Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Where are you going?” Olivia asked.
“First, do a little more research. Then I need to get another car. I have to assume that the guys watching Travis’s house will be on the lookout for my current one.”
“How long will you be gone?”
“Why don’t we meet back here tomorrow morning? Meanwhile, I’ll be in Beltsville.”
“Why Beltsville?”
“That’s where the Decorah Security office is located.” He reached into a pocket and pulled out a business card, which he set on the end table. “If you need to reach me, the number is on here. The phones are manned 24/7.”
“Okay.” She cleared her throat. “What if we can’t do what you asked?”
“I’ll have to come up with something else,” he answered.
The words weren’t reassuring.
When he left, both Travis and Olivia stood, stumbling toward each other and meeting in the middle of the room.
Perhaps they hadn’t realized the kind of tension they’d been under.
It had started when Travis knocked the detective unconscious, and had continued during their desperate maneuvers to get him to believe their wild story.
Now that they were alone, the strain of the past few hours came crashing down around them.
When he reached for her, she flung herself into his embrace. As he pulled her close, she molded her body to his.
They clung together, relief flooding through them. The detective had bought their story—then gone off to do some prep. Alone at last, they held onto each other, rocking slightly, each leaning onto the other for support.
Olivia marveled at how mortal the man in her arms felt. With her eyes closed, she had the perfect illusion that he was as legitimate as anyone else. More so—to her.
He walked her backwards, maneuvering her around the table, and taking her down to the sofa so that she lay on her back, still with her eyes closed so as not to break the spell.
Her body had turned molten, and she knew Travis could feel it.
When she raised her face, he lowered his head and his lips came down hard on hers, then softened as he began to kiss her with the same urgency she felt.
And he had the advantage that he could reach the back of her body as easily as he could the front.
His hands stroked up and down her back and clasped her bottom, pulling her more tightly against himself.
When his hands moved to her front, caressing her breasts, she felt her heat level shoot up.
She wasn’t undressed. He had to be touching her through two layers of fabric, her bra and her T-shirt, but it was like he was caressing her naked skin.
He found her hardened nipples, stroking across them in a maddening rhythm that turned her center liquid.
When he took them between his thumbs and fingers, she gasped in need.
“I want ...”
“I know.”
One hand slipped under her jeans, stroking through the slick folds of her sex, coming up to find her point of greatest sensation, then sliding down again to press against her entrance.
Two fingers slipped inside, and she felt herself clench around him.
He pushed in and out of her, while the heel of his hand pressed against her center, and she was helpless to do anything but move against him.
He held her to him, keeping her grounded as she came undone in a blaze of sensation that shuddered through her whole body and made her struggle for oxygen.
She clung to him, eyes still closed, coming back to earth.
What he’d given her had been glorious. More than she had ever expected in her life. Yet she couldn’t help craving more. She didn’t say it, but she knew he picked up her thoughts.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“It is what it is,” he answered.
“But we’re going to change the parameters,” she vowed. “Deepen our bond so you can come with me when I leave.”
Inside her head, she heard him make a snorting sound. “Damned if I know how.”
Ignoring the obvious, she pressed on. “We’re going to try something that none of the other couples needed to do, even if we don’t quite know how.
But think about it. Yesterday, we didn’t know how to pick up a piece of paper without touching it.
Or make a thunderbolt, or whatever you want to call them. ”
“But we were trying for some kind of physical effect. This is different. I’m not...physical.”
They were both silent for long moments, contemplating the detective’s request.
Travis had said he didn’t know how to accomplish it, but he was the one who suggested, “Let’s start with—I was out in the darkness, and I was drawn to you. Getting to you should have been impossible, but somehow, we accomplished it.”
“You’re the one who did it,” she pointed out. “Somehow you connected to me when I wasn’t expecting it, when I was afraid of it.” She dragged in a breath and let it out.
“And now that we’ve gotten this far, we can both try to make this new thing happen.”
She could even see that as logical.
