Page 33 of Chasing Dreams
“I think so.”
“Now, you use your strongest experiences as points of reference.”
“What do you mean?”
“Take the experiences that are vivid for you. Things you knew without a shadow of a doubt.”
“Like my aunt Jackie’s accident?”
“And the Deets boy. And the kid yesterday. Every detail about those incidents will help you in the next.”
It hit her then that he was giving her practical, completely understandable information on how to use her own skill. Excitement built within her chest, and her heart pounded erratically. “Austin?”
The warmth of his flint-colored gaze touched her every bit as directly as the heat from the morning sun. She’d never felt quite so alive.
“What?” he replied.
She tried to form words around the pressure in her chest. “Wh-what are you doing?”
He leaned forward, his intriguing dark eyes suffused with a challenge...and something more.... “I’m going to give you what you’re asking for. So you’d better hope it’s what you really want.”
Joy sprang up inside her, but warily she forced herself to double-check his meaning. “You’re going to teach me how?”
As if she were seeing too much, he cast his gaze toward the fall-dressed mountainside for several seconds. When he looked back at her, she read his uncertainty. “Yesterday shook up my conviction about your nephew.”
“Oh, Austin.” She allowed the expectant thrill of his decision to wash over her. He believed her. He believed she could find Jack. Impulsively she stepped closer, wanting to touch him, needing to share her feelings and oh, so grateful to him for caring enough to change his mind.
“Whoa!” he said, as his coffee sloshed over the side of the cup and dotted the porch floor. One arm went around her, and quickly he set the cup down and used the other to steady her against him.
“Thank you,” she said, and placed her hands on his cheeks.
Against her breasts his heart thundered. Around her, his arms were solid and reassuring. For the first time ever, she didn’t feel all alone. This man understood her. He cared enough to help her. He wasn’t afraid of her, nor did he want to examine her head to satisfy his curiosity.
His hand opened in the middle of her back, but it didn’t pull her toward him. Heat radiated through her sweater and raced along her spine.
She stared into his dark eyes and wanted to kiss him. She wanted to feel that pulse-drugging excitement once again. His cheeks were warm and smooth beneath her palms. She raised her face until her lips were only inches from his.
“Don’t do this just because I’m helping you,” he said, his voice a low warning.
She had to think a moment. Had to clear her head and recognize what he was saying to her. Don’t kiss him? Don’t throw herself into his arms? Don’t what?
“I’m doing this because I want to,” she said finally, and moved her hands to his hard shoulders.
The way he sat on the rail had her pressed into the V of his jean-clad thighs where hard muscle encased her hips. His hand moved up her back, still not demanding, still not pulling her toward him. When he reached her hair, he twined his fingers through the tresses and found the sensitive skin of her neck.
The caress transmitted a betraying shiver through Shaine’s body.
His eyes darkened. His lips beckoned. Shaine leaned into the kiss, meeting his mouth, wrapping one arm around the back of his neck to retain the delicious connection.
His lips were warm and pliant and starved for the taste of hers. Not gentle. Not patient. Not at all like the last time. Passion swept through her with the onslaught of his hungry quest for more. He had an array of kisses, and she wanted to sample them all.
He slid his hand through her hair to cradle the back of her head, and the kiss became ardent. Shaine cupped his jaw, ran her thumb over the warm supple skin of his cheek.
He framed her face with his hard-palmed hands and unsatisfactorily kissed both corners of her mouth, nipped her chin, touched his tongue to the tender skin below her jaw. Shaine’s shallow breath fluttered through her lips.
“You’d better decide,” he said against her throat.
Shaine opened her eyes, but saw nothing. “Decide what?”
