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  Once he’d situated me just how he wanted me, Jim climbed up on the long table and positioned himself right between my legs, just where I wanted him. With another low growl rumbling in his chest, he slowly parted my legs, desire very evident in his increasingly glassy eyes. Ordinarily, I might have felt self-conscious to be under such close scrutiny in a room with such bright lighting, but at present, I was so turned on I didn’t care in the least. In fact, just the thought that Jim was now examining every inch of me turned me on even more.

  He hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he was going to “torture” me. Despite me trying to guide his head exactly where I wanted it using my front-cuffed hands, he resisted, spending at least ten agonizing minutes kissing, licking, and suckling nearly every inch of my body, paying particular attention to my breasts and inner thighs.

  Eventually, I was whimpering, writhing on the table in frustration. “Jim, please. This is beyond cruel and unusual punishment. It’s so, so beyond.”

  Obviously enjoying administering my “torture,” just as he’d said he would, he still didn’t stop, teasing my most sensitive spot lightly with a fingertip while planting another long, slow line of kisses across one of my thighs. Panting, I lifted my hips, trying desperately to grind my beyond-slick spot against his fingertip, but he just pulled his fingertip further away, continuing his kisses.

  “You’re cruel, Jim. I just hope you realize that.”

  Maybe it was something in the tone of my voice, or maybe it was because he was becoming anxious for things to progress himself, but whatever it was, it got him to finally return his tongue to where he’d had it earlier, when I’d been standing. Arching my back, I cried out, then again a few moments later, when he slid a few fingers inside of me as well, then began slowly sliding them in and out while he continued stroking my throbbing bud with his tongue.

  A minute hadn’t even gone by when he began making low grunts and groans, obviously enjoying what he was doing just as much as I was. And it was hearing these incredibly erotic sounds of male pleasure that pushed me over the edge, hips bucking, while pure ecstasy rolled through my body in powerful waves, one right after the other. Tangling my fingers in Jim’s thick, dark hair, I cried out again and again, seeing stars behind my closed eyelids, for at least twenty seconds, making this orgasm the longest I’d ever experienced in my life.

  For all his earlier patience, once the last blissful spasm of my release had passed, it was as if Jim couldn’t get undressed quickly enough. The phrase “clothes flying” came to my mind. But once he was completely naked, another phrase immediately came to mind, and that was “male perfection.” All long, lean muscle, his body was like a work of art, although it was one part of his body in particular that really stole the show. As I’d felt earlier, his male member was long and thick and clearly incredibly hard. I wanted it, wanted to experience another powerful release with Jim inside of me, and I told him so while he climbed up beside me.

  “And don’t you dare tease me this time. Don’t you even dare.”

  Rolling on top of me with a growl of undisguised lust, it seemed clear that he no longer possessed the level of self-control required to tease.

  After hiking my legs up on the sides of his hips, which gave me time to slide my cuffed hands over his head so that I could pull him to me, he slid inside of me with a slow, powerful thrust so intensely pleasurable that it made me gasp, the sound nearly being drowned out by his groan. Soon, he began thrusting at a fairly leisurely pace, pulling his thick pole out of me nearly completely before sliding back into my depths again with a grunt. Moaning, I lifted my hips to meet his each time, quickly becoming lost in a world of pure erotic rapture.

  After a while, I couldn’t even tell how long, Jim increased his pace, driving his rod even deeper inside of me. It wasn’t long before the sensation of being so completely and perfectly filled, and by such a rock-hard member, sent me tumbling over the edge once again. And this time, Jim tumbled right along with me, groaning out his climax loudly enough to drown out my moans.

  A long while later, after Jim held me, stroking my hair, almost putting me to sleep, we got dressed, left the bar through the back entrance, and began walking to my cabin, hand-in-hand. The night was fairly warm, the air crisp and smelling of fresh spring grass, and the velvety sky was studded with stars. At first, we just walked along in comfortable, very satisfied silence, but after a minute or so, Jim looked over at me and spoke in a quiet voice.

  “I really am sorry about what I said during the meeting. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  I honestly couldn’t even remember what he’d said at the meeting that had made me mad, and I told him so. “Whatever it was, it’s okay now.”

