Wild Men of Alaska Collection - By Helmer, Tiffinie Page 0,86

your side. You seemed to need time to think. By the way, nice driving back there.”

“I can almost see you. How is this possible?” What was she asking? How was any of this possible? It was freaky to say the least.

“I don’t know. I’m just grateful for whatever is out there in the Universe that lets me be near you.” His hand captured hers, and held it, linking their fingers together.

She stared down at her hand. And saw nothing. No tendons, knuckles, or fingers other than her own. She squeezed her fingers, and his hand gave her a squeeze back.

She didn’t want to have astral sex with him.

“Gemma, we aren’t going to do anything you don’t want to do.”

She wanted to have actual sex with him. The hot, sweaty, break-the-bed-frame kind of sex.

A strangled sound came from him, and his hand suddenly clenched hers.

Time to get out of the car.

She released her hold on him and opened the door. Somehow she needed to control her thoughts since he couldn’t seem to stop listening in. A deep breath did nothing to clear her mind or the raging need to be touched by this Dreamweaver who had somehow burrowed his way into her heart.

She dropped her purse on the table and entered the kitchen. “I need to eat something. Would you like—?” Yeah, well, that was stupid.

The phone rang, saving her. She glanced at the clock. Almost midnight. Had Siri given Rosie problems? Relief filled her to see it was Tern. “Hey.” She’d yet to get Tern’s impression of the Tarot reading earlier that day. Had that been today? Afterward Tern had seemed more shell-shocked than Gemma and had quickly made her excuses.

“I know it’s late, but I finally talked to Gage.” There was something in Tern’s voice that Gemma couldn’t quite put her finger on. “The man is going crazy nuts with all the data from the solar storms.”

Opening the fridge, Gemma stared at the contents. Mayo, mustard, and wrinkled fruit of what kind she wasn’t sure. She really needed to make time for grocery shopping. She grabbed the mayo and mustard, found a jar of pickles and set the items on the counter. She was pretty sure she had a can of tuna fish somewhere. She hadn’t eaten since lunch, and that had been a brownie and a cup of coffee, not enough fuel for dancing with a Dreamweaver and bailing her mother out of jail.

“According to Gage, you’d better buckle up,” Tern continued. “There’s a weather disturbance that is supposed to move in sometime in the early morning for about eighteen hours and then you’re in for a freaking ride.”

Gemma shut the cupboard, setting the forgotten can of tuna fish on the counter and listened to Tern rave over the projection of record solar energy directed at the earth’s poles for the next week.

“Gemma, do you think Lucky can talk to me?” Tern asked when she’d finished her solar report.

“Uh...I don’t know.”

“Would you ask him?”

Gemma swallowed and pushed the makings of her dinner aside, not hungry anymore. “Tern, you don’t sound as though you’re warning me off anymore.” If anything she sounded excited.

“It’s Lucky. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. There was one time when we were geocaching in the Chugach Mountains, and Lucky refused to kill a spider. He’s very into his Buddhist beliefs.”

Gemma didn’t miss the change in referring to Lucky in the present tense. “Tern, just how close were you and Lucky?” Had it just been a fling with them or more? Please not more.

There was a pause and then the truth came at her hard. She didn’t have anyone to blame as she’d asked the question herself. Still the truth was hard to swallow.

“If Lucky hadn’t been so much of a gambler, with a weakness for other women, and Gage hadn’t come along, I would have happily waited for him.”

Weakness for other women?

What the hell did that mean? Could he be playing her?

“No,” Lucky said. “She didn’t mean it that way. Actually she might have. I do have a love for the ladies. Did. When Tern and I were together it was one of those open kind of relationships. I was free to see other women, and Tern was free to see other men.”

Gemma held up her hand to get Lucky to stop speaking. She couldn’t comprehend it all.

“Are you in favor of me seeing him now?” she asked Tern. One minute her soul is at stake and the next she’s being pushed to accept her