Make Me A Match (The Matchmaker) (24 page)

I remembered every detail of that night as if it had just
happened. But it hadn’t. Two months. Two bloody months had gone by without my
knowing, lost in a black void. Two months without protecting Emma, leaving her
here alone.

“You hungry?” she asked.

“I’m starving.”

Emma didn’t look me in the eyes, but focused on setting the
tray upon the side table, Lizzie helping her. The smell of roasted duck and
potatoes wafted through the room, making my stomach tighten with need. But I
barely cared about my hunger, no, I only cared about Emma. She was upset about
something; that was obvious.

I managed to settle in the chair next to the fireplace
without shaking too badly. “Wow, fancy.”

She released a soft laugh. “Lizzie has decided to become a
chef…this week.”

“And it’s delicious!” Lizzie said, showing absolutely no
humility.

“Yeah, if you like to feast on poor little ducks,” Emma
muttered.

Yes, there was definitely something different about her. She
seemed…softer, gentler as she lifted the silver dome on the tray and set it
aside. Her gaze rose, meeting mine, and in that moment my heart jumped. Two
months hadn’t dimmed my attraction. I wanted to reach out and brush that loose
lock behind her ear. To cup the back of her head and pull her down for a
completely thorough kiss.

“I’m so glad you’re better,” Lizzie said.

I forced my gaze from Emma to her sister. “Thanks, Liz.”

Unlike her sister, Lizzie had no issues showing her
affection and raced forward, throwing her arms around me. I patted her
awkwardly upon the back. I’d had so little affection in my life that I wasn’t
quite sure what to do with it.

“Liz, be careful with him.” Emma watched us nervously. Yes,
she cared, but I didn’t want her to think of me as some weak-kneed lad.

Lizzie pulled back, swiping at her eyes. “He’s fine, right?”

I gave her a reassuring nod.

Appeased, Emma’s younger sister was smiling again. “I should
go, I have dessert in the oven. You’re going to love it!”

With a swirl of skirts she rushed away, leaving Emma and me
alone. I might not remember the last two months, but I hungered for her as if I
hadn’t seen her in years. She shifted, standing only a few feet away, uneasy.
When she glanced at the door, I realized with a sinking heart that she actually
wanted to leave. My feelings for her had only grown, but maybe her feelings had
faded.

“Well, I should—”

“Emma,” I whispered, latching on to her hand before she
could get away.

She glanced first at my fingers wrapped around her wrist,
and then slowly lifted her gaze to me. “Yeah?”

“Why are you avoiding me?”

A telltale flush spread up her neck and into her cheeks.
“I’m not.”

I quirked a brow.

She tore her gaze from mine, focusing on the windows.
“Because I know you, Owen. I know you, and I know you’re going to try to do
something stupid and noble now that you don’t have any powers.”

My heart dropped. “You heard.”

She nodded. “Tell me,” she said, slowly returning her gaze
to me. “What are your plans?”

I didn’t respond. I felt off-balance, as if she’d just
crushed my manliness. The worry in her gaze quickly turned to anger. The woman
I knew was back. As annoyed as I was with her, I was glad to see the old Emma.

“What?” She rested her hands on her hips. “You’re going to
leave me? Run off so you won’t be a hindrance?”

I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling myself blush with
guilt. It had crossed my mind. Hell, I’d even discussed it with Seb. She’d
obviously been eavesdropping. And now she knew…she knew everything that I had
hoped to hide.

“Bull, Owen.” She surged toward me. “You aren’t leaving.”

Her reaction gave me hope. “Why?”

“You know why!”

I wasn’t going to let her leave without actually saying the
words. We’d gone too long tiptoeing around each other. “Why?”

She took in a deep, trembling breath. “I love you, okay?”

I grinned. I couldn’t help myself. And suddenly it didn’t
matter that I was crap, that I was nothing, a bloody shell of the man I’d been.
“Come here.”

She pulled away and crossed her arms over her chest. “No.”

“Emma.” I sighed, exasperated.

I thought she might deny me. Instead, she gave me a
reluctant grin and stepped closer. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I
reached out and latched on to her wrist, jerking her forward. She fell onto my
lap, close to me, exactly where she belonged.

