now, it continued outside her body, then curled back in, drawing up that bright cord from clit to womb, adding more velocity to the flow, more current. More power.
An eternal feedback loop of fire. It grew and grew until she felt pierced by a river of light. Expanding through her groin, widening through her belly as the orgasmic pump pushed the energy upward again.
She began to scream. It wasn’t a single cry, but an ever-expanding sound that engulfed her. She was no longer a body encasing a river. She became the river. Her body was simply a small part—the smallest part—of an ever-growing circle of sensation.
Her mind shut down. She was a river of joy. She was beyond anything she had ever known.
Ecstasy.
NATHAN GENTLY SETTLED Tracy on his bed, taking time to cover her though her body still burned with yin fire. He didn’t even have to touch her to feel her heat. She radiated like the sun and he closed his eyes for a moment just to appreciate it.
Her yin power washed over him, warm and sensuous but with the strength that was integral to her character. He took a deep breath. And then another. And in the third, clarity flashed through his mind.
It was happening again. The forbidden event, and the real reason he had chosen to go to school in the United States. He was falling in love with a student. Attachments were inevitable between teacher and pupil, but this was more. When he saw Tracy, he didn’t just take pride in her progress, in the shift from skeptic to tigress. He saw the fierce love she poured into this building and the softening in her eyes when she spoke about her brother. She was a tigress in more ways than her sexuality. And he was falling hard for her.
He sighed and forced himself to step away. She was a tigress. She belonged at the temple. And he…He had no wish to go back there again. His life was ahead of him, not back in Hong Kong with greedy tigresses.
Though it tore at his soul to admit it, he could no longer stay around Tracy. He had to end their relationship now before he lost himself in her. He would not fall in love with Tracy.
He booted up his laptop and began composing an e-mail to the Tigress Mother and the head male practitioner Dragon Stephen Chu. With the right words, he could ensure that Tracy had a place at the temple. Even more, he knew that after a few choice hints, Stephen would move heaven and earth to get this newest tigress beside him in Hong Kong.
Within a week, Tracy would probably be half a world away.
Chapter 10
TRACY WOKE ON A LUMPY mattress to the sound of…horse racing? She rolled over and blinked her eyes. It was nearly pitch-black and a little cold, so she wrapped the thin blanket tighter about her body. Nathan’s scent rose with the fabric, and she buried her nose to inhale even more deeply.
She was in his bedroom after he had opened up her feminine aspect or something. She didn’t much care. It had felt fantastic. In fact, her body still felt as if it were vibrating—a background kind of hum that quivered at the base of her spine. All that was missing was Nathan himself.
And silence. She could hear his neighbor clearly through the wall. He was talking in a wheedling tone to someone. Wow, who’d have thought 4B could be that loud or that irritating, even through the walls?
Tracy climbed out of bed, bringing the blanket with her as she wrapped it around her naked body. It was thin and a little scratchy, but she liked the sensation. It stirred the fireflies still flitting beneath her skin. Then she saw him. Nathan was sitting in the far corner holding a flashlight on his textbook, his light blocked by his desk. He looked up as she approached.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
She grinned. “Fantastic. You?”
“I am well, thank you.” His voice was flat, his expression platonic, and Tracy felt her smile fade. The silence began to stretch only to be filled with a loud curse from the other room and the sound of a television being kicked off. She frowned.
“My neighbor,” he answered, though she hadn’t asked. “He likes horse racing.”
“What time is it?”
“Nearly three.”
“They air racing at this hour?”
Nathan shrugged. “He tapes it, studies the horses, then calls his bookie to make bets.”
Tracy pursed her lips. “Guess I’m going to have to put some more soundproofing in the walls.” Then she abruptly gasped. “Three in the morning! The football game. I can’t believe I slept that long.”
He reached to his side and picked up her cell phone, handing it over to her. “I used your cell phone. I didn’t mean to pry but your brother kept calling. I think he was very worried about you.”
“My brother called—”
“I texted him with your phone. I told him you were exhausted and fell asleep.”
Fear tightened her chest. “You told Joey I fell asleep in your apartment?”
“I didn’t identify myself except as a tenant. He was worried about you, wondered if he should come home, but I texted that you were working on plumbing repairs and fell asleep. I hope that’s all right.”
She nodded absently, moving through the messages between Nathan and her brother. It ended with Joey saying he’d spend the night at Tommy’s again, that they’d catch up in the morning. In short, all was well. Joey didn’t have to know what she’d been doing with the anonymous tenant unless she wanted to tell him. And Nathan had been unfailingly kind in both letting her sleep and covering for her with her brother.
It was the kind of sweetness she expected from a boyfriend. Except Nathan was acting nothing like a lover right then. He was wearing a thin T-shirt pulled taut over his sculpted torso and a loose gray pair of sweatpants. His bare feet seemed large and strangely sexy. In short, he was dressed the part—even giving her every iota of his attention—but there was a coldness in the air that had nothing to do with the weather.
She slowly sank onto a cushion, but she had no idea what to say. How did you ask a man if he’d suddenly lost interest? “Um…so you’re studying, huh?”
He nodded and for a moment Tracy caught a flash of anguish in his eyes. He gave her no other clue as he sat as still as a statue, the only sign of life in the intensity of his dark gaze.
“Nathan, what’s going on? Why won’t you talk to me?”
“I…How do you feel?”
“I already told you. I feel fantastic. How do you feel?”
“Your yin energy is very strong.” His expression softened. “It buzzes in my mind and gives me such joy.”
Joy was good. “So why so serious?”
He sighed and his softness disappeared. “I have contacted my mother in Hong Kong. She leads the temple there.” He swallowed. “She has matched you with a new teacher. He is one of the best and has guided many tigresses to the immortal realm.”
A chill entered her body and she wrapped the blanket even tighter. “A new teacher. I don’t understand.”
“Your yin gates are open. You have wakened your tigress, and as such have passed well beyond the initial stages of training. It is now time for the next level.”
“So you teach me.”
He shook his head, his gaze canting away from her. “I can’t.”
Her jaw clenched and her shoulders tightened, but she kept her voice low despite the noise still coming from his neighbor’s. “Nathan, I need a little more explanation than wham, you’re dumping me.”
His eyes flashed to hers. “I am not dumping you! The temple has rules that have existed for generations. The first teacher can never, ever be the second.”
“Why?”
His face didn’t move, but his hands did. His fingers clenched on his textbook so tightly that he ripped the page partially out of the binding. When he noticed what he had done, he slammed the book shut with a curse. Then he abruptly pushed to his feet, his gaze cold as he practically spit out his words. “It is the rule.”
She watched him move to the sink of his kitchenette and angrily run water into a kettle that he banged onto a hot plate. She didn’t know what to think. He was obviously upset. But about what? That he could no longer teach
