PLAY OF PASSION

But he recovered fast, sliding his free hand up to clench in her hair so he could tug back her head and devour her mouth while his fingers began pumping harder, faster. Stars flickered at the corners of Indigo’s vision, but she gritted her teeth and held on—she wanted the damn wolf inside her. Shredding the underwear—with considerable care, because she so did not want to damage him—she shoved at his chest with all her strength.

He broke the kiss, removing his fingers from her with a lingering stroke, and let her push him back until she could straddle him. That was all the control he gave her. An instant later, his hands were on her hips and his erection was nudging at her, and he was thrusting into her with blunt promise.

Crying out, Indigo gripped the edges of the bath, her breasts damp and gleaming above him as their bodies danced slick and hot beneath the water. The joining was a little rough, all raw. And then he closed his teeth over the delicate flesh of her breast and her body went taut in an explosion of pleasure, her muscles squeezing him tight as he crushed her to him and came with a hard, explosive grunt.





CHAPTER 28


Having received a call from Drew after he spoke to Max, Judd made a call of his own. “The Council split,” he said, “how bad is it?”

“Bad. The Scotts are determined to get rid of Nikita for one. She’s made some provocative statements against Silence—and acted on them.”

Judd considered what he knew of Councilor Nikita Duncan, wondered what was in this for her. “You can’t kill them all,” he said, remembering the Ghost’s statement the last time they’d spoken.

“They are a disease, a virus that feeds upon our people.”

“Have you considered how close you are to the Net?” Dark patches, dead patches, that was the information he had about the sprawling psychic network that fed the minds of millions of Psy on the planet—as if part of its psychic fabric was rotting away. “The degeneration could be affecting you.”

“No,” the Ghost said. “I am quite sane.”

Judd wasn’t certain the Ghost had ever been truly sane—no one with that much power could be. But he’d always been logical. “The Council’s collapse, with no new system in place, will destabilize the Net, kill hundreds of thousands of innocents.”

“Do you think I have a heart?” the Ghost asked curiously. “To be affected by such a fact?”

Judd knew the Ghost was getting closer and closer to slipping over the edge—and he knew he couldn’t let him. Not simply because of the rebel’s lethal power, but because Judd considered him a friend. “One person,” Judd said. “There must be one person who you do not want to die.”

A long, long pause. “If there is?”

Judd’s relief was crushing. “Consider that person each time you make a decision.”

This time, the pause was longer, thicker, darker. “I will consider. For now.”





CHAPTER 29


Indigo wasn’t entirely sure how they made it from the bath to the bed, but she surfaced to find herself warm, dry, and sprawled on her front on the bed, with an equally relaxed Andrew on his back beside her. Of course, one of his hands was on her butt, stroking in a way that said “mine” more strongly than words ever could.

Finding strength from somewhere, she poked him in the arm. “What was that?”

He squeezed the globe he was caressing. “Really excellent sex.”

Her wolf growled, but it was all pretend. Drew had wrung the mean out of both of them. “You were trying to sex me into submission.”

“Did it work?” A lazy grin as he turned to look at her. “I was just being me.”

It was very close to what he’d said at the start. “I’m not going to suddenly accept all the dominance bullshit.”

“Did I ask you to?” Blue eyes narrowing. “But if I’m learning how to deal with a lieutenant with a milewide streak of stubborn and a tendency to put up walls of ice, you better fucking learn to deal with a tracker who isn’t about to let you walk all over him.”

That made her roll her eyes. “The only steamroller I see around here is about six feet two and two-hundred-plus pounds of muscle.”

Instead of adding fuel to the fire of his anger, that made his eyes turn warm. He shifted to throw one leg over her, petting her exposed body with an even more possessive hand. “You broke my heart when you said I didn’t know about foreplay.”

Her lips twitched. “Yes, you’re terrible at sex. Terrible.” That was why she was lying here with melted bones and an inner wolf who was so dozy, she was sprawled out in complete abandon.

“Hmm.” A kiss pressed to her shoulder. “I guess I should work on that.”

She was about to reply when he moved so that he was braced over her, supporting himself with one arm bent at the elbow, while he reached down to part her thighs with the other. The heat of his chest burned, and she sighed at the pleasure of having him so close. “If you tell me you’re ready again after that, I’ll have to call you a liar.”

“Well, now, Lieutenant, I take that as a challenge.”