"Kaleb," she whispered again. "I've missed you."

He broke.

Gripping her wrists together as he came down over her, he pinned them above her head. "You can't touch me." Her fingers curled at his low-voiced order, but there was no panic, her lips soft under the hard demand of his mouth, her thighs spreading to cradle him.

Even as slender as she remained, there was no doubting her femininity. Gentle curves under his free hand, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s crushed against his chest, lips plump and wet. Until Sahara, he hadn't understood why men murdered to possess a woman. Now the rage of it was a black fire in his blood, a deadly inferno that would engulf the world should anyone dare take her from him again.

When she began to struggle under his weight, he tightened his hold on the delicate bones of her wrists before he could rein in the violently possessive response. Opening his hand a second later, he waited for her next move. Should it be a rejection, he'd give every indication of accepting it, then strategize his next play-Sahara was as physically susceptible to him as he was to her, and it was an advantage he'd use without hesitation.

"I'm too hot." With that complaint, she reached between them to unzip her sweatshirt and twisted to get it off. It left her dressed only in a warm but thin white top that hugged the mounds of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the curve of her waist.

"Don't," he said, when she would've put her hands on him. "We don't want that rock face coming down over us."

Dropping her arms to the lush green gra.s.s, Sahara's eyes went to the huge slab of rock at his back. "You're not exaggerating, are you?"

"No." He had no need to exaggerate.

A subtle movement of her throat as she swallowed. He followed it with his gaze, aware of her pulse gaining in speed, her breath hitching. "I'll keep my hands to myself," she promised, voice rough. "But you can't look at me like that."

Gripping her jaw in silent answer, he braced himself with his free arm beside her head, and then he branded her mouth with his own. You are mine. It was a statement telepathed along the private pathway that had formed years ago. Mine to touch. Mine to look at. Mine. Releasing her jaw, he stroked his hand down her throat to close over her breast.

Sahara shuddered.

Able to feel the pebbled hardness of her nipple under his palm, he took care in learning the shape of her. A gasp, her body attempting to shift restlessly under his. Sensitive, extremely so. Filing away the piece of knowledge, he rubbed his thumb over her nipple and she almost twisted out from under him, breaking the kiss to sob out a breath. "Please, please. More."

Kaleb felt his closest PsyNet shield fall in a crash that almost took out the second. But he wasn't dangerous to her. Not yet. "I'll give you anything you want." Holding her gaze, he slipped his hand under the bottom of her top to spread it on her abdomen. It quivered under his touch, her teeth sinking into her lower lip.

"That's for me to do," he said in a quiet rebuke that had her sucking in a breath.

His mouth was on hers an instant later, his teeth biting down on her lower lip a fraction too hard. Back arching up from the ground, she broke the kiss . . . only to return for another, her tongue stroking against his with an intimacy that went straight to the rock-hard erection pressing against the zipper of his pants. As if she were licking her tongue along the rigid length of his p.e.n.i.s and not inside his mouth.

This time, it was Kaleb who broke the kiss. "No," he said when she would've initiated another kiss.

Chest heaving, Sahara licked her lips, and he had to look away before he broke his own rules and asked her to put her hands on the painful hardness between his thighs, to squeeze and stroke his naked flesh. He focused instead on his exploration of her body. Her pulse fluttered under his hand when he moved it to lie over her ribs, the moonlight shimmering on her skin. A little further up, he found lace, fine and silky.

"It was in the box," Sahara whispered on a hitched breath. "Thank you."

The fact she wore his gift against her skin pleased him, but it wasn't enough.

Removing his hand, to her frustrated "No," he pushed up her top to bare her b.r.e.a.s.t.s to the night . . . to him.

Her body went utterly motionless.

Do you want me to stop? he forced himself to ask, the fury to possess a turbulent storm inside him. Below that was an old and vicious rage, incited by the sight of the fine silvery scars that marked her flesh and that she likely no longer noticed. He did. He'd been there when each and every cut was made, remembered exactly how deep each wound had been, knew how much medical attention she must've needed to heal.

