Enchant Me (10 page)

“Spaghettios, hot dogs and oatmeal,” I
laughed and shrugged.

He looked completely disgusted but he was
still so insanely cute. He really was a good cook too. I wondered
if I could talk him into bringing me lunch at school. 

“Alexis,” he sounded serious. Here it comes…
“What were you thinking about earlier?”

He looked at me pointedly, daring me to
pretend that I didn’t know to what he was referring. I looked
away from him. I really didn’t want to tell him but I didn’t
believe in lying either. 

“Nicolas,” I sighed. When I looked back
I saw jealously flash across his face just before reality hit and
he realized how stupid that was. I smiled in understanding.

 “I am not going to let anything happen
to you,” he stated, his eyes hard and intent. “Honestly, it
isn’t so much me I am worried about.”

He stared at me for a moment like he was
considering his next words. His eyes kind of shuttered like he was
hiding something from me. Finally he looked away, out over the
field. “I can take care of myself.”

It took all the self control I had not to
shudder a little. The way he said it was like --he knew it for a
fact. That it had been tested and he had come out the victor, but
was almost sorry for the knowledge? I felt confused. I trusted my
intuition and there was no inkling that he would be a danger to me
or anyone else. Maybe he had fought some bullies in the past or
something. Remembering my vow to keep him happy and content
always, I decided a change in topic was definitely in order. I
leaned over and placed a soft kiss on his cheek which seemed to
help pull him from wherever he was. 

“Christian, what plans do you have for after
graduation?” I asked while grabbing seconds of his delicious potato
salad. He looked surprised by this particular change of topic
but he smiled and relaxed which was my goal in the first
place. 

His eyes regarded mine warmly, “I don’t know,
I wasn’t planning on going to college, not to sound cocky, but I
don’t really need to. I’ve been selling my paintings since I was
about 15 years old. My finances are already secure for life pretty
much. What about you?”

I was stunned. No college? My whole family
was college graduates. It was drilled in since birth. “Um,” I was
still caught a little off guard. “I am planning on going to a well
known photography college in Santa Barbara.”

“Really? I love that town. They have some
great subjects for painting, although it is hard to go wrong in
California.”

I smiled in response. “My feelings
exactly.” 

As I admired him sprawled out on my towel, I
considered how to ask my next question. I didn’t want to scare him
off but it might be better off to know what to expect than get my
hopes up. “So… you would possibly consider moving back to Cali?” I
asked, as casually and offhand as I could. His brown eyes were
soft as they looked at me.

“Yes, I would consider it,” he murmured and
leaned in towards me.

My eyes dropped to his perfect lips as I met
him halfway. As always his lips were warm and I melted into them.
And I forgot that we were out in the open on a field, that Cody was
sniffing at our plates deciding what was palatable to him, and the
fact that some of his friends had noticed our absorption and were
yelling at us ‘to get a room’. At last he pulled away, I don’t
think I could have, and packed everything up again. I rubbed my
stomach. “That was so good, thank you.”

He smiled, “I have a feeling I am all that
stands between you and malnutrition.”

I practically choked on a laugh. “Hey, I said
I eat oatmeal. That’s good for your heart right?” 

He laughed and patted me on the head like I
was a toddler and jogged away to drop off the cooler at his
car. I glanced down as Cody butted his head against my arm and
peered up at me like he was trying to tell me something. His golden
eyes in the afternoon sunlight were so bright they were almost
blinding.

 “Do you want some food and water?” I
asked him, petting his little head.

I pulled out his food and water bowls and
filled them up. I must have guessed right since he devoured both.
Completely content now, he curled up his little body as close to me
as possible and took one of his many catnaps of the day, his loud
purring filling the air. 

When their game recommenced, I pulled out my
camera and started taking shots of their game, more pictures of
Cody sleeping, and even some great shots of the Olympic Mountain
range that could be seen clearly from the field. My eyes couldn’t
seem to help themselves though, they always returned to
Christian. 

