Gifted Connections: Book 3

by SM Olivier

  He grabbed my earlobe with his mouth and sucked on it.

  I shivered with the delicious warmth that spread through me, feeling wanton. I had been more than sated and content after being with Jaxson, but Troy’s words had turned me on, and I could imagine him lying there watching us. I didn’t think anyone had woken up, and I should be mortified, but I wasn’t.

  “Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?” I turned my head to capture his ear with my lips. I repeated the action, he had just done to me. He hissed out my name.

  “Very sure,” he groaned. “Do you know someone who would ease my pain?”

  He rubbed his erection against me. I bit my lip and nodded before reaching down and putting him against my entrance. He grabbed my hips and pulled me down onto him. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and kissed his sensual lips. Feeling the fullness of them against my own. He parted my lips and sought entrance. His tongue darted in and out of my mouth, mimicking the motions of his manhood as it filled me repeatedly.

  I was savoring our embrace and kisses. I loved feeling the warm water lap around us. I waited to find my pinnacle. I fell apart in his arms. I felt like my limbs were as weightless as the water surrounding us. It didn’t take him that long to follow.

  “Thank you,” he muttered. His chest was heaving from our little work out.

  I giggled. “It should be me thanking you. I’m think I’m becoming a nympho. Each experience is so…delicious.”

  He chuckled as he walked me over to the side of the pool. He turned me around and sat down, pulling me in between his legs. The water was at breast level. It took me a moment to realize he had spread some shampoo into his hand. He rubbed my scalp with his hands, and I couldn’t stop the moan that escaped my lips.

  “Lean back,” he told me after a few moments of his blissful ministrations.

  I leaned back as he rubbed his hands through my head. He rinsed all the shampoo out of my hair.

  “I never craved intimacy with a woman before,” he spoke softly as he began conditioning my hair. “I dated, and I had fun but there were no girls I wanted to spend the night with. Do you know what I mean?”

  I nodded. It was hard to concentrate completely on his words. His hands were working some kind of magic on me and I was under his spell.

  “Even before I got my mark,” he continued. “I was the love-them-and-leave-them type. I let them know I wasn’t the commitment type of guy from the very beginning. I knew I wasn’t a good guy, and I never lied about it. I didn’t want to give them any false hopes or expectations. I always thought it was because I saw how ugly love could be. My dad claimed to love my mom, but if that was what love looked like, I didn’t want to have any part of it. I thought love was about fighting and saying words in the hopes of hurting each other. I thought it was about spending a life time of getting to know another person just to turn their weaknesses on them. She loved him so much she wouldn’t leave him. Even though he was abusive.

  “My foster parents didn’t fight. They never fought. Even that didn’t seem healthy to me. It was like, if they ignored the strife in their life it would just go away. They never expressed themselves negatively, and if it was heading in that direction, they would literally give themselves time-outs. My foster dad would go to his den, and my foster mom would go to the kitchen.

  “My foster mom and dad tried to be good people, but even I knew he didn’t have that many business trips to go on, and his weekly poker nights weren’t with the guys. She stayed home and took care of the house, her son, me, and her husband. On occasion he would bring her flowers or jewelry and she looked the other way. She ignored his philandering ways.

  “They were so busy playing their parts in a play of their own making. They stuck to the script and didn’t believe in straying from it. I think when I told her about her own son, she did what she usually did… She hid behind a wall of denial. The wall she always hid behind. I was given the script, but I wasn’t reading my lines. Not the way she wanted me to. Lean back,” he instructed me.

  I leaned back, and he rinsed the conditioner out of my hair. I was now fascinated by his story. This vulnerable side of Troy was endearing. I thought I knew all of his demons. I guess he was adept at hiding them like me.

  He pulled me up by my shoulders. “Lean forward,” he commanded before I felt his soap laden hands rub against my back. His hands massaging the path it took. I hadn’t realized how tight my neck, shoulders, and back were until he began massaging me. “I always loved women. Short, tall, thick, extra thick, skinny, black hair, blond hair, red hair, whites, Asians, blacks, Hispanics; name them and I was fascinated by them. I loved the way you all smelled. I loved the way girls moved. No one was able to capture my attention for long, though. The initial attraction wore off. I grew bored.

