Mark her, it urged.
Tie her.
God help him, that was the last thing he should do.
He'd seen his Enforcers locked in mating heat. He'd seen how it compromised their abilities to maintain control and focus on their assigned missions.
There was something about the hormonal, super-charged aphrodisiac that spilled from a Breed's tongue that made that tie impossible to deny.
It formed a tie that bound him to her, despite her unwillingness to be bound in return.
But wasn't this what he wanted? he reminded himself. He had denied the heat for months. He had forced himself to hold back, deny the instinctive need that ripped through his senses.
Now, in a matter of hours, he was ready to bed her for a single touch.
He was screwed. It was that simple, and he knew it. Just as he knew that there wasn't a damned thing he could do to stop it.
Rachel stared at her shaking hands before breathing in roughly, collecting the items she needed and moving back to the bedroom and to Amber, who fussed for her bottle.
She checked Amber's diaper, changed it quickly and all the while reminded herself, more than once, of all the reasons why she wasn't going to allow herself to touch the man. He was such a fascination to her that she could barely keep her mind, let alone her hands, off him.
And now there was the added complication that he thought she was his mate?
Oh, she knew about the mating. Merinus had been kind enough to go into detail--explicit, amazing detail--before Rachel had taken the job. That was just after Rachel had been asked to sign a confidentiality agreement that didn't just affect her own life, but any heirs she may come to have, and a very subtle warning of the grief family members could suffer if she ever divulged the information. But even if her friend hadn't given her those details, Rachel would have still suspected the truth of the rumors that circulated.
Mating heat. Forced desires. Breed sexual virus. The gossip rags were full of names for it. Merinus's description was kinder. Natural selection, she had called it. God had chosen the perfect mates for the children He had allowed the Council to create bodies for.
Merinus was nothing if not a great believer in a higher power.
So where did that leave Rachel?
As she placed Amber on her shoulder, cuddling the child close to her and rubbing her back soothingly, Rachel began to pace the floor.
Jonas fascinated her too much. That was her problem. That had nothing to do with hormones, pheromones, or anything chemical or biological. It was simply an attraction she had learned to accept.
It was now a complication she was going to have to deal with.
After burping Amber and laying her down for a nap, Rachel let herself linger long enough to smooth her fingers over her child's red-gold locks, and to once again be amazed that such a perfect creation had come from her body.
It wasn't often that she allowed herself to become sentimental or find any regrets in her life. She tried to live in a way that ensured she had as few regrets as possible. But as she stared down at Amber, she wondered if she had made a mistake in informing Amber's father of her birth.
Devon hadn't been perfect, but she had felt he deserved to know about his child, whether she thought he would be interested or not. Now it was something she might regret though. Devon was so firmly against the Breeds that it was hard telling what he would do once he learned where Rachel and Amber were located. And finding her wouldn't be hard. The explosion at her home had been all over the news, as well as reports that Rachel and her child had been flown to Sanctuary. It wouldn't be something he would do out of love for his child, but rather out of pure spite.
Unfortunately, that was Devon's personality.
Breathing out wearily, she leaned forward, kissed her daughter's cheek, then turned on the monitor system beside the crib before leaving the bedroom and venturing to the front porch of the cabin.
The large, single-story structure sat on the hill overlooking the main estate house. The three-story mansion had once been home to one of the labs the Genetics Council had created.
Beneath the historic home, a sprawling cement-and-steel structure had been built. The labs, confinement cells and soldiers' barracks had been completely hidden from the citizens of nearby Buffalo Gap. The mountain had provided a perfect training location, while the area had been a strategic location for the Breeds to come and go from their assigned missions.
Stepping to the railing of the wraparound porch, she crossed her arms over her br**sts and fought to hold back the chill working down her spine.
"She's sleeping again?" Jonas stepped out as Rachel turned to him in surprise.
"I thought you'd left." For the barest second, her heart raced, breathlessness assailed her chest and her thighs tried to clench in response to his presence.
He was, quite simply, total male perfection. Savagely hewn, exceptionally built. And those eyes. Staring into his eyes was like staring into a maelstrom of hunger.
She had seen that hunger the first time they'd met, and it had never abated.
"Not yet." Pushing his hands into his slacks, he moved closer and leaned against one of the porch's huge support columns. "I was on the sat phone arranging the packing and delivery of the office here. Everything should arrive in a few hours."
"I'm certain it will, if that's what you ordered." Few people, let alone Breeds, defied Jonas.
His gaze flickered at the irony in her tone.
"Ely called while you were gone. She's hoping that if she adds her plea to Dr. Vanderale's, you'll come to the lab for testing in the morning."
Rachel tilted her head as she stared back at him. "If I have none of your mating heat signs, Jonas, then why should I do that? My time is rather valuable, as I'm certain you know. There's quite a bit that has to be caught up with at the office. Now that you're transferring said office here, there will be only additional work. I doubt I'll have time to pamper Ely or Dr. Vanderale in this matter. But should I change my mind, I promise you'll be the first to know."
Her mocking little speech produced much more of a reaction than she anticipated. For months, she had been throwing out the cute little asides in a particularly cool voice, and for months, Jonas had pretended to ignore them.
He wasn't ignoring it now.
Before Rachel could move to evade, his hands gripped her arms, turning her to face him as his head bent, bringing his lips much too close to hers. Too much temptation, much too close. That's what it was.