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the glass on the night table, but already she looked calmer.
Good. The more she relaxed, the easier this would be.
He pulled the chair from the desk up beside the bed and cradled both her
hands in his to steady her. "What did you see?"
"Monsters. Monsters that change into men."
The images were clear in her mind, vivid in their detail. They wouldn't be
easy to overwrite.
"Start from the beginning." Still holding her hands, he stroked her wrists
with his thumbs. Her pulse pounded beneath his touch. "You were in Jackson's
office. Tell me what you saw."
As she described the scene outside the bay window, he built the image in his
mind and focused it at her. Her real memories and his made-up ones wavered
side by side as she spoke, then gradually began to merge like two identical
transparencies laid one on top of the other.
"The moon was out. It shined on the snow and made everything bright. I could
see almost all the way down the hill to the road. I was thinking how beautiful
it was, and then& "
"Then what?"
This was where it got tricky. Where the two transparencies began to differ,
and he had to blend them back to one. His.
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Along with the mental pictures, he continued to send her feelings of calm.
Peacefulness.
Her eyelids began to flag. Gently he eased her back to the bed and lifted her
feet to the mattress, then leaned over her. One of his hands still gripped
hers. The other smoothed her forehead and trailed gentle touches past her ear,
down the line of her jaw.
For such a strong woman, her bone structure was incredibly fine. Almost
delicate. He'd thought her attractive before. But now his senses flooded with
a whole new awareness of her femininity. The softness of her skin. The
sweetness of her scent. The strength of his desire to kiss her, to see if she
tasted as sweet as she smelled, shook him.
Now was not the time. This was not the place.
He straightened, opening a few more inches between himself and temptation.
She lifted her head, as if seeking the touch he'd taken away, and then
collapsed back onto the pillow. "I saw something move near the end of the
driveway. Just shadows, at first. They were too far away to make out. Animals,
I thought."
"Deer. A small herd moving across the field." Connor pressed the image,
silhouettes of a small band of white tails against the snow, into her
consciousness.
Her forehead furrowed. "I thought so at first. But then one of them stood on
its hind legs."
"A buck showing off for his does."
Her head rolled from side to side. Her frown deepened. "No. It was heavier.
Bigger."
Calm. He fed the emotion directly into her mind.Peace .
"A prize buck with a ten-point rack. He's lucky you aren't a hunter."
"No." Her head thrashed. "Maybe& "
He pushed deeper into her consciousness to plant the false memory. Her life,
her essence surrounded him. He felt the innocence of her childhood, lost at
far too young an age. The tough façade she'd built as a young girl growing up
on mean streets. The will to survive an unjust incarceration. Her pride, at
times bordering arrogance. Her stubbornness. Her passion to make a difference
in the world. Her vow to control her own destiny. To never be a victim.
Yet here he was, forcing his will on her. Shame and disgust boiled into a
toxic brew in his gut, but what choice did he have?
All he could do was try to make it easier for her. Try not to hurt her.God,
he didn't want to hurt her .
He put his hands back on her face, then the column of her neck. He caressed
her. Aroused her so that she would open her mind to him, let him in deeper.
She turned her cheek into his palm, rubbed against him.
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He put an edge on the memory of deer crossing the moonlit field of snow and
pushed it deep. Hard.
Her eyes opened. She whimpered.
Cradling her face, he lowered his head and captured the sound with his lips.
His mouth locked over hers, tasted, tempted, then retreated with a brush of
his cheek over hers. "Shhh. Just a bunch of deer."
She arched off the bed, her head rising, seeking the contact he'd taken away.
Her hand curved around the back of his neck and pulled him down. Her mouth
fused with his.
Delving into someone's mind always involved a degree of intimacy, but Connor
felt as if he were falling. Sinking into her.
Blood rushed below his belt. Ancient magic stirred in his veins. The drive to
procreate, to propagate his species, whipped him mercilessly.
He moved to the edge of the bed and his hands slipped down Mara's sides, past
the outer curves of her breasts, tantalizing in their softness, to her waist.
Pressing her down, he took over the kiss. He plunged and plundered. One arm
curved around her back and drug her up to him. Her fingers slipped under the
waistband of his jeans and pulled him close.
Control slipped from his grasp like a flag in a windstorm. He wasn't sure he
could hold on. Complete his mission. He was too involved. Too attracted. Too
damnedawed by a woman who would put her life on the line to save a friend.
When had he met a woman as strong, as loyal, as courageous as Mara Kincaide?
Never. And he never would again. Didn't deserve to, if this is how he would
treat her.
With one last, desperate reach for sanity, he yanked himself to his feet,
away from the bed. Turning his back to her he raked one hand through his hair
and tried to calm his heaving chest and other affected parts of his anatomy.
When he'd regained some measure of composure, he turned around. She scrabbled
up the bed, pressed her back to the headboard and drew her knees up to her
chest. Her lips were full with that just-kissed look.
She touched them lightly with her fingertips. "Wh-what was that?"
"I believe it's called a kiss. And in a couple of minutes it would have been
a hell of a lot more if we hadn't stopped."
"I mean about the deer."
Damn.Way to go, Rihyad . He'd gotten so turned on he hadn't been able to
finish the job.
Maybe he never really wanted to.
"I was just trying to point out that it was dark. The shadows can play tricks
on you "
"You tried to convince me I don't know what I saw. You tried to confuse me."
"Mara "
She massaged her temples. "It was like you were inside my head, whispering to
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me. Making me think I saw deer. What was that?" Her voice took on an edge of
fear. "Some kind of hypnosis trick?"
He wished it were so simple. "The tricks are in your own mind "
"Stop it!" She stood in a jerky movement and paced. "You lied to me, Connor.
You said you don't rape women."
"It was just a kiss."
"Physically." She chewed her thumbnail as she walked, her gait gaining speed.
"But mentally you were there, in my head. Penetrating my thoughts. Violating
my memory. You were inside me in every wayexcept for the physical."
He flinched at the truth in her accusations, and hoped she hadn't noticed.
"Now you think I'm psychic?"
"Psychic? I don't know. Some kind of telepathic freak& "
She stopped and stared at him, her eyes round. Gold flecks swirled in their
amber depths. She went so still, he couldn't see her breathing.
He waited, not sure what was happening.
"Freak& " she repeated, but in a much smaller voice. "My God, Connor. Are you
like them?"
Connor stood motionless as seconds ticked by and the question hung in the
air.
Walking away wasn't an option. That left him two choices: he could force her
to the floor, pin her down and finish what he'd started, or he could tell her
truth. Break the tenets he'd lived by for ten lifetimes. Unleash secrets that
would change the world.
Except the world had already changed. His people were changing. He was the
only dinosaur stuck in the old ways. Ways that might lead to extinction in the
modern world. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]