Naughty Karma

power in her and she didn’t even know it. Or if she knew it, she wished she didn’t. This was a woman with incredible powers of self-denial. But she was polite. No, thank you.

Prometheus had never seen the point of politeness.

“I won’t agree to no sex or no unethical behavior, but I’ll try to keep things legal. Good enough?”

She tapped one blood-red nail, ignoring his question. “How long will this training take?”

“Don’t rush a miracle man. You get lousy miracles.”

“I need to know how much time to allot to this in my schedule.”

“Why don’t we do it after hours? I can get back to my shop; you can do your consultant thing.” And he got her alone at night. “Everybody wins.”

“I still need to know how much time.”

“Please tell me you don’t schedule every waking minute of your day.”

She simply looked at him. Of course she did.

“Fine, you want an answer? Honestly, I have no idea how long it’s going to take. It’s not like I make a habit of un-repressing people with stopped-up psychic gifts. And even if I did, for all I know you might be the most repressed case yet, or some kind of psychic prodigy who gets it on the first try. You’re just going to have to go with it and see what happens.”

“I don’t like playing things by ear.”

“That doesn’t surprise me, but I don’t see any other way to play it. If you want to play with me.”

“I’ll work with you. Can you start tonight? Seven?”

“It’s a date.”

She nodded and picked up a pen, making a note—probably writing him into her agenda. “I’ll see you tonight.”

He let her dismiss him, straightening out of his chair and offering her a bow, before turning and strolling toward the door, tossing one last dig over his shoulder as he went. “By the way, sweetheart, I can see your energy change every time we talk about sex. We both know you wouldn’t be so reluctant to talk about it if you weren’t so interested.”

He didn’t wait to see her blush.

Chapter Fourteen Relaxation for Beginners

He was late.

Karma glared at the clock, mentally cursing Prometheus for every second of the six minutes he’d made her wait so far. It was such an obvious power play. Such a cheap ploy to prove he was the one setting the rules, establishing the schedule.

She went through her mental exercises one more time, clearing her head even though she couldn’t clear her emotions. She wasn’t used to walking into situations blind, but she hadn’t known how to prepare for her first lesson in being psychic.

Why had she thought this was a good idea? She didn’t trust him, didn’t like his methods and didn’t particularly want to spend any more time with the man who made her feel…unhinged. He challenged her in a way no one else ever had, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. How could he be a good choice to teach her to use her abilities? He had no moral compass. And he was late. Eight minutes and counting.

Clearly, she needed to learn to access her abilities rather than repressing them, but there had to be someone better suited to training her. Unfortunately, alternatives weren’t thick on the ground. Most of her consultants were self-trained, having figured out how to use their abilities in self-defense when they first developed. Those who had received outside training had come from religions—both eastern and western—but though the Catholic church could train a good exorcist, they weren’t much help with channels who happened to dream the future. In her experience, those who said they could help her—the “specialists” her brother had found for her over the years—were all charlatans and frauds. She’d even gone to a few shrinks, but after the third time she was asked to explain how her dreams made her feel, she’d lost interest in that particular line of focusing her energy.

In all the years she’d been dealing with her affliction, she’d never had a breakthrough like she’d had with Prometheus. And he’d made it seem easy. He was a cocky, unethical bastard who thought he knew everything about everyone, but he’d helped. Which was more than anyone else had ever been able to do.

But the bald truth was the man unsettled her. That was the heart of her problem with him. Was that it? Was it her problem? Had she been inventing a problem with his methods, his attitudes, because she was too unnerved by him to accept what he was offering? Not that she was attracted to him, per se, but there was no denying he was magnetic. And when he’d kissed her…

The door flew open and Karma spun toward it guiltily. Not that she had any reason to be guilty. He was the one who was late. It wasn’t like he could read her thoughts—thank God. That she knew of. Unless he’d been lying when he said he couldn’t read minds… No. She would not make herself crazy.

His presence consumed the room again, but this time instead of strolling around marking every inch as his, he walked straight for her. “You ready?”

Karma centered herself, drawing up her chin to face him. “You’re late.”

A dark brow lifted. “Didn’t you know when I’d be here? Isn’t that one of your little tricks?”

She hadn’t. Was he exempt? No, she’d sensed him before. Had she short-circuited her early warning system? “How do you know about that?”

“Your secretary is a chatty little thing. I think I only understand about a third of what she says, but what I do understand is very enlightening. She adores you, by the way. And she thinks I’m fascinating. Smart girl.”

“Now, aren’t you glad the demon you summoned didn’t succeed in killing her?”

He groaned. “Are we ever going to get beyond that? I’ve sworn in the presence of your lie detector that I never intended to hurt any of your people. What more do you want me to say? Don’t I get any bonus points for saving that girl yesterday?”

He was right. She was holding his past crimes against him like a shield, to keep him at a distance. Which, considering how he’d been doing everything she asked—albeit amid smartass remarks and unsanctioned cursing of frat boys—was unfair of her. Time to be the better woman and let bygones be gone. “You’re right. I’m sorry. You have my word that I won’t mention it again. I’m grateful for your assistance. Shall we get started?”

“You going soft on me, Karma?”

Of course he had to pick a fight, even over the fact that they weren’t going to fight anymore. “We’ve already lost,” she glanced at her watch, “fifteen minutes. Why waste any more time?”

“Always skipping the foreplay, eh, angel? You’ve got it.” He rolled up his sleeves. “For starters, why don’t you show me what you’ve been doing?”

Karma nodded crisply and marched over to the screen that hid her meditation area, focusing on keeping things businesslike and professional so she didn’t have to acknowledge how much of herself she was exposing to him. There was a reason this area was screened off. She didn’t let people see her like this, see inside her, see her coping mechanisms.

She slipped out of her heels and knelt, carefully smoothing her skirt. She closed her eyes, but could still feel him looming behind her. It wasn’t his towering height that made his presence so overwhelming, it was something about him, something about the way he seemed to own every space he entered. His power rippled out around him; whether he was still or in motion, it was always flexing, brushing against her spine, curving a teasing finger up the nape of her neck until goose bumps rose on her arms.

Karma took a breath and started her exercises again, clearing, concentrating, taking command of her wayward senses, finding that central point where everything was calm and controlled.

“Wrong.”

She jerked at the sound of his voice, her eyes snapping open. “Excuse me?”