“I just want to know if…oh, I’m sorry…”

She sniffed and looked away. Reaching out, I covered Tamara’s hand with mine. A fat wad of money from her rested in my pocket, but I didn’t let myself think about it as I squeezed her fingers gently. “Just try to get it out. Okay?”

“I need to speak with him,” she said, the words coming out in a rush.

I nodded. “Of course. That’s very understandable.” I gave her hand another reassuring squeeze. “There are some things I need to know before I can tell you if it’s possible, though.”

“Yes, yes.” Eager, she leaned forward, looking ten years younger in her hopefulness.

“Doing this sort of…thing isn’t easy. Anybody who tells you that it is…well…” I rolled my eyes and forced a chuckle. “They are either lying, or they are a great deal more skilled than I am. And I’m pretty damned skilled.”

She echoed my laugh. “Trust me, I’ve noticed.”

“It takes a lot out of you. It will exhaust both of us, but it will put me down for a day or two, at least, just depending on how far we have to search.”

She blinked, looking confused. “What do you mean, how far?”

“Tamara,” I said gently. “It’s not like we’re given directions and coordinates and a GPS. We’ll have to search for him. And there are an awful lot of souls out there.”

“Of course.” Nodding now, she smiled. “That makes sense.”

“Now…I’ll need something that belonged to him,” I said, giving her hand one last brisk shake before letting go. “It doesn’t have to be anything important, but it does…”

Her face fell.

I’d hoped for that reaction.

“Oh,” I said softly. “You don’t have anything?”

“No.” Biting her lip, she smoothed her palms together. “Is that a problem?”

“It…very well may be. What we’re doing, it’s like…you know how the old landline telephones required the telephone lines to be operational in order to work?” I asked her. I’d used the explanation before. “This is the same sort of idea. I need a line. Anything of his is a line. Without it, I’m just shouting in the wind and hoping the right person hears the call.”

Crestfallen, she sagged in the chair. “Does that mean you can’t do anything?”

“I…” Closing my eyes, I averted my face. My gut was twisted into a hot, nasty lump of emotions. “Tamara, I don’t think you understand how trying a task this is. And without a line…”

“I’ll pay you anything,” she said anxiously. “Even if we have to try over and over. It’s worth it for me.”

With a pained smile, I glanced around, pretending reluctance.

Although it wasn’t entirely feigned.

But I’d kept waiting for a rich asshole to walk through the door and it hadn’t happened.

If Tamara was the ticket for Trice, Joelle, and me to get out of here, then I was taking that damn ticket.

“Okay,” I said on a heavy sigh. “I guess we can give it a try.”

She’d insisted I take a check for several thousand.

Even I’d been a little boggled by that. She’d already paid for today, and that had been several hundred, including the tip.

But the several thousand she’d given me, combined with the money I had set aside…? If I could drag this out for maybe one or two ‘attempts’ to reach her brother, then it would be enough to get the three of us out of here. It wasn’t a lot of money, but we wouldn’t need that much to get us to the other side of the country and on to a new start.

All three of us were willing to work hard, and we could all share an apartment…I’d done the research, I’d done the work. We could make it if we just had enough money to tide us over and the money to get far enough away. We were going to find a small town, too, someplace the Rom didn’t like to go. They wouldn’t think to look for us there.

Still, as I lay on my couch, I had a bad taste in my mouth, and I knew it was because of the hope that had been shining in Tamara’s eyes when she left my place.

That hope would turn to ashes. And grief. I hated to add to a grief that was already still raw.

The sound of a car door slamming had me jumping up off the couch. I’d dropped down to brood for a bit after Tamara left. I hadn’t turned off the light, and I didn’t want another client right now.

But looking out the window had me freezing.

The familiar tall, lean-hipped blond striding up the busted sidewalk to my place sent my heart jumping up into my throat, and I thought I might be sick.

“Oh, shit,” I whispered.

It was Kian.

How had he found me here?

Did he know about his mother?

Had he called the cops?

With hands that shook, I fumbled the money and check out of my pocket and stashed it in the lockbox just as he knocked on the door. Even though there was an open sign, the place looked so much like what it really was – a house – that people still knocked before entering more often than not. I couldn’t say I minded, especially not right now.

“Just a minute,” I called out, my voice shakier than I liked. Turning the key to the lockbox, I turned around and looked at my face in the mirrored reflection on the far side of the wall.

Was there anything that might give me away?

A few pamphlets and cards with Sirene lay on an end table. I grabbed them and shoved them into a drawer.

What else?

There had to be something else.

What was there?

Another knock came.

“I’m coming,” I called out. At least my voice sounded steadier this time. I didn’t see anything else that might hint at what this place was really for. In desperation, I rushed to the closet and grabbed my camera bag, dumping it on the table. Then I went to the door, smoothing my hands down the sides of my skirt.

