“Bro, you sound way too excited about that,” Levi mutters as he tips back his glass and downs his Jack, which he immediately refills.
“Of course he does. Dude practically creams his pants when he’s got a new mystery to solve,” Thad chuckles.
“For fuck’s sake, you two. Knock that shit off,” Cole orders. He’s the only one the twins will listen to, with or without his power. He has this domineering quality to his personality and naturally gravitated toward the leadership position once he pulled himself out from the bottom of the bottle. “We’ve got a lot of work to get done, and something tells me this could be it. This could be where we finally get some answers. Knox, can you still feel her?”
I finish off my glass and hold it out for Levi to refill while I expand my sense of the room and beyond. Instantly, I feel her. This warm presence that’s surprisingly stronger than it was before. Her emotions swarm my own, and it feels like coming home, a thought that alarms me on a primitive level. It takes me a second to gather myself enough to describe what I’m experiencing.
“She’s just as confused as we are, and that seems to irritate her. But she’s excited too. She can sense that I’m linked to her,” I murmur, lost in my own thoughts and wondering why this all feels so damn familiar.
Her nearness puts me suddenly on alert, as if our conversation has summoned her. Curiosity, annoyance, and something else I can’t quite pin down swirl through me - each battling to be the victor of some emotional war.
How the hell do women handle this shit? Emotional roller coaster, my ass. It’s more like an emotional tsunami.
“Knox, what is it?” Cole demands.
“She’s here,” I reply quietly, “and she’s close.”
“Mack,” Cole snaps, “get an EMF meter in here now, along with a digital recorder.”
Macklin jumps off the sofa and rushes into the foyer, the opening and closing of cases accompanied by mumbled curses as he’s trying to find what he’s looking for. The rest of us remain silent - not wanting to scare her off.
Her amusement catches me off guard. As does her level of satisfaction – which I’m sure stems from the fact that she can get a rise out of us simply by being in the room. I put a stop to the smile that’s tempting my lips as her emotions mingle with my own. It’s becoming harder to distinguish the two.
Then I feel it. That unnamed emotion from earlier.
Attraction.
She knows I’m tuned into her, and she likes it. Suddenly, it feels like she’s right in front of me. Like if I reached out, I could touch her. A wave of longing that is not my own assaults me. Not just lust or desire, but this deep need to connect to another person. To touch and be touched. I’m practically frozen in place, my knees spread wide as I lounge on the sofa. My arm is slung over the side with the glass of Jack in my right hand. I tilt my chin up slightly, as if I can look her right in the eyes.
“Knox? What’s happening?” Cole asks from the sofa across from me, but I don’t look his way.
“She’s right here,” is all I manage to say.
There’s suddenly rustling around the room. People moving and shuffling about, but I don’t see any of them. My focus is on the space in front of me – on the woman who has captured my complete attention when I can’t even see her. A hint of vanilla and cinnamon settles low in my belly, stirring an arousal I wasn’t expecting.
A tingling starts on my left cheek, trailing down my chin and over the front of my throat. I swallow reflexively. It continues across my collar bone and over my left shoulder before flowing down my arm and pausing slightly on my inner elbow, swirling around in a small circle - which I find both playful and sexy as hell. It moves down my left forearm to my hand that is resting on my left thigh.
My gaze follows the movement as I let her explore, because that’s what this is. An exploration. Her reaching out to someone on the most physical level she’s capable of and I’ll be damned if I don’t like it and want more. My jaw clenches as I struggle to get a handle on my desire. Thank fuck for my jeans which are hiding the evidence of just how excited she’s got me.
“Dude. What’s going on over there? You look like you’re a little tense,” Levi questions.
“Bro, from the looks of things, bet those jeans are becoming damn uncomfortable,” Thad jokes.
So much for hiding anything.
The touch that had paused on my hand at Levi’s words starts up again. Whispering over my knuckles and down to my fingertips where she stops. My hand is pretty damn close to my cock, and I’m slightly ashamed to admit that I want nothing more than for her to explore that area a little further.
I look up and stare into the nothingness in front of me, and whatever she sees when she looks at me must give her the answer she needs. I release the breath I wasn’t even aware I’d been holding as the tingles move up my inner thigh and right over my erection, lingering there. Even over my jeans it feels as though small bursts of current are being sent straight to my dick, and I’m dangerously close to embarrassing myself right in front of my brothers.
“Fuck!” I moan out, dropping my head onto the back of the sofa. Her touch ghosts up and down over my shaft, and it takes all of my self-control to not buck my hips up into the invisible hand that I can all but see.
This is definitely a first for me. A fully clothed hand job given by an invisible woman. The guys will never let me live this down.
Right as I sense her amusement that is heavily laced with a desire of her own, a blast of those damn tingles courses through my dick, down and around my balls, and doesn’t let up. My hips jerk, my body taking over, while my left hand grabs hold of the cushion to give me leverage. I curse and groan loudly as I come – unable to stop myself.
The tingles slowly begin to fade away as my body recovers from one of the hottest – and fastest - damn orgasms of my life. I’m left breathing like I just ran a marathon, staring up at the ceiling wondering what in the actual hell just happened.
“I feel like I need a cigarette after watching that little show,” muses Levi.
Raising my head, I glance around the room, seeing all of my brothers standing in a loose semi-circle around the coffee table in front of me.
“Can she do me next?” Thad snickers.
Only a few seconds pass before his whole body suddenly jolts, followed by a bellowed, “Fucking hell, woman! You do not zap a man’s junk like that. I want the good shit Knox got.”
The rest of the guys chuckle as he rubs his hand over his scorched crotch.
“She’s highly amused right now,” I manage through my own laughter. I can practically feel her grinning in satisfaction.
“A woman with a dark sense of humor. I like it,” Levi proclaims.
Followed by Thad’s barely contained, “That’s so fucking hot!”
Bringing the glass of Jack up to my lips, I notice my hand shaking ever so slightly. Quickly, I finish off the drink, needing the alcohol to calm my rioting system. I’m relaxed yet wound tight at the same time. I’m not sure what to make of our ghostly woman or the fact that it seems I’m becoming as possessive of her as she is of us.
Our ghostly woman, Knox? Really?
“You care to explain what the hell just happened?” Cole asks, his raised eyebrow the only indication he’s not only interested but also amused, which is a rarity for him.