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Shaking his head in a gentle tease, Max dreay the spoon, slow, so slow "The whole cup’s for you" Then he leaned forward and kissed her, licking his tongue over the searipped his T-shirt as the floor disappeared frorazing her lower lip with his teeth Liquid war her body clench

"Take your chocolate"--an order in a voice gone sandpaper rough--"and go sit before I give in to tean, put my hands on your beautiful breasts"

He turned away even as she tried to process the searing sensuality of that i, clever hands on her flesh, that sleek hair brushing over her as he bent closerHow did wo the chocolate he’d made for her, she watched her cop’s T-shirt stretch across his shoulders as he raised his arm to put the mix back into an upper cabinet

He was beautiful

And he’d given her the right to touch him Even mad, he wouldn’t push her aouldn’t reject her as ie her , closed the distance between the her cheek against his back

"Sophie"

The h her skin, a near-painful bite "When I began to show J tendencies as a child," she said, holding on, holding tight, "I was placed in a residential facility with other telepaths who needed specialized training"

Max’s hands closed over her gloved ones, but he didn’t turn, letting her use his body as a shield against the dark that had never set her free "Soid

"We were in a reth "Because young telepaths, especially those with unusual abilities, tend to have trouble with shields, it’s easier to train us out of the cities" Practical words, but the other half of her, the half that had been born that su to the solid wall of Max, afraid, so very afraid "So there was no one to notice that our instructor was beginning to act beyond Silence Like Bonner"

"He was a true sociopath" Icy rage in every word

She held it close, used it as a weapon against the past "The suht, he took four of us--four trainee Js--to another, even more remote location for intensive drills Before we left, he requested and received permission to enclose us in his shields so that we could drop ours without consequences should we have trouble during the drills" Her fingers dug into Max’s chest, and she wanted to tear through the fabric, press her skin to his, bury the past under an agony of sensation

"Sophie" A voice scraped raw "I can wait, baby I’m sorry for--"

She shook her head "No" She wanted him to know, needed him to know "Once our instructor"--she couldn’t say his nae of his shieldhe hurt us" Sophia could still remember their shock, their inability to understand "Carrie died the first day She was the smallest, the weakest" And the erness

"He was more careful after that Bilar died on the third day" He’d convulsed in front of her and Lin, and they could do nothing to help, their hands and feet tied behind their backs, their er and reached out with her telepathy, refusing to let Bilar die alone His screahtened on hers "Why didn’t your parents, the watchers in your PsyNet, sense his deviancy?"

"Don’t you see, Max?" Her voice shook "He was the perfect Psy" Silence didn’t differentiate between those who had been conditioned and those who simply did not feel

"Is he dead?"A quiet question asked in a voice that o

"Yes" When he didn’t say anything else, she continued "Lin and I, ere the last two left He was nine, I was eight" She felt her heart begin to speed up, her spine to knot "The monster didn’t want to break us too fast, so he was careful But one day he did so to me, and I didn’t respond like he wanted I didn’t screalassat the front of the cabin" Pain, blood, the glitter of glass in the sun, she’d never forget any part of it