Slowly, so very slowly he thought it might kill him, he lowered his mouth to hers and tenderly caressed her lips with his. He whispered his lips so lightly across hers she almost had to wonder if he’d delivered a kiss of any kind at all, or if it had simply been her imagination. She began to lift to her toes for a firmer contact, rather than the teaser he’d supplied her, as he pulled away, confused by the conflicting emotions raging through her. Sinking back onto her heels her gaze dropped shyly to the ground as her fingers rose to her lips, still feeling the heat of his breath on them.
Zack raised his hand and cupped her jaw, gliding his thumb over her high cheekbone. Gently, he stroked her flesh, causing her breath to hitch as her eyes widened and her pupils dilated in heightened sexual arousal. Satisfied with her response, he tenderly smiled down at her. He didn’t want to push her, or himself, too far or too fast.
Casting his gaze up the mountain, it looked like they still had some ways to go before they reached their destination. Linking her fingers through his, he gestured upward, signaling that they should continue on their way. He had to look away from her to keep from laughing when it took Amanda a few more seconds to catch up with him. He’d shaken her up and left her wanting. Good.
They’d been hiking for nearly an hour and a half as they’d meandered their way through the forest, and he was getting worried about her ability to make it home if they kept going. He’d noticed she’d been limping slightly for the past twenty or so minutes. About five minutes previously they had crested the top of the mountain, whose base sat just approximately a quarter of a mile behind the project site. He estimated they’d hiked at least three miles total. Now, they’d have to do that going down too. He groaned under his breath. His feet were killing him because he was in brand new boots. Maybe it hadn’t been his best idea to suggest a walk. He hadn’t known she’d take him quite so literally. He should have known better.
“Okay, we’re almost there,” she told him excitedly, she was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet like a school girl. Her forest green eyes sparkled and flashed in a calliope of greens and shone with anticipation. He could have stood there all day just staring at them, they were so amazingly beautiful.
He smiled indulgently at her enthusiasm. “Almost where?”
“Trust me. Close your eyes,” she coaxed. He lifted one brow at her but did as directed, firmly shutting his eyes.
“Hold on to me and step where I tell you, okay?”
Now he was worried. He opened his eyes again. “Amanda, what are we doing?”
“Come on, Zack, live a little!” She giggled.
Ha-ha! he thought with a miserable sense of sarcasm. This, from the girl who’d, a year ago, wanted to off herself.
He sighed in resignation but wouldn’t deny her her fun. “Okay, lead on,” he said somewhat grimly, sparking another giggle from her.
For at least five minutes she carefully led him with his eyes closed, and he began worrying about her gun, again. He felt them leave the shade of the woods and could feel the sun and sense the openness around them as the breeze picked up.
Finally, she said, “Stop and don’t move. And I really mean don’t move! Now…open your eyes.” She firmly gripped his left arm with her right so he wouldn’t move forward, slipping the backpack off his shoulder and resting it on the ground.
He found them standing at the edge of a large white granite table that overlooked a vast stretch of mountains framed by a vivid blue sky. A beautifully wooded dark green valley ran the length of the mountain range. There was a churning river cutting a channel through at the bottom more than two-thousand feet below them. He wasn’t sure how high up they were.
“You can see for miles,” he breathed. “It’s beautiful! Oh my God, Amanda, how did you find this place?” With awe he took in the pristine panorama laid out before them.
“Do you know what the elevation is here?” he asked, looking down. He was still trying to determine the height of the mountain they were on. It was a magnificent view.
“I’m not sure, probably close to three thousand feet. It’s not the highest, though,” she answered. “Mount Davis is the highest in the Laurel Highlands, it’s a little over thirty-two hundred feet,” she informed him, pointing up the valley.
“I decided to explore one day, a few weeks ago, and found myself up here. I thought you’d enjoy it.” She understated, while flashing him another breathtaking smile, and he felt his heart skip a beat. She wasn’t even attempting to be alluring but her siren call reached him nonetheless. He forgot about the wooded view around them and got lost in her beautiful green eyes for a few moments before coming back down to earth with a thud.
