Witchcraft

death. It was far more crucial to spend his time assessing the threats to the relationship. And when it came to dealing with threats, Cavenaugh was more than willing to spend time analyzing, evaluating and ultimately neutralizing them. He had already taken steps to protect Kimberly from the strange hints of physical menace that had cropped up around her. Certainly that battle was the most urgent one. But there were other threats of a more subtle nature and therefore more difficult for a man to analyze and defeat.
    Number one on the list was the wariness she had of families and the responsibilities and pressures that went with them. He had to find a way to show her that the past could not be allowed to dictate how she lived and loved in the present. Once he had shown her that her grandparents were not the personification of callous, selfish arrogance she had always thought them to be, he could remove a large measure of her distrust of men who had family loyalties. And then there was that damned Josh Valerian to deal with. Cavenaugh felt his body harden into full arousal as Kimberly stirred in his a rms. He watched her face as her lashes fluttered open and he smiled slightly. The momentary confusion in her gaze amused him. It also pleased him. "You're not accustomed to waking up beside a man, are you?" he murmured. He turned on his side, hooking a hair-roughened thigh over her legs. "Better get used to it. There are going to be a lot more mornings like this one."
    He bent his head to drop a small, possessive kiss on her warm shoulder.
    "Are there?" she asked, looking up at him with unreadable mysteries in her eyes. "Definitely." He let his palm glide luxuriously upward until it covered her breast, and the morning hunger in him escalated. "Most definitely," he repeated, aware that his voice had roughened. "What's more, I don't intend to share them with that other man." She blinked in sleepy astonishment. "What other man?"
    "Valerian."
    "Josh Valerian."
    "Umm." He pushed his knee between her silky thighs and tasted the dark grape that tipped her breast. "I've been thinking about him."
    "Come to any earthshaking conclusions?" she asked uncertainly. "Only the obvious. I think the fastest, most effective way of getting one man out of your head is to keep reminding you that another, namely me, now possesses your body." He pushed himself forward until his manhood was at the soft gate of her femininity. " Cavenaugh , are you joking?" He smiled a little grimly as he met her questioning gaze. "What do you think?" The tip of her tongue touched the corner of her mouth as she tried to assess just how serious he was. Cavenaugh didn't mind this evidence of female wariness. It meant she was focusing on him, not some illusion of a perfect man. "I don't think you are joking." Slowly he thrust into her, taking his time so that he could experience every centimeter of her clinging, velvety core. She grew hot and damp around him and the soft little gasp at the back of her throat sent ripples of satisfaction through him. "You're right," he growled as she instinctively lifted herself against his loins. "I'm not joking. You see how well we're communicating these days?"
    " Cavenaugh , you can be an arrogant beast at times," she managed as her body warmed and tightened beneath him. Her fingers were splayed on his shoulder and her legs twisted around his i n growing demand. "But I'm real. And you need a real man, not some fictional wimp who will never be able to hold you like this or make you come alive in his arms."
    "Josh is not a wimp!"
    "He's no good to you right now, is he? Right now you need me. Admit it," Cavenaugh rasped as the delicious tension built between them.
    "Tell me you need me!"
    "I need you, Cavenaugh . Please. Now. All of you. Ah, Cavenaugh !" A long time later Kimberly lay in bed and watched Cavenaugh pull on his jeans and thrust his arms into his shirt. He didn't bother to do up the buttons. As he had explained, he was only going to duck back across the hall to his bedroom. "Not that there's any hope the entire household won't know where I spent the night," he growled humorously as he came to stand beside the bed. "But it might be easier for you to go down to breakfast if you can pretend that we observed the proprieties."
    "That's very, uh, considerate of you," she said demurely, thankful for his understanding of just how awkward this sort of situation could be for a woman. His emerald eyes gleamed with buried fire. "Lady,