Her eyes rounded. "Oho, seduction now, Hades? Surely your knowledge of all things NOPAIN tells you about that, too? It didn't work the first time."

"That wasn't seduction. We're done with the nonpersuasive portion; we're now into the innovative negotiation part." He shifted, putting more weight on her. "Didn't Hades do that with Persephone?"

He was trying NOPAIN on her? Hell narrowed her eyes. "I'm not negotiating anything with you. For one thing, I'm not your captive."

"But think of the rest of the myth, Elena. It fits, doesn't it?"

Helen was familiar with the story. In Greek mythology, Hades kidnapped Persephone and took her to the Underworld as his bride. While her mother, Demeter, the earth goddess, looked for her daughter, she ignored her duties and everything started to die. Hades made a bargain with Zeus. He would allow his bride to visit her mother every six months but she must return to the Underworld to stay with him for the remaining six. And that was how the world had its seasons. When Persephone came home, Mother Earth was happy and everything flourished; when she was in the Underworld, everything went into hibernation or died.

"In other words, if I don't negotiate with you, the real world is going to dry out and die without me? Haha, Hades, you're putting too much importance in my role. And umm, do you mind getting up? It's very hard to have a conversation with a naked man lying on top of you."

Now why did she have to pun about the hard part? He mocked her with that smile again and still didn't move. She was going to lose her temper soon. Great, next she would be fighting and wrestling with a hard naked man. This wasn't quite how she thought she would experience VR. Well, not right now, anyway.

"We don't have much time, Elena. The coming test depends solely on your success, and your success is my interest, my job. Without the trigger, I can't help you if you should have any problems." His head dropped lower. His breath warmed her cheek. "Without the trigger, I can't talk to you when you're remote viewing."

Helen refused to move her head those few inches to the left. He didn't seem to even realize that he was lying naked on a woman. That was because he wasn't really some Greek god hottie, you idiot. He wasn't real, and so her state of turned-on-ness wasn't either. "You're in my head talking to me now so why not when I'm remote viewing?"

His hand cupped her jaw, tilting her face toward his. "The theory is that you would be in an alternate state of mind. The function of this virtual reality training is to get your mind used to having me in it while thinking and knowing everything is virtual. But even with that, my participation isn't guaranteed because I don't have your talent. When you're remote viewing, it's basically a personal VR experience. You're alone, seeing and accessing information with your senses. But with TIVRRV, we're going beyond that in this experiment. We've prepared every way we could-brain wave synchronization, mental prep, physical compatibility. I'll be there with you, seeing what you see, and with your remote trigger, I can..." he leaned even closer, his lips inches from hers "...communicate with you, be your second pair of eyes, and pull you out if there are any problems."

Helen looked into those dark eyes and instantly regretted it. The man was pure temptation. She had been craving chocolate for days and those sinful chocolate eyes were going to be her downfall. She grasped for a lifeline. "Theory," she said, and there was that stupid husky frog in her throat again. "That doesn't sound promising."

Her senses vibrated with need as his lips came even closer. She struggled to pay attention to his words, not to the heat rising between her legs.

"Every theory has a promise," he whispered. "Theoretically, I'm not real, you thought so yourself, but..."

She swallowed the rest of his words as he kissed her. Gently, as if he wasn't sure whether she was real himself. Tenderly, as if she was really Persephone being seduced. Her lips parted involuntarily and she felt his tongue delve in, slow and deliberate in its search for hers. Oh. My. God. The man could kiss. Or it could. Her virtual-made man. Whatever.

Stop thinking. Close your eyes.

She closed her eyes. That was him ordering you to close your eyes, Helen.

His tongue tangled sensuously with hers. She responded hungrily. This was something dark and forbidden, something that had been missing in her life for two years. Temptation to give in to feelings beckoned like some siren.

Open your legs wider.

Her limbs slid open without a second thought. Helen Roston! You're not going to f- Every protest melted instantaneously as his heat dug heavily against hers. It didn't help that she had enhanced that part of him a bit bigger than normal.

