seeing his hand—large, long fingers wrapping firmly about the dark handle—lift the kettle and pour steaming water into two mugs. The steam rose, wrapping about his face just as he looked up.
Dark eyes pierced her straight through. It was a physical connection that pulled her straight into the kitchen, to his side and then into his arms. She was raising her lips to his mouth long before her mind thought to object.
She felt his hand wrap around her back, and those long fingers slipped underneath her T-shirt to fire across her back. She shivered in delight and lifted up on her toes. Her lips tingled; her belly tightened. He was so close, she could see the way his eyes darkened with hunger. He wanted her; she knew it. And yet just before their lips touched, he drew away and pressed a steaming mug of tea to her mouth.
“Drink,” he ordered.
“No—” He tilted the mug and she had to sip or let it spill down her front. She pulled away as soon as she could. “I don’t want tea.” She wanted him. But he was holding her firmly away.
“Drink,” he ordered again.
She did, not because she wanted to but because there was such strength in his tone. He had the most manly voice she’d ever heard. So she wrapped her hands around his on the mug and sipped. She kept her touch seductive—a caress that slowly enveloped. She savored the hard bones of his hand and the smooth expanse of skin over long tendons. His every knuckle pressed into her palm while she held his gaze, seeing the dark pupils of his eyes expand. She pursed her lips again, this time making every sip a seduction.
Beneath her fingers, his hand trembled. She felt more than heard the groan that rumbled through his body. “You must try to control yourself. Your tigress is very strong, but your mind is stronger.”
She didn’t want to hear him. She was close enough to smell his scent. He had run over here, but his sweat wasn’t rank. It was a clean kind of smell. Exotic. Like spiced cucumber. She closed her eyes to better appreciate it. Instead, she heard his ragged inhale as he stepped backward, gently withdrawing his touch from her.
Tracy shifted, releasing him while keeping hold of the mug. She sipped again, noticing for the first time that the brew was spicy. Not sweet. She liked sweet. “This tastes like…” She abruptly sneezed. “Peppered, dirty water.” She took another sip, then another, beginning to like the bite against the back of her throat. She tasted ginseng and…“Is there pepper in this?”
“Cayenne.”
She took another deep drink as she shifted to sit at the kitchen table. “It’s good in a weird kind of way. What exactly is it?”
He joined her at the table, folding himself precisely into the chair. She met his eyes across the rim of her mug, seeing both apology and fear in his expression. Anxiety trembled across her spine, and she slowly set down her empty mug.
“What?”
“Your female energy has been awakened,” he said clearly. “It is flooding your body, giving you thoughts and feelings you—”
“Horny lightning,” she said, speaking more to herself than to him. “The tingles. The thoughts. That’s my female energy?” She didn’t want to believe him, but what he said explained the events of the last hour. Had she been on the floor? “Is there more tea?”
He nodded, crossing efficiently to his worn attaché case that she now noticed leaning against her cabinets. He drew out a metal cylinder with one hand while grabbing the kettle with the other. Within moments, he was dropping a fine powder mixed with thin dried leaves into her mug. The steam from the kettle curled about the hard angles of his face while he poured, and she felt her belly quiver at the sight.
This wasn’t good. She shouldn’t be thinking of steam baths, hot sprays, naked pulsating flesh. “I’ve never been like this.” To distract herself, she grabbed the tea container, reading the label with all the focus she could muster. “Advanced Men’s Virility Formula? You’re giving me Chinese Viagra?”
“You have too much yin,” he answered calmly as he tried to pull the tin out of her hand.
She shifted it out of his reach, turning to read the list of ingredients. “Oh, my—” She choked off her next word. “Do you know what the primary ingredient is?”
“You need more yang to balance out your yin—”
“Horny goat weed.”
“Yang is male energy. It will balance your energies. Too much yin requires more yang to stabilize—”
“Look right here.” She pointed to the list. “Horny goat weed!”
He lifted it out of her hand. “And it is making you feel better.” He pushed her full mug at her. “So drink.”
She stared at him, trying to hold on to her righteous indignation. She couldn’t. She did feel thirsty. She lifted the mug and inhaled the steam. “I can’t believe I’m drinking this stuff.”
He set the tin back on the table. “Keep it. Drink as much of it as you want.”
“I can’t keep that stuff here! What if my brother sees it?”
He held her gaze. “What if your brother sees you as you were an hour ago?”
Her face heated. Had she really purred his name?
His hand circled hers on the table—large, enveloping and so strong. “Don’t be embarrassed. Understand what is happening.”
“This will wear off, right? I mean, it’ll go away.”
“Do you really want it to?”
“Yes!” Panic was making her chest tighten. She looked down and noticed that she’d flipped her hand over and was now gripping his. There was a tingle where their palms met, a flow of heat and serenity that whispered up her wrist into her arm. “What are you doing?” she cried. She wanted to leap away, but it felt too good.
“You need more yang to balance the yin,” he answered. “I am giving you mine. Or what little is left of it.”
“Your what?”
“My male power. I am giving you mine. Don’t you feel how it makes you more balanced?”
She quieted a moment, trying to feel. It was hard. Her heart was beating triple time and her breath stuttered in and out in rapid puffs.
“Quiet your mind. Your body will follow,” he instructed.
She swallowed, trying to do what he wanted. But her mind was racing. This couldn’t be happening to her. It was a scam. She’d been drugged. She’d drunk his tea. What was going on?
She heard him huff in frustration, then a movement. Her eyes shot open a split second before it happened. She saw his face so close, and then he was kissing her. The motion was so sudden, the action so unexpected that at first all Tracy could do was gasp in surprise. But then she felt a surge of heat against her lips and the stroke of his tongue as he penetrated her mouth. She opened herself to him—to his power as he filled her, to his thrust even as she began to meet him, to toy with him. Her belly tightened, her blood surged, and between one heartbeat and the next, she had absolute clarity of thought. She wanted him. Now.
Then he pulled away. “Listen carefully and quickly,” he said, his voice thick and raw. “This passion is yours. It is clear and powerful, and it can consume you. But your sexuality is your right. Do you really want to throw it away?”
“No. God, no!” She had never felt so alive. She was aware of everything. Her breath as it filled her lungs, the heat in her face, the position of her thighs. Other details appeared with stark clarity, as well: the angular cut of his jaw, the way his button-down shirt was undone at the collar revealing smooth skin, the jut of his Adam’s apple. “I stopped thinking of boys—of men—when my parents died. There wasn’t time for that. But lately…” From the moment she’d met him, she’d started fantasizing again. She’d started thinking of being a woman again. It was time. She’d lost so much when her parents had died.
“Good,” he answered softly. “It is good to be a whole woman, isn’t it?” Then he leaned forward. “Let me teach you how to control this power.”
“Yes.” She abruptly grabbed his arms to pull him even closer. “Yes, I want to learn everything. Right now, Nathan. I want to do it all!”
Chapter 6