“I was so worried about you,” she admitted.

“Kiss me.”

She frowned, trailing her fingers down my T-shirt. “Why do I
have to kiss you? Why can’t you kiss me?”

“I’m too weak.”

“Ha! Right. Like I’m—”

“Quiet.” I reached out, cupped the back of her head, and
drew her forward. And for the first time we kissed. Truly kissed. There was no
holding back. No fear of doing something wrong, of being caught. Two months
might have passed, but her lips were still soft, her body still warm.

“Emma.” I pulled back just enough to speak. “I love you
too.”

She looked into my eyes, the emotion evident and beautiful,
and full of hope. “You do, don’t you?” She smiled almost shyly, a smile I’d
never seen on her before. “I kind of suspected when you walked into a room full
of vampires like an idiot.”

I grinned. “Such sweet, kind words.”

She leaned forward and kissed me, a quick kiss that only
left me wanting more. “Thank you.” She slid her hands around my neck and rested
against my chest.

For the first time in months—hell, years—everything felt
right. Completely right. I wrapped my arms around her waist, holding her close.
“I would do it all over again.”

She sighed as if exasperated. “I know.”

The food lay forgotten upon the side table, but neither of
us cared about eating. “There is one good thing, you know, about not having my
powers.”

She tilted her head back. “Yeah?”

“We can be in a relationship now that I don’t work for the
Consulate.”

She pulled away and smiled. “Actually date out in the open?”

“Something like that.” I didn’t mention the fact that she
still had her matchmaking abilities, and because of that the Consulate wasn’t
about to let her go. They would be coming for her, and I had no doubt they
would find her eventually. Whether I had powers or not, I would be ready for
them.

She cupped the side of my face, looking serious again. “You
think you’d like to go outside and eat in the garden? Seb is dying to see you.
He’s missed you, you know.”

“Yes. I’d like that.”

She stood, helping me to my feet. “We’ve all missed you.”

I rested my hand on her lower back, needing to touch her,
while she took the tray of food in hand. Together we moved through the cottage.
I hadn’t been there since Clarice had died, but it looked almost exactly the
same. The woman would be proud of her niece and what Emma had managed to do on
her own.

Outside, Seb and Lizzie were sitting around an ornate iron
table, arguing about something, and looking oddly like lovers quarreling.
Seeing me they stopped, their argument forgotten.

“You look well,” Lizzie said, rushing forward and taking the
tray from Emma’s hands.

She and Seb went about getting my food ready while Emma
helped me sit in the peaceful garden.

“Are you well?” Seb asked, looking much too serious.

I smiled; I couldn’t help myself. Emma and I had escaped the
Consulate, escaped the Vampires, escaped death. “Yes. Very.”

Emma sat in the chair next to mine, her palm resting on my
knee. I slid my hand over hers, entwining our fingers and sharing a heated
glance while Lizzie and Seb’s cheerful chatter swam around us. I didn’t have my
job anymore. I didn’t have my powers. But I had something better…I had a
family, friends, a life.

I had Emma.

The End

Interested in more?
Check out the excerpt of Lori’s bestselling young adult series,
        

The Mind Readers!

The Mind Readers

Chapter 1

The man sitting across from me
at the café was thinking about murdering his wife.

He imagined stabbing her and
pretending like it was a robbery. Or perhaps, he thought, he’d take her hiking,
push her off a cliff and say it was an accident; that she’d slipped. I wanted
to tell him it wouldn’t work, that in those CSI shows on T.V. they always
suspected the husband first.

Instead, I huddled deep within
my down jacket, the diner booth pressing uncomfortably hard against my back. I
didn’t dare move for fear of drawing attention to myself. I didn’t want to know
his thoughts. I wished he’d keep them to himself. But I suppose he couldn’t
help it. The thoughts seeped from his mind like the fog currently drifting in
from the harbor.

