The whispering hallucinations finally began to retreat shortly after dawn.
“They’re becoming faint,” North said. “Just shadows now. I can’t believe it. All these weeks I’ve been convinced I would go mad if I took off the damned glasses.”
Sierra opened her senses and studied his aura in the mirror that hung over the fireplace. “The unstable vibe I noticed in your aura has diminished considerably. Got a feeling you’ll still see a few hallucinations once in a while until the last of the effects of the poison are gone, but you are definitely recovering. If I were you I would destroy those glasses.”
He looked at the mirrored sunglasses sitting on the coffee table next to the machine. “I’d like nothing better, but at the moment they are evidence. I should be able to use them to find out who poisoned the crystals.”
“Good point.” She glanced at the glasses. “Best keep them in lead or steel. You don’t want any of that radiation leaking out. I’ve got a lockbox in the back of my vehicle that I use for transporting small artifacts. The glasses will be secure in there.”
“Right.”
He looked at her, his eyes heating. She knew that look. Gratitude. It was not what she wanted from him.
She jumped to her feet. “We should get on the road. Long drive ahead of us. Neither of us got any sleep last night, but you’re the one who went through hell detoxing your senses, so I’ll take the wheel.”
He crossed the room in two strides. His hands closed over her shoulders. She wasn’t wearing her leather jacket, just a long-sleeved pullover. It wasn’t the first time he had touched her, but on the previous occasion in the abandoned building there had been a lot of energy flying around.
This time the situation was much more intimate. There should have been a jolt of some kind. And there was. But it was a very pleasant jolt, a thrilling spark of awareness. An unfamiliar excitement lit up her senses.
“Sierra—” He stopped, shock narrowing his eyes. He yanked his hands off her. “I’m so damn sorry. I forgot you don’t like to be touched.”
“No, it’s okay,” she said, a little breathless because it really was okay. Another wave of euphoria zinged through her. “It all depends on who is touching me.”
“You don’t mind my touch?”
“No.”
Gently, tentatively, he put his hands back on her shoulders.
“You’re sure?” he said.
“Positive.” She smiled. “I’m not really Ms. Untouchable. It’s just that I need to be . . . comfortable with the person who touches me.”
“You’re comfortable with me?”
“Obviously. But I guess that’s not a surprise, given what we’ve been through together.”
He tightened his grip a little and drew her closer. “You just saved my sanity. My talent. Maybe my life. I don’t know how to thank you.”
“No need. Really.”
His mouth came down on hers in a crushing, energy-charged kiss that took her to an entirely new level of sensation.
Should have seen this coming, she thought.
She felt light-headed, weightless. If North had not had her clamped against his chest she would have lost her balance. Sexual attraction had never before struck her with such overwhelming force.
In the past she’d always approached that side of things with great care because of her issues with physical touch. Even when all went well, the best she could say about the experience was that it had been pleasant. Words like exciting and thrilling were not applicable. Mostly sex fell into the category of okay-but-I’d-rather-be-reading-a-good-book.
She had never been swept away by passion. In the past her relationships had always fizzled. But everything was different with North.
“Sierra?” North said against her mouth.
Her name brought her back to reality with a thud. She knew what she felt for him, and it was depressing to realize that what he felt for her was probably—mostly—driven by a profound sense of gratitude.
“We really need to get on the road,” she said.
“Yes,” he said.
She stepped back. He let her go.
But his eyes still burned with all the colors of night.