Tormented (Evolution Series Book 2) (17 page)

“It’s not something that you can learn,” Aiden said for the tenth time. “It will just come to you all of a sudden, like being able to transport and when you started hearing people’s thoughts.”

“I’m
gonna
do it,” I said, determined to prove him wrong. I once again imagined a titanium shield surrounding my mind.

“A titanium shield can’t cover your mind,” Aiden said. “There’s no way you can get an actual shield around your brain.”

I glared at him. “That’s right. Go ahead and laugh, but you’ll see, I’m going to nail it, and when I do, I’m
gonna
be putting it up permanently so you won’t ever know what I’m thinking again.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Aiden was laughing too hard to say much more.

Once again, I tried to block out all the surrounding
noise,
mostly Aiden’s snickering, and concentrated on locking him the hell out of my mind.

Aiden eyes flashed sideways to me, then he quickly looked away.

“Did I do it?” I asked excitedly.

“Nope,” he said a little too casually.

His sideways glance told me different, and there was only one way I was going to get the truth from him. “Damn,” I said, playing along. I started thinking about Lucas, imagining what he looked like without his shirt. With how I was imagining Lucas’s body entwined with mine, there was no way Aiden would be able to sit there without saying anything or reacting in some way. “You’re full of shit.”

He scratched the back of his neck. “Full of shit about what?”

“You know exactly what I mean. Oh, actually you don’t ’cause you can’t hear my thoughts anymore. Can you?”

He looked me in the eyes and lied. “Yes, I can.”

I let out a small laugh. “Oh, really. Then what was I just thinking?”

“That I’m lying,” he said.

“Yes, you are lying, and I want you to admit it,” I said with a smirk.

Aiden raised his eyebrows, but didn’t say anything.

“If you can’t tell me what I was thinking the last time I tried to put up my mind block, then you and I will be sleeping in separate rooms for the next fifty years.”

“Oh, really,” he said. “You couldn’t handle being away from this for one night.” He waved his hands down his body like those half-naked girls selling cars.

I pushed his arm, but gently enough to ensure I didn’t send him flying into the water. “Just admit it, will you?”

He sighed. “Okay, I can’t hear your thoughts. You were right, and I was wrong. Is that good enough?”

“Yep,” I said smugly. “But I guess you’ll never know if I’m telling the truth, will you?” I was over the moon that my thoughts were once again my own. Actually, thinking back to my mother, I bet she had been able to hear my thoughts from day dot. So it was essentially the first time in my life that my thoughts were entirely my own, and I loved the thought of that, and that nobody else would know just how much I loved it.

Aiden swung his arm around my shoulder. “This is going to be a little hard for me to get used to.”

“Welcome to my world.”

***

Aiden and I walked back into his house through the front door. I had finally been given the opportunity of entering his house like a normal person, but I was so damned excited about conquering the mind-blocking technique that I barely noticed what the front entrance even looked like.

“Congratulations,” Anna said when we walked into the lounge room. She was the only one in the house as Lucas, Nathan, Kai, and Dave had all gone out.

“Thanks.” I sat on the adjacent sofa, curling my feet up underneath me, and leaned against the armrest.

“Anyone want anything to eat or drink?” Aiden asked.

“Do you have some chips?” I asked.

“Oh, get me some, too,” Anna said. “Can you also get me a bottle of Coke?”

I lifted my head off the armrest. “I’ll have a Coke, too.”

Aiden disappeared.

“You know he’s
gonna
hate not being able to hear your thoughts.”

“I know,” I said with a laugh. “And now he’s going to be just as clueless as the rest of the male population when it comes to his girlfriend.”

Aiden returned with two packets of chips and three bottles of Coke. He handed Anna’s to her,
then
sat down beside me. I flipped my legs the other way and curled up into his side. I dug into the chips on Aiden’s lap and relaxed into watching some old episodes of “Home and Away,” which seemed to be more popular in England than in Australia. But I had to
admit,
there sure was some eye candy to make it worth watching, even with all the
hotties
that had fled to Hollywood over the last couple of years.

About an hour later, my phone buzzed. I sat up, reached in my pocket, and retrieved my phone. It was a message from Chelsea.

What are you guys up to tomorrow? Do you
wanna
catch up?

I had completely forgotten about her with all the crap that had been going on. I looked up at Aiden.

“What?” he asked.

“What do you think?”

“About what?” he asked again.

I
realised
that he couldn’t hear my thoughts anymore, so he had absolutely no idea what I was thinking or what the message said. “Chelsea wants to know if we want to catch up with her and Ben tomorrow.”

