Garda - Welcome to the Realm (17 page)

He glanced down at my lips. I felt his body responding to mine like they were talking to one another, and my mind began to war with my body.

I swayed slightly toward him, and he jerked back suddenly, realizing how close we were. He turned and started to walk towards the hallway while my body felt as if it had been denied something. I mentally chastised it for the feeling.

“Take a shower. Meet me at the beach. Your training starts now.” He didn’t turn as he walked out the door, the sound of his feet echoed on the wood floor as he walked down the hallway.

I wanted to stomp my foot and ignore him, but at the same time, I wanted to start my training. The faster I did that, the sooner I could go down again and see Mitch. With a deep sigh, I phased back to my quarters.

Standing under the hot water, I pictured Brock before me again. His full lips had been so close it would have taken only the smallest movement to touch them. What would it be like?

I turned around and lowered the temperature of the water when my body grew warm. Cold shower, I needed a cold shower to wash that thought out of my head.

I didn’t rush to finish my shower. I might not have a choice in meeting up with him, but I did have a choice in how long it took me to get ready.

After my shower, I took my time drying my long hair completely, then adding extra brush strokes to make it shine even more. I rubbed citrus lotion over my entire body, even getting in between my little toes. The thought of Brock putting the lotion here gave me goosebumps that I tried to rub away.

I pulled open the little closet in the bathroom, searching for nail polish. I smiled to myself as I realized that I now had an excuse for another thirty minutes or so. A girl needed to pamper herself once in a while, right?

After very cautiously painting my dainty toes a vibrant pink, I trimmed my cuticles and filed my fingernails, also adding the warm color to the nails there.

I sat back on the bed, leaning on the pillow to better allow my fingers and toes to dry. Funny, when I was alive, I never took the time to do this. I had never really cared about primping.

I told myself that I was only doing this to annoy Brock, not to make myself look better. After pulling on a pair of soft light blue Capri pants and a sleeveless pink silk blouse, I checked the mirror and decided I couldn’t put it off any longer. Forgoing shoes, I left my quarters by way of the door, deciding that a walk would do me good and would kill some more time before I had to meet up with Brock.

I inhaled deeply when I stepped outside, filling my lungs with the sweet scents of the evening flowers. The soft colors of a glorious sunset filled the sky and a part of my essence at the same time. I made my way slowly to the beach, never taking my focus off the horizon and the sun slowly setting there.

I didn’t need to search for Brock. I could feel his presence pass over me like a warm blanket on a cold day. I smiled to myself as I realized he was not exactly happy at my delay tactics.

I walked to stand beside him, his shoulders and back rigid. His arms were crossed over this chest, and the fists of his hands peeked out from under the heavy biceps.

As I stopped, I saw his nose flare slightly and he blinked rapidly for a moment. His hands clenched even more tightly, if that were possible.

“So what are we working on?” I stepped in front of him.

He glared at me, hot fire in the depths of his eyes. I fought to keep still as they took in my face and traveled slowly down the length of my body, burning me as they moved.

Did he just shiver? He turned his head back to the sunset after taking in my polished toes. I watched him shake his head.

“Can you feel my presence?” his voice was stilted as he spoke.

“What do you mean?” Did he want to know if I knew where he was or if I could feel the desire flowing from him towards me? I’d be honest with one, but there was no way I would admit the other.

“Did you know I was in the gym watching you?” he scowled at me for a moment before I answered him.

“Yes.” I walked past him, nervous as he kept frowning at me. Maybe the desire wasn’t him, maybe it came from me. Maybe he was like living guys and just lusted for a pretty face.

“How long was I there?” He stepped beside me and we started to walk in the sand.

I thought about it briefly, “I was working on the spinning back kicks and reverse punches when you came in.”

I saw him nod in my peripheral vision. “Good. You know when I am in the room, now do you think you could follow me?”

I was confused, “What do you mean?”

“I mean when I phase. Do you think you might be able to follow my energy pattern?” he raised his eyebrows as he asked.

