Page 59 of Mountain Man’s Mystic Touch

“I used to.”

“What stopped you?”

“A relationship with someone who wanted everything I could give him until he decided the way I gave it was embarrassing. He asked for readings when he wanted reassurance,” I continue. “He asked what I sensed about business decisions, friendships, people he didn’t trust. He liked my intuition when it served him. In front of other people, he called it nonsense.”

Rocco’s jaw tightens.

“I kept trying to prove it was real,” I say. “Then I realized the larger problem wasn’t whether he believed in my gift. It was that I had allowed him to use parts of me he refused to respect.”

“He sounds like an asshole.”

The blunt judgment startles a laugh out of me.

“That is not the most spiritually generous assessment.”

“It doesn’t need to be generous to be accurate.”

“No, I suppose it doesn’t.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“Not physically.”

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

My fingers curve around the warm cup. “Yes.”

Rocco does not offer empty reassurance or tell me the man was a fool to lose me. He simply looks at me as though the answer matters and stores it among the other things he notices.

“Is that why you needed me to leave?” he asks.

“No.” I consider the question more carefully. “But it may be why I needed to know you would.”

His gaze holds mine.

“I like being near you,” I admit. “That complicates the way I restore myself. Being with someone and recovering from other people’s energy are usually opposite things for me.”

“And with me?”

“I haven’t decided.”

Rocco rises to clear the remains of our meal. I stand with my cup and carry it toward the sink. When I reach beside him, he turns at the same moment. The kitchen is too small for both of us to occupy the space without touching.

My arm brushes his chest. Heat moves through me, startling after the cold emptiness left by the vision. Rocco places one hand on the counter behind me rather than on my body, but the position brings him closer. His face is only inches from mine.

“You have more color,” he says.

“You make that sound like a security assessment.”

“It is an observation.”

“Your observations are becoming personal.”

“They became personal when you put your hands on my shoulder.”

“That was a professional massage.”

“Not all of it.”