by Mary Wine
Well, a little walking would solve that dilemma. The sun was sinking below the forest now. All the trees were bathed crimson-gold. Loren pulled the fresh air into her lungs and savored it. The smog in the Los Angeles basin must have made her extra-sensitive to the crisp smell of the mountain air.
Because it even tasted good.
“Your conditioning is good.”
Loren managed to keep her smirk inside her mouth as she jumped around to confront her company. The people around here didn’t seem to make contact with the forest floor when they walked. That or she needed her hearing tested.
“But then, any female who can become a firefighter would have to know something about endurance.”
A pair of emerald green eyes proceeded to run down her body. Loren took in the man they belonged to. He was in prime condition just like Rourke. As he raised his face she noticed the same cut to his jaw that Rourke had. But the way his green stare inspected her lacked the spark of electricity that her body felt every time Rourke looked her over.
It was really annoying to discover that she had Rourke’s stare committed to her memory.
“You wear your emotions on your face.”
“Most people do.” But that was a very strange comment. In fact, If Loren was any judge, she’d say the man was critiquing her. There was a nagging little need crossing her brain to straighten her back in response.
“I’m Loren, and you are?” Loren extended her hand with her greeting but her company simply stared at her hand. He kept his own hands hooked into his belt. His eyes dropped to her hand before returning to her face as he waited to see what she would do.
“His name is Jared.”
The pulse of electricity came with just his voice. Loren folded her arms over her chest and tried to force her body into calmness. Her nerves refused to listen. She couldn’t hear Rourke coming up behind her, but she could feel him. His face came into view but he was looking at her companion instead of her.
“He’s my brother.”
“No kidding.” Two pairs of green eyes shot straight to her face but Loren simply smiled. “I think I’ll just get myself moving before the testosterone levels get to me.”
Jared considered Loren as she moved back toward the house and Rourke narrowed his eyes. His brother finished looking Loren over and raised an amused looked at his sibling.
“Careful, Rourke, I’d say you’re jealous.”
“We’re under quarantine, Jared.”
Jared grinned and slid another look at the house. “So, don’t kiss me.”
Rourke raised a fist and sent it toward his brother.
“Hey, if you two are gonna fight, can I watch?” Toby leaned over the porch railing and smiled.
Rourke yanked his arm back and turned toward his young houseguest. Guilt sprang up in response to letting the young teen witness his rather questionable behavior. Jared tipped his head back and laughed. Rourke curled his fingers back into a fist.
“You guys are cool.” Toby came down the stairs and grinned at them. Loren did an immediate about-face as her son walked toward Jared. Toby stopped in front of them and studied them with his blue eyes. It was an intense scrutiny that drove home the kid’s intelligence level even if it was encased in the lanky body of a teenager. “You know, because there are four of you with green eyes in your family, it throws the average of psychics with green eyes off. Makes the scale look like green eyes are a factor in the level of psychic effectiveness, but you have to discard that kind of data when more than one subject comes from the same gene pool.”
“Toby…” Rourke couldn’t quite finish his question. The possibility that the kid had crossed into his personal information was too much of a personal disaster for him to absorb.
“You know, I could really show the Army some things on keeping their files encrypted. If you don’t keep tabs on the really hot hackers, you’re sitting ducks in cyberspace.”
Jared shot his hand out and hooked it into the kid’s shirtfront. Rourke grabbed his brother’s wrist to keep his brother from connecting with Toby’s mind.
“Let go of my son!” Loren didn’t wait to see if Rourke’s brother would obey her. The air was heavy with a hidden threat and she reacted to it on an instinctive level. She wasn’t sure just what she was trying to protect her child from, but she launched herself at Jared Campbell before he finished whatever he was doing to Toby.
The man fell back as her body hit him. They went down onto the forest floor and her body snapped as the full current of electricity surged through her. Her vision went black and Loren sucked in a great gasp of air as she fought off unconsciousness. She struggled against the blackness as she forced her lungs to keep working. Her eyelids felt as heavy as bricks as she tried to lift them.
