"Maybe he can cure you, Zanita." Tyber leaned over her. "Then I won't have to be angry with you anymore for not telling me you were sick."

She gave him a disgusted look, saying, "You just earned another fifteen minutes of the cold shoulder." She promptly turned away from him.

"The flow of energy is a very important lesson you will need to learn if you wish to be effective in controlling your well-being. I will share an exercise with you on this technique." He looked into the audience. "Ah, Zanita!"

She jumped.

"I see you returned with our friend Dr. Evans. Since you did such a fine job on the last exercise, I know you won't mind helping me with this one."

"He presses his luck," Tyber muttered.

Zanita made a face at Tyber. "No, I don't mind." She went up to the podium.

Tyber sourly noted that several men leaned forward in their seats, eagerly awaiting the demonstration.

"Now this exercise is designed to make you aware of the flow of electrical energy throughout your body, so that you may begin to control the flow of your magnetic field. I want you to sit in the chair again and close your eyes."

"Okay."

"Surround yourself with the white light."

"Check."

"Check?"

"Surrounded."

"I want you to visualize the appropriate images for movement and stillness while you're doing the exercise. When you inhale, say 'movement' and when you exhale, say 'stillness.' All right?"

Zanita's eyes popped open; she stared directly at Tyber and swallowed. He returned her look, his lips twitching with suppressed laughter. They were both remembering a certain morning not too long ago when she had begged him for movement, and he had opted for stillness. It had been one of the most erotic experiences of her life.

There was no way she was going to go through with this exercise with Tyber staring so knowingly at her. She turned flushed cheeks to LaLeche. "Um... can we do something else, Mr. LaLeche?"

"Why, whatever for, my dear?"

Whatever for, indeed. Tyber grinned, lacing his hands behind his head. He leaned back in his seat.

Chapter Seven.

"Movement." She inhaled.

"Stillness." She exhaled.

Tyber, not moving, eyes passion-drugged as he watched her ignite beneath him...

"Movement." She inhaled, deeply.

"Stillness."

The cords of his neck standing out as he threw back his head, struggling not to move in her...

"Movement." She inhaled, quicker now.

"Stillness."

The heated press of his mouth, his tongue, arms clasped around her, him inside her everywhere...

She exhaled on a moan. "Stillness," she panted.

"Very good, my dear. Do you feel the stillness within you?"

"Oh, yes!"

"Excellent. Now you have taken the first step in controlling the flow of energy within you. Do you feel the flow?"

"I'm flowing."

A burst of coughing echoed in the dead silence of the room.

Zanita snapped her eyes open and glared at Tyber.

He grinned back at her, a mischievous dimple popping into his cheek. "So sorry. Something got caught in my throat, baby."

He was just so-o contrite. As if he were sincerely apologizing to her! And calling her baby in front of the whole audience! She pierced him with a killing violet death glare.

His low chuckle just reached her on the dais.

She would kill him.

Later, when they were alone. When there weren't any witnesses to the crime.

"That's quite all right, Dr. Evans; we've finished the exercise anyway. I think everyone understands the concept. You may go back to your seat, dear."

When Zanita stood up, she got a healthy round of applause. In fact, on her way back to her seat, one man gave her the thumb's-up, saying, "Yeah!" as she walked by him. She had never been so embarrassed in her life.

When she took her seat, Tyber leaned over her, saying, "I have a much better exercise for you."

She murdered him with her look.

"For when you feel better, Curls."

"As far as I know, Massachusetts still does not have the death penalty," she gritted out. "It makes one contemplate the possibilities. If I were you, I wouldn't push it."

"I wish you'd make up your mind, Zanita. Push it-don't push it..." He let the tone of his voice imply that a man's work was never done.

She would ignore him again. It was the only thing to do with him when he got like this. Horrible, teasing wretch! God, her throat hurt.

The rest of the seminar went by at a snail's pace for Zanita, feeling as poorly as she did. LaLeche mostly jammered on, doing several "laying on of the hands," as he called it, to members of the audience. She was thankful he hadn't chosen her for that part of the demonstration. She didn't think she could bear those slimy hands on her.

This time they didn't receive any handouts. Instead, when the talk ended, LaLeche approached several of the participants individually while they were enjoying his largesse of free coffee and refreshments.

He hadn't approached them yet, but Tyber didn't seem particularly concerned. He drank his coffee, patiently waiting for LaLeche to make the rounds.

"Would you like a bite of my cruller?" he innocently offered Zanita.

"I will not talk to you while you are in this mood."

She spun away from him, engaging an elderly woman in conversation, and therefore missed his low snicker when he realized how she had interpreted his remark.

