Running Hot (The Arcane Society #5)(25)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

“I told you, it was my own fault.” He paused, watching her very steadily. “Does it bother you?”

“Of course it does. It was obviously a very serious injury.”

“That’s not what I meant. Does it turn you off?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I was just concerned, that’s all. Was it a car accident?”

“No.” He opened his wallet and took out a condom packet.

“Does it still hurt?”

“Aches a little sometimes.” He sheathed himself in the condom. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not discuss it. Sort of takes the glow out of the moment, if you know what I mean.”

She blushed. “Wouldn’t want to do that.”

He gave her another sexy smile and settled her back down onto the bed and loomed over her.

“On that we are in perfect agreement,” he said softly.

He put one hand on her breast. She was intensely aware of the heat of his palm through the fabric of the nightgown. She closed her hands around his shoulders. A shudder swept through him. His aura flared higher. It seemed to her that in some way it was starting to resonate with hers. A glorious sense of her own feminine power soared within her.

He moved his hand deliberately up the inside of her thigh to the hot, full place between her legs. He started to stroke her the way he had the night before, as though he knew exactly what she wanted and needed. She sensed the now-familiar pulse of his energy.

Damn. He did know exactly what she wanted and needed. He was reading her aura to see what worked and what didn’t.

“Wait a second,” she gasped. “I think that’s cheating.”

“All’s fair in love and war.”

He did something with his fingers that shocked her senses in the most delicious way. Of their own accord, her legs stirred amid the rumpled sheets, opening for him.

Impulsively she reached down and wrapped her fingers around him. He sucked in a deep lungful of air and exhaled on a groan. She did not need to see his aura to know that she was pressing all the correct buttons.

“You’re right,” she said, savoring his reaction. “All’s fair.”

He was hard and solid and very erect. She watched him with her other vision as she explored him, discovering exactly where and how to touch him. The sexual excitement in his hot energy field began to resonate harder and faster, emboldening her. She had never tried anything like this with anyone else. The game was compelling, addictive; and her learning curve was very fast, thanks to the feedback she got from his aura.

She heard a low, husky laugh and knew that Luther knew that she was watching him in the same incredibly intimate way that he was watching her.

“You are definitely getting the hang of this,” he growled. He captured her wrists and pinned them over her head. “But I’m not going to let you end things too soon.”

She smiled sweetly and raised one hip a little, nudging him. Distracted, he reached down with his free hand, bringing his shoulder within range of her mouth. She nipped him lightly, letting him feel her teeth.

“I should have seen that coming,” he muttered. “Okay, you’ve made your point.”

He freed her wrists and she went back to her explorations. So did he. The sensual battle grew increasingly fierce and exciting, each of them trying to push the other to a higher level of excitement.

And then Luther was on top of her, driving himself deeply into her. She gripped his shoulders, raised her knees and tightened around him. Invisible light and fire flashed in the atmosphere of the bedroom. She held him even closer, possessive and demanding in a way she had never been with any other man. She felt his muscles harden under her clutching hands. Her insides clenched tighter and tighter.

Luther’s entire body went rigid. Beneath her palms, the muscles of his back could have been sculpted from steel. With an effort, she managed to open her eyes. The morning light revealed the savage set of his hard face. It was the expression of a man on the verge of either sexual release or lethal violence.

He opened his eyes and saw her watching him. He did not speak. She knew that, like her, he could not. They were both too far gone into the whirling fire. But in that heartbeat of time she sensed a flash of intense awareness—a kind of mutual recognition—resonating between them.

Before she had time to analyze the strange new energy, her climax rolled through her, stealing her breath. A heartbeat later Luther followed her over the edge.

For a timeless moment she could have sworn that their auras fused into a single energy field that enveloped them both.

Which was, of course, quite impossible according to the laws of paraphysics.

TWELVE

There was only one other person in the elevator, a woman swathed in one of the hotel’s plush white spa robes. Luther stifled a grin when he sensed Grace’s disappointment. He knew that she had been hoping to test her sense of touch on someone else to determine the extent of the “cure.”

When they reached the terrace where the open-air restaurant was located, Grace got out first. He followed, thinking that he couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so good, so refreshed.

“Can you use that aura manipulation trick to make a woman get instantly hot for you?” Grace asked with what sounded like academic curiosity.

The urge to smile vanished instantly. He knew a trap when he saw one.

“Damn it, Grace, keep your voice down.”

He looked around quickly, hoping for a distraction. But none of the half-dozen people in the airy colonnade that led to the restaurant were close enough to eavesdrop. So much for that excuse. He lowered his own voice and injected as much steel into it as possible.

“Doesn’t work like that,” he said.

“You can’t blame me for being curious. I haven’t come across your particular talent in any of my genealogy research.”

He put on his sunglasses and looked at her. She had taken a shower after the hot, sweaty sex. Her still-wet hair was combed back behind her ears. She had on a pair of trousers and another one of her long-sleeved shirts. The sleeves of the shirt were rolled up almost to her elbows, though. A very daring move.

“I’m not some small electric you can plug in whenever it’s convenient,” he muttered.

“No,” she agreed. “You are definitely not a small appliance. So? What’s the answer?”

“We’re about to eat breakfast. Usually I read newspapers when I’m eating breakfast. Could we have this conversation some other time?”

“A simple yes or no will do.”