I thought about it for a minute, “Maybe. Let’s see.”

“Concentrate on me.” He stopped and turned. I stared into his face. How could I not concentrate on him? The light of the sunset highlighted the dark colors in his hair and made his skin glow a golden brown.

He stepped back, and I realized that I had been staring hard. “What?” I feigned innocence. “I’m concentrating on your energy.” Really, I’m not staring at you and seeing just how beautiful you are in the fading light. I’m losing my freaking mind, I thought to myself.

“Coralenna, I’m going to phase someplace, someplace simple for you. A place that you have been to before and I want you to see if you can follow.”

“Sounds easy enough,” I smiled, ready to get started.

He grunted, “Yeah, maybe for you, but not for most people.” With the words just out of his mouth he disappeared from view. I focused on what I had felt coming from him. My body tingled, and I allowed the tingling to grow and pull me. I opened my eyes to see Brock standing in the large living room where I had visited when I first arrived.

I giggled happily, “I did it!”

He returned my amusement and said, “Good, let’s try it again.”

He disappeared from view, and I again allowed the tingling inside my body to pull me to him. This time he was standing in the dojang in the center of the mats.

“Hey, you’re not supposed to step on them with shoes on,” I said when I found him.

“My bad, again,” and he was gone.

It became a game with him popping in and out of places I had been, my balcony, the garden, the weight room, and the beach. One time he phased to my bedroom, and I found him lying on my bed.

“You’re lucky that when I follow you, I don’t land in the same place that you do,” I threw out to him playfully.

He grinned, “Yeah, that would be really bad, wouldn’t it?” He chuckled deeply. “You have the hang of this, you know these places. Let’s try places that you don’t know.”

Before I could respond, he was gone. I reached for him internally and found him. His signature was pretty easy to follow now. I allowed it to surge through me, but unlike before, strange colors and sensations tickled my insides this time as I moved to an unknown place.

I blinked to see Montgomery sitting on a couch, reading something. He smiled happily at me.

“Playing hide and seek?” he asked as I grinned back at him.

I hadn’t thought about that, but we kind of were. “Yeah, I guess so. It’s kind of fun.”

I watched Montgomery close his eyes for a moment and his brow crinkled slightly, then he opened them again.

“Sorry, had to check in with a charge. He is having a rough time these days.”

“Oh, I remember, you don’t have to go down to help people.” I sat down on the couch next to him and glanced up to see Brock lean against a doorjamb.

“Right, we don’t always have to leave here. Eventually, when you get strong enough, you don’t ever have to leave here. You can do it all inside your mind, although it is nice to visit the living arena and see what changes down there, technology moves so fast.”

We both laughed and I turned to see that Brock was gone. I had not felt him leave. I spun around to see if he was behind me and reached out for him, but he was no longer in the room with us.

“Where’d he go?” I asked Montgomery.

“Isn’t that your job to find out?” He quirked an eyebrow.

I focused and reached out for Brock, quickly finding his energy and allowing myself to follow.

I landed on a dark balcony that faced out over the gardens.

“Whose balcony is this?” I asked as I turned to the railing. Some of the flowers below seemed to glow in the darkness, a soft breeze floated around me, bringing their scent.

“Listen and you will know,” he whispered as he stepped up beside me.

I stood still and listened, the night was quiet, but I could hear soft sounds coming from behind me. I turned to face the door, the sound of kisses and soft words reached me. A voice I knew quite well was saying something about doing it again. I felt a blush rise up on my cheeks.

“That’s David!” I said in a rushed whisper. “Is he doing what I think he’s doing?”

Brock grinned, “What, you think we don’t make love in heaven?”

The heat in my face scorched my skin with his words. “Brock phase, please, come on. I don’t want to stay here and be accused of being a Peeping Tom.”

He chuckled quietly and phased away. I followed just as quickly, and we landed on a boat dock. The water was softly lapping against the wood underneath. Brock sat down, letting his feet hang over the edge. He patted the wood next to him, and I moved to sit.

