Page 22 of It takes a Psychic

Whatever was happening here wasn’t just about the physical attraction, although there was plenty of that, at least on his side. She looked sexy as hell sitting there on the sled bench, his evening jacket drapedaround her shoulders, her gently rounded legs bare from her upper thighs all the way down to the high heels.

Her hair was the color of whiskey. It had been pinned up in a sleek, gleaming bun at the back of her neck for most of the evening, but now several tendrils had come free and danced around her ears. They framed her intelligent, watchful hazel eyes and her strong, feminine profile. He came from a family of strong women. He recognized the type on sight.

Whatever happened after tonight, one thing was clear: he would do whatever it took to see Leona again. The realization had been coalescing ever since it had dawned on him that she hadseenhim at the reception—really seen him. She had not dismissed him as just another face in the crowd even though he had used his talent to render himself socially invisible. She had sensed that he was not who he pretended to be. And she had concluded, quite rightly, that he was a potential threat.

Very few people sensed that threat. He did his best to camouflage it.But you saw it, Leona Griffin. And you weren’t afraid. I like that about you. I like it a lot.

For a moment he wasn’t sure why he liked knowing she could see him so clearly. Then it struck him that it was because he could relax when he was with her. He could drop the camouflage.

His initial reactions to her had been curiosity and fascination. There were a lot of layers beneath the surface of Leona Griffin, temporarily famous para-archaeologist.

Now he was way beyond curiosity and fascination. He was aware of an exhilarating anticipation. It was good to be in the company of a woman who saw more of the truth about him than most people did—risky, but good. Yes, they were wary of each other—each had an agenda—but they confronted each other as equals.

Reluctantly he got out of the sled, picked up Pandora’s box, and inserted it into his day pack. Leona stepped down from the platform andjoined him. She watched him sling the pack over his shoulder but she made no comment. Together they crossed to the ragged hole in the quartz wall.

“It isn’t necessary to walk me home,” she said.

“It is,” he said. “For me.”

She abandoned the attempt to dissuade him and moved into the rubble-strewn opening in the tunnel. He admired the way she navigated the chunks of quartz on the ground. It couldn’t have been easy, not in the very high heels.

She led the way to a mag-steel vault door that sealed the entrance to the warehouse basement.

He was aware of the whisper of her briefly heightened energy field when she rezzed the lock. The sight of her enveloped in his jacket gave him an intoxicating rush. The very last thing he wanted to do tonight was take her home and leave her there while he went back to his boring, semi-furnished apartment.

“I’ll give you the psi-code so you can use this gate to return to the sled,” she said as the vault door swung open.

“Thanks.” He decided not to mention that he could rezz the door with the lock pick. By offering up the code she had just given him a small measure of trust. He valued that too much to tell her he didn’t need the gift.

They moved into darkness and the stale, faintly moldy smell of yet another old basement. He rezzed the flashlight on his phone and saw the stairs against the far wall.

They climbed the steps to the ground-level floor of an abandoned warehouse and crossed to another door. This one opened onto an alley filled with light, drifting fog.

He de-rezzed the flashlight. There was no need for the device now. The Dark Zone was built close to one of the eight massive walls that enclosed the ancient Dead City at the heart of Illusion Town. At night the neighborhood glowed with the green radiance infused into it by the ruins.

“Thank goodness for the fog,” Leona said. “With luck, no one will see me in your coat.”

“You’re worried about the outfit? This is Illusion Town. No one will look twice at a woman wearing an evening jacket and high heels, not at this time of night.”

“That might be true in some of the other zones, where the casinos and clubs are located. But the DZ is a neighborhood. My sister and I grew up here. My parents have a business here, and so does my sister. The locals know me. If one of them sees me dressed like this, walking back to my loft with a man who happens to be wearing the rest of this outfit, there will be gossip.”

“I’m sorry about the jacket but it was the best I could do under the circumstances. You’re the one who decided to burn the dress.”

“True.”

“It was a brilliant move, by the way.”

“Thanks.”

She walked briskly, he noticed. The tap-tap-tap of her heels on the pavement echoed in the night. She was eager to get home. Eager to get rid of him?

They reached the entrance of the alley and moved out onto the sidewalk.

“My place is just around the corner,” Leona said.

She was almost trotting now. He lengthened his stride to keep up and wondered if he ought to be offended.

They had the sidewalk to themselves. Until they didn’t.

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