Flutter (The Discover Series) (54 page)

“And you’re just repeating yourself Sara. Are you okay?” I could see the smirk he was doing a horrible job at hiding.

“I’m f-f-fine.” Where had all the air gone?

One more step brought him so close that the currents no longer needed to stretch to a breaking point in order to reach me, and I my skin started tingling in every spot they touched.

“Why can’t you just admit it?”

“Admit what?”

“You know what, Sara.” He said, challenging me. His voice was low, his words were deadly.

“I just think you could do better then her.” I know that’s not what he meant.

I didn’t come to your party with Jasmine. I would never do that to you.  I didn’t plan on coming here tonight, I knew it would cause problems with Scott, so when I saw Jasmine outside, I used her as a way to get in without Scott freaking out. She means nothing to me, and yes I realize using her wasn’t right, but I was desperate.” He finally stopped to take a breath, but it didn’t last long before he was talking again. “I heard what you said yesterday, but I can’t help myself. I can’t control anything when it comes to you. You are constantly inside my head and you have no idea how hard it was to stay away from you these past two weeks.”

He had moved closer to me during his confession, and I had to lean my head back just to look up at him. His hand came up and he brushed my cheek with the back of his hands, before tucking a piece of hair behind my ear and curling his fingers
toward
the back of my neck.  His palm rested against the pounding pulse at my neck. I could feel the warm currents flowing between us, and my heartbeat seemed to be in sync with the flutter.

“Please tell me you feel the same.  Tell me it was just as hard for you, and the only thing keeping you from me was Scott. I tried to stay away from you Sara, I did, but that nearly killed me, and I won't do it again. I can't.”

His words left me breathless and I knew it was pointless to try and fight it anymore. I dropped my head, looking down between our bodies. “I don’t think ‘
hard’
is the right word. Torture maybe?” I looked at him with a smile, and his thumb massaged hypnotic circles under my chin.

He laughed and touched his forehead to mine. “I could definitely agree with torture.”

The tips of our noses grazed one another’s. Our lips were so close, only a breath away, and with each one he took, I could feel it against my chin and down my neck, chasing shivers down my arms and making my heart beat faster. I wanted him to kiss me, but it didn’t feel right, not today. He must have sensed my apprehension, because he lifted his head, removing the temptation and smiled down at me.

“I’m sorry about you and Scott.”

“You are?” I asked skeptically.

             
“Well no, but I’m sorry you’re upset about it.”

             
“Thank you, I’m sad, but its better this way. I just wish I had realized it a little earlier.” I felt the tears stinging my eyes again, thinking about my conversation earlier.

             
Adan pulled me into his arms, cradling the back of my head against his chest. It felt so good to be in his arms, and I immediately felt comforted as he pulled his warmth tighter around me.

             
“I’m sorry Sara, please don’t cry.”

             
“It’s my party, and I can cry if I want too.” I mumbled into his chest, and I felt the rumble of his laughter.

             
He was serious again. “Are you going to miss him that much?” he asked, sounding hurt. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

I realized I had given him the wrong idea. Pulling away from him, I looked up at him.

“I’m going to miss him as my friend. We were friends before we were a couple, and I just wish there was a way that nobody had to get hurt.”

             
“I might have something that will cheer you up.” He said, and excitement lit his voice.

             
“What?” I asked, intrigued and happy about the subject change.

             
“Come on, follow me.” He grabbed my hand and started pulling
toward
the cars in the parking lot.

             
I looked back
toward
the venue, and I could still hear the people inside cheering and singing again with the band.

             
“What’s wrong?” He asked.

             
“I haven’t told Eli that she is my ride home yet. I don’t want her to leave without me when she doesn’t seem me inside.”

             
“I can take you home.” Adan said, and although I was tempted, I still didn’t think it would be right.

             
“I think it’s better if Eli takes me home.”

             
He seemed to wrestle with the idea, but finally agreed, “Okay, it will okay take five minutes. I promise.”

             
I took another look back, but allowed Adan to pull me along. “Where are we going?” I asked, as he weaved us in-between the parked cars.

             
“Here.”

             
We stopped in front of an old beat up hatch back.  It was orange, but the doors were blue. There was a long hairline crack in the windshield, which led to a spider web of cracks in the middle, and a missing windshield wiper. It was probably the ugliest car I had ever seen in my life, and I planned on telling him just that.

             
“What the heck is
this
?”

             
“What?” he asked, his brows pulling together,
sincerely
confused. “It’s my car.” He said proudly, slapping his hand against the rusted roof.

The action caused some of the blue pain chips to crack off. I could see his eyes glance toward the fallen paint, and he tried to discreetly cover them with his hand.

