The Touch

by Jaymie Holland

  She frowned. “You could have just unbuttoned it.”

  “What’s the fun in that?” He left the shirt on her, but kept it open so that the rest of her was bared to him. “I promise you it will be the best sex ever.”

  She shook her head. “You’re injured from hitting your head and I’m pissed.”

  He pinched her nipples. “The only thing that’s hurting me at this moment is not being inside you.”

  Chandra squirmed on his lap, making his erection even more painful against his pants. She tried to slide off his lap but he pressed one of his hands at the small of her back.

  “Wade,” she said. “Don’t do that.”

  He pinched one of her nipples harder.

  She sucked in her breath and he gave a low growl as he brought her to him and suckled one of her nipples before moving to the other. He nipped down on her. She moaned and rubbed herself against him, riding him through his pants.

  He couldn’t take much more of this.

  With one hand he unfastened his jeans and moved her just far enough back that he could quickly free his cock and balls.

  “Wade, this is nuts,” she said just as he grasped her by the waist and brought her down hard so that his cock rammed into her core.

  Chandra shouted and Wade sucked in a deep breath. She was slick, tight, and felt incredible. He could barely keep from coming at the first stroke.

  She went from argumentative to having a determined and desire-filled look on her face. She placed her fingertips on his shoulders and rose up before slamming herself back down on him.

  “That’s it, baby.” He palmed her breasts and thrust up to meet her as she rode him.

  Her eyes were focused on him, and she didn’t release his gaze for a second. “This time you’re not stopping till you climax.” Her hair fell over her face as she bent, her lips close to his. “I don’t care what arrives at your front door. A bomb can go off for all I care.”

  He would have laughed but he was so hot, so close to coming, that all he could do was clench his jaw.

  She nipped at his lower lip. He groaned and she slipped her tongue into his mouth in exploration.

  Chandra continued to ride him hard. Her thighs clamped his, her core sheathed his cock, and he could smell her sweet citrus scent mixed with her woman’s musk. He was on overload. It wasn’t going to be much longer before he exploded inside her.

  Wade reached between their bodies and rubbed Chandra’s clit so hard she gasped, threw back her head and gave a combined moan and cry. Her body began to jerk and vibrate and he felt her core clamp down on his erection as her orgasm rocked her.

  His climax hit hard and fast—so fast he didn’t see it coming. His balls drew up tight and pure sensation shot through his cock and inside Chandra. She continued to ride him, taking his semen and drawing it out of his body until he couldn’t take it anymore.

  When the last shudder passed through him, he grasped her hips and drew her close, holding her body tight to his. She wrapped her arms around him, slipping her fingers into his hair, and sighed as she buried her face against the curve of his neck.

  Chandra breathed deeply of Wade’s musky scent along with the smell of their sex. Despite the fact they’d just been shot at, Wade’s house ransacked and they were trapped in a high-tech impenetrable shelter, she felt safe in his arms.

  The stinging in her palms and knees started to make themselves known as the pounding of her heart slowed and the adrenaline rush faded away. It was unbelievable what they had just been through, and then they’d had sex, too. She had the absurd desire to giggle, scream and cry all at the same time.

  Her palms burned and she sighed. She would have to take care of her injuries now that they had time to slow down. She eased away from snuggling him and almost melted all over again when he gave her a sexy smile and stroked hair from her face.

  “I think I have glass in my palms and knees.” Chandra looked at her hands that were a little sliced on the fleshy part, only a tad bloody.

  “Damn, woman.” Wade raised them both out of the chair so that they were standing, and he was no longer inside her. “You should have told me you were injured.”

  She shrugged. “It was low on the priority list.”

  Wade tucked himself back into his pants and fastened them, then reached into a cabinet. He drew out a medical kit, opened and searched it, and brought out a pair of tweezers.

  “Sit.” He pushed her into a chair next to him as he settled onto the one they had both just been on. “Let me see your hands.”

