Ghost Hunter

'I won't.'

'I need to get out of here.' He shoved himself away from the banister and started toward the door.

'I don't think so.' She hurried down the stairs. 'You're not in any shape to drive, especially given the fog. You'll have to stay here tonight.'

'Bad idea. I'll be back in the morning.'

'I'm not going to let you leave.'

'Be okay.' He kept walking toward the door.

'Like heck you will.' She rushed past him and flung herself in front of the door, barring his path. 'Stop right where you are. I mean it. You cannot possibly intend to drive that Spectrum anywhere tonight. You're a danger to yourself and others.'

He blinked a couple of times and then nodded, reluctantly acknowledging the obvious.

'You're right. I'll sleep in it, instead,' he said.

'You will do no such thing. This isn't the most dangerous neighborhood in the Old Quarter, but it isn't exactly Ruin View Drive with lots of private security patrols, either. One of the shops in this very block was broken into just a few days ago. Trust me, you do not want to sleep in the back of a car in that alley. That would be asking for trouble.'

He shook his head. 'Can't stay here.'

'Look, we both know that you're going to crash big time after that energy burn. I've got a perfectly good sofa upstairs. Why not use it?'

His eyes went very, very blue. 'Because even though I'm going to crash in a little while, right now I'm burning up, that's why.'

'You've got a fever?' Alarmed, she stepped forward and put her palm on his forehead. 'Oh, dear, you do feel warm.'

'Not that kind of fever. Get out of my way, Elly, I'm warning you.'

He jerked away from her hand, moved around her, and yanked open the door.

'Warning me about what?' she asked, following him out onto the small back stoop.

He circled the Spectrum to open the door on the driver's side and paused to look at her over the roof of the vehicle. In the dim glow of the light above the doorway his face was an implacable mask.

'Remember what I told you earlier after I summoned that small ghost to take care of that mugger we ran into?' he said evenly. 'About how I could handle the rush before the crash?'

'Yes.'

'Well, that was true for routine ghosts. But this one was a blue.'

'And you melted amber to deal with it,' she whispered, comprehending at last. He was in a state of intense lust. And he was trying to protect her from himself.

He scrubbed his face with one hand. 'As much as I hate to ruin my macho Guild boss image, I gotta tell you, it has been a very long eight months and five days. Not that I'm counting.'

He slid into the driver's seat.

Eight months and five days. He was counting, Elly thought.

She felt her heart rate escalate.

'Cooper, wait.'

She went down the steps, yanked open the passenger side door, got in beside him, and slammed the door shut.

'Cooper, are you saying you haven't dated anyone since I left Aurora Springs?'

He gazed straight ahead through the windshield. 'Get out of the car, Elly, for both our sakes.'

'Not until I know why you haven't slept with anyone in the past eight months and five days.'

He turned, one arm stretching along the back of the seat of the car.

'I haven't wanted anyone else,' he said. 'Just you.'

The fog closed in around the Spectrum. The close confines of the interior of the front seat seemed almost unbearably intimate.

Careful, Elly thought, you're over-rezzed yourself tonight. All that adrenaline earlier and now the man who has been invading your dreams for the past few months is telling you he wants you. And you want him. You've wanted him from day one. That's why you seized the excuse of knowing he was in town tonight to track him down to ask for his help.

'Cooper-'

'Get out of the car.'

She ignored that. 'I didn't think you felt that way about me.'

'You were wrong. Now, please, get the hell out of the damn car.'

Her blood fizzed in her veins. She felt light-headed. Anticipation heated her insides. She touched the side of his stone-hard face.

'I'd rather kiss you,' she said, feeling more daring than she had ever felt in her entire life.

'Bad idea. If you kiss me, I can't promise that I'll be able to stop.'

'Who said anything about stopping?'

She leaned toward him and kissed him lightly on the mouth.

For a fraction of an instant, Cooper went utterly still. In the next heartbeat, he claimed the kiss with a rough groan, crushing her against the back of the passenger seat. His mouth was fierce and hot and ruthless.

Energy-sexual, not psi-flashed inside the front seat of the Spectrum, engulfing her senses.

Cooper moved closer, pushing hard against her. Heat came off of his body in waves. His mouth shifted to her throat. She felt his hand glide up under her sweater. Somehow he got her bra undone. She could feel his fingers shaking a little. Or maybe she was the one who was trembling.

The next thing she knew, his thumb was scraping lightly over her nipple. She almost screamed at his touch. Her skin had never felt so incredibly sensitive.

'Cooper.'

He raised his head to look down at her. He was breathing heavily.

'Did I hurt you?'

'No, no.'

Her head tipped back against the seat. She braced herself against the onslaught by clamping her hands on either side of his lean, solid chest. He was hot, so hot. And so was she.

He grabbed a fistful of her skirt and shoved the garment up to her waist. Her panties vanished in the next instant.

He propped her right foot on the dash, opening her. His fingers stroked deep. She was suddenly aware that she was already very damp.

'Talk about melting amber,' he whispered.

He moved in the shadows, turning them both so that he was the one sitting in the passenger seat. Somehow she was astride him.

She could no longer see anything at all through the Spectrum's windows. It wasn't just the thick mist outside that limited the view. The glass itself was seriously fogged on the inside.

So much heat. Exhilaration and urgency made her shiver in Cooper's arms.

His hand moved between her thighs. Everything inside her was growing tighter.

She reached down and unfastened his trousers. His rigid erection surged into her hand.

He gripped her hips, cupping her buttocks in the palms of his hands. Positioning her where he wanted her, he slowly, carefully eased her downward.

When she felt the size of him, her body tensed involuntarily against the sensual invasion. Her fingers clenched around his shoulders, and she froze.

'Open for me,' he whispered, his voice husky with need. 'Got to be inside you. Waited so damn long.'

She felt herself precariously balanced on the bright line between pain and pleasure.

'This may not work,' she gasped.

He took one hand off her thigh and did something to the delicate, exquisitely sensitized little nubbin between her legs. Without warning her climax rolled through her, stealing her breath and her voice.

'It'll work,' he said.