by Ava Delany
He sat, his jaw still somewhat slack. Brie’s smile widened. Perhaps he felt the same intense amazement she did. Her gaze traveled his strong jaw, and exhilaration prickled her skin at the idea of making him as flustered as he’d made her.
Ian closed his mouth. “That’s fantastic. I must look like a fish chasing its next meal.” He made gasping motions.
“I’m glad you came out to meet me. You’re pretty funny. I like that in a man.” Brie toyed with her necklace, drawing the locket up and down the gold chain, and her stomach did an impressive acrobatic flip when his eyes followed the movement.
His cologne, the scent of spices and trees mixed with some masculine aroma, wafted to her nose. She bit at the inside of her lip and breathed it in. Her body warmed, and she shifted a bit closer.
”Your i-com and mine are programmed for the same ring: island sounds. I love it, makes me think of a vacation I just have to take some day.” His cheeks pinked in the most adorably innocent way.
She sat on the stool next to him. “Oh? Oh yes.”
“Fantastic.” He closed his eyes and put a hand to his head. “What a great conversationalist. Here I am trying to impress you, and I’m coming out with some brilliant comments.” Thick lashes shaded his beautiful green eyes, when his gaze met hers. Her heart skipped a beat or two before resuming an irregular pattern. “You have me searching for intelligent things to say and coming up short. I mean, you’re the stuff epic poems are written about.”
Her face warmed. She’d received compliments in her life, but this beat “you’re so gorgeous” by a mile. And it wasn’t a line. She didn’t always appreciate her gift, but she was grateful for it now. She could sense his honesty. Her mouth wouldn’t work, her hand froze on the chain, and somewhere deep inside she began to tingle in a familiar, though long forgotten way. A way that made her ache.
“So, uh, what do you do?” His hand dropped from his head to cover those eyes as though he’d made a mistake, and Brie was sad to see those amazing flecks of gold go.
“I’m a student at Cal State working toward my Masters in Psychology. Sometimes I volunteer at a local shelter for the homeless in Victorville, and I hope to offer free counseling to underprivileged women while I finish school.” Brie sat back and crossed her legs, hoping she looked more confident and relaxed than she felt.
“I’ve volunteered at that shelter before.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. Last Thanksgiving.”
They talked about the facility and swapped stories, and after a while, the words came easier. After twenty minutes, they’d ordered an appetizer and two colas, and gone through the small talk, which usually preceded a meaningful conversation. She liked hiking, rock and roll, and Dr. Pepper. He liked gardening, classical, and orange juice. They both loved to read. Everything he said seemed so familiar. There were no surprises. Almost as if they knew each other, but didn’t realize it. Best of all, his honest and shy demeanor was refreshing, compared to overbearing guys like her ex.
The bartender, a round Hispanic man who looked like a good-natured grandfather, came to their table. “These are from the man over there.” He jerked his head toward the other end of the empty bar as he sat a beer and a margarita on the bar, then followed their gazes to the vacant stools.
“Weird. I saw him there a minute ago. Oh well, he paid already, so enjoy.” He smiled and walked away.
Ian’s right hand trembled and moved toward the beer. He covered it with his left.
Brie placed a hand atop his. Mmm. Big, strong hands. “Are you all right? You’re a little pale.”
“Fine, fine.” His Adam’s apple bobbed.
“Well, Buster sounds like a sweet boy. I hope I can meet him sometime,” Brie said, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear.
He licked his lips, which drew her gaze from his shaking hands to his full mouth.
“I’m sure you will.” His shyness fled as he spoke. “I like you a lot.” He brought a knuckle to her chin.
“I like you too.” A strange vibration, different from her usual tingle, began in her skull. Don’t flip! Not here. Not in front of Ian. She didn’t want to have to lie to him.
But she didn’t flip. Instead, her body burned.
Brie hoped her face didn’t show the sudden and almost unexpected thoughts running through her mind. How would his strong arms feel, pulling her close? Would his lips be as soft and warm as they looked?
