Midnight Crystal (26 page)

SHE AWOKE TO THE SOFT DRUMMING OF RAIN FALLING in the jungle. There was no other sound like it, she thought. Even here in the lush, bioengineered underworld, it conveyed its own kind of psychical meaning: nature’s gift of life and renewal.

There was no other scent like that of rain in the rain forest, either. She lay quietly for a moment, breathing in the elemental fragrance.

She stirred a little and realized that she was still dressed except for her boots, but she was securely enveloped in the silk sleeping sack she had brought with her in her pack. Someone had spread the sack out on the cot and stuffed her into it, someone who understood about her little eccentricity. Adam, she thought. She smiled.

The rush of adrenaline and psi that had gotten them through the ordeal in the mirrored chamber had carried them to the exit of the maze. It had even gotten them partway up the long quartz staircase that led to the rim of the canyon. At that point, however, several people had come rushing down the steep flight of steps to assist them.

By the time they had arrived at the top of the staircase, she had been on the verge of exhaustion. She had fallen into a heavy post-burn sleep while listening to Adam explain to the others what had transpired inside the maze.

She stretched, opened her eyes, and looked out the plastic window of the tent into near-impenetrable darkness. Midnight in the jungle.

She heightened her senses, testing the faint currents of maze energy that echoed up the canyon walls to the rim. The resonating patterns felt strong and stable. There was no longer even a hint of underlying disharmony.

There was, however, another kind of dreamlight energy in the tent, a very familiar pattern. Startled, she turned her head.

“Adam?” Conscious of the fact that there were half a dozen other tents filled with sleeping people in the vicinity, she kept her voice to a whisper.

“Better not wake up expecting to find some other man sleeping next to you in this tent,” he said. He kept his voice pitched very low, as well.

The darkness inside the tent was utter and complete. She could not see him, but when she put out her hand, she felt the edge of a second cot positioned alongside hers.

“I don’t understand.” She levered herself up onto one elbow. She still could not see a thing with her normal vision, but when she heightened her talent, Adam’s prints became visible. “What are you doing in here?”

“Let’s review and see if we can figure out the answer to that question.”

There was a rustling sound. She saw energy shift in the depths of the night and concluded that Adam had rolled onto his side, facing her. His eyes glowed green in the dense shadows.

“We both went through a really bad burn down there in the maze,” he said. “Depleted all our reserves. By the time we got back to the top of the canyon, we had almost exhausted our physical energy, as well. You conked out right in the middle of what was, I felt, a brilliantly coherent debriefing, considering the shape that I was in and how many details I had to leave out.”

“Yes, well, I can see where you wouldn’t want to go into the whole Winters Family Curse thing with a lot of Bureau and Arcane staff.”

“Not good for the Guild boss image. Anyhow, you went sound asleep on my shoulder in front of the entire lab crew just as I was getting to the good part.”

“What was the good part?” she asked.

“The punch line in the how many Guild bosses and J&J agents does it take to change a lightbulb joke.”

She winced. “Oh, right.”

“Figuring that under the circumstances, you might not want to have a dozen people staring at you while you slept—”

“Lord, no.”

“. . . I thought you might appreciate some gentlemanly consideration. I picked you up and carried you to this tent. I managed to get your boots off and get you into your security blanket.”

“Thanks,” she whispered.

“You’re welcome. However, that last bit of noble, manly exertion did me in. I told everyone to wake us in the morning, sealed the tent flap, and more or less collapsed on this cot. I remember nothing after that until Gibson woke me a few minutes ago.”

“Gibson.” She searched the darkness for a pair of glowing baby blues and saw nothing. “Where is he?”

“I heard him scratching at the tent flap, so I got up and let him out. I think he went hunting. I saw his second pair of eyes pop open just before he disappeared into the undergrowth. Got a hunch he joined his buddies for a little night sport.”

The energy of Adam’s dreamlight was getting hotter. So were his eyes. She knew he was aroused. In response, an urgent warmth began to pulse through her veins.

