Free VOLITION (Perception Trilogy, book 2) by Lee Strauss, Elle Strauss

commune intersected with the forest. The snow frosted the
trees and blanketed the forest floor. It deadened the sound in a way that made
silence seem loud.
    I shoved my hands in my pockets, feeling weird that I felt
weird being alone with Zoe.
    She stared behind me into the trees.
    I turned. Something moved.
    “What’s that?” Zoe whispered.
    My heart jumped and the first thought I had was that Grant had
found us. But it was a gentler creature of the four-legged variety.
    I sighed in relief. “It’s a deer.”
    It emerged into view and stared back at us with large brown
eyes. We stayed statue still, watching it nibble branches of exposed leaves.
    “Wow,” Zoe said softly. “It’s beautiful.”
    It moved onto another brush, before disappearing back into the
woods.
    I kicked at the snow.
    “You’re worried, aren’t you?” Zoe asked, catching my gaze. “I
can see it in your eyes.”
     “I’m worried that we’ve been in here too long. I’m sure your grandfather
hasn’t given up looking for you, and I’m scared Grant is going to show up here
any minute.”
    Zoe turned her back to a plot of unbroken snow and let herself
fall backward into it. “I saw this on TV once,” she said. She moved her arms
back and forth along her sides and her legs to match. Then she stood up
carefully and examined her snow image.
    “It’s called a snow angel.” She fell again to make another one.
“Come on, Noah.”
    I dropped to the ground beside her and moved my arms and legs.
We didn’t get up when we were done.
    “What do you guys do after supper?” Zoe asked. “When us girls
are slaving away cleaning up the kitchen.”
    “Finn opens his locked cupboard.”
    “Really? I wondered what was in there.” She turned her head to
face me. “So, what’s in there?”
    “Booze.”
    “What? They’re drunks?”
    “One drink doesn’t make a drunk. I haven’t seen anyone get
drunk so far.”
    “But they’re religious.”
    “Yeah, I was surprised, too.”
    “So you get to drink, and I have to mop the
floor.”
    I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Talk about a reversal of
roles.”
    Zoe reached for my gloved hand. “I was a jerk to you, before, I
know.”
     “It’s fine. I was kidding.”
    “But it’s true. I’m ashamed at my behavior towards you. And to
your mother. I really looked down my nose at you.”
    I could tell by the seriousness of her tone that this was the
heart of the thing she’d wanted to talk to me about.
    “You didn’t know any better.”
    Her eyes steadied on the snow. “And I’m sorry about the whole
Taylor…thing.”
    “You’ve apologized already. It’s okay.”
    She sighed. “You’re too good for me.”
    I leaned up on my elbow. “Don’t say that.”
    “It’s true.”
    “It’s not.” I lowered my head, slowly, waiting to see if she’d
reach for me or move away. She nudged closer and parted her lips. I kissed them.
Her lips and tongue moved with mine, eager and desperate. I rolled her on top
of me, awkward in our heavy clothing, not caring about the mess we were making
of our snow angels.
    Her nose and cheeks were flushed red from the cold and
something more. Passion. For me. Her lips moved across my jaw and she nuzzled
her cold nose in the warmth of my neck. I shivered and groaned.
    “Well, what do we have here?”
    Taylor’s voice. Damn.
    We both stiffened and Zoe inched off of me, looking
embarrassed. I could understand. That was two guys in two days for her.
    “What do you want, Blake?”
    “Brother Finn sent me to search for you two heathens. Make sure
you don’t do something sinful while on our commune. Looks like I found you just
in time.”
    My chest tightened as I stood to face him head on. “You weren’t
worried about being sinful, yesterday.”
    “Noah!” Zoe said.
    Taylor laughed. “Well, you got a point there. I’d come in if I
were you. Before you get to ruffling all the feathers around here.”
    He left us, but the magic spell Zoe and I had shared