“Aw, Mom. I wanted to feel it.” Whatever “it” was, Loren couldn’t get her body to stop quivering. It was a good thing she’d pushed both Jared and herself onto the ground because her legs simply wouldn’t have supported her. The muscles were twitching and pulsing in an uncontrolled frenzy of movement.
“What is it?” Loren used her temper to control her body. She shoved her legs beneath her and stood up. The world swam before her eyes but she forced herself to stand. Pointing her eyes at her son, she raised a single finger at him.
“What exactly are you trying to discover now?”
“But, Mom… I might never get another chance to meet one of the psychic units. They’re way exclusive and totally classified. Besides, it wasn’t really hacking. Dr. Jasper said I could look at classified stuff now ‘cause I work for him.” Toby shuffled his feet and shrugged his shoulders in response to his mother’s narrow look. Loren knew that look all too well. There was a definite knack to raising a child with Toby’s intelligence level. While a normal kid would experiment with simple rule testing, Toby had to challenge the very boundaries of his nation.
“Tobias, I swear, I’m going to send you to an Amish family for a year! There won’t be so much as a single volt of electricity for you to get your paws on, much less a computer!” Loren watched as a kaleidoscope of color began swirling around her head. The more she looked at the colors the less her body hurt.
“But, Mom, these guys are really cool. You should see the file on their mother. Her psychic rating is off the scale.”
“Put a cork in it, kid.” Jared snarled his order and beat at the dirt that decorated his pants from their fall. Loren held her hand up toward the man. This was a parent’s job and she’d do it.
“Toby, there’s this idea known as privacy. Digging around in peoples’ personal information makes them cranky. When it’s classified information, it makes them mad.”
“I’m not mad. But I’m going to rip your memory apart.”
Loren turned on her heel and faced Rourke’s brother. “My son has clearance for classified information but that doesn’t mean he has a bit of sense. Judgment is something that only maturity can develop. You must not be a parent or you’d understand how kids can be sometimes.”
“I have a son.”
Jared Campbell issued that with pure pride. Loren watched him before looking at her son. “Maybe you should find out how he did it first.”
“Meaning what?” Jared Campbell crossed his arms over his chest exactly like Rourke did most of the time.
“Well, if a fourteen year old can find those files, sort of makes sense to find out how he did it. Unless you want to take the chance of someone else doing the same thing.”
“Excellent idea.”
Relief flooded her because Loren wasn’t exactly sure just how she was planning on dealing with the man if he made another try for Toby. Desperation had a way of keeping a person running on adrenaline. Once the threat was gone, so was that amazing little chemical.
Loren just didn’t understand it. For some reason she was completely bone-tired. Her eyelids were trying to fall closed and she couldn’t let that happen. Toby was all she had and she couldn’t let anything happen to him.
Where her mi
nd might have been determined, her body wasn’t able to keep up. Loren couldn’t stop the shrilling colors of that kaleidoscope as it surrounded her and turned her entire world brilliant shades of color. She forgot about keeping her eyelids open. They slipped closed just as her body collapsed onto the forest floor with a boneless grace that only unconsciousness could produce.
* * * * *
“Toby.” Her last thought had been of her son, and it was the first word that sprang out of her mouth when she woke up. Loren flung her body upwards and tried to kick the blankets away from her legs. But they were tucked into the mattress of the bed and held against her struggles.
That slight delay was plenty of time for her brain to snap to attention. Los Angeles County ran twenty-four hour shifts for its firefighters. Loren had learned to jump out of her bed and leave sleep behind just like every other member of the department.
Besides, the sight that greeted her eyes was definitely worth her full attention. The wall in front of her was a huge window seat. Just now, a brilliant half moon was hung in the right corner of it. The stars were spread out over the rest of the view and it was quite literally stunning. Loren couldn’t remember that last time she’d seen the full brilliance of the night sky. There was too much artificial light in the city and the stars lost a great deal of their luster.
