From Tonight Until Forever:
DESTINED
By
Sydney Somers
© copyright April 2007, Sydney Somers
Cover art by Dan Skinner, © copyright April 2007
New Concepts Publishing
Lake Park, GA 31636
www.newconceptspublishing.com
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author's imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.
Dedication:
To my husband. The hero of all my dreams ... past, present and future.
Prologue
Summer 1692
Elizabeth shivered against the dampness that seeped through her dress from the stones at her back and the hard earth beneath her. Only a hint of the warm night air drifted through the bars of the cell’s only window above her head, and it did nothing to counter the chill embedded in her bones. More than a dozen women were jammed in the small cell, leaving little room to sleep comfortably.
But who could sleep when the crying wouldn’t stop? They were frightened, all of them. Witch trials had started last month in Salem Village miles away, and already the hysteria had spread to their small town. The warm and friendly community where she’d lived all of her twenty-one years was foreign to her. People she had called friends, people she had treated under her grandmother’s guidance, now looked at her as though she might strike them dead if they met her gaze.
There had always been gossip--she lived too far outside the village, didn’t attend church often enough, helped strangers and travelers when they were sick and in need of a place to stay, remained unmarried. Until now, she had ignored all of it. Even the scandalized whispers of her involvement with the man made ill by the sun had not earned her such treatment.
But things had changed. Now the faces of the townspeople carried pity, despair, hate, and even fear. Few people in the town had dared acknowledge her as guards escorted her and the others to their prison. Neighbors, friends, most had crossed to the other side of the street to avoid them.
Elizabeth lifted her face to the silvery moonlight pouring through the bars. Had William returned? Did he know she’d been arrested?
Relieved her younger sister and grandmother had been spared this, Elizabeth studied the faces of the women closest to her. Some were asleep, others trembled with teary shudders, and still others stared into the darkness, worrying about their fate, their families. All of them cramped around her in the eight by eight cell were as innocent as she. But the town’s people insisted on blaming someone for the deaths of countless cattle and the mysterious illness of young Geoffrey Harkin. She, herself, along with her grandmother, had visited the boy. Following days of erratic behavior -- talking to himself in nonsensical sentences, drawing horrifying images, hurting himself -- he’d fallen into an inexplicable deep sleep. None of their attempts to rouse the boy were successful, hastening the spread of whispered rumors of demons and witchcraft throughout their otherwise peaceful community.
But it would pass. This madness could not continue. Someone would stop it. Someone would realize she and the rest of the women sharing her cell had no more to do with the cattle’s illness and Geoffrey’s strange behavior than the rising of the sun.
Elizabeth gripped the black pendant that dangled close to her heart and closed her eyes, searching deep within herself for some hint of what was to come. Never before had she felt so out of touch with her gift. Even the women around her, those she brushed against in passing, none of them gave off even a glimmer of their possible futures. Not a whisper slid through Elizabeth’s mind, leaving her puzzled and a little frightened. She had picked up on images from these same women whenever she visited their sick families and friends with her grandmother. She knew many sharing her cell had long lives still to come.
But why couldn’t she see those images, those futures now?
“Elizabeth,” Mary whispered, “William has come.”
Careful of the sleeping bodies curled into themselves for warmth, she made her way to the cell door. Five evenly spaced bars in the wooden door allowed her clear sight of him. Her throat squeezed and tears burned behind her eyes. She knew he would be able to see them even in the dark, and blinked them away as she reached a hand through the bars for him.
“You shouldn’t have come.” She meant it, but couldn’t keep her voice steady. Relief swam through her at the sight of his handsome face.
“What is happening? Have they hurt you?” Concern and anger flickered in the moonlight blue eyes she’d fallen in love with at first sight.
She forced a half smile to her lips. “I’m fine. My sister and grandmother? Are they still all right?”
“They are well. Scared. You grandmother sent Simon to track me down. I should never have left you.”
Elizabeth shook her head, hearing the blame in his voice. “There is nothing you could have done.”
“I’m getting you out of here.”
“No,” she said sharply, catching his hands before he gripped the door. “You cannot draw attention to yourself.”
“I will not leave you here,” he snapped. The tight lines around his eyes immediately softened. “I cannot leave you here.”
