Free Up in Flames by Trista Ann Michaels Page B

physical stuff. Endurance, speed, strength. I was trained separately for my telekinetic ability. They helped me make it stronger.”
    “That’s all?” he asked.
    “No. I was also taught to kill.” She sighed. “I can kill a man in over a hundred different ways with my hands. I can also kill a man without even touching him.”
    Hayden frowned. “How so?”
    “I can choke him with my mind.”
    Hayden raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. Interesting talent. How many times had he been angry with someone and wished he could do that very thing? Ignoring the temptation to follow through would be difficult sometimes. Since she didn’t feel emotion, she would never make a rash decision and kill someone in a fit of rage. Maybe it was good she didn’t feel.
    “I was also taught politics.”
    He blinked, trying to stay focused on the conversation. “Why politics?” he asked as he repeated the stretch a fourth time.
    This time the resistance was less, meaning her muscles were beginning to loosen up.
    “I always wondered that too,” she said quietly. “I guess now I know why.”
    They’d schooled her in politics because they’d wanted her to rule. Cara’s question had merit. How had an order whose members didn’t feel emotion suddenly become greedy? Was it possible the elders did?
    Hayden moved to the other leg, and Cara let out a totally relaxed sigh. “This is almost as good as what you did this morning.”
    Hayden closed his eyes briefly at the reminder. The now painful reminder. The ache in his cock was enough to make him groan out loud. He’d finally begun to get his mind off sex, only for her to bring it up again. “That doesn’t say much for my skills if stretching is anywhere close to what you felt this morning.”
    “The stretching relaxes me. What was that I felt this morning?”
    Hayden’s hand slipped off her leg. He rolled his eyes and put it back. “That was an orgasm.”
    “Huh.”
    She didn’t say anything else, and Hayden hoped that was the end of her questions.
    “You were using your hand,” she said softly. Hayden swallowed his groan.
    “Yes,” he replied.
    “Can I do that to myself, then?”
    Hayden almost choked, imagining her touching herself. “Yes, you can give yourself an orgasm.”
    He set her leg back down. Cara turned and sat up. She looked at him with a slight frown. “Then I actually don’t really need you at all.”
    “Ah… Well…” He scratched the back of his head. He should tell her yes, but he couldn’t bring himself to, although he wasn’t sure why.
    God, now he knew how his parents must’ve felt when Miya started asking all those sex questions. The funniest was when she’d found the handcuffs in their father’s nightstand drawer.
    “That will work for a little while, but eventually even that won’t be enough.”
    “Why?”
    “Well…” Damn. He was a doctor. This should be easy.
    “Hayden,” Beena called down the stairs. “Are you still down there?”
    “Yeah. What is it, Beena?” he asked, thankful for the interruption.
    “You have a call. Ambassador Dorn.”
    “I’m coming,” he said as he stood and quickly headed to his father’s office, Cara close on his heels.
    Once in his father’s office on the first floor, he jogged behind the desk and started to hit the button on the computer screen to open the channel back up, but Cara’s words stopped him. “Are you sure that’s secure? The signal is traveling through open space.”
    “Trust me. If there’s one thing my dad knows better than anyone, it’s security. Stay back,” he said.
    She frowned. “Why? It’s Alex.”
    “Just in case he’s not alone.”
    She shook her head and began to argue. “He wouldn’t risk me like that. He would never call here if he had someone with him.”
    “Humor me,” he said.
    Cara sighed and moved to the other side of the desk. As Hayden opened the computer, Cara paced before him, adorably biting her thumbnail.
    “Good afternoon,