Free Veil of Justice, Shadows of Justice Book 3 by Regan Black Page B

drop, along with all her
defenses, and just laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all.
Telepathically, she heard him laughing too.
    But laughing while in an awkward position and
covered with a rather heavy body wasn’t so easy. Gasping for air,
she pushed against his shoulders, instantly hating the bony feel of
him.
    " You didn’t used to hate me ."
    "Don’t – hate – you," she gritted. It took
all her strength to ease him over until the car bore his weight.
Then she smiled at him to prove the truth of her statement. "I hate
what prison did to you. Read me right or not at all."
    As his battered eyes locked with hers, she
expected to be scolded for being grumpy. Instead her lips grew warm
and her nipples pebbled beneath a silky, invisible caress.
    She didn’t close her eyes and arch into him
like she wanted, like she'd done in their past telepathic
encounters. "That's a good memory you've got."
    " I thought so ." In her head, he
sounded as breathless as she felt. His ghostly pale face told her
how much this little test had cost him.
    "Can you remember how to get back in the
car?"
    " Just give me a minute ."
    It took closer to ten, but he made it,
leaning heavily on the way. She only had to help him balance a
couple times. "Now will you rest?" she asked when he was buckled
into the passenger seat again.
    His head just flopped back onto the seat.
    She took that as a 'yes'.
     
    * * *
     
    Nathan struggled against the suffocating
sensation of claustrophobia. Reminding himself this was his car,
the pet project he'd rebuilt from the chassis, didn’t help much.
Logic didn’t seem to have any effect against the unreasonable
terror that clawed in his gut and scraped his nerves.
    He tried to focus on the positive, tried to
find anything uplifting within his reach. The exercise proved he
could feel more than just the momentum of the car. He could feel
the purr of the motor humming through his muscles. It wasn’t much
improvement, but it was enough to keep him hoping that he’d beat
this damned virus sooner rather than later.
    The Paracuron Kristoff had used to paralyze
him was definitely of the smart variety. Now that things had calmed
down, he could feel it searching out and trying to latch onto his
more vulnerable areas. Like this claustrophobia thing.
    It clearly wasn’t designed to kill him, since
his heart and lungs were still functioning. It must not even be
designed to mimic death for long. He came to this conclusion
because Kelly had finally stopped shaking him to see if he was
breathing. Now she just ran her fingers over his face and muttered
in a voice too low to make out the words.
    Spending so much time on the telekinetic
driving effort wiped him out. His systems were overwhelmed and his
body out of shape. He’d worry that even Kelly’s thoughts were
muddled and cloudy, except he felt himself drifting in that
twilight between awake and asleep.
    Again her fingers caressed his cheek, the
sensation cool and comfortable. "Just rest. We’ll get help
soon."
    He took a slow breath, willing his lungs to
fill just a little deeper this time. He wished for the umpteenth
time that he’d developed a passion for limousines. The Mustang felt
way too small. But rest was good. He could do that. Help he wasn’t
sure about, it sounded like too much work. Rest was better. He
dozed off, thinking of Kelly.
    Beautiful, careful Kelly filled his dreams
and ignited his fantasies. Her dark, glossy hair fell like silk
over his face and chest, a curtain enfolding just the two of them,
keeping the world out. Her wide black eyes glistened with emotion.
He wished like hell he could move. He wanted to touch her, to
deliver with his body what he’d once promised with his mind.
    Her mouth covered his, hot and possessive,
her breath drowning his. Her hands skated across his chest, his
neck, firm and demanding. He willed himself to respond, to find a
way to give her what she wanted.
    "This isn’t funny Nate. C’mon back," she
ordered, her