All Through the Night by Shannon McKenna, Lori Foster, Suzanne Forster, Thea Devine

electricity.
“Kerry… you’re looking at me like I’m crazy.”
“Duh,” she said softly.
“I’m not crazy, believe me.”
“Oh, you’re not crazy, but you’re cursed? Do you know how crazy that sounds?”
“Yes, I guess it does, doesn’t it.”
He smiled and she released a helpless sound. “Oh, God, please let this be a dream. It has to be a dream because otherwise I really do need antipsychotic medication.”
“What kind of curse?” She ducked her head. “No, stop, don’t tell me. Don’t say anything! I can’t go there.”
Whatever this was, it was totally outside her experience and she had no idea what to do. She just wanted him out of her bedroom and out of her head. She could hear his voice, reverberating in the lower registers, even when he wasn’t talking. It always made her think of water—of rivers and deep canyons. That was a sure sign of insanity, wasn’t it? When you started hearing phantom music or instructions from above?
Maybe if she shut her eyes he would vanish in a puff of smoke. All she wanted was to wake from this terrible dream that had taken over her life. She didn’t understand what was happening to her. Suddenly, everything was out of control. Her entire world was a flipping TV test pattern. Fear was her constant companion, her only companion, and she was trapped in her own home.
Why was she trapped? What was she afraid of, really?
When she looked up, he was still there, still observing her in that somber, stoic way that Jean Valjean did.
“Oh, all right,” she snapped. “What kind of curse?”
He shrugged. “The kind that gets you imprisoned in a video game?”
He didn’t sound any better at this hocus pocus than she was. “Yes, but who put the curse on you? And why, what did you do?”
“Good questions, but I’m short on the salient details. Given my track record, I’m guessing it has something to do with pride and power, with lack of humility. There are experiences I’ve never had and emotions I can’t feel, and I won’t be free until I’ve felt them.”
“What experiences?” She gave him a wary look as he returned to the foot of her bed. “You’re not here to deliver my fantasy, are you? Because I don’t really want you all over me like a blanket. I have a perfectly good blanket right here. And there are no strawberries in the fridge. It’s the wrong time of year, and as far as belts go, I don’t really find them that fascinating.”
What else had she said? Quick, what else?
Was he smiling? Always a bad sign.
“I was just kidding about all that stuff, okay? Even if it sounded like I meant it, I didn’t . It was probably stress or the amino acid I’ve been taking. Brain chemicals, you know. They can make you do and say things—”
His nod was understanding. “You certainly did that. You said things and did things.”
“What did I say? What did I do? What?”
“It’s okay. You were fine.”
“No, really, what did I do? It couldn’t have been that bad. I remember everything, except… oh, dear… when I was under hypnosis?”
“Except then,” he said.
She didn’t like the dark glint in his eyes. “What? Did I do something terrible?” What could be worse than undressing in front of the computer screen?
So many things .
“Did it involve one of the five senses?” she asked. “Touch, taste?”
“I’m not saying anything. You were fine, Kerry. Now, do you think we could finish our conversation about the curse?”
“Not until you tell me what I did.”
“Not until we finish with the curse.”
Obviously they’d reached an impasse. He said he was short on time. Maybe she could wait him out.
Unexpectedly he laughed, and it was a rich, rugged sound. “You have a gift, Kerry. I’ve never heard noises like that before.”
She frowned.
He nodded.
“All right, all right.” A sigh. “Tell me about this curse.”
He sat on the end of the bed, positioning himself in the way that guys sometimes did, with one leg pulled up. Doctors were famous for