My clothes…

Shit. I looked completely and totally Romany just then, with the long skirts, heavy scarves and necklaces, all of them long and gaudy, dangling around my neck like the chains of the damned dragging me down.

But there was nothing to do about it. I was already opening the door.

I feigned surprise at the sight of him, although it wasn’t very hard, because I was still getting over the shock of seeing him here to begin with. “Kian!”

He gave me a lopsided grin. “You’re not the only one who can track somebody down.”

He raked me up and down with a look, eyes lingering on the deep cut of my tank, although he could have been checking out the necklaces for all I knew.

His gaze continued on down before returning to my face. I went to shove a hand through my hair and encountered the cloth I’d wrapped around it. Absently, I tugged it off and went about smoothing my hair down as we stared at each other.

“You going to invite me in?” he asked softly.

“Oh. Um. Yes,” I said, stepping aside. Really, I’d rather not, but how could I tell him that?

I couldn’t. With a smile I didn’t feel, I gestured for him to come inside, and as he did so, I stood at his shoulder, looking around the room and trying to see it with the eyes of somebody who was looking at it for the first time – somebody who had no idea what went on here.

Did anything about the place scream phony psychic lives within?

Not that I could tell, but then again, I had no idea what the clues would be.

My luck, his mother had left her purse, and I just couldn’t see it, and she’d be back here to get it in the next two minutes. Or maybe that’s why he was here–

My belly clenched at the thought of that, but he turned around, and as his gaze collided with mine, I immediately knew that it wasn’t thoughts of his mama that had brought him here.

“Are you expecting anybody?” he asked, voice rough.

“I…um…not for another hour,” I responded weakly.

His gaze slid to the sign in the window. “Does that thing turn off?”

In response, I cut around him and hit the little button for the sign.

He came up behind me then, and I had the brief thought – it sure as hell was a good thing Papa wasn’t there today.

Then I wasn’t thinking about anything but how good his hands felt on me.

The window had no blinds, no shades, nothing.

Once he discovered that, he swept me up into his arms and carried me over to the one place that offered relative privacy. The little area by the front door.

My back was to the door and his mouth on mine before I had much time to process what was going on. His tongue licked inside my mouth, greedy and demanding. I bit him, already as hungry as he was, while the nerves that had jumped inside me quickly channeled themselves into a different kind of energy – lust.

It ripped through me, and I grabbed the hem of his shirt, shoving it up so I could feel the hot, smooth skin of his chest against my hands.

He caught both my wrists and yanked them over my head, and I gasped, jerking against his hold. But he didn’t let go. He fisted one hand in the hem of my shirt, slowly dragging it upward as he stared down at me. “I haven’t done much of anything but think of you since you came by the other day. You’ve gone and gotten inside my head, Suria. How did you do it?” he asked, his eyes on my face as he bared my torso, inch by inch.

“You’ve done the same thing to me. Turnabout’s fair play,” I said in a challenging tone. “Let my hands go. I want to touch you.”

“No. I’m doing the touching right now.” He kept my hands confined.

The erotic edge of it had me squirming, already so wet I could feel my panties going damp.

His eyes locked on my breasts, confined in the lacy hold of my bra. His tongue came out to wet his lips, and I whimpered, wanting to feel his mouth on me.

“Want something?” He shifted his gaze to my face.

“Your mouth on me,” I said. I didn’t have time in my life for pretty manners or false modesty, so why bother?

He seemed to appreciate it and dipped his head, pressed his mouth to the curve of my neck. “Here?”

“No,” I gasped. Although it did feel good. “Lower.”

He cruised lower. He had to release my hands, and I whimpered again, tugging against his hold, but all he did was shift his grip so that he had my hands pinned behind my back, still fisting my wrists in his one palm. His mouth skimmed over the lacy edge of the bra. As he licked me, the muscles in my legs quivered and threatened to dissolve.

“Here?”

“No,” I answered. “Lower.”

He went lower.

He also let go of my wrists, but only to make me grab my skirts and hold them. The dual layers had never seemed so heavy in my life as I stood there, dragging them higher at his command. He kissed my knee and ordered, “Up more, Suria. Do you want me to kiss you here?”

“No. Higher.”

His teeth raked the inside of my thigh. “Here?”

“Closer.”

He slid his hands under the skirts and grabbed my panties, dragging them down. “You’re already so wet, I can smell it. Fuck, I want to eat you up,” he muttered against my leg.

“Yes,” I whispered. “Please.”

I all but shoved myself into his face as he moved higher. “Is that what you want, Suria? You want me to eat you up?”

“Please!”

He laughed a little, the sound sinful and seductive like melted chocolate poured over my skin. The puff of his breath against my curls was a teasing, taunting sort of madness, and I thought I might die if he didn’t put his mouth on me.

