by Jillian Neal
“Oh good,” Adeline rushed to him. “We should go.”
He glanced at his watch. “Ok,” he hesitated as he took in Adeline’s mood, “but we have over an hour, sweetheart.”
“I don’t want to be late.”
Logan clearly decided not to fight a losing battle. He took the granola bars and banana his mother offered him on his way out the door.
“Rainer,” Mrs. Haydenshire smiled sweetly, “Stephen left the keys to the truck on the table by the door.”
“Thank you. As soon as Em’s ready, we’ll head into town.”
“I’m taking the boys into D.C. today, to the children’s hospital for their check-ups. We’ll be gone a while, I’m certain.” Mrs. Haydenshire didn’t sound too thrilled with her plans for the day. Rainer offered her a condoling smile, which made her laugh. “Yes, well, last time I took them, Keaton kicked one of the nurses. So this time has to be better, right?”
Rainer tried not to laugh. “I think there is a definite possibility that it could be better.”
Emily came down the stairs with a glum disposition. She was wearing one of Rainer’s Ioses t-shirts, her hair was in a tangled mass on her shoulders, and her bottom lip was protruded slightly.
Rainer grinned, and tried not to think how adorable she was when she pouted. Her current expression was slightly less dramatic than the one she’d worn the night before, when Governor and Mrs. Haydenshire had sat down with Rainer, Emily, Logan, and Adeline. They’d informed them that since they would be moving into a home of their very own in a few weeks’ time that they didn’t feel it was appropriate that the couples be sharing bedrooms in the farmhouse, before they were married.
Logan and Emily had put up a fight, but Rainer and Adeline had kept quiet and listened to the verbal sparring match.
The Governor triumphed with a final “You’re living in our house, and you’ll follow our rules.” So, save the indignant huffs from Logan and Emily, that had been the end of it.
A smirk crossed Mrs. Haydenshire’s face as soon as she took in Emily’s solemn glower. “Good morning, sunshine,” she sang, with more than a hint of sarcasm.
Emily rolled her eyes as Rainer bit his lip in an effort not to laugh. Mrs. Haydenshire shook her head, and forced a kiss on Emily’s cheek as she scooted by her to ready the boys for their appointments.
“Why don’t you go get ready?” Rainer pulled Emily close to him. He let his hand slip under the t-shirt she was wearing and gave her a whispered growl as he discovered there was nothing underneath it.
She grinned and wiggled her hips for him. All thoughts of rushing to the hardware store quickly evaporated from his mind.
“And,” she drawled. Rainer tried to remember what he’d been planning to say, before she’d thoroughly distracted him.
“Well, I was gonna say why don’t we get ready, and we’ll get breakfast in town, and then go pick up the lumber for the deck and porch. But now I’m thinking that, in a very few minutes, we’ll have the whole house to ourselves, Miss Haydenshire.” The plans he alluded to made Emily shiver deliciously.
“Oh really?” she teased, and he gave her a look that said there were many things he planned on doing that morning and most of them were to her.
“Well,” Emily whispered, with her tone full of sass. “Why don’t I go up, and get in the shower and....” She traced her hand over Rainer’s zipper line. The motion made him ache for more. “…as soon as Mom leaves, you could join me."
Her eyes enchanted him as she made plans all her own. Unable to contain the desire that had begun coursing through his veins as soon as she’d entered the room, Rainer wrapped his arms around her and devoured her mouth with his own. He let one hand trail back under her shirt. He hiked it up and began grasping and squeezing her backside hungrily. He held her face tenderly with his other hand as he formed her lips around his own.
Mrs. Haydenshire cleared her throat loudly, which had them reeling apart. Emily quickly righted her shirt. Rainer and Emily’s physical relationship didn’t bother Mrs. Haydenshire as much as it did her husband, but Rainer gathered that she also didn’t want to see it played out in her kitchen.
“Rainer, dear, I think you and Logan need to get the guesthouse finished quickly.” She raised her eyebrow to let Rainer know he needed to tread carefully.