She had read all about teledildonics, a program used by people addicted to virtual-reality sex. She hadn't thought much about that use of the technology. Her focus was on the self and how she was going to get used to a simulated environment. She'd never thought about sharing it with someone else. In her head. In a sexual manner. It hadn't occurred to her that a program could be so seductive and sexy, that she would enjoy a kiss with something that wasn't real.

"I can feel your wetness. Is that real enough?" Hades lifted his lips from hers, gently giving her swollen ones one last kiss. "You see? Everything, in theory, has lots of promises."

Helen ran her tongue over her upper lip. Two could play at this game. She reached down and did what she had been thinking of doing the last ten minutes. He was hot and...very aroused. "Can you feel that with your sensors?" She gave him a squeeze. "How does it feel to have something done to you and it's not really happening?"

"But it is happening. I can feel your hand, just as you felt my kiss." His eyelids lowered. "With your trigger, it'll be similar when you remote view."

The man was unbelievable. Theoretically, he was having the experience of being pleasured by a woman's hand, yet she wouldn't have known that if she weren't the one doing the pleasuring. Maybe it had been so long, she was losing her touch? She reached down with the other hand.

He grew larger in her grasp. She stared smugly into his eyes and even though they remained unreadable, she sensed steely determination in him. They were testing each other, and neither he nor she was going to give in. She had the upper hand. How far would he go?

As far as I want to take it. She was beginning to recognize that mocking tone.

You're so damn good at reading my mind, find out the trigger code yourself!

Instead, he moved suggestively, pressing his thighs intimately against her, flexing himself in a way that didn't require any mind reading on her part. "I could try, but I prefer your free will, Elena. Makes things easier. Your willingness to stay here. To work with me. Depends on your free. Will."

He kept his sentences in time with short thrusts of his hips. Helen sniffed, wanting to laugh. He wasn't as controlled as he looked. Giving you my secret means free will? Come on, Hades. It gives you control. I might only have been through Phase Two of RV training but even they had given me warning about mental manipulators.

You're betraying yourself, sweetheart. That's Three.

Helen smiled. He'd betrayed himself, too. He knew more about remote viewing than he had let on, and he didn't deny that he was a mental manipulator. Keep filing, Helen, keep filing. "Ooops," she said aloud.

Hades smiled back, unperturbed by her testing him. "Give and take," he reminded her. "So now I know you're a little more advanced than they've trained you. Good."

"Why, good?"

"Never let everyone know you have something extra up your sleeve, Elena."

"And everyone includes you, right? But you plan to know everything." Whereas she knew nothing about him. It irritated her.

"Not everything." His voice now had that lazy edge of a man enjoying himself, and why not, he was grinding against her hand and body even as he was having this conversation, punctuating each short sentence in the most sexual way. "Boring. I like to string it out. Next session. If you pass the test. Tonight."

Oh, she would. She wasn't going to come so far and not go that final...She stopped herself just in time. She peered up at him suspiciously. She'd almost given herself away.

I saw something.

Shit! She released him, disgusted with herself. She hadn't bargained for this kind of access into her mind. She would complain to T....

"No one knows how far we can go with this. They want their supersoldier-spy. They didn't ask how or what COMCEN's going to do to achieve this."

So T. didn't know either. Like she'd said earlier, she was a lab rat around here. "Is this why we're doing everything virtual? So you can see what you can do? You think you can remote view through me?"

"Theoretically. I already told you I don't have your talent."

She had many questions, but chose not to form them. Not yet. Something very important was being revealed to her and she meant to get him to talk. "Scientists have theories, Hades. And theories are a bunch of formulae and words. We are neither."

"We are the drivers behind these theories right now. Why did they stop at Phase Two with you? They didn't want to waste time and money, just in case you fail."

"Become a mental case, you mean."

"I'm not going to let that happen."

Sure, sure. A virtual dream man was going to take care of her. The irony was totally befitting the situation. "Why not?" she challenged. "Are you going to change into a white knight and come to my rescue?"

His gaze was enigmatic and she pushed against him. "Why not?" she repeated.

