“We’ll see.”

Gabriel sat down next to her on the couch. It only intensified the scent of his blood. “I can do it remotely without touching you, but it works more effectively if I can put my hands on you.”

His statement made her flush. She felt blood pumping through her veins at warp speed. If he touched her, would she drag him toward her and sink her fangs into him? Maya swallowed hard and willed her voice to sound disinterested when she answered him. “Sure, you can touch me if that helps.”

“Thank you.”

Maya moistened her dry lips. She felt the heat in the room more intensely now, but it was nothing compared to what hit her when Gabriel took hold of her hands. A searing bolt of electricity shot through her body, and she jerked involuntarily.

“Relax, Maya. It won’t hurt. I promise.” His voice was soothing, but it did nothing to ease the uproar in her body.

She clenched her jaw shut, and for the first time she was truly aware of her fangs. They itched to descend and lengthen. She closed her eyes and inhaled to try and make herself relax. But it had the opposite effect. All she could smell was Gabriel’s masculine scent and the richness of his blood, a mixture of expensive wood and the distinctive scent of bergamot.

The glands in her mouth salivated for a taste of him. Even just a little trickle of blood from his lip would ease her thirst. Maybe that combined with the soft press of his lips against hers, or a stroking of tongues against each other. And maybe by accident, her fangs would graze his lip and draw blood that she would lick from him as he lay panting underneath her.

“I’m not sure I can do this,” Maya said, her skin feeling flushed and hot.

“Shh, I’ll only go back to the night when it happened. I won’t probe into anything else.”

She hoped it would be quick. How many more minutes would she have to endure the soft touch of his warm hands that created a delicious tingling sensation on her skin? A woman could go crazy like that, or was it the lack of blood? Was it the insanity Drake had warned her about? Had it already started? If it was getting worse, she’d have to lock herself into a room and throw away the key; otherwise, Gabriel wouldn’t be safe from her.

***

Gabriel held Maya’s hands in his and realized that he had trouble concentrating. Normally, touching the subject made it easier to get access to the memories. In this case it was a complete distraction. But it was too late. He couldn’t pull back now. It would only show everybody how she affected him. And he didn’t want anybody to know, not his colleagues, and least of all her.

The fact that she’d dismissed him in front of the doctor like a naughty schoolboy had hurt and made him wonder about what had really happened between them. Had her kiss been spawned out of a temporary insanity brought on by the shock she’d experienced? Had she kissed him because she felt the same attraction he felt for her, or had it meant nothing to her? 

A woman like her could have her pick of handsome men. He wasn’t much to look at. Any of his colleagues were more attractive than he was. Sure, he was tall, muscular, and strong, but this weren’t the dark ages. Women these days didn’t merely look at a man to provide for them. They wanted a handsome lover too. He wasn’t handsome, nor was he a lover a woman would wish for.

Gabriel pushed away the unpleasant thoughts and concentrated on the woman he faced on the sofa. He pressed his thumbs into her palm and stroked gently, making little circles. Her scent drifted into his nostrils and engulfed him. He closed his eyes and concentrated on her aura, a misty white fog that surrounded her. Only he could see it now, because he’d attuned his own mind to her frequency.

His heart beat at the same speed as hers, and he breathed when she did. Their bodies were in synch. He imagined himself in her mind, and a moment later he felt himself transported. When he opened his eyes, he didn’t see a scene in Samson’s living room in front of him. Instead, he saw a dark street.

He heard Maya’s footsteps like she would have heard them herself, felt the chill of the night fog. She searched for her keys in her bag, pulled them out. There was no light in the doorway as she reached it.

Then a voice, calling her name. The rogue had waited for her.

Then nothing. Darkness, except for a faint veil over the picture, as if the movie had gone grainy. He knew what it was.

Gabriel forced himself deeper into her mind and went back further in time. He saw her going about her work, shopping in town, eating at restaurants with friends, but everywhere he saw the veil. He went back in time for six weeks and found where it started. Before that, all memories were clear—after that they’d been altered.