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curtains and moving towards the exit when he heard her voice behind him.

“What did you do to me, Chance?”

Chance froze on the threshold of the treatment room, but didn’t turn back to her immediately. He couldn’t.

First of all, he was shocked she was awake, especially after what she’d been through and the sleep inducement he had imposed. He thought she’d be out for at least another half hour.

Second of all, he just couldn’t bring his legs to move or his body to turn. He didn’t know what he’d see in her eyes and didn’t think he could bear the reproach or, worse, the disgust. It had been so long since he’d had to deal with either.

Damn it, he’d known he was taking a risk stretching himself and using powers he’d never used before, especially on someone as perceptive and resilient as Donna. Even unconscious, she could see right through him. What would she see when she looked at him now, while she was fully awake?

“Please don’t go.”

He turned around then, something in her whispered words compelling him. He crossed the floor haltingly, felt the perspiration beading on his upper lip, and didn’t know if it was from his earlier mental exertions or just plain anxiety over the coming rejection.

But then something happened. He felt her in his mind, searching as if she had left something behind during their experience—herself.

He closed his eyes and grasped that red tendril in his mind, linking with her for the briefest of seconds. When he opened his eyes, he saw her gawking at him.

“Forget my question. I don’t think I’m ready to know what you did, but I still need to thank you. So, thank you, Chance.”

He sat down and took her hand in his, doing some searching of his own as he fell into her intense gaze, finding neither revulsion nor censure, just confused acceptance.

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“As much as I love them, and when I wasn’t envying what they could do, I used to think my sister and brother were freaks of nature.

That was when I was an immature kid and didn’t know any better.”

“But you do now.”

“I’ve learned a lot since then, yes.” She squeezed his hand and smiled like she understood his turbulent emotions—the fear and self-loathing that were constant companions during his youth, the uncertainty and mistrust that still shadowed his every move. Maybe in a way, she did understand, her past experiences in an abusive relationship giving her some insight into his emotions, especially the self-loathing and mistrust, the ideas that she was to blame for her own injuries, the idea that had she been stronger, more in control, she could have changed the course of fate and not been a victim.

“Is that why you became a Wiccan?”

His eyes widened at her question.

He’d never told her he was a Wiccan, but then they had shared a pretty intimate moment minutes ago. He expected she had siphoned perceptions and information from him the same way he had siphoned perceptions and information from her. It was a consequence of using his talents, leaving a part of himself behind with the recipient. And though the recipient wasn’t always aware of what he or she had gained, they went away feeling different, changed, just didn’t know why or how. The differences with Donna were that she knew and he had willingly opened himself up, shared himself and his innermost feelings with her.

Chance shrugged. “It was a belief system that vibed the most with my talents.” He didn’t even want to go into how the religion had saved him when he had been at his lowest, how he had finally found a reason to celebrate his gifts rather than scorn them.

“My sister says the same thing about her talents and the religion.”

“Your brother EJ isn’t a Wiccan.”

“Not a practicing one. But he believes in and respects most of the tenets.”

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“And you?”

“I’ve always been curious about and drawn to the religion, probably because of Angela.”

He felt her hesitation, as if she didn’t feel worthy to wear the New Age, pagan banners herself. “Not all Wiccans are
gifted
.”

“Maybe not psychically, but it takes a lot of inner strength to buck the norm.”

She didn’t know he’d had no choice. It was either buck the norm to find his place in the world or go mad trying to fit into the place he was born. “So now that you know my dark little secret, how do you feel about…about us?”

“About that…”

He arched a brow and held his breath, waiting. He wondered if she had picked up any residual feelings from his meeting with Russ.

Or worse, had she intuited the gist of what they had discussed? He realized the rudeness of discussing her behind her back but knew it was nothing that Russ and Donna hadn’t done behind his back. Like Russ said, it didn’t make sense for them to go into details and make plans when all three of them weren’t present. But he didn’t see any reason he shouldn’t foster a separate, already burgeoning relationship with Donna, could only see it enhancing the interpersonal and sexual dynamics when the three of them finally did get together He refused to think
if
. Besides, he needed to know how she felt about him.

Otherwise, this whole proposition amounted to nothing.

“Chance, I’m not sure there is an
us.
”

“There could be.”

“And what about your brother?”

He looked at the smirk on her face, and no one could tell him at the moment that she didn’t already know she and the possibility of a threesome had been discussed.

He reached for her face, caressing a cheek before brushing her bangs from her forehead and tucking a tendril of hair behind her ear.

He cupped her face with both hands and leaned in to plant his lips on 124

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hers. He teased the seam of her mouth with his tongue, hunger growing with the slight taste of her. When she opened for him on a pant, he slid in his tongue, twining it with hers as she had earlier twined her energy with his—natural, innocent and oh so very carnal.

Chance had to remind himself that he was in the hospital, canoodling with a patient in the emergency room where he was chief resident of emergency services. It was wrong on so many levels, but none of them touched the level of stimulation he felt finally holding her in his arms, her soft breasts pressed to his chest, her heated breath fanning his face between kisses and gasps.

He was so hard he ached, cock throbbing in his pants, engorged head pushing against the zipper as if with a mind of its own, definitely moved by a spirit of its own.

Chance summoned the vision of Donna sandwiched between him and Russ—the vision that had been haunting him for two weeks—

thinking it would derail his desire, that the idea of sharing her would douse it, but the vision only fed his lust, fed his need.

He gave himself over to it. Maybe the more he practiced in the safety of his mind, the easier it would be once they three were all together.