She cleared her throat. “I see. You, uh, couldn’t get back to sleep after you let him out?”

“No.”

“Thinking about what happened in the maze?”

“Mostly I was thinking about you,” he said.

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry, Marlowe.” He exhaled heavily. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep in here. I couldn’t go another step. Literally. I know you have this thing about not being able to sleep in the same space with someone else who is sleeping. But I was out of it at that point.”

“It’s okay, you didn’t disturb me. That was a very heavy burn we went through, and the sleep state that followed was bound to be much heavier and deeper than normal. We both more or less passed out for a few hours.”

“Yeah, felt like that. I’m sorry.”

“I was so zonked that I probably could have slept through a tornado.”

“How do you feel now?”

She thought about it. She had awakened feeling amazingly normal, as if she had just surfaced from a deep, replenishing sleep. But now she was intensely aware of Adam.

“I feel fine,” she assured him. “Really.”

“Want me to leave?”

“It’s raining, and it’s pitch-black out there.”

“The crew put up some amber lanterns. Don’t worry, I can make it to one of the other tents.”

She eased aside the top sheet of the silk bag. “I don’t want you to leave, Adam. I may not be able to go back to sleep, but I don’t mind. I’d rather spend what’s left of the night with you.”

“That’s good to know, because I want to spend the night with you, too.”

She heard more rustling in the darkness and watched his energy patterns with her other senses. In the glow of dreamlight, she saw him sit up on the edge of the cot. The camp beds were only inches apart.

He lowered himself down on top of her with exquisite care. The cot squeaked in protest, but it did not collapse.

Marlowe wrapped her arms around him and discovered that he had taken off his shirt but not his trousers. His skin was enticingly warm to the touch.

“Adam.”

“Hush.” He smothered a choked laugh that was half groan against her mouth. “Sound carries in the jungle, especially at night. There are other people sleeping out there.”

“Right, sorry.” She kissed his mouth, his jaw, his throat, inhaling his scent. “I’ll try to remember.”

He stifled another groan and gently nipped her ear. “You might have to remind me from time to time, too.”

They fumbled with each other’s clothes. Adam got her shirt open. The next thing she knew, his mouth was on her breasts. When he tugged gently on one nipple, she felt the currents of fire all the way to the center of her being. In a matter of a few heartbeats, she was tightly clenched and wet with need.

She managed to unfasten his belt and then his trousers. When she got her hand inside his briefs, she found him thick and rigid.

He unzipped her pants and shoved them down over her thighs to her ankles. She struggled impatiently to wriggle free of the garment. With each twist and turn of her body beneath his own, she sensed Adam getting hotter. His sleekly muscled back grew damp beneath her fingers.

He managed to get himself out of his own trousers and briefs. She heard a soft, muffled plop when the clothes dropped to the floor of the tent. He came back to her. She opened herself for him, wrapping him close.

“I can’t get enough of you,” he whispered hoarsely.

He slipped his fingers into her, pressing deliberately upward. She tightened around him. He used his thumb to work the taut bundle of nerve endings.

She gasped, bit back a cry, and sank her nails into his shoulders. As if that was the signal he had been waiting for, he shifted position and thrust heavily into her.

The force of their union pulsed and crashed invisibly in the atmosphere. It seemed to her that their auras fused briefly in a moment of shattering intimacy.

She got tighter and hotter, and then her climax was sweeping through her in small convulsive waves. In the midst of the dazzling release, she realized she could not catch her breath. It took her another second to comprehend that the reason she was having trouble breathing was because Adam had covered her mouth with his own to silence her. Only then did she realize that she must have cried out.

The muscles of his back were quartz-hard. He tore his mouth away from hers. She heard the beginnings of a long, low, howl of triumph and satisfaction deep in his throat. Hastily she clapped a hand over his lips.

His climax seemed to go on forever; he surged into her, emptying himself. When it was over, he collapsed, sprawling on top of her. She laughed a little, tears in her eyes, and held him close and snug against her.

