CARESSED BY ICE

Every man had a limit. Judd figured he’d gone past his weeks ago. “The link must be present between a body and a free mind. Without that link, it’s not pleasure but a facsimile so wrong it’s pain.”


She was silent for close to a minute. “I never thought about it like that, but you’re right. It was pain. It tore me apart to have my body react against my will, hurt me so badly I had to curl up in my inner mind to survive. Sascha said it’s the most basic of survival instincts, what sentient beings do when there’s no other way out. Sometimes, they never return from the catatonic state.”

Driven to the edge, but unwilling to chance hurting Brenna, he focused his rage into manipulating an inanimate object instead. The sofa raised off the floor behind her. “Yes,” he said, hoping she wouldn’t notice. “So embrace the pleasure you get from me. It’s not tainted.”

She smiled, slow and bright. “You’re wonderful, you know that? All logic and reason but wonderful.” A simple statement that meant everything. “And even more so because you’ve been holding me all this time without complaining. I’m no lightweight.”

He debated whether to say it and decided for truth. “I’m a Tk. It costs me nothing to hold you.”

Her face clouded over. “You’re using telekinesis to hold me up?”

“Yes. It’s who I am.” It was time they dealt with that. “Look behind you.”

Frowning, she glanced over her shoulder. Her mouth fell open. “You’re making the sofa . . . and the table, float!” She turned back to him. “Why?”

“Too much power. I have to release it somehow.”

She wriggled and he knew she wanted to be freed. He let her jump down, wondering what she’d do now. Able to rein in his most dangerous emotions now that she was no longer touching him, he brought the furniture back down to earth.

“Lift me,” she ordered out of nowhere.

“Brenna—”

She took a couple of steps back to give him more room. “Do it, I want to feel your . . . energy, differentiate it from his.” A stubborn look.

Judd had the sudden realization that if he ever saw fear of himself in Brenna’s eyes, it would break him beyond redemption. “Hold still.” He could do it while she was moving, but she might inadvertently hurt herself if she pushed forward at the wrong instant and redirected his kinetic energy.

Then he simply did it.

“Judd.” Her eyes went wide as she found herself standing in midair, two feet off the floor.

“Should I put you down?” It cost him literally nothing to do this. In fact, it lessened the dissonance because of the discipline required to govern his Tk.

“No. Take me higher.”

He obeyed. To his surprise she began to laugh. “It’s like I’m flying.” Curling up into a ball, she did a flip in the air, forcing him to concentrate even harder to compensate. At that instant, he was her personal Arrow, a slave who’d do this for as long as she wanted, just to hear her laugh.

“Do something else!” A grinning order as she returned to an upright position.

He began to press on her legs. After a second, she seemed to understand and cooperated as he took her horizontal. Now she really looked like she was flying. Her expression was both delighted and startled at the same time.

“Okay,” she said soon after. “Enough. I don’t want to wear you out.”

“I’m fine,” he said, obeying nonetheless. Because she’d asked. There could be no connection between his Tk and her lack of choice.

“Baby, I have plans for that hot bod of yours and for those plans to succeed, you’ll need all your energy,”

He made sure her landing was soft. “Did my power scare you?”

“No.” She sounded vaguely surprised. “I think it’s because he never did anything like that. He was only interested in causing pain and humiliation, not playing.”

Play. Another changeling concept. “Was that what we were doing?” He watched her cross the floor to him, graceful and deadly—Brenna Shane Kincaid could destroy him, and yet he offered no resistance when she put her hand on his chest.

“Your skin burns!” She scowled. “What’s wrong? Don’t give me any crap about it being nothing. Your irises are pure black again—the gold is gone and I can’t even distinguish the pupils. No—wait.” Her forehead wrinkled. “The irises aren’t black—they’re a deep shade of red!”

“It’s not something you have to be concerned about.”

She let out a low growl that sounded like it should’ve come from a much bigger creature. “I swear, you’re going to drive me to grievous bodily harm one of these days.”

He couldn’t resist. Reaching out, he ran his finger over her cheek, along her jaw, and down her neck, closing his hand about her neck once more. Petting. Gentling. “Then you’d have to find another hot bod.”

Her lips twitched and she raised her hand off his chest to close over the wrist of the arm holding her. “Very funny, but I’m not that easily distracted. Baby, please.”