Sabrina's Clan Read Free Page B

speaking to himself. Remembering. “We were accepted into the tribe because of what we did. This new world is so very different.”
    “This is your time as much as that one was,” Sabrina said. “You’re alive and living in it.”
    “Am I?” And there it was, the cynical edge she had suspected was there, out in the open. His tone was dry.
    “Hey,” she said softly, alarmed at the bitterness and sadness in his face. “Damian and Nick love their lives. Just because you haven’t found your place yet….”
    He was looking at her steadily, in a way that made her words fade. “Love conquers all?” he said. This time it wasn’t cynicism coloring his voice. There was a dangerous note in the soft words.
    For the first time Sabrina realized he was still holding her arm. His fingers shifted, drifting over her bare skin beneath the sleeveless shirt.
    It was like his barely there touch woke her up—not her mind, but her body. Between one heartbeat and the next she became abruptly aware of every inch of it and also how closely he was standing to her and exactly how tall he was. Even with her high heels, she still had to look up to meet his gaze.
    She drew in a breath that was heated and burned on the way down to her lungs.
    All she could think of was the urge to sway forward and press herself against him. It was driving reasonable, logical thought from her mind. She fought to not follow her instinct.
    He was watching her, his gaze roaming over her face as if he was reading every thought as easily as print. His eyes, she could see now, were the softest gray, making them look colorless, except for a black border around them. They were mesmerizing and almost unearthly.
    “Ah….” he breathed, as if he had discovered something. Perhaps he had.
    She shivered.
    He raised his hand, sliding it under her hair. He curled his fingers around the back of her neck. He didn’t touch her in any other way, yet her body tightened and her breath increased.
    Was he going to kiss her?
    Every nerve in her body fizzed at the possibility.
    He had smooth, rounded lips. They looked soft. They parted just a little. “If I kiss you, it will be for the wrong reasons,” he breathed and she could hear his voice rumbling in his chest. They were so close they were almost touching. “Know that before you let this proceed.”
    Sabrina tried to claw her thoughts together. “You’d have sex with a stranger who doesn’t like you?” she asked.
    “That is everyone in this world.”
    It was the weariness, the fathomless sadness in his words that allowed her to step away from him. She was shaking with arousal, her body pulsing with it, although sanity was returning. “You don’t let people in.”
    “No one has ever asked to be let in.” He took a pace back himself and straightened up.
    The tension, the magnetic force that had been beating between them was still there, only muted by more cerebral concerns. Sabrina frowned. “People don’t ask to be let in. You have to open the door and invite them.” She hefted her briefcase. “I am now late for my own committee meeting. I really must go.”
    He stepped aside this time and waved toward the door.
    “Don’t mess with my stuff!” she said over her shoulder as she hurried for the door, trying to get her legs to work properly.
    * * * * *
    Three hours later, Sabrina was back to trembling. This time it wasn’t the allure of sex driving her reaction…or perhaps, indirectly, it was. Procreation, rather than fun.
    She stared at the report on the desk in front of her, trying to make sense of the words, even though Dr. Phillips had been more than clear about the meaning. “There has to be a mistake somewhere,” she said at last and pushed the report back to him. “I just had appendicitis and had my appendix out. It’s a simple operation.”
    “Not in your case. You ignored the fever and the pain for three days, Sabrina,” Dr. Phillips said. His black face was patient and kind. He had already said