Page 84 of Diagnosis Attraction

“Is this woman a threat to us?” When he reached for her hand and knitted his fingers with hers, she tightened her grip.

“I wish I knew.”

“We talked about practicing our skills on this trip. I think shielding our minds should be one of our top priorities.”

She nodded against his shoulder. She’d thought they were safe—at least for a little while. Now, she was a lot less confident. And she knew she wasn’t going back to sleep anytime soon.

Matt packed up on the observation. “We can start practicing now.”

“Because you know I’m worried?” she asked, although she already knew the answer.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

He sat up, and she did the same, pulling up the pillow and leaning against the headboard.

When he climbed out of bed, she gave him a questioning look.

Better if we’re not touching.

You mean easier.

He pulled on a tee shirt and his shorts and sat down in the chair near the window.

I’m going to block my thoughts. You try to worm your way in.

A nice way to put it. How do you block your thoughts?

I don’t know exactly. I guess we’ll find out.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“I’m going to picture a wall and put it around my mind,” Matt suggested.

“Will that work?”

“I hope it’s better than picturing a mud hole.”

She laughed. “I guess so.” She gave him a long look. “I guess you can put up your wall, then think of something you want to guard behind it.”

She could sense the barrier going into place. She could even see it in his mind. It was made of cement blocks, and he put it together block by block.

Then she knew by his expression that he’d hidden a thought behind it.

She had very little trouble breaking through. And when she did, she laughed.

“You’re thinking about the food we’re going to get in New Orleans,” she said.

“Yeah.”

“Try again.”

He gritted his teeth and returned to the wall, and this time, she had a little more trouble breaking through. When she did, she gave him a long look. “You’ve switched from food to sex.”

“I’m a guy, after all. Maybe I put them in the wrong order. Why don’t we reverse the process, and you try?”

She focused her gaze inward, constructing a barrier out of sturdy, upright metal pieces. When she had it in place, she put an image of a beautiful garden inside, then put herself into the picture, sitting down in a wicker chair enjoying the sunlight slanting through the trees.

It was hard to keep the wall in place and keep the image of the garden at the same time, but she managed it for a few minutes until Matt came along and started pulling her stakes out of the ground.

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