While I watched him a slight throbbing
started in my temples again. Not as bad as the other day but enough
to notice. Without even meaning to, I started to tense up and fight
it. Even so, a hazy image started to appear and probably out of
curiosity more than anything else, I focused in on it. As I relaxed
and concentrated, the image cleared and the headache started to
dissipate. I saw him again as I had in my dream the other day.
Balled up, his hands clutching his head like it was about to
explode. I felt a little sick at the look of pain on his face.
Forcing myself to look away, I noticed new details. It looked like
he was in a forest and from the lack of light filtering through the
trees it was maybe sunset. I could hear yelling. It sounded like
two adults, a male and female. Their words were indistinct but the
tenor of their voices was horrible, vicious. They sounded more like
crazed animals than human. Intuition whispered in my mind that the
adults were Christian’s parents. But why would they be wasting time
arguing when it was so obvious that Christian was in such pain. He
looked like he needed to go to a hospital. I tried to look around
and see his parents but it was like being slammed against a wall,
the vision wouldn’t shift. 

The feeling of something soft grazing my
hands jerked me out of the vision. I glanced down to find Cody
settling in my lap, staring up at me solemnly. I physically gave
myself a little shake. I could hear how fast my heart was beating
and how loud my breathing had become. I couldn’t lie to myself. I
had just had a vision…

Is that what the headaches were from, a
precursor of a vision? As I rolled the idea around and started to
accept the possibility, other questions flooded my mind. Was my
grandmother right? Was I being given these visions for a reason? If
so, how could I help Christian with something that had happened
years ago? I had been staring somewhat blindly at Cody while I
had been thinking, and so luckily I noticed when his ears rotated
around and he turned his head towards the field. Glancing over I
noticed the game seemed to be over and Christian was just turning
to come our way. I quickly cleared my expression before he saw
us.

Thankfully I didn’t have to try very hard to
find a smile as he approached. He looked so boyish as he ran
up, his smile almost innocent-- well as innocent as it was for
someone as sexy as he was to look.

“Hey, I can drive you and Cody home, and
after I have showered and changed, I will walk over and pick you up
around 7:00.”

My mind kind of got caught on the notion of
him showering, water dripping down his body. My thoughts must have
been all over my face because a slow sensual smile started to form
on his lips. I gave myself a mental slap. Mind out of the gutter,
mind out of the gutter. “Sounds good,” I murmured. I kept
chanting the refrain, the whole time we packed up my stuff and
walked towards his car.

I tried to ignore the warm weight of his hand
at the usual spot on my lower back, and decided the wisest course
of action at the moment was to avoid looking at him. I felt
ridiculously glad that my arms were full with a wriggling cat, so
there was no chance I could jump him like I seriously wanted
too. He wasn’t helping though, I could feel his heated gaze on
me and his hand started caressing my back, drifting close to my
hips and then back up again. Once in the car he rested his hot hand
just slightly above my knee and my head jerked to face him. Didn’t
he know he was taunting an obviously sex-crazed virgin?

When my eyes met his I didn’t see the teasing
light I expected. Instead his eyes were dark, velvety, and
concentrated on my lips. I felt immeasurably better that I wasn’t
the only one with their mind in the gutter. Bending towards him, I
breathed in his scent before diving in. His breath and cologne were
delicious, I couldn’t explain it. It had to be
pheromones. After who knows how long, we finally pulled away.
Our breathing labored, hearts beating like we had run a marathon.
He pulled my hand to rest on top of his while he drove, neither of
us spoke till we were in front of my house. 

“Christian, when you come by later you should
probably meet my mom.”

He smiled and his dark eyes had that softness
in them that always melted me. “No problem. By the way, I kind of
figured your dad doesn’t live here but where does he live?”

“In New Orleans with my step-mom and younger
half sister,” I said, wondering why he wanted to know. 

“Hmm,” was all he said. 

Christian seemed almost old fashioned at
times and I wondered if he was considering asking my father for
permission to date me--officially I guess. That would be fine
although no boyfriend of mine had ever done that before.

