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"You have got to be fkingkid ding me"

There was now an unrestrained chorus of voices, nu, and so much uproar I opened one eye with difficulty Above every other word a na me to stumble from the couch in a heap

"Crispin!"

"need to see ering over the coffee table in a blind frenzy to run toward that voice My eyes were open but unfocused, everything in a hazy double outline thattoward me look more like a wraith than a man

Arainst a body that collided so forcefully with mine, we fell onto the floor My face was stuffed next to a throat vibrating with that familiar accented voice

"missed you so much, Kitten, I love you"

This is a dream, it occurred to meA dream, and I will thank Don froain God bless modern science and tons of codeine mixed with sedatives!

"You're dead," I slurred "I wish you were really here"

"Leave ive us a moment Charles"

Soh Spade's dark head bent until it grazed my chin He nodded once and kissed the pale face still blinking out of clarity to me

"Anything, my friend"

"Please don't wake ed, terrified soure that seeer"

"You're not drea, Kitten" Oh God, his mouth covered mine in a kiss that made my heart break "I'm here"

"They saw you dead, a-and shr-shriveled, and you're not r-r-real" Reality and confusion mixed, increased by the pills and doubled with shock

He carriedhis palm with it I didn't have much choice, since he clapped it over my mouth in the next moment

With each drop I sed, an to lift, until I could clearly see Bones kneeling in front of ers shook as I reached out to touch him, half afraid this was another of Patra's drearating before aze

Bones caught my hand and squeezed it

I devoured hily white, he looked the same His skin was as incandescent as always, and his dark brown eyes bored into mine

"Are you really here?"

I couldn't shake the terror that he was a e What if I let myself believe, and then woke up to find itwas a dreao insane

With sudden desperation, I took one of those jagged pieces of glass and jahast

"What are you doing, Kitten?"

The instant throb of pain was theI'd ever felt, because itSomehow, Bones reallywas here The control I'd had for the past few days evaporated and I burst into tears, launching

"You're alive, you're alive!"

I couldn't stop repeating it even though I was hiccupping with sobs Feverishly I ranthe familiar hard outline of his body under his clothes Desperate to feel his skin, I ripped his shirt open, fresh sobs co hum of power from his bare flesh

Bones heldin ony fro into joy and shaking me with its intensity All the e was shattered, but I didn't care Everything I thought I'd lost was suddenly right here I clung to Bones like I'd die if I let hio, which was how I felt

It ht have been several h to kiss ry for his taste He pulled s around his waist Nowover him for a different reason It wasn't desire I felt No, it was a need that went beyond passion or compulsion to feel him inside me

Bones must have felt it, too, because he didn't wait There wasof clothes and then the unbelievable ecstasy of his flesh driving intoainst hi hien

It was fast and explosive Bones claxed roan of pleasure that wasinall the cheerous Not that I cared I could die right now and I'd still count myself as the luckiest person ever

"You don't kno much I've missed you, Kitten," Bones murmured

"Everyone cauish of remembrance "Except you I called your cell Patra answered She said"

I stopped That brought up thehim had delayed

"Bones, whathappened?"

For the sake of not repeating it otten so old coffee and trying to shake the last of the haziness fro-induced sleep, but to say I still felt out of it was an understatement

When at last Bones let everyone back in the drawing room, he ed up in a mass eun was Annette She threw her ar hietic glance to me

"Don't begrudge her," I said, for once not jealous "She was as miserable as I was these past couple days"

When Annette finally released him, Mencheres put his ar his nehite hair

"I have never been wrong before in "