The kiss turned wild. She opened her mouth wide, allowing him complete access, while she tried to enter him with her tongue, tasting him, trying to eat him alive, sensation coursing through her. Feelings seem to link them in an unending circle, from him to her and back again, increasing in intensity with each circuit.
Without breaking the kiss he found his way back inside her waiting body, the deep throb inside her eased only slightly by his invasion.
There was no quarter given in this encounter and none asked for. Sofie arched up to bring every part of herself into contact with Evan, and he devoured her, drove ever deeper.
Without his mouth leaving hers she heard his voice in her head. I’m not hurting you?
No.
Good.
With a sudden jerk he pulled out of her. When she whimpered and tried to take him back, bringing her body up to rub against his he chuckled. “Turn over,” he ordered.
She did so, and felt his hands under her waist. “Up.” She lifted, and let him pull her onto her knees. Her shoulders on the mattress, bottom in the air she felt completely open to him, and opened her legs wide to invite him in.
Darling, you look beautiful like this. Are you ready? A teasing note entered his voice as she felt his fingers caressing her, then opening her and circling her opening. It felt sensational. Are you sure you’re ready?
Yes, damn you!
He laughed out loud as he fitted his body to hers and without foreplay, drove straight in.
“Evan!” Her cry ended in a high-pitched wail when she felt her body, impossibly hot, convulse around him. He gave her no time to savor her light orgasm, but drove hard into her, up to the hilt.
Come with me, Sofie, let me show you how I feel, how you make me feel.
Emotions, feelings, surged into her mind. She could feel him inside her, and she could feel what it felt like to him.
Unbelievable, amazing responses curled through her, driving her up through the clouds of memory to clear, sharp excitation sending red-hot needles of joy into her mind, into her body. She felt him examining her responses, and when he drove in hard, there was an edge of concern in the waves of powerful joy. You’re not hurting me. I’m yours, Evan love.
And I intend to make the most of it.
The concern disappeared, replaced by desire and need. The need to push higher, to take her with him.
Sofie let all mental processes fall away and gave herself up to pure feeling.
He felt hard inside her, driving deep, touching and caressing her G-spot with every stroke. Knowing she could hide nothing from him, Sofie responded with sighs, moans and murmured words of encouragement. This was right, this was exactly right.
Their bodies joined with a slap of flesh, each thrust driving her impossibly higher. Sofie entered a world of her own, planes of feeling coming vaguely into view, areas she’d been unaware of before.
“It’s the joining, sweetheart. It makes us one, and links our emotions and senses together. I’ve never known anything like this before.” His words came out breathily and ended with a sharp gasp, when he cried out wordlessly.
Sofie was almost past words, past moving except in response to his thrusts, gentling now, becoming more rhythmic, as though they were moving to music. Mozart perhaps. Sofie smiled at her whimsy.
“I’ll find some,” he promised. “We’ll see if it enhances this. Although I don’t think anything can.”
He withdrew gently, and turned her, his hands warm on her hips. The look on his face must mirror her own, dreamy satiation in his eyes, red lips, swollen with kissing. She reached up to kiss him as he entered her once more, gliding in as though they’d never been apart. “Can you get addicted to sex?”
He drew back, gazing at her face. “I don’t know, but we’re coming pretty close.” He didn’t stop moving, sending a series of quivers through her body, preparing her for another shattering orgasm.
Sofie surrendered, and felt him open to her. Her climax grew, slowly this time, responding to his slow, steady thrusts, each inward drive stroking her in just the right place, sensation spiraling up. She tried to bring her mind to the encounter, analyze just why this was so special, but it was no good. All her senses seemed to be attuned to the one thing, the one person, and she felt herself go into overdrive once more.
This time he joined her, exploding into her body. Their combined orgasm was completely shattering. Sofie felt herself descending into sleep, and this time she didn’t resist. Cocooned by Evan’s body and his mind, she let go.
