Divine Mortals (29 page)

I peeled myself away from him, wishing somehow we could just stay in the car, stripping his jacket from my shoulders I left it on the seat.

He was watching me, his deep brown eyes inviting me back in, even while as he was telling me to leave.

“Good night Robert.”

“Good night Ava.”

I swung the door shut and Robert quickly had the BMW away again. My mind flashed back through the scenes from our night as I watched him drive away, lingering on our time on the hill top.

“I think I’m falling in love with you.” I breathed into the darkness, before turning to face the music.

N
an was waiting for me in the kitchen, her excitement hadn’t waned at all since I left, if anything it had grown.

“So?” she wore the expression of a school girl, giving me a brief glimpse of the beauty she must have been in her younger days. I moved to the sink getting myself a glass of water.

“So?” I teased back, making her ask whatever it was she wanted to know. “Oh Ava, come on, how was your night, did the two of you have a good time, I’m old dear, not much goes on for me anymore, you’re my excitement tonight.”

I laughed, I really did love her.

“It was great Nan, we had the most wonderful meal.”

“How did you like the lodge?”

“You knew where we were going?”

“Of course, I told you your Pop had been raking Robert over the coals, no secret would be safe.”

I had to choke back a laugh, no secret indeed.

“And the Ranchers ball?” she pressed, relentless in her ‘information gathering’ tonight.

“It was great, I met a couple more people, the music was good and the center was beautifully decorated an…”

“I met your Grandfather at that ball you know?” Nan interrupted, her smile now at mammoth proportions.

“Really?
Did
you?” I had in fact known this, it tweaked at a memory, my father had told me this once somewhere in the past.

Nan nodded, I could see what she was trying to insinuate and I ignored it, I wasn’t ready to let either of my Grandparents know just how close Robert and I were. I looked obviously towards the clock.

“Wow, it’s really late, I’m beat Nan, I need to get some sleep.” luckily my body agreed with me at that moment and I yawned loudly. Nan looked a little disappointed, I had barely given her any details.

“Okay dear,” she sighed, and then brightened a little, “you can tell me about the rest of it in the morning.”

“Sure,” I sounded more enthusiastic then I had meant to, I might love my Grandmother but I didn’t want to share all the gory details with her, even if I could. I could just imagine the look of horror on her face if I told her Robert was probably listening to everything we said, Oh and he could fly, Oh and lift tractors with his bare hands. Just thinking it almost made me shake my head in disbelief, surely this would all sink in at one stage.

I walked back down the dark hall to my room, sitting on my bed I began untying the ribbons on my shoes, they had managed to stay crisscrossed up my legs without slouching, which was a miracle in itself, I had thought earlier that I would need to retie them at least a half dozen times but for once they had stayed.

As I reached for the second ribbon another set of hands beat mine. I gasped in fright as his warm fingers quickly untied the knot behind my knee and gently unwound the ribbon down to my ankle slipping the shoe from my foot. I looked up from his hands into his eyes, raising my eyebrows in question.

“I realized…” he smiled and all my thoughts disappeared,

“That I wasn’t ready to say goodnight yet, so I came back.” he grasped both my hands, lifting me gently off the bed, his mouth found mine and I felt as if I would melt. Kissing him, I was sure, was as close to heaven as you could get.

“I hope you don’t mind,” he mumbled into my neck as he kissed softly down to my collar bone. It took me a few seconds to get enough breath to answer him.

“Not at all,” I gasped, I felt him smile against my neck, his lips pulling away as he looked down at me. At this moment, I had to be the luckiest girl in the world.

I noticed then that he had already changed and was back in the jeans and shirt combo I was used to seeing him in.

“How did you get in?” My window had been closed, but of course his answer didn’t really matter, all I cared was that he was in, my heart was still speeding and my breathing was too fast. I had never felt anything like the way I felt when I was with him.

“Oh I was very sneaky,” he grinned, speaking softly, “The back door.”

“Ten out of ten for originality.” I giggled sarcastically,

“Well I couldn’t exactly burst through the wall could I.”

