The P.J. Stone Gates Trilogy (#1-3) (8 page)

“So . . .” Jeremy trailed off before clearing his throat. “I know this is kind of awkward, but I thought we could go get something to eat and talk, try to make this as painless as possible.”

I hadn’t considered the possibility that maybe whoever I went out with wouldn’t exactly be thrilled to go on our date either. “Yeah, okay,” I agreed with a tentative smile. I followed him down to a dark green RAV4, probably his parents’, I guessed, since it was the newest model, and I let him open and shut the door for me as I climbed into the passenger side. I waited in silence as he rounded the car, letting my gaze settle on a patch of trees by my house. I sucked in a surprised breath when I saw Bryn standing there. As my eyes met his, he stepped back farther into the shadows. My heart twisted in my chest from the tormented look on his face. Why had he come to see me leave on my date? Why would he do that to himself? I raised my palm to the window and touched my fingertips to it, wishing it were his heated face under my skin and not smooth, cool glass.

The engine in the RAV4 revving to life pulled my mind back to the interior of the car and the date I was supposed to be on. I willed myself to look away from the dark night, and from where I knew Bryn most surely still lurked. I glanced over at Jeremy and gave him another tentative smile, to which he returned one of his own. “Music?” he asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

“My iPod is down there in the console, already hooked up. I’ll let you pick our soundtrack for the evening.”

I began scrolling through his music selection without another word. I decided on Seether’s
Fake It
for the first song, feeling it was oddly appropriate somehow, and Genius-ed it. Once the selection was made, I turned it up loud enough to where it would make conversation relatively difficult. Jeremy obviously took the hint, and we rode in silence—except for the music—and I stared out the window, watching the world blur by without really paying attention to where we were going. When the car rolled to a stop, I glanced up to see the warm glow of
Tony’s
restaurant sign shining through the windshield. Pittsburgh and the surrounding suburbs are jam packed with local mom and pop Italian places, so Jeremy bringing me to one wasn’t that odd, but it definitely wasn’t a coincidence that he had chosen my favorite. “My mom told you, didn’t she?” I asked with a frown.

Jeremy looked at me, taking in my frown, and shot me a puzzled expression. “It’s okay, isn’t it? I mean, was your mom wrong?”

“No,” I sighed, fingering the buckle on my seatbelt. “She was right. This place is my favorite.”

“Okaaay.” Jeremy drew out the word, obviously considering what to say next. “Look, I know this is all awkward, like I said before, but there’s no need for it to be painful. It’s not like I was exactly thrilled when my parents informed me I had a date with someone that I’d never met before. But then again, it’s not as if I’m seriously seeing anyone right now anyways, hence the Sudding.” He smiled at me. “And now, after meeting you, even though I can tell you’re less than thrilled to be here, I’m thinking this might not be that bad a thing after all.”

So much for him not being interested in me.
He seemed nice enough, and I didn’t relish the thought of being mean to him, but what was the point, really? “Look,” I tugged on my seatbelt nervously, “I’m here because my mom has it in her head that it’s time for me to start dating
proper young men,
and I’m sure I don’t have to clue you into what she means when she says that, but—”
But what?
I couldn’t exactly tell him that I was in love with someone else. It no doubt would get around, and my mom would demand to know what was going on, and I couldn’t afford for anyone to figure out what was happening between Bryn and me.

“But what?” Jeremy asked. “Are you, well, are you—there’s no easy way to ask this, so I’m just going to—are you into girls or something?”

“What?” I blinked at him in total shock. I
so
hadn’t seen that question coming.

“Well, you’re not married, and you’re not in a serious relationship, so if you’re not a lesbian, then I don’t see why you can’t at least have dinner with me, give me a shot. Unless you think I’m completely repulsive?” He met my gaze and grinned, knowing full well he wasn’t repulsive.

An image of Bryn flashed in my mind’s eye. Heat rolled over my skin in reaction to the thought of his body pressed up flush to mine, his lips trailing down my—

I had to push the image immediately out of my mind before I combusted right where I sat. I fought the very real urge to fan myself. Yeah, the thought of me being into anything but boys made me laugh. I couldn’t help the smile that stayed on my lips. “Fine. Dinner. But that’s all I’m promising.” I’d at least pretend to give him a shot, and then tell my mom there was no chemistry or something.
Next contestant, please.