Slowly, I slid him a glance out
of the corner of my eye. With his thinning brown hair combed neatly into place,
and his blue button-up shirt free of wrinkles, he looked like a normal suburban
dad. But if there was one thing I’d learned early on in life it was that
normalcy, as we thought of it, didn’t exist. It was amazing and frightening
what humans were capable of.

His pale blue eyes met mine. My
heart slammed frantically against my ribcage. I dropped my gaze, my long, dark
hair falling around my face like a curtain. He’d noticed me looking at him. He
was wondering if I was a virgin. He hoped I was.
Pervert
. Bile crawled up my throat. I wrapped my hands around my
cup of Chai tea, hoping the heat would warm my insides. It didn’t.

But the guy sitting at the table
next to me who’d been imagining killing his wife and was now imagining seducing
me wasn’t the problem. No, it was the guy sitting across from me, the man with
his bright orange hunting cap pulled low over his eyes, the guy waiting for the
right moment to rob the café… he was the one who worried me.

For a second I thought about
alerting the owner. Common sense and years of warning got the better of me and
I remained stubbornly silent. With a trembling hand, I latched onto the strap
of my bag, gripped my cup and slid from the booth.

My conscience screamed at me to
return, to help, say
something
. But
those years of warning overtook any soft feelings. Shifting my bag strap to my
shoulder, I rushed from the café before guilt got the better of me. Outside the
air was crisp, cool. So normal. It was early fall and the bees were swarming an
overflowing trashcan. Dumping my cup, careful to avoid the stinging insects, I
pulled my hood atop my head and stuffed my hands into the soft, fleece-lined
pockets on my jacket, trying to get warm…always trying.

A black truck zoomed by, sending
fall colored leaves of orange, red and yellow into the air. For one brief
moment, as the leaves settled around me, I felt like I was in the safety of a
snow globe. But safety was an illusion. We were never safe. Not the people in
the café. Not the few pedestrians strolling down the sidewalks. And certainly
not me.

A deep shout resounded from
inside the café, a muffled demand. I shouldn’t have been surprised, still my
heart made a mad leap for my throat. People screamed, the sound noticeable even
through the thick glass windows. I wouldn’t turn back.

I stepped off the curb, glanced
left, then right and darted across the street. I had five minutes to make it
home in time and couldn’t be late…
again
or Grandma would worry. I focused on the long road that led to our small Cape
Cod style cottage, focused on the crunch of brittle leaves under my sneakers,
focused on breathing. I would not react to the scene around me. I couldn’t. As
Grandma repeatedly warned, my very life depended on silence.

Boom!

A sudden blast rang through the
air, vibrating the glass windows. A flock of black starlings burst from the
maples lining the road. I flinched, sucking in a sharp breath of cold air and
resisted the urge to drop to the cracked sidewalk. Surprise faded quickly and
guilt churned deep within my gut. A sickening shame that was almost unbearable.
So much regret. Angry at myself, I shoved the feeling aside. Emotions would
only weaken me.

A woman with gray hair who was
walking her poodle next to me froze, her gaze pinned to the café. “My God, I
think they’re being robbed!”

I didn’t respond but continued
down the sidewalk, forced my feet forward as she fumbled with her cell phone.

Taking in a deep breath, I
slipped the ear buds of my iPod into my ears. Home. I had to make it home
before I was late, before nerves got the better of me and I was sick all over
the sidewalk. Or worse, before I turned and raced back to the scene.

But even as I attempted to
ignore the guilt thrumming in time with the music, anxiety clawed its way into
my lungs, making it hard to breathe. I knew, deep down, I could have stopped
it. If only I wasn’t a coward. If only….

Sometimes it really sucked to be
able to read minds.

The Mind
Readers Series:

The
Mind Readers, book 1 (Ebook version is free!)

The
Mind Thieves, book 2: Available now!

The Mind Games,
book 3: Available now!

The Mind Keepers,
a Novella

About Lori Brighton

Lori
has a degree in Anthropology and worked as a museum curator. Deciding the
people in her imagination were slightly more exciting than the dead things in a
museum basement, she set out to become an author. Lori writes Romance for
adults, as well as Young Adult books for teens and adults.

To find out more about Lori visit her at:
www.LoriBrighton.com