A Storm in the Making

Chapter 9--Voices In My Head

Chapter Nine

Voices in My Head.

“You don’t need to be afraid, Storm,” said Julius, doing the mood control thing like his father, though Julius redirected where I focused my thoughts, rather than what I felt.

Instead of thinking about my pain, I found myself thinking about him. About the gold flecks in his somber green eyes. Eyes that saw me as a puzzle he couldn’t figure out. Eyes that mesmerized me. Eyes that asked questions I had no idea how to answer.

“Don’t be afraid, Storm.” Julius repeated, his voice soft on my ears.

I wanted to deny my fear, but how could I when every mind reader on this stupid planet would know I had lied through my teeth. I hated this place and these stupid aliens. Please, God, I prayed silently. Please let me wake up!

Julius leaned down close to me, red, full lips coming so close to mine I had only to raise up to touch them.

 “May I?” He asked, a breath of sound that wafted my cheek with the sweet smell of mint.

Shimmery black hair haloed his face as he bent over me. I wanted to reach up and touch it just to see if it felt as silky as it looked. Julius straightened up as if he read my thoughts before I could.

He placed one hand on top of the other and slid them across my ribcage, touching the edge of my breast in passing. It radiated scorching heat all the way to the tips of my toes. I gasped and shot a quick glance up at him.

His eyes were closed. Dark lashes, so long I envied them, fanned his cheeks; curved eyebrows, stretched straight now in concentration, as his hands inched across my ribcage and back.

I winced when his hands stopped over the most painful spot. His fingertips touched the edge of my breast again. a whisper of a caress that sent shock waves straight to the pit of my stomach. He opened his eyes and I changed the direction of my gaze so I wouldn’t be caught staring.

I studied the ancient ceiling and tried to ignore the feel of his hand against my breast. But how could I not to think about that? My first intimate touch.

Although he might be an alien doctor, the heat radiating between the tips of his fingers and my breast felt very human; as if a man touched me. It even smelled as if a man touched me. Pine and sandalwood, and some other unnamable, unearthly scent uniquely Julius, clung to him like an invisible cloak.

Julius glanced down at me. He’d put the pieces together, and understanding dawned in his eyes at where his fingertips lay. He seemed surprised by my reaction to his touch as his eyes shifted to mine and locked with them.

A fledgling desire of his own rose up to meet mine; a jolting bombardment of emotion in a never-ending day of shocks and reactions. I found myself melting into those green, green eyes.

Then something so unexpected happened between Julius and I that I don’t even know how to begin to describe it. It wasn’t a love at first sight type of thing. Not even close. This went way beyond that. I don’t even know how it happened. I mean how could something like that happen anyway? All I know is it just did.

Between one breath and the next, Julius was there . . I mean literally there. . . inside my head with me. . . His conscious mind, and my conscious mind, occupying the same space at the same time. Talk about your alien mind probe!

Something indescribably personal. Indescribably intimate. Outside of time. I could feel his amazement echoing my own. His curiosity. His dawning awareness of my own inquisitiveness about his intrusion.