Then he did.

Slowly.

One stroking lick at a time.

He slid his tongue through my folds, growling low in his throat, his enjoyment obvious. If I hadn’t been so lost, it might have been unnerving just how much he seemed to enjoy it too. But I had no time to think about that because he shoved my thighs wider apart, wedging his shoulders between them before grabbing my ass in his hands and sealing his mouth over me. He kissed my pussy, almost like he’d kiss my mouth, and I thought the pleasure of it would rip me in two, it was so huge and consuming.

His tongue dipped inside me, over and over, the growls and sounds he made vibrating through me. He stabbed at my clit with his tongue, nuzzled at me with his nose, then kissed me again.

I’d long since let go of my skirts and clutched at his hair, rocking against his face, urging him on and saying things that might have set my face on fire if I ever let myself think about it.

Not that I was shy, but I didn’t think I’d ever said things like, “Please…oh, fuck, eat my pussy, Kian…like that…yes, bite me…oh, shit, that’s so good!”

He thrust two fingers up into me, twisting them, and that was what sent me over, careening into an orgasm so hard my knees went weak. I had to clutch at his shoulders for support, but he moved in the next moment, leaving me floundering.

Out of instinct, I grabbed the doorknob with one hand, his shoulder with the other.

Panting, I stared at him as he tore his fly open.

Our gazes locked just as he freed himself, and he reached for me, boosting me up and bracing my back against the door. My skirts tangled between us, and I caught them, dragging them out of the way until I was bared to him. He grunted. “That’s a pretty fucking sight,” he said, voice raw. Then he plunged into me, filling me deep.

I was stretched wide, almost bruised by him, he was so thick and hard. He withdrew, eyes on mine, and thrust inside me again.

The raw scrape of his cock over my tissues was a primal, intimate caress that urged me right back to the edge where I’d just been, so close to bliss I could barely stand it.

But then abruptly, he froze.

“Fuck…” He was wedged in all the way to his balls. I could feel the wiry brush of his curls against my clit and as he stood there, his cock pulsed, sending a rippling sensation running through my body.

“What?”

“I forgot to put on a rubber.”

I shuddered around him as he pulsed again, and he moaned, head falling back. “Don’t do that, baby,” he said, voice pleading. “I’m already so close to coming.”

“I can’t help it.” Terrified, I looked up at him, trying to stop the internal milking that happened every time he pulsed, but my muscles kept grabbing at him, and that made him pulse all over again. It was a sweet, awful cycle that had us both moving closer and closer to the edge.

“I’m clean,” he said, panting. “Are you going to get pregnant? Are you…is there anything to worry about? I’ll pull out, right now. So help me. Just tell me.”

How could I think right now? He wanted me to do math? But… “Now’s okay.” My period was due in a few days. I should be fine. And clean…yes, I hadn’t ever forgotten something as basic as a rubber. Until now.

He pulsed again.

I whimpered, my nails scoring his skin.

“Do I pull out?” he demanded again.

“I…”

He did a mini thrust and muttered my name, grabbing my ass and tucking me in closer. “Tell me, Suria, or I’m just going to finish fucking you raw right now.”

He kissed me then, even as I was about to tell him it was okay.

By the time he pulled up, even the ability to speak was gone though, and when he said my name questioningly again just a moment later, all I could think was… “Kian…” And I dragged his mouth back down to mine.

He muttered something about thank you under his breath.

I had no idea why, and the rest of my bones all but dissolved as he began to thrust into me again, deep, hard, slow thrusts that threatened to turn me inside out and back again.

I felt the head of his cock butting up against me, deep inside, like he was all but sealing himself inside me and the sensation was erotic, bordering on the edge of pain, and I loved it. Crying out his name, I shoved my hands into his hair and bit his lower lip.

He bit me back and slammed into me even harder.

I climaxed in a screaming rush, and just as I slid under a wave of obliviating pleasure, I felt him start to come too.

“That’s what I call a lunch break,” Kian muttered against my neck.

I stirred, trying to rouse myself, but I felt half-punch drunk.

He nipped my ear. “You awake there?”

“Barely,” I rasped. My voice was hardly recognizable, and I grimaced, wondering if a cup of tea would help. I still had an appointment –

Panic seized me, and I shoved away from his shoulders, getting up to stumble into the main area of the living room.

The big, antique looking clock loomed down from the wall, the time on it all but mocking me.

I had less than thirty minutes, and the way I felt, I needed a drink and a shower.

And Kian was still lying slumped on the floor.

Turning to him, I smoothed my skirts down and tugged my shirt back in place. Forcing myself to smile, I said, “It was a hell of a…break, but I’m going to have to kick you out. I’ve got another client coming in.”