“Those who hunt you, are they close?”
“They do not matter.”
“If you free me tonight, with no arrangements, we will be much easier to follow, will we not?”
“Do you think I care about them? I want you away from here. Safe.”
She pushed away the lock of black hair forever falling across his eyes. “And I need you to be safe. This shall pass. Everyone is just scared. They will not hurt any of us.”
His eyes glowed eerily in the darkness. “I will not take that chance.”
“Please, William. Wait. Tomorrow I go before the council. They will release me, I’m certain of it.” The townspeople were concerned, frightened, but they surely would not hurt any of them. Not once they were reasoned with, made to see the women in this cell--their friends, mothers and sisters--could no sooner be involved in such matters than the town’s minister.
“And if they do not?”
Icy fear wrenched her stomach into hard knots. Keeping her voice deliberately even, she said, “Make arrangements. For my grandmother and sister, as well. They cannot stay here without me.”
He nodded and tightened his hand over hers.
An image slammed through Elizabeth. She tensed as the familiar spiky sensation curled down her spine and the vision unfolded in her mind.
William, but different, his clothes, his hair ... and beside him stood a woman. Her? No. But the resemblance ... remarkable. But it was not Elizabeth. It was someone else ... someone who loved William. He held the woman close, and the intensity of their feelings, their love for one another sliced through Elizabeth. She held fast to his hand, her only anchor under the onslaught of emotion, both those in her vision, and her own. She was going to lose him.
William frowned. “What is it?”
Elizabeth shook head, closing her eyes as the image faded. Her heart pounded against her ribs as she fought to drag a breath past the thickening lump in her throat. The crushing weight on her chest, the loss she felt for him, for her, for the future they did not have together, all of it....
No. It was wrong. It had to be.
Her forehead rested against the bars, her jaw tight, aching. Her visions were never wrong. She bit her lip until it throbbed, wishing they were wrong, wishing she wasn’t locked in this cell. The need to bury herself in William’s embrace and pretend she hadn’t seen it nearly choked her. Her fingers tightened around the bars and she dug deep inside to face the truth.
They weren’t meant to be together. She blinked furiously, determined to hold back the tears that desperately wanted to fall. One slipped down her cheek despite her efforts.
“Elizabeth?”
With the back of her hand she brushed it away. “I am fine, just worried about my grandmother.”
His brows scrunched together. “You would tell me if you saw something?” His tone dared her to lie to him.
Hearing the trace of fear in his voice he wasn’t able to mask, Elizabeth tried for another reassuring smile, but knew the attempt fell pitifully short. She didn’t know when they would be separated or how or why, only that nothing would alter the vision she saw. The images that flashed through her mind always came to pass. As a child she’d tried countless times to prevent what she saw, only to see fate accomplish its goals in another fashion.
He studied her closely. The fierce expression in his eyes should have frightened her. Instead she took comfort from it, from the love she had for him and he for her. She glanced down to where his fingers laced hers over the bars. If she told him of the vision, she knew he would not believe it, would do whatever he convinced himself needed to be done, to change it. Risk exposing himself and what he was to free her. And even if he succeeded, it would change nothing. They did not have a future together.
Another wave of anguish seared her heart. Tugging him closer, she touched William’s face. His unshaven jaw scraped her palm.
Hard blue eyes bored into hers. “Tell me.”
“Everything will be fine,” Elizabeth promised, but even as she spoke the words aloud she knew it would never be fine again.
William’s hand closed over hers. “I cannot lose you.”
“Some people are destined to find their true soul mates. You are one of those people, William.” Her voice trembled, and she pressed her lips together to force back her growing need for reassurance. Reassurance he couldn’t offer her.
His frown deepened. “Elizabeth, please. Did you see something?”
Elizabeth shook her head, her throat squeezing tight. When she trusted herself to speak, she whispered, “I love you. So much.”
He lifted her hand to his mouth, his voice rough with affection. “I love you, too.”
“Then go. I’ll be all right. There are worse places to spend the night than here.” Her attempt to lighten the mood did nothing to ease the fear building in her chest.
William’s eyes flashed. “Do not say such things, Elizabeth. They locked you in a cage.” A dark growl hovered beneath his words.
