Running Hot

serene.
    “Stop that.” She glowered. “I’ll let you know if I want my aura manipulated.”
    The artificial serenity vanished.
    He grinned. “I love it when you do that. Gets me hot.”
    She glowered harder. “How can you talk about sex at a time like this?”
    “You’re right. When it comes to sex, talking isn’t nearly as much fun as doing.”
    He got to his feet, made his way around the table and hauled her up out of the chair. His mouth closed over hers before she could think of a good reason to stop him.
    She tried to resist for all of two seconds. Then, with a sigh, she put her hands on his shoulders and kissed him back.
    She sensed the passion unfurling between them. He kissed her until she shimmered with need, until she trembled with it; until she could no longer even think about getting on a plane, let alone starting a new life.
    He captured her face between his hands.
    “I won’t let you disappear on me,” he said. “If you try to leave, I will come after you. Never forget that. And I will find you.”
    She went very still, her fingers clenched around his shoulders. She could not identify the tangle of emotions cascading through her. Fear? Hope? Love?
    “What makes you so certain that you could find me?” she asked.
    It wasn’t a challenge. It was a question, an urgent one. She needed an answer badly.

“Because you and I are linked,” he said. “Don’t try to tell me that you don’t sense the bond between us.”
    He covered her mouth with his own again, not waiting for an answer. Her hands tightened on him. With a small, urgent little cry, she kissed him back, holding him captive, just as he held her.
    Somehow they ended up on the ancient sofa. He eased her onto her back. In the short time they had been together, he had learned a lot about what made her hot in bed and he applied the knowledge ruthlessly. The energy of passion—light and dark—flared high.
    But the bond worked both ways. She knew him now as well as he knew her and she was just as ruthless.
    He drove himself deep inside her. Her senses flared, fusing with his in the moment of release. And then they both fell off the edge of the world.

THIRTY-SIX
The monster did not come from under the bed, he came down the unlit hall. She heard him unlock the door that she had locked so carefully. Frozen with panic, she watched his terrifying aura as he moved stealthily into her room.
She had just turned fourteen. She had been in the foster care system for only a few months but her survival instincts were already razor sharp. She had gone to bed fully clothed every night because she sensed that sooner or later the husband would come to her room.
In the dense shadows she could not see him but his energy field blazed with the darkness of perverted lust. He came to stand beside the bed.
“Are you awake, sweetie?” he crooned. “I came to kiss you good night.”
She did not answer. She did not move. She did not think she could move. Perhaps if she pretended to be asleep, the monster would go away.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and put one hand on her leg. She trembled, instinctively shrinking from him.
“So you are awake,” he whispered. “I thought so. You’re a sexy young lady. All grown up. I’ll bet you’ve had a couple of boyfriends already, haven’t you?” He drew his hand up her thigh. “But you probably haven’t had a real man yet.”
“Please, don’t.” Her throat was so tight she could hardly get the words out.
“I’m going to teach you how to please a man. By the time you’ve had some lessons from me, you’ll be able to get any guy you want.”
“No.”
“Don’t worry, with an ass like yours, you’ll be a natural.”
His hand moved up the blanket, over her hip, heading toward her breast. She saw the sick pulsations in his aura. She struggled to a sitting position.
“No,” she said.
It should have come out as a scream but fear partially gagged her.
“Stop it,” he ordered angrily. “Stop it right now. This is how it’s going to be. You’re going to learn that tonight. I’m going to make a woman out of you. Believe me, in the end you’ll be grateful to me.”
She wanted to run but he had her trapped against the headboard. She was shivering violently to the beat of her own pulse. She struggled but he was far too strong. He forced her back down onto the pillows and yanked aside the sheet and blanket.
“Wore your jeans to bed, I see.” He chuckled. “You are a nervous little filly, aren’t