             
I stifled a laugh behind my hand.

             
“Are you sure about that?” I raised my eyebrows, unbelieving that this could be considered anything, but scrap metal.

             
“Hey be nice to Steve.”

“Steve? Don’t guys usually name their cars after girls?”

His eyebrows jumped up and down. “This is a dudes car, you don’t name dude cars after girls.”

“Thanks for the lesson.” I said, sarcastically.

“Besides,” He gave me a sly, “I’m not like other guys.”

“Someone likes to break the rules.”

He snorted, cutest sound ever. “I know you’re joking, but you have no idea how true that is.” Before I could comment, he continued, catching my full attention. “Be nice otherwise you don’t get your gift.”

             
“Gift?”

             
“I knew that would get your attention.” He pulled open the door, and it made an ear piercing squeak.

             
I walked over to the door and waited, as he bent inside the car to grab a small mahogany wooden box, which had been sitting on the passenger seat. Ducking out of the car, he came around the open door and handed me the box. His eyes sparkled with anticipation.

             
“Happy birthday.” He said softly.

             
I grabbed the box with both hands and rubbed my fingers over the smooth surface of the box. I traced the indented lines of my initials carved into the delicate wood, and the unique pattern displayed around the edges of the lid.
Bringing
the box to my nose, I breathed in deeply pulling in the sweet perfume only this type of wood gave off.

             
I looked up at Adan. “It’s beautiful.”

             
“You think?”

             
I nodded. “I love it.”

             
He seemed relieved. “I made it.”

             
My eyes shot up to his. “You made this?” The detail was so intricate and flawless, I would have thought it was made by someone who had been doing this for years. “It’s amazing. When did you do this?” There was no way he could have done this in a short amount of time.

             
“It’s been a work in progress, I started it a few years ago, but I didn’t finish it until a few days ago when I added in your initials.”

             
“A few years? Adan I don’t know if I should take this.”

             
“You don’t want it?”

             
“I do!” I said a little too loud, but the last thing I wanted to do was hurt his feelings “It’s just, you’ve worked so long on this, and put a great amount of detail in it. Are you sure you want me to have it?”

             
“There is no one else I would want to have it.”

             
I looked at him through my lashes at his soft declaration. “Thank you so much.”

             
“You’re welcome, but this is not actually your birthday present.”

             
I frowned, confused. “It’s not?”

             
“Nope. Open it.”

His enthusiasm was rubbing off on me. I flipped open the lid and my attention was immediately drawn to the shiny combed clip inside the box. Taking the clip out, he took the box from me so I could explore the clip. It was gorgeous. It had two teeth about a finger length long. At the top end of the comb, there was a dragonfly, and I didn’t know if it was coincidence or not, but it didn’t really matter. Parts of the dragonfly wings were painted a blue fading into black, which faded to a green on the tips, and other parts of the wings were made up of tiny blue and green gems that matched the body of the dragonfly as well. I had never seen anything like this before.

“Where did you get this?”

“Do you like it?”

“I love it. It’s perfect.” I traced the intricate details.

             
“It reminded me of you.”

             
“Why?” I asked, looking up at him.

             
“You have a mark on your shoulder blade. It’s almost the shape of a dragonfly.”

             
“I do?” I tried to recall if I had ever seen the mark he was talking about, and I couldn’t “Should I be concerned that you’ve seen a mark on me that I didn’t even know was there?”

             
He laughed. “I saw it the night I was at your house. After Scott left.”

             
I remembered the night clearly. “I’ve never even noticed it before.” I made a mental note to check it out when I got home. “I don’t know what it is, but I have this weird connection with dragonflies. They seem to be everywhere.”

             
“Isn’t that supposed to be a good sign?”

             
“I don’t know is it? I feel like I might have had an obsession with them before, but I’m not sure.” I shook my head, throwing off the sixth sense, I looked at him. “Thank you so much! It’s the best birthday present ever.”

             
“I’m glad you like it. It’s worth the look on your face right now.” He laughed when I blushed. “And definitely this.” Moving close to me, his thumb swept across my cheekbone. “I love the way you blush.” He whispered. He took a step back and held out his hand to me. “Will you dance with me?”

             
“There’s no music.” I pointed out.

             
“Easy fix.” He snapped his fingers together.

It only took a minute before we were surrounded by music. His fingers encircled my wrist, the flutter flared, sending erratic pulses throughout my body, and I shivered at the shock. He tugged on my wrist, pulling me
toward
him and into the street. His arm slipped around my waist, and he pulled our clasped hands between us. He took the lead, our bodies swaying to the music.

“I’m glad you came.” I said, laying my head on his shoulder.

“Because I got you the best birthday present ever?” He teased.

