Free Blood of a Werewolf by T. Lynne Tolles Page B

window and starting to get very tense.   She had shorts on, and it could get rather chilly on the coast in the evening, even in the summer.   I don’t have a toothbrush either. Yuck, morning breath, she thought.
    He picked her hand up kissed it again and said, “Darby, I don’t care if you get sweaty palms.” He turned her hand over and kissed her palm, which was very hot, but not quite sweaty.   Then he brought her hand up to touch his cheek and continued, “I’ve also taken the liberty to pack some necessities for both of us and what we don’t have we can get in Monterey.”  
    She looked at him, eyes focused, as if trying to look into his mind and with a smirk she said, “You’re reading my mind, aren’t you?”
    A little embarrassed, he released her hand and put it back on the steering wheel and answered, “Yes! But I can hardly help it.   I’ve been able to read your mind from our first meeting.   Normally, I can sense things about someone, maybe read a thought or two, but the connection with you, well, I find it hard to define my thoughts from yours.”
    “Well, now that is embarrassing.   So you heard that whole thing with the sweaty palm antiperspirant and...” Then a realization hit her, Oh my God, have I pictured him naked or….Oh God, this isn’t happening .
    He couldn’t help it; he laughed out loud and then quickly tried to stop.   He stroked her hair.  
    “Please don’t be embarrassed,” he said, “If you think I haven’t had some of the same thoughts, well, you are mistaken.   Very poorly mistaken!” He chuckled and then he was a bit embarrassed himself.
    “But why can’t I read your mind, if mine seems so connected to yours?” she asked.
    “I’m not sure! But somehow I think with time, you will be able to.   You’ve not really tapped into all your gifts yet.   I would guess that there are a few things you can do that you don’t know you can do, just because you have never tried.   I’d like to explore that with you, if you would allow me. I mean if you are not interested, that’s one thing, but if you are curious – you and your sister, I think Blake and I can help you. Even test you!”
    “Really, you think I have that kind of power...potential?”
    “I really do!   But let’s get something straight right now – I’m not with you right now because of what you can do.   Sure you and your sister may be able to help my brother and me with this Paine problem, but that is not why I’m with you.   I can’t speak for my brother on this, but as for me, I’m in…I mean...I...I can’t breathe or think when I am away from you.   Somewhere in the last few days, I’ve come to...hmmm...Let’s say it this way...My life was perfectly fine before I met you. I thought. But now that you’re here and I’ve gotten to know you, I couldn’t go back to my old life.   I’ve now seen what I was missing.   I’ve touched it, kissed it,” he smiled, “laughed with it, now there is no going back.   You’ve become a part of me, like an organ or limb, that I can’t do without.   If you didn’t have any power at all, that part would not change.   You are my happiness now.   I only hope that you feel the same.”
    A tear fell and rolled down her cheek as he finished speaking.   She hadn’t realized that her eyes had even welled up, and she looked at him as he stared out the windshield of the car and said, “I do feel that way and I have to say that was the most perfect thing anyone, ever, has said to me.”   She raised her hand and touched his cheek with her whole sweaty palm and let her hand glide down his face, letting her fingertips run along his jawbone to his chin and then down his neck, over his Adam’s apple to the vulnerable triangular indentation at the base of his throat.
    She felt a tiny vibration with her fingertips as he let out an almost inaudible groan.   If she hadn’t felt the vibration, she might not have known he had groaned at