Broken (Book 1, The Watcher Chronicles, Paranormal Romance) (34 page)

Mason bends and kisses the back of my hand.  I attempt to
withdraw it from his hold but he gently prevents me by tightening his fingers around it.  I watch as he turns my hand over, palm up.  He kisses the middle of my palm gently before performing the same action on the inside of my wrist.  The gentle pressure of his lips on my sensitive flesh causes me to shiver pleasantly.  I see Mason smile, pleased by my reaction to him.

When he stands up straight again, he leans
into me drowning me in the scent of him. 

“Call me when you’re ready for me to come back,” he whispers in my ear, kissing my
neck lightly before phasing away.

I end up standing in the hallway for a good five minutes just trying to get my hormones under control.  Was this what they called a slow seduction?  I had no way of knowing for sure, but if it was, it was working like a charm.  I couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to share a real kiss with Mason
…and possibly more.

After I fe
el sure my cheeks are cool once again, I knock on Chandler’s door.  He instantly opens it like he was waiting on the other side the entire time.

He smile
s at me like he knows something he shouldn’t.

“Were you watching us?” I asked him and his guilty smile widen
s.

He holds up his hands palm forward. 
“I swear, Jess, I was just looking through the peephole to see if you had made it here yet or not.  I didn’t do it on purpose.”

I swat
Chandler on the arm like he is my little brother snooping into my private business. 

“Make your presence known next time,” I
scold him, trying to be firm but finding it almost impossible to be mad at him.

“But if I
’d done that you wouldn’t have had…you know…
the moment
,” he says popping his eyebrows up and down.  “Why were you just standing out there for so long by yourself after he left?”

“None of your business,” I sa
y, feeling my cheeks redden.  I walk further into the penthouse and drop my coat in a chair placing the rose Mason gave me gently on top of it.

Chandler
closes the door.  “He got you that hot and bothered with four little kisses?”

“
Chandler,” I say, “drop it.”

Chandler
tucks his fingers inside the front pockets of his jeans and leans against the door with one foot propped up against it giving him a rebel without a cause look.  “Oh my God,” he says, realization dawning on his face, “Jess, are you a virgin?”

“Why does everyone make that sound like it’s a bad thing?” I ask in exasperation.  “And how can you people tell?  Do I have a sign on my
forehead saying
Beware: Virgin Territory
?”

Chandler
laughs.  “No, it’s just a little unbelievable,” he says.  “But I guess I know why you still are because of what you told me yesterday.”

I sit down on the arm of the chair my coat is in.  “
Mason flusters me,” I confess.  “I’m scared and excited all at the same time when I’m around him, if that makes sense.  I’ve just never felt like this around someone else.”

“It’s called love, Jess,”
Chandler says pushing off the door with his foot to walk over to me.  “Is this the first time you’ve felt it?”

I nod.

Chandler smile widens.  “Then enjoy it.  Real love is hard to find, almost impossible for a lot of people, including me.”

“You’ve never been in love?” I ask.  “What about all those great love songs you sing?  I thought for sure you had been in love at least once.”

“Oh, I’ve loved a few women in my life but not to the point where just an innocent kiss from one of them made me have to stand completely still for five whole minutes just to get over it,” he teases.

“
Am I that pathetic?”

He shakes his head.  “No, I envy what you’re feeling.  Don’t let it go.  Keep it for as long as you can.
  This type of love only comes around once in a lifetime.  Fight for it.”

“I am,” I say and tell
Chandler what happened the night before after Mason so rudely phased me away after the concert.

“Yeah, I knew he was jealous,”
Chandler says.  “No man acts that stupid unless he is.”

“Well, I hope we’re through the worst of it.  I feel like he’s finally opening up to me even if I had to push him to do it.”

“Sounds like he’s held onto his guilt for a long time.  I think you’ve just worked a miracle getting him to tell you what he has so far.”

“All right, enough about my love life.  I want to try something with you.”

“Should I be scared?” Chandler laughs lightly.

“No, I want to meditate with
you like I did when I had to find you on my own.”  I look around Chandler’s penthouse but don’t see a fireplace.  “We need something to concentrate on though.  The first time I did it I used the sounds from a fire.”

“Hold on, I might have something,”
Chandler says running up the metal staircase to the second floor.  He comes back down with a little white machine in his hands.

“I use this when I can’t sleep sometimes,” he tells me pressing a button on the machine instantly filling the room with the sounds of ocean
waves.

We pick a spot on the floor
and sit down in the lotus position with one another but instead of holding our hands palm up on our knees we hold each others hands.

“Ok, when I did this,” I tell him.  “I cleared my mind of everything except the crackle of the fire. 
So let’s concentrate on the wave noises and see what happens.”

I watch
Chandler close his eyes before I close mine too.

I’m not sure how long we sit there trying to concentrate on finding the third member of our
archangel group but eventually Chandler says, “This isn’t working for me.”

I open my eyes and have to agree.

“Me neither,” I reluctantly admit.  “I’m not sure why it isn’t working.  Michael said it would be easier once there were two of us.”

I pull my hands away from
Chandler’s and we both stand up.

“We’ll figure it out,”
Chandler says, not worried in the slightest.  “Now what?”

“We need to find a way to activate your power.”

“Any ideas on how to do that?”

I sigh.  “Not really.  I had to almost be killed by a demon before mine kicked in.”