“And they will release me. All of us.” She said it to remind him others would witness his actions should he give in to the urge to tear the door from its hinges. An urge she read clearly in his eyes even as his hands clenched the bars.
“It will be all right,” she added, determined to make him believe her. “I’ll be fine.”
Elizabeth refused to let him hear the doubt she could not shake. She would not give him a reason to expose himself. If anything happened to him ... She would not see him harmed because of her.
“Go,” she whispered. “I’ll be home by the time the sun sets tomorrow.”
“And if you are not--”
“I will be. Now go.” She knew the longer he remained, the more likely he would ignore her wishes and try to free her.
William stared into her face and she felt the first hint of a real smile since she had been arrested. Why he still tried to push beyond the mental barrier that separated her thoughts from him, she did not know. He always had difficulty reading her. Even if she possessed the ability to let him into her mind, she would not. She knew he would refuse to leave her side if he picked up on the vision she had had moments ago.
William squeezed her hand, grudging resignation crossing his face as he moved away from the door. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
Tears thickened her throat, and she gripped the bars to keep from reaching for him. “I’ll see you soon.”
He nodded solemnly and disappeared into the shadows. Alone, she let the tears fall freely down her cheeks. She would see him soon. She would.
So why did dread tighten her chest, making it so hard to breathe?
Elizabeth shook her head and wove around the women asleep at her feet until she reached her spot against the wall. She closed her eyes, willing away her fear of never seeing him again, and focused on calling to mind his face, his smile. The memory of his laugh, the teasing weight of his mouth against hers, the feel of his strong arms wrapped tightly around her comforted her to sleep.
* * * *
William paced the length of the small cottage, willing the sun to set. Something was wrong, he felt it deep in his heart, and it terrified him. He had sent Simon into town to see about Elizabeth and update him hours ago. The necessary arrangements to leave tonight were made, should they not release her. And he suspected they would not. She would have returned home by now if they decreed her innocent of the ridiculous charges. Imbeciles. All of them. If any of them laid a finger on her....
The flowers on the table caught his eye again as he circled the table he had spent the last four hours pacing around. He had picked them for her the night he’d returned to find her gone. William traced the pale pink petals, picturing Elizabeth’s soft smile and playful brown eyes.
He should never have left, but hunters were close, so close he’d almost felt them breathing down his neck. They had tracked him without cause, but trying to explain that to them during their last encounter had proved useless. He hadn’t planned to remain in the sleepy village of Lake Falls at all when he had first arrived more than six months ago.
Then he had seen Elizabeth.
From her first smile he was lost. He had first thought his infatuation would pass, but found himself aching to be near her at the most unexpected moments. When she sat close to the firelight to read or when she hummed out of tune as she baked or washed dishes. Once he realized his feelings for her ran deep, he had feared she would cower from him, be afraid of what he was. What he could become. No one was more surprised than he when she welcomed him into her bed and her heart with no wish for more than what he could give her.
But he would give her everything.
When he got them away from here, they would be together. Always. He would somehow finally convince her to become like him, a decision she had refused to consider because of her sister and grandmother. The old woman was wise indeed, not believing his claim that the sun truly made him ill. She knew what he was, and despite that she’d welcomed him into her home.
The door crashed open. William recoiled from the fading sunlight and slammed his eyes shut to avoid the temporary blindness the sun could cause. Following the sound of the door shutting, William opened his eyes to find Simon bruised and bloody, his breath choppy.
“They took her. I tried to stop them. They ….”
“Who? Hunters?” How had they closed in on him so quickly?
Simon shook his head. “The townspeople. They tried her for witchcraft. Her and two others. They took her ….”
William didn’t listen to the rest. He fastened his cloak, and slid the hood into place.
“The sun has still enough power to burn you.”
He ignored Simon’s warning and ran for the barn so quickly he felt but a warming through the cloak. Memory guided his steps as his vision blurred but didn’t fade to blackness. The sun’s strength was waning with the approaching sunset. His horse already saddled, he mounted quickly. Head bent, he sent the horse tearing down the road, trusting the animal to get him to town. In minutes his greatest weakness would dip below the horizon. Desperate to reach Elizabeth, he urged the animal faster. He couldn’t lose her. Not today. Not ever. Elizabeth believed they were soul mates, meant to be together. Fate would not be so cruel as to take her from him.
