Read Any Price for Free Online Page A

caressing the cool cream of her skin. It was a bitch to ignore the fact that they’d gotten her out of everything but bra and panties, but his little witch needed to know she could trust him, naked or not. “Kenna, look at me, baby,” he commanded softly. She had smashed her face into his bare chest when he’d grabbed her. Now she seemed reluctant to move.
    “Lore, we’ve known each other for little more than a few hours,” she hissed. “How can I need you, want you like this? I can hardly stop myself from wrapping my legs around your hips. I know what sex is. I know what desire is. I don’t know what this is. This is more…” Her voice trailed off into his chest and she started to tremble.
    “Baby, look at me. I need you to hear me.” Lore inserted an insistent knuckle under her chin and turned her face up to his. He knew he’d been unable to hide the possessive male response to her acknowledgement. She wasn’t trying to pretend their sexual connection was normal.
    “Kenna, listen to me and feel my intent as you hear the words. I know what’s between us is strange, but understand this—I have never had this type of connection with anyone else. It’s about us and it’s about our gifts. We’ve been intimately connected for over three days now, not an hour. What we share is so far beyond what normal people do to get to know each other that none of those rules apply.”
    His other hand caressed her back, and the one from under her chin soon joined it. There was no help for it, his hands slid down to cuddle a perfect ass that fit in his palms so sweetly. This was who they were, where they were. He wasn’t going to pretend differently, but he also needed her to see that it wasn’t a threat. He was hers as much as she was his.
    “I will not allow anything to harm you. Feel it in me, Kenna. Trust me. I am yours as much as you are mine. I can’t escape this any more than you can. I don’t want to.
    “Right now several thousand people are waiting for me to appear. There are people from China, the Soviet Union, America, Germany and France whom I personally invited. They represent companies this county would like to convince to invest here. New technology has shown huge natural resources that will change this region’s future. Controlling how that happens is as dangerous as the mad man hunting you. We need the terrorist to see you. Calm, beautiful you. The corporate vultures have to see strength in me.”
    Lore regarded her in silence a moment. “You’re worried and afraid…” He stopped as he thought better of pointing out the obvious. Fighting her fear with what was right about this seemed like a much better tactic.
    “I will not let him have you. You know I can’t. I don’t think he knew what would happen when he pushed you. I mean simply being a telepath is way different from the connection we are involved in. Together we make something new, honey.
    “As the king, I have to get us in front of that crowd. You as visible as possible are our best chance at keeping him from detonating. As a man, I want nothing more than to cover you with my body in every way there is. Not just sex, Kenna. It’s much more than that.”
    His arms loosened. His hands rose up her back until fingers threaded through her hair on either side of her face. Kenna’s continued fear and confusion were the strongest emotions in her. Her hold on control was difficult.
    “Don’t let fear dictate our relationship. That gives the sick bastard control of us, baby. We get to choose what happens next, not him. Trust me.”
    “Lore,” Kenna breathed, and let her eyes close for a second. That one word was consent.
    There was no need to guess how much of what he said was the truth. Feeling his determination, the sharp surge of power that he’d repressed when he’d thought of her in the hands of their enemy, all of it flowed between them. If she had to measure anything in him, it was how much he was trying to water down his