“You tell me,” she countered, a blatant dare. Read my thoughts, my ass, she mentally grumbled. She had thought Aidan was different, but to mock her like this by pretending he had a special gift, too? What a disappointment.
“I am different,” he insisted. “And I’m not pretending. I do have a special gift. More than one, if you’re to know the truth of it.”
She frowned. Had he just read her thoughts?
“Yes,” he said.
She narrowed her eyes. Yes, what? Yes, he had read her thoughts? Or was he just guessing the path they would naturally take?
“Yes, I read your thoughts,” he said. “And yes, I could’ve guessed the path they would take, but I didn’t.”
She stilled. Okay. That was a little spot-on.
“And to prove it,” he continued, “I’ll tell you that, although I have not been listening to your thoughts on our date, I did give them a listen both times you gave me a reading and know that you’ve had two visions about me that you failed to mention.”
Her heart began to pound. How did he know that?
“In the first one,” he said, lowering his voice, “we were naked in bed and I was touching your—”
“Holy crap,” she whispered, dropping her arms and gaping at him.
His lips twitched. “I was going to say breast, but—”
“How do you know about that?” she blurted.
“The same way I know that in the second vision, you were cupping my face in your hands—as you did earlier—and I kissed you and pulled you up against me, sliding my hand down over your lovely bottom. I read your thoughts and saw it as clearly as you did.”
Speech eluding her, Dana stared at him so long that her eyes began to burn.
“Blink,” he instructed.
She did.
“I know it’s a bit of a shock,” he murmured, eyeing her with some concern.
“A bit of a shock,” she parroted numbly.
“I know it feels… intrusive. But I didn’t read your thoughts the whole time. Most of the time I can control what I hear and don’t hear and can block others’ thoughts fairly easily.” Younger telepathic immortals weren’t so lucky. “But when the visions struck you, I saw them as clearly as you did without even trying. I think because we’re both gifted.”
She hadn’t told anyone about those visions. There was no way he could’ve known about them without reading her mind. “Holy. Crap.”
His eyebrows rose.
“Are you reading my thoughts right now?” she asked.
“Yes. They’re a little chaotic. I’m sorry I’ve shaken you up so much. I just wanted you understand why I haven’t dated in so long and hoped you’d appreciate my honesty.”
Honesty! He had read her thoughts! He had apparently been reading them all this time, saying exactly what he knew she wanted him to say and—
His brows drew together. “Now wait a minute. That’s not true. I would never use what I saw in your thoughts to manipulate you. If that had been my intent, I never would’ve told you I’m telepathic.”
“Dude,” a voice interrupted, “you told her you’re telepathic?”
Aidan swung around and shot a glare at Sheldon.
Dana guessed Sheldon was in his early twenties. Tracy looked to be thirty or thereabouts. Both eyed her and Aidan with great interest as they gathered their laptops and gear and stopped by Dana and Aidan’s table on their way to the door.
“Sheldon,” Aidan growled, definitely a warning.
“You know he’s telepathic?” Dana asked his friend.
“Yeah,” Sheldon responded simply. The woman at his side nodded. Neither seemed to view it as anything extraordinary, as if she had just asked them if they knew Aidan could play the piano.
“It doesn’t bother you?” Dana pressed.
Sheldon gave a dismissive shrug. “Nah. Aidan’s a good guy. He almost never reads my mind.”
Aidan grimaced. “Because there’s too much porn and weird shite up there.”
Tracy laughed and gave Sheldon’s shoulder a shove. “Freak.”
Sheldon grinned. “You know it.” Then he caught Dana’s eye. “I’m surprised he told you. People don’t usually react well when they find out he’s different. I’d think you’d understand that since you’re different, too.”
He knew she was a psychic? “How did you—?”
“I heard a rumor that Aidan was smitten with a psychic.” He shrugged. “When I saw you two together, I assumed you were her.”
Aidan frowned. “Where’d you hear that?”
Sheldon hesitated. “Cliff let it slip while we were playing video games. You won’t hold it against him, will you? He didn’t mean to. He was just… more distracted than usual. And Tracy is the only person I’ve told.”
Aidan shook his head. “It’s fine.”
Tracy smiled. “We’d better go before Sheldon says anything else that will embarrass you.” Taking Sheldon’s arm, she urged him toward the door. “You two have a nice evening.”
“What’d I say that embarrassed him?” Sheldon asked, puzzled.
She whispered something to him.
Sheldon snorted. “Yeah, right. Like she didn’t already know he’s smitten. It’s so obvious.”
Tracy pushed him into the hallway and closed the door after them.
In the wake of their departure, Aidan swung back around and met Dana’s gaze with obvious reluctance. “Apparently there’s something else I failed to tell you that you should probably know.”
Seriously? Something else? “What’s that?” she asked, unsure she wanted to hear it.
He sighed. “I suck at dating.”
Dana laughed. She couldn’t help it.
Sergio and the waiter returned with platters of food that smelled so delicious Dana’s stomach growled.
“Thank you,” she murmured as the two smiling men backed away, then exited.
A heavy silence fell.
Dana picked up her fork and speared some salad. “So.” Tucking the crunchy veggies in her mouth, she chewed and swallowed. “You’re smitten with a psychic, are you?”
Relief smoothed the lines in Aidan’s brow. His lips tilted up. “Very much so.”
“Because of the visions?” she asked, trying not to blush.
His smile grew as he picked up his own fork. “I was smitten before the visions. The visions just gave me hope that you might one day be smitten, too.”
And damned if her heart didn’t give a little jump in her chest. “Don’t read my thoughts!”
He chuckled. “I won’t. I’m afraid if I do, I’ll find you trying to think of a diplomatic way to end our date early.”
Better that than him finding her mentally reviewing the visions of them making love.
“You’re blushing,” he said with a wince. “Did I guess right? Are you wanting to end our date?”
“No. I was just…” She shook her head with a smile. “Having those visions about you was already weird. Your knowing about them just makes it…”
“Even weirder?” he suggested.
“Yes.”
“You’ve never had erotic visions before?”
“No. Not even about the men I slept with.”
He winked. “Perhaps they simply weren’t very talented in bed.”
Laughing, she lowered her eyes to her plate and nudged the food around with her fork. “I don’t know.” How to explain it without scaring him off? “It almost feels like…”
“Your gift is telling you we’re meant to be together?”