She picked up a napkin and fanned her warming cheeks. What was wrong with her? She’d never had thoughts like this about a relative stranger before Ian had walked through the door. Except perhaps for in her dream, or vision, or whatever it had been. Of course, she’d never before had this sense of having known someone she couldn’t possibly know.
It wasn’t in her nature to be that forward but now she wanted to be. She wanted to stand up, straddle his lap, and kiss him hard. The draw was almost more than she could bear.
Ian leaned in, placed a knuckle beneath her chin, and pulled her mouth up. He rubbed his lips across hers in a gentle caress. For a moment, they shared a breath, in and out. Then he deepened the kiss. His tongue met hers in gentle exploration, and desire made her skin crackle with need. Something about him called to her like no man ever had before—the familiarity comforted and electrified her at the same time. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sighed.
He ran his hands up and down her back. The gentle caress lit a fire inside her. A simple kiss shouldn’t have such power.
She moaned and leaned into him, pressing her breasts against the firm wall of his chest.
“You two are going to have to take it somewhere else.”
Brie broke off the kiss, glanced toward the bartender, and smiled apologetically. “Sorry.”
“You want to get out of here?” Ian’s gaze met hers, all embers and flames, like something from a dream.
Brie nodded, entranced again. Ian stood, swiped his card to pay, and held out a hand. Brie all but floated with him toward the door. Her fingers curled in his hair as his truck raced along the road. She desired him, and had since he first walked into the restaurant, but now it was as if something pushed them toward the next step. Things were moving faster than nature intended. The buzzing in her head screamed it, but her body, and even her heart, ignored the protest. She was ready for orgasm, and in spite of the unnatural feeling driving her, she couldn’t bring herself to fight it. She wanted him, wanted this.
She kissed his neck, moisture building between her thighs. In moments, though she knew it must have taken longer, they pulled up to a cabin-style house. Then he was at her door and helping her down from the seat before she realized he’d moved.
Ian’s mouth met hers again as they glided up the walk. She couldn’t stop herself from touching him. Not even for a minute. He tripped on the stair, and she fell with him, laughing. He stood, holding out a hand to her and a moment later, they were inside. His fingers explored her skin, sending shocks of sensation snaking along her flesh. She fought the urge to jerk her panties to her knees.
She shouldn’t be doing this. Would he understand, if he discovered who she was?
Brie ripped his shirt open.
Here she was, doing the very thing she’d wanted to avoid.
Buttons clacked to the tile and rolled across the entryway.
Giving herself to him without his knowing who she really was. Did that count as a lie? None of it mattered because she couldn’t stop her hands as they ran over his chest and neck.
He snarled and jerked her dress off her shoulders, kissing and licking her collarbone and throat.
She should be fighting the impulse to touch him, but she couldn’t convince her fingers to stop. Their relationship, if that’s what this was, hadn’t developed on truth or lies. It hadn’t truly developed at all. Still, in spite of that, she wanted nothing more than his skin on hers.
The cold wall against her back didn’t penetrate the heat radiating through her. His lips met hers, his tongue finding its way into
her mouth again. His touch seemed so familiar and so right. Oh, to forget reality. To close her eyes and sink into the pleasure of it. Of him.
The need overwhelmed her, slithering along her skin toward her most delicate places. He pushed up her skirt. She shoved at her panties, lifting her legs to help them fall. She pressed her nose to his neck. He smelled amazing. Like some fantastic spice, cloves maybe. And cedar or pine.
Incredible.
Ian jerked her bra beneath her breasts and his mouth caught one sensitive tip as his fingers slipped inside, rubbing against her most sensitive spots. She moaned and pressed her head back into the wall. God his skin was so hot against hers. Electric arcs of passion snapped between them, running along her skin, looking to find a way beneath it. This was all too fast. It couldn’t be real.
“Yes. Please. I need you,” Brie cried out and dug her nails into his firm shoulders.
