Fired Up

lush.
    He wanted to spend hours exploring all her mysteries, but he knew that he could not wait, not this first time. The energy between them was too fierce, too demanding. The need to be inside her, to discover where the heady, intimate sensation would take them was an overriding compulsion.
    “Yes,” she said again. Invitation, command and plea fused into the single word.
    He guided himself into her. She drew a sharp little breath when he thrust past the tight, delicate muscles at the entrance, but when he tried to stop, to give her time to adjust, she closed herself around him.
    “No,” she said. She watched him through half- closed eyes. “I want you inside. I want to find out how it feels.”
    “So do I,” he rasped.
    He covered her mouth, kissed her hard and went deep, going all the way. And then he was flying on the hot currents of sensation, and she soared with him.
    When her climax swept through her a short time later, he followed her into the burning rain.

25
    JACK WAS ASLEEP AND DREAMING. THE ENERGY HE WAS RADIATING wasn’t disturbing her, but there was something not quite right about it. She levered herself up on one elbow and looked down at him. He was lying on his side, facing her, the sheet pushed down to his waist. Energy stirred in the atmosphere, subtle but strong.
    He had fallen asleep almost immediately in the aftermath of the profound release. That was good, she thought. The man needed to relax. But what his senses desperately required was some truly deep sleep, and that wasn’t what he was getting.
    She studied the murky energy seething in the prints on the pillow. The residue of the currents was weaker now than it had been two days ago when he had walked into her office, but it was still detectable. Whatever meds he had been taking to halt the sleepwalking evidently had a long half-life. That wasn’t surprising. Traces of some strong psychotropic medications frequently remained in the bloodstream for days. It could take the body a long time to get rid of the last vestiges of particularly strong medicine. In the case of a few really potent sedatives there was occasionally permanent damage to the para-senses. She could see that Jack was recovering, however. He just needed a little more time.
    She might be able to help him get the true sleep he required tonight, however.
    Gingerly she put her palm on his bare shoulder. He stirred but did not awaken. Jack was into control. She was almost certain that he would not like what she was about to do. On the other hand, if the procedure worked he would get the rest he needed. She could always explain and apologize in the morning.
    She opened her senses to the max, cautiously tuning in to the currents of his dream energy. She was braced again for the unpleasant crackle of sensation she always got when she brushed up against someone else’s dreamlight, but, again, to her amazement there was no shock. The currents were strong, but they weren’t painful.
    And then she was into the pattern, getting a fix. The dark taint of the sleeping meds was more obvious now. The stuff was still disturbing a portion of Jack’s dream spectrum in an unwholesome way, and it was very powerful. But she might be able to calm the disturbance temporarily, long enough for him to get some real rest. It was the same technique she used to give her Irregular Clients of the street a vacation from their nightmares.
    She went to work, pulsing delicate currents of psi into Jack’s field.
    Energy recoiled across the spectrum like the blowback of a firestorm, stunning her. She lost her focus. Before she could retreat she was caught in a fist of raw power. Like a surfer with bad timing she was sucked under and tumbled along the bottom of the sea. She snatched her hand off Jack’s shoulder, heart pounding, fighting for air.
    Jack looked at her, hot psi burning in his eyes.
    “What the hell are you doing?” His voice was shockingly calm and cold.
    She sat up fast and took several breaths in an attempt to pull herself together. “Sorry,” she managed. “I was just trying to make sure you got some proper sleep.”
    “How?”
    “Uh, well, it’s part of my talent.”
    “You can put people to sleep?”
    She winced. “That doesn’t sound good, does it?”
    “No. What are you? The sand lady?”
    “Sorry,” she repeated. “I wouldn’t have hurt you. I think you know that. I just wanted to make sure you got a good night’s sleep.”
    “How?” he said again.
    She sighed.