Ultimate Warriors (5 page)

     
Nariko
came awake
slowly,
with such a sense of well being
that she was reluctant to give up the drowsy comfort. The threads of sleep
refused to remain within her grasp, though. As she came at last to full
awareness, she realized she still felt absolutely wonderful--rested, without
any sense of sluggishness, no tension,
no
lingering
anxiety.

     
It was
almost like suddenly realizing a complete absence of pain when one had been
suffering a toothache for days and days. Rolling from her bed, she glanced
self-consciously
a the
cameras and scurried into the bathroom
to perform her morning grooming ritual.

     
She
found, as she showered, that she was actually humming. She didn’t even
recognize the tune, but it didn’t matter. She felt better than she could
remember ever feeling in the morning.

     
She
glanced shyly at Doctor Savage when she reached the living room, where he’d set
up the monitor station for his equipment. Her heart stammered uncomfortably in
her chest, the breath rushing from her lungs as she took in his tousled look
from the all nighter he’d just pulled.

     
He was a
total hunk when he was immaculate, as she usually saw him in his office. He
looked succulent now, with his heavy lidded eyes, the day old stubble of beard,
his tousled hair. He’d unfastened his shirt and pulled it from his jeans. The
top
button of his jeans were
undone, as well.

     
He
looked like a man that had spent a night satisfying a woman, and she felt her
nerves sizzle with an unaccustomed tension that had everything to do with being
around an extremely attractive male.

     
She
smiled at him tentatively when she saw that he was studying her.

     
"Did
the demon disturb your dreams?"

     
His
voice was husky. It sent a shiver of sensation along her nerve endings that
made her heart trip over itself. Warmth gathered in her sex.

     
She
ignored it with an effort, focusing on the real reason he’d spent the night in
her apartment. "I didn’t," she said with a touch of surprise.
"It’s the first time I haven’t in--I can’t even remember when I
didn’t." She frowned, feeling a faint blush rise in her cheeks.
"Actually, I dreamed about you."

     
He
arched one eyebrow. Something gleamed in his eyes and she was torn between a
warm response to the look and a touch of irritation. It seemed to her that he
was assuming the dream had been sexual in nature--which it had been--when he
had no reason to think she would be dreaming of him like that.

     
She
moved into the kitchen. "I don’t really remember what it was about,"
she
lied
, "except that it was just one of those
tame sort of dreams you have sometimes. Like you’re going somewhere--something
like that."

     
When she
glanced at him over the counter that separated the kitchen from the living
room, she saw that he was looking amused. "Would you like some
juice?" she asked with determined cheerfulness, although she felt like
slapping the smug look off his face.

     
"Yes,
thanks," he said, rising from the chair and adjusting his jeans and
fastening them.

     
Nariko
glanced away quickly as he adjusted his "package" in the snug jeans.

     
She
dropped the first glass she dragged from the cabinet. The noise of the glass
slamming into the counter set her nerves on edge. Thankfully, it was made of
thick glass and didn’t break. She righted it and dragged another glass out,
then tossed some bagels into the toaster over before she went to the
refrigerator to get the juice.

     
Dr.
Savage was sitting at the counter when she turned around and she nearly dropped
the carton. "So … you don’t remember what you dreamed?" he asked
conversationally.

     
"Bits
and pieces, I suppose," Nariko muttered, recovering and heading for the
counter to fill the juice glasses.
"Nothing that really
makes sense."

     
"Why
don’t you tell me what you do remember?"

     
Try
though she might not to think about what she’d dreamed, she blushed again,
overfilled one of the glasses and spilt juice on the counter top. She felt like
kicking herself when she glanced at Dr. Savage as she handed him his glass of
juice and saw the knowing look on his face.

     
Or was
she only imagining he knew what she’d been dreaming because she felt so
uncomfortable about it?
And her attraction to him, for that
matter.

     
She
frowned, turning her attention to the bagels.
"Just
something about calling you when the demon came."

     
He
sipped his juice thoughtfully while she put the bagels on saucers and got the
cream cheese from the refrigerator.

     
"I
told you to call me?" he prompted when she settled on a counter stool at
the other end of the short bar.

     
That
part wasn’t exactly crystal clear in her mind--not nearly as clear as the
things he’d done and the heat that had curled inside of her--and rose inside of
her now, when she thought about it again. She thought about it for several
moments. "That was one of the things that made the dream seem really weird.
You told me I had powers of my
own,
and that if I
needed you I could--summon you to me. All I had to do was call your name. The
strangest thing, though, was that you didn’t say ‘Doctor Savage’ or ‘Shayne
Savage’. You said your name was Xalen.

     
"You
said that if the dark demon came after me again, I was to say ‘Xalen! Come to
me!’ and you would come."

     
His
brows rose, but he didn’t comment. Instead, he concentrated on his juice and
bagels. When he’d finished, he climbed off the stool and did an all over
stretch that exposed every lovely muscle in his chest and belly. His jeans, as
he pulled in his stomach in the stretch, rode low, and Nariko’s eyes were drawn
to the light, narrow trail of dark hair that arrowed down from his belly
button.

     
"Do
you mind if I use your shower?"

