“How’s it unpatriotic?”
“Did you hear what I said? He has no regular friends. Nobody who isn’t military. If he’s serious about a house and a wife and a family and a dog, he’s gonna have to do it in the real world.”
Her irritation turned him on. The lady had strong opinions.
“Oh.” He chuckled. “Duh. Sorry. I get it now.”
“Finish your sandwich. I need to move.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He saluted and shoved what was left of the breakfast food into his mouth. “There. All gone.”
She wasn’t kidding about needing to move. In the blink of an eye, she threw their trash away and manically gestured at him to get a move on. They were headed up into the hills for a morning hike after a stop at her apartment for a change of clothes.
Instead of his granddad’s Tesla, he worked a deal with Aunt Lou to borrow her funkified Tiffany blue, soft top Jeep. He could have done without the bright color, but Summer was enchanted.
“I love a soft top,” she gushed with appreciation as he held her door open. “Can we open it?”
“Luckily, my aunt likes convenience,” he said in an amused tone. “She got the one-touch option, so yes. With the push of a button, we can pull back the top.”
It didn’t take long to arrive at her apartment building. On the way into the courtyard, they passed a petite Asian woman who smiled broadly when she said hello.
“Ohayō, Summer. Another beautiful day!”
Summer matched the happy woman’s broad smile. “Ohayō, Mrs. Hayashi. Taking Chicklet for a walk?” She gestured to a small ball of fluff masquerading as a dog sitting patiently on the end of a leash.
“She’s taking me,” the woman drawled. “My husband has the sniffles. He’s driving me crazy,” she added while subjecting Arnie to a thorough appraisal. “And who is this, Summer?”
The woman’s question sounded more like “is everything okay?” He glanced down at Summer at the same moment she raised her chin to look at him. She wasn’t more than five-seven in bare feet, and even with the lift of her wedge sandals, she still barely topped his shoulder.
He saw a mischievous twinkle in her eyes but kept a straight face. Somehow, he knew she wanted him to play along.
“Oh yes, well, this is Mr. Magnum. I found him on Craig’s List.”
Magnum? Oh god, how the hell was he keeping a straight face?
“It’s my day off, and I’m off to hike the hills. Mr. Magnum is my personal Sherpa. He’ll carry everything so I can enjoy the activity. Best money I ever spent.”
Mrs. Hayashi looked him over one more time and grinned. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Magnum.”
He nodded once but stayed silent.
To Summer, the little Asian woman snickered. “Do you think Craig’s List has any more like him?”
They made sounds he recognized—the ones usually filling the hallways at NIGHTWIND when Dottie, Izzy, and Aliyah got going and were mocking the gruffer sex.
For bonus points, Summer and her neighbor friend gave each other a fist bump.
Like a good Sherpa, he shuffled behind Summer, following along to her apartment door. They noticed a note taped to her patio greenhouse at the same time.
“Oh, dear.” She ripped the note down and read it aloud. “Dear number five. Hope you don’t mind, but I helped myself to a few basil leaves and two small tomatoes. Stop by and I’ll make you a to-go box of pita pizza. Signed, number 8.”
“Pita pizza?” he asked.
“Yeah, whatever.” She scrunched up the note, and snarled, “Hope you don’t mind? What does that even mean after the fact? I’m fine with sharing but come on.”
He looked at the cheaply made greenhouse and thought of his granddad and father. They had impressive green thumb abilities. One had a flower farm and the other a mini plantation. The three would probably have plenty to talk about.
Inside the apartment, he ran his hand above the bowl of windowsill crystals and absorbed the energy. While she dressed for the day ahead, he stood before the photograph of Merlin’s cave. Inside his head, he tried to make sense of a Venn diagram showing him, her, Summer’s brother, and someone he hadn’t seen in quite some time. Dr. Hadley Ortoma
Hadley was the government project’s giant brain. He was a quintessential tweedy professor known for his dapper bow ties. Looking at him, you’d assume he lived in a world of black and white TV and had pocket protectors for miles. The truth, however, was stranger than fiction. Arnie’s life was altered forever after Hadley pulled back the curtain on a different world. Once the clairsentient door was opened, there was no going back.
