CHAPTER TWELVE
Simone was still trying to get her bearings as she moved back to her bedroom, but it was hard. Everything seemed so amplified now. Every noise pierced her head. The lights were incredibly bright, and she could hear Xypher's heartbeat competing with hers. It was all very disconcerting.
Xypher was by her side, and she was holding on to him. She needed his strong arm to steady herself. But the smell of his skin was haunting. It also made her hungry for a taste of him in a way she'd never wanted a man before. It was almost like there was another part of herself. One that was braver, more seductive...
More hungry.
"Simone!"
She looked up as Jesse came running into the room through the wall.
"You're up! You're up!" He ran at her like an exuberant puppy.
In the past when he did that, he'd run right through her. Today, he slammed into her so hard, she stumbled.
"What the . . . ?"
Xypher gave her a look that was half amused, half evil. "Bonus round for your new powers. Now you can bitch-slap him when he gets on your nerves."
"I can touch Jesse?" She breathed the words, trying to fully understand them.
Turning, she met Jesse's shocked gaze. In all these years, they'd never been able to touch. Her hand trembling she lifted it to place her fingers against his cold cheek.
It was solid.
Jesse was real to her. She could touch him. . .
Tears welled in his eyes as he laid his hand over hers. Gasping as her own emotions overwhelmed her, Simone pulled him into her arms and held him close. "I can touch you!"
Xypher crossed his anus over his chest as emotion pierced his heart like a knife. He had no reason to be jealous of a punk kid ghost and yet the way she held onto him. . .
He wanted to rip Jesse's head off.
"I wish I could have held you like this when you were little," Jesse breathed. "All those times you cried, all I could do was watch and try to cheer you up by making faces."
"I know, Jesse. I know."
Xypher hated to admit it, but it was actually touching the way they embraced each other, and he realized that the jealousy he felt wasn't because another man was holding Simone. It was the love the two of them had for each other.
They were a family.
Through thick and thin. No matter what, these two had stood by each other and would do so for eternity. There would never be betrayal. No treachery. They only wanted to love and help one another.
No one had ever loved him like that. And they never would.
Not once had he been touched by a loving hand. Suddenly, he felt like an intruder. Worse, he didn't feel worthy to witness something this pristine.
Aching inside, he turned away and headed for the kitchen.
Simone felt the air stirring. She looked past Jesse to see Xypher leaving the room. There was an aura of such sadness around him that it made her hurt for him. She pulled back from Jesse.
"Is something wrong?" Jesse asked.
"I'm not sure." She let go of his hand to follow Xypher and see what had happened.
"Xypher?"
He paused by the counter to look at her. His handsome Features were stoic, but she could feel His turmoil inside.
"Are you all right?"
He nodded. "Fine. I just didn't want to watch the two of you slobbering all over each other. It was ruining my appetite."
If only she believed that. Now she understood what he'd meant earlier about her powers. Such incongruity between what she felt and saw was extremely disconcerting.
She moved closer to him. "Why are you hurting inside?"
"I'm not hurt, I'm hungry. You really should learn to tell the difference." He indicated the fridge over his shoulder with his thumb. "Isn't it lunchtime?"
She shook her head as she realized he was changing the subject. Something had made him uncomfortable, and rather than deal with it, he wanted food. Fine, she could cope with that. But she wasn't fooled by his actions.
"I have some tuna salad left. We could make sandwiches." "That'll work."
Simone pulled out the bread. "Why don't you grab the tub out of the fridge for me? It's in the clear container with the white lid."
Jesse joined them while she counted out the slices of bread. "Did you know Gloria was studying to become a psychologist?"
Simone smiled. "Nope, how would I know that?"
"True, you've been off doing stuff with Xypher . . . getting turned into a demon and all. Gloria's actually a really neat person once she quits mocking my music."
Simone was bemused by his sudden change of heart toward Gloria. "I mock your music, too, Jesse."
"Yeah, but you'll also dance to it with me." He struck a Michael Jackson pose. '"Just beat it, beat it, beat it.'" Without flunking, he bumped into her.
"Jesse!" she said playfully, "I'm trying to make lunch."
"All right, but later, 'we gonna wake me up before you go go' and 'walk like an Egyptian.' "
Simone groaned and smiled at the same time.
Jesse blew her a kiss, "Now I'm off to see my woman." He drifted to the back of the house.
Simone laughed at him, especially since Gloria had now become his 'woman.' "Jesse," she said playfully. "You're not old chough to date, boy!"
"I'm older than you. And at least I'm not dating a cradle robber who outdates me by countless centuries." The disembodied voice echoed in the kitchen.
"But remember that now I can smack your head ..."
"Point taken, now leave me alone. We're comparing ectoplasm."
She didn't want to touch that one with a thirty-foot cattle prod. Shaking her head, she went back to making sandwiches.
Xypher handed her the tuna salad. "What's it like?"
"What?"
"To have someone who knows you that well? Someone you can tease around with and share inside jokes. I've seen people do it in dreams, but newer up close before. There's a warmth inside you whenever Jesse's around. Even when he annoys you, it pleases you on another level."
Simone paused to look up at him. Poor Xypher, to have no idea what friendship meant. "It's good. There's a lot to be said for having people around you who aren't faying to tear you down. People who know how to laugh and who aren't jealous. Unfortunately, those relationships are sometimes hard to find."