From ENCHANTED DESIRE by Paul Lonardo

Published by Wild Rose Press

I didn’t think I heard him right. I wanted to tell him that I would like that very much, but no words came out. I may have nodded.

He was talking, but I hardly heard anything he said. I kept looking at his lips, imagining them on my lips, on my skin, and on parts of my body that had not been explored that way in a long time. I caught only a few of his words as my head continued to reel. He mentioned something about a spiritual world, dream-walking, and vision quests, but I soon lost focus completely. I felt a sensation of motion, of swaying, falling. It was like a dream. It did not seem real.

I managed to stay on my feet somehow, and suddenly Kenny was holding me upright, supporting me in one arm. “Are you okay?” He brought his other arm around. He was holding a cup of water in his hand.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Now I am, anyway.”

“Here, take a drink.” Kenny offered me the cup, which I took from him and sipped.

“Thank you,” I said. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.”

“I saw your eyes start to roll over and I went to get you some water. When I came back, it looked like you were going to pass out.”

“It must have been the long day of shopping.”

“As long as you’re okay.”

I straightened up, took another sip, and handed the cup back to Kenny as Courtney walked back into the shop. She approached, smiling at Kenny. “There was a cruiser circling outside,” she said to me, trying to sound matter-of-fact. Her tone and demeanor, however, was anything but casual. “I’m just saying.”

The thought of David barging in on us snapped me fully back to reality, and in a panic I turned to leave. I took only one step before I stopped. Something drew me back and I turned to Kenny, but I could not think of anything to say.

“I will see you later,” Kenny said with such assurance that I did not doubt him.

“We better go,” Courtney said. She looked at Kenny with a big grin. “It was really nice to meet you.”

He smiled back, and before we walked out the door, Kenny’s almond-color eyes locked on mine for a moment. The look on his face communicated his desire. It was subtle and silent, but it was something that I felt more powerfully than any word he could have spoken. The meaning was clear. Two people did not need to speak the same language, or any language at all, when matters of the heart were involved.