  Chandra jerked away from him, protecting her hands against her body. She didn’t want the Touch to invade her mind right now. “I’ll do it.”

  He studied her for a long moment then kept his eyes on her as he held out the tweezers and she took them.

  She looked away as she focused on pulling small bits of glass and dropping them into a waste can that Wade drew out from beneath the counter.

  “I think it’s time you explained why I can’t touch your hands,” he said in a voice that told her he’d had enough.

  Chandra stiffened and said in just as hard of a tone, “You owe me an explanation more than I owe you one.”

  His jaw tightened. “I’ll tell you as much as I can. But I’d like you to go first.”

  After she studied him for one long moment, she looked down and took the last tiny shard out of one palm. Before she started on her other, she met his gaze again. “I have the Touch.”

  She paused to see his reaction, her stomach twisting. But his features were unreadable.

  “If I have hand-to-hand contact with anyone, I always see visions of their future and sometimes I see something terrible is going to happen.” She sighed before continuing. “My visions always come true. There’s no changing fate.”

  Still he studied her, not saying a word. For some reason that gave her the confidence to go on. “It has always been very painful—pain shoots throughout my head.” His eyes were dark as he continued to look at her with an unfathomable expression. “The first time it didn’t hurt was when you touched me yesterday.”

  “You have the Touch,” he finally said, very slowly.

  For a long moment Chandra studied him. “You’re PIA, aren’t you,” she stated.

  He gave a single nod.

  Chandra looked away from him to concentrate on her other palm, afraid of what he was going to say.

  “No one has been known to have the Touch for at least ten years.” His voice was calm and he didn’t appear to be judging her.

  She shrugged even though the movement didn’t seem so casual. “My mother, my grandmother and so on have had it for generations. My cousins and sisters, too. When it started to die out and none with the Touch were to be found, my grandmother chose to hide it rather than for us to deal with the PIA’s demands.”

  At that she bit her lower lip. If this leaked out, the PIA would find a way to force her and her family to work for them. One rationalization had always been that the government didn’t want those with the Touch in the wrong hands. “You’re putting a lot of faith in me by sharing this,” he said and Chandra nodded, but she continued to look at her palm while taking out another small shard of glass.

  Wade hooked a finger under her chin, forcing her to raise her head and look at him. “What did you see when I touched you the first time?”

  Heat rushed her face. She didn’t want to tell him. Eons could pass and she still would want to keep it secret.

  His eyes were mesmerizing as he held her gaze with his. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”

  “Ah…” Chandra swallowed and tried to look away but he brought her around to face him. She took a deep breath. “I saw us.”

  Surprise filtered through his gaze. “What about us?”

  The heat in her face was so intense she thought she’d burn up. “We were… God, Wade, this is embarrassing.”

  “We were fucking.” His statement was so blunt that all she could do was nod. He gave her that sexy grin t
hat made her want to melt all over again. “I would say that was an excellent vision.”

  “It was so intense.” Still a little embarrassed, she a hard time keeping her eyes focused on him. “So real. And when you touched my hand there was no pain at all—just a sort of connection with you.”

  He caught her face in his hands and leaned forward to press his lips to her forehead. When he drew back he released her and Chandra ducked her head and found the last piece of glass in her other palm.

  “After the bastards shot the door lock and I grabbed your hand and dragged you into the closet, you had visions of what was happening,” he stated.

  “Yes.” Chandra used the tweezers to dispose of the shard in the waste can. She started working on her knees and he remained silent as she picked out the remaining pieces.

  “I saw what they were doing at that very moment,” she continued. “That’s never happened to me before. Usually I only see the future. Then when you fell and I grabbed your hand intentionally, it was instinct. I saw what you wanted me to do—that I needed to push that button.”

  While she reached into the first aid kit, she visualized the shadow falling and then suddenly Wade was on his back on the floor. It had to have been a trick of the lighting.

