"Some didn't." Hot breath against her ear as he leaned in to let her better reach his neck. "For some, the price was too high."

His pulse fascinated her, so strong, so vivid, and now, jagged with desire. For her. A little curl of feminine power snaked up her body, heady and hungry. He was such a strong man that knowing she had the ability to affect him like this was a drug of its own. Grazing her teeth along the column of his neck, she ran the nails of one hand gently down his chest, making sure to scrape past one flat male nipple.

He hissed out a breath. "Do that again."

Chapter 42

"Like this?" A light caress.

"Tease."

Smiling, she gave him what he wanted - to his husky groan - before pushing at him to shift back. He resisted. She insisted.

A single inch.

Just enough for her to move her head down so she could close her teeth delicately around the nipple she'd tormented. He swore as her teeth slipped, grazing his chest. When she shifted her attention to the side she'd neglected, he accommodated her by giving her another inch.

Warm, golden brown skin under her hands, her lips, the wild, edgy scent of him in her head, a little bit of heaven. Having him all to herself, to enjoy without guilt or worry, if only for this broken instant in time, it was nothing she'd ever regret. No matter what. Shoving the latter thought to the darkest recesses of her brain, she tried to kiss her way down his chest. "Give me room."

"No." He tugged up her head with the hand fisted in her hair.

She licked at his skin, blew out a breath to cool the wet. He shuddered. Nuzzling at him, she pushed. "It's my turn."

"I'm going to embarrass myself if you put that pretty mouth of yours anywhere near my cock." Blunt words, as blunt as the erection pushing against her lower abdomen.

Skin tight with the impact of that erotic image, she pushed again. "I want to taste you. You had your turn already."

The air turned not only blue, but went well over into indigo. "Are you trying to torture me?" A biting, nibbling kiss that sizzled straight down to the dampness between her legs. "What if I don't want to play fair?" he murmured, shimmying one hand inside her sweatpants to cup her bottom with bold familiarity. "What if I want another turn?"

Having his hands on her was scrambling her brain cells, but she wasn't about to give in. Not when this particular fantasy had been driving her insane since the instant she'd first considered it. "Then you better let me do what I want," she ordered, nipping at his jaw. "Or you're not getting it."

"I'm bigger than you are."

She slid her hand underneath the waistband of his jeans to close firmly around him. His body bucked. "You were saying?"

"Witch." He moved back just barely enough, widening his stance to give her room.

It was all she wanted. Being hemmed in by Dev added an exquisite layer of sensation to her sensual exploration. Not only did she love being surrounded by the burning sexual heat of him, she felt protected - more than safe enough to give in to her wildest fantasies. Removing her hand, she dropped a kiss to the center of his chest and ran her fingers down his sides, stroking over his skin with a playfulness she'd never thought to find in herself.

"I'm keeping score," he warned. "Payback's going to involve screaming on your part."

She'd come to associate screaming with pain . . . but, well, with Dev, she had a feeling it'd take on a whole new meaning. "I can't wait." Kiss by kiss, she progressed down his body, until she was kneeling, her fingers on the top button of his jeans.

Looking up through her lashes, she met his gaze as he looked down, his hands braced on the wall above her. The gold in his eyes seemed to have spread, creating something akin to a glow. "Am I imagining it?" she whispered, flicking open the button.

"No."

Fascinated by that electric gaze, she wanted to ask more questions, but then he shuddered, shattering her thoughts. She'd been playing her fingers over his erection - now she realized she'd driven him to the edge. Wetting her lips, she took hold of the zipper tab.

"Fuck," he muttered through gritted teeth as she tugged it over the push of his erection and down. The next few instants passed in a kind of sexual haze. All she knew was that she'd somehow managed to release him from his clothing, and now the aroused length of him lay in her palm. It was a compulsion to lean forward, to flick her tongue across the head.

He jerked, but didn't pull away. "So?" It was a hoarse question.

She looked up, closing her fingers around the silken heat with a possessiveness that surprised even her. "So?"

"You" - he cleared his throat, took a couple of deep breaths - "you asked what the pleasure was in doing this."

Dipping her head back down, she leaned forward and took him into her mouth. This time, his shout wasn't contained. One hand tangled in her hair, his thighs iron hard, erotic tension in every single muscle.

