Enchant Me (25 page)

“What is the problem?”

For once I really resented how much taller
and stronger he was than me. Pulling my arm away, I scowled at him.
“I don’t want you or Michelle to ever manipulate or try to control
me again!”

He scrutinized me for a second, probably
measuring how truly pissed off I was. “Agreed.”

I tried to hide my surprise. I had actually
won an argument today. “Good,” I said satisfied. “Where did you
want to go, my place or yours?”

He seemed bemused by my swift change in mood.
“How about your house?” he asked. “I’m not ready for you to see
your portrait yet.”

Smiling, I looked him over. He had on one of
those button up shirts that made me obsessed with unbuttoning it
and rubbing my hands across his chest. We hadn’t had a really good
make out session in--geez at least a day or so which was way too
long in my mind. He seemed to catch my new mood, patted me on the
butt, and went straight to his car; the sooner we would get to my
house the better. As soon as we stepped into my house, I gave
a perfunctory pat to Cody, who had leapt up to the couch to greet
us, then grabbed Christian’s arm, dragged him to my room, and shut
the door.

Unceremoniously I dropped my book bag on the
floor and turned to him, seized his other wrist and towed him to my
bed. The expression on his face was adorable; he was completely
thrilled with my blatant eagerness and very willingly allowed me to
push him down to my bed so I could lay full length against
him. At first that was all I did. I lay across him like a
blanket until there was no part of my body that wasn’t touching
his. I let myself relax, boneless on top of him, my hands beneath
his head, my fingers in his soft hair and my head tucked into his
shoulder where I could easily inhale his delectable scent and time
my breaths to his. I had never felt so complete and at
peace. 

His hands slid around my waist moving to my
back, slowly sliding up my white button up shirt until I could feel
the heat of every finger on my bare skin. As his hands trailed up
and down my back in whispering caresses, I imagined what it must
look like. His tanned hands against the paleness of my back, I
moved up onto my elbows to look at him. I had never seen his
eyes so dark and smoldering.

While I had no doubts about what he was
thinking-- to see it so clearly etched on his face was something
entirely different. I let my gaze travel down to his lips which
were flawless in my mind, a perfect bow shape but in a masculine
way. I didn’t hide my fascination. I let it show as I drew one hand
up to cup his face and stroked his lips with my thumb, then
replacing that with my lips. Neither of us had closed our eyes yet,
and as I met his, he seemed surprised and I wondered if no other
girl had ever touched him with such adoration before. I lifted up a
little higher so I could kiss the tip of his nose and both eyes and
then reversed back down to his lips. Closing my eyes, I pressed my
lips back upon his, trying to commit to memory the exact texture
and taste of him. The sense of needy desperation from earlier
rolled back over me and my hands cupping his face became
firmer. 

Breaking the kiss, I pulled away slightly,
waiting for him to reopen his eyes, “I love you.”

He smiled, his hands moving up to tangle in
my hair, “I can tell.”

Smiling, I sat up and trailed my gaze down
his face and neck to his chest. Fascinated by the body underneath
me, I started to unbutton his shirt from top to bottom. I could
feel the sensual tension in his hands as they gripped my hips and
the weight of his stare as he watched me, but nothing could divert
me from my current obsession. Once every button had been undone I
moved my hands down his chest and abs, sliding his shirt off as I
went until his entire upper body was bare to me. I grinned
like an idiot, but I was too transfixed by his masculine beauty to
care. In my eyes he was perfect, glorious tanned skin covering taut
toned muscles. Completely absorbed, I traced every muscle, caressed
every inch, and memorized the individual locations of the
smattering of freckles across his chest from the sun. When I
finally glanced back up at his face, he looked surprised that I
could be so captivated by his body. I peppered a couple of kisses
across his chest before I lay back down against him, my lips
hovering just an inch above his. “What? Are you telling me you
don’t want to do the same thing to me?”

I felt myself lift up as he took a deep
breath in and quietly exhaled. His brown eyes were smoky and
dilated as he looked at me.

