A very little distance.
“Was that your grandfather’s voice in my head? Did he tell me your name?”
“It must have been.” She dropped her chin to her hands and looked glum. “I need to go home and find out why.”
“After practice,” I insisted. “I’ll follow you. Tomorrow, I’ll pick you up and we’ll ride together.” Before she could argue, I held up my hand, palm out. “I know your concerns, and I appreciate you trying to protect me. But Olivia, we both know that you are the more precious commodity here. I can only hear you. You can hear everyone, and you can heal. I made it my life’s mission to prepare myself to protect you. I would have been at a shooting range the last few years if my parents would have let me.”
I could feel her resolve as she dropped her hands. I was right. She knew it and hated it. When I crossed to the log and sat down next to her, she turned her body toward me. Just like I was drawn to her, she was drawn to me. Hell if I could figure out why. Damned if I cared.
I brushed her hair away from her face with my fingers. I had to see all of this face. I couldn’t get enough of it. I straddled the log and moved closer to her. Her breath hitched as she realized I was about to kiss her.
I have to. I’ve been dreaming of it. Will you punch me if I kiss you?
“I’ve never kissed anyone before.”
I’m fully aware. Trust me, Livvy, I won’t hurt you. Her eyes widened a bit at the nickname I’d just called her. I wondered if her parents had called her that. I knew she was raised by her grandfather.
Olivia closed her eyes and nodded. I was moved by her complete trust in me. I didn’t move in slowly like you saw in the movies. I swooped right in like a victorious king pillaging the conquered. Only I was not there to dominate her. I was just that desperate to taste her. I knew the gift she was giving me. There had never been a push and pull for power with us.
The second our lips touched, there was a shock that slammed through my system, right down to my toes and made me pause. That had never happened to me before. Of course, I was never invested in another girl the way I was in Olivia. Even at the tender age of eighteen, I knew she was the last girl I was ever going to kiss for the first time and treated the moment accordingly. I may have come in hot, but I slowed things down, kissing along her lips and the edges of her mouth before gently urging her lips open with my tongue. Her breath caught, but she opened to me.
I moaned a bit as my tongue slipped inside. There was a part of me that was inside her body and that made me wild. The kiss spun out, and I knew she was one hundred percent on board when she lifted up and wrapped her legs around my waist to sit in my lap. She was as frantic as I was and my hands ran down her back, up her sides, into her hair. She tightened her arms around me, and I did the same. It was almost like we were trying to physically pull ourselves into each other to become one person.
Didn’t she know we already were?
When the damn alarm on my cell phone went off, she pulled back. Meanwhile, I was still left reeling from the most amazing experience of my life.
“Practice,” she said, her breath coming in pants. Encouraged by the disappointed look on her face, I pulled her back for another brief kiss before I finally stood up and grabbed our backpacks. I held out my hand for hers. When she reached out, I took our joined hands and lifted them up, kissing the inside of her wrist. It was an intimate gesture that made her blush.
You head to the field. I have to hit the locker room.
“Out loud, Jagger,” she said wearily. “You have to get into that habit.”
Not when we’re alone. I need this communication. It’s what I know with you. My world was tilted right off its axis today. This is normal for us.
Sighing, she nodded her head. “I’m just so scared. We can’t make a single mistake. If they get us, it’ll be worse than death.”
After practice, you and your grandfather are going to have to tell me everything. Something must have spooked him to bring me in now.
I kept a firm grip on her hand the entire way back. When we emerged from the trees people were everywhere. Some were heading to their cars, others to various sports or activities. Nobody paid too much attention to us. Olivia broke away before I could pull her in for another kiss and we headed towards the school.
Reluctantly, I gave her the distance she seemed to need then. The problem was, she’d had ten years to come to grips with the fact that she could connect telepathically with me. I’d only discovered who she was today. I still needed to make sure she was real and wasn’t going to disappear when I woke up from one of the thousands of dreams I had over the last decade about discovering her real identity. My driving need was to bail on baseball practice and go somewhere that I could absorb this—absorb her. Except I couldn’t miss a practice now with our biggest game of the season coming up. Physics, yes; baseball, no.
When we came upon the gym, she kept walking without looking back at me or saying anything. Beyond where she was walking, I could see some girls already in the bleachers waiting for the team to come out for practice. There were girls that came for nearly every practice and game. They were not cheerleaders. They were something more like groupies. I was not sure what they thought they were going to accomplish sitting up there. While I knew they were there, I never knew who any of them were. Some guys on the team knew exactly who was up there and had taken what they were offering. I imagined those girls were there now looking for dates to the prom.
Olivia stopped walking and looked at the stands for a minute before turning on her heel and heading back toward the school. She said nothing when she passed me—at least not out loud.
“No way in hell am I sitting up there looking like some desperate slut. I’ll be in the art room.”
I was disappointed in her decision. I had been looking forward to seeing her up there waiting for me, but I didn’t own her. Instead I said nothing as she walked by and headed into the locker rooms.
THE BUTTERFLIES I felt in my stomach as I entered Olivia’s house could probably have lifted me off the floor. She lived in a cabin surrounded by forest. Once inside, I saw that the cabin itself was light, airy, and open with high ceilings and an open floor plan. Olivia toed off her shoes at the front door and I did the same. Jeremiah Miller entered the room and I reflexively swallowed as my palms started to sweat. It was like being hauled in front of the principal except I hadn’t done anything wrong. This man held the answers to all my questions from the last thirteen years.
Jeremiah gestured to the worn, cozy furniture in the living room without speaking. Sensing my need for comfort and courage, Olivia grabbed my hand and led me to the couch. We sat down with our hands still clasped.
I didn’t realize how old Olivia’s grandfather actually was. He was in his eighties, and it looked like the years had been hard on him. I knew he wasn’t in the best of health. She healed him, but she could not fight old age. Jeremiah looked tired. I wondered if he had been waiting for me, or for someone to come and make a commitment to Olivia, so he could let go. Although surely, he would wait until we were older, right? Until I was old enough to buy a gun and take lessons in shooting? Just who or what was her protection now?
“Welcome to our home, Jagger.” His voice was rough and raw—not exactly like a smoker’s voice, but not smooth either. His eyes bored into mine. I tried to keep my mind blank since I knew he could read me. I felt it. It wasn’t a warmth like when Olivia was inside me. This was impersonal and cold—almost clinical or sterile. He wasn’t there for entertainment but had business to attend to. I wondered if this was the sort of intrusion Olivia worried about from these mystery groups that wanted to study us.