THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

have you survived to this age without allowing any physical contact?”
    She hadn’t expected that second question.
    No one had cared that she hadn’t been embraced in years, not after she’d convinced her father and the staffs at multiple schools that she had very sensitive skin and touching caused her actual pain. It hadn’t taken long for word to get around that she was the weird kid to be avoided. She’d never so much as held hands with a boy much less kissed one.
    If a brief touch opened the path to another person’s mind, the idea of an intimate contact such as kissing terrified her.
    She didn’t want inside anyone else’s mind again.
    She never wanted to cause another death.
    Jaxxson waited quietly for her answer, showing patience she hadn’t thought he possessed when she’d first followed him from the isolation unit. People never believed the truth. So she gave him the same patent answer she handed to everyone who asked about her phobia.
    “No big deal. My skin is sensitive so I don’t like to be manhandled. That’s it.”  With her reaction to the vine, that should be an easy sale this time.
    “Why are you lying?”
    How had he known that? “Are you a mind reader?”
    He studied her with narrowed eyes. “Mind reader ?”  Then he stared straight ahead, thinking. “An outdated term, but that would make sense.”
    Awestruck at what he was admitting, she whispered, “You did hear my thoughts didn’t you?”
    “No. That would be inappropriate to enter your mind without an invitation.”  His shoulders lifted in dismissal. “It was simple to see that you lied. I used my empathic ability to read the changes in your body.”
    Good grief. Someone weirder than me .
    He reminded her, “You still haven’t answered my question. Why did you lie when you are clearly disturbed by being touched? I’ll grant that you did have a reaction to the vine, but I don’t believe that’s the reason you avoid contact.” 
    Something he’d said a moment ago struck her. “Did you say it would be inappropriate to enter a mind uninvited?”
    “Yes.”
    “So you can enter someone else’s mind if they invite you?”
    “Yes, of course. Why is that surprising? It’s a simple matter of training for some and bonding for others.”
    “So I’m not the only one,” she murmured to herself.
    “You try to hide this ability by not touching? Why?”  
    This had to be the most bizarre conversation she’d ever had. How could he act as though picking up thoughts was as natural as breathing? What would be the point in trying to lie again with someone like him? She admitted, “You’re right. I hear thoughts through touch, but I hate it.”
    She especially hated the day she’d heard her mother’s thoughts about sleeping with another man who wasn’t Gabby’s dad. Barely ten years old, Gabby had blurted out, “Why were you in bed with that man?”
    “What man?” her mom had stammered, squeezing Gabby’s hand harder.
    “The yellow-haired one. At the Four Seasons where we’ve had tea. The hotel.” 
    Her mother had backed up from her, demanding in a frightened voice, “How’d you know?”
    Gabby told the truth. “I saw it in your mind.” She raised their joined hands and looked at them, whispering, “I see things when I touch you.”
    That was the day her mother backed away from Gabby with a look of horror on her face. Her mom normally only drank at home, but she grabbed a bottle of liquor and jumped in her convertible Mercedes, squealing tires when she tore away from their home. Hours later, the police arrived to inform Gabby’s father that her mother had died in a single car collision. She’d been ejected when she lost control and the car rolled down an embankment.
    Gabby developed her skin phobia the day she killed her mother.
    “Did you hear me?” Jaxxson said, snapping his fingers in front of her face.
    “No. What?”
    “I asked why you listen to other people’s thoughts via touch if it bothers you? And to do so is wrong anyhow.”
    Her temper came back with a vengeance. “I hate to point out the obvious, but if I could prevent hearing them, don’t you think I would?”
    Jaxxson dropped his arms to his side, angling his head and frowning with exasperation. “Our children learn to shield their minds by the time they can write their names.”
    “You can do this, too?”
    “Of course.”
    Pushing herself up, she scooted back to sit up. To get out of a vulnerable position. Lying down