Naked flesh?

Backed against the wall of a tunnel?

Being groped in the dark? And the worst thought of all hit me: Did Erik think because I'd had sex (once!) that now it was open season on nailing Zoey? Ah, crap!

I wasn't going to do this. Not here. Not like this. Hell, I didn't even know if I was ready to do it again at all. The one and only time I'd had sex had ended disastrously and had been the biggest mistake of my life. It had definitely not turned me into some kind of nympho ho!

I pushed against Erik's chest and pulled my mouth from his. He didn't seem to mind. Actually, he hardly seemed to notice. He just kept grinding against me and moved his lips to my neck.

&ldqubCeo;Erik, please stop," I said breathlessly.

"Umm, you taste so good."

He sounded so sexy and turned-on that for a moment I was confused about what I really wanted. I mean, I did want to be with him again, and he was totally hot and familiar and...

I had just begun to relax into him when I glimpsed something over his shoulder. Fear stabbed me as I realized the something had eyes glowing red from a deep, wavering sea of blackness that seemed to pool and writhe in the air like a ghost made of nothing but darkness.

"Erik! Stop. Now." I shoved hard against his chest and he stumbled back half a step. My heart beating wildly, I moved quickly so that I could face what ever was there behind him. There were no red eyes glowing at me, but I swear I saw an inky darkness within the black of shadow. As I blinked and focused my eyes, the weirdness disappeared, leaving nothing but Erik and me and a dark, silent tunnel.

Suddenly, from the opposite direction, I heard the click of shoes against concrete and I drew in a deep breath, readying myself to call what ever element I'd need to combat this new faceless threat, when Kramisha stepped calmly out of the shadows. She gave Erik a long, considering look and said, "Boyyyy, you is workin' it here in the tunnel? Damn! You got some game."

Erik turned to her as he tucked me under his arm. I didn't need to look up at him to know that he had an easy smile on his face. Erik was a seriously good actor. The face he was showing Kramisha was under control, with just the right amount of sexy, got-caught-in-the-act to it.

"Hey there, Kramisha," he said smoothly.

On the other hand you have me. I could barely stand, let alone speak. I knew my face was beet red and my lips looked bruised and damp. Hell, I probably looked bruised and damp. "Kramisha, did you see anything over there in the tunnel?" I jerked my chin in the direction of the shadows behind us and managed to sound only semi- p**n  star and breathless.

"No, girl, I only seen you and your boy here sucking face," Kramisha said quickly.

I wondered if maybe she hadn't answered a little too quickly.

"Aww! Are Erik and Z making out? That's so sweet!" Seemingly from nowhere, Jack suddenly materialized behind Kramisha, Duchess woofing and wagging by his side.

"Z, don't freak. You probably just saw more of those bats," Erik said, squeezing my shoulder reassuringly before he nodded at Jack. "Hey there, Jack. I thought you'd be basking in a hot shower by now."

"He's gonna, but he came to help me get some towels and stuff," Kramisha said. "And, yeah, there is definitely bats down here. They don't mess with us if we don't mess with them." Then she yawned and did a seriously impressive stretch that made her look like a long, lean black cat. "Since you here, how 'bout you two helping Jack carry the stuff back to the showers and I'll just take me a little beauty sleep?"

"No problem. We'd be glad to help," I said, regaining my voice and feeling like a moron for letting bats in a dark tunnel almost scare the poopie out of me. Jeesh, I must really need some sleep. "Erik and I?I were just heading to the bathrooms."

Kramisha gave us a long, slow look that wasn't any less knowing because she was sleepy. "Uh-huh. You looked like you was headin' to the bathrooms."

I felt myself blush again.

She turned, and I thought she was going to (bizarrely) walk right into the tunnel wall behind her, but instead she disappeared into it. Then I heard a match strike and a flickering lantern illuminated a hollowed-out section of the tunnel, just a little bit smaller than Dallas's room. Kramisha hung the lantern on a spike and then looked over her shoulder at us.

"Well? What you waitin' for?"

"Oh, yeah, okay," I said.

Jack, Duchess, Erik, and I moved up beside Kramisha to look into the new room. It actually had shelves built into the squared cement walls and looked just like a tidy closet. I gazed at neat piles of folded towels and, weirdly enough, big puffy bathrobes that Duchess was nosing around.