You feel so good, he sent, mind-to- mind.
I didn’t expect this.
Me, neither. I thought— He cut off the words that he’d been ready to stream through her mind.
But she drew back to look at him.
“You thought what?” For a moment, he debated saying what was on his mind. But as he met her large blue, compassionate eyes, he let himself go. “Because of my power, I was reconciled to living by myself. I never even thought about having a woman in my life. But now, I mean, this is so damn fast —” What else could he say that wouldn’t sound really stupid, like he’d known her twenty-four hours but could actually see himself being with her, loving her, spending the rest of his life with her?
She kissed him, a long lingering kiss.
When she pulled back again, she said, “I know what you mean. This is kind of ridiculous and so unexpected. But at the same time, extraordinary.” His heart grew buoyant, a balloon barely tethered in place.
“You’re extraordinary,” he said, rubbing her arm lightly. He wanted to do this all over again. “I want to know everything about you.” Still looking at him from within his tight embrace, she caressed his face. He moaned softly and turned to kiss the palm of her hand.
Enter my mind, she sent.
Had he heard her right? He met her gaze again. “You want me to mind-dive?
Deep mind engagement?”
“I want you to know me. We’re in this, Samuel. And my instincts tell me that we’re in trouble, real trouble. The better you know who I am, the better we’ll be able to function together. But I can feel your hesitation.” Hesitation didn’t begin to describe what he felt. “I have to be honest with you; I’m completely opposed to the idea because I won’t be able to return the favor. My power is unstable. I’d never forgive myself if I hurt you. But beyond that, Vela, that prison was the worst nightmare you can imagine.”
Vela met his worried gaze, squinting as if in pain. “You’re afraid I’ll see those images.”
“Mind-diving doesn’t just release one image, it releases from the pool of everything I’ve experienced. I doubt it’s controllable.”
“No, I guess not.” She thought about her marriage. Samuel would see it all, the good and the bad, the love-making, the fights. She’d once thrown out an entire salmon dinner because of some comment Jeff had made.
She chuckled softly.
“What’s so funny? I don’t think this is funny at all.” So, she told him about the salmon and he started to laugh. He kept chuckling on and off. “Please don’t tell me you think that’s your worst flaw that you get ticked off and toss out perfectly good food.”
“No, I guess not. But I’ll tell you what I do know; that I trust you enough to let you in, enough to let you see whatever is there.” She forced herself to relax, to breathe. She thought about her darkening ability, about Duncan and Merl, and that she had just had mind-blowing sex with Warrior Samuel. For months now, she’d been feeling an internal pressure, a need to be doing something, she just hadn’t known what. She had thought it would be related to Fiona’s rehab center, now she wasn’t sure at all because this felt right, being with Samuel and engaging her darkening power.
A new path had grabbed her and she didn’t want to hold back, not now. She suspected that her life, her survival, would depend on forging ahead with strength and commitment, that nothing less would do.
She shifted her body so that her legs slid off of his and she lay completely on her side next to him. She planted a hand on his muscular chest and for a split-second almost got lost in his physicality.
She blinked a couple of times and cleared her head. “Do this, Samuel. I don’t know the why of it, but it’s important.
Do some deep-mind engagement and let’s see what happens.
Okay?” He shifted toward her and kissed her, then leaned back and closed his eyes. She watched him for a moment. He had fine lines beside his eyes and even now a certain tightness characterized his expression.
When she felt his mind approach hers, she closed her eyes as well. But when she started to slide her hand off his chest, he caught and held it, which made her heart leap in a way she didn’t think was wise at all. The first flutter of love awakened in her heart. Was it too much to ask that she might actually fall in love with this man as well?
She set the thought aside and relaxed her mind. She felt him approach like a soft caress. Mind-diving was so different from telepathy, which was essentially a mere laying of words over the mind.
But this, as Samuel pushed the barrier of her mind and slipped inside, was incredible. He was there now, a formidable presence in her mind, more than she’d expected. She understood something about him right then, that Samuel didn’t really know the extent of his dark power, this Third Earth ability birthed during his captivity.
Of course, a new problem emerged since she really liked him being inside her mind. Her body heated up instantly, her br**sts tingling.
He chuckled softly. You like me here.
Your scent is flowing from you.
I’m tempted all over again. Next time, be inside me like this.
He moaned. Okay, this isn’t helping.
It seems to take so little.
Right. She forced herself to breathe.
Focus on where you were born.
Good idea. She aimed her thoughts into the past, remembering her parents and living in Philadelphia Two in the early 1800s, in what was then, by comparison, a small town. Learning to fly, almost drowning when she flew too close to a lake and her wings got caught in the water, which had been a nightmare. Riding horses and loving it. Growing up and falling in and out of love. Learning to play the piano, expected of a woman in those days. Then choosing a life of travel for a long time, folding from town to town, getting to know her local American world, north and south, learning several languages.
She’d had itchy feet, never wanting to stay long in one place. She’d taken many lovers and felt Samuel tense when a lovemaking image would flow through her thoughts.
Then a close call with a death vampire in 1922, slain by a Militia Warrior, a man who had finally spoken to her heart deeply enough that she’d married him. Jeff Barker. The grief of being childless and overcoming that grief. Of living with him for decades until his death five-years-ago. How much she’d loved making their house a true home, which she still lived in, a small piece of property near the downtown Borderland. Without thinking, she fell into her grief, remembering how often she’d wept, screamed, shouted. At one point, she almost pulled back, but Samuel whispered through her mind, No, let me see it.