Running Hot

NINE

He couldn’t see her expression clearly in the moonlight but he didn’t need to in order to know that she was stunned. So was he, but not because he had just touched her.

They both looked down at where, until a moment ago, his fingers had been firmly wrapped around her upper arm.

“Damn,” he said. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Just wanted to steer you as far out of his path as possible. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” she said. Wonderingly, she touched his bare arm with her fingertips. “There’s no pain. None. I’m all right. It’s been so long, more than a year. You can’t imagine what a relief it is to know that I’m more or less normal again.”

“You’re sure you’re all right?”

“Yes.” She sounded elated, almost euphoric. “Yes, I’m fine.” She paused, staring down at her hands. “At least with you.”

He liked that, he realized; liked the idea that he was someone special, at least as far as she was concerned. She could not even begin to guess how she had just rocked his already slightly weird world. No one had ever detected his subtle aura manipulation, let alone actively resisted it.

The hunter had passed blithely by, never even noticing that his jacked-up senses had been temporarily suppressed. Yet Grace had pushed back at the quick, light attempt to calm her panic as easily as she would have closed a door that had been blown open by a breeze. Now, why was that so damn intriguing?

“Blame it on the magic of Hawaii,” he said. “Come on, let’s get somewhere private where I can call Fallon.”

They left the path, heading away from the beach, and moved deep into the heavily landscaped gardens of the nearest hotel. He stopped beneath the low-hanging branches of a large tree. Grace halted nearby. He fired up his senses again, this time to make sure there were no auras in the vicinity. No human lightbulbs appeared in the shrubbery. Satisfied that they were alone, he punched Fallon’s code into the phone.

He watched the dark silhouette that was Grace while he waited for Fallon to answer. She stood quietly beside him, arms folded beneath her breasts again. He wondered what she was thinking.

It was probably a very good thing that she did not seem to know what he had tried to do to her back there on the path. He got the feeling that she hadn’t been consciously aware of what she had done, either. Her attention had been riveted on the hunter.

Fallon answered on the second ring. That was unusual for him.

“What’s up, Malone?” he growled.

“I was starting to think you weren’t home. You usually jump on the phone halfway through the first ring.”

“I was making another pot of coffee. Been a long night. Why are you calling?”

Luther provided a brief run-through of the encounter and waited patiently while Fallon brooded on the new factor in the equation.

“I agree that it’s unlikely that you and Ms. Renquist would run across a high-grade hunter within a short distance of your hotel,” Fallon said finally. “It’s a red flag but not a huge one. Sensitives go on vacation in Hawaii like anyone else. Hell, it could have been a Jones.”

“I know there are a lot of hunters hanging around your family tree, Fallon, but what are the odds that one of them is here at the same time that Grace and I are supposed to be conducting surveillance on a high-grade killer?”

“Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of twelve percent. Lot of Joneses live on the West Coast and a lot of ’em like to vacation in Hawaii. Been there myself.”

“You took a vacation?”

“It was a long time ago. Before I got this job. You’re sure the guy was a hunter? Any chance he might have been some other kind of talent? Maybe Eubanks got in early?”

“You said Eubanks is a level-nine strategist. This guy was definitely a hunter. Grace and I both made him.”

“Okay, I’m a little tired at the moment,” Fallon said. “Not at my best. Let me think about this some more. Meanwhile, stick to the original plan. If Eubanks shows up on schedule tomorrow, we can probably assume that the hunter’s presence in the area is just a coincidence.”

The weariness in Fallon’s voice was extremely unusual. In the two years Luther had been working for him, he had never heard the head of J&J sound so exhausted.

“Thought you didn’t believe in coincidences, Fallon.”

“No,” Fallon said. “I don’t. Keep an eye out for the hunter. If he shows up again, I want an ID on him, too.”

“Figured you’d say that. I’ll look for him after I put Grace on a plane back to Oregon.”

In the shadows, Grace stiffened. Her chin came up at a stubborn angle.

“You’re going to need her to spot him again,” Fallon said.

“No, I won’t. I just told you, I had no trouble identifying him as a hunter tonight.”

“Only because he was jacked up. If he had been cranked back, just sitting around a pool, would you have been able to spot him?”

They both knew the answer to that question.

“Probably not,” he admitted. “But I don’t want Grace getting near him.”

“She’s a J&J agent, just like you. She has the right to make her own decisions in situations like this.”

“She’s a specialist, not a trained field agent.”

“Damn it, Malone—”

“I’ll get back to you.”

The phone went dead in his ear. He closed it and clipped it to his belt.

“Well?” Grace said. “What now?”

“We stay with the plan. Wait for our target to arrive and ID him.”

“And then we try to find out the identity of the hunter,” she said briskly.