*
Sofie slept dreamlessly, and woke up refreshed. It was late in the day, but Evan still lay beside her, his chest rising and falling in sleep. His arm lay on the pillows above them, and Sofie guessed he’d held her for a long time before they had finally broken apart. She didn’t use her newfound powers to test him, afraid she might wake him. Instead she slipped out of bed and walked to the bathroom.
After showering and cleaning her teeth Sofie dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt, then crept past Evan to go down to the main floor. He stirred when she passed him, but settled again, his breathing deep and steady.
It felt good to be here with him, as it never had with Archie. At least, not for a while. Going down to the small kitchen Sofie set a pan on the stove to boil, mentally adding a kettle to the shopping list. At least he had tea bags, proper tea, not the herbal stuff she’d been offered in other American houses.
Taking her tea Sofie went to the windows and stared out at the city outside. She enjoyed looking out, knowing no one could see her. This whole place was more luxurious than anything she’d ever known before. Miranda must be good with her investments. An agent’s salary wouldn’t stretch to this kind of place, in this area. Robert de Niro lived somewhere close. While his apartment would probably fit this one in a corner, it was some indication of the money needed to buy it.
She loved it here. The apartment already seemed like home. This was the first opportunity she’d had to think about her long-term future, what she would do now, where she would go.
It had to include Evan, if he wanted it too. He had filled a space she hadn’t even known was empty, and it was as if he’d always been there. Inventive, funny, handsome, loving, he was the companion she’d always dreamed of but had given up, in favor of the reality of Archie. Before his recent transformation, Archie had been a good friend with a crazy sense of humor, and Sofie knew her yearnings for something else had been entirely selfish, as he’d always been happy with what he had in her. The guilt had stopped her making the break, persuading herself Archie was what she wanted. Now Archie had turned into someone she didn’t know. The humor had gone, the arrogance enhanced and there was a cruelty the old Archie had never possessed.
Sofie took a sip of tea, and watched the people in the street. They were four stories up here, and each storey was high in this building that had once been a warehouse. It didn’t have the dizzying effect she often felt at the top of the skyscrapers, but it was higher than she was used to. It meant she could see people going in and out of the buildings below, walking up the street, but she couldn’t make them out as individuals. It must be raining. Several pedestrians held umbrellas, and the covers on the convertibles driving along the street were up.
This apartment was much more luxurious than anything she could afford. She loved Evan, she wanted to be with him, but Sofie had a deep aversion to becoming his dependant in any way. She wanted to pay her way, be herself, but not be so foolish about it as to force them to live somewhere she could afford, but not enjoy as much as this marvelous place. Perhaps she should get her own place. Her old apartment had been rent controlled, and Elaine couldn’t officially sub-let it, so that was gone. The apartment with Archie was too much for one person, and Archie had let it go, moving in with Mrs. Bull.
Sighing, Sofie turned and went back into the kitchen to make another cup of tea and make toast.
*
When she heard the stirring in her mind it was some time later, and she’d bee
n sitting at the computer for an hour. It was delicious to feel him wake up, and to know his thoughts turned to her first. Sofie?
I’m at the computer, looking at the scan.
Come back to bed.
The invitation was darkly seductive. Sofie chuckled. You need to eat. I’ll go and put the coffee on and fix you something.
I’d rather have you for breakfast.
Sofie laughed and went into the kitchen. She heard the bathroom door open and the spray of water as the shower was turned on. Then a different spray of water. The heat came to her cheeks when she realized exactly what Evan was doing, and then as though he had felt her discomfort, a gentle mist seemed to descend over the scene in her mind.
He could erect a barrier, then. Her new powers made Sofie feel completely vulnerable. She must develop something like that. She concentrated on the coffee and finding bacon in the cavernous refrigerator.
When Evan came down he was dressed in black jeans and a white cotton shirt, his hair damp, smelling deliciously of soap and citrus aftershave. The bacon was just crisping. Sofie broke two eggs into a bowl. “One egg enough for you?”
