Free Love Beyond Oceans by Rebecca Royce

don't want you? Of course I do. Any man would and we're predestined, or whatever, for one another. I'm the luckiest son of a bitch ever born. And I need you to do is trust me, even though we can't go where both of us would like to."
    His cheeks pinkened and it was everything Marina could do not to laugh. Big, tough Drew got embarrassed.
    She tried to ignore her delight in his discomfort and moved on to listen to his words. "You're upset about what happened before with me, with my losing control like that."
    "No." He shook his head. "I think you had a real burnout. How could you not?"
    "I think it's going to be wonderful now. I can see things which happened in the past and I can help. I know the things he used to do. I can help us win."
    Drew took her cheek in his palm. With his thumb, he stroked the side of it. Shivers running up and down her back warred with the warmth his touch on her face caused.
    "I don't care two bits about any other lives."
    She almost couldn't believe her ears. "You can't be serious."
    "Like a heart attack."
    "Drew." She had to make him hear her. "We've all done this before. Over and over again. I…"
    "No." He shook his head. "I'm not whoever that was any more than you are. If you like, think of them as distant relatives. We share some genetic traits."
    "I think it's more than that and you know it." Why was he being so obtuse about this?
    "You cannot get so lost in the past you lose the now. Do you understand? You have these powers so they must be able to help us. Great. Since I have no choice but to battle this guy eventually, I'll take all the help I can get. Still, none of us need to be told about our past selves like it's going to solve some kind of mystery having to do with the now."
    His words made her want to strangle him yet they pushed at her, making her concentrate on something she'd lost at the same time. A memory struck her. Sebastian had thrown a statement at them before he'd vanished from the condo. He said they wouldn't know something was coming.
    She gasped. Yes, the demon was quite right. They hadn't known but when he'd taken away her powers and forced her to reset, she'd remembered the forgotten.
    "Drew." She jumped to her feet. "I know what Sebastian went on about. And we need some help. If he's doing what I think he is, we're in big trouble."
    "What?" He furrowed his brow. "What is the demon doing?"
    "He's going to kill the scribe." The only person who had held off their total destruction and they hadn't even known he existed, which was, of course, the point. Except Sebastian knew because he remembered lifetimes and thank goodness she did, too.
    "The who?"
    She grabbed Drew's hand and pulled him toward the door. "Come with me. I'll explain it all at once." Marina paused, an idea dawning on her. "And Drew." She turned to look at him. "I'm not scared of anything inside of you. There's nothing in you that could ever hurt me."
    Before she changed her mind, she kissed him. To do so took a little maneuvering. She had to go up on tiptoes, and even then it took her a second to reach his mouth. He could have pushed her away, told her no, stepped back. Any number of things to stop what she needed to do. Only he didn't.
    Drew's mouth was soft and he tasted of cherries. She let the pressing of her lips to his last for a few seconds. He didn't kiss her back, which hurt a little.
    Yet it was okay. A first step.
     
    * * * *
     
    Drew's whole body was on fire. He stood in the corner and listened to Marina explain to the others about the scribe. He'd never heard of him and other than whatever he was going to have to do to save the dude from Sebastian, he really didn't care. Why was there somebody out there following their fates and writing it down in the first place? Who in any dimension had thought this could be in any way a good idea?
    And then the dude was going to give some sort of sign to indicate they could all be killed. How nice to know all the near-death before had been just a rehearsal