Page 77 of The Gathering
“Because I can’t shut up and you couldn’t think,” she guessed, falling in step with him.
“No, because I was thinking about all the wrong things.”
Her pulse leapt. It did that every time he spoke because she never knew what would come out of his beautiful mouth. “What wrong things?” The second the question left, she regretted it. “No, do not answer that,” she admonished. “My nosy side is a horrible dictator, we shouldn’t feed it.”
“They weren’t wrong things, they were very right just at the wrong time.”
She sucked in a breath, jaw dropping. “That’s cruel!”
He threw back his head and laughed and of course she loved it. Loved that he knew why it was cruel, loved that he liked teasing her, loved that he meant what he didn’t say, and loved that he seemed to truly care for her.
Her heart exploded in her chest as she replayed his words.Did you know I will do whatever it takes to protect you?
That promise would never leave her mind. It would always light her up so bright that she’d never lose her way.
“Fine, tell me,” she begged. “It can be the last divulgence!”
“Oh, Sister,” he began, his warning tone full of teasing and naked truth. Her heart raced as she waited hungrily for it.
“You’re stalling!” she cried when he took too long, making him laugh. “That’s a form of torture for me you realize.”
“No, no, not for you, Sister. For your nosy dictator,” he said, all cute grins. “And my apprentice needs to learn patience, I think.”
“Okay, fine!” she surrendered. “I’ll learn it, now tell me!”
Her contradiction was hilarious to him, and she giggled about it too. “What were all the wrong right words, Jek!” shepled, smacking his shoulder and getting zapped by that electrical barrier in his skin. It made her need to touch more to learn all about what that was.
“Your mouth speaks and the secrets of the universe unfold,” he said. “It’s kind of blinding.”
She stared at his profile knowing he was being sincere while baffled that he was. “You see my words like this?” she marveled.
“You don’t believe me?” he challenged.
“Oh I do believe you. I believe that you believe that,” she corrected.
“You don’t believe that about you?”
She snorted. “How could I? The light can’t see its own light, I think?”
He jerked back and shielded his eyes with a hand. “There it is again! So much light!”
She cracked up.
“I’ll go blind at this rate,” he said, his serious tone not helping her growing need to touch and get zapped. It was the most addictive feeling, an itch that was getting worse by the minute.
A north wind whipped at her dress and lungs as they arrived at the small park. “So pretty,” she said, looking around at the huge oaks draped with moss.
“It is,” he said, setting down the lunch pail, which was a clever, literal pail she intended to get for herself.
She found his eyes repeatedly looking at her till warmth and wonder filled her at what he was thinking. She loved when he spoke his mind. Loved what was in his mind more. She held her mouth shut when it insisted on asking. Like an incessantly needy child looking for compliments. Look atme, seeme, loveme.
“How is it having so many siblings?” she asked when they finally got to eating. “Oh mygoodness, Imustapprentice under your mother and learn how to cook this,” she said around her first bite.
He smiled around his own mouthful then said, “You’d be apprenticing under me if you want to learn how to cook that bowl.”
Her eyes widened. “Youcooked this?”
“Yes ma’am,” he chuckled. “I learned how the hard way.”