He would get there in time. She would be safe.
Darkness clung to the town as he galloped down the main road. Lights still blazed from inside the courtroom, but no one lingered outside. Ahead of him a small crowd of people gathered in the square. Someone there would know where she was. He recognized the minister, but did not demand any answers, instead followed the troubled gazes of the onlookers across the square.
“No!” William vaulted to the ground and sprinted across the dry earth, the roaring in his mind as loud as the guttural cry ripped from his chest.
Elizabeth was in the middle, her lifeless body suspended by a long rope looped tightly around her neck.
William’s chest locked up, his heavy limbs dragging him to his knees. Grief clawed at his insides. He couldn’t move, couldn’t think, couldn’t ….
No. She couldn’t be gone. Maybe there was still a chance. Maybe it wasn’t too late. He used the knife in his boot to cut her down, not caring if anyone noticed how easily he reached her.
She fell into his arms, and the moment he touched her he knew beyond a doubt, she was lost to him. He collapsed on the ground, cradled her to his chest. This wasn’t right. She wasn’t supposed to die. They would be together. Always. Did fate not know that? Did it not understand how much he loved her? That he would give his immortal life right now if she would take just one breath.
“Elizabeth, please open your eyes. Please,” he begged, grief constricting his throat. It couldn’t end like this. He wanted to shake the life back into her, wanted her to ….
A hand touched his shoulder. “She is gone my son.”
William glared up at the minister, hatred consuming him until he knew nothing but the yawning blackness that swallowed him whole.
“She should not have welcomed the devil into her home.”
William growled and bared his teeth, shoving the man backwards. He ignored the man’s cries of agony when he hit the ground more than twenty feet away.
The soft weight in his arms tore at him. “Elizabeth, please do not leave me. I need you,” he whispered against her hair. All his pleas were for naught and he knew it, but could not stop himself as he pleaded with her, with God, to bring her back to him.
He smoothed her blonde hair back from her face, wishing desperately to see her deep brown eyes laughing up at him as though this were some horrible joke.
But she was gone.
The realization sunk deeper and his body started to tremble. William cupped her cheek, brushed his mouth across hers.
Some people are destined to find their true soul mates. You are one of those people, William.
Elizabeth believed it. He knew it, felt it deep in his heart. He would find her again. In another time, another place, they would be together.
He loved her too much to let it end like this.
Chapter One
Present Day
“I need a favor,” Gabriel called out the second Will stepped into the room.
Seeing Gabe parked in front of the computer, hard rock pounding from the stereo system, Will smiled. He’d missed his friend, but not all the times he’d walked in here to yell at him to turn the music down. “Hello to you, too.”
Gabriel turned back to his computer, his fingers gliding over the keys in effortless speed. “How was Africa?”
“Hot.”
Will dropped onto the couch, laid his head back and rubbed at the steady ache hammering between his temples. He needed to feed. Already he’d gone longer than usual and knew he was weaker for it. Still, he didn’t make a move to get up. The trip home, even using Gabe’s private jet, had been hellish. He and turbulence were definitely on the outs after the last six hours of air pockets bouncing him around like they were trying to shake the plane right out of the sky.
He should have stopped on the way home to satisfy the torrential hunger that had been building inside him for days. He knew better than to go so long. Knew that every day he asked himself how long he could go, he was risking some poor fool who was bound to cross paths with him when he’d pushed himself too far. The last time he’d played this game had been over a century ago, when he hadn’t cared about anything or anyone.
Only death.
“Stop that,” Julia said from the doorway.
Will sighed, but didn’t open his eyes to look at her. Considering he had had nothing but human food for the better part of the last few days, he wasn’t surprised he couldn’t effectively shield his thoughts from her. Julia read him too easily on a good day, let alone when he’d purposely ignored the hunger for blood that simmered inside him.
“How long?” she demanded in her familiar, and don’t give me a dumbass answer tone.
