Into a Dangerous Mind (22 page)

He reveled in every gasp and moan wrenched from deep inside her throat and felt her feminine triumph when she caused him to issue his own involuntary sounds of passion.
 
A groan ripped from his throat when she straddled him and impaled herself one slow inch at a time until he filled her completely.

Their lips met—their bodies still joined.
 
Cassidy began to move on top of him in a leisurely pace that tormented them both.
 
She looked like a pale goddess riding him with slow abandon.
 
The light caught the red and gold in her hair and it sparkled like flames.
 
He watched mesmerized and with growing need as her full, round breasts moved enticingly in front of his face.

She leaned over him as she rode to tease his lips with her own.
 
Her velvety nipples grazed his chest as she moved on top of him.
 
He enjoyed the way she gasped as the sensitive tips dragged across his chest hair.

She slowly coiled tighter around him.
 
He took her round bottom in both hands and pulled her firmly against him so each thrust impaled her fully.
 
Buried deep inside her, he had to hold himself back from the brink when she changed the angle suddenly and his tip rubbed against the back wall of her center.

Cassidy kept her pace slow and even, tormenting him.
 
He knew she held back to prolong this time for both of them, even while she coiled ever tighter increasing the friction.
 
The sensations shot through him like electric shocks.
 
Both their bodies cried out, begging for release, and still she fought against the end, to let the culmination build higher and higher.

Zach raised his head, took her nipple into his mouth, and began to suck and nibble as she rode him.
 
He squeezed the other between two fingers and heard her moan low and deep.
 
Her nipple hardened further inside his mouth, and he teased it with teeth and tongue while she ground more urgently against him.
 
His breath came in panting gasps, and he silently begged her to end their torment.

She lost her control to the sensations, rode him with wild abandon, cried out, and pulsed around him.
 
He tread too close to the razor thin line between pleasure and pain and his own orgasm burst up from the very depths of his being to pour deep inside her.

Reality slowly encroached as Zach’s adrenaline faded and his breathing returned to normal.
 
Cassidy lay crumpled on top of him.
 
He threaded his fingers through her tousled hair and kissed her forehead.

Little tremors ran through Cassidy’s chest, and a heavy ball of lead settled in the pit of his stomach as he realized she was crying.
 
But a second later, she surprised him further when a full rich laugh bubbled up out of her and filled the room.

She stretched languidly, still joined with him, and sat up.
 
“I feel so alive!
 
Like I could take on the world.”
 
She leaned down to nip at his bottom lip and then slid off of him to lie on her back beside him.

Zach shook his head.
 
This woman never ceased to amaze him.
 
“And I thought I’d made you cry.”

Cassidy sat up and leaned over him, a crease forming between her eyebrows, and the corners of her lips bent down into a concerned frown.
 
“You know, for a mind reader, you don’t bother to read mine very much when it counts.
 
Besides, I’m trying my best to escape for a few hours at a time so I don’t lose my sanity.
 
Let’s just try to enjoy the moment.”

The truth hit Zach hard and percolated through his system in an accusing flood.
 
“You’re right.
 
When I thought you were crying, I didn’t reach out to see what was wrong.
 
I instinctively protected myself and did nothing.”
 
If he wanted to love this woman fully, he needed to work on trusting her not to hurt him like Diane had.

He laughed at himself.
 
Leave it to him to blame Diane for dying and hurting him—as Cassidy and Kathy would say—what a male thing to think.

“You got that right.”
 
He looked over in time to see her smirk.
 
“Some of us do bother to read minds when it’s available.

He pulled her hair playfully.
 
“Well, I did warn you mind reading didn’t guarantee no miscommunication.”

She lay on her side, leaned on her elbow, her head resting in her hand.
 
“Are you happy, Zach?”

Zach rolled onto his side and pulled her against him for a searing kiss.
 
“Yes,” he whispered against her mouth.
 
“I just wish we never had to go back through that door into the real world.
 
I wish the two of us could stay like this forever.”

She giggled and rubbed her body against him.
 
“I agree, but we’d get pretty hungry.”

Zach nibbled her bottom lip.
 
“I could snack on you for quite a while.”

She kissed him back quickly and then pulled away with mischief in her gaze.
 