Drawing the taste of him deeper, she moved her hands to his thighs, giving herself more room to play. She heard him swear and felt him tug gently at her hair, but no way was she ending this when she'd barely begun. Instead of withdrawing, she dug her fingers into those rock-hard muscles in silent reproach.

When he jerked and released her hair, she knew she'd won. At least for the next little while. So she took full advantage, sucking and licking and learning. There was pleasure in this, such extreme pleasure that it felt as if her bones were melting from the inside out. The taste of him intoxicated her, but more, feeling his response, knowing it was because of her. . . it pushed her arousal to a fever pitch.

"Enough." He stepped back before she could hold him to her.

Frustrated, she glared. "I wasn't finished."

"I'm about to," he muttered, and pulled her to her feet, shoving at her sweatpants.

She stepped out of them and her panties at the same time, exhilarated at the raw edge of him, the glittering gold in his eyes. "Dev, wha - "

He lifted her with a display of strength that stole her breath. "Legs around my waist." It was a clipped order.

She obeyed immediately. He rewarded her by sliding into her in a single hard thrust. Her scream echoed off the walls as pleasure short-circuited her body. His hands gripped her bottom, holding her tightly in place as he moved in and out. She clawed at his shoulders, feeling herself hanging on the precipice.

"God damn it!" Dev's body went taut against her and she knew he'd lost every bit of his steely control.

That was all it took.

Electricity rocked through her, as wild and as hot as the man who held her pinned to the wall in helpless surrender.

Katya lay boneless as Dev dropped her on the bed. "I still have my top on," she muttered, not the least bit interested in moving. Her bones were jelly, her inner muscles continuing to spasm in little bursts of pleasure.

Dev, having finally gotten rid of his jeans, sprawled down over her, burying his face in her neck. She managed to find enough energy to thread her fingers through his hair and hold him to her as his chest rose up and down in long, deep breaths. "You've killed me," he muttered.

"I plan to do it again as soon as I recover." Which would be in about a week.

"Insatiable."

"Only for you."

A silence unbroken but for their jagged breaths. "So honest." He pressed a kiss to her damp skin. "Don't ever change that about yourself."

Her free hand curled into the sheet. Was a lie of omission still a lie? Yes, she thought, honest with herself, even if she couldn't be with him. "I'm hungry."

"Give me a minute to find the strength to hunt and gather."

Her lips quirked. "Devraj Santos, brought down by a woman half his size."

"With a mouth like heaven." Another kiss. "You can do that again anytime you want. I insist."

A laugh burst out of her. "Ouch, my stomach muscles hurt." But she'd take this kind of pain any day. "Tell me about the eyes." Surely that knowledge was nothing that would hurt the Forgotten even if Ming found her before she could end this?

"Hmm." His lashes moved against her in an incongruously delicate caress. "We had cardinals drop out with us. The eyes disappeared within a generation."

"Because of the dilution in your abilities," she murmured. "No cardinals, no night-sky eyes." Cardinal eyes were eerily beautiful. Even Psy in the Net rarely met those at the extreme end of Psy power - white stars on black, their eyes seemed to reflect the Net itself.

"But some of us are starting to be born with these eyes."

"Brown and gold?"

"The color doesn't matter." He rose up on his elbow, damp strands of hair on his forehead. She liked him this way - sexy and disheveled. "I don't think you're listening to me." He mock-scowled when she reached up to lave kisses over the muscled curve of one shoulder.

She smiled. "Sorry."

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted" - she laughed at his severe tone - "there's some kind of psychic feedback in times of either great emotional stress or arousal." A gleam in those beautiful eyes. "I think you gave me both today."

"That's what I like to hear," she said, in deliberate echo. "Jonquil," she whispered. "I thought his eyes were simply an extraordinary blue, but I think he exhibits the phenomenon."

Dev cupped her face in his hands. "It's not connected to the level of power," he told her. "It seems to be a random mutation that's occurred in a certain percentage of the population."

"Maybe you're in the process of developing your own version of cardinal eyes," she murmured. "Even if it's not connected to power now, it might one day end up being so."

"I hope to hell not," Dev said, jaw firming. "It'd make the strong ones easier to identify and target."

"I thought this was a safe question." Chest tight, she closed her hand over his shoulder. "Don't worry, Dev. I won't let anyone take the knowledge from my mind." Not this time. Not ever again.