Red Phoenix

inside, which was a very good thing. My legs weren’t working at all.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
    T he warm desert sun shone through the window but we ignored it. I straddled his lap and ran my fingertips over his face. We didn’t have much more time.
    I took his hands and moved them onto my bare breasts. His face went strange and he shifted his hands to my shoulders.
    I’d noticed that. I tried it again, moved his hands onto my breasts. He slid them around to my back.
    He saw what I was doing and watched me, expressionless. ‘Tell me,’ I said. He didn’t reply.
    I bent and kissed him for a long time. I pressed myself against him and felt him stir.
    When I came up for air, I moved his hands again and he shifted them away. I grinned, and he smiled slightly in response. ‘You’re not upset?’
    ‘More curious than anything.’
    He put his hands on my shoulders and drifted them down my back. This what he really liked; it was easy to tell.
    I bent and spoke into his ear. ‘I like you touching my back better too.’
    He jerked his head back to see me. ‘You’re joking.’ ‘It seems we like the same thing.’ ‘That can’t be right,’ he said, bemused. ‘Why not?’
    He laughed quietly and shook beneath me.
    ‘Don’t do that again,’ I said more loudly, ‘or I’ll have to stop talking.’
    ‘Laughing? Or…’ He brushed his hands lightly over my back and I wriggled in response.
    ‘Both! Why can’t it be right? It feels perfectly right to me.’
    ‘This,’ he said as he brushed his hands over my back and shoulders, ‘is something to do with my true nature.’ ‘Oh my God.’ ‘Right here, all yours.’
    ‘It’s because you’re a reptile, isn’t it? You aren’t a mammal at all.’
    His face froze. ‘I am a mammal in this form,’ he said grimly. ‘I am one hundred per cent human.’
    ‘You’re worried I’ll be freaked out.’
    He was silent but his face said it all.
    ‘Did it freak her out?’
    He hesitated, his face still expressionless, then nodded once, sharply. ‘Sit up.’
    He didn’t move. ‘Do it!’
    He pulled himself upright. I shifted to let him move but remained on his lap.
    I brushed my hands over his shoulders and down his back. He shivered and his eyes went very dark.
    I loaded my hands with a tiny amount of chi and did it again.
    He closed his eyes, arched his back and quivered into my hands. Yes.
    I pressed myself against him and ran my loaded hands up and down his back, then brushed them over his shoulders. He stiffened under my hands and his face became a mask of rapture. A low sound of pleasure floated from deep within him.
    Then he completely lost control. His eyes went black. He threw me onto my back and forced himself on top of me.
    ‘Yes!’
    When he came back he fell beside me and watched me.
    ‘Listen to me,’ I said firmly.
    He didn’t move but his eyes studied my face.
    ‘I am not freaked out. In fact I am so turned on I cannot believe myself. This…’ I ran my hand over his back and watched his response with delight. ‘…is the coolest thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. God but I am glad we had this time before you went.’ I kissed him and sat up. ‘I’m starving. Do we have time for breakfast before we go?’
    ‘With or without another mutual back rub?’
    ‘I’ll skip the breakfast for the back rub.’
    I came around on one of the couches in the living room of the Peak apartment.
    John and Leo sat on the other couch, watching me with concern. The Tiger was stretched on the carpet in front of them in True Form. Simone reclined on his back and stroked his fur.
    I rose, slightly dizzy, and saw them. I suddenly wanted a photo of them all together like that. My family.
    ‘Before we do anything, guys, could you all stay like that so I can take a photo? Please?’
    ‘Monica can fetch the digital camera,’ John said. ‘Monica!’
    Monica hurried out of the kitchen, then fell back against the wall and clutched her chest, her face ashen.
    ‘Damn!’ I yelled and rushed to her.
    ‘Damn!’ John shouted at the same time. ‘I completely forgot.’
    Everybody crowded around Monica. We took her into the dining room and sat her down. I fanned her face. John patted her hand. Leo hovered, concerned.
    ‘Get her some cold water, please, Leo.’ I sat next to her. She gasped for breath and clutched her chest. ‘Monica, it’s all right, it won’t hurt you.’
    Monica stared at me with her mouth wide, still gasping for breath.
    Leo returned