“You don’t know how badly I want to, but your
mom is going to be home any minute now,” he grumbled. 

“My door is closed.”

“Yes, and my car is sitting in your
driveway.”

“Mom shmom,” I said, while laying little
adoring kisses all over his face, “who cares?”

“Does she own a gun?” he asked somewhat
jokingly.

I thought about it. Actually she did. It was
never out so I tended to forget about it. My silence confirmed it
for him, and with a totally unsatisfactory chaste kiss on my lips,
he rolled me off and to the side of him and started to button his
shirt back up. The minute he was done, he got up, walked over and
sat down in the Papasan chair across the room. I rose up onto
an elbow to look at him. “What? Don’t you trust me?”

He arched a brow at my teasing smile. “No,
and I don’t trust myself either. Before your mom gets home we
should practice with your powers.”

I rolled onto my back looking away from him.
“Which powers?” I asked quietly, not eager to have him release my
psychic abilities yet. The pain they had caused me was still too
fresh in my mind.

 “At least the telekinetic part,” he
answered, getting up to come stand next to the bed, looking down at
me sympathetically. “Lex, it shouldn’t hurt like that again. That’s
what I’m here for.” 

I shrugged my shoulders; I was in no hurry to
have any more visions. He sighed and held out his hand to help me
up just as we heard Cody scratching at the door, meowing to be let
in. When I opened the door Cody immediately rushed in and sat
himself in the middle of my rug, glancing back and forth between
Christian and me like he was waiting for something. Mystified, I
shrugged my shoulders, and sat down cross- legged in front of him,
with Christian sitting opposite. I gave Cody a couple long strokes
from head to tail before finally meeting Christian’s
eyes. Christian looked around my room, apparently looking for
some things that I could safely move around in my small overly
decorated space.

His gaze was serious as he scrutinized me,
coming to some sort of decision. “I think you’re ready.”

Anxiety filled me; was he going to push the
psychic issue? “For what?”

He clasped both of my hands in his, rubbing
the tops of them in a soothing gesture, the look he bent on me was
purposely reassuring. “For me to release the rest of your
telekinetic powers.”

I looked down at my hands then back up at
him. “Ok.”

He closed his eyes and started to
concentrate, without meaning to I tensed up, preparing for him to
invade my mind. His eyes popped back open to regard me. “Lex, do
you trust me?”

Meeting his eyes, I nodded my head and forced
all my muscles to unlock. The hardest thing was relaxing my mind,
letting myself be open-- and vulnerable. I watched as he closed his
eyes again, I felt a brief flicker of him in my mind and then he
was gone. Even before he opened his eyes again I felt a quick
painless tingle from my head to my toes, and within moments it just
ebbed away. I stared at him, stunned that it had been so
easy. 

He grinned at my clear relief. “I tried to
tell you that it was going to be ok.”

Releasing my hands and carefully leaning over
Cody he cupped my face and gave me one of those soft melting kisses
that turned me into complete mush. All too soon he was pulling away
to look around my room again and then pointed to three of Cody’s
toy balls with bells in them.

“How about you try lifting all three at the
same time?” 

I lifted my hand towards them, still feeling
a little silly doing it especially with him watching, and lifted
them into the air. Cody immediately took notice and ran over to
them, leaping into the air trying to reach them. Glancing back at
Christian I noticed his grin was just as big as mine. 

“See if you can keep them all suspended while
you jingle each one individually,” he mused. 

I rolled my eyes at him for coming up with
something so complex, but obediently turned back and concentrated
on moving each one independently. It didn’t happen immediately, but
once I was able to truly picture what I wanted in my mind, they
started to move right before my eyes. Cody went ballistic then,
first jumping after one then the other.

My power was the greatest cat entertainment
invention ever. We were laughing so hard at his antics that we
almost didn’t hear my mom’s quick knock on my bedroom door. Without
waiting for a reply she started opening the door. I abruptly cut my
powers to Cody’s toys and they bounced on the floor just as she
stepped in. She looked at the three of us curiously.

“What’s so funny?”

