hers. He said nothing as she rose and moved down the porch stairs toward him.

He was not controlled enough to keep from noticing how gracefully she moved. Even the baggy getup she wore didn't disguise the innate elegance of her body. And he was fairly certain she was clueless about the graceful way

she held herself, dignified and strong. As if she'd been born to serve at the feet of kings and queens.

Which, of course, she had.

"I'll go with you," she said. A command, not a request.

He fought a smile, wondering if she understood she had been born to serve

royalty, not be royalty herself. "Will you, then?"

It was only when she drew closer that he noticed her expression was still distracted, that she wasn't focused on him as much as her own thoughts. He was surprised to discover he was curious about what she might be thinking.

That bothered him. Entanglements and all that. But not enough to sway him

from prodding her a bit.

"Tough day in healing school?"

That earned him a full-on glare. "I just want to take a walk, okay?"

Archer stopped and waved an arm in front of him. "By all means, walk on.

Just tell me in what direction Your Healing Highness desires to go and I will make certain that my lowly presence doesn't cross her path and that danger doesn't befall her."

That finally seemed to snap her out of whatever state she was in. She stopped and put her hands on her hips. "Can you just walk and not talk at the same time?"

Maybe it was because she looked so d.a.m.n contained and controlled when he felt anything but. Or maybe it was because he liked to stir things up, and Talia was available for the stirring. Whatever the case, he couldn't resist the urge to crumble her facade. "I can do a lot of things very quietly." When she didn't move, much less back down, he stepped closer. "But experience has taught me it's usually a lot more fun to be... expressive."

She didn't even blink. "Can you be... expressive silently?"She didn't respond to him like most women. Normally he found it quite easy to be charming and affable with members of the opposite s.e.x. Never around her, however. He'd told himself it was the situation, the mission. He wasn't here to be charming. But that didn't keep it from being d.a.m.n frustrating. And okay, a little goading. He moved close enough that she was going to have to deal with him, one way or another.

"I can be amazingly silent." He reached out and lifted the heavy strap of her

overalls, tucking a finger or two beneath the edge. Slowly, as he stared into those translucent gray eyes of hers, he slid the backs of his fingers down along

the edge, stopping a breath away from brushing the outer swell of her breast with his fingertips. Her eyes darkened. That was the sum total of her response. No pulse ticking away at her temple, no hard swallow, no nostrils flaring. In fact, it was almost as if she'd gone into a trance or something, she was so focused. He found himself impossibly aroused by her control. And wanting to slip his fingers further beneath her overalls to see just how affected she truly was. And she was affected. Because she wasn't pushing him away. His body hardened slowly and most pleasurably.

She held his gaze steadily, her gaze so intent he could feel it like an actual caress. He moved closer, began leaning in, already imagining what those lips would taste like, when suddenly her eyes went wide and she stumbled away from him looking stricken. Archer glanced behind him, certain there was some immediate threat to her safety. Because no d.a.m.n way was that reaction due to the kiss he'd almost taken from her. At least he couldn't imagine it. She was sheltered out here, but not that sheltered.

His hand went immediately to his hip and he swore-would it have killed Baleweg to give him one simple little gazzer?-even as he turned to find there was nothing behind them. He swung back to her.

Her cheeks were flushed, but the rest of her face was stone white. Her eyes were gla.s.sy, but not with desire. It looked more like shock. And perhaps a little awe.

"What in the h.e.l.l happened?" "It worked," she whispered, then covered her mouth. "Oh, my G.o.d," she said into her hand, then dropped it and said the words again. "I did it." She looked down at the ground, then at some point beyond him. "Jesus Christ, I actually did it!"

"What? What did you do?"

Then a sudden look of horror crossed her face as she looked at him. "Oh, my G.o.d. I did it with you!"

"What in the h.e.l.l are you talking about? We didn't do a d.a.m.n thing!" Maybe he'd been wrong and she had been that sheltered. No, no way. He'd seen the look in her eyes, she knew what was what. So what in h.e.l.l had just happened?

There was no doubt he was involved somehow. But how?

"You," she repeated, looking at him as if he'd just risen from h.e.l.l or sprouted two heads. "Why in the world did it work with you? I've been trying for a dozen freaking hours with everyone under the sun and it ends up being you?Why?"

He had no idea what in the h.e.l.l she was talking about, but he was pretty certain he was really insulted. "All I know is one second you're all but daring me to, to... you know d.a.m.n well what you were daring me to do! Then the next you're leaping about like a cat on a hot sidewalk. What's wrong with you?"

The shock left her eyes as suddenly as if a shield had dropped over them. The gla.s.siness remained, however. She looked straight at him. "Everything is wrong with me," she said flatly. Then without another word, she turned and walked back toward the house, leaving him behind without so much as a glance over her shoulder.

Jesus, Joseph, and Elvis, she was a royal pain in the a.r.s.e. "What about our walk?"

She just waved a hand over her head. "You go on."

But he didn't want to go on. Not without her. Dammit, that wasn't what he'd meant to think at all. It was just that he wanted to know what in G.o.d's name had just happened. He'd been a partic.i.p.ant in it, whatever it was, and somehow he'd managed to ruin whatever the h.e.l.l it was she'd done, too.

"Hold up." He actually had to run after her. "Gould you wait just a d.a.m.n

minute?"

