Maybe it would be best to bring him back to reality, Charlie thought as she slid her hand down to the side of his throat and covered the strong pulse there with her palm. “Okay. Think about me.”

Samuel kept his eyes open and locked on hers as she let the barriers drop and reached out to him. Reading someone she was touching at the same time always quickly established a connection, but this time the thought stream came over her, wide and shocking clear and relentless, as if she’d stepped into a waterfall.

Charlotte so bright and quick but so lonely like me waited so long to find us never knew how it would be so complete see me as I am not as I appear we could be so much together I want that I want Charlotte see her shine in the night every night my treasure in the dark

As Samuel’s thoughts flooded her, Charlie felt the heat of his passion entwined with something stronger, an emotion she hadn’t felt since the day Mama had wrapped her in that old soft quilt. It encircled her and wove through her, that silvery white light, so pure and perfect that it took her breath away. The other sensation it brought was one much older than Mama or that night on the bridge, one she had consciously forgotten on one level but that still lingered in some tiny corner of herself, waiting to be needed again.

The connection between them felt stronger than before, effortless and consuming, and while she no longer needed to touch him to maintain the link, her hands glided around his neck. The steady pulse beneath his skin quickened as she trailed her fingertips along the cords and muscles, following them to his broad shoulders. There was so much of him in her head that she could feel the heavy, rough delight he experienced as he became aroused, the way his blood heated and his muscles coiled while he fought back the urge to respond.

“You want me,” she whispered against his cheek.

“With every breath I take.” Desperation tinged his thoughts as he caught her hands. “Charlotte, if you keep”—he groaned as she brought his hands to her lips before she pressed them to her breasts—“doing this, we won’t be discussing anything.”

“You can still use your mouth,” she promised as she stripped off her top. Somehow she had gone from cuddling with him to straddling him. A wanton impulse made her shimmy against him, and he responded by squeezing her breasts. From the anxiety that shadowed his thoughts, she knew he worried he was being too rough. “No, it feels good, mío. I love the way you touch me.”

“Seducing me won’t change how I feel about you,” he said as he slid his hands down to her waist. “Your body is lovely, and you give more pleasure than I can put into words, but that’s not all you are to me, Charlotte.”

“It’s what we have.” She pushed her hips back and forth to rub her crotch against him. “Enjoy it, mío.”

He pulled her closer. “If I had any pride left, I’d resist your charms and stalk out of here.”

“I’ll give you a one-minute head start before I chase you down and molest you,” she said, smiling. She bent down to touch her lips to his in a lingering kiss as she opened the front of his shorts and slipped her hand inside. “On second thought, no, I won’t.”

The curl of her fingers around the straining spike of his penis made him shudder, and as she caressed him Charlie watched his eyes. Tiny silver lights, like shards of a mirror, glinted inside the black of his irises, growing brighter with every stroke of her hand. Playing with him made her own sex clench in anticipation, and feeling his desire in her mind fueled her own arousal.

Charlie shifted backward until her feet touched the floor, dragging his shorts over his hips and pulling them down out of her way. When she straightened, his bobbing erection grazed the tip of her breast, and she turned slightly to catch it between the curves of both. She cupped her breasts from the sides and worked them against him, dipping her head to kiss the gleaming dome. As soon as her lips touched the straining head, his mind filled hers with his particular longings.

“You like me to kiss you here.” She teased him with a flick of her tongue along the ridge of his glans. “Or maybe you want something more?”

“I want everything you’ll give me.” He watched her, clenching his teeth as she rubbed her lips back and forth across his cock head. “But more of this particular attention may bring things to a very rapid end.”

She smiled against him. “I hope not, mío.”

As she engulfed him with her mouth, Samuel shuddered, his fists bunching in the cushions beneath him. Charlie sucked lightly, working the flat of her tongue against the tight satin of him, her fingers spreading over his bulging thighs. She closed her eyes as she bobbed her head, sliding her lips down to take more of him, and felt his hands threading through her hair. She drew up, letting him pop out of her mouth and taking a moment to admire the slick bulb before glancing up to see sweat trickling down the sides of his face.

“You don’t have to do this,” he murmured.

“You like how it looks as much as how it feels.” She licked him. “That excites me. So does knowing I have you exactly where I want you.”

He offered her a tormented smile. “Then have me, Charlotte.”