He straightened, his lips exploring hers. She slid her fingers down the hard muscles of his abdomen and to the top of his jeans. She needed him inside her. God, now. She pumped her hips in time with his thrusting fingers and all thoughts of halting fled.
“Thank God,” she said as he stuck a condom wrapper between his teeth and ripped. “At least one of us was prepared.”
“Like a good boy scout,” he panted, “I’m always prepared.”
She giggled, but when he lifted her leg, hooking her thigh across his, her smile faded. Something deep inside her connected with him as his palms slipped behind her and he brought her up, supporting her against the wall.
Her sudden weightlessness shocked her. “Don’t lift me. You’ll hurt yourself.”
“I am hurting.” He pressed himself into her opening and moaned.
Brie clung to him, wanting all of him—more. Hard flesh drove into her waiting body. Desire washed over her, driving her mad with its power. Currents of passion flowed their way along her skin as the sensations built deep inside her.
First, a trickle.
His teeth and tongue found all her secret spots.
Then a wave.
She strained against the wall, her body shaking.
Finally a deluge.
Ian thrust one last time and she moaned, her insides exploding into forceful orgasm. She buried her face against his neck, letting herself get lost in him. He pulsed deep inside her, pressed to her quaking body, and shuddered.
He kissed her, and she held tight to his shoulders as the stinging in the base of her skull abated. His breathing slowed, and he lowered her to her feet. She drew her panties up her wobbly legs as he buttoned his jeans.
Brie had never done this before. Not this soon. The frantic urgency of the tryst had been unbelievably sexy, but very out of character. And out of her control.
Almost like a flip.
“Well, I’ve never done anything like this before.” She let out a nervous giggle, not sure what else to say.
He smiled, rubbing his hands along her arms. The gesture seemed so natural. As if he’d done it a hundred times. It comforted her in a way nothing had since her mother’s death.
Placing a finger alongside his chin, she winked and said, “Get me some food, then I want to meet this dog of yours.”
<><><>
What in the world happened?
Ian still felt a bit shaken as Brie pulled him across the living room toward the kitchen. She’d been sexy in her demure red dress, but he’d never been the type to go to bed on the first date. He’d never gone to bed…without a bed.
It had been seriously hot though. They’d have to do it against the wall in the future. Or perhaps across the table.
But the strange compulsions to do things he hadn’t done before—like drink beer and watch football—tainted the moment a little. He needed his mother’s gift for understanding. If he talked to her, she might know something about the bizarre happenings. Maybe she’d even painted something helpful already. If she had, she would be able to give him answers, even if they didn’t make sense yet.
He grabbed a beer from the fridge, popped the cap, and took a swig.
What the hell?
He hadn’t bought any beer in the first place. Now there seemed to be an endless supply in his refrigerator. “What the hell is this doing here? This whole thing is driving me insane.” Was there a pooka plaguing him? A pan or sprite playing tricks? He thrust the beer toward the counter. It tipped, spilling.
He grabbed the bottle and righted it then stared, with widespread hands, at the beer pouring onto the floor. Brie placed a hand on his shoulder, guiding him back a step.
“Calm down. No need to cry over spilled beer.” She smirked, an adorable tilting of her lips. It put him at ease. A nod of her head drew him to the table. They sat, and she watched him for a moment, brows furrowed. “So, tell me what’s happening here.”
“I don’t know. It all started earlier today.” Before he realized it, he’d told her the whole story. Strange behaviors, claws, black-hole eyes, child-like fears, mental health concerns, the whole ridiculous tale. He went on for almost an hour and she sat listening to him in silence. She never had a “you’re crazy” look on her face. Never the frozen smile, the blank stare, or the crease of concern on her forehead he’d kept expecting.
When he finished, she sat back, finger to her lips. “This explains a lot…”
“No diagnosis of certifiable?” It still surprised him that she hadn’t left the instant his story had begun. Or even the second he’d asked her to leave the bar with him. “I don’t suppose you will want to see me again. Outside of a local psych ward anyhow.”