"No." Her skin gleaming with the finest layer of perspiration, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s rising and falling as if in invitation, Sahara's voice pulled him out of the blood-soaked past. "No, don't stop, Kaleb."

Wrenching his anger under control, and slamming down ice-cold shields around the violent surge of arousal provoked by the sound of his name on her lips, he concentrated on the creamy flesh cupped in delicate pink lace. It wasn't what he wanted. Pulling first at one cup, then the other, he pushed the lace down until the heavy weight of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s spilled free, the soft pink providing a frame for the lush curves that melted the black ice around his pounding erection as if it didn't exist.

SAHARA dug her nails into the earth in an effort to fight the urge to beg for Kaleb's touch as he watched her with those eyes of madness. It should've scared her, the possessive darkness she saw in them, and perhaps part of her was terrified, but not enough to back away, not enough to end this raw wave of sensation, vivid and wild and alive.

Shifting position, Kaleb straddled her. The next instant, he placed his hands under her upper back, lifted her slightly, and put his lips around one aching nipple. She shoved a fist against her mouth to stifle her scream, the wet suction of his mouth as hotly erotic as the hard strength of his grip.

He moved to her neglected breast without warning, the night air cool on the wet of her other nipple. Whimpering, she twisted under him, but there was no way for her to gain contact with the hard ridge of his erection, his knees planted on either side of her thighs. Teeth sc.r.a.ped her highly sensitive nipple an instant later, making her bite down on her fist. Stop! It's too much!

Kaleb released her nipple, his lips wet, his eyes so dark they were akin to black pearls, a shimmer of midnight color in their depths. "Are you certain?"

The quiet question raised every hair on her body.

Not in fear. In the blinding realization of how tight a leash he had on himself.

Dear G.o.d. What would he do to her if he slipped that leash?

The damp folds between her thighs grew slick with a melting heat. Squeezing those thighs in a vain effort to find relief, she removed her fist from her mouth and whispered, "No. I can take more." Wanted more. Wanted everything.

Not asking a second time, Kaleb looked down at her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, his hair falling across his forehead. Sliding a hand from under her back, he gripped one breast with a firmness that felt like a brand and lowered his mouth to her flesh again. Her mind went red, her back arching as if to thrust her breast farther into his mouth. Kaleb, I need- Tell me. Another sc.r.a.pe of teeth that scattered her neurons, her nails clawing the earth, crushed gra.s.s under her palms.

Touch me, please. I can't- Here? He cupped her between the thighs in a raw intimacy, pushing up with the heel of his hand.

And the world splintered.

SAHARA opened her eyes to find Kaleb still straddling her body, her top shoved up her chest and the cups of her bra pushed down to expose her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The Tk on top of her had his gaze on her bared flesh, the intensity of his focus such that it caused her pleasure-lax muscles to twinge in renewed arousal.

As she watched, he reached out and fixed her bra, his fingers brushing her nipples. Sucking in a breath, her abdomen taut, she stayed silent as he tugged down her top. His every action was careful, that of a man who knew he could be pushed off the edge and into the abyss with a single wrong move.

"Teeth," he said in that same frigid tone she'd heard earlier, "are not always used in s.e.xual play."

Sahara's chest rose and fell in a shallow rhythm. "No?"

"It is a matter of preference, according to the papers I've read on intimacy." Lashes rising, obsidian eyes looking into her own, the black fire in them as hot as his voice was cold. "What is your preference?"

"Yes." The confession felt as intimate as what he'd just done to her body. "With you."

His expression altered to a hardness that made it clear who and what he was, his arms coming down on either side of her as he lowered his face until their breaths kissed. "It will," he said in a silken whisper, "only ever be with me."

Chapter 23.

TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Kaleb returned to the rock face, Sahara now safe in her bedroom. She hadn't run from him even after he'd exposed his murderous possessiveness where she was concerned. But then, they both knew she had the power to stop him, the only individual in the Net who could.

"If you ever do it," he'd said when she touched her fingers to his cheek in a tender good-bye, "make sure you go all the way and end me." Should he be left breathing after Sahara's power sliced through him, taking the only thing that mattered, he'd become the monster Santano had groomed him to be. "Serial killer, ma.s.s murderer, there's not a name for the evil that lives inside me."