“Hmm, well, you know any demons who can attack me?”

I laugh.  “No.  I don’t think that’s the best idea. 

“Maybe we’re just thinking too much,” he suggests.  “Let’s go do something.”

“Like what?”

“Let’s go do something touristy.  I’ve never been to the Empire State Building, have you?”

“No, my visits to see you are the only times I’ve been in
New York.”

“What?”
Chandler say like it’s completely scandalous.  “Well then, let me be your guide to the little known parts of this city.  First stop though is the Empire State Building.”

“And just how are we supposed to go to these places without hordes of your adoring fans chasing
after us?”

Chandler
takes my hand.  “Come on, you can help me put on my disguise.”

“Disguise?”

I soon learn what Chandler’s disguise is.  He makes me help him put on a blonde wig while he adheres a matching beard and mustache to his face.  With a pair of sunglasses and a cowboy hat, he barely looks like himself.  He proceeds to dress in a cowboy shirt, faded jeans, and cowboy boots

“Hmm,” I say after his costume is complete, “you look like you belong in a rodeo.  Is that at all comfortable?”

“Not really,” he says, scratching at the beard on his face.  “But it’s either this or get accosted where ever I go.  I’d rather just be a little scratchy.  Plus, if you keep that pistol of yours on your leg, I don’t think I will get as much attention as you.  You look kinda hot with it slapped to your thigh like that.”

I hit
Chandler on the arm.  “No talk like that from you.  It sounds pervy.  You’re like my little brother.”

“Uhh, you wound my male ego,”
Chandler says dramatically clutching at his heart but he laughs.  “Yeah, I know what you mean.  You’re like the abusive big sister I never had.”

I laugh and hold out my hand to him.  “Ok little bro, take me to see the city.”

I soon learn that Chandler has a body guard who stays in the background where ever he goes.  I’m introduced to him before we leave the hotel.  His name is Ben and I’m surprised by how slim and normal looking he is.  In my mind, I always imagined a body guard to be bigger than life just to scare off anyone who might be thinking to cause trouble with his sheer size.  But Ben is someone who can slip in and out of a crowd unnoticed which seems to be important to Chandler.  It seems that he didn’t want a body guard who would attract much attention because it might alert his fans to his presence.

As
Chandler and I travel through the city that day, Ben takes separate cabs from us and discretely keeps his distance.  I barely know he’s there during my day with Chandler.  I suppose that’s why I didn’t notice him missing until it was too late.

All through the day I kept in constant contact with Mason just to let him know where we were and what we were doing.  I reason with myself it is work related and not just me wanting to stay close to him even if we were separated by a few thousand miles.  We keep the texts simple and short not delving into any innuendos, which I’ll admit was a bit disappointing.  But, I was happy to see him reply almost instantly to my texts.  It made me think of what Jonathan said on New Year’s Eve about his dad acting like a young man in love by constantly checking his phone to see if I had sent him a message.  My heart felt all warm and fuzzy inside just from the thought of him waiting for my texts.

“You know you’re making me feel like a third wheel,”
Chandler says to me as we are riding in a horse drawn carriage through Central Park.  “Hell, I’m the one your with and I feel left out!”

I giggle, which
is something I never do and it almost sounds alien to my own ears.  Faison was the giggler in the family, not me.  But Faison had been in love with John Austin since she was seven.  Was this what love did to you?  Make you giggle like an idiot?

“I’m happy,” I say to
Chandler.  “Leave me alone.” And I stick my tongue out at him.

Yep.

Love makes you act like an idiot, and strangely enough I was all right with that.

It
is almost five in the afternoon so I decide I should ask Mason when he wants to have supper at his villa.

What time do you want to pick me up for supper?

As soon as possible…

Give me 30 minutes so I can take Chandler home.  I would feel better knowing he is safely returned there.

I will be at his door in exactly 30 minutes

If we get there sooner, I will let you know

I can’t wait to see you…

I was just about to put my phone back in my coat pocket when it buzzes one more time.

I mean it Jess…I want to see you…

I want to see you too…I’ll hurry…

Please do…

“How much longer is this ride?” I ask Chandler.

He sits back in his seat and crosses his arms over his chest.  Narrowing his eyes at me he says, “What’s the rush?  Don’t you like spending time with me?”

I roll my eyes.  “You know I do, but I have a date.”

“Oh with Mister Moody?”

“He is not moody,” I defend.  “He just has issues.”

“Why do you girls always fall so hard for guys with problems?  You would think someone, like me for example, would be more perfect.”

“Perfection is overrated.  And it’s not that we like guys with problems.  It’s just that those guys tend to be more serious, unlike you for example.  You’ve had it so good all your life you see the world through rose colored glasses.”

“Do you think that’s bad?”
Chandler asks, becoming serious.

I shake my head.  “No.  It’s not bad.
  It’s good actually.  But someone with a life as screwed up as mine tends to look for someone just as screwed up.  And I found him.”

Chandler
smiles.  “Yeah that’s kinda messed up but it makes sense in a way.”

“So, how long is this ride supposed to be?” I ask again.
  But Chandler doesn’t have to answer because the driver brings the horse to a stop in the exact same spot we started out on the south side of Central Park.  When we get out of the carriage, I instantly look for Chandler’s body guard, thinking he should be in the carriage behind us but it doesn’t have a passenger.