I gave him as innocent a kiss as I could
muster and reluctantly got out of his car. “I will see you at
7:00.”

As I watched his car drive away, I mulled
over all that had happened today-- fell in love, had a psychic
vision. Just a normal day for me, I laughed internally at myself.
Walking towards the house I started to worry about my mom’s
reaction to Christian. Would she demand to know his intentions?
Fingerprint and blood type him? I cringed, I hope she wasn’t going
to go into some obnoxious over protective mode. She was in the
shower when I got in the house so I went straight to my room with
Cody and started on my homework.

As the time inched closer to Christian’s
arrival she finally walked by my room on the way to the kitchen. I
cringed; it looked like she was all ready for bed and she didn’t
usually like to have my friends over on a regular basis anyway so
it looked like maybe she wouldn’t want to meet Christian tonight
after all. “Hey mom?”

“Yes?” she said, stopping just outside the
door to my room.

“I am going to Saltar’s with Christian for a
barbeque tonight and I was going to introduce you to him before we
go. Did you want me to wait for another time?”

I watched as she considered the options,
probably deciding if it was worth meeting her daughter’s boyfriend
tonight or if she would rather wait until she was dressed with her
hair and makeup done. Eventually her mothering instincts won out
over her vanity. “I will go get dressed and I take it you will
be home at a decent hour since you have school tomorrow?”

I nodded my head. “Yep, homework is already
done too.”

When she shuffled off, it occurred to me that
I should probably change too. It was getting a little cooler and I
wanted to be comfortable, especially if we sat down on the hard
gravel beach at some point. I quickly chose a cute little black and
white track suit and tennis shoes. Giving Cody’s sleeping form a
little pat, I went out to the living room to wait for my dark
Irish, Italian painter. When the knock on the door finally
came, my Christian grin was already in force. I tried to temper it
but it was hopeless. As I let him in I realized that my
uncontrollable full teeth grin made him seriously happy. So keeping
to my vow, if it made him happy… I guess I would just have to keep
smiling like an idiot since I couldn’t seem to do anything
else. Just then mom walked up in her version of night club
wear. A little over the top to meet my boyfriend, and I did my best
at restraining an eye roll.

“Mom this is Christian, Christian my mom
Cindy.”

Christian, being ever the gentleman,
presented my mom with a lovely mixed flower bouquet and shook her
hand. “Pleased to meet you,” he said and wrapped an arm around my
waist while handing me a single pure white rose.

I smiled up at him; the boy was smart getting
me a rose in a non-traditional color. We both glanced back at my
mom as she spoke. “Thank you, and you too: Alexis mentioned
you live not too far from here. How long have you lived in
Steilacoom?”

“I came to live here two years ago with my
paternal grandparents when my parents died,” he flashed me a look
like he was surprised I hadn’t already told my mother this much
already. 

“It’s strange with you living so close by
we’ve never seen you.” 

Oh lord--here we go. She was staring
Christian down like he was a felon and her arms were crossed over
her chest in an aggressive sort of way. I belatedly realized mom’s
distrust towards men was now being directed at my man.  I felt
my temper start to rise; Christian didn’t deserve to be
interrogated and she definitely didn’t need to know Christian had
been in rehab. I knew she wouldn’t understand. I was about to shake
Christian’s arm off so I could have us both storm out of the house
but he tightened it around me holding me in place. “My grandparents
and I travel a lot to see family; many of our relatives are old and
sick so we try to see them as much as possible.”

“Oh, I am sorry to hear that,” she said
stiltedly. 

I turned my head to hide my smile, without
being rude or unnecessarily truthful he had gotten my mom to back
off.

Grabbing Christian’s arm I headed to the
door, “Mom, I’ll be home at 10:00.”

“Have a good time,” she mumbled as she headed
back to her room. 

Once outside, we both breathed a sigh of
relief, and holding hands headed to the beach. I could feel him
glancing at me questioningly.