Will cracked open an eye, studied the blonde locks. Her new color of the week, obviously. “Nice look for you.” On anyone else, the vibrant color might drown out the smooth lines and graceful features. Then again, Julia could make just about anything look good.
“Don’t avoid the question by playing to my vanity.” Julia sauntered into the room, sank into the deep burgundy leather chair opposite him. “How long?” she repeated.
“I’m going out just as soon as this headache goes away.”
“The headache will go away once you feed.”
Will shifted his attention to Gabriel, not interested in being nagged right now. He wasn’t anywhere near the Russian roulette frame of mind, but the fact that he’d put off feeding just to test himself told him he was getting bored. He needed something new to focus on, to capture his attention, give him something to get enthused about. A new business venture maybe. Gabe had his hands in a number of projects at any given time and probably had something that would do the job.
“So what’s this favor?”
Julia continued to watch him, her green eyes probing.
Through the constant tapping of pressure, Will felt her trying to sift through his thoughts.
“Cut it out,” he snapped.
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be.”
“All you do is frown these days. Gabe, can you remember the last you saw him smile?”
“Sure,” Gabriel answered distractedly. “Last time he walked in on you when you were in the shower.”
Her delicate features curled into a disappointed scowl. “Can’t you ever be serious?”
Gabriel pushed away from the keyboard. His blond head cocked to the side as he measured his opponent. “Maybe you should leave him alone?”
“And maybe you should try being a little bit less self absorbed.”
“Give it a rest, children,” Will warned. Gabriel and Julia were as close as he had had to family for the last hundred and fifty years, but there were times when their bickering grated on his last immortal nerve. Perhaps because the two of them were so close, they argued more than two siblings trapped side by side on a ten-hour road trip. The differences in their attitudes didn’t help either. Where Julia was concerned and thoughtful, thinking out her plans for all occasions for days before the event, Gabriel was more a fly by the seat of his pants guy, fun being the endgame in everything he did.
Right now he’d love to possess even a fraction of Gabriel’s zest for eternal life. His own was sure as hell lagging lately.
Julia sighed, and stood up. “I’m going out. Meet me at the club later?”
Because Will knew she wouldn’t take no for an answer, he nodded and closed his eyes. Willing the headache to subside didn’t accomplish much, but it kept Julia from harassing him about it further. She was right. Once he fed it would disappear, yet it felt so good to be home he couldn’t work up the effort to move. The three-story house enabled the three of them to each have their own space and still remain close to one another.
He’d been at an all time low when he’d found Gabriel outnumbered by rogue hunters tormenting the newly turned vampire. Living with a death wish at the time, Will had openly provoked them, and despite being weakened he’d managed to get the upper hand long enough to run them off. Driven by some inexplicable need to give Gabe a place to stay and learn about his new nature, Will had ceased to push himself to the limits. A year later they’d come across Julie. Or she’d come across them. Depended on who told the story. Either way the three had become a family then. For better or worse.
Gabriel’s fingers lightly tapped the keys, the sound lulling Will’s tired body. He wasn’t quite five hundred years old. A drop in the bucket compared to many other vampires. How did the ancient ones not get bored? Surely after a few millennia they must have seen everything. What did they have to look forward to after that?
What would he?
“So she’s right to be worried, isn’t she?” Gabe pushed away from the computer and crossed his arms.
Damn it. He needed to feed. He couldn’t put it off any longer, not when it left his mental shields this weak. “You two really have to stop doing that.”
Gabriel snorted. “As if you wouldn’t dig around in my head if you thought it necessary.”
“No. I just wouldn’t get caught.”
“What’s going on with you?”
Will stood up, leaned over Gabriel’s shoulder, and peered at the screen. “What are you looking at?”
Gabriel stared at him, and Will waited for him to press the issue. Instead, his closest friend turned back to the computer.
Smart man.
“I found a bookstore that specializes in rare books,” Gabe continued. “They have the one Julia’s been searching for. I thought it would make a nice birthday present.”
Julia insisted on celebrating every occasion possible. Will suspected she thrived on having things to look forward to. Many times he had watched a dark emptiness dull her bright eyes right before she found a new cause or adventure to occupy her thoughts.
“Does this have to do with the favor you mentioned?”