“Yes, ma’am,” Rainer agreed as he lowered his clasped hands to try to hide the effect Emily had just caused.
“All right you two, we’re off.” She was holding Keaton, and had Henry’s hand. Neither of the toddlers looked willing to leave peacefully. “Go to the hardware store and work on the house,” she insisted as Rainer and Emily nodded their understanding. Once she’d exited the kitchen door, Rainer grimaced.
“I’m pretty sure your parents hate me.”
“They do not, but she’s right. We do need to move ‘cause I want to be able to do you whenever I want.” She took his hand and guided him out of the kitchen as Rainer growled heatedly.
Guesthouse and Home
“This thing is so slow,” Emily complained. Rainer chuckled his agreement. The extremely satisfied smile she’d been wearing since their time in the shower had Rainer feeling like a king, but she was now frowning at the dash of the truck.
Her father’s Ford F-100 circa 1965 was a classic. The bed was thoroughly rusted, and it topped out at around forty-five. It had belonged to Grandpa Haydenshire, and Governor Haydenshire used it around the farm to haul lumber or whatever needed to be moved from one point to another. Governor and Mrs. Haydenshire occasionally took it out for a drive when they went on a date or wanted a little time alone, but none of their children really understood this practice.
After their breakfast, Rainer drove the truck into the loading dock of the hardware store. They moved around the store relatively quickly, with Rainer pointing to all of the lumber and decking materials they would need. When he had everything, he helped the store employees load the wood into the truck.
An hour later, Rainer eased the truck down the fields towards what was to become their new home.
He kept what they’d done in the shower that morning and what he could do with her on a regular basis as soon as he built her the house planted firmly in the forefront of his mind and worked quickly.
Emily helped him unload the lumber. Then he glanced at the plans he and Logan had worked up the night before, after Logan had soothed Adeline to sleep in Emily’s room.
Rainer decided that he needed to up his abilities before he started training with Vindico and Iodex, so he summoned and over-torqued all of the power tools.
He began cutting the lumber to the dimensions he needed. He felt the electricity flow through his body, and knew that as long as a Gifted person worked carefully and pushed only a little at a time, he could gradually add to the amount of energy his body could withstand. He edged the amount of electricity pulsing through him slightly higher with each step as he worked.
“Damn it,” he dropped the drill instantly as Emily rushed towards him. He flipped his hand over to reveal angry, red, burn marks.
“Rainer,” Emily panicked.
“I just forced too much through it without cooling it fast enough. I think I burned it out.”
Emily shook her head, and then held his hand in her own. She closed her eyes, and she was instantly moving her energy through him. She soothed and healed him.
Rainer was a natural-born protector. It was in his blood, and he was one of the more powerful of all the shields. This made his energy extremely hard to penetrate. The will to protect oneself was inborn, and ultimately grew to become the Ioses shield. His body didn’t even fight her anymore; he no longer had to force himself to let her in. It was an automatic thing now, and he reveled in that knowledge. She moved her hand over his, and a few moments later he was healed.
“Thank you.” He kissed her forehead as she grinned at him.
“Be careful, please. I love you, and I want to move out here, too, but I want you safe.”
“I promise.”
Logan and Adeline returned a little after two.
“Damn,” Logan was stunned as he took in the completed back deck. Rainer was cutting the wood for the front porch. “Man, somebody tells you that you can’t get it on with my sister ‘til something’s done, you get it done!”
Rainer laughed, “Yeah, well, tell me how today went, and then pick up a saw and help me out.”
“What can I do?” Adeline requested sweetly. She looked much calmer than Rainer had expected.
Logan kissed the side of her head. “Just stand there and look gorgeous,” he teased.
Emily returned from the farmhouse in the Hummer, bringing more water and snacks.
“Adeline, how’d it go?”
“Well, work was really great. I was assigned a Medio to train me, and I got to assist with a delivery because I’d been in the obstetrics training group that volunteered up there last year. So, that was really neat.”
Rainer nodded. He wasn’t certain he’d ever heard Adeline talk so much at one time.
