average human’s Reviews > Visions > Status Update

I want to name whatever it is besides calling it ‘something,’ yet there isn’t enough I understand yet to do so.
Several moments pass, and nothing stirs besides the restless visions. Satisfied I won’t pass out and hurt myself, I push up to my feet just as a knock sounds on the door.
I already know who it is before I answer. It’s as though my soul can feel him, and that terrifies me just a little. Saliva burns in my mouth at just the thought of liking someone so much. I swallow down my fear.
My hand shakes as I swing the door open to a concerned Greyson. Leaning casually against the door, I give him a teasing smile. “Hello there. Are you to be my champion for the day?”
“Champion?” Greyson braces himself against the doorframe, his simple cotton shirt stretching as he moves, drawing my eyes to his muscles that lie beneath the fabric. He’s far too distracting, and he makes it hard for me to focus on his face, and it is such a lovely face at that.
His signature scent, the lingering scent of smoke, wafts to me, flooding my body with desire. I swear that smell is a pheromone.
“I assume you are here to be my noble steed.” I realize, too late, the word vomit that spilled from my lips.
I can’t take it back now, even though I just asked if I could ride him. Besides, I won’t lie, I want to ride him.
His eyes widen a fraction before he swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the movement. “Well—”
“Do you have a saddle?” I cut him off as I reach for his belt loop and tug him closer.
The blush that works its way up his neck to his cheeks gives me a pleasant buzz beneath my skin. I should stop teasing him, except he reacts to my every word and touch. It’s just the distraction I need.
“Vanessa,” Greyson groans before he blinks his eyes closed and expels a long, drawn out breath. “Go out with me.”
This is so freaking adorable. “No to the saddle then. Noted.”
“Nes.” He tips his head back, cursing my name.
All it does is make me wonder if he makes that same sound when he—
“Dinner. Let me take you to dinner,” he forces out. “We can go to Sedona, spend the day there, and come back. Or I can get a hotel.” Another blush makes his cheeks damn near crimson, and I almost regret messing with him.
“In my Mustang…” I bite my bottom lip because that was such a perfect opening, and I nailed it like a tack, yet I have never ridden a horse in my life.
“Why do you do this to me?” His tortured expression has me placing a hand on his chest where his heart beats frantically.
“Galloping…” I breathe with the teensiest little moan.
“Fuck it.” His lips crash against mine, stealing anything more I have to say.
Surprise catches me for a mere moment as I stand frozen in place. After all the months of toeing this line of shameless flirting, horse references broke his restraint. Greyson kisses me like a starved man, nipping and devouring my lips with each brush of his own.
“Kiss me back.” His calloused hands splay across my ass as he hauls me up and against a wall.
“I found your line.” I nip at his mouth and run my tongue along the seam of his lips before I cave and give him what he wants. Plush lips mold to my own, and I climb higher up his body, trying to get as close as possible.
My tongue darts between his lips, licking him, tasting him, until his spears into my mouth with a lazy caress. One hand moves up my body, dragging along the rough fabric of my tank, until his fingers rest against the back of my head, tilting me just enough for him to control the kiss.
And control it he does, with a masterful mouth that has me panting. Slowing down, he consumes me with a careful exploration that has me moaning into the kiss. My body rolls as heat spreads through my veins, starting behind my sternum and extending to the tips of my toes before racing back up to my fingers.
Another roll presses his erection against my core, stealing a whimper from me.
Instead of doing what I want to do, I pull away, untangling our tongues and thumping my head against the wall behind me. My heart races as lust pulses through my body like the sweetest poison.
I try to tell myself this is all this would be, but as Greyson rests his head in the crook of my neck, pressing little fluttering kisses against my skin, I know I’m only fooling myself.
“Carry me to work?” I break the silence as my eyes track the fan languidly swirling in the apartment.
“I’ve wanted nothing more than to kiss you from the moment I met you.” His breath teases over my flushed skin.
I knew this. Even so, it’s like ice to my libido. Lust is a heady pull, and I am not immune. Greyson doesn’t know me. He doesn’t know the secrets that live in my soul, and I don’t know his. We are nothing more than glorified acquaintances.
“Don’t do that.” His icy eyes peer down at me, hurt flashing across his face as though he can read the turmoil swirling within me.
So I do what I never do with a guy. “Tell me something real.”
Those muscular arms of his carry me to my futon where he sits, the door still open to the world outside. Yet in here, it’s just us wrapped up in a bubble.