“You have something against people making love?”

“Of course not, but I don’t need to listen to them. People deserve their privacy, especially during intimate times like that.”

“In this world, Coralenna, we celebrate. We share in these moments. Making love is a beautiful thing, much different than on Earth where it can be dirty. Here, it’s perfect, not dirty, not something that people don’t want to talk about or share. People here share it with others. It connects us, helps us be one, and makes us feel good.”

“Are you saying people have sex with other people all the time, and there is nothing wrong with it?”

He studied the half moon, the light casting a glow on the side of his face that I could see, enhancing the sharp jut of his chin.

“There is nothing wrong in loving someone.”

“In my world, you only love one person at a time.” Mitch’s face replaced the view of Brock before me, and I turned away from him.

~ Brock ~

I saw Mitch coming back to his seat, and I phased back to the Realm. I immediately searched out Corey and found her fighting her inner demons in the martial arts room.

I watched her; she knew I was there. She was strong, physically and mentally. She would give Joe a run for his money if she could learn what she needed to know.

I didn’t want her to be connected to Mitch, but I didn’t want to lose him to the other side either. He was a good man, and he deserved better, much better. Maybe my own demons were fighting within me when Corey stopped and tried to catch her breath. Maybe that was why my voice came out so harshly and I all but demanded she do as I told her to do.

I was not surprised by her rebellion, and it gave me the time to calm my warring emotions. When she stepped up beside me on the beach, her citrus scent scorched my nasal passages and burned into my mind.

She had always loved that lotion. I had watched her apply it hundreds of times, but until this moment, I had never smelled it mixed with her perfect heavenly scent. If she never wore it again, I would never forget the incredible smell.

The training was more of a game. She caught on quickly, much more quickly than most, and before I knew it, she was easily following me from one place to another, relaxed and with a smile on her beautiful face.

Maybe that was why I landed on David’s balcony. I wanted to see how she would react to the way we cared about people. Would she accept the openness that we shared here?

Thoughts of holding her and loving her grew more intense each time I saw her. The tightly-wound tension between us practically cracked with electricity when we stood inches apart.

Would she one day be able to love me? Or would I lose her before I’d even had her?

“There is nothing wrong with loving someone.” The soft sounds of water lapped under the dock we sat on. I felt her almost playful mood shift as I spoke. I knew her thoughts went to him again.

“In my world, you only love one person at a time.”

“This is your world now, Coralenna, you must accept that. Do you think it is not possible to love more than one person at a time?”

“Are you talking about emotional love or physical?” I saw her glance towards me, her feet swinging gently off the side of the dock.

“I don’t know, both maybe.”

“I believe in being faithful, Brock. If I love someone, I love only him. I give myself to only him.” She grew quiet after she spoke, and I allowed her to reflect.

“Would it surprise you to know I feel the same way?”

Her feet stopped swinging, and she turned to me. I raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to answer.

She searched my face, and I felt the need to squirm under her scrutiny, but I held still.

Her answer was not what I expected, “No, it would not surprise me.” She laughed, “Why such a look of surprise?”

I chuckled with her, “I don’t know. I guess I just expected you to think I was like everyone else.”

The smile stayed on her face as she turned away.

“I’m not though, like everyone else,” I grinned playfully.

She turned back to me, “I know, Brock, I can tell.”

We both went back to silence and relaxed with the soft breeze and gentle sounds of the water.

“Have you ever loved someone so much that it hurt, Brock?” her calm voice broke the silence.

I couldn’t keep from staring at her as I answered, “Yes.”

“And did you know right down to the center of your being that she was right for you?” She met my gaze.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, “Yes.”

“Were you married to her?” she tilted her head as she asked.

Somewhat relieved that she had not noticed my distress, I turned from her before answering. “No, I’ve never been married.” I stood up, “Let’s call it a night. You’ve had a rough day. Why don’t you go rest? I promise to give you peace tonight, if you promise me you’ll stay inside the Realm.”