enough he should have been slow and clumsy. He caught her wrists and when she tried to break free and run again, he merely twirled her in a tight circle and used her own arms to bind her against him. “Calm down! Now!” he growled through his teeth. “ You said I wasn’t a prisoner! That was a lie, too!” “ We didn’t go through the effort of regenerating you just to allow you to destroy yourself,” he said tightly. His comment took the fight completely out of her. She twisted her head to look up at him in disbelief. “Regenerated?” she gasped, so horrified at the implication that her mind had gone completely chaotic. Several emotions flickered across his face in quick succession—anger and self-disgust among them. Finally, a look of resignation and purposefulness settled on his hard features. “Come with me and I’ll explain what I can,” he said decisively. Emerald was in no mental state to either agree or object. He took her silence as acquiescence and eased his hold on her. Settling an arm around her shoulders, he led her back in the direction she’d come. When they reached the connecting corridor, he turned left and hurried her along it, stopping after only a few moments before a door. It opened, revealing an apartment far more elegant than the one she’d been taken to before and at least three times as big. It was still much the same layout, she saw, an apartment in the sense that it was divided between a lounging area, a work area, and a rest area, but not spartanly appointed. He led her to a chair and gently pushed her down on the seat. She stared at his back blankly as he moved away. In a few moments, he returned, crouched in front of her and held out a tiny vessel that looked more like a test tube than anything else. Emerald stared blankly at it and then looked at him. “ Drink it.” She took it like a sleepwalker, put the edge against her lips, and tipped it up. The liquid that spilled into her mouth burned like fire all the way down. She coughed, struggling to catch her breath, but she felt the effects almost instantly. The liquid hit her belly and started a blaze that swept through her and wiped out her equilibrium even as it spread warmth through her to chase the chill of fear. She discovered he was smiling faintly when she managed to open her eyes and blink the tears from them enough to bring his face into focus. “ Better?” She blinked at him a little owlishly, dismayed to realize she was tipsy with no more than a sip of the stuff. “I don’t know.” He studied her face for a long moment, seemed to wrestle with himself and abruptly caught her chin. She had no clue he meant to kiss her until her eyes lost focus as he zoomed in. She tensed as his mouth settled over hers, but it was as far from unpleasant as it was possible to be. More heat poured through her as they connected and she felt his heat and his taste invade her. He lifted his lips from hers after little more than a brief connection, seemed to hesitate in debate as to whether to pull away or sample more and then slipped his hand to the base of her skull and pulled her close again, sealing his mouth more firmly over hers and breaching the barrier of her lips with his tongue in almost the same motion. The effects of the liquor she’d gulped didn’t hold a candle to the affect he had on her. She felt for several moments as if she would either float away or melt into a puddle. It took a tremendous effort to lift her eyelids when he broke the kiss and withdrew. She saw when she had that he hadn’t withdrawn far. He was studying her face with an intensity that made everything inside her go liquid with want. “ Not wise,” he said distractedly, his voice husky in a way that sent a shiver through her. “Not when I want you naked in my bed badly enough I can taste it … and you’re already naked.” It flickered through her mind to wonder why he would even struggle with the desire. It wasn’t as if she had a