Jaw set and eyes fierce, she'd shaken her head. "I won't let the darkness have you."

Her promise echoing in his head, he climbed with single-minded focus, his muscles straining to hold him to the wall as he fought to overcome the physical frustration that was a pulsing grip around his erection. It wasn't until halfway through the third ascent that he could think again, his mind coldly rational.

His campaign to win Sahara's trust, he thought, was progressing according to plan. She'd not only called him when she felt under threat, she'd invited physical contact. The fact that physical contact was causing severe damage to his shields and his thinking processes was a side effect he'd have to handle. Backing off was not an option-her memories were becoming more lucid with each pa.s.sing day, her psyche healing at a rate that spoke to a remorseless internal strength.

Soon she would be ready to remember him, and why her subconscious had blocked him from her conscious mind in the first place. There were some things no one could take, some betrayals too reprehensible to forgive.

"No! Don't! Kaleb, stop!"

Sc.r.a.ping the skin off his palm as he lunged for a grip, he blew out a harsh breath and continued to climb until it was only the cold stone and the next grip that mattered. And still he heard her screaming at him to stop.

IT was the creak that woke Sahara in the pitch-dark early morning hours, intruding on hazy dreams of a boy she couldn't quite see.

Snapping to full alertness with the speed and silence of someone who'd been at the mercy of others for too long, she nonetheless kept her eyes closed, listening with every cell in her body. It was a trick she'd learned during her years of confinement, a way to gather information while the guards thought her asleep.

She flicked her eyes open only once she was sure the intruder wasn't in the room. Her attention locked on the door, her pulse a drumbeat. Releasing a quiet breath, she listened . . . and just barely heard the stealthy movements of someone attempting to disengage the lock she'd flicked on for no reason but that she was obsessed with her privacy.

Father?

No response along the old telepathic pathway to her call, nothing but a dull silence that made enraged fear ripple through her blood. Reaching under the bed, she retrieved the butcher's knife she'd stolen from an unused set of kitchen tools her father had been given by a patient who was an F, and as such, received goods from businesses as a matter of course. The idea of ever again being caught unarmed and vulnerable was her worst nightmare.

Pushing off the sheets with care, she shoved the pillows underneath to create the illusion of a person and pulled the sheets back up, just as the lock snicked open. Heart thudding and eyes on the k.n.o.b as it began to turn, she padded across the floor to press her back to the wall. She knew every inch of this house, her feet silent on the old wood that had given the intruder away.

When the door opened, she waited only long enough to make sure she hadn't made a mistake, that it wasn't her father, before she struck. It might have been cleaner to use her ability, but Sahara had no intention of getting any closer to the stranger than she had to be before he was immobilized. All indications were that no one had any effective means of defense against her ability; however, she wasn't going to bet her life on that a.s.sumption so soon after leaving the labyrinth.

Screaming as the butcher's knife buried itself between his shoulder blades, the darkly-clad intruder spun around, reaching for her with his arms and no doubt his mind. She felt nothing of the telepathic a.s.sault inside the obsidian shields that protected her, and it took little skill to avoid his hands, his balance destroyed by the blow she'd struck, the heavy blade lodged in his back.

The man's feet skidded in his own blood right as she caught a flicker at the corner of her eye, and suddenly the unknown male was thrown across the room.

"Wait!" she screamed an instant before his back hit the wall, realizing Kaleb had to have detected the attempted attack on her shields.

The man froze in midair, blood dripping to the floor in fat droplets.

"Don't kill him. We need to know who sent him." Sahara went to step closer, but she was too slow.

"Done." The intruder's body slammed into the wall, the blade thudding home against his breastbone with a sickening crunch as it all but cut him in half. He crumpled to the floor, blood pouring out of his mouth.

Her stomach might have lurched at the sight at any other time, but she was already running out of her room and into the one down the hallway. "Father!" Leon Kryiakus's big body lay limp beside his bed, a necklace of sticky red wreathing his throat. "No, no. Please no. Father, please." Fingers trembling, she searched for a pulse. "Kaleb! He's alive!"

