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“Right. Sorry.” Kahn cleared his throat and hunted for a less exuberant response. “Um… I mean, that’s a very reasonable plan.” He tried to keep his voice calm when all he wanted to do was grab her up in his arms and never let go.
Her lips twitched upward. “I’m glad you think so.”
“So it’s a deal?” He’d agree to drink battery acid if she asked, so this ‘reasonable plan’ almost sounded too good to be true. He needed to lock it down, before she changed her mind. “You support my healing. I support your communicating. We’ll support each other in everything.”
He held out a palm for a human-style handshake and waited.
Randa considered it and then decided to touch him. She carefully slid her fingers into his. “Deal.”
When their skin met, their energies flared brighter. The Light powers rushed over the Stone powers, desperate to get closer to her. Searching for more. Randa’s energy didn’t push him away. Instead, it soaked into him like a salve. Soothing him from the inside out. Kahn’s grip on her hand instinctively tightened, not wanting the sensations to stop.
Randa didn’t seem to notice his desperate hold. Her eyes fluttered closed, caught up in the feel of his skin touching hers. And their powers searching for connection. And being together in the moment. Her forehead dipped forward to rest on his shoulder, and she gave a dreamy sigh.
Kahn made a low sound of approval. Just holding this woman’s hand was the most erotic experience of his life. He wanted to drag her onto his lap. He wanted to run his fingers through the smooth length of her dark hair. He wanted to hold her naked body against his and explore every magical inch of her. …But she wasn’t ready for any of that.
Instead, he lifted their joined palms and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand. His lips lingered over the silkiness of her golden skin, savoring the small gasp she made. Memorizing the way her delicate fingers clung to his larger ones for just a moment.
Then she pulled away, her eyes wide. Like she’d just shocked herself.
Kahn reluctantly let her palm slip from his grasp, braced for her to run.
She didn’t run. Randa was blushing fiery red and not meeting his eyes, but she remained sitting on the step. Thank Gaia.
Kahn swallowed hard. Touching her again would scare her away, but he didn’t want this interlude between them to end. It felt too important.
He took out his phone.
Even if he couldn’t touch her, there were plenty of other ways to reach his Match.
The human technology was enough to distract Randa. Maybe she wanted to keep this moment going, as well. “Since when do you have a smartphone?”
“Since I found Ben’s.” He began typing on his number pad. Then, he glanced at Randa. Then, he typed some more and glanced at her again.
Randa gave a resigned shake of her head. “You stole Ben’s, you mean.”
“Well, Ben’s not using it.”
“How did you even manage to get his phone? Have you tracked him down?”
“No, and none of his friends have seen him either. We discussed it in the group chat.” Kahn answered absently, focused on typing. “Don’t worry, though. I’ll find him.”
And if he was the stalker, Gaia help the fucker. Kahn would chop off his testicles for fish bait.
Randa’s phone rang.
She shifted to take it from her pocket, sending Kahn a disgruntled look. “Is this you? Of course it is!” She pointedly declined the call. “How many digits of my phone number did I give you? I know it wasn’t all of them.”
“Six, plus the area code. After that, it was just trying zero through nine for the last one.”
“And you remembered them all, without even writing them down?”
“I remember everything you tell me.”
Randa’s lips parted in astonishment, shaken by his simple words.
Another text message bing sounded and a love letter emoji appeared on her screen.
Using the little pictures felt dumb to him, but he had a feeling Randa would appreciate it. Texting could give her a buffer in expressing herself, because she could decide what to say at her own pace. She wanted him to support her in communicating more freely? This was a tool to accomplish that.