“Not that I don’t think you’re tasty, but I require real food.”
 
Her expression sobered.
 
“And besides, we can’t hide from everything.
 
I need to know if they’ve found her yet.”

Zach’s thoughts turned dark, he’d allowed himself to push the tortured girl from his thoughts for a few hours.
 
He knew he needed the time to let his mind recover, but his guilt flowed nonetheless.
 
Nodding, he smacked Cassidy’s bare bottom lightly.
 
“Okay, then let’s get moving.”

Cassidy rolled off the bed and pulled him with her.
 
“Zach?”

Looking for his underwear somewhere in the explosion of their clothes, he nodded for her to continue.

“I think you should teach me how to contact Brian.”

He snapped up his gaze to look at her.
 
She’d pulled on a robe and stood with her arms rigidly at her sides, her eyes narrowed, her gaze piercing—ready for battle.

Zach sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face.
 
He didn’t want Cassidy contacting the Reaper—especially after what happened last night.
 
It was too dangerous, and he couldn’t protect her fully—too many possibilities for something to go wrong, and he wouldn’t risk her further.
 
“Can we get through a shower before we have this argument?”

Cassidy pulled him down onto the bed beside her.
 
He felt at a distinct disadvantage since he was still totally nude.

“I think it’s too dangerous, but you already saw everything that flashed through my mind about it.
 
You know how I feel.”

“But there’s no other way to find him on our terms.”

It gnawed inside his gut, but she was right.
 
If it were a matter of him contacting the Reaper—no matter how dangerous, he would do it.
 
But the thought of risking her tore at his heart.

Cassidy grabbed his chin and turned his head to face her.
 
“We can’t be at peace with us, with any kind of relationship, until this is over.”

Zach understood, but still wanted to dissuade her, so he tried a different approach.
 
“What will you do once you contact him?
 
You’ve already hurt him without even meaning to.”

Cassidy lifted her chin and he had to fight to keep from smiling at the small gesture of stubbornness he’d come to love.
 
“I’ll be able to get clues about where he is and maybe I can force open the door to his powers and hurt him the same way he’s hurting those women.”

those women.”
 
Was she actually thinking about killing the Reaper?

“We need to stop him before he hurts someone else.”

“I don’t disagree, but that’s not the way to do it.
 
Once you start down the path of playing God with people, it’s hard to stop.
 
And nothing justifies murder Cass—nothing.”

Her eyes lit with temper.
 
“You have to help me stop him.
 
I know you can’t get a direct link with him, but I can.
 
We should connect to him and stop him for good.
 
This is a special situation and warrants the use of anything at our disposal.”

just because I can, I’d be no better than the Reaper.”

Tears welled in Cassidy’s eyes.
 
“I’m afraid, and he has to be stopped.
 
We were given this power for a reason.
 
We should use it.”

Zach tried one last time to make her understand.
 
“If I were given superior strength, does that mean I could justify beating up the world to make them follow my sense of justice?
 
Who’s to say my sense of justice is correct?
 
There are laws which must be followed, that’s what keeps our society functioning.”

Her turmoil of emotions slapped him in the face as she tore away from him and threw up her shields.
 
“If you won’t help me, I’ll do it myself!”

Bolting off the bed, he followed her, but she’d already locked the bathroom door and turned on the shower.
 
“Damn.”
 
He scrubbed his hands over his face and went to look for his clothes.

Zach finished pulling on his shirt and stepped out of Cassidy’s room.

“Dix, I told you breakfast will be ready in fifteen minutes.”

Zach heard Kathy’s words as he walked around the corner into the living room.

Kathy turned to greet Zach with a smile.
 
“Good morning, Zach.”
 
She grabbed the newspaper off of the coffee table.
 
“We’re having crepes stuffed with anything I can find in Cassidy’s kitchen.
 
And thanks to you, it might be something besides pop tarts or skittles.”

A slow smile laced with affection stole across Kathy’s face as she pointed toward Dix with a wooden spoon.
 
“See if you can keep this cretin out of the doughnuts for that long.”

It seemed Kathy and Dix had bonded more than he thought while he and Cassidy had slept.
 
“I’ll do my best, but remember what I said—one woman’s swine is another woman’s stud.”

Kathy laughed and headed back toward the kitchen.