“Actually, dying isn’t the worst future, Mitch. Difficult as it may be to believe, there are worse fates than death.”
He didn’t like that little reminder. “Come on, Halina. Give me a little more than that.”
“I don’t know the details,” she said. “All I know is that in all of my visions, your life splits and goes one of two ways. The details of each vision are slightly different—a different woman, a different location, a different manner of death—but they’re all similar enough to know your fate. You’ll either live a life of bliss with your harem or die by murder.”
Frustrated, Mitch ran a hand over his face. “Why don’t you ever see yourself in my future?”
She closed her eyes. “I’m always in your future, Mitch. I’m the reason you die, every time.”
“For Christ’s sake, Halina—”
“Did you not almost die in a car accident yesterday?” she asked, her anger and incredulity growing. “Did you not just almost die in the living room? How many times have you come that close to death in the last seven years? When I’ve been out of your life?”
He thought back. “Actually . . . quite a few.”
“Unrelated to Schaeffer.”
Okay, none. She had him there.
“Are you really going to tell me I don’t know what I’m seeing? That I don’t know what I’m talking about?”
He rubbed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, searching for patience.
“I don’t care whether you believe or not.” She turned toward the bed, picked up her panties, and pulled them on without removing her towel. “And I’m not going to argue with you. If you continue to insist what I’ve told you is nothing but fiction, you’re going to end up getting yourself and everyone you love killed. I’m not going to be here to witness it. And I’m sure as hell not going to stay here and be the cause of it.”
He grabbed her arm and turned her toward him, shaking his head in disbelief. “You’re a scientist, Hali. How can you believe that these visions you don’t even understand are stronger than our own free will to choose?”
“Because they’re ac-cur-ate. If that—” She gestured toward the door. “Wasn’t that enough to convince you that I shouldn’t be near you?”
He shook her out of sheer frustration. “I have to be near you, Hali. You are my good future. I don’t give a fuck what your visions show. They aren’t reality. I am reality. You are reality. Me wanting you—that’s reality.”
Pain filled her eyes and they glistened with tears. “Mitch—”
“I don’t believe futures are predestined. We have the power to choose, and every choice changes that future.” He gripped her jaw with his free hand, willing her to hear him, believe him. “And I choose you. Let Fate suck on that for a while.”
A laugh huffed from Halina’s chest. Her eyes closed and her head fell forward, resting on his chest.
“You leaving isn’t what I need, Hali.” He slipped one hand beneath her hair, the other arm around her waist, and pulled her close. “I want you to stay. I need you to stay.”
She pressed warm palms to his stomach, but didn’t push him away. Mitch tilted her head back and looked into her heavy-lidded eyes. Her gaze was so exhausted, so discouraged, it broke his heart. And he wanted so desperately to mend that break.
He lowered his mouth to hers. When she softened beneath him, when she kissed him back with so much desire he could taste it, he pulled away.
“No more talk about predestined futures, Hali. This is reality, baby. No one can make the choice to change that but you or me.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “Do you want to change this reality, Hali? Because I don’t.”
“I’ve always wanted you,” she whispered. “Only you.”
Mitch lowered his hand to the knot in her towel and pulled. The terry fell away, leaving them skin to skin from the waist up. He let out a moan on a long breath.
“Let’s give fate a kick in the ass, baby.” He slid his hand to her breast and squeezed until she moaned. “Make love to me, Hali,” he begged with a shake in his voice. “It’s been so fucking long.”
She pushed up and covered his mouth with hers. Open and wet. Her tongue searched for his and when they joined in a languid roll, heat rushed to his groin. He walked her backward until they reached the bed, then gripped her waist and lifted her. She wrapped her thighs around his hips, dug her fingers into his hair, and dropped her mouth against his neck, sucking.
“Ah, Hali . . .” The feel of her wanting him was a fantasy. And so different from the lust they’d shared last night. This was hotter and deeper. This was real.
Mitch slid his hands to her ass and pulled her against him. She broke the suction on his neck to groan and arch. Her hands fisted in his hair. And, oh, heaven. She felt like heaven.
He laid her back on the bed, bent to press a kiss to her belly, and trailed kisses upward, cherishing her beautiful body. Holding her head with both hands, he looked directly into her heavy-lidded eyes. “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you, Hali. I didn’t say it very well last night, but it was still true. The other women were nothing but survival. I played the part for the press, for the women, for myself—to get through the night. But I always ended up empty. Alone. Without you.”
As she searched his eyes, Mitch pulled her arms from around his neck and raised them over her head, threading their fingers. Then lowered his mouth to one of her breasts.
She arched her lower back and pulled their hips together with the strength of her legs around his ass.
Mitch groaned her name against the breast he savored, more gently than he had last night. Smoothed his tongue over the still-visible teeth marks.
Her hands tried to slip from beneath his, but he held them.
“Let me touch you,” she whispered.
“I got here first,” he murmured, then closed his mouth over the nipple and sucked hard. Halina moaned.
That long-lost but familiar sensation of sensual power flooded his body as she whimpered. He growled and moved his torment to the other breast. He released one of her hands and caressed his way to her stomach. Used his knee to push one of her legs to the side. Edged his fingers beneath the band of her panties and slid his hand over the heat between her thighs.
He released a long, heavy breath of pleasure against her breast. “Oh, Hali.”
She was soft. Smooth. Hot. Wet.
Perfect.
She lifted her hips into his hand with a deep sound of need in her throat. “God, the feel of you touching me . . .”
The pleasure overflowing in her voice made him think of all the years she’d gone without sex. Without intimacy. Without release. If she was going to have to suffer through visions when this was over, he was going to do his damnedest to make the pleasure worth the pain.
“Magic,” he whispered. “We are magic together, baby. Always have been.”
He slid his fingers over her swollen soft outer lips and squeezed them together while making small, gentle circles to massage her hidden clitoris. Her indrawn breath, the way she rocked her hips to the motion, shot adrenaline into his blood. One of her hands dropped to the bed and fisted the comforter as she arched her back and closed her eyes.
“Mi-itch . . .” she whispered in a broken voice, revealing her rise to the edge of orgasm.
“Quaid made you a necklace,” he murmured against her skin. “Thinks it will help stop the visions. Do you want to try it?”
“No,” she breathed. “I want to learn . . . to use them.”
Mitch grinned. “I’m at your beck and call to help with that.”