     
Nariko
blinked, snapped from her
zen
meditation of his lower
belly when he straightened. "Huh? Oh! Sure!
Towels and
washcloths in the bathroom cabinet."

     
When
he’d left, she dropped her face into her hands, mortified. She was behaving as
if she’d never seen a man before. He was going to think she’d enticed him to
her apartment to try to seduce him!

     
It was
that damn dream demon! She wasn’t in the habit of looking at men and thinking
sex. She had never even had sex! Up until she’d started dreaming about the
demon that was chasing her, she’d never looked at a man, even an attractive
one, and thought about sex. She’d been plenty attracted. She’d thought about
kissing--maybe a little heavy petting.

     
Ok, so
maybe she’d had a few very tame fantasies about sex, but they were pretty much
PG-13. She completely understood the mechanics of it. She’d read plenty of
books. She’d seen a lot of sexy movies, but she’d never really associated such
things with herself, and she certainly hadn’t fantasized about the sort of
things she did now.

     
And now
she’d started thinking about doing those things with her sleep therapist of all
things.

     
She
shook it off after a while, deciding that she must have dreamed that because
she thought Doctor Savage was attractive and knew he was in her apartment. Most
likely, it would never happen again.

     
When Dr.
Savage came out of her bathroom carrying the overnight bag he’d brought with
him, it was a knee weakening jolt. Freshly scrubbed now, clean shaven, she didn’t
know if it was the way he looked or the cologne that nearly knocked her socks
off, but she wished she had something to do besides gape at him like a love
sick calf.

     
He
didn’t seem to notice, thankfully. He was all business now.

     
Dropping
his bag beside the chair he’d spent the night in, he settled on the edge and
faced her where she sat on the couch, her arms wrapped around her knees.

     
"I
need to have a look at your records from the orphanage," he said without
preamble.

     
Nariko
blinked. "I don’t understand. I know you said you thought something might
have happened to me, but nothing did. I’d remember."

     
"Not
necessarily," he said grimly. "It’s possible something did, and
you’ve managed to block it from your conscious mind but not your sub-conscious.
I need to at least rule that possibility out, if nothing else."

     
Nariko
thought about the implications, feeling her stomach tighten. "You think
I’m just going to keep having these dreams?" she said uneasily. It was odd
that she’d woken feeling as if the whole problem had been solved, crazy really.
She’d dreamed the whole thing! How could she have allowed herself to believe
her problem had been solved?

     
She had,
though. She’d been behaving, and thinking, like all she had to do any time that
thing got after her was summon Xalen and she’d be all right.

     
How
crazy was that?

     
"So
… you’re going to the orphanage?"

     
"We
are going to the orphanage."

     
"May
I help you?"

     
Nariko
glanced at Dr. Savage. It was odd the way people could use words that sounded
perfectly polite and still make it come out as more of a challenge. If the
receptionist had only looked bored, she wouldn’t
seemed
nearly as rude. Her entire attitude, however, was that they’d interrupted her.

     
"I’m
Dr. Shayne Savage. I’d like to speak with the director, if I could."

     
"Do
you have an appointment?"

     
His eyes
narrowed momentarily at her abrupt tone. Finally, he smiled faintly. "If I
did, I wouldn’t have asked."

     
The woman
seemed to lighten up a bit at that smile, but his comment made her stiffen once
more. Without a word, she flipped through the appointment book. Nariko couldn’t
read what was written there, but she could see there was very little.

     
The
receptionist slammed the book shut and looked up at them again. "If you’ll
have a seat, I’ll see if Ms. Townsend can see you today."

     
Nariko
felt an unpleasant jolt go through her at the name. She supposed it had been
too much to hope the old bat had died since she’d left the orphanage.
Or retired.
She must be a hundred, and still she clung to
her position with the tenacity of a pit bull. Without a word, she turned away
from the desk, glanced around at the handful of chairs in the tiny waiting room
and finally picked one and sat. Dr. Savage stood, although he moved across the
room to stare out of the window.

     
Nariko
kept glancing at the ugly round clock on the wall. Five minutes passed, then
ten. They were rapidly approaching the twenty minute mark and Dr. Savage had begun
to pace when the receptionist finally returned. Without a word, she sat down
and began to peck at her keyboard.

     
Nariko
glanced at Dr. Savage and saw that he was giving the woman a narrow eyed look.

     
She
supposed he wasn’t accustomed to people treating him as if he was a non-entity.

     
She
supposed she should have warned him that that was the way everyone was treated
at the orphanage, but then she hadn’t expected them to be as rude to him. He
was a doctor, after all. They generally commanded respect.

     
It
wasn’t as if the old bat knew he was a sleep therapist, but then Nariko could
well imagine how much old dragon lady Townsend was enjoying the idea of keeping
a doctor pacing about her waiting room.

     
Dr.
Savage strode to the desk. "Well?"

     
"She
can’t see you today."

     
Nariko
could see he was fighting a round with his temper. After a moment, he stopped
grinding his teeth and forced a grim smile. "Perhaps you can help me
then?"

     
The
woman looked up at him, her expression surprised--as if she couldn’t believe he
had the gall to ask her to help him.