“My Mentor’s name is Brad, and he’s been a Medio for about two years now. He works with the obstetrics practice that I’m hoping to work for someday.”
Rainer glanced at Logan. He knew Logan Haydenshire like the back of his own hand. He caught the slight scowl when Adeline mentioned Brad’s name. He didn’t want her training Medio to be a guy.
“And after that....” She turned her head to the side and lifted a portion of her jet-black hair. She revealed two places where relatively small sections of hair had been cut very close to her scalp. Logan instantly wrapped his arm around her.
“Then they took blood. It was way more than I thought they were going to draw. Medio Sawyer said that Mr. Stariff had requested more than one vial. So, I guess it’s to prove that I’m not using. I healed that up as soon as they were done.”
“Well, I know you’re glad that’s over,” Emily insisted.
“Oh!” Logan remembered suddenly with a teasing look in his eye. “You won’t believe who I ran into while I was hanging at that coffee shop across from the hospital.”
“Who?” Rainer quizzed as he picked up the saw again, and measured one last time before he made his cut.
“Fergus.”
Rainer rolled his eyes. “I’m still furious with him.”
“You’refurious with him? Imagine if Adeline had drunk that stuff he tried to give her. It would’ve showed up on these tests.”
Shocked disbelief rocked through Rainer; he hadn’t even thought of that. “Yeah, man, you’re right. Hey, I’ll hold him down if you want to beat the shit out of him.”
“Maybe later. Anyway,” Logan helped Rainer edge the support beam between the ground and the porch roof, “he had a girl with him.”
“One who’s not related to him?”
Logan laughed, “Yeah, and she appeared to be there by choice.”
“Maybe we’re being too hard on him. I mean, he did help me catch O’Ryan when he keyed Em’s Jeep, and he did get Connor out of trouble with his mom when he plastic-wrapped the Auxiliary building.”
“Maybe. He apologized again when he saw me.”
“Did you know the girl?”
Logan shook his head as he summoned, and shoved hard to move the beam into place.
“Never seen her before.I mean I could tell she was Gifted.” Logan shrugged. Rainer nodded as he summoned, and he and Logan lifted the next beam.
Emily pouted as Rainer walked her to her bedroom, several hours later. He was exhausted from working on the house, and he’d been determined not to break his promise to her parents that he would only sleep in Logan’s room and not with Emily.
He was too tired to have done anything but sleep anyway, but he didn’t think that would make any difference to her parents. As he kissed her good night, Rainer received a broad mischievous grin. He squeezed her backside when she turned.
“You know, if you come in here, I’ll let you squeeze other things,” she gestured to her breasts.
“Emily Anne, go to bed,” Governor Haydenshire shouted from his bedroom. “Alone!”
With a grimace, Emily blushed, and Rainer blew her a kiss as he let his footsteps echo down the hallway. He wanted the Governor to know he was headed to Logan’s room.
Moving Day
For the next two weeks, Adeline insisted on driving herself in Logan’s Accord to the hospital every day so that Logan could work on the house.
Adeline and Emily helped them do everything, from laying hardwood flooring to installing countertops. All of the Haydenshires came by to help out when they were able and, the day before Rainer and Logan were to begin working for Iodex, the house was complete.
Every night, Logan and Rainer would fall exhaustedly into their beds at barely nine o’clock. They’d pushed their muscles and bodies further and further each day to speed the process along.
They were careful, always heeding Governor Haydenshire’s warnings. Pulling too much energy across your body could be very dangerous, and if a Gifted person took it too far, it could be deadly.
Rainer and Logan reveled in Governor Haydenshire’s praise as they walked through the house. They pointed out all of the upgrades and improvements they’d made.
Things did get mildly uncomfortable as Rainer and Governor Haydenshire helped unload the new mattresses and box springs, along with the queen headboard and footboard that Emily had picked out. They carried it into what would soon be Rainer and Emily’s room.
“I think I’ll just let you and Logan set this up,” Governor Haydenshire shuddered slightly as he exited the room.
