Moon - New Moon Part 38

"Right. I don't have to. But it's true," he growled. "And don't give me any of that slavery c.r.a.p. I don't care who your mother and father were. I fell in love with the warrior woman you are. Well, warrior woman, wolf, and bird of prey," he amended, as he kept his gaze firmly on her.

When she couldn't speak around the lump in her throat, he added, "It's going to work out okay."

With all her heart, she wanted to believe that. But she had to be realistic. "We're so different."

"No. We're a lot alike."

"Even if that's true, it doesn't matter. Unless we can..." She stopped and started again. "Unless we can neutralize Falcone."

He studied her face, and she wanted to look away. But she kept her gaze steady.

"You were going to say...'kill,' weren't you?"

Wondering what he would think of her, she answered, "Yes."

"Don't worry about the sentiment. I know he's worth killing. Not just for what he did to you. It sounds like he's bad for Sun Acres."

Again, she forced herself to be brutally honest. "Maybe not. The city needs a strong leader. If not him, then some other man with power who can protect them from invasion."

"You have a cynical view of the world."

"A realistic view," she corrected. "Even the n.o.bles accept limits on their freedom in exchange for protection."

"How did there get to be n.o.bles? There weren't any around here in 1893, were there?"

"I think the rich people..." She shrugged. "I think they gave themselves that t.i.tle."

He snorted. "So much for the American experiment of equality. Do they have other t.i.tles? Like 'duke' or 'lord' or anything?"

"I never heard anything but 'sir' and 'n.o.ble.'"

"Well, maybe one of them is strong enough to protect Sun Acres. Because I plan on wiping Falcone off the face of the earth."

Those were brave words. She wondered if they were realistic.

"He's powerful," she warned. "Not just psychic power. Because he's been successful, he has a lot of support."

"But you know his weaknesses."

"And he knows mine." She gulped. While she'd lain beside Logan, she'd thought of what else she needed to tell him. "He did something to me... something besides..." She had thought she could say it, but the words simply stopped.

"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to talk about."

She looked down at her hands and spoke rapidly, before she could lose her nerve. "In school they discovered I had a talent few people possess. It was a... big event. I was being chased by a bunch of the older boys, and I made them stop and turn around. The teacher saw it, and she realized I could... influence people. Put suggestions into their mind, and they'd do it. They thought it would be an a.s.set to the city. But Falcone was afraid of that. He and some of the powerful men he gathers around him sent a block into my mind. When I try to use that power now... it hurts."

"Christ!"

"I can use it a little. I used it that first night when you were in the trap. I got you to change."

"Yes! I remember."

"If he did that to me, he could do other things. That was why I ran away, that and... the other." She raised her head. "I mean his taking me to his bed and... forcing me to serve him."

"Raping you!"

"A slave woman never uses that word."

He gritted his teeth, then spoke very slowly and distinctly. "Forget about the word 'slave.' It will never apply to you again. In this world, you are free to be anything you want."

She licked her lips. "It's hard to change a lifetime of thinking-so quickly."

"I think I can help you change your vision of who you are." He searched her eyes. "If you let me."

"I want to," she answered in a small voice. "But I don't know how."

"You can free yourself. Starting with what he did to you in bed. I know you've had a long time to think about it. But you and I can make the memory into something that doesn't rule your life."

She hardly believed him. Yet he looked at her with such hope that she knew she had to try-for him as much as for herself.

He must have seen agreement in her eyes, because he went on. "He made it so you're afraid to trust another man. But I'm nothing like him. And I'd like to prove it to you. Will you trust me enough to let me touch you and kiss you-just that? Just things that feel good to you-nothing more."

She licked suddenly dry lips. "I want to. The whole time you were sleeping, I was thinking how much I wanted to be with you again."

"Good. At the house, I asked you to be in charge of what we were doing."

She looked uncertain.

"I want to do things that will please you. But you'll still be in charge, because if I do something you don't like, tell me, and I'll stop."

When she took her bottom lip between her teeth, he said, "All you have to do is tell me, and I'll follow your orders," He reached for her hand and pressed his fingers over hers. "Do you believe that?"

"I think so," she answered, because she wanted it to be true. So much.

He rolled to his side, looking down at her, stroking a lock of dark hair back from her face.

"You are so beautiful."

"I'm not!"

He laughed. "I think you're no judge of women's looks. So don't argue with me about it."

He leaned down to nuzzle his face against her cheek, her neck, turning his head so that he could nibble at her jaw, then her collarbone.

"I can feel your tension," he whispered. "I know you're afraid, and I know you're very brave to stay with me-in bed."

"I'm not brave."

"Of course you are! You're brave enough to let me change your tension to something good."