“Yes. Have to watch the cholesterol.”
“Do you?” She turned. There was so much about him she didn’t know.
You know all the parts that matter. “No, only in a general sense. But don’t let the yolk harden. I hate that.”
She stared at him for a moment before picking up the spatula to get the eggs out of the pan.
Sitting at the table by the window, books shoved aside to make way for the plates, Evan asked her, “How are you getting on? I take it from these you’ve been looking at the runes?”
“Yes. I’ve made a little progress, but I’ll show you after you’ve eaten.”
He waggled his brows at her comically. “Got to keep my strength up, have I?” and laughed when she looked down again at her plate. “We’re going to have to work on your shields, darling. While your thoughts are deeply flattering, I’m not sure you want me to know everything you’re thinking.”
He called me ‘darling.’
So you are.
She lifted her eyes and stared at him, seeing nothing but love and calm acceptance. She forced a grin. “Yes, I think I’ll have to practice with the shields. You’ll end up with such a swelled head you won’t be able to get out of here by the door.”
They finished their meal quickly and Sofie cleared up while Evan wandered to the computer and examined the scan of the whistle on the screen. “Have you turned the image?”
“Yes. I think the mouthpiece of the whistle is the top of the text.” Sofie returned to the room and sat down, feeling Evan press a kiss on the top of her head.
His arms went around her, resting on the chair arms. “What does it say?”
“I don’t know. The symbol used on all the bodies is at the bottom of the engraving.” She pointed at it. “I think the positioning of the runes is a key, though they aren’t set out like a script. I’ve tried right to left, left to right and top to bottom, and there isn’t a clear line. You see that one there?” There was a single rune in the center of the whistle.
“Uh-huh.”
“That looks to me like an old rune I’ve seen before. It’s a symbol for -” she paused, getting her breath. “Arthur.”
“As in King Arthur?”
“Yes.” She leaned back into his arms and he rested his chin gently on her hair. “If it is, this item is immensely important. There are no contemporary references to Arthur, no proof that he ever existed. We have to get the whistle dated. It could still be a hoax.”
“But the last symbol, the one we found on the Crowley card. What about that?”
“It’s a puzzle. Crowley isn’t that old, but he mined several sources for his designs and ideas, so he could have come across the rune anywhere. He knew what it meant, though.”
“Which is more than we do.”
Sofie sighed. “I found no reference to it in any of the books you have. I could be wrong, Evan, and in any case, if the whistle is old, there’s a lot of research to be done. Years of it.”
He chuckled. “You’re going to be a professor. That thing will take you way beyond my level.”
“I can’t make a computer do much more than switch on and off,” she said. “We all have our specialist areas, Evan, and you don’t need qualifications to prove yours.”
He lifted away suddenly, reaching across her to pick up his cup and hers. “Will you stay at the Bureau?”
The question was seemingly casual, but Sofie caught the concern in his mind before he hid it from her. “I don’t know. Not if it means going back to Virginia. I want to stay here, with you.”
He reached out and just touched the back of her hand where it lay on the mouse. “Thank you. I don’t want this to be long distance, when this house arrest is over. I want you here, with me.” He paused, and Sofie saw his shadowy reflection in the unused monitor at the side of the one she was using. He bit his lip. “Do you mind?”
“Mind? I love this apartment, Evan. But you must let me pay my way.”
“Why?” He strolled to the kitchen. “It’s on a long lease, and the maintenance is all taken care of. The investments take care of that. I don’t pay anything more than the utility bills from my salary.”
“Then I’ll pay my share of those.”
“Done.”
As he went through the door of the kitchen Sofie realized she had just agreed to stay. It didn’t dismay her.
She went back to studying the runes. The Arthur rune, or whatever it was, resembled a pair of eyes, owl’s eyes, so it was likely that the runes were pictograms of some kind. She searched her memory for the source of the rune. It had been on an old piece of pottery, one of a cache of clay tablets discovered in the region of Cadbury Castle, the reputed site of Camelot. For a while the archaeological world had been in a fever of excitement, but the cache had been dated to the reign of King Alfred, too late to be contemporary with Arthur. Still, folk memory could have retained the rune. It was still as near to Arthur as any archaeologist had ever got.
