Heart's Reflection by P R Mason Read Free Book Online Page A

The kiss included a generous amount of tongue. So much tongue I
couldn't tell were his ended and mine began.
    This kiss wasn't
absolution. This kiss was sin. But right now I didn't care. I gloried in it. No
more Goody for me.
    Keagan was the
first one to pull away, pushing me back. "Stop," he said, lifting me
off his body and placing me back on the blanket. "If we don't stop now, I
won't be able to."
    "I don't
understand. Did I do something wrong?" My question couldn't hide my
burgeoning humiliation.
    "Jeese, no.
You did everything right." He framed my face with his hands, caressing my
cheekbone with his thumb. "Too right. It's getting dangerous. You must
know what I mean."
    "But I
thought that was what you wanted?"
    "Yeah. Me
too," he mumbled, releasing me and sitting back. "But it's going too
fast. Too fast for you. This is your first time, right?"
    "But I want
you to do it," I said and was surprised to realize I meant what I'd said.
    My mind raced. How
could I want to have sex with Keagan but not with Liam? Liam was the brother I
was in love with, wasn't he? I was just doing this for him, wasn't I?
    "Okay, but
let's take it slow." Keagan reached for our fallen blanket/shawl. "Let's
just lie here a while and talk."
    As he wrapped us
in the blanket, his arm went around my shoulder. A little scooching and we were
prone, me with my cheek against his chest and the sound of his heart in my ear.
He began rambling on about his new science teacher and how his idea of teaching
was a surprise pop quiz every day.
    "Not quite a
surprise," Keagan joked and the rumble of his laugh vibrated against my
face, making me want to kiss his chest. I restrained myself. "My math
teacher is even more lame," he said. "He has to make everything into
a story problem. Sometimes I'd like x just to be an x without representing the
quantity of farm animals or tinker toys. What the hell is a tinker toy anyway?
Couldn't he at least choose something cool like iPads or cars?"
    The next thing I
knew, my eyes were fluttering open. I had only a second to realize I'd just
woken from sleep, when a vision hit me with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. An
old man, gray and wrinkled but with a full head of hair, was walking next to an
old woman in a park under bright sunshine. He smiled down at his companion, but
then his smile turned to a grimace and he reached up a hand to his chest. He
was having a heart attack. The woman cried out when he fell to one knee. As he
clutched at the fabric of his shirt, I saw the tattoo around his wrist.
    Keagan. I was
seeing a new death for Keagan.
    I came to myself
still lying against his chest, with one hand to my head.
    "Are you
okay?" he asked.
    Removing my hand,
I glanced up and saw him staring down at me with worried eyes. "Yes. It's
just a headache," I answered.
    As the pain in my
head quickly subsided, I realized something that made a grin almost break my
lips with its width.
    "What?"
Keagan said, giving me a little shake. "Why are you smiling like
that?"
    How could I tell
him that I'd somehow changed his fated death? Or if not me, something we'd done
had made the change, setting him on a new path. He'd live a full life and die
an old man. That meant Liam's fated death could have changed too. But had it?
    Overhead, the moon
had shifted so far in the sky it must be at least two a.m.
    "Omigod,"
I said, jerking to a sitting position. "Gran will be frantic."
    Keagan sat up too
and then jumped to his feet. "Let's get you home."
    He rose and began
to gather the blanket from beneath us, shaking out the sand. Folding our shawl
blanket as he did this, I began to worry. What about our bargain? Keagan's fate
had changed but I still had to keep one of them from that football stadium
tomorrow, er, tonight.
    "Are we still
on for another date later?" I asked as he handed me my shoes.
    At my question, he
smiled. Pulling me to him, he gently kissed me. "Definitely."
    "Instead of
the game?" I had to nail this down. "Even though..."
    "Even