I gave him a disbelieving smile.

“Okay well I could, technically, but I think someone might have heard that.”

“Hmmm I don’t know about that.” I said, thinking back to the night I woke from my nightmare, Robert gave me a confused look.

Sitting on the end of the bed, he pulled me down with him.

“I thought you would have been in bed by now,” he murmured.

“Is that where you wanted to find me?” I teased,

“Ava what do you take me for,” there was a serious edge to his smile, “No, you’ve been home a while so I just assumed…”

“Oh,” I smiled to myself at the memory, “I was held up by Nan, as if you didn’t know.” I added as an afterthought.

“I don’t listen to everything you say,” he smiled, rolling his eyes at me, “I do have a life.”

I couldn’t tell from his expression whether he was telling the truth or if he actually had been listening, either way I didn’t mind, it didn’t actually matter.

“Anyway,” I continued, “Nan had to play twenty questions with me, I only just got in here when you, ah, showed up.”

“What sort of questions?” he asked, curious, I stared at him a moment, taking in his expression, he really
was
dying to know, perhaps he hadn’t been listening after all.

“Oh you know the sort of thing,” I grinned, “how was dinner, did you like the dance, have you fallen for a guy with super hero powers ?” This earned me a second round of eye rolling although his grin was still firmly in place. He eyes held mine, all brown and gold.

“And so what did you say?”

“Delicious, Great and No.”

His eyes flew to mine, I knew before I had started that he was only interested in the answer to the last question. His mask went up and I hesitated a moment, afraid he had believed me.

“No…” I went on quickly, “because I couldn’t have fallen for you tonight, I did
that
weeks ago.”

His smile was back instantly.

“Okay,” he said, relieved, I could see a fire dancing in his eyes.

“You must have already known that?” I was a little disappointed, I thought I had made my feelings obvious.

“I did,” he admitted a little shyly, “It’s just nice to hear it from you face to face, not just something you say when I’m halfway down your driveway.”

I gave him a playful push, it didn’t even sway him.

“You
were
listening!” I stood up pretending insult.

“I was
then.
”

I grinned down at him and then stretched up towards the ceiling, my ribs tweaked a little but they had been far better over the last week. I needed to get out of my gown, I was more than ready to slip into my comfortable pajamas, there was only so much dress wearing I could do.

“Do you mind if I go wash up?”

“Not at all, take all the time you need,” Stretching backwards along my bed he made himself the picture of relaxation and patience.

I walked quickly towards my bathroom and then as an afterthought turned back to him.

“Don’t go anywhere?”

I took longer than I had planned in the shower, the pull of its warmth held me prisoner, all the aches of the day particularly my aching feet, draining away with the water. I remembered now why I didn’t make a habit of wearing heels.

I brushed my teeth with extra care tonight then plaited my hair back into a loose braid before making my way back to my bedroom in my not so fashionable green pajamas, they weren’t exactly sexy but what else was I going to do.

Robert was as I had left him, lying on the bed, stretched over its length his eyes shut, I knew at a glance that he wasn’t sleeping but seeing him like this bought another question instantly to the surface.

“Just out of curiosity,” I asked, throwing my gown into the washing basket, “What time are you working in the morning?”

He answered without opening his eyes,

“Five, why?” I looked at the bedside clock, it was just after one.

“Don’t you need to get some sleep, you have to be up in less than four hours,” The thought of that little sleep terrified me, I was traditionally an eight hours kind of girl.

“I don’t need much,” he answered, his dark eyes open now as he watched me straighten things up around the room. I paused, turning back to him.

“What do you mean, you don’t need much exactly,” nothing was ever as it seemed with Robert.

“I only need an hour or two every night and if I don’t get it then it doesn’t matter too much, I can go two or three days without sleep if I need too.”

My mouth fell open, an all too common occurrence these days, I snapped it shut as soon as I realized.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” I muttered, climbing onto the bed next to him.

Robert tilted his head, watching me, a curious smile on his face,

“Do I really frustrate you that much?”

