Dark Secrets Read Online Free Page A

about Brixen.
    Just that light touch that lasted only a couple of heartbeats was enough for me to take his thoughts by the hand and lead them where I wanted them to go. A suggestion, nothing more, so he wouldn’t feel the separation from reality to being caught in a dream of my making. In his mind there would’ve barely been a ripple, but mine was in turmoil. His thoughts crashed into mine like waves intent on destruction. No matter how I tried I couldn’t shield myself. If I did, I couldn’t keep control of the magic.
    I faced Brixen. His eyes had lost their edge, but he gripped my jaw, his fingers rubbing against my stubble. He liked that, so I never shaved before his visit.
    “You’re such a pretty man.”
    Prettier than him, but not so pretty to be mistaken for a woman. Other lust houses catered to that taste. But Brixen wasn’t interested in that. He knew what he liked and hated himself for it. He saw it as a weakness. Maybe if he’d been honest with himself and let himself enjoy the way Noromon did, he might have been a nicer man. Instead he took his hate out on everyone else, as if they should suffer for the thing he couldn’t freely enjoy.
    Brixen grinned. “Are you jealous of my new wife?”
    Dangerous, dangerous ground. I felt it shift and slide beneath my feet. I hoped the murder I heard in my heart didn’t show in my eyes. “Are you going to stop visiting?” The usual purr I affected came out rough.
    “You have something she doesn’t.” His hand reached for me, needing to feel me hard and hungry for him. So that’s what I filled his mind with.
    The truth wouldn’t have pleased him. I hadn’t had sex in years. Not because I couldn’t, but because I didn’t want it. After seeing in my clients’ minds I wanted no part of their body, or them in mine. I had to keep some part of me for me.
    His hand rubbed against my thigh. It would be much easier to drag him under now and have him finish. But I’d raced to get him out once before and the result wasn’t pleasant. He’d been furious afterward, because I’d made him come too fast. I’d had to talk fast, and retake control of his mind to avoid a second fist.
    I took a tighter grip of his mind and opened his trousers. For a man who was as heavyset as a prize bull he was lacking in stature. I’d seen better endowed dogs scavenging at the markets. His turgid member jutted toward me.
    My stomach roiled. I hated this. Usually I toyed with him a little longer but tonight I took his thoughts and wrapped them around him nice and tight, praying to any Lord the illusion held. “I will bathe you.”
    He stepped out of his trousers and walked toward the basin and cloth. I watched him carefully. He couldn’t be so deeply in my control he couldn’t function, but he had to believe his hand was my hand. Usually I stood close enough to touch him if need be. Today I needed the distance in case my hands slipped and closed around his throat. This was the Lawman. I couldn’t kill him just because he was Anisa’s husband. She might love him. That was the thought I hated most of all.
    He washed with the cloth, each stroke lovingly made. He groaned, enjoying himself as in his mind he saw me washing him. I couldn’t fake the bath, but I could fake who performed it. When his skin had been scrubbed clean, he stroked himself with the little pot of scented grease then walked toward the bed. It was the same thing every time. He wanted me on the bed face down. In his mind that’s what he got.
    He fell to the bed and started attacking the sheets. Gripping and slapping and grunting and thrusting. In his mind I was gasping like a fish out of water as he drove in hard.
    There’s a line when fooling people that I won’t cross. Some desires I can create without giving up that it is an illusion, a dream that tricks the body into believing it’s reality for just a short while. In his darkest thoughts he wanted to leave marks, but we’d reached an understanding about what