As she’d sat up, the thick comforter that was on the bed slid down to her waist. A wave of steady heat bathed her right shoulder and arm. Turning her head, Loren looked at the fireplace beside her. It was ten feet away and took up most of the wall. The fire had died down but the coals were glowing red.
“Toby’s fine.”
Loren snapped her head around and found Rourke stretched out over a sofa that was centered on the opposite side of the master bedroom. His bedroom. Her eyes widened as she noted the very masculine color of the bedding she was currently sleeping in.
“Do I want to know how I got into your bed?” Loren slid her eyes back to Rourke and watched the way his mouth turned up slightly into a grin. His eyes moved over her in a lazy movement that caused heat to travel up into her face again.
“I tucked you in, nice and tight.”
Rourke showed her an even row of teeth as he said that. He raised his arms and tucked them behind his head. The sofa was an oversized one but he dwarfed it with his frame. His feet were crossed and propped up into the far corner. There was a blanket lying over his legs and a pillow with the same sheeting design pushed under his neck.
He was sleeping on the sofa? Loren blinked her eyes in rapid movement before running them over Rourke again. The man was truly sleeping on that sofa while she was in his bed. That made absolutely no sense. None.
“Why am I in your bed?”
Rourke let out a low laugh. He just couldn’t help it. She looked so very…nervous sitting there in his bed. Her pale green eyes were centered on him as she waited to hear just why she found herself in the one place he’d bet she’d never thought to be.
“My room’s the only one with a fireplace next to the bed and you are suffering from shock.” Rourke lowered his feet and moved off the sofa as he took a moment to assess Loren’s condition. She was rosy pink now. But there were black circles ringing both her eyes from the shock his brother’s probe had left behind.
Shock? Loren understood that well enough but why had she been suffering from it? Her memory recalled the incident with amazing clarity a second later.
“Where’s Toby?” This time, the kick she aimed at the bedding was strong enough to rip it free. Rourke sat on the edge of the bed and settled his hands onto her shoulders, firmly pressing her body back down onto his bed.
“He’s asleep down the hall.”
“Your brother better not have touched him.”
Rourke felt the emotion surging through her and pressed her down again. “Jared didn’t know Toby had clearance. He won’t bother your son now.” Loren settled down and stopped struggling to escape his hold. Rourke savored the moment of acceptance. He liked touching her but their current topic of conversation was a shining example of just why he couldn’t let his desire get out of hand. His life was just too damn dangerous for her.
Loren really must have been overtired. That had to be the reason she was enjoying Rourke’s hands so much. She could actually feel each and every finger that was closed over her bare shoulders. His hands were far larger than her frame and his grip was draped slightly down her arms. It was a solid hold and she liked it.
One hand moved and traveled down the length of her arm. Loren turned her head to watch it smooth over her skin. The difference in their skin tone caught her eyes as Rourke made the return trip back up her arm. Heat spread from that point of contact toward the rest of her body.
He didn’t stop at her shoulder. Instead that firm hand moved up her neck and cupped her face bringing her eyes back to his. The emerald intensity fascinated her. Loren stared into his eyes as she recognized how aggressive he smelled. It seemed to be the very definition of the idea of maleness.
The rough tip of his thumb pressed down onto her lips. The sensitive skin of her mouth felt the calloused surface of his hand. The sensation intensified his appeal, because he wasn’t soft. Instead his hands reflected his strength. His hand returned to her face as he settled his mouth over hers. His lips were firm as they gently explored.
The heat rose even higher as it sought out the companionship of his body. Lifting her hands, Loren slid them over the hard planes of his chest and sighed. His mouth trailed away from hers as he moved down the column of her neck.