  Eyes twinkling in the moonlight, Jim gave my hand a light squeeze.

  After taking a long shower together, we curled up in bed together, and Jim once again began smoothing my hair, which I loved. I knew that the relaxing sensation, added to how relaxed I’d already become from our lovemaking and our shower, was soon to put me to sleep. But before I could drift off, Jim said he wanted to tell me something.

  “You were right earlier when you said that I do still have a sheriff’s mindset. But it’s not a mindset to want to make people do whatever I want them to. It’s a mindset to protect, and make sure that everyone in this community, and everyone in Ridgewood, and everyone in the entire state, stays safe and free.”

  Looking into his eyes, I experienced a pang of guilt. “I know that... and I knew that earlier. I was just angry. I understand that you’re just trying to protect everyone.”

  “Do you also understand that by insisting that you join in during the next training session, I’m just trying to help you get to a place where you can help protect everyone, too?”

  I sighed and then fell silent for a long moment or two, thinking, before speaking again. “Okay. I agree to participate in the next training session. But I’m doing this just to make you happy, because I care about you. It does not mean that I agree to fight the Angels at any point in time. And if I hate participating in the next training session, I’m not doing it again, and I am absolutely serious about that, and you have to agree to that. If I hate practicing my Gifted power with everyone else, I never have to do it again. Deal?”

  Jim’s mouth curved in a slow half-grin, and he planted a kiss on my forehead, letting his lips linger.

  “Deal.”

  CHAPTER 14

  It turned out that I loved participating in training with everyone else. I joined in a session the very next day after Jim and I had made our deal, and soon I was levitating shifters, actually having to stifle delighted laughter that I could even do such a thing. Up to this point, the little boy I’d levitated to stop him from being hit by a car had been the heaviest thing I’d ever lifted, so I hadn’t really been sure I’d be able to handle a bear weighing several hundred pounds.

  Now I knew I could, though it wasn’t exactly easy. I could only levitate bears for a few seconds at a time, just long enough to slow them in their charge of a group of Gifteds. During this particular training session, it was the bears’ turn to play the part of attacking Angels.

  Tasha, whose gift was levitation as well, told me that levitation was just like using a muscle, in the sense that it would get stronger with use. “Just trust me on this, just keep doing what you’re doing, and you’ll eventually be able to hold any object, thing, or person in the air for at least ten seconds at a time, just like the rest of us levitators can. In time, it won’t cause such mental strain, either, like you’re probably experiencing right now. By the way, expect to want to go right to sleep after this training session. You’re probably going to be more exhausted than you’ve ever been in your life, and you’re probably going to want to sleep for ten hours.”

  She was right that I was experiencing some mental strain. The feeling was difficult to describe, but it was something like lifting a heavy dumbbell, but with my brain. Even as unexpectedly exhilarated as I was by the fact that I w
as levitating huge bears, I couldn’t deny that each time I did it, my feeling of mental strain was becoming more and more pronounced.

  Tasha was also right that by the time the training session was over, I was probably more exhausted than I’d ever been in my life. It had kind of suddenly hit me during the last couple of minutes, and I’d had to sit down, struggling to keep my eyes open. Jen had made me drink a cup of sports drink, insisting on holding the cup for me, and by the time I’d finished it, I was actually starting to nod off right there on the field. I came to when Jim led everyone in a round of applause for my hard work that day, and I even managed a weak smile. But then I was drifting off again, feeling myself being picked up in Jim’s strong arms. Before I was fully fast asleep, I felt him press a kiss against my lips, and then he whispered that he was going to carry me home. I had a feeble pang of regret that I wasn’t going to be awake to enjoy the experience.

  When I awoke a short while later, I was being put into bed, and Jim was saying something about getting me pajamas. I sat up, groggily, as he went over to my dresser and began rifling through the drawers. He soon returned, set some pajamas in my lap, and began taking off my shoes.

  “I’ll step out while you change, unless you want me to help you.”

  “No, I can do it.”

