Dream Shard (16 page)

Okay, so the guy could have held on to her if he wanted.

“That’s right, Kalin, he could have.”

She heard Devon like a bell being struck next to her. She jumped, the separation dulling her senses to just how loud he was inside her head. Garrick looked at her curiously but she was spinning around, searching for Devon. He wasn’t anywhere in sight but she heard him, felt him as though he was right next to her.

“Is this some kind of test?” she asked the night, still searching for a direction. Garrick was watching her pensively, obviously not unfamiliar with one-sided conversation.

Devon didn’t answer her and he didn’t show himself. But she could feel him watching her.

Fine. Two could play that game. She shoved him out of her head, using every bit of focus she could muster. For a moment, she was alone, only her own thoughts inside her head.

But a moment later, she stumbled as Devon surged back inside her head. It was mind numbing, making her see flashes of light instead of the dark forest. Garrick lunged after her.

“You don’t want to do that, Major. Devon is being an ass. They’re linked.”

Kalin regained her balance as a petite woman emerged from the darkness. Grace was being shadowed by a giant of a man but she didn’t appear intimidated by the Rangers. The only thing that appeared out of place was her distended belly. Kalin looked at her with a practiced eye out of habit.

“Soon enough.” Grace narrowed her eyes. “You do broadcast on a high level. Interesting.”

There was a shift and tingle as the other woman pushed right inside Kalin’s thoughts. Kalin stiffened and a sense of invasion rippled along her senses. She wanted to pull back, needed to actually, but Grace was too powerful. Fear tingled through her.

“Back off, Grace.” Devon emerged from the darkness. For a moment, he merged with her, shielding her before he separated his thoughts from hers and stood between Grace and herself. Grace blinked and offered a soft shrug. Relief made its way through Kalin, but it was short lived as she got a good look at Devon.

Everything she’d suspected he might be was now visible. Her grandfather’s clothing had done more than she’d realized to mask just how hard he was. Devon fit with the ultra-sleek aircraft and the high-powered rifles so plainly on display. He had a gun belt strapped to his hips with a holster secured to his thigh.

“This is considered a hot zone.”

“It’s not like I’ve ever known you when you weren’t packing.”

But she had known him alone. Major Gennaro was hovering, clearly keeping an eye on his…well, psychic.

“Operative,” Devon supplied. “Grace and I are Operatives.”

The huge man shadowing Grace stepped up. “We’re going to have to get some ground rules established here. You’re already spilling sensitive information.”

Major Gennaro puffed up, obviously king of his own hill and not in the mood to be ordered around by someone he considered his equal. “My Operative is in a state of recovery, Jacobs. Don’t make accusations he isn’t in a condition to be accountable for.”

“It was your idea to bring this party to my post.”

“Wrong.” Major Gennaro took a step closer to Major Jacobs. “Your Operative drew my Operative here.”

“Your Operative reached out to mine.”

Kalin melted back because a pissing match was a pissing match. There was nothing to do but enjoy the show. Grace looked at her and sunk right into her thoughts again. The other psychic was different, the feeling of Grace inside her head more refined and less likely to blow out her ear drums. Grace suddenly smiled. She had midnight-black hair and when her lips curved her face became radiant. Like some sort of beauty queen from the black-and-white film era.

Devon did a double take, turning his full attention on Grace. Jacobs looked away from Gennaro and his eyebrows shot up. Gennaro ended up looking at Grace like she’d grown a second head. They were all staring at her, and who could blame them, she was drop-dead gorgeous.

Kalin ground her teeth together right before her eyes widened in horror. She couldn’t be jealous. Kalin ordered herself to not be.

But she was.

Devon pressed straight into her thoughts. Her irritation level doubled and she shoved him right back out. A soft sound of amusement came out of Grace, drawing Devon and the two majors’ attention back to her.

“She blocks extremely well.” Grace studied Kalin for a long moment before she sent Devon a narrow-eyed look. “I believe I am going to enjoy this…visit.”

She turned and melted into the darkness without a hint of reservation. Major Jacobs followed her.