For a long moment, he just stares at me with an intensity I’ve never felt before. Needing to do something, I thread my fingers through his short strawberry blond hair, where the pads memorize every little divot and bump on his head.
“I don’t know who I am,” he confesses, just barely above a whisper.
“How?” I ask, when I really want to say that’s impossible.
“I showed up here five years ago. I woke up standing before the sign to the town.” A shiver works its way through me as his voice turns haunted. My fingers pause their slow exploration in his hair, and my heart skips a beat as he begins a tale about his past. It makes him far more real than he has ever been to me before this moment. “I don’t know how old I am or my actual name. I don’t know if I have a family or a history, or even if someone misses me.”
“Greyson…” My heart stutters, and a very, very bad idea worms its way into my head. I could figure all of this out in a mere moment.
“That’s just it. I don’t know if that’s even my real name.” A halfhearted smile lifts his pouty lips as I sit in his lap, holding my breath. He’s trying to mask the hurt I can see welling up inside him, and I want to grasp onto that real part of him and hold on as tight as I can. “I had no wallet, just a gray shirt and jeans. And…” He shakes his head, rethinking his words before his gaze darts to the coffee table.
That’s why his name is Greyson, it doesn’t take a genius to put those two things together. “I’m sorry.” I truly am.
“I’ve made my peace with it, Little Dragon.” His hands roam up my body and capture my face.
“Little Dragon?” I question. Tilting my head, I press a small kiss to the center of his palm.
“Yeah, Little Dragon.” He shrugs with a smile. “You are the heat during sunrise, a promise to the night that you will always light the darkest of paths. You are strong, courageous, and determined.” The mine goes unspoken, but I feel it in his words.
I hum at his description, feeling like none of those things.
He continues back to the conversation. “I don’t want to know who I was, I want to move on. I want to pave a life for myself that feels right, and here feels right. You feel right,” he says almost reverently.
“But…” I begin, unsure how to continue. “How can you move on if you don’t know where you come from? Greyson, you could have someone missing you, loving you, and hoping that your heart still beats.” I press my palm over his heart once more, feeling that frantic beat.
Swallowing, he looks at me with pain in his eyes. “You are forgetting something vital, Vanessa.”
“I rarely do.”
Full of sadness and regret, his smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “Eternal Hollows is where people go to disappear.”
I open and close my mouth, but I can’t argue his statement, because that is exactly what I did. I came here to run away from the visions that plagued my waking and resting life.
“How do I know that what’s out there isn’t something or someone I want to stay hidden from?” He tugs me close, his lips ghosting over mine with an electric tingle. “I may not be able to feel the magic of Eternal Hollows, but I know it exists, and something deep inside me says I might just need that protection.” He captures my lips for a kiss. It’s far too short but full of promise. If I want it.
“You’re right,” I mumble, not sure I am willing to agree with his assessment, but I do in the end because this is his life. His choice.
“So tell me, Little Dragon, what is it you are hiding from?” His play for a tête-à-tête leaves me cold. One secret given for another.
His words hurt me, because I can’t tell him why I ran. I cannot give him the same respectful truth he gave me. If I do, he will know that something sinister lives inside me, and I don’t think I can give Greyson partial truths.
His soul is far too good for that. This man, whoever he is, deserves far better than I can ever give him. He may not know who he is, but I see him. I see the kindness in his eyes, the way he watches my movements. He makes sure I eat and that I get home safe. His gentle nature reaches for me, and I can’t tell if it’s to heal me or keep me close and safe. What if I don’t need to be healed?
I don’t answer him, instead I climb off his lap and reach for his hand. It’s a small olive branch for my evasiveness. I may not be able to give him my secret, but I can answer his earlier question.
“I like you, Greyson.” I haul him up, allowing his chest to become flush with mine. He isn’t as tall as Tate, and maybe only a handful of inches taller than me, yet it makes him the perfect height where I don’t have to stretch too much to kiss the corner of his mouth. “Yes.”
“Yes, what?” He looks down at me, suspicion glinting in his eyes. I blame my riding innuendos.
“I’ll go out with you to Sedona on that date.” Biting my lip, I give him a sassy wink. “I think I’m ready to get to know you.”
Besides, outside of town, I can use my gift and figure out who he really is. It’s just a matter of whether I’ll tell him or not, and if I look into his past, will it be a betrayal of our budding trust?