 

 

THE RAIN HAD STOPPED. HE DECIDED THAT WAS WHAT had awakened him. His internal clock told him that dawn was arriving in the jungle. He shifted a little and realized that he was tangled up in a silk sheet and Marlowe’s silken body. For a moment he kept very still, not wanting to shatter the magic by tumbling off the side of the very narrow cot that he and Marlowe shared. It felt so good to be locked close to her like this.

He opened his eyes and saw that she was sound asleep. With him.

Satisfaction swept through him, as intense as the sexual release during the night.

A scratching sound and a soft chortle on the other side of the tent flap distracted him. He tried to gently disengage from Marlowe’s warm body, but in spite of his care she stirred, yawned, and opened her eyes.

She looked straight at him with a dazed, faintly bewildered expression, as if finding him this close, his face only inches from her own, was the very last thing she had expected. It probably was. He watched with a sense of triumph as understanding lit her eyes.

“Adam?”

He smiled. “That would be me.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Try. Try real hard.”

She frowned. “I went back to sleep after we had sex.”

“You went back to sleep after we made love,” he corrected very deliberately. “We both went back to sleep, as a matter of fact. I just woke up, myself.”

“Hmm. Well, this is certainly very weird.”

“You slept with me,” he said. “We slept together. Get over it.”

“Maybe it’s the heavy psi levels here in the jungle,” she said, frowning a little. “Perhaps they affect the way I pick up dreamlight when I’m sleeping.”

“And maybe you were actually able to sleep with me.”

Her eyes widened. “I’ve never been able to sleep with a man. There must be some explanation. The energy in that maze, maybe.”

He brushed his mouth lightly against hers. “I think we’re going to need to conduct a few tests when we get back to the surface.”

She blinked again. “But if it’s true, what does it mean?”

“It means you can sleep with me. I suggest you don’t try to complicate things here, Marlowe. You know what trained detectives always say.”

“No, what do they say?”

“The simplest explanation is usually the right explanation.”

“But this isn’t simple.”

The scratching noise sounded again. This time it was accompanied by another muffled chortle.

Marlowe glanced toward the sealed opening of the tent. “That’s Gibson.”

“Our little hunter is home,” Adam said. “I’d better let him in before he decides to chew through the tent flap.”

He pushed aside the silk sheeting, sat up, and reached for his briefs and trousers. He pulled on the clothes and got cautiously to his feet, careful to keep his head down so as not to hit the top of the tent.

He unsealed the flap. Gibson chattered cheerfully. He had half an energy bar in one paw. He tumbled into the tent and fluttered up onto the cot to greet Marlowe. She smiled and patted him affectionately.

“Something tells me it’s better if I don’t know exactly what you were doing out there in the jungle all night,” she said. “By the way, where did you get that energy bar?”

Through the tent opening Adam watched Liz and one of the female Arcane technicians emerge from a nearby tent. They were dressed for the day, chatting in low tones with each other. They both turned to look toward the tent that he and Marlowe shared, smiling a little, speculation sparkling in their amused expressions. When they saw him, they blushed, embarrassed at having been caught checking out the boss’s sleeping arrangements.

He lifted a hand in a casual salute. “Good morning, ladies.”

“ Morning, sir,” Liz stammered. “Jill and I are in charge of breakfast this morning. Coffee and scrambled eggs will be ready in a few.”

“Sounds good,” he said.

The women hurried off toward the kitchen tent. He let the flap fall back into place and turned to look at Marlowe, who was pulling a fresh shirt out of her pack.

Her brows rose. “What? Something wrong down at the maze?”

“Nope, no problem in the maze that I know of.” He cleared his throat. “Remember what I said about sound carrying in the jungle at night? I think that might have happened last night.”

“Sound carried?”

“From this tent.”

“Ack.” She made a face but looked resigned. “Well, I suppose it was inevitable. Even if there hadn’t been any, uh, sound transmission, everyone knows we spent the night together in this very small space.”