Gray swung to sit down and lifted her effortlessly onto his lap. Dark and light colors—red, green, purple, orange, a rim of silver—spun and he couldn’t tell if it was really out there or just in his mind. He didn’t care.
She pushed her fingers into his hair and he kissed her.
Their gasps mingled. Their mouths explored, testing one angle and another, their teeth nibbling at each other’s lips, their tongues reaching to steal away sensation.
Gray’s whole body ached.
He covered her breast and cried out. She was like fire and ice and he felt as if their naked bodies were layered together. Sweat broke out along his spine.
“Don’t stop,” he whispered. “Never stop.”
A voice faintly penetrated his mind: “Get a room,” followed by a chuckle. While he pulsed and grew closer to a climax, Gray raised his head to see a boy of about fifteen.
The kid stood there, moving gum from one side of his mouth to the other and grinning. “I’m savin’ you from yourself, man,” he said. “You can thank me later.” And he took off, laughing loudly.
Chapter 21
Marley looked through the cab window, but didn’t see anything but a passing blur. The episode with Gray on the sidewalk meant that even if she never saw him again, she was forever changed.
She couldn’t talk to Uncle Pascal about this.
Although she must have been told about it, Willow would only pretend she had never heard of the Bonding. The relationship she had with Benedict Fortune ended abruptly and Marley’s assumption had been that they simply hadn’t Bonded. Although Benedict had left New Orleans immediately after the two separated and relationships between the two families had become strained…One day she would try to ask Willow what had happened.
Marley absolutely would not discuss Bonding with Sykes.
She growled inwardly. Where were her other sisters when she needed them? She was sure one of them had gotten at least a hint of the amazing experience Marley had just had.
In accordance with tradition, on her twelfth birthday—and to her awful embarrassment—her mother told her about the Bonding, or what it meant to find the perfect partner.
Marley sneaked a glance across the backseat of the cab at Gray, but started to feel pink and looked away again.
When a Millet met a suitable partner, their physical reactions to each other were exquisitely heightened. And the first time they made love was a test involving pain before explosive consummation.
She sank lower in the seat. She refused to let herself consider it all deeply, not now.
One thing she couldn’t ignore was that although the Millets were not casual, they were eager lovers. She already knew that when they fell for someone only to discover the ultimate chemistry wasn’t there, the disappointment was crushing.
She did question if exactly the same circumstances applied to male Millets as to female.
The sensations she’d had just looking at Gray coming toward her on that sidewalk, then touching him and having him touch her—their kiss—didn’t point to disappointment in any department.
She shivered.
Gray had paranormal powers, she was certain of that now. There had been too many episodes of mind- meeting to ignore. What did it mean? Should she help him develop his potential? Would he want that? Would he even accept there was anything “abnormal” about him, as Willow would say?
“It’s going to be okay,” Gray said. “Relax. I got a bit carried away back there, is all. Probably because I was tense, then I was relieved to see you were there and okay.”
He didn’t get it that the connection he felt to her was unusual when they’d only known each other for such a short time? She kept her distance, leaning against the door.
“You don’t understand,” she told him.
“I understand we’re attracted to each other.” He snorted. “That’s a bit weak, isn’t it? In the short time I’ve known you, you’ve taken me from thinking you’re interesting and sexy, to needing you so badly, I hurt.”
“That’s a bit weak, too,” she said. “You didn’t just hurt, did you? You were in real pain.” She should not have said that to him and she wouldn’t admit to feeling sensations too wild and raw for her to have contained them if there hadn’t been an interruption.
“Why don’t you want me to know what you felt?” he said.
Marley didn’t trust herself to say anything.
“I want you,” he said. In his need he looked haunted. “I’ve got to know if we’re—Are we going to do something about this?”
“Yeah,” he said, trying to hold her hand. “Much more than a problem and we both know what that is.”
He had taken his first shot of the vaunted Millet Sexual Compatibility Potential Assessment like a man. She smiled very faintly. Anything less from him would have been a surprise. He was virile, incredibly strong and currently distracted from what should be his main purpose. Whether they liked it or not, they were tied into a crime wave.
“You haven’t told me what went on inside that house,” she said.
“It can wait.”
“No, it can’t. Time is something we don’t have, Gray. Do you have any idea how helpless it feels not to be able to find Liza and Amber when I’ve seen both of them? It feels as if I’m treading very deep water and I can’t move. It’s desperate!”
“I know, I know. We’re doing the best we can.”
He ran a forefinger along the side of her hand where it rested on the seat. They both sucked in a sharp breath.
“We can’t get into our feelings now,” Marley said. “Why are we going to the Faubourg Marigny?”
“I live there. And work there.”
She stiffened. “No, Gray. I know what you’re thinking and this isn’t the time.” There might never be a time for them, but he couldn’t even guess the energy it would cost him to make love to her—if he was what she suspected him to be: her predestined Bond Partner. If she tried to explain the danger she could be to him, he wouldn’t believe her.
Neither of them were ready.
“Relax,” he said and she could see muscles jerking in his cheek. “If it’s okay with you I need to check in on my father before we do anything else. He isn’t in great shape.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. Until now she hadn’t thought about his family or even where he might live. “You live with your dad?”
“My dad lives in part of the house. He’s in a wheelchair. He can get out into the sunroom at the back, but that’s about it. He’s quite a guy. Never complains. I’ve never heard him say, ‘why me?’ even once.”
She didn’t need to remark on seeing how much Gray loved his father. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked. “If it’s okay for me to ask?”
“It’s complicated. His bones are deteriorating. It started ten years ago. We thought he’d just live with it and do fine, but he’s in a wheelchair now.” He sucked in a corner of his mouth. “I think seeing him looking so much smaller is the hardest, and what an effort it is for him to do even the little things.”
“You’ll want to be with him on your own,” she said. “Why don’t I carry straight on once you get out at your place?”
“I’d like you to meet Gus.”
Marley took in a breath. “Okay.” She couldn’t refuse to see his sick father.
