Chasing Fate (Sentinel & Guide)

Chapter 22

[Didn't have time this weekend to edit but here is a new chapter anyway...]

Fate woke with a gasp. Sometime in her sleep she'd curled under Jack almost entirely, tossing the covers away. He was unperturbed, one arm tossed carelessly over her waist and the other supporting his head.

He did not cling when she carefully extracted herself to hole up in the bathroom, though she did not entertain the idea that he was still asleep. No, it would be hard to stay asleep after having a melded dream.

Dream melds were a common occurence in strongly bonded couples that had been together for years. It took decades for most couples to start havin dream melds. But here she was, on the second night of knowing this sentinel, having a dream meld.

She sat on the toilet and turned on the shower for show, it would buy her some time. Sentinel or not he had no idea how long a woman spent in the shower and though her morning ablutions were rather efficient, she'd risk it for a bit of privacy to think.

It seemed that Torres' read was right. They were not just bonded, they were melded! She was an extremely strong guide, and according to her google background check, he was an alpha prime sentinel. It made sense that they'd meld eventually, but on day two?! This was unheard of.

This was dangerous. He couldn't figure it out, or he'd have even more of a hold on her than before. But he was a sentinel, to him it would be a normal dream, if she didn't bring it up, he'd never know.

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Jack surreptitously took a deep breath when Fate opened the door to the shower. He'd been on his very best behavior and did about 100 push ups as he tried not to overhear her scrubbing and scraping and sighing and...suffice to say his own shower would be ice cold.

His mind felt the ping of her curiosity as she took note of him switching arms for his push ups for a set before she turned back to carefully packing away her toiletry bag.

Jack stood up and got lost for a moment staring. He told himself it was only a scan, but his eyes focused in on the bead of moisture clinging to the shell of her ear, the complex waves of tiny curls just behind it where her hairline drifted into a simple pair of french plaits. She stepped back out of his line of sight quickly, dropping him out of what would have normally ended in a zone.

Admittedly he could safely investigate her for hours without worry, but they didn't have the time and she still wasn't comfortable with his singular attention. Fate didn't make a fuss about it, which concerned him. Unlike their first interaction, she seemed dedicated to being as non-confrontational as possible. Even now she was looking at him warily, measuring whether he'd strike her for daring to move out of his scrutiny.

Jack put on a smile and radiated calm feelings though her current look really was giving him some very un-calm ideas.

She wore a pair of burgundy jeans that clung to her shapely legs and stopped underneath a plain black tank top that draped loosly over her ample chest. Her VERY ample chest that had been just under his arm for most of the night.

Yes, it'd need to be a very cold shower. Her face was freshly washed and he supposed she'd put on some moisturizer, her lips looked dewey, she'd not quite dried them after brushing her teeth. His eyes glanced over to her cheeks and saw they were darkening with a blush as her pretty brown eyes widened imperceptibly. He shifted uncomfortably and then realized that unlike her, he only had on a pair of ratty, thin sweatpants and one of his gym tanks.

She didn't need sentinel vision to see his current...condition.

All of the blood that had rushed south rushed to Jack's face as embarrassment flamed through their link. He raced to the bathroom, mortified.

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The biggest issue with being a bonded guide, Fate thought as they snuck into a nondescript black SUV behind the hotel, was that she felt Jack's emotions as if they were thoughts of her own. Yes, he was handsome, and well built, and big enough to toss her over his shoulder and his c-

Enough of that.

She shut her traitorous mind down mid-fantasy. The point was that she couldn't even be sure all of this attraction was really her own. He was projecting like a teenage boy who'd just figured out his libido, hyperfocusing on her lips and hair and for some reason the skin behind her ear where there was a tiny scar? She didn't even know about that until he spent the better part of his shower fantasizing about it. She didn't need sentinel hearing to know what he was up to.

To his credit, he did seem a bit ashamed of himself. Fate was particularly unperturbed by this. Newly bonded sentinels often had the inability to separate their sexual attraction from their guide attraction. It didn't matter if the sentinel was previously gay, straight or wherever else on the spectrum, for a while they'd only be able to focus on their guide. Many a marriage had been dissolved by a new sentinel in the mix.

Now science had somewhat figured it out, it was simply an extended imprinting period. He would cool off after his curiosity was sated. The mix of her amplified emotions within the usual order of his mind was probably wreaking havoc, making him think more of her than he would if they were both nulls. After all, he had a fan club full of beautiful women and men who would throw themselves into his bed at a wink.

What could he possibly see in an overweight recluse wih outdated fashion and an afro you could lose a phone in?