“Fallon would like to know who he is, if possible, but I can find him on my own.”

“It would be easier if I stick around to help you.”

“Grace—”

“I can handle it. I’ll be prepared next time. I won’t freak out on you, I promise.”

“Forget it.”

“I overheard that conversation with Fallon,” she said, going mutinous. “He told you it’s my choice to make, didn’t he?”

“There are times when I don’t pay any attention to Fallon Jones. This is one of those golden moments.”

“You need me,” she insisted. “Admit it.”

“I need you to be reasonable. Chasing down hunters is not your area of expertise.”

“This is all because I got a little anxious tonight when we passed that hunter, isn’t it? That’s hardly fair.”

He felt his temper start to slide. “Fair has nothing to do with this. You’re not a trained agent. You’re a genealogist who got drafted for an emergency field trip. When it’s over, you’re going home as fast as I can get you on a plane.”

She drew herself up in the shadows. “Mr. Jones obviously has other ideas. I work for him, not you.”

“Got news for you. When you’re with me, you take orders from me.”

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” she snapped. “Give the bullheaded, I’m-in-charge-here thing a rest.”

“That’s not what us bullheaded, I’m-in-charge-here types do. I think we’d better talk about this in the morning when you’re in a more reasonable mood.”

“Now you’re patronizing me.”

“Is that what it’s called? I think of it as just doing my job. Let’s go back to the hotel. You’ve had a long day.”

Automatically, he started to reach for her arm, intending to steer her out of the gardens. She took a quick step back out of reach. So much for thinking he was special because she could touch him. He let his hand fall to his side and tried to suppress the wave of gloom that resonated through him.

“One thing before we leave here,” she said softly.

“What now?”

“Would you mind very much if I tried touching you again?”

The gloom dissolved in a heartbeat, replaced by a thrill that zapped across all his senses. In the next instant comprehension struck. His initial excitement faded.

“You want to run an experiment?” he asked. “See if things are different this time now that you’re not distracted by the hunter?”

“Well, yes,” she said. “Look, if you’d rather I didn’t touch you, I certainly understand. Better than most people, in fact. I mean, I

really understand why someone wouldn’t want to be touched.”

“No,” he said. “No, It’s okay. I don’t have a problem with the experiment.”

He held out his hand, palm up. Great. He’d been reduced to the level of a lab rat.

She took a cautious step forward, as wary as any wild bird being offered food by a human. Slowly she put out her hand.

Her fingertips hovered just above his for a few seconds, and then she brushed them across his palm, alighting briefly before immediately taking flight. He resisted the urge to capture her wrist and draw her closer.

* * *

Slowly she lowered her hand again until they were skin to skin. This time she did not flutter away. He could feel fine tremors going through her.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Yes. I’m fine.” She sounded entranced. “This is amazing. Last week I accidentally touched a clerk’s hand in the grocery store and got another bad jolt. I was starting to think that maybe I wasn’t going to recover this time.”

He wanted to ask her how often she’d experienced the problem in the past but he sensed that this was not the moment for that kind of question.

“Feel anything?” he said instead.

“Yes, but nothing bad.”

“You know, a compliment like that could really go to a man’s head.”

“Sorry. It’s just that for the past year I haven’t been able to touch anyone without getting a strong psychic shock. Just going to the dentist was an ordeal. I had to take a dose of anti-anxiety meds to get through a simple cleaning. You can’t imagine how it feels to know that my senses are returning to normal.”

Slowly he closed his fingers around hers. The fine bones of her hand felt delicate and incredibly sensual. Her skin was warm and soft. She did not try to pull away.

“I wonder if it’s just you,” she said, very thoughtful now. “I suppose it could have something to do with the fact that we’re both aura talents. Maybe I’m not cured, after all.”

He tightened his grip a little. She did not flinch.

“If you’re thinking of grabbing every man we pass just to see if you can replicate this little experiment, I have a few objections I’d like to raise,” he said.

She laughed, a soft, low, utterly feminine sound that galvanized his senses. He leaned closer, savoring the sweet, hot energy that shimmered around her.

“Maybe not

every man,” she said. “But a representative sample might ensure a more reliable scientific test.”

“If you’re in the mood for further experimentation, I hereby offer my services.”

“How altruistic of you.”

“Yeah, that’s my middle name,” he said. “Altruistic.”

She brushed the fingers of her other hand against the side of his face.

“You’re running hot,” she said. “I can feel the heat.”

“Something tells me it’s going to be even more fun this way.”

“What will be more fun?”

“Kissing you at full throttle.”

She knew what he meant.

“Ever tried it with anyone else?” she asked.

Well, at least she hadn’t said no.

“Occasionally,” he admitted.

“And?”

“And it didn’t work very well. Mostly I scared the hell out of the other person. Invading someone else’s energy field with a strong aura makes even nonsensitives nervous.”

