"Oh, now you want to be alone?" she muttered.
He picked her up in his arms, shocking her into immobility. Before she could find the breath to complain, he was running up the stairs. A minute later, he dumped her on the bed and lay down beside her.
"Nuh-uh." She shook her head and tried to move away.
He threw a leg over hers. "Don't try any more tricks, kitten."
Just for that, she found another spurt of power and pushed his leg off her. A second later it was back.
"We're going to have to talk about this trick of yours," he said, sounding more amused than worried.
She narrowed her eyes. "I could turn your mind into mush if I wanted."
"But then who'd lick you to orgasm?"
Her entire body turned into a flame. "You can't say things like that!"
"Why not?" His hand parted the sides of her white shirt and it was only then that she realized he'd unbuttoned it.
Long fingers found her breast through her bra and plucked at her nipple.
"Lucas." It was more moan than word.
"The mating dance is what two leopards go through on their way to mating for life." He closed his hand over her breast and squeezed.
Her eyes flicked open, cold fear dousing the fire he'd stoked. "What happens if one half of a mated pair dies?"
"The survivor will never mate again." That possessive hand was pulling down the cup of her bra to rub lazily at her aroused flesh.
"No, Lucas." She tried to wiggle out from under him but he wouldn't let her. "You can't. I might not survive the week."
"You aren't going anywhere." He sounded more dominant than she'd ever before heard him sound, his eyes completely panther. "You belong to me."
They were words she'd waited for her whole life but she couldn't accept them. "Don't I get a choice?"
"You made it when you brought me into your dreams, into your mind." He nipped gently at her lower lip. "And you made it again when you let me into your body."
There was no way Sascha was going to leave Lucas without a mate for the rest of his life. "I won't cooperate."
"Sure you will." Moving his head, he sucked her nipple into his mouth.
Her fingers tunneled into the silky lushness of his hair. "Stop."
He murmured in pleasure and his other hand slipped down to cup her between her legs. Even through the material of her slacks, she felt the rough heat of his hold.
She tugged at his head and he lifted it only enough to give him room to move to her other breast. Instead of pushing down the cup, he licked her through it, one hand molding her stomach. It was impossible to think with this much sensation overloading her. But she had to speak, she had to make him understand. "You don't know me," she whispered.
He raised his head. "I know you inside out."
"No, Lucas. I'm not changeling - I'm Psy. My mind is who I am."
"Liar." He pinched one wet nipple.
Her entire body shuddered and for an instant she was nothing but a creature of the flesh.
"You're as much animal as me." It was a husky whisper against her ear. "As sexual, as hungry, as needy."
She shook her head, shaken by the power of his words, the addiction of his touch. "I could kill you with one thought."
He rubbed his jaw across the skin of her upper br**sts. "Could you, kitten?"
That easily, he won their personal war. Lucas was more important to her than her own life. "Don't," she said. "Stop this before it's too late."
"No one can stop it. I'll kill anyone who tries."
Looking into those cat eyes, she was certain he meant every word. She was as certain that she had to stop him before he tied himself to a woman who was so deeply broken, she wasn't even sure she was Psy anymore.
A day later, Sascha sat in the living area of the safe house trying to think up arguments to convince Lucas of the soundness of her plan. The problem was, she hadn't figured out how to create the diversion that would give the killer a head start to scenting her. She'd spent the whole day trying to think of something and all she'd come up with was a crude "bomb."
If she couldn't work out anything else by tomorrow, she'd have to use that - Brenna had suffered enough. At least neither Enrique nor Nikita had tried to contact her so far. She assumed that they were distracted by their own plan to catch the serial killer.
Lucas had been in and out throughout the day and she guessed that he'd been putting plans in place in case they weren't able to save the lost SnowDancer. Right now, he was standing by the window, staring out into the night. His skin glowed a burnished gold in the soft light of the lamps around the room.
"What information did you steal?" he asked, turning to look over his shoulder. He'd barely spoken to her that day but had touched her at every opportunity.
She remained curled up in the corner of the sofa, watching him as warily as a gazelle might watch a lion. Lucas wasn't human, wasn't Psy. He was a predator and he'd decided she was his. It was going to take everything she had to get away from him before she destroyed them both.
Even if Lucas didn't allow her to execute her plan, the Council's mercenaries would hunt her down on the PsyNet the second her failing shields revealed her flaw. Her firewalls were already starting to show the finest of hairline fractures. She might not be able to save herself but she would save Lucas. She would not sentence him to a life without a mate, no matter how much she ached for him to belong to her. "My family's history."
Someone walked into the room from the kitchen. Tamsyn's slender frame was followed by Nate's larger body. "Hope we're not interrupting."