“You were by yourself?” he didn’t like that anything could have happened to her and no one would have been around to help. “Amanda, you shouldn’t go hiking alone. What if you’d gotten injured?” She waved off his concerns, oblivious to his worry.
“Turn around,” she directed him. Turning his gaze back, he saw they had just passed through a large grove of beautiful Birch trees, the sunlight was glimmering off the silver-white bark, and green leaves fluttered on their stems in the wind. Wildflowers grew against the border of the forest they’d stepped out of, in soft splashes of color. Their pinks, purples, and yellows, sprang up between and around the granite boulders as well.
“So, what do you think?” she asked expectantly. “Isn’t it simply gorgeous? Like Heaven, right? I feel like I could reach up and touch Heaven from here, we’re so close.”
Zack felt the faintest wave of longing coming from her as she spoke the words, and was reminded of the previous day’s conversation. Her words disturbed him, rather than having their intended effect of simply sharing an appreciation of the natural beauty around them. He didn’t think any discussion of Heaven would have made him happy right now, no matter its context.
She lifted her face, breathing in the scent of the wildflowers and clean mountain air. Closing her eyes she enjoyed the combined sensations of the sun’s warmth and the breeze brushing against her skin, cooling it from the hike they’d just completed. When she opened them again she found Zack standing directly in front of her, gazing at her intently, a passionate fire glowing in his lovely dark blue eyes.
She knew he wanted to kiss her. She’d read his intention from his eyes, even before she’d gotten it from the hands he’d just placed on her upper arms, drawing her nearer to him. But he wouldn’t do it. His entire body tensed from the control he was trying to maintain. He was waiting for something. A signal from her? He not only wanted permission to trespass, he wanted permission to pillage, too. He was being especially careful after the episode in his office. She only thought about David for a fraction of a second before she rose up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his. And, once she did, Zack was the only one she thought of.
As their lips met, Zack growled deep in his chest, a growl of both completion and wanting. She could feel the vibration of his intensity under her palms. His arms wrapped tightly around her, pulling her into him, molding her body to his. His lips firm and moist parted over hers, his tongue lightly traced her lips, seeking entrance, then plundering deep into her mouth when she granted it. He was staking his claim, she innately knew. Telling her she was his, just as he’d insisted in her visions. She wasn’t going to argue. Not right now, anyway. He felt and tasted so good, so right. Her tongue joined in the dance as she explored his mouth, ever so lightly tasting and savoring what she’d found. The real thing was so much better, the feelings she’d garnered in her visions paled by comparison.
Liquid fire ran in her veins as her body chemistry jump-started a long dormant sexual arousal within her. She wrapped her good arm around him pressing herself more tightly against his body. In return she felt him begin to rhythmically press his own need against her, letting her know he desired her and wanted much more than what they were giving each other right now. He was also delivering a promise that she’d like what she’d receive, if she’d only accept.
The kiss went on for long minutes as they explored each other before Zack finally broke away, just slightly, from her. Still holding her close he lifted his mouth from hers. Breathing harshly, he tried to rein himself back. He was checking her emotions, she knew, to see if they were still all right with each other. He was wondering if he’d taken it too far too soon, if she was ready, if she felt the same way he did, or if he had pressed his luck too far.
His eyes met hers as he finally answered her question. “No, Mandy. That was Heaven. What we have right now, is Heaven.”
The echo of his words rang in her mind. He’d said them before. Or was it that he’d say them later on? Sometimes it was hard to keep her past, present, and future tenses straight when she was “re”-experiencing them. This “present” must have spawned his need to keep reiterating the same thought. Then she lost her train of thought completely.
