Part 7 (1/2)

He shook his head. ”Never.” He flashed his killer smile. ”I liked it.”

Annie frowned. She couldn't understand how a man this gorgeous had gotten so far in life without being kissed. But then again, she remembered, he hadn't been allowed to marry. Evidently not only marriage, but all romantic liaisons had been forbidden. ”Are you saying,” she said incredulously, ”that you're a virgin'”

”No.”

”Let me get this straight. You've had s.e.x, but n.o.body ever bothered to kiss you'”

”I was a slave,” James said gently. ”My mistress used me for purposes other than housekeeping occasionally, when she got bored. She also loaned me to her friends upon occasion.”

Annie stared at him with horror. ”She used you as a gigolo' A prost.i.tute'”

He inclined his head slightly, the slow sweep of his dark gold lashes concealing the emotion in his gaze.

”And you went along with this'”

James drew his head up sharply at the appalled shock in her tone. The first genuine anger she'd seen him display flashed in his eyes. ”I had no choice,” he retorted in a cold voice. ”She owned me, Annie. I had to do whatever she wanted, or suffer a rather excruciating punishment. My feelings on the subject were irrelevant.”

Annie stared at him, wordless. She could hardly imagine the horror of his situation. He had had to please his mistress, no matter how perverse her desires, no matter what he himself had wanted. ”That's rape,” she said with savage fury. ”That's all it is. Rape.”

James lowered his lashes again. ”I did not enjoy it,” he admitted.

”Of course you didn't. Who wants to be treated like an object' Like some sort of s.e.x toy'” She snorted in disgust. ”No wonder you wanted to be free.”

He lifted his eyes quickly and stared at her. ”You do understand,” he said quietly, in an awed tone.

Annie stood up abruptly. She didn't like the way he was looking at her, with something that approached wors.h.i.+p in his eyes. The last thing she wanted was for him to start seeing her as some sort of madonna figure. Saint Annie she was not.

”I'm going to clean up,” she said gruffly, picking up the greasy napkins and empty c.o.ke cans. ”Kay can't stand any kind of a mess in her place. In fact, she'd kill me if she knew I'd been eating in the living room. She never lets food out of the kitchen.”

James rose to his feet and picked up the empty pizza box, following her to the kitchen. ”You and Kay do not seem to be the same personality type.”

”No kidding. We were roommates our last year of college, and that was a huge mistake. We drove each other nuts. I think she would have killed me if she didn't love me so much.”

James watched her as she busied herself stuffing the remnants of dinner into the trashcan. ”I did not mean to make you uncomfortable,” he said at last.

One of the empty soda cans slipped from her hand and fell onto the floor. ”Uncomfortable'” she said, bending to pick it up. It slipped from her fingers and clanged to the floor again. ”You didn't do anything to make me feel uncomfortable.”

James watched her with a faintly amused glint in his eyes as she managed to wrestle the can into submission and force it into the trashcan. ”I did not mean for the conversation to take such a personal turn.”

”You mean telling me about what they did to you'” Annie shrugged. ”That's okay, James. It helps me know where you're coming from.”

”It is nevertheless....” He hesitated. ”Perhaps more intimate a subject than was appropriate.”

Annie turned abruptly and faced him. ”That isn't what made me uncomfortable, James.”

”Oh'”

”It was the kiss,” she said in a rush of embarra.s.sment. ”I'm very sorry. I don't know what came over me. I shouldn't have kissed you like that.”

”I'm glad you did.”

The soft sincerity in his voice melted her heart. For one wild moment she was tempted to suggest they kiss again, but reason prevailed. The last thing she needed was to fall into bed with a man she barely knew, no matter how compellingly sweet he was, no matter how heart-stoppingly handsome. She turned away abruptly.

”Let's watch the news,” she suggested, striving for normalcy. Or as much normalcy as was possible right now.

James followed her back into the living room and settled himself carefully onto one of Kay's black leather chairs. Annie plopped on the sofa and stretched out, picking up the remote and carelessly flipping through channels. She paused as the image of Susan Takahas.h.i.+, the Channel 12 news anchor, filled the screen. Susan Takahas.h.i.+ possessed strikingly beautiful Asian features, dark, luminous eyes, a mellifluous voice, and a businesslike air that had made her quite popular in the area. Her newscast was the highest rated locally.

Annie sat up abruptly as the image of a green sedan that had been twisted around a tree flashed on the screen. Susan Takahas.h.i.+ fixed an appropriately serious expression on her face. ”In the suburbs today,” she said, ”there was a one-car collision on a road that has already claimed several lives.” She went on to explain that the car had been stolen, and that despite the severity of the crash the occupant had apparently survived, since no one had been found at the site of the crash.

Annie was relieved to notice Susan didn't mention the tree that had been scorched by the ray gun. Perhaps the cops hadn't noticed it. Glancing over at James, she saw his features set into grim lines.

”I guess she wasn't seriously hurt,” she said.

”I a.s.sumed as much from the way she jumped out of the car and fired at us,” James said dryly.

”Yeah, but you never know. Sometimes people can be badly hurt and still keep going. It's an adrenaline thing. Anyway, it looks like she made it away from the car okay.”

”Evidently.” James frowned.

”Does it matter if she was hurt'” she asked curiously. ”You said that if she didn't kill you, the Bureau would send more.”

James shrugged. ”The woman who is in pursuit of me hates me,” he said. ”She will be considerably more persistent than another agent of the Bureau might be. Had she been seriously injured, my chances of survival would be greater.”

Annie thought about the woman who had aimed the alien-looking gun at them, an expression of loathing and fury on her face, and she shuddered. ”Yeah. I can imagine. She looked pretty mean.” ”She is obsessed,” James said simply. ”Her desire to destroy me goes beyond the professional and into the personal.”

Annie wondered just what he might have done to earn the woman's undying hatred, but she couldn't bring herself to ask. She found she didn't really want to know. A commercial came on, and she began flipping through channels. Kay had a better cable service than she did, and there were considerably more channels. James watched her.

”You are doing it again,” he observed at last.

Annie glanced at him. ”What'”

”You are watching programs you have absolutely no interest in.”

Annie scowled. ”Are you telling me how to live my life'”

”On the contrary, it hardly seems that you have a life.”