  “When I started dating girls it was just for fun. We were young. That’s what we all wanted. “As we got older, the rules changed, but I always made it clear that I wasn’t interested in anything but fleeting fun. After I got my mark, it was just another defense mechanism for me. I embraced it. It was my perfect excuse.

  “Since you came into our lives, all my future visions have you in it. I can’t imagine a life without you in it. When you lay in bed with me I don’t feel claustrophobic. I don’t feel like the walls are closing in on me. I don’t feel like kicking you out of my bed. I try to memorize your every movement, instead. I’m enthralled by the way you gnaw on your bottom lip when you’re deep in thought. I love hearing your sigh of contentment right after you find that spot above my heart. I’m captivated by the way your eyes smile before your lips do when you’re truly happy. I’m fascinated by the little moan you make when you eat something that’s tasty. I especially love the way you fall apart in my arms.

  “I try to soak up everything about you, and I don’t think I will ever get bored with you. You surprise me almost every day. You are a creature full of mysterious, enthralling layers, and I want to find them all. I look forward to spending the rest of my life being surprised by you.”

  I turned around and grasped his face in my hands, trying not to cry at his sweet words. I never knew I was fascinating enough for someone to want to know me like that. I struggled to find the right words to tell him how much his words meant to me.

  I once joked that he should be writing for a greeting card company. His words were so poetic and made my insides melt. No words could do justice to how he made me feel, so I showed him instead.

  We had joined together once more. Then he finished washing me. I then reciprocated the favor. We climbed up to the rear entrance and saw nothing but a blanket of white. It looked like at least a foot had accumulated overnight. It had stopped snowing, but we doubted we were leaving anytime soon.

  We raced back down to the pool to warm back up. That turned into a playful game of tag, and I was losing horribly. He was a faster swimmer than me, and every time I got close enough to touch him, he was back under the water, reappearing on the opposite side of the pool that I was on.

  “Can you guys be any louder?” Jaxson grumbled as he groggily stumbled into the pool. “Do you realize what time it is?”

  I looked down at my watch and snorted. “It’s eight thirty. You sleepy heads should have already been up.”

  “We had a long day yesterday. We needed our sleep,” Noah yawned as he took a seat on the edge of the pool to dangle his feet in.

  “Aww wanna tissue?” I teased as I splashed towards him.

  He gave me a mock growl before kicking water back at me. I ducked under before the water could reach me.

  “How does it look outside?” Remy asked as he lumbered over to the pool, sitting beside Noah.

  “Like we’re stuck here for at least another day,” Troy swam over to the side of the pool.

  “We should probably get some snow to melt. We probably don’t have enough in our canteens to last us until tomorrow,” Jace remarked before he slid a shirt on over his bare chest. “Did the fire go out last the night?” He asked no one
in particular.

  “No,” Jaxson shook his head as he emerged from the water beside me. He pulled me to him and placed a kiss on my cheek. “Good morning,” he murmured. Then he turned back to his brother. “I had to place some wood on it in the middle of the night.”

  “I can’t believe it didn’t wake you guys up,” I said in joking exasperation. “It was frigid in here.”

  “Doubt it,” Drake teased me. “It’s warm in here. Even without the fire. You’re just too tiny to retain much heat.”

  The guys laughed, and I stuck my tongue out at Drake as I latched onto Jaxson’s back, too tired to thread water any longer. I couldn’t touch the bottom. He could. “I’m not tiny, I’m…fun sized,” I joked at the expense of myself.

  “That’s one thing to call you,” Jaxson laughed.

  “Ha ha ha,” I smiled as I pushed off his back. “I’m hungry. I’ve been up for hours. Not all of us chose to laze around.”

  I exited the pool and grabbed a towel off the line we had strung near there.