“No.” I laughed. “I’m glad I got to spend the end of my birthday with you.”

“So am I Sara. So am I.”

I held on to him a little tighter, hoping the night would never end.

Flutter

Nineteen

The Falls

Adan

“I guess I should have expected you to follow her.”

Her Watcher stood in the open doorway. The look on his face told me he was clearly not happy by my presence, and not just by the fact that I was standing here right now. Of course, he had heard about the incident with Scott and I in the woods, so he had known about me being in town for a while. He hadn’t sought me out, but that didn’t mean he was okay with the situation.

I didn’t know how much he knew about my duty
toward
Sara, hell I didn’t even know everything, but something told me that Andres probably didn’t know much more then I did. It really sucked walking around with someone covering your eyes all the time, and that’s exactly what the council was doing.

“How long have you known I wasn’t Nicholas?” I asked.

“Since I found Sara on the ice. There is only one person who causes Sara to react like that.”

             
“I needed to make sure she was going to be safe.”

             
It was probably more out of habit, but at my words, Andres took a step out, bringing him onto the porch, he glanced up and down the street. His paranoia was contagious, and I made my own sweep of the block. Once we had surveyed the neighborhood, Andres turned his attention back to me, shutting the door behind him.

             
“I’m her Watcher; it’s my job to make sure she is safe. I think you need to remember what your job is.”

             
“Do
you
know what my job is?” I challenged.

             
He was silent.

             
“I didn’t think so. My job is to help the Princess.” And that was partly true.

             
“When the time comes.” He corrected. “You’re only going to make this harder on her.”

             
I couldn’t argue with that. I haven’t even won the ongoing fight with myself over the same exact thing. Instead I had agreed to disagree.

             
“I can’t help it. I can’t stay away from her.”

             
He didn’t say anything to that, and I was sure he had been able to feel the connection I had to Sara. If Aaron could feel it, there was no reason to think that Andres couldn’t feel it as well.

             
“You haven’t told her anything, have you?”

             
“Of course not, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t suspicious.”

             
“She wouldn’t have any reason to be suspicious if you hadn’t taken it upon yourself to become involved with her.”

             
“You can’t seriously believe that. I may have added to it, but I certainly wasn’t the cause of it.”

             
“I’m not ready for her to know right now.”

             
“I don’t understand, what is stopping you? You’re only delaying the inevitable by keeping her in the dark. You’re ruining her trust in you, not to mention you’re relationship. Keeping her unaware of her past and future is doing more harm then good. She needs to be able to defend herself, and not just physically. You and I both know she is strong enough to handle this.”

             
I could tell by the tension in his jaw and the narrow in his eyes that he wasn’t too thrilled by my ‘do the right thing’ speech. It wasn’t my place to be telling him how to take care of Sara, but I had a hard time explaining that to the rebellious part of my brain.

             
“You may think you know what you’re talking about, but listen to me, your
highness
, when it comes to Sara, I make the decisions whether you agree with them or not. Maybe I don’t know the full extent of your part in Sara’s life, but I do know that it has nothing to do with what she knows, and when she is suppose to know it. There is a plan, and that plan does not include you.”

             
He turned to open the door, but my words stopped him.

“She is starting to use her influences.” I blurted.

             
He didn’t turn to face me again, but he twisted his head, glancing toward me over his shoulder, and waited for me continue.

             
“She doesn’t realize that she is doing it, but she
is
getting stronger, and if she doesn’t learn how to control her abilities, you know what will happen to her. If you think she doesn’t realize she is different, you’re only fooling yourself. You need to tell her. The sooner the better, because there is one more thing…”

             
“Well?!” He asked impatiently when I didn’t say anything.

             
“She’s started to
Shimmer.
” That warranted a bigger reaction from him.

             
Turning he looked at me, his eyes narrowing. “When?!”

             
“In the mountains. She was pulling me in a Trance, it happened for only a few seconds, but it’s only a matter of time before it happens. Do you want that to happen without her knowing what’s going on? It will terrify her!” I demanded.

             
He stood there for a minute, turned and then pushed the door open, stepping halfway inside the house.

             
“Sara!” He hollered. Looking back at me, he spoke so only I could hear. “I will be the one to tell Sara where she comes from and what she is.”

             
I nodded and he disappeared into the house. Seconds later, Sara appeared in the open doorway, and my heart kicked violently against my chest. If I hadn’t been instantly concerned by her appearance, I would have forgotten how to breathe. Even though it happened every time, I still was surprised by the force of her affect on me. It didn’t matter that it had only been a few hours since I had seen her last, the second she had filled that doorway the world around me began to spin out of control. The sight of her had nearly brought me to my knees. The longer I was around her, the stronger our connection grew, and I was starting to question if that was a good or bad thing.

