Inez blinked her eyes open to find him simply looking at her, his eyes blazing silver fire as they traveled over flesh suddenly covered with goose bumps. She stiffened and bit her lip to keep back a protest as he used one hand to sweep the sheet and blankets lower until they rested below her belly button so that he could see more of her. Her head was filling with all the flaws he must be seeing and how imperfect she was when he said, "Beautiful."

Inez's eyes widened incredulously at the pronouncement, but then he suddenly caught the hem of his T-shirt and lifted it off over his head and she was distracted by her first sight of his chest unclothed. Thomas, she decided, was the one who was beautiful. A work of art.

Reaching out tentatively, Inez ran one hand over the muscles of his chest as he tossed the stained T-shirt to the floor and then he turned to peer at her and caught her hand against his chest with his. Watching her face, he raised her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her fingers before slipping one into his mouth and suckling at it lightly.

Inez gasped lightly at the sensations that suddenly jolted through her as he drew the finger slowly out. He then released her hand and bent to kiss her again. He used one hand and arm to hold his weight off of her, but the fingers of the other hand moved over her body, caressing first one breast and then the other before sliding over her rounded stomach.

Inez clutched at his shoulders and moved her legs restlessly as his hand slid beneath the sheet and blankets and across her lower stomach to one hip as he kissed her. His hand paused there, fingers tightening slightly on the outer side of her hip as his thumb ran along the sensitive flesh on top and then it continued down along her outer leg, smoothing over skin she hoped to God wasn't stubbly.

When was the last time she'd shaved her legs? Inez wondered a bit frantically and realized it hadn't been for two days at least. Damn! There would be stubble. It would give a whole new meaning to her last name, which she thought was perfectly apt because-like a bear-she seemed to have a lot of hair. Honestly, she seemed to even grow it in her sleep. During the day was the worst, though, she sported a five o'clock shadow on her legs after shaving them in the morning. Why had she been cursed with this body? She should have been a tall, leggy blonde with-

"Aiyeee," Inez cried out, her eyes opening with shock as Thomas's hand suddenly closed over the very core of her. She'd been so distracted with her self criticisms she'd hadn't noticed that his caresses had stopped going down her outer leg and had started up the inside. She'd missed the whole upward journey...also missing that he'd broken their kiss and was now nibbling on her ear. She wasn't distracted now, however.

"Are you back with me?" Thomas asked with amusement as his hand glided over her warm core.

Inez nodded breathlessly, her hands digging into his shoulders as he caressed her.

He chuckled against her ear and then asked in a whisper. "Where were you? What were you thinking?"

Inez would have swallowed her own tongue before telling him the truth. Unfortunately it was impossible to come up with a lie with him doing what he was doing. Much to her relief she didn't end up having to, because the hotel phone chose that moment to begin ringing.

Thomas stiffened above her and cursed. Inez closed her eyes and silently thanked God for the intervention and making sure Thomas would never know how close he'd come to getting whisker burn on his hands from her legs. Releasing his shoulder, she reached out swiftly and snatched up the phone to draw it to her ear.

"Good morning?" Inez said with a cheer that made Thomas jerk his head up with surprise.

"Good morning, Inez," Bastien said, sounding crisp and well rested. "How are you feeling?"

Her eyebrows rose at the sudden turn in his voice. The question had sounded solemn and concerned, but she had no idea why he'd be concerned about her. That had been Thomas's first question too, she realized now and frowned to herself.

"I-What happened last night?" Inez asked with sudden apprehension as she searched her memories and found she had no recall of going to bed last night.

Bastien hesitated and then asked, "Don't you remember?"

"No," she admitted, feeling suddenly sick. Taking the phone from her ear before he could say anything else, she handed it to Thomas and then scooted off the bed, dragging the sheet and blankets with her and nearly rolling Thomas to the floor as she did.

Wrapping them around herself toga style, Inez hurried into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. She stood there in the dark for a moment, trying to calm down. Her stomach had always reacted to her upset, and if she didn't calm down she was likely to be kneeling over the toilet retching in a minute.

