“Wow, Jake! That's awesome. Will you be spending the holidays with her?"
“Whoa now, Susan. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Just because I met her for lunch does not mean she's my best friend now."
“But holidays are times you spend with family. You know. Christmas? Thanksgiving? I haven't spent Christmas with family since I went to college."
Jake disengaged himself from her grasp. “Susan. I'm not going to change my life over one lunch we had together. I'm only exploring possibilities right now.” Jake looked around. “What are you doing? Cleaning out your sock drawer?” A lazy grin spread across his face. Susan decided to let him change the subject away from his mother. She had more important things to talk to him about.
“We are not talking about my socks right now. We were talking about our relationship—or lack thereof. I think we should get back to that."
Jake looked back at her from his sock musings, his gaze sharpening. “I'm not going there again with you. We are dating. Period. End of story. And the next time I catch you forgetting to lock your door, I'm moving in to keep a better eye on you."
Susan's stomach did a flip. “You want to move in with me?"
Jake seemed to consider it for a moment and then nodded. “Yes, I think I do."
“Wait a second, Jake. You can't be serious."
“Of course I'm being serious. Scratch that. I want you to move in with me. This apartment is tiny.” He looked around as if he found her apartment distasteful.
“My apartment has character. Your apartment is completely boring. It's all white walls and boring carpet."
“When's your lease up?"
Susan thought about living with someone—someone like Jake. Waking up everyday of her life and seeing him there beside her. Sharing meals. Talking about mundane things such as what happened at work. Making love. Having his stuff all over her apartment. And she knew, in that moment, that it would be wonderful. It sounded perfect and she wanted it more than she had wanted anything in her life. “Not until March,” she answered him with a smile.
“Mine's up in December, so it looks like we live here until March and then we'll go looking for a bigger place."
“Jake, you're crazy, you know that?"
He grinned at her. “Yep.” Then he looked serious. “Are you pregnant?"
“No.” A one-word answer was all she was going to say to him about it.
Jake looked at her for a long moment then nodded to himself. “We'll have kids later, I guess."
Susan looked at him and made herself blink a couple times to make sure she hadn't dozed off and was having one of the weirdest dreams in history. Of course, she wouldn't have had a dream that included Jake busting her cleaning out her sock drawer. “Jake, we haven't even talked about my problem and how you feel about it and you've got us shacking up and having children. Don't you think we should back up a bit here?"
Jake's face became serious. “I've been thinking about your gift, Susan. It's going to have to be something we work on because what I do for a living means that I see things that would give the average person nightmares. I don't want to come home from work and pass that stuff onto you by accident."
Susan's mind was stuck in a circle. Why wasn't he more upset about this? He didn't seem to be running from her, which was odd. Why not? “Why aren't you dumping me over this?"
Jake's mouth tipped up with his inner amusement, although she could tell he was fighting it. “The way your mind works is absolutely fascinating to me. First, you agree to live with me and now you ask why I'm not dumping you. Why would I? I've been trying to date you for almost a year now, Susan. I just got you and as far as I'm concerned, I'm keeping you. We'll work through all the issues we have to if we both want this badly enough."
“Jake, you're not going to be able to keep things from me,” she warned.
“Susan, I don't want to keep things from you.” Jake placed his hands on her shoulders and she felt a jolt. “Feel that? Every time, the electricity jumps like that between us.” Jake leaned down to meet her gaze without her having to strain her neck to look up at him. “What we have is so damn rare, Susan. It's once in a lifetime. Your ability to True See is a minor bump in the road for us, compared to the up side."
“You say that now, but when I steal a memory from you that you don't want me to have, you'll change your tune.” Susan agonized over the fact that she was opening herself up to her most vulnerable, but she had to lay it all out on the table for him.
“No, I won't.” Jake's voice held a finality in it that didn't leave her any room to argue. “I want you to share it all. I only want to be careful I don't hurt you in the process.” He grinned at her. “So I was thinking we could experiment with it."
“Experiment?” The man was insane. He wanted to play around with something she had tried to deny for fifteen years. He wanted her to use her gift on purpose. Again. “Jake, this isn't some toy you can play with."
“Of course it isn't. But I don't know how you can write it off as all bad if you haven't even explored fully what it is.” Jake pulled her down to sit on her bed among all the socks. “Why is it that you only See things that are bad? Don't you think you could See good things too?"
Susan's mind started churning through the possibilities. “Like what?"
“Like lust, for example. Couldn't you See a really highly charged sex scene? I mean, let's say I was thinking about that little episode we had last Saturday at my apartment. Could you See it?"
