Page 10 of Training Rain
Chapter 2
Everything she said wasin English and yet he didn’t understand. “LA? Wow, that’s surprising, but I don’t know what you mean by Adianca saving you from yourself and what does any of that have to do with last summer and why you were so upset earlier?”
She physically shook herself and he couldn’t read her. “Nothing.”
He’d promised not to pry so he’d have to allow her to tell the story her own way. The temptation to poke around in her pretty head was strong. He just wished he wasn’t so distracted by all that long black hair, smooth skin and curves that would not stop. At least when he arrived, she was bundled up for the cold weather. Now she was in a tank top and sweatpants and it was more than he could stand.
Maybe he should have left her in her bed, left her to suffer alone, but he couldn’t. Somehow, though he didn’t know how, he was responsible for the agony she was experiencing and that would not do. He would try to gentle her into confiding in him.
“Maybe we should keep it simple, Rain. You said that when you heal you manipulate the body’s cells to work faster.”
“That’s right.” She looked as if she was surprised he’d been listening.
“How do you do that?”
“I experience the event that caused the injury and I use it to turn the negative energy around.”
Jess was pretty sure his heart had just stopped beating. She could not possibly mean what she just said. “You experience the pain?”
Her dark gaze was so intense he couldn’t have looked away if he’d wanted to. “The pain, fear, whatever the patient went through.”
It was too much to accept. She’d saved his life and healed him in Las Vegas, but he didn’t dare ask. Not yet. The idea was far too terrible. “So earlier when you healed my arm, you actually made yourself feel the pain of being shot?”
“I felt the hot lead tearing skin, the rush of adrenaline and the instant of fear before you became angry with me.”
He had to get up and move away from her. If he could have left the cabin he would have, but the howling wind told him the storm was far from over. His gut was in knots. “What about in Las Vegas?”
She lowered her eyes and stared at something only she could see in the wood floors.
As soon as he realized that she wasn’t going to answer he leaped across the room, grabbed her by the shoulders and hauled her off the couch. “Tell me.”
Those dark eyes met his and a sad smile touched her lips. “You don’t really want to know this, Jess. If you could leave me here and never see me again, you would do it. Why ask a question you don’t want the answer to?”
His hands were shaking. She could likely feel it, but he didn’t care. “I took this assignment because I owe you for saving me. I didn’t want you to go through what is going to be a kind of hell on your own. I thought I owed you that much. If what you say is true, there is no way to repay the debt, and I always repay my debts.”
“Let this go. There is no debt.”
“Tell me about Las Vegas.” He had pulled her closer. He hadn’t meant to, but his body was touching hers and her lips were too close to his. As her chest rose and fell, her tits rubbed against his chest.
“Maybe you should let me go, Jess.”
He did and took a step back. What was it about her that mesmerized him? He didn’t know but he didn’t like it. Once she was seated, he sat on the edge of the wooden coffee table facing her. His heart raced as if he were on his first assignment.Pull yourself together, McMean.
Rain’s gaze drifted toward the fireplace.
Jess watched the flames dancing in those mysterious eyes.
“I never wanted to go with you to Las Vegas, but I couldn’t say no to Adianca. She saved me and so when she asks something of me, I say yes. Your people didn’t want me along either. They thought I would get in the way, and I could understand their concerns. I’m not trained for combat. I know nothing of psychic battles. Yet Adianca was sure I would be needed and she was right as she always is.
“I’ve never been as frightened as I was that day. I had no weapon. My job was to get close enough to Banta to stop the flow of psi energy so that others could reach him with weapons, psychic or otherwise.
“Stealing power through the abomination of gathering weakened the madman and I saw my chance. Your friend Trip was already drained of his aura. He lay dead on the cold marble floor. I could see the life drawing away from you. I crawled on my belly across the floor. Banta was so distracted and thought himself so invincible he didn’t notice me. Tessa distracted him, he released his hold on you and when he attacked Tessa I blocked his psi.”
Everything she said, he remembered as a hazy nightmare. Once he and Trip attacked and Banta countered, everything became out of focus. His life ebbed away and his world began to collapse in on itself. “Then what happened?”
It was warm in the room, but she shivered. “Tessa killed him and I started to heal you.”
“I was dying.”
