He placed his palm over mine, but just an inch above it.
“Think of how you love me,” he instructed, “and then push the power that builds up in your core to your palm.”
I scrunched up my face, but he corrected me.
“No, seriously. You can feel that emotion rolling in your stomach, right?”
I nodded.
“Okay, then focus in on that feeling. See it as a ball of energy, just as it is. Imagine it moving down your arm to your hand. Please, no matter how silly, just try it.”
“Okay,” I whispered and did as he said.
I tried hard to tap into that feeling inside me, to focus in hard on it. Good at using my imagination, I did that to picture a ball of energy, more cartoon Edison, in my mind. Then I moved it up my arms. The fact that I felt it tingle stopped me a few times, but I called myself crazy, re-focused, and continued on.
When I felt a tingling in my hand, a heat that surprisingly didn’t burn, I heard him whisper, “Open your eyes, Christina.”
When I did, I saw the faint glow of a pure white light shimmering between our palms. I gasped and pulled my hand away as if I’d been burnt even though I hadn’t.
“It’s okay,” he laughed.
“What was that?”
“Magic,” he answered, still chuckling.
“Yours?”
“No, like I said, ours, babe. I felt it inside you the first time we touched. I’ve felt the spark that lives inside of you all your life. I think creative types such a s yourself have an easier time tapping into it, because in a way you do that each time you imagine a story in your head.”
“Really?” I asked, feeling like my entire body had strong currents of electricity running all through it in an endless, fast-moving stream.
“Really. We can play more anytime you want. It’s my understanding that it can grow more and more with practice. Someday, who knows, we could light up a dark room, literally.”
“I already feel like I could, but I’m going to hold you to that,” I said through a yawn.
“It’s been such a long night. You really need to get some sleep,” he soothed.
“You’ll stay?” I dared ask.
“Absolutely. When you open your eyes, I’ll still be here.”
“Asleep with my wolf. I haven’t done that since I was a child. Well, I mean, I used to see you in my dreams. In wolf form. I would curl up in a ball against you, your heavy legs curled around mine.”
“I know. I was there. That’s magic also, a means of projection. I could place myself in your dreams, let you sleep soundly in my protection. You used to lay your small hand on my paw. So it’s not creepy, I loved you in a different way then. It grew, changed, matured as you did, and I stopped coming to your dreams because of that.”
“Really? Anyway, those dream visits of yours meant more than you can ever know to me then. The warmth. The comfort,” I rattled on in a sleepy, diminishing voice. “When I most missed my mom, felt literal pain in a desire to have her hold me again, you’d come and my need would be quenched as much as it could.”
“I knew. I’ve always felt your every emotion, remember. I’ve hurt and smiled right along with you.”
“Hmm,” I sighed. “Tonight, in reality, I sleep with my wolf even if he is in man form.”
“With the man now, but I can do you one better until you fall asleep,” he whispered in my ear.
In an instant, I felt myself nuzzled against a belly of fur. Opening my eyes, large paws appeared above my head. While in my mind I knew I should probably be scared, I felt a feeling so familiar, comforting beyond explanation, that I let my eyes close and fell into a deep sleep.
Chapter Five
When I woke, I found myself trapped, unable to so much as roll over. Lex’s arm rested not only as a weight on my own, but his beefy hand held my waist. His thigh over mine also allowed his leg to wrap around my two like a vice. Turning my neck as much as I could to get a glimpse at his face, I smiled as his breath bathed my face. I didn’t even mind the touch of morning breath to find him still here.