Reaching the particular rock he wanted, Ryder set to work moving it. It was a heavy rock, from the way he grunted while shoving it aside, his muscles flexing under his black T-shirt in a very distracting manner, but once it was gone, there was a hidden control panel embedded in the rock wall.
What... Wasn’t that surprising?
He punched in a code on the sleek, black, high-tech keypad, after which he laid his thumb against a small scanner. Very Mission Impossible.
Then, much to my amazement, one wall of rock—which turned out to be a well-constructed rock facade—opened noiselessly, as though on a thick, well-oiled metal hinge. If I’d had to guess, I would have said it measured around six feet tall and three feet wide. Its edges were camouflaged by the actual rock crevices surrounding it. I was speechless, which I had to admit was rare for me.
What was behind door number one? The mouth of a deeper, darker cave was revealed. Ryder ducked into it briefly with his flashlight, taking a quick look around. All must have been well, because he went and moved the boulder back into place to hide the control panel once again.
“Okay. We’re ready. I need to push the bike in.” Ryder had rejoined me. Again, there was a pause in his actions. Concern? Uncertainty? I couldn’t tell. What I did note was that the longer we stood out there, the more tense he seemed to become—as evidenced by the clenching of his jaw and the deepening crease between his eyebrows—for reasons unknown.
“Are you going to push the bike in?” I asked hesitantly.
There was a hint of vulnerability to his face that quieted my smart-ass self. He stared down at the ground a moment longer. Stranger and stranger. A mystery presented itself. Did he not want me to see the clubhouse? Were there girly mags on the walls? Porn strewn about? Was I about to learn more about Ryder than he was comfortable with?
Before I could ask, he turned away.
“What the hell am I doing?” I thought I heard him mutter as he grabbed the handlebars on the bike.
I cocked my head, considering his behavior, as I observed him. It was kind of funny. The more reluctant he seemed about showing me around his man cave, the more excited I was to go in. What secrets was he hiding? What in the world could be making him so uncomfortable?
It took a few moments to push the bike through the cave opening, since he had to physically muscle the machine over a few of the outward-jutting rock groupings. Then he was striding purposefully back to me, slightly out of breath. The uncertainty was gone, replaced by a set expression. Clearly, he was determined to see this through.
“Grab on.”
I arched an inquisitive eyebrow. “Are you going to carry me in?”
“Yeah. I don’t want you to trip in those shoes,” he said, nodding briefly toward my feet. “The ground’s uneven.”
He picked me up in his strong arms, and in the spirit of being helpful, I looped mine around his neck, trying to make it easier on him. In no way was I trying to enjoy more of his personal scent by resting my head near his neck and taking a deep breath. Absolutely not. Okay. Maybe that was the case a little bit.
“You distract me, lin’de,” he murmured. He gave me a gentle squeeze, reminding me that he was listening.
“It’s only fair,” I grumbled. Recognizing that mental privacy was oftentimes a good thing, I built up my elaborate mental brick wall. That way I could ogle him to my heart’s content without feeling like I had to censor my thoughts. It was hard getting used to this mind-reading stuff. Heat crept up my neck as I did a quick inventory of my most recent thoughts, wondering if I’d revealed anything I shouldn’t have.
Then I had to pay attention to what he was doing, because that same jumping and balancing on rocks he’d done before, he was doing again, now holding me. I had nothing to worry about. We got to the cave opening without even a bobble. Very impressive. Trying not to bang me into the doorway of the cave, he turned sideways. Delicately, he maneuvered me until we were in a small cavern that was only dimly visible in the light coming through the opening of the cave.
“I’m going to set you down here.” He slowly lowered me, making sure I was secure before stepping away. The air was cooler, damp.
“How much does someone have to try to listen, and how much is just free flow if someone isn’t using mental barriers?” I asked.
“Depends on different variables. Most of the time, you’ll encounter white noise in someone’s mind, a mix of thoughts and feelings happening simultaneously. Picking through them is exhausting and time-consuming if you’re looking for specific information, but if a person is focused on one thought, it often jumps out clearly.”
“Why can I hear your thoughts? Why can I hear anyone’s thoughts?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe being near me is giving you enough exposure.”
With his hand outstretched, I realized he wanted the small black box he’d given me when we arrived and handed it over. While he fooled around at another keypad of sorts deeper in the cave, I thought about what he was saying.
So I wasn’t going nuts. It seemed as though I really could hear thoughts. I’d been edging my way toward believing but hadn’t wanted to fully commit to the idea. Hearing Ryder confirm the ability as something commonplace was giving me confidence. This was definitely going to require some exploration. That could be fun.
“Ryder Langston.” Ryder said his name in the darkness just ahead of me, along with a series of numbers. He seemed to be talking into another keypad in the wall, and that prompted the faux-rock panel we had just entered through to move back into place, cutting off the outside light completely. I’d never experienced such dark darkness before—and yes, hearing myself say this even in my own mind sounded moronic, but there you have it. There was absolutely no source of light anywhere. I couldn’t see my hand in front of me.
“Uh...Ryder? What are we doing?” I asked.
“We have high levels of security here.” His voice came out of the darkness, and I almost jumped when I felt his hand touch my waist.
Vibrant blue light appeared in the rock a foot away. It formed a two-foot-thick archway between us and the next room in the cavern. It was powerful. It was beautiful. It was otherworldly and mesmerizing. I was enchanted. It lit up the interior of the cavern.
Ryder ran his hands over my shoulders, his eyes focused intently on my face. There was a thrum of energy coming from him that I could almost touch. It reminded me of the feeling of static, only multiplied.
“Are you ready to blow your mind?”
“Sure?” I answered with a question, because now I was getting nervous again. We were in the dark, in a cave, in the middle of nowhere, and I had just been attacked. Instead of immediately calling the police, I had agreed to go with Ryder.
I shook my head. This was either going to be a really good or really bad idea. My gut instinct was telling me to go with it, and it hadn’t steered me wrong yet. This was not logical, but I felt as though I was a part of whatever was happening in some weird, fateful, fatalistic way.
“Trust me,” he repeated quietly, his strong, deep voice caressing me intimately in the vibrant blue light, his eyes making dark promises. I forgot to breathe for a moment and felt my heart pounding fiercely.
Catching my breath, I answered, “I do.”
“I’ve never brought anyone with me before,” he explained with a fierce, searching look.
A flare of satisfaction pulsed as I mentally committed myself to whatever was about to happen.
“It’s going to feel strange.”
“Strange?”
“Hold on to me. Tightly,” he warned roughly. “Don’t let go, no matter what, until I tell you to.”
“You’re making me nervous.” I quirked a lip up, but found myself losing the expression immediately.