Page 57 of Enchanted Kisses
I flinched and stared at him, my cheeks on fire. “Did you just read my mind?”
“I can’t…at least, not anymore. I readyou. Your expression, your skin, your breathing, your body language. I can read you better than anyone.”
“Dagan can read my mind,” I said.
Caiden stiffened. “I hate that he can. I could have, too, had I not left. The separation from my realm is messing with me. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that ability back.”
“I still can’t believe you read my mind in the past?”How embarrassing.
“I told you, I didn’t do it all the time.” He placed a comforting hand on my thigh.
Whoa.When the old Caiden did that, I never thought anything of it. I forced myself to relax and turned forward, knowing it would help.
“It was difficult, too,” he went on, “like tuning into a satellite. One minute, your thoughts would be there and the next, they’d drop. The closer we became, the more interference I experienced. Raysa said my emotions got in the way, and I didn’t want to know your thoughts. But I disagree. I wanted to know them. I still do.”
“I’m glad you can’t do it anymore.”
He leaned close. “Why? Afraid of what I might hear?”
Exactly. I had to change the subject. “You wanted to tell me a story?”
“Right.” He didn’t move away, just turned his head to gaze out the glass patio doors and into the sunny backyard. “I thought I’d tell you about the first time I saw you.”
“You mean, when you were chasing me?”
He laughed. “Oh, I’m still chasing you. All that has changed are my intentions.”
My tummy fluttered with nervous excitement. I bit my lip, wondering if he could read my emotions or sense them somehow. There was too much I didn’t know.
“I’ve always wanted to tell you about the first time I saw you.”
“Only you couldn’t,” I said.
“Right. So here it goes.”
I rested my feet on the coffee table—the way I used to—and snuggled into the couch and the side of his sculpted arm.
“I first saw you in the high school courtyard,” he began. “I’d been tracking the world for a half-human girl with little to go on other than her mother’s appearance and a sense of difference—magic that could either be seen in her aura or felt in her presence. I’d encountered so many girls around your age who had similarities to your mother but were dead ends. I considered you might look more like your human father and, if that were the case, I would never find you. The search was challenging, if not dull at times. But I kept on, never stopping my pursuit, praying you were real and not a myth that I’d been chasing.” He paused and his expression lightened. “Then, there you were in that courtyard, under a tree, the branches curving as if they reached for you and the flowers straining in your direction. You were alone, reading on a stone bench, utterly engrossed. Your expression gave away every emotion you felt. It was beautiful. Then, you laughed.” He chuckled with the memory. “Your nose scrunched, your hair fell over your face, and your whole body quivered. Never in my entire life had I seen anyone give in to their emotions like that. For whatever reason, you lifted your flushed, smiling face and looked directly at me. Your eyes hadn’t changed yet, but I was still taken by them. Byyou.”
I gaped at him, his words always a surprise. Even though he’d been speaking like this more often, I wasn’t used to his honesty or how it affected my entire body, right down to my thumping heart and sweaty palms.
When his turquoise gaze met mine, I had imagined myself clutching his shirt and pulling him in for a kiss.
“Caiden?” I asked in a quiet voice.
“I’m not finished.” His tone was soft, and his eyes glinted as he studied my face, looking pleased as usual with my reaction.
I nodded, gathered my emotions, and returned to his side, keenly aware of his warmth and oaky, campfire scent.
“When I saw you laughing, I laughed in response. Light surged through me, warming my cold skin. I hadn’t experienced anything that genuine, that emotional, since before my mother died. I started to crave it and became obsessed with watching you. I did it all the time. You had no idea. When watching was no longer enough, I moved in on you. Not to lure you to my realm as was my task, but to get to know you. To learn what made you so passionate. I don’t know if I believed you werethe girlat first, only that you were an escape for me. A way out of an engagement I’d been forced into and a realm that had grown meaningless.”
I refrained from asking how and why.
“I had no idea growing close to you would alter my destiny or bring me to this.”
I couldn’t tell whether he was relieved or disappointed. “Bring you to what?”
He stared at me for a moment, then lifted his hand to my cheek and brushed his fingers over my skin and mouth.