"Give me the trigger and I'll tell you."

She could lie, but he would know. Why would they go to all this trouble to put their new toy in jeopardy? She couldn't read the man but she could trust her instinct. It had always been a sixth sense for her. Right now it told her that there was more to this experiment than everyone was letting on, that there were layers of mysteries to this man. But her intuition was also telling her that he hadn't planned any harm against her.

He didn't even seem to be breathing as he waited for her decision. But he was still hard and hot as he lay on top of her.

Helen closed her eyes and passed him a mental picture. She didn't give him everything. If he were so damn good, let him figure it out when he watched her later.

His lips came down on her mouth again, and without thought, eyes still closed, she opened hers. He rewarded her with a drugging kiss, the kind that promised hot sweaty sex, with a big satisfying orgasm. But she was a GEM operative and no amount of innovative persuasion was going to divert her attention.

Why not? She persisted. Why am I so important?

Come back and I'll tell you.

Her eyes flashed open even as everything became a bright white light. Dammit. He tricked her after all. You coward! Her yell reverberated in her head like an echo.

"Miss Roston?" Derek's voice came on in her left ear. "Your trainer has signaled that the session is over. He said you might need a few minutes to wind down."

Wind down? She wasn't the one walking around with a big stiffy! Arrgghhh. She was going to kill that man.

"Let me take some of the electrodes and thingies off myself. Guide my hands." Helen was determined to find out as much about the Portal as she could now that she knew it could do more than virtual reality.

She felt Derek undoing a few straps. He moved her right hand slowly so she could feel each different node in the band. "Press here for release," he instructed. "Just feel the back of your neck. I'll show you how to unhook it after it's off."

"Okay."

Helen blinked when the goggles were removed, then cracked her neck. "How long was I in there?" The chair was very comfortable but the body wasn't made to be still for long periods of time. A thought struck her. She hoped she had been still! "Ummm...did I move a lot?"

"Not much. Your body was responding to the wavelengths very well. Your stats showed lots of mental activity going on, though. Want to look at the charts when they are printed out?"

"Yeah. Can I also have a copy of that program that created the avatar?" She was glad the mental activity stayed mental. She didn't want to think what her body looked like writhing about. Not to mention her hands exploring some big parts. Sheesh. She needed some time to think this out. No doubt T. would be amused at the idea of having wild monkey sex in virtual reality, but Helen would prefer to keep that private.

She got out of the Portal, brushing down her pants. Oh-oh.

"I need a quick bathroom break, Doc. Can the post-checkup wait?"

Dr. Kirkland was copying things from his notes. "Of course, Miss Roston. Go ahead." He checked his watch. "Everything is on schedule, don't worry."

Helen nodded. Halfway out the door, she turned back. "He had us falling off a building, Doc. I don't know about his, but tell him that's not good for my health." Ha. Let him take the blame.

Dr. Kirkland looked up from his files. "I wondered what all those spikes in the readings were about. He did pause to come out of sync for a few minutes to instruct us not to panic. I guess that was the point when all your vitals were a bit erratic."

Derek snorted. "The term 'gone haywire' describes it better," he said, pushing his glasses back up.

That must have been when Hades had ordered her to stay quiet while her face was buried in his chest. She remembered feeling strange, as if her body and mind were separated. Then all the blood had seemed to rush into her head. So he could communicate with Dr. Kirkland and Derek, and was giving them a rundown of the situation while he was holding her.

"You mean, if I had an unexplained seizure, you would be pulling me out of the chair?"

She meant that as her usual way of teasing, but Dr. Kirkland's expression was solemn. "Your life is in my hands, Miss Roston. I take that very seriously. This isn't just your monitor room; it's your connection back to us. I'll bring you right back here if something goes wrong." He smiled, softening the gravity of his words. "But I also know you'd probably be all right as long as he's around."

He being Hades, of course. People sure had a lot of faith in the guy. It was her life they were playing with and everyone was talking as if he had any say about how the experiment was going to go. One would think he was in charge of the program or something. T. Kirkland. Hmmm. "Better start calling me Helen, Doc, if you're going to get all serious about me."