  I was confused at the silence until I turned and saw all of them watching me. I ducked my head. “Should I swim in clothing?”

  A resounding “No!” was my answer.

  I slipped into one of my sports bra, boy shorts, and a t-shirt. After the swim in the hot springs, I was overly hot now. But I wasn’t brave enough to walk around naked all day, though.

  I didn’t feel like any of the MREs for breakfast, so I pulled out a couple packets of instant oatmeal from my pack. I got my tin cup out and poured some of the water from my canteen into it. I found a large flat rock to place near the fire and placed my cup on it.

  “What are you doing?” Troy smirked at me as he came from behind me dressed in just his cargo pants.

  I looked at him confused. “Boiling my water for oatmeal.”

  “Or,” he picked up my cup and held it between his hands. I could see the water begin to boil within seconds.

  My jaw dropped. I hadn’t thought that was possible. I mean I knew we could produce fire, but I hadn’t thought about the logistics of it all.

  He took my oatmeal packets from my hand and poured them in the cup.

  “I need to try that,” I said excitedly as I went to grab another cup from his pack.

  I climbed up to the exit and scooped up a cup of the fresh powder of snow.

  “Get back in here,” Troy called from below. “It’s freezing out there.”

  “I’m coming,” I giggled as I clutched my cup to my chest.

  I waited until we were back by our fire to melt the snow in my cup. I focused on the snow and imagined it melting. It soon became water.

  “Be careful,” Troy warned right before it started to boil over. “The water can still scald you. Dial it back just a notch.”

  I sat it down and smiled up at him. “I did it!”

  He laughed, pride shining in his eyes. “You did. After we eat, we can collect more snow, melt, and boil some more.”

  “Sounds good to me,” I nodded with a satisfied smile.

  “What’s up?” Drake asked as he sat down next to me with a MRE.

  “I learned how to melt snow and boil water with my hands!” I declared smugly.

  “Should we be worried about the food situation?” Jaxson asked worriedly as he sat down across from us.

  “I was thinking the same thing. We each had six. We ate two. Some of us didn’t eat everything in them, but if we’re stuck here for another day we’ll be out by the tomorrow of the main courses.” Jace commented.

  “I saw fish in the stream down the way. It shouldn’t be frozen yet. We can fill our canteens, too, and melt snow as a last resort. Can we figure out how to catch some?” Remy asked with his brows furrowed.

  “It won’t hurt to try.” Troy nodded.

  “I also have eight packs of my oatmeal left,” I commented. I knew it wasn’t much, but it was something.

  “I got beef jerky in my pack,” Jace added.

  “I have some trail mix,” Remy declared.

  “I saw some watercress, and I can identify other edible plants nearby. We also have stuff for smores, and I have those energy bars,” Drake mentioned after a few moments of thought.

  Noah laughed. “I’m not going to even ask how or why you noticed that, Mr. Brainiac. I have a bag pistachios.”

  “If you bothered to read our survival training guides they gave us,” Drake explained dryly. “You would have seen where they had pages of edible plants found in the wild.”

  I leaned over and kissed Drake’s cheek. “Your thoroughness in everything you do is refreshing.”

  “Everything?” Jaxson said suggestively.

  I rolled my eyes at him with a smile. “Yes everything.”

  The guys laughed as Drake colored under my praise.

  “It looks like we’re going out after breakfast then,” Troy nodded with a look of determination. “I have fishing line, weights, and hooks in my bag.”

  “No one’s going to ask Troy why he has fishing line, hooks, and weights in his bag?” I asked drolly.

  Noah guffawed. “That was something that we did learn in our survival training class.”

  Noah had to take a hiatus from school. He still wanted to be a surgeon someday, but his classes weren’t easy to complete at a distance. Three days a week, Remy, Jace, Noah, and Drake had classes or additional duties depending on where they were in their training.

  “So, while I’m in school learning the quadratic formula, something I don’t need to know for my future, you guys are actually learning useful stuff. Like survival,” Jaxson said ironically.

