“Because you’re the Guardian?” Her voice was shaking, and she steadied it. “And the Guardian has to behave with discretion and obey all the rules.”

“Not with you. I can’t do it with you.”

“This is going nowhere.” She looked away from him. “And it’s partly my fault. I behaved irrationally about Celia, and it sparked something that—”

“Oh, yes, it did. And I would have behaved just as irrationally under similar circumstances. Rationality doesn’t exist in the same ballpark as barbaric. That’s why I had to scoop you away until we could clarify.” He held up his hand as she opened her lips to speak. “And I know that you’re going to say again that it doesn’t matter. Be quiet, and listen to me. I have to tell you exactly how much it doesn’t matter. First, I’m very highly sexed.” He grimaced. “You might have guessed that fact. Because of my duties, sexual activity has to meet all the discipline requirements that guide the rest of my life. I can’t allow myself to have normal relations. So I arrange time with women who ask no questions and want no strings.”

“Prostitutes.”

“Of the highest caliber and discretion.” He added, “When Hu Chang asked me to help him with the monks at the monastery, it was necessary that I read him. Celia came up several times in his memory. She was intriguing.”

“I can imagine.”

“A few months later, when I needed a woman, I arranged for her to spend a week with me in Bangkok.”

“A week? From what I hear, that would have been an expensive week.”

He shrugged. “I have money. Do you think that I would have been hired as Guardian if there was any chance of my being bribed? The first thing the committee did was make sure that I had a billion or two.”

“Billion?”

“It was nothing to them, Catherine. It was nothing to me, either, except when I needed something.”

“Like a courtesan. Was she worth it?”

“She was probably the most skilled woman I’d ever had. I enjoyed her.”

“Then I’d say she was worth it.”

“Except that she had one fault I couldn’t accept. She wanted control of me. I couldn’t allow anyone sexual dominance. It would have been dangerous. She tried all the time she was with me, in a variety of delightful, intricate ways to overcome resistance. She even offered to stay another week with me.”

There were only two men I found I couldn’t control, Celia had said.

Cameron was evidently one of them.

“Couldn’t you use a little of that mental manipulation to persuade her to stop?”

“No, she never knew I was capable of anything that wasn’t totally normal. I preferred it that way.”

“Why?”

“Normal isn’t bad. On occasion, it can be a relief.”

“And stop the prostitutes from talking about certain odd behavior?”

“That, too.”

She was silent. “You didn’t have to tell me this. It’s not my business.”

“It is your business. I told you, I haven’t felt like this before. I felt more for you when I had my mouth on you just now than I did for Celia when she was screwing me. That makes it dangerous as hell for me, and I have to come to terms with it. I don’t know what path we’re on, but I’m not going to let you go until we both find out.”

“It’s my choice, too.” She steadied her voice. “You’re this big mystery man, and I don’t even know if I like what you do or what you stand for. It’s all clouded. I don’t know you.”

He gazed at her. “Do you want to ask me questions? It’s dangerous. You’re an outsider and have not been sanctioned. I don’t believe I could ever hurt you.” He smiled crookedly. “But there are others who could step in and save me from myself if given the command.”

“Outsider? Bullshit. Do you think I’m afraid of all that hogwash?”

“No, I don’t think you’re afraid of anything, and I embrace that courage.” He paused. “But you have to tell me. You have to say the words.”

She stared at him. He would not have warned her if he hadn’t thought there was danger. Was she willing to say those words and run the risk?

Yes, for Erin’s sake.

And, yes, for her own sake, too.

“I do want to ask you questions. Will you tell me the truth?”

“Yes, but I may not answer everything if it’s something that would harm the committee or what they stand for.” He leaned back, and said softly, “Ask me, Catherine.”

“I want to know about you. Why did you want to become this mega security chief?”

“I didn’t. It wasn’t a question of choice. But when it came down to whether I’d let anyone else do it, I couldn’t turn it down. I was the right person. The committee knew it, and I knew it.”

“Because of the mental abilities?”

“That was a big part of it. There were only two other men in the world who even approached my abilities. One was CIA, and he wasn’t stable.” He nodded at Catherine. “Venable didn’t display his best stuff with that Italian girl when he brought you all to that mental-telepathy seminar. He had someone much better he’d hoped to bring along, but he couldn’t trust him not to freak with all of those agents bombarding him.” He added, “The other man was my brother, who would have been a decent choice.”

“Your brother?”

“Yes, Brad and I were discovered by a member of the committee in an orphanage in the Miami slums. We were being isolated and kept away from the other kids because the people who ran the place thought we had mental problems. You couldn’t blame them. Brad and I both had certain talents, but we didn’t know how to control them. We were confused and frustrated and had temper tantrums.” He grimaced. “Evidently, our parents didn’t know what to do with us either. They left us beside a road outside Boca Raton in the middle of the night.”

“If you were isolated, how did this committee member locate you?”

“The committee is always on the hunt for anyone with unusual talents. They regard psych talents the way they would a mathematical genius. They want the best of the best in their corner. They believe it’s the way to move people and society in the right direction. He’d heard stories and was looking for us. He took us out of the orphanage and put us with a young teacher, Nell Coledge, who had been trained to deal with kids like us. We lived with her for the next several years.”

“Was it better for you there?”

“Night and day. She taught us to handle being freaks and even accept it with humor. We both grew to love her.”

“Did she belong to this great committee?”

“No, she was just someone who believed in them. She was the one who tried to explain to us why being Guardian was so important. I couldn’t see it.”

“Could your brother?”

“Brad was much more idealistic than I’ll ever be. He actually wanted to be Guardian.”

“Then why isn’t he?”

“He didn’t get the chance. He was tortured and murdered when he was eighteen years old.”

Cameron’s tone was without expression. Yet Catherine could sense the pain.

“How?”

“He was kidnapped and taken to Iran. They’re building their own psych think tanks there. Brad and I were both on their radar, but he was easier to grab. I was older, and my training made me fairly formidable.”

“Why would they kill him?”

“The Iranians didn’t know how to handle what they had in Brad. They tried to force compliance. He wouldn’t do what they wanted, and they went too far. He bled to death before they could save him.”

“Dear God.”

“I wasn’t sure there was a God at that point. He was the person I loved most in the world. I couldn’t see why God would take him away.” He voice was suddenly bitter. “And then I realized that if that could happen to Brad, then there was something terribly wrong with the world as I knew it. I told the committee if they wanted me as Guardian, I’d do it.”

“I don’t understand all this Guardian business.”

“From what I’ve read in your mind since I got here, it seems you’ve already figured most of it out for yourself. I’m sent to take care of security problems, to keep anyone from knowing about the committee and what it’s trying to do. I also try to recruit those with talent of all kinds and descriptions who have the right moral character and mind-set and send them to the committee to train and incorporate into the organization.”