Sea Haven 02 - Spirit Bound

anymore. Judith seemed so out of his league, everything that he was not and could never be. She was genuine. Soft. Compassionate. He could see it so easily in her.
    He was all hard edges and shadows. He had no idea of the kind of world she lived in. His was violent and ugly. There was no laughter and no honesty. The lock clicked with a hard thud and he had no reason to keep her caged. But he didn’t move his body away from hers as he handed the key back.
    “I’m not good with women.” That was a blatant lie. He manipulated women without trying. Thomas Vincent might not be good with women, but Stefan used sex as a weapon, seducing a woman into giving him anything he wanted. Everything he wanted. He had been trained and had complete control of his body—until Judith.
    He certainly shouldn’t be having trouble controlling a massive—and painful—hard-on just because he was inhaling her unique scent deep into his lungs. Or touching all that silky hair.
    “I’m not all that good with men either,” she confided.
    His gaze captured hers and held her there. In the intimacy of the night, Stefan felt as if the world had turned upside down. There was more power in Sea Haven than he realized—or more power in this woman. He had come prepared for warfare, but not for this slow seduction of every one of his senses. He didn’t feel. He wasn’t permitted to feel and yet, with his body a breath from Judith’s, he was more alive than he’d ever been.
    He pushed the key into her hand and checked the door before slowly, almost reluctantly straightening. He couldn’t quite move away from her, and never once did he take his gaze from hers. Stefan placed one hand carefully above and to the side of her head, leaning that inch or two closer until her breasts were a heartbeat from his chest.
    “Never in my life, has this ever happened to me.” She couldn’t fail to hear the honesty in his voice. It was the stark truth. “I don’t even know what the hell is happening.” That was definitely Stefan Prakenskii and he winced. It was an accusation. A snarl. A demand for the truth—worse, stepping out of his role as bashful Thomas.
    Was she an agent, just so damned good that he had no chance against her? Had she duped Jean-Claude just as easily? He’d witnessed Jean-Claude’s obsession with her firsthand and yet he still found himself caught in the snare.
    She reached up, hand trembling, her fingers nearly brushing his face before she stopped herself. “I don’t know what’s happening, Thomas. Whatever it is, it can’t happen. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
    Her statement was as honest as his. She thought herself the one in the shadows. She was hiding behind that sweet demeanor, holding the real Judith still, frozen, a prisoner behind a wall she refused to take down. She was afraid of herself, of who she really was. He saw her, where he knew others would never conceive of the smoldering fire buried deep. The fire and something else—lethal power that reached out for the matching dangerous power in him.
    She was afraid—for him. She was afraid of herself. And that told him so much more than anything she might have admitted aloud. She held great power and was unused to wielding it. So what was it? What could she fear?
    “We’ll be okay, Judith,” he assured, the compulsion to be that man for her, the one man she could tell the truth to without fear. He needed to be the man to free her from that clawing fear she held so tight inside of her. He’d never had the need to protect anyone or save anyone. What was it about her that got to him?
    She shook and ducked her head, but not before he caught the sudden terror in her eyes. She looked away only a moment and then she was back, but he had already seen the real Judith.
    Her shoulders straightened, her chin went up, and her eyes met his courageously. “I’m not a good woman, Thomas. Whatever this thing is between us, you have to know it can’t go anywhere. It won’t go anywhere. You seem like a decent man. I’ll work with you if you really are interested in purchasing the gallery, and I’m willing to show you around, but you have to know that’s all it can ever be.”
    He was fiercely attracted to her physically. Drawn to her psychic power—whatever that was—but now something else crept in and made being in her company all the more dangerous. And all the more necessary. Admiration. Respect. And he was drowning in the need to be a better man. The kind of hero