Read Under the Magnolia for Free Online Page B

seep away. "God. I would have slept a lot better
the past fifteen years if you'd been around."
    She said the words without thinking,
but they fell into the easy space between them like rocks in a pond.
A whole world of might-have-beens started under a magnolia tree not
so far away. Maybe it never would have worked if they'd started
dating as teenagers. But maybe…
    Maybe she'd wasted fifteen years of
her life when she could have been sleeping like this, curled up in
his arms and feeling safe and loved.
    Wes just brushed her hair back from
her face and grinned against her cheek. "I hog the covers. And
you wouldn't believe the snoring. Still want to sleep with me?"
    "We could give it a go. A trial
run, maybe." She pulled back enough to kiss him softly as she
lifted one hand to cup his cheek. "We seem to do all right with
the kissing, anyway," she murmured against his lips.
    "Won't hear me complaining,"
he agreed, then urged her mouth open with his thumb on her jaw. His
tongue delved past her lips, exploring, and she moaned in
encouragement as she tilted her head.
    Kissing him was right. It was perfect ,
as if they each knew exactly what the other wanted. He probably had
far more practice at it than she did, but she could tell she was
doing fine by the way he groaned and tugged lightly at her hair,
tilting her head back farther so he could deepen the kiss.
    Too soon, Wes lifted his head. His
thumbs caressed her cheeks as he stared down at her with heavy-lidded
eyes, his breathing fast and erratic. "We have to stop doing
that."
    "Especially since I'm
practically naked already," she teased, her tone wicked. "Though
I suppose I could always avoid your Mama for a few days and hope she
doesn't find out I did bad things to you." The worst part was
that she was only half joking.
    He chuckled and shook his head. "Oh,
no, you don't. I don't intend to have sex with you for the first time
on some skanky couch in a break room. We need flowers and wine and
sexy music."
    Addie caught his lower lip between
her teeth, nipping at it teasingly, then pulled back and snuggled
down in his arms again. "Fine. But only because I'm pretty sure
we were on a bed in my incredibly sexy vision, and I wouldn't want to
mess that up."
    "Fair enough." He shifted
carefully, stretching out this time and drawing her down to lie
against his chest. "I have nightmares sometimes, too, you know."
    She rearranged the blanket over both
of them then relaxed against him. "What about?"
    "Usually about the...the
telekinesis." His voice was low, halting, and his fingers
fiddled anxiously with her robe. "It doesn't always work, you
know. Sometimes it's easy, but other times... I concentrate so
carefully but I just can't get it done. And…and I have
nightmares that it fails me. When it really matters. When people are
going to die."
    Controlling her abilities had never
been an issue—or even a possibility—for Addie. She'd
never really considered what it might be like to depend on it only to
know it might not always be there.
    "You must be pretty strong,
though," she whispered as she rubbed a soothing hand over his
chest in aimless circles. "I mean, you tossed that branch out of
the way like it was nothing."
    "It happens that way. Some
days, it's a snap. Other times, I can't flip a light switch from
across the room."
    She frowned a little as she
considered it, her brain turning over the problem and offering a
hundred different ways to test his skills, to find out when they
worked and why. She made a rueful noise and forced herself to stop.
"You should never give me a mystery like that, Wes. Now I want
to take you home and start making you move plates until I can figure
out how it works."
    He just laughed. "Don't think I
haven't tried. Though I usually work with books and free weights."
    Addie propped her chin up on his
chest so she could look at him. "When it comes to bad guys,
you're the boss of me. When it comes to the scientific method, I am the boss of you .
Besides..."