“Yeah. They’re holding the book for me, but I have meetings for the next two days and then that charity thing Friday night. Julia’s birthday is Saturday. I was hoping you could pick it up for me.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem. Where’s the place at?” He scanned the web page displayed on the screen for the business address.
His body stiffened. Lake Falls.
Will jerked around and strode from the room. “You’ll have to get someone else to take care of it. I’ll be back later.”
Will?
Will blocked Gabriel’s voice from his mind as he left the building. The ache in his head thumped like a jackhammer, and a steel band clamped across his chest, making it difficult to breathe. Although he didn’t need air to survive, he’d always been somewhat comforted by the rhythmic movement, perhaps because in a small way, it felt human.
Another stab seized his heart as he leaned against the cool brick wall. Lake Falls. He hadn’t let himself even think the name of the town in more than two hundred years. Memories pressed on his consciousness, and the intensity of the images flickering behind his eyes threw him into a tailspin.
Shoving away from the wall, he headed in the direction of Julia’s club, Infinity. He wouldn’t go back to Lake Falls, not even in his mind.
Will heard the approach of footsteps, felt the threat before the guy stepped in front of him.
“Let’s see your wallet, buddy.”
Will took in the young man’s knife, wondering if the kind of wound the kid could inflict would be enough to bleed him out before sunrise. Doubtful. Will shook his head. Julia and Gabriel were right to worry about him. His thoughts were venturing into dangerous territory without him even trying.
“Now,” the thug warned.
Will lunged forward so quickly, the young man didn’t anticipate it. With sharp reflexes and a bloodlust that more than compensated for his weakened state, Will knocked the knife out of his assailant’s hand, gripped him by the front of his coat and yanked him closer. The young man trembled. He looked younger than his twenty-seven years Will realized as he sifted through the man’s thoughts. The same age Will had been at the time of his mortal death. But that was the extent of their similarities. This man needed money for drugs. The desperation for a fix pulsed through him in thick, vicious waves.
“Sorry man,” the thug stammered. “Not myself, you know. We could just ….”
“Forget about it?” Will taunted, the rapid beat of the man’s heart an invitation he couldn’t ignore. He sank his fangs into the young man’s neck, sighing as the revitalizing fluid rushed through him. Images from the man’s life flashed through his mind as the echo of his heart slowed. Jackson ran away from home at the age of seventeen, wanted to go back, but didn’t know how to get out of this life.
Closing his mind to the connection, William shoved the kid away from him, then turned to leave. Over his shoulder, he saw the young man watch him through glazed eyes. The puncture marks would heal quickly, but the memory of the attack would linger like a fuzzy dream, or a nightmare.
“Go home to your family. They love you. They’ll understand and help you, if you let them.”
The young man slumped against the wall.
With his headache gone, Will left the unconscious man. The kid wouldn’t report anything to the police. Chances were when he came to, he’d continue to look for a way to get his fix. It was easier that way for most addicts.
Just as it was easier for Will to pretend he hadn’t spent the better part of a hundred years searching for something he would never find.
Elizabeth was dead and she wasn’t coming back. He had no illusions about that. Not anymore.
* * * *
“You had another one of those dreams again last night, didn’t you?”
Lanie stared at the two books in her arms before flipping the top one open and skimming the first page, avoiding Brynn’s perceptive gaze.
“No,” she answered disinterestedly, taking an extra few seconds to respond as though it was an afterthought.
She closed the book and slid it into place on the third shelf. Still avoiding Brynn, Lanie headed three aisles over to return a book to the romance section, a book two teenagers had been giggling over earlier. Taking a closer look at the mullet-haired hero dressed in a kilt with breasts bigger than hers, Lanie could see what the girls found so amusing.
Brynn met her at the end of the row. “There’s no point in denying it. We both know you’re dying to tell me all the steamy details.”
Lanie snorted.
“Oh, come on. Your dream man highlights are the only thing I’ve got to look forward to on these chilly winter evenings.”
“You could take Michael up on his offer of dinner one of these chilly winter evenings.”
Brynn responded with nothing more than a roll of her eyes, and muttered, “Not in his lifetime.”
Her arms empty, Lanie headed back to the counter to retrieve the last handful of books that needed to be re-shelved.
