"I don't kiss and tell."
"Or maybe there's nothing to tell, huh?" She sat up to straddle him, her fingers playing over his chest. "Been a dry spell, Riley?"
His eyes watched her with intense concentration. That was the thing with Riley - he always made her feel as if he was focusing utterly on her. Before, she'd thought it was so he could find ways to tell her she was doing something wrong. But now . . .
"Look who's talking, kitty."
She dug her nails into his chest, but not hard enough to hurt. "Watch it. The endorphins are only going to last so long."
His hands closed over her thighs. "I'll remember that for next time."
"Don't get too cocky, wolfboy. Maybe three times is enough for me."
"Maybe you're a liar."
She narrowed her eyes. "Did you and Indigo ever hit the sheets?" Jealousy was a spike inside her, a dangerous spike born of an even more dangerous emotion.
"Why is that any of your business?"
"Just curious."
"No," he said. "We're colleagues."
Surprised he'd answered, she took a few moments to think about it. "You don't like strong women, do you?"
He stared at her, clearly annoyed. "Indigo's one of my top lieutenants."
"I'm not talking work." She waved it away. "Personally - you really do want a domestic-type woman as a mate, don't you? You weren't jerking my chain."
"There's something wrong with that?"
She told herself the twinge in her chest wasn't from the sting of rejection. "No. My mom's a maternal female and I respect her absolutely." For a leopard, the term "maternal" encompassed so much more than motherhood. The soldiers might ensure trouble stayed far from their innocents, but it was the maternal females who were the true glue of the pack, forging the threads that tied them all to each other. "Was your mom like that, too?"
Riley's face closed over. It was like seeing shutters coming down. He'd been tight-lipped with her more than once, but never had he been this remote. "No." The word was flat, eerily toneless. "I'd better be getting back."
Her natural instinct was to probe. It wasn't only the cat's inquisitiveness - the human part of Mercy was also desperate for a glimpse inside this quiet, contained wolf. Because Riley mattered. There, after avoiding it for so long, she'd said it. He mattered. She was incredibly curious about him. But though she'd been intimate with him several times now, had known him for much longer, he'd never really let her in. Not even three nights ago.
Don't ask me any questions tonight, Mercy.
And for all her brashness, that was one line she would not cross - if he wanted to invite her in, he'd have to do so of his own free will. She wasn't so arrogant as to rip the scab off hidden emotional wounds without thought to how it might hurt him.
Riley, she thought with a fierce burst of protectiveness, had been hurt quite enough - first with the loss of his parents, and later, with the horror of Brenna's abduction. She had no intention of adding to his scars. If the memories were shared in trust . . . that would be a different matter.
Trying to make up for raising an obviously painful topic, she dipped her head and kissed him with delicate promise. "I'll run down with you."
The Psy Council met in the closed vault of the Council chambers, deep in the heart of the PsyNet. They were scattered around the world - Tatiana in Australia, Kaleb in Moscow, Shoshanna in London, with Henry on route to that city, Anthony and Nikita in California, and Ming in France - but that mattered little. The PsyNet allowed them to navigate vast distances in split seconds, their minds going where their bodies couldn't.
Now Kaleb watched the vault close and the seven minds within it spark bright. The Psy Council was in session. Nobody was in any doubt as to why they were there.
"The spurts of public violence," Nikita began, "do we have further confirmation that someone is driving it?"
"No, only the shooter from the fast-food restaurant," Anthony said. "The others either died during the acts, or committed suicide afterward."
"But," Ming said, "given the similarity in incidents, especially the compulsion to commit suicide, I'd say we're looking at a planned series of events."
"Agreed." Anthony's distinctive mental voice. "Henry, what's the possibility it could be Pure Psy?"
"I've heard nothing from them on any such plan," the other Councilor replied. "And what would be the point? Their aim is to ensure Silence doesn't fall. These incidents are throwing the Protocol into question."