His head descended once more, his fingers cradling the back of her head as his thumbs caressed her cheekbones. He lightly kissed her lips, the corners of her mouth, tracing the line of her jaw to her ear with soft kisses, drawing a full-bodied quiver from her. He gently nipped her earlobe and kissed the hollow behind it, trailing his tongue along her heated skin and down the column of her throat.
Amanda moaned as a fiery ache flared south of her belly button. A long, low “Ohhh!” broke from her when his hand slipped down and cradled the side of one breast and his thumb stroked her nipple, already pebbled hard with desire.
She came back to earth with a thud, realizing they had a lot to discuss and they needed to do that before they lost control of the situation. As soon as she sadly acknowledged that fact she felt Zack pull away in response to her feelings, before she even had to voice them.
“We need to talk,” they both said at the same time, laughing shakily at each other, at hearing the same words.
Zack leaned down and kissed her forehead tenderly. “Are you up for some ‘Truth or Dare’, or rather Truth and Dare?” he asked with a quirked brow and his own personal spin on the childhood game.
Moving away, Amanda’s hand trembled as she opened the backpack that he had carried on their hike and pulled out a light, waterproof, sheet-like blanket with weighted corners. He helped her to spread it out on the flat granite table. They sat staring down at the vista before them, each wrapped up in their own thoughts for several minutes before Zack began. Amanda was willing to be patient. She was in no hurry to explain herself either. These next moments and how they responded to them were going to make or break their budding romance, and she was very worried she was going to scare Zack away. Truth and Dare, indeed! Would he dare?
“I’m not sure how, exactly, to explain to you,” he started out, his tone so sincere and raw it showed the depth of his fear. “To be honest, what I’m about to tell you has ruined every relationship I’ve ever had with a woman. I don’t want it to ruin this one, when it’s only just begun.”
He sounded so despondent that Amanda reached out to him and grasped his hand in hers. “Just tell me, Zack, in whatever way you can. I’m listening.”
Zack looked down at their twined fingers, wondering why this was so frigging hard, and wishing he wasn’t so frigging hard, too. His recalcitrant cock made it difficult to concentrate. He was pretty sure that she knew already what he was going to say, so he just needed to spit it out. The feelings emanating from her right now were patience, calm, curiosity, and an undercurrent of anxiety he assumed was due to what she expected to hear from him. He decided not to fancy it up but just say it.
“I’m an empath,” he stated frankly, while keeping his eyes on the vista and diving into his least favorite topic in the world.
He waited for her to say something, anything. Hearing nothing he became alarmed and looked, searching her face for a hint of what she was thinking. She smiled encouragingly at him. Smiled?
“And…” she urged softly.
“Amanda, do you know what an empath is? What an empath can do?” He pressed, confused by her muted emotional response.
“An empath can read others’ feelings,” she responded, maintaining a light tone, hoping he’d come clean with her about what he’d done. If she got all judgmental, he’d get defensive, and this would be over before it began. She could tell Zack was thrown by her deliberately delivered, casual observation.
“Right,” he cleared his suddenly tight throat and tried again. “Right…only, with me, I can do a little more than that,” he admitted reluctantly.
He stopped, at a not-so-sudden loss for words. He looked past her, over her shoulder, toward the birch trees as he mentally phrased and then rephrased the next part. His blue eyes darkened in nervousness and his brow furrowed.
“What else can you do?” she gently urged him again, keeping her tone soft and non-threatening.
At the moment she felt like the empath. She knew exactly how he felt. What it was like to open up and share this with others. How hard it was to admit to those extras he’d been born with. Of course since she was holding his hand, she was getting a nearly live feed from him about how and what he wanted to say and his struggle to get through it. She was scared to death of how easy it was to read him at the moment, but knew that was because he’d dropped all his barriers and he wanted her to know. He just had to figure out how to say it.
It would be harder for her if she blocked him or he was trying to keep stuff from her. Sure she was a psychic, but normally she picked up on stuff that was readily accessible, open-season kind of things, and of course she had to have physical contact with a person, or their belongings. If someone didn’t want her to know something, she really had to make a concerted effort to ferret it out of their minds, and that wasn’t something she liked to do. No one liked their privacy invaded.