Devon was lost in thought, a memory surfacing.

Everything shifted and he was once again the man who had needed her. The harsh edges of the military uniform melted away. She was moving toward him, letting her defenses drop as she tried to think of a way to keep his connection with his memory open.

But Major Gennaro moved to intercept her. She wasn’t sure the man really thought about it, but he was in motion and she drew back in response.

Devon snapped his attention back to the moment they were in. He moved like a flash, smacking the major’s hand aside. The sound was loud and she felt the shock race through Devon. The major looked just as stunned, the two men standing in silence for a moment.

Devon finally cussed. He turned and left, disappearing into the dark forest beyond the small clearing where only the moonlight illuminated the trees. The unnamed man who had been behind him when they landed followed.

She should let him go.

Really.

But she wasn’t interested in thinking things through. She was moving before the impulse finished firing off in her brain. The major reached out and captured her wrist, pulling her to a halt.

“Don’t crowd my Operative.”

The warning was razor sharp, but there was still something that betrayed the fact that Gennaro was shaken. Kalin opened her hand and made a large, round motion with her arm before dropping her hand on the other side of his. The movement broke his grip. Surprise flashed across his face right before he narrowed his eyes because she’d taken him off-guard.

“We’re here to finish this. Walking away won’t help him.”

His eyebrows lowered, but there was the unmistakable flicker of respect in his eyes. “If that’s your goal, I’ve got no quarrel with you.”

He tucked his hands into his belt, holding position and giving her his permission. Part of her wanted to rebel, just needed to say she didn’t want his permission.

But one look at the pristine uniform he wore reminded her that she was a long way from the world she knew. She didn’t want to need his approval, but she’d be a bloody fool to ignore the fact that he was in far more control of the environment than she was.

Which reduced her to feeling like that rabbit that was about to get its neck snapped.

So she turned and walked into the dark. Five paces away from Gennaro, he was only a shadow. Another ten and she was alone. The forest was dark, but it was far from silent. The wind blew through the branches of the trees, making the needles rustle. Kalin lifted her face, recalling her grandfather’s advice on letting the spirit of the moon clear her thoughts.

Peace.

It’s what had taken her to the cabin, but Devon needed it more than she did.

“You shouldn’t have followed me.”

She jumped, Devon’s voice coming from just behind her. He drew in a deep breath and crossed his arms over his chest. In the dark, he looked like a huge, looming gargoyle. A creature made of stone and designed to frighten.

He chuckled ominously. “A fitting description. Go back to the clearing. Gennaro will have you shown to your quarters.”

He started to turn away and she felt like he was ripping something from her. Even his thoughts were hidden, a solid wall preventing her from feeling anything from him. After being in constant, intimate contact with him, the rejection was brutal.

“Sulking won’t help.” Kalin reached for him, unable to quell the impulse to regain contact with him.

“I’m not—”

He’d begun to whip back around to face her when her hand connected with his. She’d reached for his bare skin, seeking the man beneath the hardened Operative.

He twisted his hand up and captured hers. She’d forgotten how strong he was. There was steel in his grip but he controlled it expertly. The contact stole her breath, sending her heart accelerating. It drove home how vulnerable he made her feel, highlighting just how easily he stripped her defenses away.

“At least I’m not alone in that.”

It took Kalin a moment to realize she hadn’t spoken. Devon had pressed back into her thoughts and read her like a book.

She opened her senses and felt for him.

“You feel the same way.”

There was a snap of energy between them, frustration from him at being unmasked.

“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” she warned.

“I’m not good for you at all, Kalin.”

She felt a flare of hard certainty from him before hunger and need swamped it. She had no idea if it was hers or his, but with their minds joined, it didn’t matter.

He tugged her toward him, meeting her halfway.

She lifted her chin, needing his kiss as much as he was planning on demanding hers. He bound her against him with one solid arm before sliding his hand along the side of her face and threading his fingers into her hair.

But he didn’t kiss her.

The delicate surface of her lips tingled with anticipation, but he leaned his head to one side and inhaled.