With a tell me pout, Brynn dodged her every step. “I know you had another hot one last night.”
Lanie met her friend’s curious stare, recognizing the determined glint in Brynn’s eyes.
A yawn tickled the back of Lanie’s throat, and she covered her mouth, fatigue settling deep in her muscles. Hell, it wasn’t even eight o’clock.
She glanced from the stack of books in her arms to her closest friend. “Is it that obvious?”
Brynn twirled a strand of her ebony hair around her finger. “You look like you were up all night and I’m not talking about watching those black and white movies you’re so fond off.”
A blush stole across Lanie’s cheeks. She and Brynn had talked about her dreams many times in the last few months, but now they were getting ... well ... hotter. No longer were her fantasy man’s caresses PG-thirteen, as they’d been when she began to dream about him nearly five years ago. In the last six months the intensity of the dreams had jumped a thousand degrees, leaving her both eager for each night to come and exhausted each morning following one of them. But the most exhilarating and confusing part of it was how intense the dreams were. How real they felt.
“Earth to Lanie.”
Lanie shook off the puzzled feeling and handed Brynn two books. “Here, these go in the Mystical section.” She set her own armful of books on the bottom shelf and straightened the crooked ones on the upper shelves as she stood up.
The small corner bookshop didn’t have computers to help customers search for books like the larger, recently renovated bookstore around the corner. Glancing around the shelves closest to her, Lanie was glad Harold had shown no desire to update the store with computers. Half the fun of her job involved talking to people who shared her passion for books. She loved the dark wood and cramped spaces that made the place feel cozy and intimate. Plus the shop always smelled of Mrs. Slokem’s chocolate chip cookies. The fast-talking widow dropped platefuls of them off every morning.
Brynn headed three aisles down. “So,” she prompted.
After seven-thirty now, the cold evening air kept more people in than usual, leaving the bookstore empty but for the two of them. When customers were around, Brynn didn’t bully her into giving up the more intimate details of her dreams. Tonight Lanie wouldn’t be so lucky.
“Did he mention any names?”
“Does he ever?” Not once in all her dreams had her fantasy lover called her by name. He should, shouldn’t he? It was her dream, after all. Only sometimes, it didn’t feel like that. Sometimes he tugged her close, and instead of being in the moment, she felt ... detached somehow. She’d looked up dream interpretations in every book that mentioned the subject. Nothing gave her a satisfactory answer as to why the same man haunted her dreams night after passion-filled night, a man she had never met, but whose face she knew as clearly as her own.
A flutter of longing swept through her, and she glanced at the clock. They would still be open another two hours. A groan rose in her throat and she forced it back, cursing under her breath.
What was wrong with her? They were only dreams. She couldn’t let herself look forward to sleep just so she could see him. Her social life seriously lacked as it was without locking herself in her apartment before nine on a Friday night.
“Do you think they mean anything?” She’d asked Brynn’s opinion on the subject a dozen times before, but sometimes Lanie foolishly convinced herself the dreams were more than random images conjured by her subconscious mind.
Brynn shrugged. “Maybe you’re waiting for him. Whoever he is.” Brynn always gave the same answer. Why Lanie bothered to ask in the first place escaped her. Perhaps she hoped after she shared more details from her dream, Brynn would pick up on a theme or pattern Lanie couldn’t pin down.
Lanie handed her two more books, and Brynn headed for the next row over, talking as she went.
“Be thankful you’re getting some kind of action. A decent guy hasn’t landed on my doorstep since my virginity decided it was time to let go.”
As unusual as it seemed these days, Brynn was saving herself for the right man, or so she always joked. Lanie suspected Brynn’s decision to hold out for Mr. Right went beyond the lack of suitable prospects. Years ago Lanie had learned to pay attention to the flickers of certainty that settled in her gut. Her mother called it her special intuition, claimed it ran in the family. Either way, what people didn’t say often told her more than speaking aloud did. And not once had her instincts led her astray when it came to judging a person’s true character.