Even with David, as close as they were, they’d fought and squabbled. There were times he didn’t want to be anywhere around her for fear she’d pick up on an angry thought that was simply created in the moment, and hold it against him. She wouldn’t have, because she understood people think unkind things in their rage that they normally wouldn’t. Of course, back when David had been alive she’d only get past thoughts and actions anyway, so she’d pick it up after the fact. Now, she still wasn’t sure how all the future stuff worked. She didn’t know how absolute, or not, her visions were.
Zack was too caught up in his anxiety to pick up on Amanda’s as he finally said, in a miserable voice, “I owe you an apology, and I hope you will forgive me.”
He looked back at Amanda, focusing on her face, and took a deep breath. He couldn’t believe she hadn’t demanded a more thorough explanation yet, and was still very patiently waiting for him to get through this. She definitely knew. No one was this calm, especially not Amanda, he joked to himself. She just wanted an apology and his assurance he wouldn’t do it again, he finally determined. She was right to want one. He would have wanted one, too.
Again Amanda gave him a verbal nudge “For…?”
Here goes nothing, he thought. “I can not only read people’s feelings. I can sometimes, most times, control them too.” She sat, brows raised in expectancy. “And, I’ve tried to control and change yours.”
The ugly truth was out there. Would Amanda dare to accept it, and him, he wondered? Ball’s in your court, babe, he thought.
That took nerve, and Amanda appreciated it more than Zack knew. He really wanted to be in this, for now. She’d see if that changed once she came clean with him.
“Thank you, for being honest. I know how hard it was for you to get that out.” Oh boy did she! “Will you explain to me why, and what, you did?” He’d come clean on the facts, but she wanted to see what he’d say about the details. She knew darned well why and what he’d done.
Zack was stunned at her simple acceptance and her further questioning. It would’ve served him right if she up and left him to find his own way back down the mountain. He tried to pull himself together and looked at her quizzically as he began to get the gist of what Amanda’s g
ift might entail. She did know! He groaned and gave her the simple truth first.
“At first, it was because I was scared for you. Then, once I got to know you better, it was because it hurt me, almost as much as it hurt you, to watch you go through your grief each day. I hated watching you tear yourself apart. You don’t know how many people were, are still, very worried about you.” He stopped again, attempting to read her gaze and emotions. Did she understand?
“Then, that night at the party, after the party, you completely broke down,” he saw her blush and look away in embarrassment and he grasped her hand more tightly between both of his own. “And, I hated myself for not having helped you so much sooner. I felt so awful. I knew you’d been hurting, and I’d let it go on too long and you broke. I could have stopped that from happening!” His voice was raw as he recounted how he’d felt. She could see he was still kicking himself over that and decided it was time to interrupt and make a few points of her own.
“Zack, I appreciate your wanting to help me. Really, I do.” She hesitated, chewing thoughtfully on her bottom lip and trying to figure out how to make him understand where she was coming from. “But how can a person really heal from emotional problems, if they don’t heal them, themselves?”
He waited patiently for her this time as she gathered her thoughts before she went on. “If you think about it, your influence can only be intermittent, not continuous. What happens when you withdraw that support and a person has to stand on their own? It’s almost like a form of withdrawal for them, don’t you think?” she asked gently.
“Amanda, I never intend for my help to be long term. I’ve always kept a policy to only interfere if a person’s life is in jeopardy. I strongly felt that yours was. I was afraid you’d continue to slowly kill yourself, if I didn’t do something to intervene.” The pain in his voice was unmistakable. He’d seriously thought she would have wound up dead. He explained all the times he’d tried to connect with her to ease her pain. He told her the results, too, of what he’d done, which to him weren’t much, but to her had been life changing, life saving.
Amanda's Touch [D.A.R.E.ing Women] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 20