CARESSED BY ICE

Judd woke to the realization of a warm female body curved into his, her back to his chest. He hadn’t put on anything before crashing and Brenna was only wearing what felt like a thin slip that had pushed up during sleep to bare her legs all the way to the top. One of his arms was being used as a pillow, while the hand of his other lay on the smoothness of her upper thigh. Their legs were tangled, one of his pushed between hers.

Skin-to-skin contact all over. But not so much as a hint of dissonance.

He checked his shields and found them secure. His power reserves were another matter altogether. He was tapped out. When he glanced at the time laser-projected onto the facing wall, the color a deep green, he realized why. Despite the darkness, it was just after noon—Brenna had likely turned off the simulated daylight. He’d slept for seventeen hours at most and his psychic abilities needed close to twenty-four to regenerate. However, physically, he felt fine. It didn’t make sense, but he wasn’t complaining.

Feeling very alive and very male, he moved his hand over Brenna’s thigh. She murmured and heat spiked in his gut. He waited for the pain response to kick in and punish him for breaking conditioning. It never came. His hand clenched on her.

“Judd.” A sleepy complaint.

He gentled his touch. “Sorry.” Kissing the curve of her neck, he waited for the pain again. Nothing. “It’s tied to my abilities.” Of course. That was why the dissonance had been so extreme, why he’d started to bleed. Because that was how his Tk worked—by applying pressure.

“What is?” She sounded half-asleep.

“The dissonance.” They’d used his own abilities to punish him. It made perfect sense—linking his abilities negatively with emotion reinforced the need to repudiate that emotion, which, in turn, kept his telekinesis from getting out of control.

But now he was wiped out, which meant that while the dissonance controls still existed, there was nothing for them to draw power from. More importantly, until his abilities regenerated, he was no danger to Brenna. He could touch her, taste her, love her. He was hard before the thought ended.

Moving his hand up her thigh, he felt the lace edge of her panties, so delicate under his fingers, but not as delicate as her skin. Sliding a finger under that edge, he ran it down to brush her curls.

“Judd!” A gasp to full wakefulness. “What are you doing?”

“Touching you.”

Her head shifted on his arm. “Oh.” A whisper. “Doesn’t it hurt you?”

“No.” Spreading his fingers, he cupped her as he had once before.

She squeaked out a cry. “Baby, you heard of foreplay?”

He might even have smiled had he known how to do it. “I’m just getting started.” The heat of her burned his skin. “I’ve had a really long time to plan.”

“P-plan?” She coughed as if to clear her throat. “What do you mean—plan?”

He pulled his hand out of her panties to run his finger along the waistband, pushing up his thigh at the same time to rub more intimately against her. His erection throbbed at the proximity. “I thought I should be prepared if the opportunity to touch you without danger ever came to pass.”

Her stomach muscles contracted under his palm. “Is it a detailed plan?”

“Very.” He breathed in the scent at the curve of her neck, then kissed.

She shuddered and tried to turn but he only allowed her halfway, keeping their lower bodies intertwined. Then he braced himself on one elbow and simply looked at her. This close, the darkness was no barrier to his visual mapping of her features. Her eyes glowed a little, especially the flare of blue around the pupils.

It fascinated him. “Beautiful.”

She reached up to tangle her hand in his hair. “Let me turn properly.”

He pushed his thigh higher, pressing into the damp heat of her. Her gasp was both startled and inviting. He moved his thigh back and forth a couple of times. Her eyes fluttered shut. “Tease.” It was a husky accusation.

“On the contrary. I intend to deliver.” He tugged her hand from his hair and nudged her back into her previous position, spooning his body around her.

She made a displeased sound. “I can’t touch you this way.”

“I know.” They called him the Man of Ice, but where Brenna was concerned, he was anything but. If she stroked him, he wouldn’t be able to complete even a tenth of his plan. And for a man who’d been hungry as long as he had, a quick bite held no appeal. He wanted to linger, to gorge, to indulge. With that thought in mind, he ran his hand back under her slip and over the warm silk of her skin. “Is your skin this soft all over?”

Her heart thudded under his touch as he went higher. “Some places are even softer.”