  Chandra pulled out a piece of cloth and poured disinfectant on it before using the cloth to clean her palms and knees. She hissed from the slight pain before wiping the blood that had trickled from her knees to her ankles.

  She tossed the cloth into the garbage and looked up at him. “There’s a connection between us,” she said softly. “I don’t understand or know why and that scares me.”

  He smiled and caressed her cheek with his knuckles. “We’ll figure this out together.”

  Chandra couldn’t help but smile back at him. “Yeah. We will.” But she hardened her expression. “Your turn.”

  Wade’s attention jerked to the monitors and he swore beneath his breath, “About damned time.” He breathed an obvious sigh of relief. “Mike Fields is here with backup. They’re sweeping the place, probably looking for me.” He caught her cheek in his hand. “At least we had our time together.”

  “You’re not getting off that easy,” she said as she put the bottle of disinfectant with the medical supplies before following Wade across the cool linoleum floor. “When we’re out of here and we’re alone, you are going to tell me what’s going on.”

  He merely grunted as he grabbed his gun from where it had fallen on the floor and stuffed it in the back of his pants, beneath his over-shirt.

  A sudden gut-clenching sensation told Chandra to touch Wade’s hand. Pain shot through her head as if in warning before she grabbed him. At the same time he hit the button to open the trapdoor.

  A vision slammed into her so hard she almost fell.

  “No!” she shouted. “Close it! Close the door!”

  He threw a look at her over his shoulder and started to hit the button again.

  It was too late. The trapdoor was completely open.

  Weapons thrust up through the opening.

  Rifles were trained on both Chandra and Wade.

  ***

  Chapter 7

  Relief swept through Wade. Chandra’s shout about not opening the trapdoor had sent an alarm through his gut until he saw officers he recognized when he looked down.

  Two of the men with weapons trained on them were agents he knew well and he was certain they were simply prepared in case someone was holding him hostage. He didn’t recognize the two women who also pointed rifles at them, which was odd.

  “What in the hell took you so long?” Wade shook his hand from Chandra’s. He felt the hard press of his gun against his spine as he grasped the handrail of the metal ladder to start climbing down, but the men and women said nothing. They kept their weapons focused on him and Chandra.

  He stopped, stone cold. Instinct told him something was wrong. Seriously wrong.

  “Come on down, Branson,” came a familiar voice.

  Wade let out a breath as he recognized Mike’s voice, but that sensation of something being off swept over him again.

  “It’s a trap,” Chandra whispered behind him, anger in her voice.

  He quickly assessed the situation. If Chandra was right, they needed to remain in the shelter. But it wasn’t possible with the trapdoor completely open and weapons aimed at both of them.

  Wade cast a look over his shoulder that he hoped was reassuring. Chandra’s features told him she believed in her vision—that they were in some deep shit.

  His gut was telling him the same thing.

  “If something’s wrong, I’ll get us out of it,” he said low enough that only Chandra could hear.

  “Come on, Branson,” came Mike’s voice again. “What in the hell are you waiting for?”

  Wade’s gut clenched as he climbed down the metal ladder, his boot steps ringing in the unnatural silence. When he reached the bottom, the two men backed up, their rifles—M14’s—still aimed at him. The women had AK-47’s pointed at Chandra.

  Oh, yeah, something was wrong when these men and women were wielding that kind of firepower.

  The room-sized closet was crowded and he didn’t have the space to reach for his Glock and take them down if it came to it.

  He frowned and looked at the two agents he knew. “Valdez? Richmond?”

  Rick merely motioned with his gun for Wade to step away from the trapdoor and toward the entryway of the closet, but Wade didn’t move.

  “Get the woman, too.”

  Mike’s voice caused Wade to swing around. Mike’s sharp jaw was tense, his blue eyes icy cold, his blond hair free of a stocking cap, unlike the men and women around them.

  “The bitch stays with you.” Mike had his Beretta trained on Wade. “Raise your hands and lock your fingers behind your head. Valdez, check for weapons.”