She surveyed him for a moment, lips pursed, then smiled. “You know why I got into psychiatry?”
He shook his head. Ah, perhaps this turn of the conversation would give him a chance to say something without it coming out as the gibbering of an imbecile, or worse, a loon.
“When I was a young girl, we took a family vacation to a lake. One day I started having strange feelings.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, and he leaned in to hear. “On Dark Day.”
His breath caught in his chest. He’d tried so hard to forget that day. To forget what happened to his mother…his father.
“My parents and I stood in the living room of our cabin, set to play a board game. My brother had stormed off in a huff because he didn’t want to play. The sky went dark.” She took a shuddering breath. “The Dark Day experiences are not just tabloid stories. And all the talk about the darkness being a rare solar blackout out or a mass hallucination was wrong, because something happened to me too.”
Slush replaced the blood in his veins, chilling him to the bone.
“Mom insisted Dad go into the black to look for him. Soon after he left, my head started to tingle. The strange sensation frightened me. I was so hot. I heard her ask me what was wrong, but I couldn’t answer.” She took a deep breath, as though steeling herself for something difficult. “Then I experienced my first flip. The world in the living room disappeared, and I was outside. I stood by the river, but it wasn’t me. I wasn’t in my own body. I saw my brother’s hands, heard his thoughts.”
Ian thought of how he’d felt moments before. Like someone had taken over his body. Her eyes focused on the space between them, and she didn’t seem to see him any longer. Her eyes filled with tears, and Ian’s chest constricted at the sight.
“In my brother’s body, I walked along the dock and slipped, falling onto a rock. Then my mind came back to the living room. I thought I was dreaming until we heard my father scream. My brother had slipped and fallen on a rock. He died that day.”
Her chin trembled and she glanced toward the wall. What a horrible experience she’d gone through. He hated that he couldn’t take her pain away. Ian’s gut clenched, and he fought the urge to punch something. Instead, he rubbed her forearm. He wasn’t sure how else to offer comfort for such a horrid event. He couldn’t say sorry and relieve her heartache. All he could do was rub.
It took her some time before she spoke again, and when she
did, her voice sounded strained. “When I told my parents what I had seen, my father offered psychiatric help.” A bitter smile curved her lips. “Can you believe it? He treated it like a mental illness, as if I hadn’t told him exactly what happened to Roge. So I decided I would become a psychiatrist, and I wouldn’t be afraid to believe people when they said unusual things. I would dig out the truth and not say ‘you’re probably crazy’ to every person who had an experience I didn’t understand.”
“Of course you weren’t crazy.”
“The real laugh was, for a while, I believed him. I talked to psychiatrists who told me it was in my head. I tried to pretend my flips didn’t happen. Until my brother’s autopsy came back, and they determined his cause of death. My father kept talking about how much I needed help, but my mother believed me. She always said it would prove to be a gift. She told me I would use it to save the world one day.”
Her laugh held so much anguish that Ian almost told her to stop. But he didn’t. Her painful memories connected them in a way he’d never connected with anyone other than his mother. He finally had someone else in his life. Someone to fill the gaping hole.
“When she died, a little more than a year later, she warned me to hide my gift. Said she didn’t want me to go into an institution or end up on a tabloid like some of the other Dark Day conspiracy theorists.” She made quote marks with her hands.
“Like Cassandra with her premonitions.” He hated what she must have gone through, knowing all too well how she’d felt. She’d done it for the same reason he hadn’t mentioned the black hole eyes—or what happened to his father and mother on Dark Day. Start talking about things like that and people aren’t going to believe you. Unless you meet an amazing brunette who is smart and unusual herself.
“I worried I might be insane for almost a year, until it happened again.” Brie’s gaze drifted to her hands, clasped together in front of her on the table, and she studied them for a moment. “Some things may seem nuts, if you’ll pardon the use of such a vulgar word, but are not always so.”