13%

“How do you feel?” His deep voice warms me up with his attention. I won’t admit it, but I enjoy his worry for me. It gives me that sense of home I’m missing, of my moms, my dad, and the way they doted over me.
“Better.” I almost mean it too.
Tate glances at the diner, wearing a frown on his rugged face. There is something about him that screams familiar, but I just can’t quite place it. “You sure you want to work today?”
Warmth spreads in my chest. “Nowhere else I’d rather be.” I can lie so easily because there are multiple places I’d rather be.
He doesn’t buy it, causing me to flush with guilt, which never happens, but I don’t take it back, even as he scoffs and walks away.
“Come on, I’ll unlock the door for her highness.” Daisy pushes through. What she really means is she wants to divulge all the secrets she accumulated in the last twelve hours. Knowing her, it could be a lot.
“Tag team?” I say with purpose.
My words don’t even faze her as she retorts, “Double dipped.”
“Daisy!” Mark yells. I know he heard her, and with one glance over my shoulder, I see an almost hurt expression on his face.
Almost.
“Sweetheart.” She puts the key in the lock and pushes the door open before looking back. Unsure I want to hear what she has to say, I head inside, but I’m not fast enough. “I’m a nymph in the desert. It takes a hell of a lot of dick to keep my magic wells from drying out.”
Yep, didn’t want to hear that. Now I’m scarred for life. Shaking my head, I flip on all the lights and head toward the kitchen. Lingering scents of yesterday’s meals cause my stomach to cramp with hunger. If I’m lucky, there will be something easy to prep for breakfast.
Technically, Tate’s Diner doesn’t open until ten daily, which gives us more than ample time to make sure everything is good to go. The tasks are menial, thoughtless, and they allow me to move through the diner on autopilot as I fill the saltshakers, start the coffee, and gather cash for the drawers. It also makes my chest ache for the past.
I left everything I knew behind when I ran away. Granted, I knew this was coming and I never should have gotten attached to the life I began in Philadelphia. My moms put their heart and soul into helping me open up a little studio for yoga and meditation, a place where anyone could walk in and I would accept them.
I loved my little studio, with the scent of incense that filled the space and the red satin pillows to meditate on. The ambient lighting and the lullaby of the water feature Allen, my pseudo father, built me. Growing up with two moms, I never felt as though I missed out, not once. They smothered me with love. But when I met my best friend Sabina, her father was part of a package deal, and he filled something that wasn’t missing per se, but was something I saw others had and I wanted to experience for myself. My moms never felt threatened by him. Instead, they embraced him and also asked him on multiple occasions to fix the broken things around the house. Though I suspect that was more for me than them, because my mom is a badass in her own right.
I miss them, all three of them. I miss my yoga studio and even the doughnut shop around the corner.
“Hey, Daisy?” I yell from the back where I pull out the money from the safe.
“Pool noodle!” she shouts as she sashays into the office, a flush on her cheeks from her night of debauchery. I can’t feel her magic, I’m not built like that, but I can see that her night left her with a warm glow.
“Polo,” I reply, though she didn’t say Marco.
She leans against the door, wearing a leather miniskirt and a long-sleeved gentleman’s button-down. I bet it’s Tate’s. “What do you need, sugar tits?”
“Breakfast.” I pull out a stack of ones and fan my cheeks with it. The office has no window to the outside and is often the hottest room in here.
“You want me to head to the bakery, don’t you?” She crosses her arms and taps a foot.
“Yep.”
“Fine.”
She turns to leave, but I catch her before she goes. “Oh, and Daisy.” She pauses but doesn’t turn around. “Don’t think I don’t know what the schedule is. We pulled up to your walk of shame.” Tate and I were the only ones on the schedule. He owns the diner, so he’s always here anyway.
“I told you I double dipped,” she says without a hint of shame and saunters down the hall.
Shaking my head, I stand, but a rush of dizziness spikes through my body, causing me to fall right back down into my seat.
My head swims as saliva fills my mouth. What the hell? I can’t swallow it fast enough. My heart beats wildly in my chest, thumping out of control. The erratic rhythm causes me to cough. Whatever is happening, I can’t control it. Everything blurs too fast. This is all too fast.
Bathroom.
I swallow and swallow and swallow, refusing the bile that tries to work its way up my throat. I wobble to a standing position where I can lean against the desk. One foot then the other tries to push toward the doorway, but my vision tilts, and with it, my body.