  I thought I could, anyway. But after Jim left, I only managed to get undressed down to my bra and underwear, then pull on the pair of pajama pants before falling asleep again. I awoke just briefly a short while later, when I felt Jim lift me up to sit, put my arms through the sleeves of my pajama top, and then button up the front. I was asleep again before he even got to the top button.

  Exceeding Tasha’s expectation of ten hours, I actually slept for twelve solid hours, not waking until around five in the morning the next day, and only then because I had to use the bathroom so badly. Somewhat to my disappointment, I saw that I was alone in bed. I’d kind of been hoping that Jim would spend the night after bringing me home, even if all we did was literally sleep together. However, I figured, it was possible that maybe he had spent the night but had had to leave early for patrol work. After all, he regularly woke well before dawn, sometimes even at four.

  After using the bathroom, I drank a glass of water and then returned to bed, feeling like I could actually use an additional hour or two of sleep, somewhat unbelievably. I snuggled up with the part of the blanket that still held Jim’s scent from when he’d slept in my bed the night we’d made love.

  When I next awoke, maybe a couple of hours later, it was because I felt someone sliding into bed beside me.

  Wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close from behind, Jim whispered near my ear. “I stayed most of the night, but I had to leave around four to run a patrol. I couldn’t wait to come back, though, because I’ve discovered that holding you while you sleep is just about the best thing ever.”

  Smiling, I reached for one of his hands and twined my fingers with his. And then, astonishingly, I actually fell asleep yet again and slept for another hour. When I awoke, I was ravenous, and Jim brought me breakfast in bed. We ate oranges, scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast snuggled up together, and then we took a shower together. Which somehow led us back to bed, where we made love until Jim was called away to deal with an Angels problem around noon. Although by that time, I thought it was a pretty safe bet to say that we were both completely satisfied. I knew I sure was, but in a way that already had me looking forward to our next lovemaking session.

  Around two in the afternoon, Jen texted me a picture symbol of a stack of books, followed by a question mark. After wondering for several moments what this text meant, I was pretty sure I got it, and I texted her back a thumbs up.

  Not a minute later, she showed up on my doorstep with Marbles, grinning. “You understood me! You got that I was asking if you wanted to do a reading and spelling session!”

  Smiling, I ushered her and Marbles inside. “I did get what you were asking, but...”

  “But, what?”

  “But, you’ve got to start trying to type out words in texts, too, and I’m going to respond by typing words. If you want to start getting better at reading and writing, you’ve got to start practicing those skills all the time, not just when we’re working on things at the kitchen table.”

  She agreed to start doing what I’d asked. “I’ll try my best, anyway.”

  For someone who’d resisted learning to read and write well her entire life, I thought her attitude was great, and I told her so. “I’m really pretty impressed by you, Jen.”

  With a little wash of pink coloring her cheeks, she grinned. “Thanks. See, the more better and better I keep getting at reading and writing with you, the more I want to keep on getting better and better. I’m honestly starting to feel a little bit proud of myself.”

  I told her she had every right to be, and I definitely meant it.

  With Marbles sleeping at our feet, and a fresh spring breeze fluttering the kitchen curtains every so often, we worked on reading and spelling for two hours without a single break. Then, I gave Jen a spelling test, and though she didn’t get even half of the words right, she did spell the words the, no, yes, is, was, are, clap, hop, and cool correctly. This was a big improvement over the first spelling test of the same words I’d given her. Then, she’d only spelled a single word right. She hadn’t even been very close with was, spelling it wuzz.

  After we’d shared a celebratory snack of apples and cookies and milk, she left with Marbles for their daily private walk. They hadn’t even been gone five minutes when Annie knocked on the door.

  I invited her in, asking if she’d like a cup of tea. “I was just making a cup of lemon green tea myself, and I’d love to have you join me.”

  Just then, the teakettle began whistling out in the kitchen, and Annie thanked me and stepped inside.

