to touch me right now, I don’t care! “Oh, it’s not that. I just needed a good hard run and I can’t always focus as well on the treadmill. I wanted to be outside.”
She took off her trainers and then went to him, kneeling down on the floor at his feet, even though her tired legs practically screamed when she did so. A light touch told her this was a good move to make . . . he liked the subservience of it. She wondered what he’d do if she shot a hand up between his legs and ripped off his bloody balls.
Giving him a simpering smile, she said, “It’s so lovely here, Patrick. The sky is so blue. I watched the sunrise as I ran. I can’t wait, though, to be away from all the people and the buildings. Someplace where there’s a bit more privacy.” She pressed her lips to his knee. “Just us.”
Some of the anger dimmed and she caught a random, fleeting flash. It wasn’t a thought so much as an image. He wanted that privacy, too. So he could have her play his little whore whenever he chose. It was a sheer struggle of will to keep her smile in place.
“The wedding is just a few weeks away,” he said. He touched the tip of her nose. “I’d thought perhaps we could go to lunch, but you need to bathe. Perhaps you should do that.”
She had another flash. He hadn’t come up here to take her to lunch. He’d come up here to fuck her. He didn’t like seeing her all hot and sweaty, though. Now he was turned off. Excellent.
A way to smack down his libido without really making him too angry.
“I’ll do that. Lunch out would be wonderful.” She rose and gave him another smile. “After that run, I’m positively famished.”
“You’ll have to order it in, Ella. I’m running behind now.” He eyed her critically. “Make sure you eat enough. You have to put the weight back on, and running like that isn’t going to help.”
SEVENTEEN
JOSS waited for her the next day.
She didn’t come.
He wasn’t surprised, but he sure as hell was disappointed.
Still, it wasn’t his only reason for being at the Waffle House that day.
Jones had come through with the first “victim” . . . the telepath. They were meeting to discuss how things were going to happen. Of course, they were meeting after Joss had parked his stolen car at a gym, gone for a walk, climbed into a bus, and then made his way over here.
Sometime during the previous night, the SUV had been bugged.
He’d discovered that almost right away.
Jones had indeed given him some more useful toys, but Joss could have found the bug on the car in the dark with his hands tied. Not to mention that it had all but vibrated and called his name, it was so toxic.
Would have been nice to see Dru that morning. Cleared his head. His mind. Even as it clouded it. But he had to remember what he was here for. Because if he didn’t keep his focus on the job, he was fucked and so were a lot of other people. He’d been waiting for her for too long. He’d live through this—he’d get through this. He hadn’t waited this long to find her only to screw himself over by getting lazy or crazy.
Still, as he headed across the road, he strengthened that mental connection, found himself lodged quite firmly in her mind.
Hello, duchess.
She was mostly still asleep and she welcomed him with a startled sigh, then a smile. Joss . . .
You didn’t meet me.
He wished he could actually be wherever she was. Wondered if he could picture himself there . . . and then he remembered. He’d seen the place. In that figment of a dream.
Building it in his mind, he kept a sliver of his focus on his surroundings and tried to imagine himself right there, mentally, with her. Tried to slide right into her dreams.
She was slowly climbing into wakefulness and he couldn’t join her in her dreams, but her shields were lower now and he found himself with a deeper connection than he’d had before. In her mind, able to feel her surprise. Her pleasure. And that deep, innate fear. He tried to look deeper for that, but already Dru was scrambling to jerk up her shields there, and he didn’t want to cause the pain that he knew he’d cause with his inept fumbling