Large hands slid down my bare back. Gregor, solid and very much not a dream, wore a triumphant smile on his face.
And just like me, it was the only thing he had on.
THIRTEEN
WHERE ARE MY CLOTHES?”
It was a furious demand that earned me a reproving frown. “Don’t snarl so, Catherine. I can only transport the organic.”
Maybe that was true, but it didn’t explain why he was also au naturel. I doubted it was an accident. His caressing me sure wasn’t accidental.
“Get your hands off me, Gregor, and go call off your men like you promised. Right now.”
I didn’t say it in the same angry tone. No, this was with a cold, flat insistence.
He stared at me in a way that made me think he was going to refuse. Then, with deliberate slowness, he uncurled himself from me.
“Don’t try to get up yet, you’ll need time to recover.”
I was in a bed. Oh, sure, like this wasn’t specifically orchestrated. “I’ll be fine as long as you stick to your word.”
He didn’t respond, just strode to the door and yanked it open. I had enough instinctive modesty to flop onto my stomach, but there was still no coordination to my limbs.
Someone was right outside the room, and Gregor stepped back to let that person in.
“Lucius, observe.”
Lucius, a tall blond who might have been Nordic, observed, all right. He caught an eyeful of me glaring daggers at both of them.
“I have my wife. She came of her own volition, so you can instruct Simon to pull back his forces.”
“I have yet to learn that I’m your wife, and I came because you blackmailed me,” I replied, giving him a look that said I didn’t appreciate his play on words.
“Be sure to detail her exact condition for Simon to report,” Gregor said, ignoring that. “And do be sure to include mine as well.”
God in heaven, Bones was going to flip out. I felt a stirring of unease. Maybe I should have thought this over more.
“Oui, monsieur.”
Lucius left without a backward glance, and Gregor shut the door. I didn’t care for that, since he was still on the inside.
“Is he going to call this Simon? How close are we to there?” I asked, able to grasp some of the blanket and roll myself into it.
“He’ll call.” A light gleamed in his eyes. “But we’re very far from Bavaria, Catherine.”
“Bavaria?” Jeez, no wonder it had seemed remote. “Where are we now? Or I suppose you won’t tell me.”
It was very awkward having a conversation with a naked stranger. Gregor didn’t make any attempt to cover himself, either. I wasn’t looking, but I wasn’t blind. He was built like a football player, with a whole lot of muscle and intermittent scars on his skin.
“I’ll tell you. I’m not like that scavenger who shuttled you back and forth while keeping you sightless and witless.”
That last sentence told it all. It had been me after all.
I gave Gregor a level look. “I might not be dreaming of you, but you’re still in my head poking around. You must have been doing a pretty thorough job to know details like that.”
Gregor sat on the edge of the bed, reaching out to stop me from rolling away. The lack of synchronization in my movements frightened me. I wanted to jump out of the bed, but all I could do was twitch.
“I know what you know,” he said, tracing his hand down my arm. “I cannot transport someone, or invade their mind, without their blood having been inside me. Even though it was many years ago, your blood is still a part of me, Catherine.”
Another tidbit no one had mentioned before. “If you know what I do, then you’re aware I love Bones,” I answered.
“You think you do.” His hand slid lower, to the bottom of the blanket and slowly up inside it.
Feeling his fingers climb up my calf didn’t arouse me. It pissed me off.
“What kind of piece of shit would fondle a woman who can’t move to stop him?”
His hand froze on my leg. I managed to flop back around and keep the blanket over me with a shaky grip. At least now I was facing him instead of craning my neck around.
“The only reason I agreed to withdraw my men in exchange for your compliance is because Bones has saved you from death several times,” Gregor ground out. “But now, he gets no more passes from me.”
“Is that what you call not murdering him, my mother, and my friends in a dirty ambush at dawn? A pass? How’d you find us, anyway? It wasn’t from me this time.
Gregor’s jaw clenched. “I found you because of Bones’s stupidity, and if he’d had me and my men in a similar circumstance, he’d have acted with the same ruthlessness.”