  I really did want to talk to her. I wanted to talk to her about Jen, specifically the way she’d spoken to Jen at the council meeting. I’d been thinking about it a lot over the course of the afternoon, wondering if it was even my business, ultimately deciding that it wasn’t. But then I’d decided that it definitely was my business, because Jen was my friend, and I really cared about her, even loved her as a friend already. And the way I saw things, a friend had an obligation to stick up for a friend when that friend was constantly being belittled and disrespected by a family member. Particularly since that friend was very childlike sometimes, and maybe not completely capable of defending herself and demanding better treatment.

  Jen definitely wasn’t anywhere near as mature as the average eighteen-year-old; I totally got that. In fact, considering her diminutive size and her whole general way of being, I sometimes had to remind myself that she was actually eighteen, and not thirteen, because that was kind of how I thought of her. Maybe even twelve. Because of this, I could understand why Annie got frustrated with her sometimes. Especially since Annie herself seemed to the polar opposite of Jen in terms of personality, and also since Annie didn’t seem to find some of Jen’s quirks quite as endearing as I did.

  Because of these things, it wasn’t that I was completely without sympathy for Annie, and also because I knew that she’d had to completely take over caring for Jen after their mother’s death, not that it seemed like their mother had done much real caring for Jen anyway, and not that it seemed like Annie had really done much caring herself. But at any rate, I felt for Annie, on some level, and right before she’d arrived, I’d decided that I would talk to her about Jen sometime soon, but that I’d be very careful, and very gentle, in what I said and how I said it.

  Basically, I planned to start off by telling her how well Jen was doing with her reading and writing, and then I was very carefully going to segue into the topic of the council meeting and say that I agreed with Jim’s thinking that Jen trying so hard to contribute to the community was admirable. Then, I was going to very gently suggest that maybe Annie shouldn’t be so hard on Jen. Depending on how she reacted to that, I was then goi
ng to say a few more things. Or not. I was just going to kind of play it by ear and go with my gut.

  However, when we were both sitting at the kitchen table with steaming mugs of tea, Annie beat me to the punch and brought up Jen first. “So... I’ve been wanting to ask you...” Clearly looking uncomfortable, Annie picked up her mug of tea, hesitating, before speaking again. “Has Jen been bothering you since you’ve been here in Timberline? I mean, it’s clear that you’re a very nice and kind person, because you’ve obviously been tolerating her, but—”

  “I haven’t just been ‘tolerating her.’ I genuinely like her, and I enjoy spending time with her. Despite the age difference, we’ve genuinely become friends. I really care about her.”

  I’d felt an unexpected little flash of anger when Annie had said the word “tolerating,” as if she thought I was just a wet noodle kind of person who would let a person who irritated me spend hours of time at my cabin, and as if it was a completely unbelievable concept that anyone could actually find Jen likeable, charming, and sweet. I felt more than a bit offended on her behalf.

  Frowning, Annie set down her mug with a deep sigh. “Well, now I feel bad that I even asked. I bet you think I’m a big bitch for assuming that she’s been bugging you.”

  Mirroring what Annie had just done, I set down my own mug with a sigh. “No, I don’t think you’re a big bitch. I do think, however, that Jen seems to respond better to praise and encouragement than criticism and belittling, and it’s been kind of upsetting to me when I’ve witnessed you doing the latter to her sometimes, like at the council meeting. I think sometimes she even ignores you and tunes you out when you say negative things about her, like she’s used to it. That’s really kind of sad, Annie.”

  Annie just stared into her tea for a long moment before responding, and even then, she still kept her gaze on her tea. “I’ve never had any clue how to deal with her, and our mom didn’t, either. I know I’m a lot like our mom, too, which I’m sure doesn’t help. I’m a little closed-off emotionally at times, though I hope I’m nowhere near the ice queen level that she was. Terrible of me to even say that, I know, because she’s dead, but she was quite the ice queen. She used to say some horrible, horrible things about Jen, that she was a ‘huge mistake’ and a ‘waste of money’ and things like that. As far as saying things to Jen’s face, she didn’t often do that, to her small credit, but I know Jen overheard things sometimes. And I know I’ve said some horrible things to her myself, right to her face, or while she’s still in the room. I’m often sorry, but then I just can’t seem to tell her that, and then I start feeling resentful toward her again, and the whole cycle repeats itself.”