Susan looked down at her hands, thinking about the secrets she'd stolen from her mother. What if she Saw them, not because of her mother's guilt as she had thought, but because her mother's emotions were charged with lust? How crazy would that be? The thought creeped her out. She wasn't sure she wanted to think about her mother lusting after anyone. “I don't know but it would make sense that I could, I guess."
Jake pulled her more into the center of her bed, tucking his legs in Indian style. Susan mirrored him. He seemed so pleased with himself. He looked adorable sitting surrounded by her socks. She grinned at the thought. He would not like it if he knew she thought he was adorable.
“Okay, here's what we are going to do. I'm thinking about a little scene that is way sexy. You touch me and drop your shields.” He looked at her, all expectation.
Susan reached out and took his hands in hers. Closing her eyes so she wouldn't see his face, since he was starting to make her feel embarrassed, she dropped her shields and Saw.
They were in his bedroom. It must have been this past Saturday before she found the second body. Susan had never Seen a vision in which she was a participant and that alone made the experience different from any other that she had ever had. She Saw herself lying naked on his bed, but she felt all the things Jake was feeling, intertwined with her own emotions.
* * * *
He wanted the woman on the bed more than he had ever wanted anyone else in his life. He wanted to spread her legs and ram into her as hard as he could. He wanted to feel her come around his shaft, hear her scream his name again and again. But they couldn't, they didn't have any protection. He leaned down and kissed her stomach, thinking about their child that might even now be growing there. It made him hard and heavy for her but he ignored his own needs, looking up at her face to see her reaction. God she was beautiful.
As his mouth traveled over her hips, he could tell she was completely aroused. He widened her legs and breathed in her scent, loving the fact that she smelled slightly of him now—that their scents were beginning to become one. As if he had marked her as his. She was his.
He lowered his mouth to run his tongue inside the folds of her most feminine place, loving that she arched for him. He kept the pace deliberately slow as he began to lick her clitoris, holding off her climax as long as he could, wanting to bring her maximum satisfaction. He was so turned on, he climaxed when she did, coming on the sheets between her legs, surprising himself with his lack of control. Holding her hips still, he ran his tongue ac
ross her one last time, reveling in her taste and the involuntary jump her body gave as it remembered the pleasure he had just given it. His. She was his.
* * * *
Susan opened her eyes slowly, fully turned on by knowing that he found her so beautiful and that he had been turned on by giving her pleasure. “God I love you,” she said, the words escaping without her even being aware she had said them.
Jake leaned over, his brown eyes turning cinnamon with his desire. “Good, because I love you.” His lips brushed hers. “I want you to sleep every night curled up beside me. I want you to love me forever. You are the woman for me, Susan. I knew it eleven months ago when we first met."
Susan looked at Jake, her stomach flip-flopping and her mind bouncing with joy. He loved her, all of her, including her so-called gift. He loved her so much that he had given her the first positive experience she'd ever had with her True Seeing. She felt like he had released her from a curse. “Want to move in tonight?” she asked, still not sure if he'd been serious.
Jake nodded. “Okay."
“It's official then. We have graduated from a thing, to dating.” Susan needed to hear the words.
“No, Susan. We passed dating and are now officially courting."
Susan eyebrows drew together in a line. “What?"
Jake grinned. “That's Gordon's word. I think it's in between dating and marriage."
Susan thought about it for a few minutes and knew he was right. They had something here that was more than mere dating. “Courting sounds good to me."
“Come on.” Jake pulled her out of bed. “You can help me pack up my stuff at my place."
“Jake, you're not moving in here for real are you?"
“And have you change your mind? We're taking the first load of stuff over here tonight. I can take the drawer you emptied out for me.” He grinned at her, delighted by her startled reaction. “Grab a pair of socks from the bed and your tennis shoes. We've got work to do."
“Wait,” Susan said, reaching for the phone beside her bed. “I need to call Briles."
“Why?"
Susan felt her face turn red, but tried to hide it. “We had plans tonight."
Jake looked exasperated. “But you already had plans with me."
“I had back-up plans with her, in case you dumped me.” Susan grinned at him as Jake threw up his hands.
“What am I going to do with you Susan?"
Her face grew serious as their gazes locked. “Love me?"
“Count on it,” Jake said.
The End.
About the Author:
Leigh Wyndfield has been writing for years but finally decided to get serious in 2003.
When she finished her first book, True Seeing, she was surprised to learn she'd written a Romantica novel, especially since she can't watch the kissy bits during movies. She lives in Virginia.
Enjoy free short stories and upcoming book excerpts from Leigh Wyndfield at her website, www.leighwyndfield.com or email her at [email protected]
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