"Move." Gathering her father's body in his arms with telekinetic ease, Kaleb teleported out with the terse instruction to keep her telepathic pathways open.

He returned less than three minutes later, to find her seated on the bed, staring at the smear of blood on the carpet. She snapped up her head. "Is he-"

"Your father's in emergency surgery, watched over by a temporary guard from one of my units in the area. I've notified Anthony, and NightStar's people will be at the hospital within the next half hour."

Hand shaking, Sahara went to thrust it through her hair when the iron-rich scent of blood hit her nostrils. Her fury reignited as she realized it was her father's blood on her fingers. Shoving past Kaleb to the attached bathroom, she washed it off with jagged actions before wiping her hands clean. "I want to go to him."

"You'd just be waiting outside surgery," Kaleb said with grim pragmatism. "My man knows to contact you should there be a change in your father's condition."

She couldn't bear the idea of her father slipping away just when she'd found him again. "I want-"

"The hospital has multiple exits and entrances; the risk of someone getting to you is much higher." Hard words, no hint of tenderness. "You know Leon wouldn't want you in the line of fire."

Conscious he was right, she forced herself to think past adrenaline-fueled anger tangled with gut-wrenching worry and walked back to her own room-and to the body of the man who had nearly taken her father's life. "Who was he?"

"A freelance operative, not a particularly adept one or Leon would be dead and you'd be in his grasp."

"You tore his mind open? You know that compromises data," she said, turning on him in a fury. "That was irresponsible and reckless."

A shrug as false and as remote as his eyes were not. "I offered him a quick death in exchange for the information," Kaleb said, as if speaking of a business negotiation. "He kept his end of the bargain; I kept mine." Eyes of starless night pinned her to the spot. "It appears you have a bounty on you."

"What? Who? Tatiana?" The other woman was in no position to give orders, but she had people who might well do so for her.

Kaleb shook his head and spoke the last name she had ever expected to hear. "Santano Enrique."

Ice in her blood, choking up her throat. "He's dead," she forced past the sudden, overwhelming rage.

"It appears he has risen from the ashes." Kaleb tucked her hair behind her ear. "He was involved in your abduction."

Sahara knew she should follow that thread, should ask him exactly why a serial killer with a predilection for changeling victims had turned his attention to her, and whether Kaleb had had anything to do with it, but she couldn't. The idea of bringing up the topic made her stomach hurt, her breath stick in her throat. Not yet. Not yet. She wasn't ready to know, wasn't strong enough to face the dark truth.

If Kaleb had betrayed her, the knowledge would break her.

"The bounty," he said when she remained silent, "must've been a fail-safe in case of your escape." Halting at the sound of the front door opening, he waited until Anthony stepped into the room.

The head of her clan examined the dead bounty hunter with an impa.s.sive expression before shifting his attention to Kaleb. "I a.s.sume you got the information we need before you executed him?"

Kaleb told Anthony the same thing he'd told Sahara. Anthony's response was, "Not even the most b.u.mbling bounty hunter would hunt a target for a dead man. Payment is everything."

"Santano may have been a psychopath, but he was a smart one. The considerable fee for this bounty is held in trust by a certain mercenary organization. To be paid on delivery of Sahara Kyriakus-dead or alive-to either Santano or the current head of his operations."

"Santano kept his interest in you quiet," Anthony said to Sahara and hidden in the words was a question. "I never suspected him of involvement in your abduction."

She spread her hands, not sharing the fact that Enrique's protege had apparently always been aware of her ability.

"NightStar has a leak," Kaleb said at the same time.

"I'll handle that situation."

Kaleb inclined his head in silent agreement-Anthony had come by his reputation honestly. Unlike certain others in the Net, the other man did not mind getting his hands dirty. And if he failed to take care of the matter, Kaleb would do so. He'd permit no threat to Sahara to exist, much less live and breathe.

"You need to move immediately into a safe house."

Sahara's back went stiff at Anthony's statement, her muscles rigid. "No. I won't be caged again."