She finally stopped at the base of the steps, but she didn't turn. When he tugged her around by the arm, she didn't meet his gaze. He cupped her chin and dragged her gaze to his. "What happened back there, Talia?"

"I... I can't explain. Not to you. I hardly understand it myself."

Leave her alone, you idiot.

And yet, for reasons he didn't quite understand, he couldn't do it. So he took her hand and turned back toward the pond, tugging her after him. "Come on."

She tugged back. "Archer, really, I don't want-"He kept walking. "I promise, total silence. Just take a walk." He looked over at her. "For once I'll play bodyguard without getting all snakey about it, okay?"

She didn't smile. If anything she seemed irritated. That was how he knew he'd said the right thing. The hollow, haunted look was gone. This was the Talia he'd come to know, all p.r.i.c.kly and edgy. He still didn't know what had happened, but somehow right then it didn't seem to matter. He'd find out in due time.

She managed to tug her hand free, but fell into step beside him.

He hid his smile and headed on down the path.

From above, Baleweg's eyes lit up as he watched the scene below from the

tower window. He let the curtain flicker shut.

Chapter 6.

Talia wouldn't call it a companionable silence- there was nothing truly companionable about Devin Archer-but he did remain mercifully quiet as they wandered down the path toward the pond. And while she was well aware of his big rangy body moving along beside her with that unlikely grace of his, her thoughts were a whirl that had little to do with him. At least directly.

Indirectly they had a h.e.l.l of a lot to do with him.

She still felt the need to hyperventilate over what had happened back there.

Baleweg had said she needed a strong emotion in order to connect. Her strong emotions for Archer were mostly along the lines of irritation. Mostly. She hadn't even planned on trying it, but then he was touching her, looking at her so intently, confusing her with the riot of emotions he was causing inside her.

When he'd leaned in to kiss her, it had seemed like the most natural thing in the world to reach out, to figure out what was going on, why he wanted her.

She hadn't even been aware of doing it really... until she'd connected. It had been like grabbing hold of a hot wire.The second shock had been her reaction. A definite feeling of joy. It was as if she'd known she could do this all along, but had merely been waiting for

someone to come along and teach her how to use it... and what to use it for.She still wasn't too sure about that last part. Certainly she wasn't meant to use it to... well, to intercept feelings like the kind he'd been feeling. She darted a look at him, then quickly looked back to the path in front of her. The last thing she wanted at that moment was to encourage interaction of any kind. She'd interacted quite enough, thanks. In fact, she should really be back in the house, in her room, thinking about all the ramifications of what had happened today. Not walking next to the man who had, just moments ago, been wanting... what he wanted. Namely her.

And there it was. That zing of awareness. A bang really. It happened every time she allowed herself to think about what he had wanted. What he made her want. And dear G.o.d, had he made her want.

It was all she could do to keep putting one foot in front of the other as her mind took the perfectly logical leap to what it would feel like to be connected that way while he made love to her. The very idea of him being inside her while- No, no, no. She shut that mental track down immediately. Just how in the h.e.l.l was she supposed to deal with the man now? The magnitude of what she'd done by intruding into his feelings, the potential future complications, started to settle in. Would she feel things every time she looked at him? Or only when she tried? And how could she do one and not the other? She hadn't even been trying the first time, not really.

Baleweg. Her step faltered as she wondered what he'd make of this new breakthrough. If she could call it that. As they walked on, she was finally able to move past the hot-wired s.e.xual element she'd initially tapped into and began to realize there had been something more there. It wasn't merely the s.e.xual current that had reached out to her, into her. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that while that had been the initial jolt -and one h.e.l.l of a jolt it had been-what had sent her stumbling away was that instant, that fraction of a second, when she'd reached beyond that surface level.

A shiver of dark, of cold, raced over her. Followed by a quick sensation of...of hollowness. Of... separateness. This she identified with as closely as anyone could. She'd felt it so many times in her life.

She risked another glance at him. Had it been more than their explosive s.e.xual awareness and her intensified awareness, having just come from exhaustive attempts with Baleweg? Was it something else? Was there something inside him that called to her? What had she been about to touch? To feel? To discover?

She pushed a wayward strand off her forehead, surrept.i.tiously rubbing at her temple. What had she done by allowing them to stay? By allowing Baleweg to fool with her mind? By allowing Archer to fool with... well, everything else? It was all too much.

"You know, this isn't a death march," he said, amused.

She slowed, tried not to stiffen. Just hearing his voice right now was too much. "You said you wouldn't talk."He sighed, stopping. "Yeah, I know, I just-would you just wait a minute?"She kept walking. If she were smart, she'd make an about-face and keep walking until she was back in the house, in her room, possibly under her bed or locked in her closet. She needed to search her thoughts, a.n.a.lyze them, categorize them, till she made some sense of what she'd allowed to happen to her... and what she was going to do about it now.

But turning around meant moving past him, possibly looking at him and-heaven forbid-touching him. Which was definitely not something she could deal with at the moment. So she kept walking.

She heard him jogging to catch up with her. "What, can't take a hint?" she

muttered.

"I heard that." He fell into place beside her again.

She stopped suddenly and turned to him as the solution came to her. He

managed to stop without slamming into her, but only barely.

"Why do you have to be here?"

He laughed in surprise. "I beg your pardon?"