sex didn’t send her into a tizzy like some Victorian virgin. So why the hell was all the blood in her body rushing toward her face, the blush spreading across her chest and down her arms until even her palms heated?
And Prometheus saw it all. Those eerie jet-black eyes saw far too much.
He wanted to have sex with her. The idea wasn’t nearly as repulsive as she would have liked it to be. In fact, something rebellious and needy was working its way through her veins, honing in on her core.
“I see. Ah.” The words came out weak and thready. She coughed, clearing her throat. “Moving on. Will you do everything in your power to ensure that none of my people are harmed in the process of assisting you?”
“As long as it doesn’t interfere with my own well-being.”
“Truth.”
Not an ideal answer, but it was all she could expect from him. “And will you, to the best of your abilities, assist me and my people as I see fit for the next three weeks, as you have agreed to do?”
He took longer than she would have liked to think that one over. Eventually, answering with a reluctant, “I will.”
Ronna hesitated. “Truth. I think.”
“You’re asking about intentions.” Prometheus shrugged. “The road to hell is paved with good ones, but if it helps, I’m feeling about ninety percent cooperative. You aren’t going to get a better offer than that.”
This time Ronna’s response was instantaneous. “Truth.”
Prometheus smiled, the curve of his lips a sinful invitation. His wicked eyes kept Karma in his sights—and made it impossible for her to think clearly. She wasn’t this woman, easily manipulated by her hormones. But no matter how many times she told herself that, it didn’t change the fact that a single mention of sex had thrown her thoughts into disarray.
No. She couldn’t think of that now. She needed to focus. What other questions did she have for him? What other lies had he fed her in the last twenty-four hours?
She’d had a dozen questions neatly organized in her mind, every avenue covered so he couldn’t wiggle through and leave out a chunk of the truth. Now all those questions blurred together into a flustered glob. God, why couldn’t she think straight?
She wished she could blame him for her distraction, but she was the one who’d pushed. She had asked. She’d practically forced him to confess his attraction. How unethical was that? Yes, it had been accidental, but the purpose of bringing Ronna in hadn’t been to invade his private thoughts. Karma had needed to make sure he didn’t have ulterior motives. That he wasn’t going to hurt her people. Beyond that, she had no right to abuse Ronna’s power to learn more.
“Do you intend to use the information you gather about me and my people to hurt or exploit us in any way?”
“I hadn’t planned on it, but now that you mention it, it’s not a bad idea.” He held up his free hand before Ronna could pass judgment on his statement. “Kidding. No, I won’t exploit you or your people, angel. There’s no profit for me in it. No longer term profit, anyway, since you’d probably come after me with a chainsaw if I harmed a single hair on a single pretty little consultant head.”
“Truth.”
That would have to do. If nothing else, she would hope his fear of her chainsaw-wielding skills would keep him in line. “All right. We’ll stop there for now.” Ronna released Prometheus’s hand and Karma gave her a grateful nod. “Thank you for your assistance, Ronna. If you wouldn’t mind staying for a moment longer…”
“Sure. Do you want us to…?” Ronna pointed toward the outer office.
Karma shook her head, hoping the gesture didn’t look as desperate as she felt. She did
Prometheus stretched out on the couch, entirely too comfortable in her space for her liking. “I take it I’m being dismissed?”
“I’ll have work for you tomorrow. If you really mean what you said about assisting me for the next three weeks, you’ll help me now by leaving.”
“Guess I can’t argue with that.” He rolled to his feet, slowly straightening to his full height. His gaze met hers and held, magnetic, drawing her in and making her feel like they were the only two people in the world, let alone the office, even though Ronna and Matt waited next to her desk not ten feet away. “If you can think of any reason you might need me,” Prometheus said in silky invitation, “any reason at all, you know how to find me.”
Her heart was still hammering when the door closed behind him. Karma took a moment to collect herself, then raised her chin, shot her cuffs and strode around her desk, gathering more composure with each purposeful step. By the time she faced Ronna and Matt, she felt like herself again.
“I’ll be brief and then you can get back to your weekend. I apologize again for the necessity.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ronna said, taking one of the chairs facing the desk, Matt settling down beside her. “You saved Matt from being nagged into retiling the bathroom, and a chance to get a hand on the infamous Prometheus? I wouldn’t miss it. The man was a fascinating read.”
Karma folded her hands on top of her desk, fighting the urge to lean forward that would betray her eagerness. “You didn’t hold anything back, did you? He was really truthful? And you didn’t…” She hesitated, feeling strangely like her next question was crossing a line even though it was standard debriefing protocol following one of Ronna’s reads. “You didn’t get anything else?”
“He was as truthful as he knows how to be.” Ronna shrugged. “He could easily have been hiding more. I didn’t pick up any surface thoughts or anything like that, though when I first touched him I did get a few images, but they went by too quickly for me to get a good look. Mostly I got an overwhelming sense of
“Any other insights?”
Ronna frowned, her eyes going distant. “He’s not immoral, so much as amoral. When people are lying to themselves or rationalizing their behavior, sometimes I’ll hear echoes of that, but Prometheus doesn’t seem to know how to second guess himself. Just not wired that way, I guess. He’s very linear.” Her eyes focused sharply and her face lit with a smile. “Like you! He felt very similar to when I read you.”
Matt stood, taking Ronna’s hand. “Glad you called us. Can’t be too careful with something like that.”
Now all she had to do was figure out what she was going to do with him for the next three weeks.
“No. Absolutely not. No fucking way.”
Karma stared down her favorite exorcist, waiting for him to complete his tantrum. She reminded herself that she liked Rodriguez, even when he was being a pain in the ass. The tattooed bad boy with a heart of gold had always reminded her a little of Jake. She tried to focus on that now—rather than the fact that he was making her life difficult. Or the throbbing pressure that had been building inside her skull all morning. Her patience was shot, but it wasn’t Rodriguez’s fault she hadn’t been able to get more than twenty consecutive minutes of sleep the night before, plagued by a series of nasty premonitions, including several of the drowning variety.
She’d called Ciara as soon as Ronna and Matt departed yesterday, determined to warn her to be especially careful in her pool for the next week, but the finder hadn’t answered her phone. That in itself wasn’t unusual— Ciara always ignored her phone when she was working and she kept odd hours. Karma had left a message, telling herself she was overreacting, that she had days before the dream crossed into reality. But the hunch that something was seriously wrong refused to leave her. When Ciara still hadn’t called back by the evening, Karma had swung by her house.
Ciara was a shut-in. Because of the painful psychic dissonance she felt at the slightest physical touch, she
