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Shannon opened her eyes to see Da at her His black eyes blazed His jaas tight, his stance rigid He said nothing, just watched her
She sat up, let the covers fall away from her body, and realized she was naked beneath theain Then lifted her gaze to his It hadn&039;t wavered She knew he&039;d seen her breasts for just an instant She felt heat h her face, a rush of e at hi the blankets to her throat
She felt a tug Then another She glanced up fast Damien held the bedclothes in his hands, just below her feet He pulled them toward him Slowly but steadily, the covers slipped away She wanted to jerk them back or at least part of her did, but she couldn&039;t seem to move Her arms were numb, heavy, useless
Her breasts were visible now, and the blankets and sheets still kept slinking lower Satin whispered over her hips, her thighs, her knees She shivered, but it wasn&039;t cold Her ankles were exposed now Her feet Damien held the rumpled bundle of covers to one side and let it fall to the floor
She couldn&039;t roll away fro eyes, or lift her arms to cover herself She sat still, immobilized by soaze explored every inch of her body She saw the bulge at the juncture of his thighs beneath those tight black jeans he wore She kneas going to happen She wasn&039;t afraid No It was tile step toward the bed
"Damien," she whispered
"Let me love you Shannon"
She couldn&039;t catch her breath to answer, so she only nodded He reached out to touch her--
Her eyes fluttered open, and she was alone in the rooht of blankets and a comforter She lifted the covers and peeked underneath She&039;d slept in the buff for lack of a nightgown or any clothing at all except the loose-fitting robe, which tended to tangle around her legs No wonder she&039;d had erotic dreaainst her skin had been the inspiration, not the strange man of illusions That was all it was Just because he&039;d been invading her waking thoughts lately didn&039;t mean he&039;d been the cause of her drearated her teeth and punched the pillow She&039;d had a hell of a ti to sleep In so for, even expecting, him to come to her But he hadn&039;t Of course he hadn&039;t
She looked around for her robe, belatedly realizing it was dilanced at the little windup clock on the nightstand--7:15 Dusk God, she never slept this long at once Then again, she&039;d never had dreams like the one she&039;d just had, either She sat up in bed, ran one hand across her forehead, and found it damp with sweat
The knock caaze flew to the wood as his deep voice floated through
"Shannon? Are you awake?"
She bit her lip Her dreams had been accurate, if farfetched They&039;d reproduced that satin touch of his voice on her senses And the warmth of his breath, daainst her skin
Not him, she reminded herself My dreaingfor her robe or the clothes she&039;d taken off the night before Nothing was to be seen She h at him
He stood close to the door, as dark and ht black pants with tapered legs God, he was sexy
"I brought you soaze was fastened to her shoulders and her neck, and the fist hich she held sheets and blankets to her breastbone trembled "Can I come in?"
She blinked "I&039;ed and shouldered the door open, strolling in as though it were an everyday thing "Shannon, I&039;m around half-dressed, beautiful women all the time I can handle it, I promise" He sent her a ss under her arhtstand
"Yeah, maybe you can, but I can&039;t" She crossed to the bathroo behind her like Lady Di&039;s bridal train Tugging her tails in behind her, she closed the door "Where are et them cleaned for you They&039;re in the closet"
He sounded as if he stood right outside the bathroom door She didn&039;t hear hi to put on?"
He chuckled, but a second later he knocked She cracked the door and his hand poked through, clutching a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, and fresh new underwear "Those aren&039;ttoday Can&039;t have you wearing the sa everyday, can we? Take them Shannon They won&039;t bite"
She took the clothes and closed the door again, then quickly dressed
"I don&039;t knohy you&039;re bothering You won&039;t be in the"
Shocked, she stared at the bathroom door Finally, it seemed, he was ready to make a move It wasn&039;t at all what she&039;d envisioned "That&039;s the crudest proposition I&039;ve ever had" She opened the door and stood, hands on hips, facing hiht in reading the signs last night He did want her The moment of truth was here "Can&039;t you do any better?"
He touched her face, trailing ware to close her eyes and lean against him "I can do better Don&039;t doubt it But that wasn&039;t a proposition Shannon Just a statement of fact"
Her eyes popped open and she scowled "You&039;re taking this just a bit for granted, aren&039;t you?" She hadn&039;t even decided to say yes yet
"You said you wanted to be ht the killer, didn&039;t you?" She nodded mutely "Well, you certainly can&039;t do it dressed like that"
Eht heat to her face, but she turned her head to hide it froaze, and tried to convert the discoaround on stage in one of those ski skirts with a bikini top, the way your other assistants do, you&039;re in for a surprise, Daraceful, floating, dancing And we only have about an hour to rehearse, so will you kindly eat this feast Netty cooked for you so we can get on with it?"
This was not right He&039;d fed, just to be sure the hunger was assuaged, just to prevent hi this powerful lust for her And he&039;d been sure he was perfectly in control when he&039;d co nothing but a tangle of blankets, just to prove it to himself
But all it had taken to convince hilimpse of her smooth skin, bare shoulders and delicate neck, the outline of her collarbone under her skin, the shape of her jaw The lust hit hiain the second he&039;d set eyes on her, hit hi rong This daer He&039;d never felt the need again so soon Never!
And it wasn&039;t a terew more intense with every second he spent near her, until he was thinking of little else He wanted to feel her warm flesh pressed to his own, to hear the sounds she made as he worked her body, drove her to s he did
But he couldn&039;t ht kill her if he did And even if he wasn&039;t the one responsible for the deaths of those other women, he still had reason to keep a distance froet any stronger It would kill hiain When she left--as shewith hiht now The killer who stalked the streets of Arista, the person who et, for one If he hadn&039;t killed those toht go on and on And this neer his nature see He needed to explore it, to find answers to the questions torht have some answers
And then there was Shannon and this mysterious illness he&039;d worried about since he&039;d first seen its effects He had, he thought, the answers to that in his possession, in the supposed CIA o over theuilt he felt at blatantly invading her privacy that way But he needed to do that, to find out rong with her before it became worse She&039;d admitted that attacks like that had happened before--
She whirled across his room, into his arms, and nipped backward in an apparent faint He nearly dropped her, he&039;d been paying so little attention Her body&039;s jerking hter, and her eyes popped open a second later
"I don&039;t kno I&039;, Damien It&039;s so dramatic I&039;m not a dramatic person"
He couldn&039;t help but smile at the sparkle in her eyes, the dimples in her face "No, I&039;d call you ain and took his ar her like this was toocame from the doorway and she hustled forward "&039;Course it see in a living rooe, when you&039;re in costume and the music is thrummin&039; in your ears and all that s You&039;ll see"
"You think so?"
Netty wiped her hands on her apron and sent Shannon a wink "Oh, I know these things Toured with the Somerset Theatre Troupe in London when I was in my prime Played Eliza Doolittle Knocked &039;em dead, I did"
Damien frowned "You never told me that, Netty"
"You never asked," she replied "Truth be told--" she tilted her head, addressing Shannon "--he&039;s always been such a cold fish, I was beginning to wonder if there beat a heart in that big chest of his He&039;s different now, though, since you been comin&039; round"
Da, but she cut hiet to it, if I&039;et to the theater in ti else?"
Damien shook his head
"Thank you for the clothes, and theelse you&039;ve done for o
"Nothin&039; of it, child You remindyou just a mite"
Shannon&039;s eyes widened, but Netty was already on her way out the door She glanced at Damien as if dumbfounded