Rourke pressed her body toward his. There were a hundred places he wanted to taste, one at a time. Moving up, he raked his fingers through her hair. The unruly strands were free and tumbled forward. Twisting his fingers into it, Rourke pulled the scent of it into his lungs. It was the strong scent of the woman he wanted to make his own.
“I want to make love to you, Loren.”
Oh God. She knew that. Could feel it, even taste it right at that moment. The husky sound of his voice absolutely terrified her. She just couldn’t let a man get so close. Memory slashed across her mind and invaded her body’s bliss. The same hands that held so much strength could cause so much pain.
Fear quickly evolved into panic and Loren shoved against her companion. She couldn’t, wouldn’t survive it again. Not ever again.
Their minds had been fused together as firmly as their bodies. Rourke felt her emotions and struggled to understand them. Emotions were tricky things for a psychic. The streams of sensation were rarely easy to understand, but he understood fear when he felt it.
Loren struggled against his hold as Rourke considered her panic. It was more than her conscience. He’d made that mistake back on the beach. Assuming her reluctance to answer their attraction was due to her morals. Catching the back of her head, he held it steady while he searched her eyes for the answer.
“Easy, Loren, relax.”
His voice had lost its husky edge and Loren pushed against his chest to further the distance. Rourke’s arms relaxed their hold but kept her firmly within their circle. Loren pressed her palms against his chest as she tried to break that embrace. She could still feel the heat radiating from his chest and she had to move away from it and away from her own female weakness.
“Let me go.”
Her words were cut with fear. Rourke felt his face set into a frown as he considered that. Sexual attraction was basic and part of every human on the planet. Puberty unleashed the hormones that made the genders seek out each other. It was society that taught women to associate shame with their sex drive.
Rourke watched the way Loren strained against his hold. Her body twisted just like an animal that was snared in a trap. This was definitely more than Loren’s conscience. She was afraid of him. Women didn’t fear men unless they learned to the hard way.
“You kissed me, Loren.”
Her eyes flew to his face in horror. Loren covered her mouth with her hand and felt her body shudder. She had kis
sed him. The idea rolled over her fear and caused her to simply stare at Rourke in utter confusion. She didn’t understand.
“I’m sorry.” And she was. Loren stared at the man in front of her and felt herself crumble. Not wanting a man in her life was one thing. Proving that she could make it on her own was important, but had Chris really made it so she couldn’t have a man if she decided she wanted one?
She was so tired. Every last ounce of energy she had flowed away from her body, leaving her flesh frail. She relaxed into Rourke’s hold because she couldn’t hold her body away from his any longer. Her eyes watched his cut into her face before she gave up and let them slip closed.
Everything melted away and Loren went willingly enough into the oblivion of sleep. She didn’t have to think anymore. For now, that was enough.
Rourke didn’t release her body. Instead he enjoyed the weight of her in his arms. He could still smell her. He let the sensation cross his senses. Desire cooled as his mind searched for the reason behind her emotions. Loren could suppress her natural sense of fear enough to graduate from a fire academy but the idea of having sex threw her into a panic.
That didn’t happen without a reason.
Settling her body back into the bed, Rourke yanked the comforter back into place before he returned to the sofa. Propping his arms behind his neck he shifted his mind into sharp focus.
Being psychic was an interesting thing. One major difference was Rourke had explored the human emotion range in more detail than any one person could understand. Emotions themselves fascinated him. The non-logical thoughts could drive men to unbelievable acts of bravery. Emotion could also result in the most brutal of horrors.
The scars that emotional tides left behind, changed people and made them who they were. Loren muttered in her sleep and kicked at the bedding again. Anger crept up his spine as Rourke considered her. Loren wasn’t a woman who let fear paralyze her. No, she dealt with her demons and moved on.
Except for one thing. She’d never moved on from her marriage. Instead, she dug a hole and buried it. Suspicion burned through his brain as Rourke considered just why she would have remained married to a man who had left her. Maybe it had been her mother’s instinct. If her husband had known about Toby he would have shown up to see the kid.