

He threw me a smile that doubled as a challenge of some sort. Maybe he didn’t think I could grasp what he was trying to explain. “I shall try a new way to describe,” he said, rubbing the blond stubble on his chin. “Consider me now, the subject, looking at an object of beauty.” I felt heat rise up my neck as he held hard with his eyes. “That’s the first level of experience, that we are physical beings, experiencing each other as separate. Subject, object. See?”
“Go on. This had better matter.”
Giovanni stepped closer, his silver aura reaching beyond his sculpted edges, expanding and contracting with each breath. My pulse skipped, my aura beating in unison with his. “You and I, Cora, we see another level of reality. We see the spiritual essence of people, their feelings rippling through their energy field like watercolors, staining their auras with emotion.”
True. Beautiful. He took another sure step toward me. The look in his eyes made me breathe faster. I wanted to kick my aura’s ass for being so in sync with his.
“I can see your emotion right now. I’m causing you to feel nervous and”—his aura flared and his voice coaxed—“a bit excited?”
I blushed and looked away. “You are not.”
“Science already has proved that there are other levels of reality that people cannot see with the naked eye, not even you and me. With the help of microscopes, we can look closer and see that we are billions of cells vibrating at extreme speeds. Molecules, atoms. Beneath what appears to be two separate beings are really clusters of energy dancing together in this space.”
He stepped even closer now, and I tried to account for my rapid heart rate and dropping stomach. “And the truth is,” he said softly, standing so close I could feel the caress of his aura brush my skin, “molecularly, there is no separation at all between us. My energy field is experiencing and appreciating your energy field, and since our energy comes from the same infinite source, we must be one.”
We stood a breath apart, auras and cells and molecules, or whatever, dancing and swirling. My heart hammered with the energy of it, with the fascinating and bewildering truth of what I could see and feel.
Giovanni’s nostrils flared as his gaze met mine for a few beats, roamed over my face, then fell to my lips, lingering too long there. My body was a storm of confusion. Feelings rose up in me that felt forbidden. My arms tingled. My stomach fluttered. My lips pulsed with want, and I became acutely aware of the tickle of each breath that passed over them.
I had to remind myself that this was our Scintilla energy together. This was no different from what I’d done to Finn. Giovanni and I had no choice but to feel charged around each other, right?


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