But as close as they’d become in the five months since Brynn had moved to town, there were parts of her life she remained very guarded about. Once Brynn drank a few beers--okay a lot of beers--she opened up, shared more than usual, and talked of her family turning their backs on her and being out on her own. Each time the conversation revealed more than she had planned, Brynn immediately sobered as though someone had injected her with adrenaline. If she recognized Lanie’s suggestion to go out for drinks occasionally held a secondary purpose, she never let on.
Guilt burrowed into Lanie’s chest at the thought of how she probed into her friend’s life, but she wanted Brynn to be happy. And there were days Brynn pretended all was right in her world when something clearly wasn’t.
“It will work out, you know,” Brynn said from directly behind her.
Lanie jumped at the sound of her voice. “Hey, I’ve warned you not to sneak up on me like that.” If she hadn’t known better, she’d swear Brynn made a game of it.
Brynn shrugged, her smile not the least bit apologetic. “Someday, everything will be the way it’s meant to be. For both of us,” Brynn added, throwing an arm around Lanie’s shoulder in a quick squeeze. A trace of hope lay buried beneath her friend’s words. Almost as though she couldn’t quite believe it herself, but wanted to.
“Okay, enough mushy stuff. I’m outta here. Lunch tomorrow?”
Lanie nodded, watched her friend pull on the jacket she’d left behind the counter.
Brynn paused at the door. “If you have another dream tonight, call me up and put it on speaker phone so I can live vicariously through you,” she teased.
Lanie glanced around for something to throw, but the chime over the door sounded Brynn’s departure. Brynn’s laughter faded until Lanie was once more alone.
Alone.
Why was she alone anyway? There wasn’t anything wrong with her. Her reflection didn’t break mirrors, and she didn’t have warts or snore. She had a sense of humor, thought of herself as a good conversationalist. Yet most weekends she spent with Brynn or Harold. Why weren’t any of the men she’d casually dated in the last few years right for her? Did her mystery man really exist somewhere? Would he show up out of the blue for her one of these days?
Lanie sighed. Okay, it was official. Lack of regular sleep was messing with her brain.
Behind the counter, she fussed with the invoices Harold had left for her to sort through. The bookshop’s owner didn’t hang around as often these days, his health--although he refused to admit it--keeping him away. But that didn’t stop him from involving himself in every aspect of Lanie’s personal life. Even he knew about her dream man, but she kept the details to a minimum. He’d been like a father to her since her own parents had died five years ago, and she sought his opinion on things as often as Brynn.
Lanie glanced at the clock when she finished the filing. A whole ten minutes had passed. She stared at the door, willing someone, anyone, to step inside and give her something to do. Not a soul even passed the window. Toying with the black opal pendant she’d worn since her mother had died, Lanie leaned her elbows on the counter and closed her eyes, letting her thoughts drift back to last night’s dream. They were in a barn, or hayloft. The sex--mind blowing. Lanie could almost feel the glide of his hands down her bare stomach, the lazy circles around her navel before he slipped his hands beneath her and cupped her bottom. A moment later he nudged her thighs apart.
She forced her eyes open. If she continued to replay the images in her mind she might spontaneously orgasm right there in the bookshop if the soft throb simmering between her legs was any indication. God, she needed to get a grip. Maybe she needed real sex, with a real flesh and blood man.
Then again what real man could live up to her fantasy man? Bad sex was definitely worse than no sex.
And she really needed to stop thinking about sex.
A beer. She needed a beer. Much less complicated than sex. Damn it, could she even go more than two seconds without thinking about it?
Ralph’s. For a beer, she decided. The local bar was as close to socializing as she got. At least then it wouldn’t feel like her life revolved solely around the bookshop and the dreams of the black-haired man with haunting blue eyes.
The chimes above the door sounded. She glanced up, eager for a distraction.
Dressed in a dark suit and overcoat, the stranger closed the door. He kept his back to her a long moment, studying the shelf of books to his immediate right. Not from around here, she guessed. Lake Falls was a small town, so either he was new to the area or just passing through. Having lived here her entire twenty-six years, there were few people here she hadn’t crossed paths with over the years.
The man turned in her direction. She started to call out a friendly greeting--as she usually did with most customers--only to have the words lodge in her throat as he lifted his face and his intense gaze collided with hers.
Lanie instinctively staggered back a step, her heart thundering in her chest.
It was him.
The man from her dreams.
