Out of This World Read online

  So I purposely drew a deep breath and didn’t focus on anything but the intangible. Axel, still missing. Kel and I, still standing here all alone. And, at least in my case, frightened half to death.

  Kel squeezed my fingers. “No worries, Rach. We’ll be okay.”

  I was trying not to panic, but I wasn’t having much luck. “No worries,” I repeated like a mantra. “No worries…”

  “This way,” Kellan said, pointing. Then he pulled off his T-shirt, and even though I’d already peeked, the sight of him left me utterly speechless.

  “Um,” I said ever so intelligently, my tongue hanging out at the sight of all his well-toned flesh and hard sinew, “what are you doing?”

  “Just as you suggested.” He ripped the hemline off the T-shirt with shocking ease, the muscles in his arms rippling, causing me to drool more. I swallowed hard and tried not to stare at his bared chest or abs, but as I’ve already established, I have no willpower at all.

  He tied a strip of cloth around a branch, then touched my jaw, oblivious to my lusting. “No worries, right?”

  Let’s face it, the men in my life—both the bad boys I tend to collect and my brothers—spend little time coddling me, much less soothing or reassuring me.

  Having Kellan do all three felt both foreign and utterly, shockingly…lovely.

  Kel took a moment to look all around us carefully, as if memorizing landmarks.

  Meanwhile, I couldn’t tear my gaze off him. “Kel?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Why don’t you need your glasses?”

  He went still, then lifted his head, those piercing baby blues meeting mine. “I don’t know.”

  There was a moment of silence, which I characteristically broke first. “That’s a little freaky, don’t you think?”

  He actually went to push his glasses farther up his nose, and remembered they weren’t there. “A little, yeah.”

  “Just so you know, the Twilight Zone theme song is running through my head.”

  “As long as it’s not the sound track from Psycho.” Taking charge and my hand at the same time, he pulled me onward.

  I stared at his sleek, smooth back, damp from either the rain or sweat. Which one didn’t matter, because both appealed. I was dizzy, wet and confused.

  And desperately hungry for cookies.

  Kel stopped to tear off a second strip of his shirt and tie it around yet a different branch. “Come on.”

  “Right.” This take-charge Kellan was new. And incredibly appealing. “You think this is the right way?”

  “Yep.”

  Confident, too. Double whammy. We made more stops, tying a handful of strips to branches. Kel did the tying, muscles tight, brow furrowed. His jaw was scruffy, his hair its usual riotous mess. His eyes were fierce with concentration, and just looking into them made me shiver. The good kind of shiver, the kind that started at the toes, made pit stops at every erogenous zone and ended at the roots.

  He lifted his gaze to mine, catching me staring, and some of his intensity cleared, but none of the heat.

  And just like that, I knew.

  I wanted to kiss him.

  Shocked by the unexpected need, I shifted closer. Since he was so damn tall, I had to tip my head back to see into his face, which I did just in time to catch him taking a hard swallow.

  “Rach,” he said, suddenly, endearingly, looking uncertain and off-balance again. “What are you—”

  “Shh.” I wanted to just look at him forever, but that was weird. In any case, I’d definitely been staring for a beat too long now, and we were verging on awkward.

  He swallowed again, and I slid my hands up his bare chest, giving myself another shiver, because his skin was warm and tough. I could feel his heart leap.

  I could see it, too, but I didn’t want to accept that, not right now. Right now, I wanted oblivion, I wanted comfort, and I wanted his kiss more than I wanted my next breath. “Kellan?”

  He gave one unsure shake of his head, and touched mine. “You’re hurt.”

  “Not so much.” I lifted my hand to cover his on my jaw.

  He pulled free and took a step back. “You’re off your axis, then.”

  But I’d seen it, the hint of something restless and hungry behind the mellowness.

  He wanted me, too.

  I closed the gap again, just one step, bringing us back within each other’s breathing space. His was such a nice space, I thought.

  How was it I’d never seen that?

  He had that stubborn lock of wet hair falling into his eyes, dripping onto his nose, and unable to help myself, I pushed it over his forehead. And then there I was, my fingers in his hair, wanting more, so much more.

  And given the way his hands went to my hips and squeezed, he felt the same way.

  Unbelievably, everything around us seemed to sort of fade away, and I found myself lost in something new: his heated eyes.

  “Rach, you’re sending off a weird vibe here, and—”

  I nudged my body up against his, and in response, he let out a rough, ragged breath.

  Not so Zen-like now, was he?

  The knowledge made me smile; the power made me feel drunk. One look at my face, and Kellan groaned. “I don’t know what’s up with you, but—”

  “Shut up, Kel.” And to make sure of it, I kissed him.

  He went utterly still, like a wall of stone, like a man who’d just entered either heaven or hell but wasn’t sure which.

  Then I touched the corner of his mouth with my tongue, and with another ragged groan, he hauled me up off the ground and dove in like a man starved for a feast.

  And in perhaps the best surprise of the day, I learned something new about Kellan McInty.

  The guy could kiss.

  I mean, seriously kiss. Unlike anyone in my past, which had always been a little like the story of the Three Bears—either too much or not enough—Kel had it down: a hungry pressure, an uncivilized connection and just the right amount of tongue.

  And then my mild-mannered, easygoing Kel did something a little shocking. He bumped it up to the next level, sinking his fingers into my hair, gripping my head so that the angle suited him better, and took it deeper, pressing me back against the closest tree. Now I had the hard tree trunk against my spine and Kellan’s hard body against my front.

  I’d been kissed plenty, but I had to admit, not as if nothing else mattered—not the lightning, not being lost in the woods, not a single thing…

  Finally he lifted his head, his blue eyes so dark, they were nearly black. He stroked my lower lip with his thumb as he looked at me. “That was different for us.”

  Before I could say a word in response, he kissed me again. And when I say kiss, I mean more like devour. As in no-holds-barred, destroy-any-lingering-thoughts, melt-all-the-bones-in-my-body devour. Seriously, I couldn’t have whispered my own name if my life had depended on it.

  Then he upped the heat even more by pressing a thigh hard between mine, while still taking my mouth with a possessiveness I’d never ever have guessed he carried. He kissed me long and deep, and so thoroughly, I’d completely forgotten where we were by the time he lifted his head.

  His mouth, wet from mine, curved wryly. “Yeah. Definitely different.”

  I couldn’t tear my gaze from his lips, which I desperately wanted back on mine. “Very.”

  From somewhere behind us came a thrashing sound, familiar now, so I didn’t leap out of my skin this time. And then two seconds later, Axel appeared, sticking his head through a bush. “Dudes, you gotta keep up.”

  “Yeah,” Kellan said, holding my gaze, not to mention still having me pinned against the tree so that I could feel what the kiss had done to him. Yowza. “We’ll try to keep up.”

  I might have spoken, but my body kept humming with an undeniable sexual tension. Plus there was that underlying headache from whatever had happened to me out here.

  Oh, and let’s not forget my new superpowers.

  Yeah, lots on