Was he crazy for thinking the framed picture was significant? What were the odds of a random girl and his Merlin connection intersecting? He’d be an idiot to ignore what had to be a sign.
The back of his neck prickled. He sensed the call—saw the dark mist starting to crowd the corners of his mind—but resisted the lure. Now wasn’t the time.
He thought about Summer. She was a rare creature with feet balanced in two worlds. He was sure she wasn’t aware of her gifts, any more than she was aware of how people reacted to her. Over the years, he’d encountered others like him but never experienced the soulful connection he had with Summer—nor had he slept with any of them.
“All set,” his perky companion announced as she bounded into the room like an eager puppy anticipating a walk. “Sit,” she commanded in an about-face that made him jerk with surprised laughter.
“Did you just tell me to sit?”
She pointed at a chair on the other side of the front door. “There should be good.”
Befuddled and amused, he did as commanded and teased her for the hell of it. “You sound like a dominatrix again. I’m telling you, Summer. It’s in your nature.”
“I have a hard time picturing you in a submissive role.” She shuddered, and to him, her reaction was comical as hell.
“That makes two of us,” he replied with a sly grin. “Although for you, pretty Summer, I’d give it a go if that’s what turns you on.”
She bent quickly and kissed him. “I know you would, but Imma pass if you don’t mind.”
He tried not to pry—okay, maybe he didn’t try all that hard—but ended up anyway with a surprising view of her thoughts. Despite her lady-in-charge ways, Summer was an old-fashioned girl with traditional tastes when it came to gender roles. She was attracted to his strength. Her desires were straightforward, adorably kinky, and totally focused on him as the relationship alpha.
Relationship alpha. Wow.
Arnie flinched when her fingers touched his face, and he felt something cold and wet on his skin.
“What are you doing?”
“Sunscreen,” she muttered. “Not just in the summer. Year round.”
His eyes closed as she smoothed the lotion all over his face and lectured him on the necessity of proper skin care—something she swore was a blond thing.
So much shit happened inside him that he couldn’t wrap his mind around even half of it. In his recollection, no one had ever cared for him like this unless it was out of duty or expectation. A cold, heartless stepmother and a parade of nannies left marks on his psyche. Experiencing Summer’s caring and concern shook him up.
She kept up a near nonstop narration. The lady knew a little bit about everything, and what she didn’t know was nothing but a challenge to learn more.
While he stocked up on snacks at a gas station, she struck up a conversation with the pimply kid manning the cash register. After listening to a public service announcement on the store’s radio, she went off about animal rescue organizations and how much she despised people who were careless or negligent with pets. The kid, of course, agreed with everything she said. Her charm was hard to resist.
At the Jeep, she matter-of-factly stated, “I want a dog and maybe a cat. One of my friends has a couple of little goats.” She shrugged like it was nothing, but he heard the wistfulness in her voice.
“I have a dog g
uy,” he told her as his mind unpacked everything he knew about the Justice Canine Program. Recently, a former colleague from the DOJ came through with a shit ton of information when Arnie approached him while doing research for NIGHTWIND. The Justice canine guy didn’t just do highly trained security animals. Apparently, he was also a dog whisperer and had a perfect scorecard when matching dogs to humans.
“You have a dog guy?” Summer teasingly snickered. “Why, of course you do.”
He grinned. “I’m just saying a dog would be cool.”
Buckled into the passenger seat, she slapped her leg and giggled until laughter filled the Jeep. He absorbed her golden girl happiness and surrendered his heart.
“It’s settled then.” She laughed with joyful exuberance. “We’re getting a dog! A-ha!”
Since the outing was her idea, he let her lead the way with easy-to-follow, perfectly stated directions. He appreciated the accuracy. As they neared their destination, she took over with turn-by-turn instructions until they pulled off the pavement. He parked on the gravel next to what she excitedly explained was her favorite hiking path.
