That didn’t make sense. Yet he thought it was true, at least with the part of his mind that could still function coherently.
Or was it simply instinct that had him grasping for orgasm and bringing her along with him because if it didn’t end soon, he knew he would die?
He couldn’t make absolute sense of that, but he was far beyond trying to understand what was happening. He was captive to the fiery sensations—his and hers—that were rushing them toward ecstasy. . . or death.
He couldn’t have stopped now if the door had burst open and men with guns had come charging in, firing at point-blank range.
He clung to Stephanie and she to him. Not just with his hands, but with his mind. He had thought he was searching for remembered intimacy. This was so much more that he was at a loss to comprehend it. Yet as he hovered on the edge of a blinding explosion inside his brain, he wasn’t sure he would survive.
Only the woman who held him to herself saved him from destruction. Because every barrier between them had vanished, he knew it was the same for her. They would die together—or pull each other into a new life.
They crashed through an invisible barrier that separated them from the reality they had always known. Climax shook them, blinding them to everything but what they had forged. They clung tightly to each other as they came down to earth,each of them panting, each of them marveling at what they had done together.
At that moment, there was nothing he could hide from her. Nothing she could hide from him. He didn’t even try, just drifted on the perfect oneness of their shared consciousness.
Since his brother’s death, he had felt cut off from humanity. This woman had filled the empty void within himself. More than filled it. She had given him a perfect union that he never could have imagined.
I always felt alone,she whispered in his mind.Not now.
He held her and stroked her, so grateful that she was in his arms.
But I still don’t understand it,she silently added.
I thought I did. This is more than I ever imagined,he answered.
She clasped his hand and held on tight.Making love gave us everything we wanted, but itcould have killed us. If . . .
If we had a failure of nerve.
You knew what we could gain.
I only thought I knew.
Neither one of us was going to give up.
Rolling to his side, he took her with him, feeling more peaceful than he had since the terrible day Sam had died.
Emotionally exhausted, he felt sleep wafting over him and tried to fight it off.
Yes, I don’t want to lose a moment of this,she whispered in his mind.
I’ll be here when you wake up. I’ll always be here,he answered. But for the moment, it was impossible not to drift off after the energy they had expended.
Back in New Orleans, a woman named Rachel Harper went very still. She was alone in her shop in the French Quarter where she did tarot card readings and sold psychic paraphernalia. Once she had been alone and isolated, and she’d used her ability with the cards to connect with people on a level that would have been impossible otherwise. But last year she had met a man who had changed her life. Jake Harper.
The two of them had bonded in a way she had never dared imagine. And being with him had changed her life in ways she was still trying to understand.
As she sat alone in her darkened reading room, a burst of mental energy came to her from miles away. It startled her, and she knew she wouldn’t be alone here for long. Only a few minutes passed before the door to her shop burst open, and her husband, Jake Harper, rushed in, out of breath from running.
He’d been in his office at one of the restaurants he owned in the city.
Something happened. Are you all right?he asked.
Yes.
Are we in danger?
I don’t know,she answered honestly.
