Free Talson Temptations 4: Talson's Match by Marie Harte Page A

have a dampening effect on other Otra.
Trotter couldn’t compel you to sleep with him, Min couldn’t read your thoughts,
and Daket couldn’t work his telekinetic energy around your place at all.”
    She blinked. “Then how did you just do all that to those
guys?”
    He drove into the northern section of town, well away from
the shipyard. “I don’t know. The first time I met you I felt at peace, able to
command my energies easily. The more I’m around you, the stronger I feel. It’s
as if you’ve cast a spell on me, veyou ,” he said thickly, his emotions
buzzing around the vehicle. “I feel so much around you.”
    Her stomach dropped. “So the attraction, the connection
between us, it’s because my energy levels yours?” Nothing more?
    “It’s more than that.”
    Yet she felt foolish wanting anything else. Love? Affection?
From a man she’d just met? One who worked for Trotter? She groaned. Her
taste in men had not improved.
    He pulled into the parking lot of a grand hotel, one of the
more expensive uptown, and turned off the vehicle. Then he turned to face her,
and she tried to equate the patient, charming man in front of her with a
murderous drug dealer.
    Romy caressed her cheek with a finger. “Energy is a fact of
life in the universe. Humans treat it as if it’s not there, but our kind knows
it is. We feel it, live it, embrace it. It’s in all things. When a man and
woman resonate with harmonized power, we call to one another. Call it fate,
destiny, chemistry, but our energies are fine tuned to each other, Tara. You
can sense that, can’t you?”
    She nodded. “But what does that mean?”
    “It means you and I have been matched by the universe. We’re
joined now. Mostly.”
    “Wait. What?”
    His gaze shifted from her face to her throat, and to the
part of the blanket shielding her chest from his sight. “ Veyou , I don’t
want to scare you, but I’m feeling such a wave of heat it’s all I can do not to
fuck you in here, in this miserable little conveyance. The Testing, the
Selection, all of it is a natural progression to a permanent joining.” He
swallowed hard and glanced away. “I realize this is sudden. That it’s all too
much, too soon.” He took a deep breath. “I would give you time to think this
through, but the universe doesn’t make mistakes. You’re ready to bond, as am I.
And I want you.”
    “How convenient.”
    “Not at all.” He huffed. “I’m here on important business
that I—”
    She saw her opening and took it. “Yeah, let’s talk about
that. Your boss, Jonah Trotter, a man running Majesty and corrupting half the
city. So your important business is selling drugs ?”
    “Shit.” Romy wiped his face with a large hand. “It’s not
what you think. I’m not who you think I am.”
    “Oh?”
    He swore again. “Dammit. Look, I’ll tell you the truth. All
of it. We can talk about this upstairs, or I can fuck you in here. You might
not like me right now, but your body wants me all the same.” His voice lowered.
“I can feel how much you need me. Your Selection would make it easy to control
you, Tara. But I want you of your own free will.”
    “I thought you said it was fate?”
    His grin caught her off guard. “Fate’s a bitch, but in this
case, she and I agree. I couldn’t have picked a better mate than you if I’d
tried. Look deep inside you, veyou . You’ve seen the real me. Hear the
truth.”
    A force pushed against her mind.
    Read me. See what and who I am. Romy opened himself
to her, and she saw an energy that was clean of malice and decay. She didn’t
need to heal an addiction or a battered heart. In him was the same loneliness
she felt, the same love and devotion to family, to right wrongs and protect the
innocent. But could he lie about these things? After all he’d done to the other
Otra, knowing how much power he wielded, could she trust him?
    Only you know what you should do. I offer myself to you,
without regret, without falsehood. I would