her. Tanner could have been her father’s insurance. He could have been in place to gain her trust, even if it meant killing Chaz.
General Cyrus Tallant was nothing if not diabolical, and he left very few things to chance. He would have wanted that information above all things, if possible.
“What do you want from me?”
“There are a lot of things I want from you.” He eased around the tub, a bath sponge in one hand, a bottle of bath gel in the other.
Scheme watched as he squeezed the gel onto the sponge then set the bottle on the floor.
“Like?”
His eyes were alive. The colors within them brightened and dimmed, shifted and shadowed.
“Should I make a list?” He dipped the sponge into the water before lifting her arm and beginning to bathe her.
“Yes, make a list,” she said. “I’ll read it later. And I can bathe myself.”
Strength. All she needed was a little more strength. Moving jerkily, she had gone to push herself upright, when firm hands, not rough, but firm, insistent hands, pressed her back.
“You’re as weak as a kitten,” he purred. “You don’t have to fight me, Scheme.”
“No, I just have to lie back and allow you to molest me.” She didn’t fight him. She had learned long ago there were better ways to meet force rather than head on.
“Molest you?” The sponge paused on her arm. “How am I molesting you?”
“I prefer not to be touched by you, Tanner.”
“I didn’t ask your preference.” His jaw tightened.
Scheme shrugged lazily. “Then the technical term for such force is molestation, Mr. Reynolds.”
He dropped her arm into the water. For the smallest second, she assumed she had won. Now, what did they say about that word? Assume. Something about an ass, she thought in amusement.
A second later he had reached across the tub and gripped her other arm.
“Fine. I’m molesting you.” His hard shoulders shrugged in return. “Breeds weren’t trained to be politically correct or sexually polite either. We were trained to take what we want.”
And it was obvious that among other things he might want, he wanted her.
“Do you ever take no for an answer?” she asked as he let her arm drop into the water once again before dipping his hand below and lifting her knee.
“Rarely,” he answered. “Now prop your foot on the edge of the tub.”
“You’re pissing me off.” But she did as he asked, her gaze focusing on the sponge traveling over her leg.
How much more humiliating could this get?
“Why did your father beat you? And don’t deny it, I heard every word St. Marks said.”
Damn Chaz and his loose lips. He should have just broken her neck and kept his damned mouth shut. She didn’t need all these questions.
“Because I’m into pain?” She glanced at him from the corner of her eye as she let a smile tug at her lips. She did mocking amusement rather well when needed.
“Do you practice that look in the mirror for effect?” he asked as he lowered her leg back to the water before lifting the opposite knee.
“Do you get off on torturing women? What the hell do you want? You’ve been watching me for years. I know you have, you know you have. Why? Why rescue me? Why kidnap me? And why the hell do you think I need you to bathe me?”
She jerked her leg back from him and jackknifed upright as she glared back at him. His hand snapped out and wrapped around her neck as the growly thing turned dangerous.
There was no pressure. Only the threat of it.
“Do it,” she lashed out at him, amazing herself with her own daring. “Go ahead. Snap my neck. You know you want to. Get it over with.”
She had lived with the fear of punishment and death for twenty years. She had sacrificed more than he would ever know and in doing so had come to realize that death wasn’t the terrifying specter she had once imagined.
Cause for regret, yes. Terrifying, no.
She had realized it long before she knew that the man she had once loved was going to kill her.
“Your father ordered your death,” he snapped. “He sent your former lover to do the deed. The father of the child you never had. And he was going to kill you, Scheme. He wasn’t having second thoughts. Why did General Tallant suddenly decide to kill his only child?”
“Why do you want to kill me?” She kept her voice cold. Hard. “Really, Tanner, do you think I give him any less trouble than I’ve given the Breeds?”
“Your father beat you!” Rage flamed in his eyes. She swore the swirling amber nearly blazed.