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him pushed away the memories of the attack, cleansing some part of me the bathwater hadn't been able to reach. Tomas deepened the kiss until I could feel it all the way to my toes, like tendrils of sunshine were curling through me. He tasted like wine, dark and sweet and burning, and I felt like I could never get enough.

But after a moment, I pulled back. It wasn't easy-the geis had recognized Tomas and the Pythia's power agreed that he would do fine to complete the ritual. Their need overrode my aversion to even thinking about intimacy at the moment. I wanted to fill my mind with thoughts and sensations that didn't involve horror and pain. I wanted him to touch me with those long, elegant hands, to have his mouth hot and demanding on mine. The look in his eyes was a caress itself, and an invitation. But the consequences for a few moments of passion would be severe.

Tomas let me go, an expression that I couldn't name flashing across his face. "I'm sorry, Cassie. I know I am not the one you want.”

What could Tomas know about what I wanted? Most of the time, I didn't know myself. "What I want isn't the point," I said, trying to ignore the way his hand was playing along my side from breast to hip, over and over in a lazy, sensual stroke. It made my heart speed up and breathing difficult, like someone had sucked all the oxygen out of the room. Oh, yeah, the geis liked him fine.

"What do you mean?" Tomas' hand stilled on my hip. That was not a great help to my blood pressure. Despite the fact that I had moved back, we were less than a foot apart. I struggled not to look down and failed miserably. The blanket had slipped off the front half of Tomas' body. Long legs shifted in the shadows, and between them was ample evidence of just how recovered he was.

"I can't," I said, trying to remember exactly why that was. My fingers traced a line down his high forehead to the tender eyelids that fluttered closed under my touch, to the proud nose and warm, full lips. It was a perfect profile, burnished bronze in the lamplight like the head on an ancient coin, but his appearance wasn't what had attracted me to him. I'd loved his kindness, his strength and-I'd thought at the time-his honesty. Now I merely craved a warm body and soft skin next to mine, and a face that was familiar and caring.

"You saved my life, Cassie, even though I once put yours at risk. Let me do something for you." Tomas' voice was at its best, whiskey deep and smoky, as if golden liquor had been magically turned into sound. It had always been one of his most attractive features, partly because, unlike the carefully contrived outfits and blatant attempts at seduction, it was unconscious. It was more the real Tomas, and so alluring that I wondered why he'd bothered with the rest. But of course I knew why-because Louis-César had ordered him to, after Mircea decided that he would do to fulfill the ritual. I suppose they'd worried about the possibility of me recognizing one of Mircea's people after so many years at Tony's, where they came and went on a regular basis. But it hadn't been fair to Tomas, and for the first time I wondered whether he'd resented being used.

"I don't see what you can do," I said, "unless you can talk the king into letting us go, or make my power work here.”

Tomas smiled. "Or lift the geis?”

Chapter 12

My brain came to a screeching halt. "Run that by me again.”

"I was told that a geis had been placed on you to protect your virtue as your ward protected your life. But as a precaution against anything going wrong, an escape clause was added. If you slept with Mircea or someone of his choosing, the spell was broken.”

My mind reeled. That was it? That was the big secret? It seemed ridiculously simple, not to mention undermining the whole point. "But why would he do that? He wants to control me!”

Tomas smiled bitterly. "No doubt. But through so clumsy a device as a spell?" He shook his head. "It would hurt his pride, Cassie. Not to mention that controlling someone as powerful as the Pythia with such a clumsy stratagem would be extremely dangerous. Why do you think the mages take