As Charlie drew him back in, Samuel tried to say something more, but his words dissolved into a low, rumbling purr. He was like some huge predatory feline, sprawled there under her hands, his fingertips kneading her scalp as she sucked him. Being part of a lover’s mind had never before tempted Charlie, but now she felt both sides of desire, the bold and wanton brightness of her emotions twining with his darker, primal hungers.

The wet friction and seductive pull of her mouth made his penis swell even larger, distending the veins beneath his skin and producing creamy pearls of semen that she sipped away. She cupped his testicles as they tightened, sweeping the pad of her thumb over the bulging heat as she took as much of him as she could manage, holding him in her mouth and sealing her lips around his shaft. His hands snarled in her hair, and she heard his purr become a guttural roar as the first pulse jetted out of his cock.

Tasting and teasing him had aroused her more than Charlie realized; when she drank from him it brought her right to the edge. She released him and pressed her cheek against his thigh, her hand slipping down between her own thighs.

Samuel swept her up onto the sofa and pressed her back, pushing her sarong up over her hips before he thrust his hands under her bottom. He brought her up to his mouth, parting her with his tongue to find her clit. He dragged his tongue against it as he thrust two thick fingers into the clenching ellipse of her vagina. His thumb went lower, nudging and then pressing in between the curves of her bottom.

It proved too much for Charlie’s self-control. Her hips heaved up as she shattered under his mouth, her body bowing as the wrenching delight put her on the rack and held her shaking and pleading. Samuel rode her through one climax and pushed her to the next, his fingers plunging in and out of her contracting sheath, his tongue working against her clit in a relentless abrasion until the pleasure took her again, hurtling her over the edge into pure bliss.

He moved up over Charlie, taking her in his arms and turning her so that she lay atop him. While her skin cooled, he stroked his hands up and down her back in a soothing motion. Although aftershocks still jittered through her limbs, she couldn’t move. She did put up her barriers, slowly, reluctantly.

“You’re not in my mind anymore.”

“No.”

She’d been with enough men to develop a healthy appreciation for sex and all its pleasures, but she’d never read their thoughts in bed. If all men felt the same things Sam had, she’d really been missing out.

Or it’s just him, and I’m in real trouble now.

“Being hurt doesn’t scare me, you know,” she heard herself say. “I don’t enjoy pain and suffering, but I know it’s unavoidable. What I can’t do is give my heart away to anyone who says they love me. The last time I did that, I ended up getting thrown off that goddamn bridge.”

His hands stilled on her back. “I’m not your father, Charlotte.”

“I know that.” She propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at him. “I care about you, Sam, more than I should. You’re gorgeous and interesting and kind, and I could fall in love with you so easily. But trust is just as important, and for me that takes a long time. Mama loved me the moment she saw me, and I knew it—I felt it—and still I made her wait a year before I even said one word to her. So if you really want my heart, you’re going to have to give me more than just time. You’re going to have to earn it.”

Samuel took her hand in his. “All right.”

Charlie felt that echo of familiarity again, and stared at their joined hands. She could feel the same bewildered emotion coloring his thoughts. “So have you remembered when we met? Was it in a hospital? Emergency room? I was working in D.C. for a while; maybe our paths crossed there.”

“I don’t think so.” He studied the weave of their fingers. “We held hands like this. It was dark. Cold. There was someone there with—”

“—cold hands,” she finished his thought, and closed her eyes as his description sent her spiraling into some murky place she had forgotten. “There were needles, too. Monitoring equipment.” He’d gone very still. “What is it?”

“Charlotte.” His eyes searched her face. “I think we first met in a lab. The place where they changed us.”

The Englishman’s island appeared deserted, but as Gracie brought the boat to the long, empty floating pier, Drew got the sense that their arrival had not gone unnoticed.

“Where’s this guy’s boat?” he asked as he stepped off to help her with the mooring lines.

“He keeps it in a cove on the other side of the island.” She tested the lines before taking his hand and climbing up onto the pier. Her eyes shifted to three birds circling overhead before she gestured toward the trees. “His house is over here.”

Drew tried to hold on to her hand, but Gracie walked away, leaving him to follow. It wasn’t until they were following a narrow sandy path through the thick brush and soaring palms that he noticed the steel poles scattered around them. Each had cameras perched atop it on a swivel base, and all of the lenses were moving slowly to follow them.