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shirt. She was intensely aware of the way his fingers brushed against her throat.
    “Honor is a complicated concept when it comes to this sort of thing,” he said.
    “There is nothing at all complicated about it, and well you know it,” she whispered. “The forces of your nightmare are controlling you.”
    “No one and nothing controls me, not even you, my lovely Leona.”
    “I am not the one who is manipulating you. It is Delbridge who is doing that with his poison. Surely you will not allow him the victory.”
    Thaddeus hesitated, eyes narrowing. “Delbridge. If he ever discovers that you took his crystal he will stop at nothing to get it back.”
    She realized that somewhere in his dreamscape a door to rationality had just cracked open. She seized the opportunity.
    “You are right, sir,” she said gently. “I see now that Delbridge is a grave threat to my person. But you cannot deal with him while you are under the influence of the poison. You must recover your senses so that you will be able to protect me from him.”
    “I vow I will keep you safe from him and any other man who dares to try to take you from me.” He drew one of the pins from her hair. “You are mine.”
    “Yes, indeed,” she said briskly. “I am yours, and therefore you will fight Delbridge’s poison tonight. For my sake, sir. You will not let him destroy your sanity because then you would be in no shape to guard me.”
    “For your sake,” he repeated, as though taking an oath. “I would walk through the gates of hell to protect you, Leona.”
    Energy shimmered invisibly in the small confines of the carriage and not just inside the crystal. Her own senses were responding to his dark, drugging aura. The stuff drew her like an intoxicating scent. A fever began to build deep within her. Part of her suddenly yearned to enter into his dreamscape and share it with him.
    He drew another pin from her hair. Then, very deliberately, as though staking a claim, he wrapped one hand around the nape of her neck and crushed her mouth beneath his own.
    It was a kiss of possession and thrilling power. Her aura flared to meet his. Their energy currents clashed, merged and then began to resonate together. Through half-closed eyes she saw lightning flash inside the crystal.
    Thaddeus drank from her as though she offered him some rare nectar. She longed to follow him to wherever the currents of the dream might take them.
    With a low, husky sound, Thaddeus raised his head and started to pull her down onto the seat.
    “Mine,” he whispered.
    It was now or never. She had to act for both their sakes or all was lost. Another one of her uncle’s sayings came to her: “Always give the audience a show.”
    She gripped the crystal in both hands.
    “Look into the stone, Thaddeus,” she whispered in the same voice that she would have used to invite him to her bed. “See how your energy has set fire to it.”
    He responded to the small seduction and looked down at the glowing stone.
    She was waiting for him. The instant she sensed his attention was focused on the crystal, she pounced, slamming every ounce of her own power into the stone. There was no time to finesse the currents of her own energy as she would have done with any other client. She could not afford to be delicate or cautious about the business. Overwhelming Thaddeus’s churning energy with her own raw power was the only hope.
    The storm inside the crystal pulsed wildly one last time, and then it faded.
    It was over in seconds. Thaddeus shuddered and sank back against the cushions.
    “I am no longer in the nightmare,” he said, dazed.
    “No,” she agreed.
    “You saved my sanity and, no doubt, my life. I owe you my most profound thanks.”
    “We are even, sir. I owe you my gratitude for helping me escape Delbridge’s house tonight.”
    “Delbridge. Right.” With a weary gesture he turned up one of the lamps. “He is going to be a problem, Leona.”
    “There is no need to worry about