“I wish I had the rest of my books,” she muttered, hardly aware she’d said it out loud.
“Where are they?” Evan set a steaming cup of coffee on the table by the keyboard.
“Some are with the FBI. I’d packed my things, ready to take them to the new apartment, but they’ve been kept back. I should petition for their release. The rest are still in storage.” She glanced around. All Evan’s bookshelves were full, except for the gaps she’d created earlier when she’d taken the Crowley books down. “You don’t have anywhere for them.”
“How about we buy another bookcase?” he suggested.
Sofie chuckled. This space was huge, and hardly cluttered. “I suppose so.”
“And you can have the guest room as your dressing room.”
She turned the chair to face him. “Evan, do you really want me to move in on you like this? It’s not as though we’ve known each other very long. It might not last, you know.”
He knelt down so his face was on the same level as hers. “Look into my mind, Sofie. You’re what I want. Try and find a doubt. I’ve seen into you, too, and there’s none there. Is there?”
She shook her head. He leaned forward and kissed her, his lips a feather touch. “I think my mind needs a little time to catch up. I can’t believe all this is real, Evan.”
His arms went around her. “Oh, it’s real, love. Shall I show you?”
This time his kiss had nothing gentle about it. He tilted his head, opened his mouth on hers, and she followed his lead, felt him invade her mouth with a ravishing thrust of his tongue. No, there was no doubt. This was too good not to be real.
The phone rang, but Evan ignored it until Sofie pushed at his chest, then he grinned and reached for the receiver, not taking his gaze away from her. “Yes?”
There was a pause before he sighed. “Cristos. Can I put you on the speaker so Sofie can hear?”
He g
ot to his feet and went to a cradle at the other end of the computer stack. He flicked on the speakers, which Sofie had turned off earlier, not wanting to wake him when she booted up the computer. Sofie felt her stomach tense, afraid there’d been another murder, another life lost.
“Good morning, both of you. Stir crazy yet?”
“Perhaps.” Evan was giving nothing away.
Cristos sounded about as breezy as Sofie had ever heard him. She relaxed a little. “I’m on a secure line, so put on your scrambler and we can talk.”
Evan flicked a switch next on the cradle. The phone buzzed for a moment, and then Cristos’s voice came clear. “Better. There isn’t much news, but you might like to hear what we found. Your dream, Dr. Adams.”
“You took it seriously?”
“Sure. It had all the hallmarks of a sent experience. You didn’t want it, you saw someone you don’t know, the sequence was clear and you were self-aware during it.”
Sofie glanced at Evan, who nodded. “He’s right.” He came to stand by her chair, his hand on her shoulder in a comforting, linking gesture. “Cristos, I linked with her. For your ears only. She’s very strong.”
Sofie flinched. She had thought it private.
It will be private. He won’t break the confidence, love.
How can you be so sure?
I’m sure. He made me a personal pledge. He hasn’t broken it yet.
“I’m glad to hear it. She’ll need your help, Evan. A shame you won’t agree to link with anyone else.” Cristos didn’t sound surprised.
“Why?” Evan’s voice sharpened.
“These dreams can be dangerous. I’ve examined those photos and the marks on Dr. Adams’s neck are finger-marks. Some so clear I got enough points to run a check.”
“And?”
A sigh. “Nothing. However, that rules out a number of people the FBI liked for the murderer. It means the perp has no record. I have a contact at Scotland Yard.”
Evan chuckled. “Why am I not surprised?”
“I don’t know. They have no record, either. I suspect it might be Dr. Hamilton, or the woman he’s living with.”
Sofie was surprised. “The art gallery woman? Are they an item?” Relief flooded her at the thought that Archie might turn to someone else.
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