“Saddle up, Mr. Magnum,” she barked. “Backpack.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He slung her old backpack over a shoulder and waved her on. “Ladies first.”
The gods proved benevolent as they started off. With Summer marching ahead of him, he was treated to a heart-attack-inducing visual of her strong, toned legs and magnificent ass. Yoga pants were a marvelous thing.
Just as she had in the car, his golden girl kept up a running commentary. Salivating over her backside was only going to get him in trouble, so he keyed into what she was saying.
Okay, Summer thought. Five points awarded to the golden Adonis for keeping up. She deliberately picked an advanced path just to see how he handled it. Not everyone enjoyed climbing over obstacles or sliding down dusty dirt paths.
Struggling to the top of an incline, she stopped briefly to check his progress before continuing.
The mild burn in her thighs and butt felt good. There was nothing like a strenuous hike to work the glutes. Though she no longer clung to her gymnast’s dream of bouncing a quarter off her ass, her posterior still mattered.
When he caught up, she glanced sideways, hoping to find him enjoying her rear view, and she was not disappointed. The man had preferences. He liked her boobs and butt.
Out of the clear blue sky came a long-forgotten memory. “Dance: Ten; Looks: Three” from A Chorus Line was a favorite of her gymnastics squad. Flat chests and butts were the preferred body type for those who took competing to the next level. But for a bunch of randy high school girls, the tongue-in-cheek song about the benefits of tits and ass was their go-to free dance tune.
“My bingo-bongos are one hundred percent natural.” Summer wasn’t sure why she blurted out the nonsensical words.
When Arnie’s sexy blue eyes dipped to her chest, and his cheeks colored, she was glad for her impetuous mouth.
He kept a straight face, and replied, “I didn’t need verification but still, good to know.”
They perched on a series of large rocks and shared a bottle of water. She nearly slid to her ass in a puddle of goo when he tilted his head back, raised the sports top bottle, and squirted a perfect arc of water into his open mouth. He noticed her studying him and flashed his signature cocky grin.
She got him back, though, by refusing to take the bottle from his hands, and instead, played baby bird, waiting with an open mouth for him to squirt what was left onto her waiting tongue. The expression on his handsome face was priceless.
She watched him scan the small clearing.
“How’d you find this spot?” he asked.
“Facebook,” she grumbled mockingly. Like so many people these days, she had a hate-love-hate relationship with social media.
He was rummaging through her backpack and withdrew two cellophane packs of peanut butter crackers. When he handed her one, his face registered disbelief. “Facebook showed you a secret spot?”
She ripped into the plastic, being careful to contain the trash. Lazy, stupid people who had no respect for the planet were one of the things she frowned upon. How hard was it not to be a jerk?
“Boredom is the enemy of sense,” she sniggered. “At least that’s how I’m telling this story.” She flashed her pearly whites and winked. “So one boring day while scrolling through the perfect lives of my Facebook friends list, I was checking out the latest activity in a group from my high school class and noticed an interesting graphic the artificial brains at Facebook thought I might like. It was a local hiking club, so I thought, what the hell, and joined.”
“We all fall down those rabbit holes.” He chuckled with a mouth full of crackers. “Did you know there are dozens of Scooby-Doo groups on Facebook? I got sucked in. Occupational hazard,” he drawled cutely.
“There ya go.” Summer chortled. “So you feel me, right?”
He reached out, felt up her boobs, and grinned. “Feels right to me.”
“Seriously?” She arched a brow and gave him her best dry look.
“Ballplayer mentality,” he offered as an excuse. “You set ’em up, and I hit ’em out of the park.”
“Anyway,” she growled in three distinct syllables, “the club had meetups. Local stuff. People shared their favorite paths. It was fun until the guy who thought he was in charge got pissy with me. He kept directing us to these novice trails suited for parents pushing a stroller. It wasn’t hiking, and I said so. From then on, he turned everything into a competition. The tactic did not work out for him because I’m in better shape, and let’s be honest, do I strike you as a mere female with no sense of self?”
