grazed her throat with his teeth, it wasn’t a promise but a warning. He didn’t give her time for second thoughts or fear, biting down hard and fast.
She screamed, but not in pain. The sensations just kept coming, building, overwhelming her. The pull of his mouth on her vein matched the rhythm he’d established, riding them both hard and fast. Then it all exploded, her body shuddering in bliss as she took everything he could give her and demanded more. Her reward was the amazing sensation of his release pulsing deep inside her.
Gradually, the world came back into focus again as their heartbeats slowed back to normal. One last kiss and then he wrapped her in his arms, and they slept.
Morning came in fits and starts. It had been a long night, not that Conlan was complaining. After they’d all but passed out in sated exhaustion, Kat had woken him up again only a short time later, using her mouth in wicked, wonderful ways to coax him into making love a second time.
The third time had been all him. He’d taken his time, paying due homage to every part of Kat, revisiting a few favorite spots several times before joining his body to hers. This time, their loving had been slow, easy, almost lazy but satisfying all the same.
The next time he surfaced, he heard the shower running. The other side of the bed was still warm. He confiscated Kat’s pillow and dozed while breathing in the scent of her hair and her skin—wishing like hell that Kat’s problems had somehow magically disappeared overnight.
But they hadn’t. The threat was still there, growing stronger, closer. Definitely time to get moving. He’d finish the shower he’d only started the night before and get moving. They’d refuel with some breakfast and then he’d take notes while Kat picked up where she’d left off yesterday evening. He hated putting her through all of this, forcing her to relive the nightmare her life had become.
Especially because none of this was her fault. He believed that was true. Kat was innocent of all charges. Once he proved it, she’d have a future, and so would he, at long last free of any further entanglements with Kat and her problems. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He’d spent three long years wishing he’d never met her, and now he couldn’t imagine his life without her in it. How crazy was that?
With that happy thought, he sat up, noting the shower had shut off. He picked up his pack and headed into the bathroom, passing Kat on her way out. A few minutes later, he thought he heard Kat say something through the door, but he couldn’t make out the words over the shower. Rather than yelling for her to repeat herself, he quickly finished and got dressed.
The minute Conlan stepped out into the hall, he noticed the silence. It felt heavy, wrong somehow. With his chancellor senses, he should’ve been able to detect Kat’s presence even if she were sitting perfectly still and simply breathing. Listening as hard as he could, he got nothing. Except for him, the condo was empty.
His gut was screaming a truth that his heart didn’t want to believe: Kat was gone.
He pulled his gun and sidled down the short hallway, hoping against hope that he was wrong, that she was there waiting for him. But no, the living room was as empty as his soul. So was the kitchen. The scene was all too peaceful for her to have been abducted—no signs of a struggle, everything just as they’d left it last night.
“Son of a bitch!”
He kicked a toss pillow across the room, getting no satisfaction from either the gesture or the curse. Punching the wall wouldn’t help either, but it was damned tempting. Where the hell had Kat gone, and why?
Frustration and anger wouldn’t answer his questions. It took a hell of an effort to rein in his temper, but his cold analytical skills would better serve him now. Shoving his gun back into the waistband of his jeans, he positioned himself so that he could see most of the condo from one spot.
Starting in the far corner of the living room, he slowly scanned the area, looking for...what, he didn’t know. Some sign, some clue as to why Kat was missing. For the moment, he needed to be the investigator he’d been before he’d met her: aloof, calculating...whole.
His notes were undisturbed, his laptop still in sleep mode. Her