  Fury burned through Wade, hot and swift as he slowly did what Mike told him and laced his fingers at the back of his head. “What in the hell is going on, Fields?” he asked as Valdez patted him down for weapons and removed the handgun from his waistband.

  Mike kept his features impassive as he looked past Wade. “Get the woman,” he said. “Now.”

  One agent’s rifle clicked as she cocked it. “Get your ass down here,” she said to Chandra.

  Wade ground his teeth as he heard the soft sound of Chandra’s bare feet on the ladder. Fingers still laced behind his head, he turned just enough to see her climb down from the attic’s trapdoor. When she was finally in the large closet, she wrapped her arms around herself, holding her un-buttoned shirt tight to her.

  “Pat the woman down,” Mike said with a smile that looked as if he were amused.

  Wade clenched his fingers tighter behind his head. It would take only one punch to deck the bastard—if there weren’t so many weapons and Chandra wasn’t in danger. He could shadow shift and they’d never be able to stop him. But Chandra…

  Mike continued, “Wouldn’t want to take the chance she’s hiding any weapons.”

  Wade growled low in his throat as Valdez moved his hands slowly over Chandra’s curves, front and back, obviously taking his time and enjoying touching her which only made Wade want to kill him twice as bad. Valdez’s hand brushed Chandra’s fingers. She shuddered and winced as if she felt pain and that only made him angrier.

  After Chandra was checked for weapons, Mike forced them to walk out of the closet while he backed up, staying in front of them, never removing his handgun or his gaze from Wade who still had his hands behind his head.

  When he and Chandra walked into his bedroom, Wade scanned the room to see that another two women he didn’t recognize were there with high-powered rifles. Shit.

  Chandra reached Wade, her arms still wrapped around her belly to hold her shirt together, and she looked at him with eyes that seemed to say, “What now?”

  Mike waited until Wade and Chandra were in the center of the circle of the seven men and women. All wore black shirts, pants and boots l
ike Wade normally wore when he was on a night mission.

  Wade turned back to Mike. “Why don’t you tell me what the hell is going on here, Fields?”

  Mike looked calmly at Wade. “Where is it?”

  With that one question, Wade knew exactly what it was Mike was looking for.

  #

  Heat washed over Chandra. The microchip. That had to be what these people wanted. She’d had the vision to take it in order to protect it from these people and to help Wade. Every bone in her body told her she was right.

  The pendant burned hot against her bare chest. There was no way in the world she was going to let them know she had it.

  When the man called Valdez had run his palms over her body, taking advantage of his opportunity to touch her, she had been repulsed and it had taken incredible effort to keep a rein on her defensive arts training. She’d wanted to take him down so badly her teeth ached. No doubt his training outmatched hers…

  The moment he’d brushed his hand over hers it had nearly made her pass out. She’d seen exactly what his future held.

  He had none. He would die soon. How or when she didn’t know—not yet.

  Wade still hadn’t answered Mike’s question. Wade simply stared at the man holding the gun on him.

  A muscle ticked in Mike’s jaw. “Where have you hidden it?”

  Chandra looked from one man to the other. Did Wade think it was on the back of that painting?

  When Wade didn’t respond again, Mike stepped forward, grabbed Chandra’s hand and jerked her toward him.

  The pain from the cuts on her palm were nothing compared to the pain from the Touch. It was so intense it nearly drove her to her knees. She saw that Mike was definitely looking for the microchip that held key information. But what?

  Her mind whirled as another possibility hit her. Had Wade stolen the chip to begin with?

  No. Everything within her told her he was protecting it, not stealing it.

  Shadows and death also swirled through her head, but she didn’t know whose death, or what the shadows were about.

  In the seconds that it took for Mike to jerk her to him with her hand in his strong grip, she saw all that and more. Images spilled through her mind, so fast she almost couldn’t keep track of them.