             
“Adan,” she said, almost breathlessly, and I knew she was feeling the same thing that I was. “What are you doing here?” she glanced behind her, pulling the door closed, but not shut. Her fingers were still wrapped around the handle of the door, and she fidgeted with it nervously.

             
“Funny. You
looked
happy to see me.” I teased her. “I think we can do a little better then ‘
what are you doing here?
’ don’t you?”

             
She blushed and I had never seen anyone wear so many shades of red before.

             
“Now that’s something I can work with,” I took a step closer to her, and I could feel the sparks burning in response, “but I still think we can do better.”

             
I moved until we were only inches from each other, and wrapped my hand around the arm that still held the door handle. My fingers caressed the smooth skin of her elbow, before creating a trail down her arm and toward her wrist, leaving a track of invisible electric ribbons across her skin. My hand closed around her and I pulled the door shut, bringing her body against mine.

             
Her breath caught and then rushed out. I couldn’t tell if I had been the one to shudder first or if she had, but it didn’t really matter because we both absorbed the tremble equally.

             
“Much better.” I whispered.

             
“Yeah, if you don’t like having the ability to breathe!” She pointed out.

             
“He shrugged. “Breathing is overrated.”

             
I rested my free hand on the frame, pushing us up against the door, and trapping our hands behind her.

             
She smiled. “You’re such a dare devil.”

             
I laughed. “Don’t worry, I know mouth to mouth.”
She smirked. “You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”

             
“I like to be prepared.”

             
“Have you been in many situations where you’ve needed to use mouth to mouth?” She asked coyly, staring at a point just shy of my eyes. I knew what she was asking.

             
“Never. So you could see how I’m dying to try out my skills.”

             
She pulled back, but only a little bit. “Wait, you think I’m going to let you try out your never before used ‘skills’ on me?”

             
“Let? Now you’re underestimating the depth of my persuading skills.”

             
“I could die if you do it wrong.”

             
“Do I look like the kind of guy who could do it wrong?”

             
She shook her head. “I set myself up for these questions.”

             
“You really do. I think you do it on purpose,” I leaned in closer, until I could see every shade that made up her beautiful hazel eyes, “but I like it.”

             
“Your ego continuously surprises me.”

             
“What I heard: ‘I find you devastatingly irresistible’.”

             
She laughed. “I give up. I’m infatuated.”

             
“Now was that so hard?”

             
“Your turn.”

             
“Oh, I’m definitely infatuated.” I said seductively, and watched the color stain her cheeks.

             
“I meant what are you doing here so early?” She glanced up and down the street.

             
“Who are you looking for?” I controlled the urge to go into protector mode.

             
“No one.” She said softly, but I could feel the switch in her emotions. “I just had the strangest feeling that we we’re being watched.”

             
I tried to focus, hoping to pick up on whatever she was feeling, but I couldn’t sense anyone near by. There was nothing that suggested a possible threat to Sara, but I kept my guard up and tried to distract her. Distracting her was the fun part.

             
“I’ve come to kidnap you for the day.”

             
Her attention was back to me and I could feel she had momentarily forgotten whatever had distracted her.

             
“Kidnap me?”

             
“Yep. Today you’re all mine. Do you think you can handle it?”

             
“Now who is underestimating who?”

             
“Just making sure you’re up for the challenge”

             
“That sounds an awful lot like a dare.”

             
“Does that mean you’re accepting?”

             
Her lips puckered to one side, as she pretended to think about it for a minute, and it was all I could do not to lean in and kiss her.

             
“You’re on.”

             
I smiled at her, and I could hear the acceleration of her heart. “That’s my girl. How long will it take you to get ready?”

             
“Fifteen minutes?”

             
“Sounds like a plan. You go get ready. I’ll wait for you out here.”

             
She nodded, and I could see the excitement flaring inside her eyes. She turned into my arms to open the door. I inhaled deeply, and because I couldn’t stop myself, I stopped her.

             
“Wait, do you smell that?”

             
She stopped, and I could tell she was trying to pinpoint a smell. “No, what is it?”

I smiled as she whispered the words.

             
“I’m not sure. It smells like…”

I trailed off, leaning into and sniffing the air around her. Leaning over, I pressed my face into her neck, letting my nose trail down the side of her neck, enjoying the sound of her gasp. I led a trail down the soft curve of her neck and along her collarbone before I finally lifted my head. Her eyes were bright and shiny when they met mine, and she was taking in small puffs of air.

“Lavender?” I asked, and tried to control my own reaction.

“Yes.” It was almost inaudible.

“I like it.”