Stop? No, my mind shouted. Almost there. One more thrust and I would-

“We have to stop.”

I jerked back from him, panting for breath. My eyelids felt heavy, my thighs ached. “More,” I gasped.

“You’ve started a fire, baby.”

Lost in my need for completion, for him, I leaned into him, craving another taste of his mouth. “Yes. Burn. I burn.”

“Fire,” he said again.

This time I heard the urgency in his voice, and I forced my eyes open completely. What I saw made me gasp. Just behind me, a plant flickered with orange-gold flames. The scent of burning leaves filled the air.

“Not again!” I lamented. But at least this wasn’t the inferno Lexis had predicted. The woman’s psychic abilities clearly weren’t as sharp as everyone thought. I’d only torched a measly plant, not the whole apartment!

“Make it rain, baby. Try to make it rain like you did in the car. Remember, you were sad and droplets fell.” His movements clipped, he tossed me to the other side of the couch and rushed into the kitchen.

Humming with sexual frustration, I stared at the flames. My cheeks heated with humiliation and regret. What made me sad? Thoughts of my dad being sick and ultimately dying. Thoughts of never seeing Sherridan again. Thoughts of never kissing Rome again.

Oh, God. The realization hit me like a sledgehammer. If I didn’t learn to control my powers, I couldn’t kiss Rome. Ever. Right now, it was too dangerous. I was too dangerous. I might start another fire, a bigger one. An inextinguishable blaze-like the one that had begun churning inside me the day he’d stepped into my apartment.

Sorrow squeezed me, washing over me, dousing my passion. What if I was never able to experience Rome ’s touch? What if I never learned what it was like to be taken-fucked-by him? To be consumed by him?

What if the kiss we’d just shared was it? All I would ever know of him?

Raindrops fell around me, soft at first, then quickly increasing. Big fat pearls dripped from the ceiling. Shaking, I pointed my hands at the plant and the drops concentrated on that spot. The fire sizzled, spurted, dying just as Rome sprinted back with a fire extinguisher.

He skidded to a stop, looking from me to the fire, the fire to me. “You did it. You put it out.” His lips inched into a slow, proud smile, but I saw the lines of tension pulling at his eyes. “You’re learning, baby. You’re controlling.”

I nodded, letting my gaze remain on the floor. My emotions were so raw, I wasn’t sure I could speak. A lump coagulated in my throat. “I’m-I’m sorry.” There. I’d managed to voice something. I visualized a cold shield around my heart, with a Keep Out sign all of its own, so I would stop wanting Rome. Would stop hurting. It didn’t make the pain stop, but it did cause the rain to cease.

Still not facing Rome, I eased to my feet. The carpet squished. With as much dignity as I could manage, I walked away from him. Neither of us said a word. He didn’t try to stop me, and I never looked back. I padded to the room Lexis had given me, closed the door with a soft click and climbed into bed.

Only then, alone in the darkness, did I allow myself to cry. After a while, my tears blended with a new fall of rain.

Well, shit.

CHAPTER TWELVE

STUPID. IDIOT. DUMMY.

I wasn’t cursing myself. I was cursing Dr. Roberts over last night’s wee disaster. If not for that formula, I could have spent the night in Rome ’s arms, naked and blissful, rather than tossing and turning. Alone. Miserable. I hadn’t set anything on fire the first time Rome kissed me (okay, so my fingers had gotten a little overheated, but that didn’t count) and didn’t understand why I had this time. Unless… were my abilities getting stronger or were my feelings for Rome simply deepening?

Grrr. “I hate that formula!”

If not for that formula, you wouldn’t even have met Rome, remember?

“That’s not the point,” I mumbled.

Men, especially Rome, were off-limits until I learned to control my abilities-or I found Dr. Roberts and he fixed me. Then, and only then, could I kiss Rome like a naughty nymphomaniac. If he still wanted me, that is. After last night, he might never want to touch me again.

“Stupid, idiot, dummy!”

That’s what bothered me most and made me angriest with the doctor. Rome probably wanted nothing to do with me now.

Depressed and disheartened, I dressed in the black T-shirt and form-fitting slacks Lexis had laid out for me-which I’d discovered at the edge of my bed when I’d awoken. She’d left me a pair of black leather boots. In my size.

Why’d she have to go and be nice to me, now of all times? I thought, brushing my hair and anchoring it in a ponytail. Hating her would have given me a small bit of pleasure on this crap-infested day. I stepped into the hall. If I’d ever needed pleasure-I froze. Rome had just strode out of Lexis’s bedroom. Her bedroom!

As he shut the door behind him, our gazes locked. He moved toward me. I backed away.

“Belle,” he said, clearly surprised.

That bastard! I’d cursed and cried all night. I’d agonized over him all morning. And he… he… damn him! I had turned him on, and he’d let Lexis finish the job. Disappointment and fury rocked me, but I quickly extinguished the fury. I would not react. I couldn’t react.

This doesn’t matter, Jamison. Don’t let it matter. I swung away from him and slowly, precisely, as if I hadn’t a care in the world, walked into Tanner’s room. After everything that had happened to him, the kid was probably scared and would need me to explain the situation.

Except Tanner’s room was empty.

I turned, determined to find him and get the hell out of this apartment. Tanner and I would be just fine on our own.

Rome blocked my path.

“Excuse me,” I said stiffly, trying to move around him. I kept my eyes on his collar.

His arms shot out, gripping the door frame and barring my exit.

Remain calm. “Get out of my way, please.”

“Not until you listen to me.”

“There’s nothing for you to say. Nothing I need to hear. Therefore, there is nothing we need to discuss. Move. Or get a permanent tan from my death ray.” Deep breath in, deep breath out.

He leaned forward, closing precious space between us. “Why are you acting like this? I did nothing wrong.”

My eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong. You kissed me last night, but we don’t have a relationship, so we aren’t exclusive. You had every right to visit your ex-wife.”

“That’s not what happened.”

When he offered nothing else, I said, “Obviously, it is. It’s morning, and you’re coming out of her room. I bet you would have liked to hide that from me like everything else so you could screw me at a later date. Or,” I added, facing him at last, “maybe you’d already decided I wasn’t worth the effort.”

“I can’t believe you think I’m capable of that.”

“I want nothing more to do with you,” I snapped. “Now, get out of my way.”

He stiffened; his pale blue irises became even paler. His pupils thinned and pointed at both ends, like a cat’s. “One, I didn’t sleep with her. Two, I didn’t spend the night in her room. I went in there to get something, and had you bothered to check you would have learned that she wasn’t even in there. She’s in the kitchen with Tanner. And three, I think I’ve already proved you’re worth a lot of effort. I didn’t want to want you, but the fact is I did. I do.”

Without another word, he stalked away from me, leaving me openmouthed. My hand fluttered over my chest. You’re worth a lot of effort, he’d said. I want you, he’d said. Every feminine instinct I possessed reacted, cheering happily.

He’d meant it, hadn’t just been stroking my ego. He’d looked too brutal, too unbending. The ferocity he’d radiated had nearly slayed me. I gulped. And the ache from last night suddenly returned, or maybe it had never left. Beneath my T-shirt, my nipples were hard, my stomach was clenched, eager for a touch, a taste.