Jeremy turned to open his door, shooting me a hundred-watt smile. “That’s all I’m asking.”

I unhooked my seatbelt and slid out of the door to meet him beside the car. He offered me his arm, which I eyed warily before stalking off towards
Tony’s.
I’d have dinner with him, but I never said I would touch him. So far, I’d managed to avoid the connection with his Gatekeeper powers by not opening myself up to them, and by not having skin-to-skin contact. I was planning on keeping it that way. For some reason, that fact was important to me, no matter if it didn’t really make any sense.

About forty-five minutes later, numerous glasses of soda consumed, and our meals completely devoured, I had discovered that Jeremy wasn’t that bad.

“So then what’d you do?” I laughed, trying hard not to squirt soda out of my nose.

“So there I was, out in the woods, by myself, completely naked, no phone, no keys, nothing. My only choice was to hoof it home. Luckily, a few blocks from where I was, I found a trash bag that didn’t reek too bad that covered me up until I got home.” He paused to laugh himself. “You shoulda seen the look on my dad’s face when I tried sneaking in the back door. Of course, he was so proud when he found out the whole thing was because I was beginning to come into my powers.”

I took another sip of soda. “I never knew that could happen to Gatekeepers. I wonder if it happens to a lot of you guys?”

Jeremy averted his eyes in embarrassment. “As far as I know, I’m the only one, although I’m not going to be making my incident public, so maybe that’s why I haven’t heard of it happening to anyone else.”

“Well, I’m just glad being a Seer doesn’t run that risk. I have enough potential for embarrassing situations as it is. I don’t need to worry about zapping all of my clothes out of existence when I go to manipulate energy around a gate.”

Jeremy’s brown eyes met mine, suddenly serious. “I’m guessing there’d be a lot fewer complaints if you were seen around town naked, though.”

Our gazes stayed locked for a minute before I turned away and cleared my throat. “So are you better now? With your powers? That doesn’t happen on a regular basis, I mean?”

“No, it hasn’t happened since then.” His attention was temporarily distracted as our waitress brought back his change from our check. He took out a couple of bills and left them in the book for her.

I saw my opportunity and seized it. “I guess you’re ready to go then?”

“Yeah, I guess. I don’t suppose—”

“No,” I interrupted. “I need to be getting home. I have to get up in the morning pretty early for . . . church.” Yeah, I hadn’t been to an early Sunday service in—ever. But he didn’t know that.

“Oh.” Disappointment showed in his eyes. “Then I guess I’d better get you home.”

A wave of guilt rushed over me. I mean, Jeremy was a nice and charming guy, and if it weren’t for Bryn, I might have even been interested. “Thanks for dinner and everything,” I said as I stood and headed for the door. He caught up with me, and we walked in silence to the car where he opened and shut the door for me again. Like before, I turned up the music for the ride home, which effectively kept him from talking to me anymore. I heaved a sigh of relief when we pulled into my driveway.

Jeremy turned the car off and opened his door. “I’ll walk you up.”

“Oh, you don’t have to . . .” I trailed off as he was already making his way around the car.
Why can’t he just take the hint already? Ugh.

He helped me out of the car and walked beside me all the way to my front door where he paused to face me. “Well, I’m really glad I met you, P.J., even though I know you’re still feeling weird about this whole thing. I’ll call or text or something and maybe we can go out again. I hope you’ll be more open to it since you can see that I’m actually a nice guy.”

I wasn’t really sure what to do. I didn’t want to be mean, but I didn’t want to lead him on either. Should I hang out with him again for appearance’s sake, or move on to the next guy my mom probably already had lined up? It most likely would be easier to go out with Jeremy a few more times before I dropped the no chemistry line on everyone. I had to at least pretend I was giving him a real shot. “Yeah, okay.”