Chance reached for her in the vision, stroking her arm with his fingertips as he kissed his way from her shoulders to the small of her back. He licked the little dimples in the side of each butt cheek, the musky-sweet scent of her arousal wafting up to him as she moaned and writhed beneath his ministrations.

He caught her hips, pulling her close, teasing the crack of her ass with the moistened head of his penis before sliding down to her hole.

Just as he was about to drive into her from the back and Russ was about to drive into her from the front, Donna tore her mouth away from his, breasts heaving as she braced her palms against his chest.

He saw her awed look and realized she had experienced his vision!

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Donna pressed her face against his chest, her fingers clutching the lapels of his lab coat with a quiet desperation that simultaneously stopped his heart and made him even harder.

“I can’t do this, Chance. I can’t…”

“Is everything all right, Dr. Novak?”

One of Chance’s residents stood in the doorway with a questioning look on his face, but respect, and probably a little surprise, kept him from coming farther into the room.

“Everything’s fine. Ms. Vega was just experiencing a little light-headedness.”

She lifted her head and mouthed “thank you” before turning a blinding, reassuring smile on the resident.

Chance wasn’t sure if she was thanking him again for healing her or thanking him for saving her embarrassment by jumping in with a viable excuse for their being pressed against each other in such an intimate hold.

Rather than ending the hold altogether, he loosened it, keeping one arm around Donna, gently rubbing her back, enjoying the nonsexual contact as much as he had enjoyed the brief psychosexual contact between them.

He wanted to try to avoid her having an unnecessary procedure like the CT scan, but didn’t know how to tell the resident that it wouldn’t be necessary without undercutting the man’s judgment or bringing attention to the situation by the attending.

Being a chief had its benefits, but he still had people to whom he had to answer. It made using his talents and healing without the benefit of acceptable medical treatment difficult. Everything he did on his own was in direct conflict with his job and medical procedures, despite it being what he knew was the best course of therapy for the patient.

“They’re ready to do Ms. Vega’s CT scan now.”

“Right, I’ll leave you to it.” He wanted to kiss her before leaving her side, but knew that wouldn’t look right and would only bring 126

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attention to their relationship, so he settled for squeezing her shoulder before he turned and walked past the resident standing at the door.

* * * *

Not long after her CT scan, Donna was back in the treatment room, fully dressed and swinging her legs to and fro as she sat on one of the room’s bed feeling a little less vulnerable after her earlier experience with Chance but no less confused.

She didn’t want to dwell on what had gone on between them, but with time and solitude on her hands, she kept coming back to that moment when she felt him reading—her mind, her body—and how her body had reacted to him on a purely physical level, though only their psychic energy had connected.

She was still having problems accepting what he was able to do, what he had done to her, with her, but it didn’t make her any less grateful. She just wished she hadn’t been so turned on by their experience, by how their energy had twined. She’d never experienced anything like it, but was hungry to experience it again despite the danger. As if enjoying his company, liking him, and finding him extremely attractive weren’t bad enough, Donna liked and was attracted to his soul. Any other time, any other person, and this would have been an ideal situation ripe with the possibility of a relationship.

But Donna wasn’t another person. Sometimes she wished she was—

another person who hadn’t been physically and emotionally abused in her past and was turned off by men, unless it was in the most aesthetic and cosmetic way. She kept telling herself she had no use for them otherwise, except for what they could do for her body, and then only on her terms.

She knew she was being totally unrealistic and selfish, and that no matter how much Chance wanted her, he wouldn’t go for an arrangement like that, at least not for long. She’d felt his intensity and desire during their brief little psychic encounter, and she knew he was
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the type of man who wanted all or nothing from the woman he got with. He would settle for nothing less.

Normally, Donna was the same, demanded a man’s all if he wanted to be involved with her. But she had long substituted commitment and romance with her profession, too busy now pouring all of her energy into the latter rather than give her romantic life a fighting chance like Angela was always begging her to do. Romance was for fools, people who didn’t know better, who hadn’t been knocked down by reality time and time again.

She was tired of running, but wasn’t sure anymore who or what she was running from.

“How’d everything go?”

She stopped swinging her legs, darting her gaze to the doorway where Chance was standing with a patient chart in his hands. “You tell me.”

He grinned as he crossed the threshold to come stand by her bed.

“I mean how are you doing officially?”

“The doctor hasn’t come back yet with the results from my scan.

Maybe you could speed up the process a little to get me out of here.”

“So you can hurry back to your superwoman duties at Safe Haven?”

“Something like that.”

He sat down on the bed beside her and put a hand on one of her thighs, and she looked at the way his tanned fingers contrasted against her nude hose and the creamy skin beneath, how it complemented the short coral skirt she was wearing and seemed so right where it was.

She squeezed her legs together in response, trying to staunch the warm moisture she felt gathering between them.

“Are you sure you want to risk getting into another compromising position at your place of work so soon after the last time?”

“I’ll risk it. Chance…” She took his hand from her thigh and held it in both of hers. “This isn’t going to work.”

“Why not? Don’t you find me attractive?”

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“Not that I consider myself that shallow, but I find you more than attractive.”

“Is it the age gap then?”

Try the whole threesome thing.

The words were right on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t bring herself to verbalize them, couldn’t believe she was such a coward when it came to this. When it came to her job, hell, she could shield her charges and face down their crazed husbands and boyfriends without blinking an eye, but this, a question about her personal preferences, wants, and desires, she was having a problem expressing herself.

She realized she had yet to discuss an arrangement in depth with either brother and see where they all stood. Not that she wanted to stand anywhere with Chance or his brother. Before today she had made up her mind to stay away from both of them. She told herself it was the best course of action. But she couldn’t stop the next words from leaving her mouth.