“To do what?”

“I don’t know.” I sent a message to Chelsea.
What were you thinking of?

A minute later, my phone buzzed again.
How does the beach sound?

I showed the message to Aiden. “She wants to go to the beach.”

“You should both go,”
Anna
piped in. “It’ll probably do you both some good.”

“I’m in,” Aiden said.

“Okay, I’ll let her know. Besides, I wouldn’t mind seeing the sun again.” I looked over at Anna, who rolled her eyes.

“You know that you’ve probably seen more sun over the last few days than there has been throughout the entire year,” Anna said.

“And that’s another reason why I opted to stay in Australia,” Aiden said.

“Hey.” I slapped him playfully on his arm. “I thought I was the reason you decided to stay.”

He didn’t say anything straight away, and he looked to be in deep thought. “Nah, I think the sun was the deciding factor,” he said with a serious expression.

“Aw, you’re so going to cop it.” Anna laughed.

“She knows I’m joking.” He put his arm around me and pulled me closer.

“You better be, because you know I’ve got other options.”

He laughed. “Oh, really. Tell me, who are these others that you have lined up?”

I shook my head. “Nope. I’m not telling, and you know what?”

“What?”

“You’re not going to find out ’cause you can’t hear my thoughts,” I said, singing the last part.

He raised his eyebrows. “Oh, really?”

“Yes, really.”

Aiden started tickling me, sending my arms and legs thrashing, but he had me pinned underneath him.

“Stop it!” I yelled between fits of laughter. I so hated being tickled.

“
Ew
. Get a room, will you?” a voice called from across the room. Georgia was standing by the door with a disgusted look on her face. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest, making her boobs almost fall out of her half-unbuttoned white shirt. At least it was only her top half that was on display since she was wearing jeans.

Aiden glanced up at Georgia, then returned his eyes to mine. “You know, I think we might just do that.” He leaned down and kissed me on the lips.

“Oh, stop
antagonising
each other,” Anna said.

Aiden didn’t avert his eyes from mine. “I’m not
antagonising
anyone. Georgia just suggested we should get a room, and I thought it was a great idea.”

“You’re such an ass,” Georgia said. Her eyes were laced with daggers, which I was guessing was more directed at me than Aiden. “No wonder I broke up with you.”

“Huh!” He turned to look at Georgia, who still hadn’t crossed the threshold. “What a load of shit. I so dump—”

“On second thought,” Anna cut him off. “Why don’t the two of you go off to your room?” She sounded more parental than I’d ever heard her.

“If you say so,” Aiden agreed.

Georgia leaned against the doorframe. “That’s right. You two just go on upstairs and fornicate and pretend that we’re downstairs, clueless.”

“Sounds good to me,” Aiden said,
then
transported us to his bed, which was a lot more comfortable than the sofa. “Now where were we?”

“I think we’re supposed to be up here fornicating.” I giggled. I couldn't believe that Georgia had said that.

Aiden brushed a strand of hair away from my face,
then
kissed me softly. He then moved his way down to my neck.

I was so tempted to say something about how much of a slag Georgia was acting, but I managed to keep my mouth shut and relish in the facts that we had locks on the door to his bedroom, and my thoughts were finally my own. There was also my secret satisfaction in knowing that his ex was downstairs, wishing that she
was
doing what I was doing with the guy that we both so clearly loved.

CHAPTER 17

Almost an hour later, we emerged from our room. The coast was clear; Georgia had gone home. Apparently, she had come over to let us know that her dad wanted us all to go out to dinner at seven.

Anna said Nathan wanted us to all go out and
relax
, and for all of us kids to try to get along. Well, most of us did get along. His tarty daughter was the only problem, and I didn’t see how having dinner with her was going to change anything. But Anna wanted us to go, so after finally agreeing, Aiden went back upstairs to get changed. I still didn’t feel comfortable wearing anything less than jeans, a long-sleeved sweater, boots, and a coat. Aiden, on the other hand, was completely fine wearing only jeans and a long-sleeved shirt.

Nathan had booked a table for us in a little English pub. We arrived via the only method we ever seemed to travel by—transportation. They knew all the safe spots to transport to that were hidden from the general public’s view. We ended up in a dark alley behind the pub’s entrance. Laughter and singing came from within, and I could make out some of the biggest culprits of the noise.

Before we walked through the door, Anna placed a hand on Aiden’s arm. “I want you to promise me that you won’t start anything with Georgia,” she said with a warning glare. “I want us all to have a good night tonight. Okay?”