“Eve is finally asleep,” Sidonia said. “It’s time you were in bed, too. You need rest.”

“I can’t rest until I decide what to do.”

“Call Dante.”

“As much as I dread the thought of confessing my sins to my big brother, I may have no other choice.”

“He’ll be angry. No doubt about that. He’ll want to hunt down Judah Ansara and kill him,” Sidonia said. “Is that what’s stopping you? You don’t want Dante to kill Judah?”

Mercy snapped around and glared at Sidonia. “It’s possible that Judah could kill Dante.”

“That’s hardly likely. You know as well as I do that Dante has not only his own unique individual powers, but he possesses the abilities inherent in all Dranirs. Judah would be no match for him.”

“We don’t know what powers Judah possesses, but they must be very great for Eve to be endowed with such incredible abilities.”

Sidonia walked over to the desk and picked up the telephone. “Call Dante. Do it now.”

Mercy stared at the phone, a war of uncertainty being waged inside her.

The study door burst open. Wearing her pink footed pajamas, Eve bounded into the room, wide-awake and all smiles. She ran to Mercy, grabbed her hand and said, “Come on. Let’s go.”

“Go where?” Mercy asked.

“To the front door to meet him. My daddy’s coming. I let him in.”

NINE

“Judah is…?”

“Come on. He’s almost here.” Eve tugged on Mercy’s hand.

“Bar that black devil from this house,” Sidonia said.

Ignoring Sidonia’s warning, Mercy went with Eve out into the hallway that led to the foyer. Sidonia followed, grumbling her fears aloud.

Just as they reached the foyer, Eve waved her little hand and the front door whooshed open. Judah Ansara, hand raised to knock, was standing on the front porch. Surrounded by darkness, with only moonlight illuminating his silhouette, he did indeed look like the black devil Sidonia had professed him to be.

“Daddy!” Eve cried as she released Mercy’s hand and ran straight to her father.

Judah stepped over the threshold, the night wind entering with him, his long hair slightly disheveled, his gaze riveted to his daughter. Without hesitation, he dropped the suitcase he held, swept Eve up into his arms and kicked the door closed behind him.

Eve wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I knew you’d come back. I knew you would.”

Mercy watched in awed fascination at the exchange between father and daughter. Even without her empathic abilities, she would have been able to see the bond that had already begun forming between them. And knowing she was powerless to stop what was happening frightened her.

Eve’s words echoed inside Mercy’s head. I was born for the Ansara.

Unable to completely ignore Sidonia’s constant mumbling, Mercy turned, gave the old nanny a withering glare and telepathically told her to hush. Sidonia glowered at Mercy and shook her head, but she reluctantly quieted before shuffling off and making her way slowly up the stairs.

Mercy took several tentative steps toward Judah. As if only then aware of Mercy’s presence, he adjusted Eve so that she rested on his hip and looked at Mercy.

She couldn’t explain her feelings, not even to herself. She despised Judah, and resented his presence here at the sanctuary and in her daughter’s life. But at the same time, the very fact that he was here reassured her that he cared about Eve, that he was ready to help her protect their child. Their gazes locked for a brief instant; then Judah refocused on his daughter.

“I want you to promise me something,” he said to Eve.

“What do you want me to promise?”

“Promise me that until I tell you it’s all right, you won’t use your mind to speak with anyone except your mother and me.”

With her arms clinging about Judah’s neck, Eve pulled back, cocked her head to one side and looked directly into her father’s eyes. “He’s a bad man, isn’t he, Daddy? He wants to hurt us.”

“Yes, he’s a bad man.” Judah frowned. “Now, give me your promise that-”

“I promise,” Eve said.

As easily as that, she had agreed to do as Judah requested. Mercy sighed inwardly, fearing that Eve would never question her father’s orders.

Judah set Eve on her feet. She grabbed his hand. He glanced down at her and smiled. “It’s late. You should be in bed asleep.”

“I was,” Eve said. “But when I heard you calling to me, I woke up and let you in. That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?”

Judah grunted. “Yes, it’s what I wanted. But now I want you to go upstairs and hop back into bed.” He glanced at Mercy. “Your mother and I have things we need to talk about.”

“I want a promise, too. I want you to promise me that you won’t fuss.” Eve looked from one parent to the other. “Be nice, okay?.”

“I’ll be as nice to Mercy as she is to me,” Judah said.

Eve smiled triumphantly, then eyed Judah’s suitcase. “You’ll be here in the morning when I get up, won’t you?”

“I’ll be here.”

Eve bounced up the stairs, a bundle of happy energy.

Once Mercy and Judah were alone, she said, “I’ll arrange for you to stay in one of the cabins.”

“No, I’ll stay here in the house.” He approached her so quickly that she had no time to react until he grasped her upper arm. “I need to be close to Eve…and to you.”

Mercy’s heartbeat accelerated. He’s a master charmer, she reminded herself. He would say whatever he thought she wanted to hear in order to get what he wanted. And she could never let herself forget for one moment that what he wanted was Eve.

“You can’t stay here for very long.” She forced herself to maintain eye contact, to prove to him that she wasn’t afraid of him, that he had no emotional hold on her simply because she had given birth to his child. “Keeping your presence here a secret will be impossible for more than a day or two. There are other Raintree visiting the sanctuary. More than half the cottages are filled. Whatever you need to do to protect Eve from your brother, do it quickly and then leave.”

“I’m afraid things are more complicated than that.”

Mercy eyed him suspiciously.

Tightening his hold on her arm, he said, “You have every right to be afraid.”

Mercy gazed into Judah’s cold gray eyes and felt the hypnotic draw of his masculine power. The only way to free herself of this man and keep him from taking their daughter was to kill him. But not yet. Not until she knew that Eve would be safe from Judah’s enemies.

He raked his gaze over her as if stripping her bare, then slowly released her. Mercy shivered.

“All you have to do is ask,” Judah said, “and I’ll give you what you want.”

Tightening her hands into fists, Mercy willed herself not to strike out and wipe that cocky smirk off his face. “I want you dead,” she told him.

“That wasn’t a very nice thing to say to me.”

“No it wasn’t, but it’s the truth.”

“Only half the truth.” His gaze caressed her roughly, creating an ache deep inside her. But he didn’t physically touch her again. “Before you kill me, you want me to pleasure you first, to lay you beneath me and-”

“You’re an egotistical bastard.”

“And you’re a woman hungry for what only I can give you.”

“You mean no more to me than I do to you,” Mercy told him. “If you weren’t Eve’s father-”

“But I am.” He focused on her lips. “And you can never forget how it was between us the night you conceived my child. The excitement. The passion.” He moved closer, until their bodies almost touched, never once removing his gaze from her lips. “I remember the way you whimpered and pleaded. The way you clung to me, shivering and moaning.”

Involuntarily, as if manipulated by a force she couldn’t control, Mercy reached out and laid her hand on Judah’s chest, placing her palm over his heart.

“I taught you what true pleasure is,” he said. “And you loved it.” He glanced down at her hand. “You loved me.”