He smiled at me, real happiness shining back at me from his eyes. “All right, talk to you soon then.” He leaned in and gave me a quick peck on the cheek before I had a chance to react. Just the briefest sense of his powers slid over my skin and snapped into sync with the act of his lips brushing my cheek. My breath caught in my throat at the intoxicating rush. He paused to lock eyes with me, and gave me another smile before heading off down my walk.
Crap
. Our powers had connected, and that wasn’t a good thing. With my people, power was always a very enticing lure. If Jeremy thought we had a power connection, it would only heighten anything he might already be feeling for me. I stood there and watched him leave before turning to go into my house, but then I stopped. I had to see Bryn—now. I suddenly couldn’t get the tormented look he had on his face before I left out of my head.

I took off at a dead sprint for Bryn’s house, hoping he would be there. As I neared his home, which was only a few blocks down from mine, and crept into his backyard, I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the light in his first floor bedroom was on.
Thank God he’s home.
Making my way up to his window, I paused to listen, checking if he was alone. It would be an utter disaster if his parents found out I was sneaking into his bedroom when I was supposed to still be on my date, and not just any date, but the first of my Sudding. I smiled when I didn’t hear any voices and reached up to tap on the window. A few seconds later, Bryn peered out, and then pulled up his blinds and opened his window so I could crawl through. I could hardly wait to have Bryn’s arms around me, and I fully expected to be greeted with the same enthusiasm from him; and yet when I went to him, his arms stayed limp at his sides, and his eyes regarded me with dark emotion. “What’s wrong?” I asked, studying his face for some clue. He didn’t say anything. He just kept watching me, his eyes churning with something I couldn’t read. As I studied him, I realized his whole body was wrought with tension. “Bryn?” I licked my lips nervously, noting that his eyes followed my every move. He slowly stalked towards me, backing me up against the wall. His hands came to rest on either side of my head, balled into fists. And even though he seemed so angry, so dangerous, my breath caught in my throat, and my pulse began to race with excitement. “Bryn?” I said again, my voice coming out breathy and low.

“I couldn’t stand seeing you leave with him,” Bryn practically growled, his voice so low I barely recognized it. “I had to fight everything in me to not come after you.” His chest was heaving as he tried to keep himself calm. “You’re mine. I won’t share you.”

“It’s not real, Bryn. You know that. I’m yours—all yours.”

He stared at me a few more seconds, his eyes raging with so many dark emotions. “It seemed so real, Peej—like I was losing you. It was like a nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.”

I reached up and cupped his face, feeling his jaw tick with tension. “I’m here now. And I’m yours. Always.”

He caught my lips with his, taking my mouth forcefully, dominating me like he never had before. I welcomed the heat of his jealousy turning into fiery passion as he explored me with his tongue and mouth. Our clothes began falling away, and soon we were both left in just our underwear. Usually this was the point where Bryn and I stopped. We hadn’t gone much farther than heavy petting, and neither one of us had been completely naked in front of the other. Our physical relationship was just so new that we were both in awe of the simplest things, like kissing and touching, but tonight—tonight Bryn didn’t show any signs of stopping. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to protest. I’d wanted to give my virginity to him since that first night in the woods. He was the one who thought it wasn’t the right time or place. He assumed that as a girl, I needed more for my first time, even though all I really needed or wanted was him—that’s all I’d ever need.

“I need you, Peej,” Bryn rumbled as his fingers deftly dipped down under my panties. I moaned as his long fingers explored areas where no boy had ever gone before.

“Yes,” I gasped into his mouth. Bryn made quick work of getting my bra and panties off, lifting me, and setting me on his bed. He joined me there, but not before sitting back to study all of my bare, exposed skin. I fidgeted under his rapt gaze. “Bryn,” I pleaded, reaching for him. It was one thing to be naked with Bryn while we were kissing and touching, but I didn’t like him studying me while I just lay on his bed without a stitch of clothing on.

“You’re so beautiful,” Bryn whispered in reverence. He then came to rest over me, his pelvis cradled in between my legs.
When did he manage to get his boxers off?
I attempted to swallow back my nerves as it really sunk in that Bryn and I were going to have sex. I locked gazes with him, and his sea storm eyes pulled me under, washing away all my trepidations. “You still taking the pill?” Bryn asked huskily.

Reality check.
“Yeah.” My mom would be absolutely furious if she knew I was using the pill for its intended purpose and not just to regulate my period. Especially if she found out I was using it with Bryn on the heels of a date with someone she had set me up with. “What about your parents—”