“Ah--we were getting Cody to play with his
toys,” I said, pleased that I could give her a version of the
truth.

 “He is darling,” she said, bending down
to pet him. “Hello Christian.”

“Hi, Cindy, how was work?” Christian asked
politely. “It was fine, I’m glad it’s almost the weekend.”

She straightened up still looking at us
suspiciously. I wondered what the heck she thought we had been
doing. I watched bemused as she tried to discretely look around my
room, for what I don’t know. Finally she walked out and I turned to
look at Christian to see what he thought, and he shrugged his
shoulders.

“I think that’s my cue to leave,” he
muttered. 

“I don’t think she was trying to hint for you
to leave. She likes you, she’s glad we’re dating.”

He stood up and helped me to my feet. “I
know, but both of us need to prep for finals anyways.”

“True… damn it.”

“Same place, same time, tomorrow?”

I smiled, wrapping my arms tightly around
him, hugging him to me as much as humanly possible. “It’s a
deal.”

Lifting me off my feet he planted one last
hungry kiss upon my lips and then arm in arm I escorted him to his
car and waved as he drove away. He hadn’t even turned the corner
and I already missed him. I almost started laughing again when I
realized how close a call we had in being discovered. I sobered as
I thought of my mom’s reaction. Would she kick me out of the house
like I was some freak, or would she flip out and send me to the
military to be dissected? Shaking the horrible thought off, I
walked back into the house determined to resurrect my grades with
some old fashioned hard-core studying. I woke up the next
morning to my mom knocking on my door.

“Come in,” I called. 

She poked her head in; her hair was pinned up
and tucked under her beachcomber rain hat along with her rain coat
over her dark work suit. I groaned and rolled over.

“Exactly,” she said dryly. “It’s been raining
hard for hours and the weather man says it’s just getting started,
a heavy thunderstorm will be rolling in this afternoon. I know it’s
early but would you like me to drop you off to school on my way to
work?”

I peered at her from my pillow like she was
insane.

“Well, I don’t think you should be driving
your cycle in this weather. Maybe you should call Christian or Tina
to drive you in or take the bus.”

I groaned again in answer and pulled the
pillow over my head. Giving up she stepped back out and pulled the
door closed. I absolutely refused to take the bus and I didn’t need
to disturb anyone else’s morning schedule. I would just have to
locate my waterproof gloves, hats, boots and duster. As I laid
there trying to build up the energy to actually get out of bed, I
felt Cody slowly pad up the length of my body until he was sitting
on my waist. I turned my head to peer at him only to have him meow
demandingly at me. Evidently he wanted me to entertain him like I
did yesterday.

 “You’re a greedy little thing,” I told
him.

He hurdled over me down to the floor coming
to stand in front of his toys. Looking me straight in the eyes he
chirped at me and circled the balls. Like the well- trained human I
was, I sat up and looked at the balls and then at the ruined
curtain tieback sitting on the floor too. Closing my eyes I
pictured in my mind lifting and bouncing the balls as I did
yesterday, but now I also pulled the tieback along the floor racing
around the room. When I opened my eyes again, I laughed at Cody’s
confusion on what to attack first. Ultimately he decided he would
try to pounce on everything; one minute he was chasing the tieback,
the next minute he was leaping into the air for one of the balls
when they came close enough to strike. I gave him a good ten
minutes of this and then my alarm went off. Disgruntled at the end
of his play time, he marched away, tail in the air to the living
room. 

Sighing I got up and went to my closet to
unearth all my rain gear. During my search, I fielded calls from
both Christian and Tina asking if I needed a ride. While Tina
accepted my assessment that I would make it to school just fine,
Christian took a good ten minutes of convincing. When I looked in
the mirror just before I headed out the door, I had to admit I
looked very dramatic in all black with my long black weatherproof
duster that was split up the back for ease in riding. I had
barely closed the front door behind me when I was immediately
pelted with cold hard rain, and the wind whipped my coat furiously
around my ankles. Looking up into the dark turbulent sky, I
admitted to myself that maybe I should have taken my mom’s advice
and gotten a ride.