“Yesterday,” she said, as if the word left a questionable aftertaste on her tongue, “you helped me access my abilities and unblock one of my consultants, possibly saving her life.”
“And I enjoyed every second of it. Let me know if I can help you unblock any other inhibitions you might be harboring.”
“That’s what I’d like to talk to you about, actually. I’ve come to the conclusion that my unwillingness to use my abilities to their fullest potential might be negatively impacting my employees. Therefore I would like to take you up on your offer to assist me in accessing them.”
Prometheus felt himself smiling and had to stop himself from rubbing his hands together like Dr. Evil. He was finally going to get his hands on Karma—metaphorically speaking—and all that delicious, repressed power. Not only was the idea beyond tantalizing, it also meant she would be able to control her abilities when the time came to free him from Deuma. And if he could ingratiate himself to her in the process… “When do we start?”
“As soon as we’ve established a few ground rules.”
He should’ve known she’d try to suck the fun out of it with rules and regulations. “That isn’t how this is going to work. If I’m the teacher, that means I get to set the rules and I say no rules.”
“Then we won’t call them rules.”
“This isn’t a semantic issue. Magic doesn’t fall into neat little categories. If you want to learn how to play with this toy of yours, we need some room to maneuver. I can’t constantly be worrying about not stepping over some invisible line. It’s more an art than a science.”
“Even artists obey the laws of physics.”
“To Dali, gravity was nothing more than an idea to play with. We don’t do laws.”
“Then how about boundaries? Such as I won’t be asked to do anything illegal or unethical.”
“Ethics are so subjective. One woman’s unethical is another man’s entertainment.”
She ignored his editorializing, pressing on as if he hadn’t spoken. “And I think we should establish up front that there won’t be any more physical contact.”
“Not even a high five?”
“Prometheus.”
“Oh. You mean no sex. What if it was just casual sex?”
Her lips pursed repressively. “I only do serious sex.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” He swept a look from her tidy bun to the polish on her shoes. She probably had very dignified orgasms. “No wonder you’re so tense.”
“Trust a man to think all a woman’s problems can be solved with his penis.”
“Not all your problems, maybe, but I’m willing to give it a try if you are.”
“No. Thank you.”
She didn’t move a muscle. There was no hint of a blush. If he hadn’t been able to see the agitation of her aura, the tinges of lustful reds, he never would have known that he got under Karma’s skin. But luckily aura reading was one of his many skills and Karma was much more interested than she cared to let on. He wanted to touch that aura, to wrap it around him until they bled into each other. There was such power in her and she didn’t even know it. Or if she knew it, she wished she didn’t. This was a woman with incredible powers of self-denial. But she was polite. No, thank you.
Prometheus had never seen the point of politeness.
“I won’t agree to no sex or no unethical behavior, but I’ll try to keep things legal. Good enough?”
She tapped one blood-red nail, ignoring his question. “How long will this training take?”
“Don’t rush a miracle man. You get lousy miracles.”
“I need to know how much time to allot to this in my schedule.”
“Why don’t we do it after hours? I can get back to my shop; you can do your consultant thing.” And he got her alone at night. “Everybody wins.”
“I still need to know how much time.”
“Please tell me you don’t schedule every waking minute of your day.”
She simply looked at him. Of course she did.
“Fine, you want an answer? Honestly, I have no idea how long it’s going to take. It’s not like I make a habit of un-repressing people with stopped-up psychic gifts. And even if I did, for all I know you might be the most repressed case yet, or some kind of psychic prodigy who gets it on the first try. You’re just going to have to go with it and see what happens.”
“I don’t like playing things by ear.”
“That doesn’t surprise me, but I don’t see any other way to play it. If you want to play with me.”
“I’ll work with you. Can you start tonight? Seven?”
“It’s a date.”
She nodded and picked up a pen, making a note—probably writing him into her agenda. “I’ll see you tonight.”
He let her dismiss him, straightening out of his chair and offering her a bow, before turning and strolling toward the door, tossing one last dig over his shoulder as he went. “By the way, sweetheart, I can see your energy change every time we talk about sex. We both know you wouldn’t be so reluctant to talk about it if you weren’t so interested.”
He didn’t wait to see her blush.
Chapter Fourteen
Relaxation for Beginners
He was late.
Karma glared at the clock, mentally cursing Prometheus for every second of the six minutes he’d made her wait so far. It was such an obvious power play. Such a cheap ploy to prove he was the one setting the rules, establishing the schedule.
She went through her mental exercises one more time, clearing her head even though she couldn’t clear her emotions. She wasn’t used to walking into situations blind, but she hadn’t known how to prepare for her first lesson in being psychic.
Why had she thought this was a good idea? She didn’t trust him, didn’t like his methods and didn’t particularly want to spend any more time with the man who made her feel…unhinged. He challenged her in a way no one else ever had, but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. How could he be a good choice to teach her to use her abilities? He had no moral compass. And he was late. Eight minutes and counting.
Clearly, she needed to learn to access her abilities rather than repressing them, but there had to be someone better suited to training her. Unfortunately, alternatives weren’t thick on the ground. Most of her consultants were self-trained, having figured out how to use their abilities in self-defense when they first developed. Those who had received outside training had come from religions—both eastern and western—but though the Catholic church could train a good exorcist, they weren’t much help with channels who happened to dream the future. In her experience, those who said they could help her—the “specialists” her brother had found for her over the years—were all charlatans and frauds. She’d even gone to a few shrinks, but after the third time she was asked to explain how her dreams made her feel, she’d lost interest in that particular line of focusing her energy.
In all the years she’d been dealing with her affliction, she’d never had a breakthrough like she’d had with Prometheus. And he’d made it seem easy. He was a cocky, unethical bastard who thought he knew everything about everyone, but he’d helped. Which was more than anyone else had ever been able to do.
But the bald truth was the man unsettled her. That was the heart of her problem with him. Was that it? Was it her problem? Had she been inventing a problem with his methods, his attitudes, because she was too unnerved by him to accept what he was offering? Not that she was attracted to him, per se, but there was no denying he was magnetic. And when he’d kissed her…