  “We did our time and they gave you the books too,” Jace said humorously. “You could have been reading them in your free time.”

  Admittedly, I had been slacking where that was concerned, too. I was still playing catch up with one of my classes, and I was trying to rush to get my credits for the semester. My brain was too fried to read anything further once my classes were complete for the day.

  We were doing a distance learning program through Knightstown, but we were still required to go to the learning center everyday with the rest of the high school students here. There wasn’t many of us, but they still had a teacher for us.

  Alex, Micah, and Ella were also in classes with only a hand full of students. There weren’t many people on Paul’s payroll that brought children. In fact, Paul’s own son stayed with his mother. They wanted him to have a normal life or a semblance of one.

  “I’m sure we can find nightcrawlers under the rocks by the stream,” Remy clapped his hands with equal enthusiasm breaking me out of my thoughts.

  “It’s been a while since I went fishing,” I was catching onto their excitement.

  I loved how we were working together to make a potentially bad situation into a positive one.

  “It’s cold out there,” Jaxson began as Noah and Jace started to shake their head emphatically.

  “I wouldn’t go there if I were you,” Noah warned. “Do you remember what she did yesterday?”

  Jaxson sighed and looked at me with a pained expression. “You can’t blame us for wanting to protect you.”

  I smiled. “I don’t. I’m glad you guys want to look out for me, but a little bit of snow won’t hurt me. There’s no way I want to sit here idly while you guys are out there.”

  “Fine,” Jaxson frowned. I could still see he wasn’t convinced by my argument.

  Chapter 9

  We bundled up after breakfast. We all paused outside of the mouth of the cave and took in the view.

  “I’m going to miss this,” I admitted. “It’s so relaxing to be unplugged and separated from the real world. It’s like we’re the only ones left in the world.”

  “I agree,” Remy declared as he slipped up behind me to embrace me. “That long hike to get here was well worth it.”

  Back at home, Remy had taken me to his quiet spot. It wasn’t like this, but it was away from the normal grind. He had liked to go camping and unplug a
t times there. He promised to take me there with him one day, but we never had the opportunity to.

  “Do you ever think that one day we can come back here?” I asked expectantly.

  “I would say yes, but it seems like every time we make plans, things get turned around,” Jace said wryly.

  “We passed plenty of spots I could probably land the helicopter on, so we don’t have to hike as far,” Troy stated.

  “One day we’re coming back here,” I declared emphatically.

  “Sounds good to me,” Drake nodded with a smile. “But maybe next time we’ll bring air mattresses. That cavern floor isn’t the most comfortable.”

  “Deal,” I laughed.

  We started to trudge towards the stream. From our vantage point, it didn’t look like it was that far away. I didn’t take the depth of snow into account though. In the low spots it was about a foot deep. In the drifts it nearly reached my hips.

  Remy saw that I was struggling and suggested that I walk behind him, and I gladly accepted his offer. Jaxson gave me a pointed look, and I had to refrain from sticking my tongue out at him. I still didn’t mind our little journey to the stream.

  When we reached the stream, Remy and I immediately turned over some rocks and found the worms under several rocks. Jaxson, Noah, and Jace volunteered to go with Drake to find some edible plants while we slipped the worms on hooks.

  Troy had already rigged the hooks and weights onto the lines, so we all we had to do was bait the hooks. Troy set off in the direction of the lake, while I finished baiting my hook.

  “There’s some down here,” Remy called in a loud whisper as he moved further down from us.

  I went down to where he was pointing, and it looked like the streams surface wanted to freeze over. The fish still seemed to be active, though, as they lazily swam around.

  I watched as Remy wrapped a lot of his line around his hand and dropped the hooked and weight line side in. I imitated his movements, trying not to fidget that much. Not that I thought it mattered.

  “It shouldn’t be that long,” Remy stated. “I doubt many people come here to fish. That’s why there’s a lot of them in this area. I can’t imagine them being too leery to take the wor—”