Page 91 of Hunter

His face contorted. “Of course, I didn’t stop.” He sucked in a quick breath and let it out. “But . . .”

Behind her, she heard the doorknob jiggle.

Both she and Hunter tensed, and she laid a hand on his arm.

When the knob didn’t turn, the door rattled. “Kathryn, are you all right in there?” an anxious voice called. It was Doctor Wardman.

“We. . . we’re fine. Hunter’s awake.”

“He’s all right?” the doctor asked.

“Yes.”

“I have to check him out.”

“In a while. We’re talking,” she said, hearing the thickness of her voice and flushing as she imagined anyone checking on them a few minutes earlier.

“They were going to send me on a mission to Gravan to assassinate General Kassan. Whether I succeeded or not, I knew I wasn’t coming back.”

When she made a sound of protest, his hand stroked gently through her hair. “I accepted that, and I knew the time with you was precious, that it was only for a little while.”

She reached for his hand and knitted her fingers with his. “I didn’t know which country you were going to, but I figured out what Emerson had planned for you.”

“You did?” he asked, incredulous.

She nodded gravely. “Yes. That morning, after you moved out of the guest cottage. I was thinking about you, wanting to tell you I was sorry about the way I behaved when I came back from the lab. Then I thought about the whole Stratford Creek Project—and it made a kind of awful sense. If you had a man who didn’t exist, you wouldn’t have to bring him back from his dangerous mission. But I didn’t accept it. I realized that somehow I had to get you out of there.”

His head turned toward her, and his fingers stroked her lips. “You are a remarkable woman. And you deserve everything good in life.”

“Damn right! And I think I’ve found the thing that makes me happiest,” she told him.

“What about—” He stopped, started again. “I think a man is supposed to support his mate. Take care of her. I can’t do any of that. I have no skills to earn a living. I don’t know the right things to do and say. I have no place in your world.”

She pressed her fingers to his lips. “Where did you get your view of domestic life?Father Knows Bestreruns?”

He shrugged. “IsOzzie and Harrietbetter?”

She gave a little laugh. “They’re both a little out of date. Women today aren’t looking for men to support them,” she told him vehemently. “They can do that themselves. What every woman dreams of is a man who will love her as an equal, a man with the same values as hers. A man who will share the joys and the responsibilities of life with her. A man who’s strong but not afraid or embarrassed to show his tender side. I’ve had a lot of time to think about it while you were sleeping. You fit that description better than any other man I ever met.”

He looked overwhelmed as she continued, “Most of the time I was in here with you. But I’ve been talking to the Decorah Security men. You have skills they value, and Frank Decorah said he’s prepared to ask you to join them.”

“What is Decorah . . . Security?”

“It’s a private agency that does investigations and takes on dangerous jobs. They had sent men up to Stratford Creek to help. They called Dr. Kolb’s phone, which was how I knew they were down the road.”

“They value killing?” he asked in a hoarse whisper.

“Well, only bad people, but basically undercover operations. Jonah Raider, the man who decked you when you grabbed his gun, isn’t so different from you. And many of them have a similar background, too. They’re secret agents with training like yours. And when you meet some of them, you’ll find out a lot of them have even stranger backgrounds than you. You’ll be surprised at how well you’ll fit in.”

“I could . . . work with them?” he asked, unable to conceal his astonishment.

“Yes.”

His eyes told her that he still wasn’t convinced. “You told them where I come from? You told them everything about the Stratford Creek Project?” he asked carefully.

She gave him a little nod.”

“They don’t think that makes me . . .?” He turned his head away, and she saw him swallow painfully. “A copy of a man? Not a real person?”

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