Page 77 of Power of the Mind

Panting, increasing his effort, he brought my hands above my head and pinned them down. His mouth hovered near mine as he continued fucking himself on my cock. Every exhale glanced my lips. I was on fire, burning, on the verge of full incineration.

When the ending was in sight, Tallus joined our mouths. The kiss was a good hard shove across the finish line, and for a second, I let myself lose control, thrusting up into his body, riding the wave of pleasure as it rolled through me. Muscles straining, I squeezed his hands, desperately holding on to hope, wishes, and dreams come true.

***

Tallus fell asleep in my bed when it was over. I didn’t stick around. Couldn’t. My head was a roar of noise, and I needed to move. No amount of self-talk could convince me to sleep beside him. I was unraveling at the speed of light and needed space. Besides, I had too much to process. The night had endedupside down and inside out. I’d planned in my head for every contingency but this one.

I left Tallus money for an Uber, knowing he worked in the morning and didn’t have his car, then I grabbed my keys and took off. I desperately needed a smoke and a long,longfucking drive to clear my head and figure out what the hell I was going to do from here.

18

Tallus

“Stop looking at me like that, Kitty.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes. You. Do. I can feel your creepy gaze crawling up my neck like tiny spiders. It’s making me shiver. Do your puzzles, woman, and leave me alone.”

“Mm-hmm.”

The clairvoyant witch had been giving me the stink eye since she’d walked in the door thirty minutes ago. Her spidey senses must have gone haywire the second she saw my fret face. Even though I hadn’t spoken a word about what had transpired between Diem and me the previous night—it was not something I could share with my eighty-something-year-old coworker—she somehow knew the poor, tormented man was in the wind and wasn’t answering my calls or texts.

I’d woken up to an empty bed and had been second-guessing my life choices ever since. The previous night had been a clusterfuck of… I don’t know what.

Kitty must have sensed a shift in the atmosphere or read the truth in the stars or… fuck, I didn’t know how, but the woman’s awareness ofall thingswas unnatural and a little spooky. I mean, how much did she see? Did she have X-ray vision? Had she watched Diem and I have sex? Oh, god, maybe she had. Eww.

My neck hairs prickled, and I snapped my attention to Kitty, who was staring again with that all-knowing look in her eyes. “Stop it.” I threw a pencil at her because I had no shame.

Kittytsked, sighed heavily, and returned to her puzzle book.

“Witch,” I whispered under my breath.

It would be nice if I could get some work done and not have her mind-melding me or whatever she did to people.Ugh, I needed a latte so badly it hurt. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake the fuzzies from my brain. My lack of sleep was catching up with me.

Our late-night stakeout at the slimy doctor’s was one thing, but Diem had unraveled right before my eyes, and I had been unable to walk away. Not when he was sharing for the first timeever. If I’d gotten two hours of sleep, that would be generous.

Forty-seven minutes until lunch, and I could skip out and grab some caffeine.

Forty-six.

Forty-five.

The blasted woman was looking again. I could feel it. “Kitty,” I warned.

“Help me with this one. Two words, sixteen letters. An uncomfortable, unwanted, or uneasy feeling that arises as a result of one’s actions.” She paused, then added, “Starts with a G.”

I slapped the counter and spun from the computer where I’d beentryingto work. “I do not have a guilty conscience.”

“Tallus, love, you’re wearing your shame like a dirty shirt. I can smell it from here.”

“My shirt is not covered in shame. It’s clean. I took it fresh from my closet this morning.” I dramatically sniffed to prove it. “Downy fresh.”

“Shame.”

I growled and spun back to the computer. “They should have burned you at the stake in the 1600s.”

Kitty cackled. “Oh, sweetie. You’re starting to sound like him now too. All that growling. What did you do? You clearly upset the boy. I told you to tread carefully, but you didn’t listen. You’re dynamic and verbose, Tallus. Those are lovely qualities in a person, but they can overwhelm softhearted people like my cuddle bear. If you want a relationship with him—and don’t tell me you don’t—he needs a quiet, undemanding, unthreatening conversation where he has time to express himself properly. He does not need to be manipulated into something he isn’t ready for.”

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