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"Well," I said, and stood up "I guess we ht as well" He stood up, too Taller thantoo close

I looked up into his eyes and slid the jacket slowly down my arms, and held it out to him He took it and dropped it on the floor somewhere behind him

I looked down at myself The blouse hadn&039;t quite dried; h the thin fabric

He took one step forward and put his hands on my waist When I didn&039;t step back, hethe underside of my breasts Those thumbs settled on the second most sensitive area on entle circle that tookfrom somewhere much deeper than it had before, "we&039;re supposed to be researching energy, right?"

"Energy," I agreed My voice was shaking

"Heat"

"That, too"

He leaned down, and our lips e of heat there, or friction I was shaking all over again, but I&039;d never felt so alive, so fully in my skin as I did at that moment

Rain, and rain, and rain His jacket made a pillow on the floor behind the lab table We fumbled at each other&039;s clothes until they slid away The sting of cool air on naked skin, then the flare of shared warmth Not a lot of foreplay, but hell, I didn&039;t need it; the stor between us had made me as ready as I&039;d ever be The pain took me by surprise, and so did my sudden desperate desire toofelse happened Power Power raced into every nerve in my body and snappedlove to me, every cell, every nerve, every pulse beat that echoed between us I felteverything

I felt the huge ru ainst him, and the extreme pain of it, the pleasuresparks snapped between us, blue-white, bleeding off energy that our bodies weren&039;t built to contain Power, echoing between us, waves bouncing froer with every second

He wasn&039;t prepared any more than I was We were swept away on a rhythh, and I drowned on waves and waves of a pleasure I&039;d never felt before, felt hi to hihtbulbs Glass s I felt wind screausts

And then it was over, and ere lying together, sweating, weak, and still feeling the power building between us

He realized how dangerous it was before I did He pulled away fro backwards until his back touched the wall I scuttled back and hid under the lab table All around us, the hipped and screamed and overturned tables and chairs until it finally faded to a breeze, then a sigh

Stillness

"God," he whispered, and put his head in his hands I sy, too Every nerve in my body felt crisped

I licked my lips and said, "It&039;s not supposed to happen like that, right?"

There was blood on the floor where I&039;d been lying I stared at it for a few seconds and saas staring at it, too

He looked utterly stricken "No," he whispered "God, I&039;m so sorry I didn&039;t know-"

I didn&039;t knohether he was apologizing because I&039;d been a virgin or because we&039;d almost destroyed the campus I didn&039;t really have time to find out

The man was, of course, Lewis Levander Orwell And so far as I know, he never again touched a girl as in the Progra for my panties when Professor Yorenson arrived to find out what the hell was going on

I don&039;t knohat I&039;d been expecting Achoirs, inviting me to join Lewis in whatever hole he&039;d crawled into? Crap

We cruised around I-40, looking for signs froh radio stations, hoping for a cryptic

If Leas here, evidently he didn&039;t want to talk tolot of a La Quinta Motor Inn

"He&039;s here?" David asked, frowning I was on the verge of hysterical tears or worse, hysterical laughter- worn down to nothing by the strain

"He&039;s around," I lied My voice was shaking "I need a shower and a good night&039;s sleep in a real bed If you&039;ve got a problem with that, thumb a ride"

He shook his head and followed me into the hotel lobby

I checked us in with the last of my cash I was so tired, I would have taken a cell in a monastery, but La Quinta turned out to be quite a showplace, with an indoor pool and a bubbling jewel of a hot tub that we passed on the way to the elevators They&039;d bookedlot and the approaching storm That was perfectly fine with

The roo-size bed and pillows big enough to qualify as ht, or ht to the far corner and set his backpack down

"Why the hell do you carry that? It&039;s justdressing, right?" I was pins and needles all over, aching, itching for a fight "Like the clothes To ive it up I know better now"

"Do you?" He sat down on the bed and put his hands on his knees, watching me pace back and forth "I doubt you know any more about the Djinn than you do about the Demon Mark"

I couldn&039;t look at him I liked the way he looked, and I knehat I saas constructed, artificial, soether to pleaseObscene And it pissedI need to know about the Djinn"

Dangerously quiet on that end of the room I paced restlessly to the s Rolled the curtains open on a night sky rich with stars

"Maybe I will claiet the hell away froe Wouldn&039;t that be a stitch?"

He kneas baiting him "Don&039;t start this, Joanne I don&039;t want this"

"Well, news flash, I didn&039;t want any of this! I didn&039;t want to be gang-raped by Bad Bob and his pet Djinn I didn&039;t want to end up with this thing inside me And I didn&039;t ask for you, either! So why don&039;t you just-?"

He stood up I turned to face hiy crackled the air, and it wasn&039;t entirely emotional; it couldn&039;t be separated that way Djinn were creatures of fire, and I waswhatever I was beco Water Air Darkness

"Just what?" he asked in a soft, dangerous, purring tone "Let you throw yourself on the pyre of your own arrogance? Don&039;t teht you didn&039;t want to fight"

"I don&039;t! I&039;ve tried to help you! I&039;ve tried to make up for-" He stopped hiold flecks Shi hot "Say the words It&039;s the only way you&039;re going to get out of this alive-you know that"

"Oh, so now you&039;re going to kill me? Oh, hell, why not? There&039;s probably a Let&039;s Kill Joanne club, with cool little s You can be the president, and Bad Bob the Ghost of Honor-"

He grabbeda smart-ass bitch and listen to ive ainst his chest and shoved It was likes pushing at a block of David-size concrete

"Say the words!" He yelled it at me Shook me harder, so hardcurtain over my eyes "In the name of the one true God, say it or I swear I will hurt you so badly, you&039;ll begbone God, it hurt It was like dying fro back, ripping at my flesh with invisible claws