Closing her eyes, Inez concentrated on her breathing, forcing herself to breathe more slowly. When she thought she had herself at least a little calmer, she felt along the wall beside her until she found the light switch and then flicked it on. Inez blinked in the sudden explosion of light and then peered at herself in the mirror. The sheet and blanket were gathered around her in a lopsided collection, her hair was wild about her head, and her eyes were a little wild and a lot scared.

"Why don't I remember coming back to the hotel and going to bed last night?" she asked herself silently. The answer she was afraid of was that she didn't remember because someone had taken those memories away...and the only people she knew who could do that were immortals, but who and why? The fact that she'd landed back here in her own bed in their hotel with Thomas lying beside her worried Inez. If she'd found Marguerite, the woman could have controlled her, but why? Why would any immortal want to control her and put her in her bed with Thomas? Except maybe Thomas. He'd been suffering under the effects of the Sweet Ecstasy Concentrate last night. Had he...?

Inez killed the thought before it was fully formed, but she was terrified that the truth was that Thomas could read and control her after all. Maybe they weren't lifemates at all.

Chapter Nine

"Is Inez all right? She sounded upset."

Thomas forced his eyes away from the bathroom door and turned his attention to the phone in his hand. Pressing it more firmly to his ear, he said, "I think she realizes she's been controlled."

"That usually only happens if they don't put in a replacement memory," Bastien said slowly.

Thomas grunted acknowledgment. "I wonder why they wouldn't have?"

"Maybe they wanted her to know."

Thomas stiffened at the suggestion. "Why would they want that?"

A long silence passed as they both considered what might be behind Inez being controlled, but it seemed obvious neither of them could come up with a reason.

"We won't be able to solve this," Bastien acknowledged unhappily.

"No," Thomas agreed. "At least not until we find Aunt Marguerite."

"Speaking of which," Bastien murmured. "I know I was supposed to wait for you to call me, and I have been waiting most patiently. But when it got so late, I thought maybe-"

Thomas cursed as his eyes hit the bedside clock and he saw that it was well after ten A.M. He'd slept longer than he'd intended.

"Thomas?"

"I slept in," he admitted unhappily as he sat up. His gaze slid to the bathroom door as he heard the shower come on, and then he assured him, "I'll call Herb right now and head out as soon as he has coordinates for me."

Hanging up, he quickly punched in Herb's number. The immortal had always kept odd hours, working well into the morning at times if he got into his programming. Fortunately, this was one of those days and he didn't have to apologize for waking him.

After hanging up, Thomas stood and paced around the room as he waited for Herb to call back with coordinates. With nothing else to distract him, his mind immediately turned to Inez in the shower. She would be naked and wet in there, warm water spraying down over her body as she ran the soap over herself. He'd like to do that for her. Actually, he'd rather build up a lather between his own hands and then run them over her soft skin, across her breasts, along her sides, over her behind, between her legs...Thomas managed to get himself quite worked up with his imaginings and was on the verge of rushing into the bathroom to turn them into reality when the phone rang.

Shaking the seductive thoughts aside, he hurried to the phone to answer it.

Herb gave him the new coordinates at once and then asked, "Are you heading out right away?"

"No," Thomas admitted slowly, a little startled by the question. "I have to shower first and dress. It probably won't be for another ten minutes. Why?"

Herb hesitated and then said, "Because I want to call and check the coordinates again when you leave."

"Again?" Thomas asked, his eyebrows rising. "Why? She should be sleeping now and staying in one place, that's why we left it until morning."

"I know, but I checked these coordinates on a street map of Amsterdam that lists buildings in the area and it's not a hotel, it's a strip of cafes."

"That's not right." Thomas dropped back on the bed with dismay. "Aunt Marguerite isn't a day person. Why would she be out at this hour?"

"You said she was over here in Europe on a case, maybe that's forced her to work during the day," Herb suggested.