“So, how do we make it so you can come along with me?” As she spoke, he moved aside so she could sit up.
Let’s start with something familiar—let’s find out how far I can get from you and still feel our—bond.
Good idea. She stood and walked out of the room without looking back, trying to keep the connection going.
We’ve got more space to maneuver if we’re outside, he said.
Changing course, she walked through the front door and dragged in a lungful of the cooler evening air.
When she looked back, she saw Travis standing by the door.
She turned again and walked down the driveway toward the road.
At first, she felt his presence as strongly as if she’d been standing beside him.
But after about fifteen feet, she could sense the bond weakening.
She focused, trying to make the connection come back to full strength, but she couldn’t figure out a way to do it.
They spent several frustrating minutes trying to get the effect they wanted, each of them mentally reaching for the other, but she simply didn’t know how to make it happen.
Finally, she walked back and pressed her shoulder to his. “When we did the other stuff, we were touching—one of us giving the other energy.”
But I think we have to do this without touching. What if you try to forge a deeper link, and I lend you power?
Okay.
Once again, she put distance between them, walking to the limit of where she could feel him faintly in her mind. Sweat broke out on her body as she struggled to bring him into sharper focus. No matter how much she tried to invite him to join with her, it had no effect.
Switch roles, his faint voice suggested. I was the one who reached out to you first.
Yes. She let him take control, reaching out to draw her to him. As he did, she fed him energy. Again, it had no effect.
Exhausted, she staggered back to the patio and plopped into a chair. “So much for our awesome abilities,” she muttered.
She sat with her head bowed, breathing hard, trying not to feel like she’d been doing a tremendous amount of physical labor. Whether she fed him power or they reversed their roles, it didn’t seem to make any difference.
Frustration bubbled inside her, and she made one last desperate attempt to pull him toward her in a way that would keep him there. But she simply couldn’t do it.
Tears leaked from her eyes, and she struggled to hold them back, but she knew Travis felt her sense of failure.
He had found her when it should have been impossible for them to connect.
And since then, they had done some amazing things together.
But this even more intimate link seemed as likely as spinning wisps of cloud into silk.
She tried to think about it logically—if you could apply logic to such a seemingly outlandish situation. Travis was the one who had found her. She had to be the one to cement his attachment to her, but she simply couldn’t figure out a way to do it.
He stood behind her, rubbing her shoulder, and she knew he could feel the tension that tied her muscles into knots.
She had been putting everything into this new effort, and it had gotten her nowhere.
She glanced around and was shocked to see that it was pitch black now.
She’d been at this for hours, and she simply didn’t have the energy to continue.
“He’ll come here tomorrow, and I’ll have to tell him we couldn’t do it.”
He wasn’t expecting any help from you when he took the assignment. He didn’t even know that you existed.
“He didn’t know what he was up against. We may be the only thing that can keep him from ending up in Smith’s torture chamber—and then the bay.”
She felt Travis shudder as though he were reliving what had happened to him—and then absorbing the enormity of the task ahead.
Still, his silent voice was calm as he said, You can’t keep pushing yourself like this. You need to eat something and then get some rest.
I’m not hungry.
You need food if you’re going to continue. You’re not going to accomplish anything in the state you’re in. You have to recharge. Eat something and then lie down for a while.
His words made sense. Almost too tired to move, she heaved herself up and shuffled into the kitchen.
When she opened the refrigerator, she found several cartons of food she’d ordered.
Pulling one out at random, she stuck in a fork and ate some.
It was cold, and she didn’t even know what it was, but she shoveled in a little more.
When she’d eaten all she could stomach, she shoved the carton back into the fridge.
As she closed the door, she struggled to stand, swaying on her feet.
If Travis hadn’t been there to wrap an arm around her waist, she might have toppled over.
Instead, she let him lead her out of the kitchen.
She looked at the stairs, thinking she didn’t want to expend the energy to climb them.
You can lie down on the sofa again.