Mind Tricks Read Online Free PDF Page A

Jake’s memories
to see what had happened last night, and then she’d massage his energy flow to
let his memories come back to him naturally.
    Well, she’d let his memories come
back to him naturally if she saw that he hadn’t killed Ginny. If he had, she’d pretend to do the energy healing, tell him it
hadn’t worked, and then get him the hell out of her house.
    When she pushed open the door to
the smaller of the two guest rooms, Jake chortled. His eyes crinkled in a way
that made her knees go weak even as indignation straightened her spine.
    “What?” she demanded. Didn’t he
remember that she was doing him a favor? He should act nice and appreciative,
not laugh at her.
    “This.” He gestured at the bare
walls. “You’re a worse decorator than I am. And I didn’t think that was
possible.”
    “I’m not a bad decorator. It’s, um,
minimalist.” She never went into these rooms, and she almost never had guests.
So what was the point of decorating?
    “Uh-huh. My mom finally insisted on
decorating the guest room I have. It now has kitten posters from Wal-Mart on
the walls.”
    She couldn’t contain a snicker.
“Kittens? You’re kidding.”
    “Nope.” He grinned. “She’s hoping
to shame me into decorating the room myself. But I’ve turned the tables on her
by leaving the posters up. Now she’s too embarrassed to even go into the room.”
    “The kitten posters must go over
well with your dates.” Yikes, could she be more obvious?
    Shrugging, he said, “Woodhaven
takes up lots of my time.”
    So what did that mean? That he
didn’t have dates? If so, the local girls were being deprived.
    Assuming, of course, that he wasn’t
a murderer. And more and more, she was assuming that he wasn’t.
    Brutus poked his head around the
door and gave a short woof . “Sit,”
she told him. Amazingly, he did.
    “So, do I lie down on my front or
my back?” Jake asked.
    Ha, like she knew what she was
doing. “On your front.”
    He sat down on the bed, took off
his shoes, and lay down on his stomach. “Is this right?” he asked, his voice
muffled.
      “Sure.” She stared down at his long body
stretched out on her guest bed. “Relax, please.” The instructions were as much
for her as for him. Was her pulse jumping around like exploding popcorn because
she was afraid of being here with him? Or was it because almost two years
without touching a handsome, heterosexual man was a long, lonely time.
    “I’ve been awake for thirty-six
hours. Believe me, right now I’m relaxed.”
    At least someone here was.
“Great.   I’m going to touch you, okay?”
    “Where?”
    “Huh?”
    “Where are you going to touch me?”
    The nape of his neck was just too
tempting. His dark hair curled against smooth golden skin. And it was near his
brain, which would be better for reading his thoughts, right? She smothered a
nervous giggle. Sadly, she didn’t think she could convince him that grabbing
his fine butt was the way she usually read minds.
    Wait—she wasn’t telling him that.
He thought that she was doing energy work on him.
    “Your neck,” she said. “Just
lightly. It’s like the spigot from which all your energy flows.”
    “Go for it,” he said, and closed
his eyes.
    His memories of last night. That’s
all she wanted. Stretching her arm out, she clasped the back of his neck,
resting the heel of her hand just above the knob at the top of his spine.
    Last night was a black cave, deep
and silent.
    She pushed forward a bit, and the
darkness surged around her like warm tar, nearly cutting her off. With a gasp,
she mentally pulled back into the bright river of his current thoughts.
Curiosity and, yes, skepticism danced around her like schools of fish. But one
thought rang clear: I’d consider dating
her—
    A cloud of delight seemed to lift
her off her feet.
    —if
she wasn’t a wacko.
    Emma bared her teeth at the back of
his head as she slammed down to earth. Wacko?
    She slid her hand up and threaded
her