"I suppose," Thomas said with a frown. "I don't know much about being a private detective, but they might be checking records and so on and those offices would hardly be open at night-. Could you double check the coordinates, Herb?"

"I did," he assured him. "I actually triple checked them before calling you."

"Oh," Thomas said unhappily.

"I know, it doesn't feel right," Herb muttered. "But if they are having to work during the day...You said her partner was mortal. They may have stopped to feed him."

"Yeah, that's possible," Thomas agreed.

"Right. Call me just before you leave and I'll track it again to double check. That way, if she isn't there when you reach the coordinates, you can just move on to the next set I come up with."

"Right. Thank you, Herb. I appreciate all your help with this," Thomas said, but he was still frowning as he hung up. Something wasn't right.

His gaze slid to the closed bathroom door with new concern as his wonder about Inez being controlled and having her memory erased collided with the game of hide-and-seek they were playing with Marguerite. Why hadn't his aunt contacted her family? She had to still have her phone on her to be moving around constantly. Had Inez found her at that park? Was Marguerite the one who had erased her memory? What the hell was going on?

Standing, Thomas crossed the room to the door, tapped lightly, and when he got no reply, eased it open.

"Inez?" he called, stepping into the room. His gaze slid to the small shower room at the end of the bathroom, and shower room was the proper term. Showers here were not enclosed little cubes like those back home, they were small ceramic-tiled rooms with a floor with a drain in the center. The showerheads were huge, dropping water down like a rain cloud. Thomas had always liked showers here. Now he peered at the closed beveled glass shower door, his eyes swimming over the flesh-colored blur that was Inez.

"Inez," he repeated, moving to stand in front of the door when he realized she hadn't heard him over the water.

She heard him this time. He saw her whirl to face him and saw the shape of her blur change as her hands instinctively covered the important bits. Thomas smiled faintly, imagining the startled, alarmed look on her face. A day would come when she wasn't so self-conscious around him in the nude. He would see to that. She had a beautiful body, short but shapely and would probably keep most of that shape after her turning, thank God. He'd never been attracted to stick-thin anorexic types and couldn't understand men who were. A woman was supposed to have curves and a little meat on them that could offer comfort to a man. At least, that was his opinion.

"Thomas?" Inez said uncertainly. He knew she wasn't questioning whether it was him or not. Who else would be in their suite? What she was asking was what he was doing in here.

"Inez, can you tell me what happened last night?" he asked, and then added solemnly, "It's important.

Another moment of silence followed and then she said, "You collapsed when we got back to the hotel room. I removed the knife from your back, went through a couple towels putting pressure on the wound until you stopped bleeding, then fetched a couple bags of blood, but couldn't figure out how to feed them to you. I didn't want to turn you on your back to lay on your wound, but couldn't feed you the way you were, and then Herb called with new coordinates."

"You didn't tell him what had happened," Thomas pointed out.

"No. I didn't know if you'd be in trouble for flashing your teeth in public and then giving away your strength and speed," she admitted.

Thomas grimaced at the knowledge that she'd seen him flash his fangs, but said, "Thank you."

"Anyway, he had new coordinates and so I put the two bags of blood beside you to find when you woke up and went out to the new spot. It was in front of a night club and I knew there was no way I could search it by myself, so it was a relief when he called again with new coordinates. Bastien called right after him, and I just told him we were still tracing Marguerite's cell and headed out. I walked a couple blocks farther on to a park."

"And then?" Thomas prompted when she fell silent.

"And then I woke up naked in bed with you beside me," Inez said.

Thomas frowned at the tone of her voice. She sounded uncertain and even frightened. He understood why when she spoke again.

"You didn't control me and wipe my memory, did you Thomas?"

"No," he said firmly, wishing she could see his face and see the truth there. "I already told you I can't either read or control you."

There was a moment of silence and then she asked, "So we really are lifemates, then?"

Thomas stiffened, his eyes straining to see through the beveled glass. "You know about that?"