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She traced his mouth with a fingertip. “Kiss me?”

“I wanted to do a lot more than kiss you, but I would have started with that. What about you? What did you think would happen if I ever found you in your dreams?”

“We would have started with a kiss and decided where to go from there.”

“You can run that experiment anytime you feel like it.”

“How about now?”

Gabriel’s eyes got very fierce and very hot. “Now would be a good time.”

He reached for her with both hands, but she was already hurling herself into his arms. The impact of her body sent a shudder through him. He caught her close and held her with a mag-steel grip. His mouth came down on hers in a kiss that burned so fast and so hot she knew the experiment was already out of control. It was the same kind of kiss he hadgiven her when he had rescued her from the Underworld. Her senses were overwhelmed.

Energy charged the atmosphere in the narrow hallway. She was suddenly flying just as she had in the Ghost City when she had channeled a storm and called down lightning. She clawed at the buttons on Gabriel’s khaki shirt. He let her peel the garment off his shoulders and then he went to work on her shirt. It landed on the floor beside his.

He stopped when he realized she had nothing on beneath the shirt except the amber pendant.

“No bra,” he said. He smiled and slowly trailed his palms over her breasts. “I like your style.”

“I need to be comfortable when I’m working.” She threaded her fingers through the hair on his chest. “And when I’m not working.”

He gave an exultant laugh, picked her up, and carried her down the short hall to her bedroom.

He didn’t rez the lights. The green radiance of the Dead City Wall pouring through the windows was all that was needed. He stood her on her feet beside the bed and removed the pendant. He set the amber necklace on the bedside table and unfastened the front of her trousers.

A moment later she was naked and stretched out on the sheets. She levered herself up on her elbow and watched Gabriel undress in the shadows. He was everything she had known he would be—lean, powerful, sleekly muscled.

He was also unmistakably and seriously aroused. Rigid. And all because of her.

Anticipation thrilled her senses. In her dreams he had been both hero and villain, rescuer and betrayer, thrilling and dangerous. Today she had summoned lightning, and instead of being alarmed he had laughed. He knew her secret and he did not give a damn. She knew his secret and she did not care, either.

They were both riding a psychic buzz generated by the brush withdeath in the Ghost City. Sooner or later they would both crash, but right now they were running very, very hot. Neither of them was in a mood to contemplate the future. Tonight was all about tonight.

Gabriel came down on top of her, making her intensely aware of his physical strength and the power of his aura. She sank her fingertips into his broad shoulders and gloried in the shudder that went through him.

His mouth closed over hers again. The hunger in his kiss sent a searing pleasure through her senses. She stroked one hand down his chest, through the crisp curls below his flat belly and lower still. She gripped his heavy erection.

He groaned, framed her head with his arms, and looked down at her. “This is how my dreams were supposed to end.”

“Mine, too.” She tightened her grip on him.

For a few seconds his whole body went taut. She looked up and saw that his eyes were squeezed shut with the effort he was exerting to keep from climaxing. She knew that, given all they had been through in the past several hours, it probably wouldn’t have taken much to push him over the edge tonight, but she didn’t care. She was the one who was in bed with him, the one who had the power to storm the barricades of his self-control.

She found the sensitive place at the base of his erection and pressed firmly.

“Lucy,”he gasped. “Wait.”

She ignored him.

He sucked in a harsh breath. “That does it.”

He rolled slightly to one side and cupped the hot, wet place between her legs. He leaned over. His mouth closed on one nipple. He tugged gently.

She was so sensitive now that she nearly came off the bed. He stroked relentlessly, his fingers finding all the right places. She stopped breathing for a beat as her lower body tightened and tightened again. She clutched his forearms. He responded by easing two fingers inside her and pressing upward against the small muscles of her core.

She gasped. He started to withdraw. She gripped his shoulder with all of her strength.

“No,” she managed. “Don’t.”