“Like you wouldn’t imagine,”

“I’m not that different you know.” He stroked the back of my hand and I felt the shock of warmth from his touch radiate across my skin and tingle up my arm.

“You’re not that similar either,” I murmured, pushing myself closer to him.

“I’m not going to get away with it easy tonight am I?” he sounded cautious, I looked up into his handsome face, worry lurked in the depths of his eyes, his brows pulled tight.

“Oh no, you’re not going to get away with anything tonight.” I smiled, trying to put him at ease, snuggling closer to enjoy his warmth. The nights were starting to get cooler, a sure sign of the impending autumn, but I didn’t want to leave his side even to shut the window. I leant towards him until my face was only inches from his, smiling cautiously I leant in further, closing the tiny gap that remained.

I kissed him slowly, exploring the line of his lips with my tongue, all my questions began to fly out the window into the chilly night beyond as I lost myself in his embrace, scolding myself I pulled back reluctantly.

“Well, you can ask me whatever you like if you do
that
before every question.”

“In your dreams.” I laughed,

“Frequently,” he said seriously, only a slight smile lifting the corner of his mouth. He was far too good at distracting me but I needed to get on with this or tomorrow would arrive with no more answers then I had right now.

I grabbed my pillow, fluffing it behind my back so I was sitting a little higher. I wanted to be comfortable, this might take a while, and since I could sleep in and he didn’t have to sleep at all that gave me just over three hours to get as much out of him as I could.

I took a deep breath, trying to gather my questions into some form of order, they were all bursting to come out at once.

Roberts eyes were tight, his mouth pulled into a thin line, he was looking forward to this even less than I expected which just tweaked my interest more. I knew his biggest secret didn’t I? What difference could a few more details make.

“The flight?”

“It not flight,”

“Hovering, floating, whatever, you know what I mean.”

He pursed his lips but remained silent, was he going to refuse to answer? I waited, counting slowly as I did, when I got to one hundred and fifty five he let out a slow breath.

“Apparently that is something that happens as we get older, it’s something that’s normally learned.”

I hadn’t known what to expect but I jumped on the plural quickly before he changed the subject.

“We?”

He let go of my hand and I felt slightly lost for a second as the link between us was broken, he raked his face with his fingers and sighed.

“Yes, ‘we’, you already know there are more than just me.” he spoke each word slowly, focusing carefully on how he phrased his answer.

I smiled trying to look as encouraging as I could,

“The guy in the paddock…”

I didn’t want to push him, I wanted him to tell me things as they came to him, not as I forced them out.

“You met Allison, the redhead,” he paused watching me closely, I nodded willing him to continue. Allison’s reaction to me and the looks she had given Robert and I had been more than a little unnerving, if I was being completely truthful with myself they had been terrifying. The dark look Robert had turned on her, scared me even more, that look had made my blood run cold and even now the thought of it made me ripple with goose bumps.

“Are you cold?” he bought his arm around me, drawing me close to his warmth, I shrugged, impatient for him to continue.

“I’m fine. What about Allison?”

“She’s the same. As me, I mean.”

“
What!”
I spoke a little too loudly and Roberts eyes darted towards the door, at least he would be able to give me plenty of warning if I woke either of my grandparents.

This altered everything, I thought Robert was one in a million but apparently in the town of Huntington he was two in about three and a half thousand. What the hell were the odds of that!

“I only met her tonight also,” he spoke quickly, “She’s just arrived in town.”

“How the hell does Laura know her if she’s just arrived?” My tone was panicky but I didn’t really care.

“Laura doesn’t know her, Allison introduced herself and basically clung to her all night, she used Laura as a means of getting to where we would be sitting.”

I shifted, even with Robert holding me close I was feeling uncomfortable, something about Allisons angry scowl haunted me, especially now I knew what she was capable of.

“Why did she want to be near us?” My voice wavered.

“She wanted to see if I had told you our secret. We aren’t allowed to tell anyone outside of our own. She wasn’t happy, something I’m guessing you picked up on.”