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"Maybe?"

"Well," I said, "privacy’s an issue"

He gave me a sloicked smile "It really isn’t," he said, "if that’s all that’s stopping you I’ht here Right now"

I had to admit that kick-started my heart into a whole different speed I looked around at the cabin mutely "They’re Wardens," I pointed out "Well, except for Cherise"

"So they are" He didn’t see"

"Really?"

"Really"

He looked very seductive all of a sudden-it was indefinable, how he shifted from business to pleasure, but it was a definite and une All of a sudden I was hyperaware of the clean, cool lines of hied his chestthe full, rich softness of histhis," Iwhat?"

My attention fixed on his lips I wetted hostly echo of how he tasted Half-re, anyway I definitely needed a reood excuse"

"Oh, I prohtmyself, but there didn’t seem to be all that much reason, and deep down, I didn’t want to even try

So, I kissed him

He tasted rich and warm and real His lips were daainst him with a moan I’d missed this My body had missed it, not just my ged it, and took the wheel

David’s kiss filled me with an exhilaration and heat that my skin could only barely contain, and when I opened ue on e hand, and got down to business The boy knehat he was doing, and French was definitely so in which he was fluent The war places

I don’t know exactly how it happened, but I was on his lap by that tily ravished, and his hands started to roa down the line ofcurves and lines Then down As he felt the resistance of each button on ave without a whiically undressed before? If I had, it was aout of control, but utterly safe in his hands By the time he’d worked his way down to my waist, the shirt was open and loose, and my bra underneath seemed more like a display case than a cover

Because he’dI could still hear the other Wardens talking,a personal stereo at high voluine noise

Surely so to look back and get the topless show Not that Iextra money, but it seemed excessive Not to mention unprofessional, if I had to ith these people later

"They can’t see or hear us," David said "What they’ll see, if they actually do look, is the two of us talking It’s what they expect to see"

Maybe, but stillI foundit together "Sorry," I said "But this is just too strange It’s not that they ht see "

"Oh" David looked briefly chagrined "Sorry I didn’t think about it You always-" He broke off before uttering whatever sordid bit of uely nodded toward the rest of the plane

Which disappeared behind a ers registered a cool surface, not quite solid

"Soundproofed," he said "But if you want out, all you have to do is push"

I took my hand away and looked at him "I don’t want out," I said I meant that in so many ways "Any chance these seats fold out into a bed?"

"There is now," he said, and his eyes sparked to a hot, swirling bronze

He put his hands behind my back and lowered me Slowly The seats dissolved into a soft, firm expanse of what felt like a real bed My head encountered the airy softness of a feather pillow, and I couldn’t help but sigh in true happiness

David atching me, his eyes half-closed Braced aboveht helplessly in my throat as his elbows bent, as his shoulders flexed and the muscles slid under that smooth, matte-velvet skin I bitmidsection A burst of warmth zipped up my spine from do, then exploded outward and inward like an echo Oh

His lips traveled down, and his tongue trailed gently over the inward slope of my belly button My bitten lip started to hurt, but when I let go, I moaned I couldn’t help it I couldn’t help e, warm hand just under my breasts and pushedaze was dark and wicked and intensely sexual "We have a long, long way to go Can’t have you going off just yet"

"Then you’d better stop touching oing to go off like a Roed his fingertips over the center of the thin fabric of my bra, and it justdissolved Then he folded the two halves back fro with my shirt "Then I’d better make it worth your while," he said, and ht nipple

His hair arers, and for a while I just whited out, flying on sensation When he touched the waistband ofup to him, I kneas lost Deliriously, deliciously, wonderfully lost

I didn’t lie to hiht and shuddering pleasure, striving against his hands and his lips, long before we got to the h

And he’d known that all along

Chapter Sixteen

FIFTEEN

It felt like too short a flight, since we spent it horizontal, naked, and blissful under silken covers, protected and secluded by a swirling bubble of opal energy David’s body fit perfectly under h it had been in, but in practice, memory wasn’t a barrier to this at all There wasn’t any pain, there wasn’t any hesitation, and there was certainly no trace of shame, no matter what I felt moved to do with him, or for him It felt like the world had opened up to h his lips, his hands, his firth he used in every touch There was a kind of fever-dream delirium to it, because surely real life wasn’t like this Couldn’t be like this If it was, how had I ever gotten out of his bed?

If he was using any kind of Djinn ic, I was all for the practice Practice, practice, practice