“So this kiss we’re discussing is something of an experiment for you, too?”

“Definitely.”

He braced himself against the trunk of the tree, legs slightly spread, and propped the cane nearby. Reaching out with both hands, he drew her into the intimate cage formed by his thighs. She did not resist.

“You don’t scare me,” she whispered.

It wasn’t a challenge, he thought. She was simply telling him the truth.

“I know,” he said. “You don’t scare me, either.”

“You’re sure?” There was a sultry smile in the words.

He traced the outline of her lips with one finger. “Do I look scared?”

“No.”

He took her mouth, slowly, deliberately, knowing that, whatever happened, he was going to remember this moment for the rest of his life. Her arms went around his neck; tightened. And then she was kissing him back, leaning into him, pressing him against the trunk of the tree.

The light around her flared into a glowing aurora. Waves of unnamed colors ebbed and flowed, clashing and resonating with his own energy. The incredibly intimate sensation had a lot in common with putting a match to a dry forest in August. The night was suddenly on fire.

He’d thought he was already jacked. Now he was at flashpoint. The rush dazzled his senses. It was also disorienting. The only thing that kept him on his feet was the tree at his back. Come to think of it, he did not want to be on his feet, anyway. He’d much rather be down on the ground, on top of Grace.

He had intended this first kiss to be gentle, nonthreatening. After all, the woman hadn’t touched anyone in a year, at least not without shocking her senses. A gentleman would go slowly in a situation like this. Instead, he was in hand-to-hand combat with the forces of his own self-control. A devouring urgency cascaded through him.

Grace seemed to be as caught up in the whirlwind as he was. Her arms were wound fiercely around him. Her mouth was soft and open beneath his. Maybe her desire for him was just the result of being freed from a year of misery. He’d worry about that later. Right now the only thing that mattered was that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

The scorching kiss blazed across his senses, hotter than any sex he’d ever had.

“I could come right now,” he muttered against her mouth. “Just kissing you is enough.”

“This is amazing.” She shuddered in his arms and pulled back a little to look at him. “I haven’t ever felt like this, not even before my senses got fried. It must have something to do with the fact that we’re both aura talents. Nothing else explains it.”

“Do me a favor. Stop trying to analyze it.”

“Sorry,” she said. “It’s just that it’s all so weird—”

He crushed her mouth with his own to silence her. She responded by wrapping her right leg around his calf as if she intended to climb up onto his erection.

He reached down, found the zipper of her pants and lowered it. She made a small, desperate little sound when he got his hand inside her panties and between her legs. She was hot and wet and full. He found the tight little bundle of nerve endings with his thumb. She gasped.

He slid a finger inside her tight core. She clenched around him immediately, as if she had been waiting for him forever.

“Yes.” Her hands tightened around his shoulders.

“Yes.”

He stroked her, learning her. It was almost impossible to concentrate but he forced himself to pay attention to her aura, watching for the extra spikes of heat that told him he was touching the right places, using the right amount of pressure.

“Luther.”

She sounded shocked. There was no other word to describe her startled, breathless gasp. For one awful instant he thought that her senses had rebelled after all. The possibility that he was giving her pain, not pleasure, was too terrible to contemplate.

But she did not try to escape. Instead, she buried her face against his neck and clung to him. He felt the small contractions of her climax ripple through her body; sensed them flashing through her aura.

When it was over he was almost as relieved as she was.

“Hell,” he said into her hair. “Don’t ever scare me like that again. For a second there I thought I was hurting you.”

She made a weak, muffled sound into his shirt. It took him a while to realize that she was laughing. She was limp against him. Her breathing was that of a swimmer who had just made it back to the surface after nearly drowning.

He held her tightly, trying to get his own breathing as well as his raging need under control.

After a while he realized that she was no longer laughing. The front of his shirt was soaked with tears.

“Grace?”

“Don’t worry.” She did not raise her face from his shirtfront. “I’m all right. It’s just that I haven’t felt anything quite like that before.”

He smiled into her hair. “Neither have I.”

She stilled and then raised her head. “But you didn’t—”

“It’s okay.” He stroked the wings of her hair back behind her ears. “I think you need some time to process this.”

“I think you’re right. I feel like I’ve been on a roller coaster all day.”

“You’re not the only one.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, chagrined. “I never meant that to happen. I realize it’s highly unprofessional.”

He covered her mouth with his fingertips, silencing her.

“Whatever you do,” he growled, “don’t tell me you’re sorry about what just happened. That’s the one thing I do not want to hear. Are we clear on that?”

She hesitated and then nodded once.

He took his hand off her mouth, eased her away from him and grabbed the cane. They walked back to the hotel in moonlight and silence, not touching.