LaLeche circled his way around the room, closing in their direction. All that was missing was a dorsal fin, Zanita thought.

"So, Dr. Evans, what did you think of what you saw here tonight?"

Tyber slowly sipped his drink. "I was impressed." By your showmanship.

"Why, thank you. Coming from you, that is a compliment. I must say, it was nice to have a colleague in the audience-someone who completely understands the physical aspect of the universe."

"I can see where it would be." Since you don't know jack about magnetic fields.

"Although I was quite surprised to see you had an interest in such things." LaLeche scrutinized Tyber's face carefully, obviously looking for signs of a hidden agenda.

"If you know anything about me"-and Tyber would have bet that since their first meeting, LaLeche had made it his business to know a lot about him-"you know I am the type of person who lets his curiosity lead him down various paths. Some of them not very conventional."

"I have heard that about you. Although your particular style hasn't seemed to hurt you in your own community; to the contrary, it seems to have enhanced your reputation. But then, they say you are so very brilliant."

"I wouldn't believe everything you hear," Zanita piped in.

"Zanita! Thank you so much for your help." LaLeche placed his hand companionably on her shoulder, causing her to shudder slightly. "You have a natural talent, you know."

Tyber's stare went from LaLeche's hand on her shoulder to his smarmy face. "And what natural talent would that be?" His dry tone was easily interpreted. LaLeche quickly disengaged himself.

"For healing, of course. Have you two heard about my retreat up in Vermont? No? Oh, I'll have to tell you about it- it's a small place, very rural, you know, no annoyances or interruptions from the outside world. I run a weekend empowerment session once a month."

"What do you do up there?" Tyber was trying to ignore the signal Zanita was giving his toe with the heel of her boot.

"I find that such an atmosphere is conducive to finding and illuminating the chakras. Through meditation and other techniques, we balance our light bodies to release the astral body."

"All that, huh?"

Zanita ground her heel into his foot.

"And more! Often, in such surroundings of nurturing healing, entire sets of inhibitions are thrown away, allowing the participant to recapture his or her lost sexuality."

"What does that mean?" Tyber almost narrowed his eyes.

"It's a remarkable feeling of freedom! You and Zanita would enjoy it tremendously! In fact, I'm having the next workshop a week from today. Do you think you might be interested?"

Tyber was about to refuse; Zanita could sense it. LaLeche had crossed the line. Before he could respond, she jumped in to say, "We'd love it!" She ignored Tyber's arm, which had come around her waist, flattening her to him in a punishing grip- "Wonderful! Here are the directions." He reached into his jacket pocket, retrieving a computer printout which he handed to Tyber. "We start around sundown. And remember-it's very rustic."

"Ah, I have a friend who owns an inn near there," Tyber quickly said. "I promised him that if I was ever up that way, I'd stay there. Is that going to be a problem?"

"No, of course not. Although some of the more intimate exchanges occur in the late evenings-it just seems to happen that way. You might miss out on those."

"You know how it is, Xavier. He's a professional acquaintance of mine. I thought I'd do some networking at the same time." Tyber spoke to him as if they were already old buddies.

"Absolutely! Don't worry about it! So, I'll see both of you next weekend? Good."

Tyber waited until they were in the truck driving back before he opened up his guns.

"Do you have any idea what you've gotten us into?"

"Of course I do! It's exactly what we wanted him to do."

Tyber counted to ten before he spoke. "Do you know what kind of a place he invited us to?"

"Yes-a retreat."

"A retreat," he repeated blandly.

"That's right. His place of operation, where we can be approached for-"

"Oh, we'll be approached, all right."

"What do you mean? And why on earth did you insist we'd stay at some inn? Do you really have a friend up there?"

"No, I do not have a friend up there! I simply told him that because there is no way in hell I'm going to stay overnight in that environment and neither are you!"

Zanita was affronted by his high-handed attitude. "I'll decide that for myself, Captan!"

"Didn't you hear him? All that talk about releasing one's lost sexuality was a euphemism for a weekend of partner exchanging and communal sex."

"Get out of here! I didn't think he meant it that way. He was talking about sexuality in the spiritual sense."

Tyber gave her the mysterious face of Mars look.

She swallowed. "Wasn't he?"

"No. And another thing-when he said rustic environment, you can interpret that to mean a broken-down shack with no amenities in the middle of the wilderness."

"Don't be ridiculous! He would never take prospective marks there. It would destroy his credibility. He would have to make it appear he was respectable."

"Oh really? Well, you're wrong about that, too. A man who might need to pick up and move quickly does not bury his roots deep."