As he’d done when she’d been reading the cards that Evelyn Morgan had handled, Jake shifted his position so that he was standing in back of her, his front pressed to her back. Hestroked his hands up and down her arms, then leaned forward to slide his lips against her cheek.
She closed her eyes as he shifted his mouth so that he could use his teeth on her ear. Arousal began to build inside her, and she might have told him that was a distraction, but it wouldn’t have been the truth.
He moved his hands inward, cupping her breasts, pressing and kneading, making her nipples harden.
She could feel him smiling as he stroked his thumbs back and forth across the sensitized peaks, taking her arousal up another notch.
A thought flashed in her mind. His thought. Of turning her around and pressing her against the nearest tree trunk.
But she knew he wasn’t going to do it, not when he could tell that the heat building between them was generating the power that she was trying to find.
It simmered inside her, and she let it grow, feeling energy coursing through her into Jake and back again so that they were acting in concert, only he was letting her direct the process.
When the energy had built to some kind of tipping point, she held out her hand, toward a tree about sixty feet away. A flash of light sprang from her fingers, and she saw the bolt strike, watched it splinter and pop.
Jake silently approved.You’ve got the talent.
You know it wasn’t just me. I couldn’t do it without the energy you added.
But you knew how to do it.
Not exactly. I tried what I’ve learned from years of practice of reading people.
It’s the same?
Not exactly, but something similar.
She felt his annoyance that he couldn’t do it.
You did it when we needed to fight them,her thoughts told him.
Not well enough.
That’s why we’re here-- to get better at it.
She felt his acknowledgment, but she understood that he wanted to be the one to direct the attack. He was the guy. He should be the warrior.
Let’s try again,he told her.
Sure.
This time when she let the power grow inside her, she tried to make him part of what was happening.
I feel it!
She built the energy before mentally stepping back and leting him direct a bolt toward another tree.
When the blast crashed against the trunk, she felt his satisfaction.
Thanks.
You did it.
You let me take charge.
And you could.
He turned her in his arms, bringing his mouth down to hers for a hard, thankful kiss.
