veranda, all I could think about was how badly I wanted to walk away from that place.”
“I understand.”
“In fairness, it wasn’t the fault of the doctors. They’d never seen anything like my case before. They had no protocol for treating me, so they went with the experimental approach. In their place, I’d have done the same thing.”
“What happened?” she asked. “How did they finally bring you around?”
“They didn’t. For the most part, all the drugs did was suppress my psi senses and tranquilize me into a stupor. Eventually they tried a drug that was not very effective. I was able to surface long enough to say a few words.”
“What words?”
“‘Stop the damn drugs.’”
“Good choice. How long did it take you to recover?”
“Took about three days for the drugs to wear off enough so that I could move on my own without falling down. The first thing I did was check myself out of the hospital.” He smiled very thinly. “The director did not approve.”
“How long would the psi coma have lasted if they hadn’t given you the drugs?”
“Who knows?” He shrugged. “For obvious reasons, I don’t have a lot of practical experience with the problem. Going invisible for more than a minute or two just requires too much energy. Take it from me, it’s not pleasant sliding into even a short-term coma.” He shoved a hand through his hair. “The dreams are not sweet.”
“You dream while you’re in that state?”
“Yes.” He felt his jaw tighten. “After what happened last night, I should have been out for at least three or four days, maybe longer. I’ve never burned that much psi before. For all I know, I might not have come out of it at all. But what I experienced was just a routine hunter crash, the kind I get after working a normal level of silver. Trig said you used the relic on me?”
“It not only enhanced my own natural ability to read psi energy, it allowed me to manipulate your patterns. During the fight underground, I was able to use it to enhance the fear of two of the hunters.” She gave him a very sober, serious look. “It’s a very powerful tool, Davis.”
He did not want to fight this battle now, he thought.
“I see,” he said neutrally.
“One more thing.”
“What?”
She fixed him with a determined look. “Bet you ten bucks I wouldn’t have screamed. At least not because I woke up and discovered that part of you was invisible.”
“Celinda.” He stopped. He had no clue what to say next.
“Of course, I might have screamed for another reason,” she added. Her eyes were very green now. “The same reason I screamed the other night in the hotel room in Frequency.”
“I’m a freak, Celinda.”
“No, don’t you dare say that. It’s not true.”
She came up off the sofa bed like a small whirlwind. He had time to register the fact that she was wearing a very demure white nightgown that covered her from throat to toes before she was standing directly in front of him, eyes brilliant with outrage.
“Listen to me, Davis Oakes, you are not a freak. Benson Landry is a freak. Trust me, with my kind of talent, I know the difference. You are a good man, a fine man. You are a brave, honorable man. You are all the things that Landry is not.”
“Hey,” he said, taken aback by her fierceness. “I appreciate the pep talk, but I’m no hero.”
She gripped his shoulders with both hands, tried to shake him a little. “Yes, you are. You’re my hero.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him hard.
His reaction was immediate. He was suddenly hot and desperate for her. He pulled her close against his chest, aware of the gentle, ripe feel of her breasts through the thin fabric of the modest nightgown. He realized that her nipples were hard.
She did not try to retreat. As far as he could tell, she was as hungry for him as he was for her. He scooped her up in his arms and carried her back down the hall to the bedroom.
He got rid of the nightgown and dropped her lightly onto the rumpled bed. Within seconds he was out of his own clothes and falling on top of her. She was soft and damp, and the scent of her body made his head spin.
She coiled around him as she had last night, but this wasn’t like last night. Last night had been all about warmth and connection, about holding on the way you hold on to a lifeline. This morning was about headlong desire, heat, and reckless thrills.
They struggled against each other for the embrace. The wrestling was no holds barred. When her hand curled around his erection, he sucked in his breath. When he looked down at her, he saw the sensual challenge in her eyes. She opened her mouth a little, giving him a shadowy glimpse of the tip of her tongue.
In retaliation, he caught her wrists and anchored them in one hand above her head. She taunted him with a sexy, seductive smile that let him know more clearly than words that as far as she was concerned, she had won the small battle.
He kissed the smile off her mouth, leaving her gasping for air and twisting to get free. He moved his hand down the length of her body, over her breasts, past her soft belly. He found the wellspring of her damp heat and explored the swollen flesh until she went wild.
He could have sworn that invisible energy flared between them. In some way he could not explain, he was resonating with her on the psychic as well as the physical plane.
Her release gave him more satisfaction than anything he had ever experienced before in his life. He had to cover her mouth with his own to stifle her little scream of pleasure so that it would not reverberate downstairs and arouse Betty Furnell’s curiosity.
When the last of the tight little shivers inside her was finished, he released her wrists. She immediately rolled him onto his back and took him inside her.
“My turn to be on top,” she whispered, eyes alight with sultry challenge.
She was wet and tight and welcoming. Nothing had ever felt so good.
His climax hit him in surging waves that dazzled his senses a thousand times more than any dose of alien psi energy ever could.
Perfect.
Chapter 29
AN HOUR LATER SHE WAS IN THE KITCHEN MAKING breakfast. She had showered and dressed in a pair of snug, dark brown pants and a crisp white shirt. A brown head-band restrained her freshly washed hair.
Araminta and Max watched the breakfast preparations from the top of the refrigerator. Both were munching slices of fresh, sweet amberglow melon.
Davis emerged from the bedroom hallway, dressed once more in the black T-shirt and black trousers. The masculine satisfaction in his eyes made Celinda grow warm all over again.
He watched her pull the pan off the heat. “Trig said you think the relic could be used as some sort of mind control device.”
So much for cozy chitchat. She braced herself for the battle.
“I think it’s possible, yes, especially when it’s pumped up with alien psi underground.” She divided the scrambled eggs onto two plates. “I have a hunch that it requires someone with my type of talent or something similar to resonate with it, however. That’s why it sat unnoticed in the Guild vault all these months.”
“Trig also said that you want to see it turned over to a medical research lab. But if it really is a potential weapon, it’s better off under lock and key in the Guild vault.”
She put the pan down and looked at him. “We’re in dangerous territory, and there are no guarantees. But if