Arnie shook his head. “Fuck, no.”
“Exactly. So after hiking every level one trail in the county, I branched out on my own and found this perfect moment of Zen a few months ago. It’s wonderful, don’t you think?”
She didn’t expect or wait for a reply.
“You passed,” she teased with an elbow nudge.
“Oh, thank god. When you laughed in my face for losing my footing, I wasn’t sure.”
“So you knew this was a test?”
The twinkle in those gorgeous blues and the way his cheeks flushed were Arnie’s unique tells. As they got to know each other better, she was more than casually aware of his unusual psychic tendencies. She didn’t believe it was possible to actually read another person’s thoughts word for word, but still, thoughts had energy. There’d been moments when she sensed him probing. It wasn’t mind reading. It felt more like him tuning in to her vibe. His slight embarrassment suggested he was aware of what he was doing.
He didn’t directly answer and instead replied by teasing her. “Did I adequately display my manliness? Have I earned your approval?”
She snorted. “I highly doubt you need me of all people to validate your masculinity. Didn’t a pretty nurse with a case of the swoons give you a therapeutic hand job after your, um, scrotal trauma?”
He gasped. “Did I tell you that?”
Summer smirked. “I don’t know. Did you?” He hadn’t, but she knew enough from her times volunteering at the hospital to make a reasonable guess.
Thinking he might teasingly play along, she couldn’t hide her surprise when instead, he gave an unnecessary confession in shocking detail.
“She was a physical therapist,” he announced matter-of-factly. “And I wasn’t her first rodeo. After my surgeon calmly explained a period of post-surgery impotence was likely, he suggested a professional handle the matter. Agreeing was easy. The exercise itself was not. I suffered through the indignity of a literal ball handling pro clinically narrating the stages of arousal as she worked my traumatized manhood and forced me to focus on the sensation in my ball, or balls.”
Her eyes were wide as she listened to this revelatory description.
“After preparing me for the possibility of what she called a dry ejaculation, my dick exploded like a refurbished cannon. It wa
s horrifying and beautiful at the same time when a volley of come spurted everywhere.”
“I bet you were relieved, huh?”
“Are you kidding? Every guy’s worst nightmare is something happening to his junk.” He chuckled. “I was okay with giving my life for my country if that’s how things ended up, but I didn’t sign on to lose my manhood.”
“So many ladies would be left in tears.” She was joking, but the surprise for her was how annoyed she was at the thought of him sleeping with anyone but her.
“But my first post-surgery blow job, now there’s a wild story.”
He was trying to get a rise out of her. Mission accomplished, she thought after punching his arm.
“Jealous?” he taunted.
It was so, so, so, so tempting to answer from her knees. What wasn’t easy was pulling her filthy thoughts back from the brink.
Sliding off the rock, she swiped at her backside in case of dirt and pointed off to the right. “A little farther and there’s a mountain stream with a rock formation reflecting pool.”
When she led him through the trees to the clear stream meandering through the wooded mountains, Arnie’s reaction was one of delight. She was in total agreement.
The hidden clearing was her favorite hiking destination. Surrounded by dense woods, the little glade had an otherworldly feel. To her, it was a space out of time. How many centuries had passed while the large rocks weathered? Where did the water begin, and where did it end?
“I love this place,” she told him in a quiet voice. “It’s magical.”
His face transformed. Sunlight filtering through the tall trees made shadows dance across his features. She watched him carefully as he took it all in.
“This is a powerful place.” He extended one hand, palm down. “There’s spirit here. Old energy. Ancient.”
Back in the autumn, she’d brought Reed here. He indulged her fanciful way of looking at things, but in a loving, brotherly way, he also pointed out she was nucking futz. Her dad would have understood—kind of. But when it came to Arnie he not only got it but when he put his hand out, she knew for sure he could feel what she felt. The ancient energy called to her and that’s why she brought him here.
Finding Summer (Nightwind Book 3) Page 23