“I missed the scent of you.”

His voice had deepened. Taking on a hypnotic sound. It might be the darkness, but there was no way to tell because she was slipping away from conscious thought. Just letting reality go in favor of savoring the moment in his arms.

“A good idea.” He grazed her temple with a kiss. Just the briefest of touches but she shivered in response.

“Reckless though.” He tightened his grip on her hair, little zips of pain ricocheting across her scalp. She’d never been one to mix pain with her pleasure, but there was something about Devon that made it work.

“That sums up my dealings with you.”

He lifted his head so that he was studying her face. There was enough starlight to glitter off his eyes. “Yet you followed me.”

“ER nurse,” she muttered. “It translates into stubborn in thirty-three different languages.”

He closed his hand around her hip and rubbed it. The touch was shockingly sensual, unleashing a new jolt of hunger that stirred up a memory of just how satisfying he’d been.

“I’ll always walk away, Kalin. It’s who I am.”

She was pressed against him, the hard bulge of his cock pressing against her belly. Rising up onto her toes, she cupped his nape and stroked the warm skin. “Then do it, Devon.”

“Is that a challenge?”

The hand on her hip tightened, betraying the fact that he didn’t want to part from her.

“I came after you because I’m daring you to face me.” She teased his nape with her fingertips. “And yourself.”

His expression hardened. She felt the shift in his mood more than she saw it. A tightening that blocked her out of his mind.

“I walked away because I know you can’t be important to me, Kalin, no matter how much I wish it otherwise.”

He believed what he said. She felt the burn of bitterness seeping into her from the connection he didn’t seem able to sever completely.

“That’s not the way feelings work, Devon.” She forced herself to let him go, lifting her hands away from the man who’d distracted her from her own mental scars. “You’re not the only one who wishes they were so easily controlled.”

She tried to step back but he held her. His thoughts rushed into her mind like a wave. It was mesmerizing, holding her transfixed. His uncertainty combined with her own, leaving her only one thing to cling to, and that was the fact that he had as little faith in happiness as she did.

It was a horrible thing to think, even worse to feel. Her eyes stung with unshed tears as she pushed against his chest. The need to flee was building, threatening to consume her.

Devon kissed her first. She pulled her head back but he renewed his grip on her nape and held her steady. The kiss was hard and demanding. He let his passion loose, using it as a haven.

It was a damned fine idea.

Kalin kissed him back, flattening her hands on his chest and enjoying the hard feel of his body. Everything about him turned her on. Even the scent of his skin. It was more male, more primal than anything she’d encountered. It made her want to rip his clothing off.

“Not here.” His voice was rough, his breathing harsh. She felt his reluctance to break off their kiss to speak. But he looked up, staring at something over her shoulder. “We’re not alone.”

“Shit.” She suddenly felt about eighteen. A bundle of raging hormones and a suffocating bunch of restrictions keeping her away from what she craved.

He grabbed her wrist and began trekking through the forest. There was barely enough light for her to put her feet down with any sort of confidence. Devon never hesitated. His ability to take on the darkness was admirable, but it was also intimidating.

She tugged on her wrist, the mountain air giving her too much time to think.

Devon turned and captured her. She gasped because one moment he was making steady progress and the next he had her bound in his arms with her back against a tree. She was completely pinned, his captive.

“I…don’t…care.” He kissed the side of her neck, sending a ripple of pleasure down her body. “They are a part of my life. I don’t care if they watch.”

“Yes, you do.” Her words were calm in the face of the anger he’d used to snarl at her. “And you’re really dreading getting your memory back because you’re not sure you want to be the man you were before.”

He stepped back, releasing her, but it felt more like a recoil. She felt the shock wave moving through his thoughts because his guard was completely down.

“I didn’t like what my life did to other people, Kalin. That’s not the same as not liking who I was.”

She stretched out to see if his feelings would help her understand what he meant. She heard him draw in a stiff breath but he didn’t put up his mental guard. Their minds stayed linked even though she felt his uncertainty. They were suddenly both awkward. Both of them second-guessing themselves.