Gift of Fire

someone he even trusted with the crystal.”
    “And maybe that someone figured that as long as he knew about the passageway and the crystal, he no longer needed Digby?”
    “Makes sense.”
    “But where is that person now?” Verity persisted. She leaned her palms against the wide stone window ledge and gazed out into the rainy darkness.
    “Who knows? There’s no mention of Hazelhurst discovering the hidden corridor in his diary, which means he must have found it shortly before he was killed. Either he never got the opportunity to write it down or the information is in those missing pages. I haven’t come across any reference to a companion either. Our best bet may be to talk to Maggie Frampton. She might know if Hazelhurst had involved anyone else in the treasure hunt.”
    “Good idea. And in the meantime…” Verity stopped, peering intently out the window. “Jonas, he’s gone.”
    “Who’s gone?” He followed her gaze down to the dark fountain. “You mean Spencer? Maybe the man had enough sense to come in out of the rain, after all.”
    “He could have come back here, Jonas. He had enough time to get back into this room and pull the chair out of the passage doorway. Maybe that’s why the door closed on us.”
    Jonas considered that, his eyes darkening. “I locked the bedroom door. How could he have gotten in?”
    “Who knows? There may be plenty of keys floating around. The locks on the doors here in the south wing appear to be relatively new.”
    Jonas gave her another small, affectionate shake. “I don’t think it’s very likely. He couldn’t have known about the corridor, and he wouldn’t have dared try to come back into this room knowing I’d be in here with you. Besides, the man was falling-down drunk; he was just about unconscious by the time I dumped him in that fountain.”
    “Well, he recovered sufficiently to get himself out of the pool,” Verity pointed out.
    Jonas studied the shadowed garden. “You’re right, he did. I guess I didn’t hit him hard enough.”
    “I just want you to know that if he sues, you’re the one who’s going to have to explain everything to the insurance investigator.”
    “Don’t worry. I’ll come up with something,” Jonas said, not the least concerned. His mind was definitely on something else now. He put his arms around Verity’s slender waist and drew her back against his thighs. His jeans were drawn taut across his burgeoning manhood. “In fact,” he murmured into her ear, “something is already coming up.”
    “You can’t possibly be thinking of…of sex when there’s a body lying not more than fifteen feet away.”
    “Don’t look so shocked. You’re such a little prude, you know that? I keep telling you, that body’s already been there for a couple of years. It won’t bother us.” He unzipped his jeans with one hand, keeping his other arm around her middle. His rigid shaft sprang free. Jonas eased Verity back again so that she could feel him through her quilted robe.
    “Jonas, I’m shocked. I really think you should show a little more respect in a situation like this.”
    “Don’t tell me you’re not as excited as I am. Going into that psychic corridor always has this effect on both of us.” He grabbed a fistful of robe and raised it up above her waist. His hands closed lovingly over the soft, firm flesh of her derriere. “Lean forward, honey,” he whispered against her nape. “Brace your hands on the window ledge.”
    “Jonas, this is embarrassing. Someone might see us through the window.”
    “No one will see us. Everyone’s in this wing. You’d have to be in another wing of the villa to see into this window.” He remembered belatedly how he himself had been in another wing earlier that evening and had had a perfectly good view of this bedroom. He reached out and turned off the bedside light. “Better?”
    “No.”
    “Come on, honey, stop arguing. You know you want this as much as I do. Damn, you feel good.” He urged her to bend forward until she was forced to grip the window ledge. Her rounded buttocks tilted upward invitingly, exposing her warm, womanly channel to access from behind.
    “Honestly, Jonas, there’s a perfectly good bed right over there that we can use if you insist on this. I don’t see why you have to…Wait a minute. What are you doing? I think this might come under the heading of kinky. If you think I’m going to let you…Oh,
Jonas.
”
    He gripped her thighs and held her firmly