Free Visions of Heat by Nalini Singh Page B

something different about Faith tonight, as if there were a deeper darkness behind the one he could see. He ran a hand up her back and under her hair to close over her nape. The woman he’d met hours earlier would’ve been shoving him away and threatening to go into seizures. This one was too still, too passive.
    “Shall I kiss you, Red?” It was a dare. “Never kissed a Psy before. Might be fun.”
    Her breath hitched and she shook her head against him like a kitten shaking off wet. Then she shoved at his chest. The devil might’ve made him keep her with him for a second longer, but he was all too aware that her body had had an unexpected effect on his. He was used to his sexuality; what he wasn’t used to was it reacting so completely against his wishes. Letting Faith pull free, he watched as she scrambled backward until her back pressed against the headboard. The eyes staring into his were wide and full of stars.
    He made his smile a slow tease. “So, you back?”
    She nodded, continuing to stare at him as if he were some large wild animal who might see her as dessert. She wasn’t far wrong. The cat definitely liked the smell of this Psy and the man found her disturbingly fascinating.
    “I’ve never scared anyone by threatening to kiss them before,” he commented, checking her face for any lingering signs of whatever it was that had frightened her badly enough that he’d become safe.
    “I don’t feel fear.”
    He tugged at her tank top. “Lost control of your physiological responses again, huh?”
    She pulled the damp fabric from his grasp. “Even Psy can’t control sweat in sleep.”
    “You going to be okay?”
    Faith didn’t want him to go, an illogical reaction. Vaughn couldn’t stop the visions if they were determined to come, but some irrational part of her was convinced that if he left, the darkness would return and this time, nothing would make it let go. “Of course.”
    “You don’t look it.” He scowled and reached to push her hair off her face. “Do you want to shower?”
    His touch made every nerve ending ignite but she held strong. She could handle this. It was what had brought her back from the vision and she’d learn to deal with anything that helped keep the darkness at bay. “Yes. Will I wake Sascha and Lucas?”
    “They’re not here.”
    “We’re alone?” She suddenly felt vulnerable in a way that was so viscerally female, it was an utterly new sensation.
    “You didn’t think I’d let our alpha and his mate remain in a spot that a cardinal Psy knew about?” He snorted. “We might’ve blindfolded you, but Psy have other ways of knowing.”
    “You thought I’d lead others here.”
    “It was a possibility.”
    She didn’t know what to say, hadn’t expected Sascha to abandon her like this. Though of course, once she thought about it, her supposition had no basis in fact.
    “She didn’t want to go,” Vaughn said, and almost startled her into an overt physical response. “But we weren’t going to let her heart put her in danger.”
    “Her heart?”
    “She’s an E-Psy.”
    Faith flicked through a mental file. “There’s no such thing as an E designation.”
    “Have your shower and I’ll tell you something else your Council’s been hiding from you. It’s almost five—you want coffee?”
    “Okay.” Faith was aware there were peculiar gaps in her knowledge and the taste of coffee was one of them. She knew of it, of course. No one who read as much as she did could miss knowing about it, but she’d never actually drunk it.
    Vaughn got up from the bed and her eyes followed the shift of lean muscle and male strength. He was built perfectly in proportion, beautifully constructed. His musculature was well defined and his skin shimmered with a healthy glow that her mind found . . . interesting , she thought desperately, when that same mind tried to insert another word.
    “Do I pass inspection?”
    Her eyes met ones that glowed slightly in the dark and she saw