Psy & Changelings 05 - Hostage to Pleasure

her.”
    Dorian found that he’d moved so close, his lips were now bare centimeters from hers, the scent of her an intoxicating brew that almost made him forget why he’d been so angry with her. “You sound very sure.”
    “She worked for the Council’s pharmaceutical arm.” The buried anger in her words scraped a claw over his skin. “She was also a rebel. When they found out, she tried to run. They tracked and bagged her like you would an animal.”
    Another piece of the puzzle that was Ashaya Aleine snapped into place. “I’m sorry.”
    “Why?” A cool question, yet it held an almost childish lack of understanding. “Why does my attachment to Iliana matter to you? You had no connection to her.”
    “Because she mattered to you.”
    “You have no connection to me, either.” Wary eyes.
    He’d been a fucking stupid bastard, he thought with cold fury. Ashaya might not be Sascha, with her open warmth, but she was no calculating monster, either. She’d not only cared for her mother, she loved her son. And that excused a multitude of sins.
    I’ve protected a sociopath for most of my life.
    They’d get to that, too, he thought with grim purpose. He was through being blinded by the bloody darkness of the past. “Don’t I?” Moving with the whiplash speed that was natural to his kind, he changed position to kneel on the bed. She remained absolutely still as he began to undo the tight braids she always wore. A couple of minutes later, her hair tumbled around her in crackling waves. It was just past shoulder length, but so curly, so wildly beautiful that the animal in him was entranced by it.
    He thrust his hands into it and tipped up her head, looking down into the crystal clarity of her eyes. “Don’t I?” he said again and this time it was a demand. “Answer me.” The cat was possessive by nature. So was the man. And both had marked Ashaya.
    “What answer do you want to hear?” It was a dare to his feline soul.
    He growled low in his throat and the sound translated through his human vocal cords. “The truth.”
    She stared at him for several more seconds. “You’re something I’ve never experienced. I’m fascinated by you and I know that’s a weakness you’ll exploit.”
    “That much honesty can be dangerous.” He dipped his head while tugging hers farther back, the electric wildness of her hair moving over his hands like fire. That stuff, God, he knew he was going to be having all sorts of erotic dreams about Ashaya’s hair.
    “But,” he whispered against her mouth, “it can also reap rewards.” Knowing he’d never be able to stop if he started kissing her, he brushed his lips over the taut cords of her neck. She sucked in a breath. Unable to resist, he grazed her with his teeth. Her start was slight but he felt it. He nuzzled at her. “I won’t hurt you.”
    Her hand crept up to his shoulder. “You yelled at me. You said I had a hard-on for sociopaths.”
    He didn’t want to think about that right now, didn’t want to consider the irrevocable lines he was crossing . . . the betrayals he was committing. Against Kylie’s memory, against his own vows—to annihilate the Psy, to keep his distance from this woman who might yet prove to be an enemy.
    For this one instant, he was just a man and she was a beautiful woman who was his own personal aphrodisiac. “Doesn’t mean I can’t take a bite out of you.” He closed his teeth playfully over her pulse for a second.
    She shuddered. “I don’t understand you.”
    “Your body does.” He tasted the ragged beat beneath his lips. “Does it feel bad?”
    The unambiguous question seemed to be what she needed. “No. The sensations are . . . pleasurable. But it’s dangerous—I’m in the PsyNet.”
    Frowning, he raised his head. “And no one’s unmasked you?” There was something very wrong about that.
    Before she could answer, a noise intruded.
    The leopard went hunting quiet.

CHAPTER 23
    I’ve met him—the sniper . . . Dorian. He confuses me on the most fundamental level. I have the irrational fear that if I’m not careful, he’ll take me over. Yet part of me wants to take the chance. Part of me hungers to tangle with this leopard barely clothed in human skin.
     
—From the encrypted personal files of Ashaya Aleine
     
 
Dorian relaxed as he recognized the approaching tread. “Kit’s coming.”
    “Let go.” Ashaya tried to pull away the hands still fisted in her hair.
    He liked the feel of her touching him,