Connor and Patrick drove down an old breakfast table from the storage barn, along with a few cushioned side chairs, and a well-worn couch. Emily and Adeline were in town with Mrs. Haydenshire. They were picking up shower curtain rods, soap dispensers, and toothbrush cups for the new bathrooms. As he tried to will away his nerves over starting at Iodex the next day, Rainer smiled. He was pleased with everything they’d accomplished.
“Boys, I do want to thank you,” Governor Haydenshire commended. He stared at the wall, and refused to look either of them in the eye.
“Sir, I’m pretty sure we should be thanking you for letting us do this,” Rainer gestured to the house. Governor Haydenshire shook his head.
“Well, you’re welcome for that, but I wanted to tell you that I do remember being twenty-one, and I really do appreciate your following the directive your mother and I gave you about the girls. That was very respectful, and I appreciate that.”
Rainer stared at the floor as Logan nodded uncomfortably. The fact that they’d slept in their own beds had very little to do with Governor Haydenshire’s request. It had much more to do with the fact that they were simply too exhausted to have sex after the way they’d forced their bodies to withstand more and more energy transformations with each passing day.
“No problem, Dad,” Logan’s face colored rapidly.
“All right, well,” Governor Haydenshire looked relieved to be able to change the subject, “they’re delivering your new mattress in a few minutes, right?” he asked Logan. Adeline had been thrilled to purchase a bed frame and mattress set with her first paycheck from the hospital. She seemed to finally feel like she was contributing to their relationship.
“Uh, yeah,” Logan choked.
“And you two can get them set up?” Governor Haydenshire quizzed. The boys nodded their agreement. “All right then, I’m gonna get back up to the house. I may take your mother out to dinner if I can talk Patrick and Lucy into keeping the twins tonight. She’s taking this kind of hard.”
Guilt quickly took up residence inside of Rainer. He felt like he was taking away not just Emily from her parents, but Logan as well.
The girls returned, a little while later. Mrs. Haydenshire was trying hard to hold in her tears.
“Mom,” Emily huffed. “We’re still on the same farm.”
“I know, but that doesn’t mean I won’t miss you.”
Emily rolled her eyes and sighed. “You’ll still see us all the time.”
“You promise you’ll still come up for dinner, and to see the boys?”
“Of course, Mom,” Logan offered immediately. He hated it when his mother cried.
A few hours later, Rainer sank onto the sofa and pulled Emily onto his lap. The shower curtains had been hung, the bathrooms arranged, and the beds assembled. Emily had hung most of their clothes and used the dresser and chest of drawers she and Rainer had picked out, to store the rest of their clothing.
“Let’s order pizza,” she urged excitedly.
“Sure, baby,” Rainer handed her the phone. He let his head fall back on the sofa. He was exhausted.
“Are you too tired? Do you just want to go on to bed?” Emily had been panicked over Rainer’s exhaustion for over a week.
“Sorry,” he shook his head and rubbed his hands over his face. “I’m fine, baby.”
“Geez, Em,” Logan huffed as he collapsed on the love seat with a beer. “He did all this for you! He’s been working like a dog. Cut the guy some slack.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I know how hard you’ve been working. I’m just worried about you, and I miss you.”
Rainer smiled and shook his head. “I’m fine, and I miss you, too.”
He moved to the new kitchen and pulled a Dr. Pepper from the refrigerator. He was certain the caffeine and extra energy would help. Emily ordered several pizzas, and Rainer tried not to think about what the next day would hold.
Logan joined him in the kitchen as the girls flipped through bridal magazines.
“We’re ready, right?” Logan quizzed nervously
“I hope.”
“Well, I mean, we’ve been working like hell. I’ve never been able to pull as much across me as I can now.”
“Yeah, and your dad says Vindico is the best, and he’s training us since we got appointed to the Elite team.” His reassurances dwindled as he willed himself to believe what he was saying.
“I bet he can do some crazy shit,” Logan admired reverently. Rainer chuckled; he had no doubt that was true.