She caught him smiling again at her parting shot as she headed out the door. The restroom was empty. Good. She checked her reflection. She looked normal, although her usually hazel eyes had a tinge of green in them. That happened whenever she was emotionally charged. Okay, aroused. She made a face at the mirror, then moved quickly into one of the stalls. She pulled her pants down.

Aroused. She came in here because...she didn't even need to check...her panties were wet. She touched herself and fell back against the commode with a small gasp. Her sensitivity was like an electric current. She moved her middle finger and shuddered at the extreme pleasure that shot up from point of contact to somewhere behind her eyes.

"Sweet holy hot tamale," Helen muttered. She slid her finger again and bit down on her lower lip. "This is not good."

She pulled at the toilet paper a few feet away. This wasn't good at all. She was all hot and bothered by some image in her head. Worse. She was about to have the best orgasm she'd had in...months...Shit, she couldn't remember when she was this urgently close to coming without a man around.

She blew her nose into the paper. Well, this was getting more and more interesting. Or fucked up. Or both. Should she report her condition to Dr. Kirkland and T.? Or should she keep this quiet? The doctor was recording her brain waves and vitals to help keep her alive, but umm...she didn't think she wanted to explain why she was simulating sex with her trainer. As for T., nothing would surprise T., but she would use the information for more of her mind games later. Of that, Helen had no doubt.

Well, she wasn't going to have someone coming in here and catching her moaning by herself. Hades said they were the drivers behind the theories, so she was going to wait and see what he would do. If he reported what happened, then she was bound to get questions from either Dr. Kirkland or T.

Washing her hands, Helen looked at her reflection again. Her eyes still had those green glints, dammit. She curled the loose tendrils of her hair behind her ears. She would not allow herself to be manipulated by someone unseen. She was a GEM operative first and this was just another contract. GEM operatives always got the better of their men.

Arousal during a job was nothing new to him. He'd seduced women while interrogating them. If need be, he'd used sex to manipulate and retrieve information.

"I'm fine. I don't need any help," he said and clicked off the intercom.

He got up and walked through the private entrance into his quarters, unzipping his VR avatar suit as he stepped into the shower area. He stepped out of the garment, slung it on a nearby rack, and closed the shower door. He turned on the water, leaving it on cold.

He looked down. His hand reached for his flesh, his eyes closing involuntarily. Anticipation was a strange aphrodisiac. She'd aroused him more than any other woman had been able to in a long time, and this time hadn't even been real. Nonetheless, her hands and her lips had the same effect of her actually physically being with him. Her having made a certain part of him bigger hadn't helped, since he felt the heaviness of his erection even more during the session. The unfamiliarity of it had actually made him harder, tempted him to go a little further.

He wasn't averse to crossing the line. God knew he'd done that more times than he could count, but in all those times, he'd been in total control, even in the middle of sex. He opened his eyes, ignoring the sharp stab of cold liquid needles on his head and shoulders. He thought of how wet she'd felt. Real or not, he'd felt her response through the feedback oscillator. His lips twisted wryly. The experiment-a virtual reflection of her virtual reality experience being fed back to him-was going to be more successful than they'd thought. He had felt her very close to coming without having touched her. What would it be like when their minds became even more in sync with remote viewing?

The cold water didn't appear to affect his current condition. Kirkland would be coming over here soon. He squeezed a small amount of liquid soap in his hand. Reached down. Closed his eyes. And thought of the feel of her hand around him.

Six.

Area 4, secret test facility, Virginia "I want you to find out the identity of our target. Here are the coordinates. Find out exactly what they're doing. Remember how it felt to lose to that woman. We aren't going to let some other candidate win, are we? Think of it. You can beat her. This is your chance."

Zoom.

Dark. Dark.

"This is where I am. The room inside the monitor room. Right turn. Electronic panel. Going to open..."

"We're not interested in the panel, Agent. Go through into that room on the right. What's in there?"

Zoom. Focus.

"I...the door is gray and made of..."

"Agent 22! Just walk through it."