by Reina Torres
A soft cough of laughter was what he got in return. “Yeah, I guess you can say that. I’ve never thought of it that way, but yeah. Like if you meet Santa Claus, you can give the Easter Bunny a chance.”
“Not really,” his panther sat up and took notice as he pressed a soft kiss to the skin just beneath her ear, “rabbits are prey. But sure, Santa I can get, and the reindeer would be fine.”
True sat up a little and looked him in the eye. “But wouldn’t the reindeer be prey?”
He saw the smile in her eyes and knew that she was playing with him, trying to push his buttons. Well, he wasn’t going to play.
“So, this family of yours. Do they all have these dreams?”
Xavier saw her draw back into herself.
“No. Not at all. I’m kind of the odd one of the bunch.”
He didn’t want to tell her that in his experience, which was zero interactions with witches, he had no idea what that meant.
“My uncle, the patriarch of our family, he’s always kept away from me. Like he couldn’t stand the sight of me. Ever.”
He heard the hurt in her voice and everything inside of him, including his panther wanted to pay her uncle a little visit and repay him with the pain they heard in her tone. The wounded look in her eyes as she admitted her pain to him.
“When Celeste contacted me about the job, I was so excited by it, I made the mistake of telling my cousin, Christina. As soon as my mother told me that my uncle was going to have a talk with me, I knew he was going to try to forbid me from coming. I don’t know why, but I honestly don’t care. If my family has an issue with someone here in Mystic… well, they can kiss my big fat ass!”
The temptation was just too great.
Xavier’s hands lifted from her back and gripped her ass in his greedy hands. As soon as they were full of her, he pulled her back against his chest and felt the heat of her body seer his flesh.
Even through layers of clothing, he wanted her, needed her. The erection that had barely dimmed while they had been talking was suddenly aching and begging for her attention. Those talented hands. That mouth with her full lips. And yes, the tight, wet kiss of her sex.
He saw her startled look and heard the soft, hungry pant of her breath.
“Xavier?”
“Hmm?”
She licked her lip and he rose up a few inches on his knees. “Is something wrong?”
He gave his head a single shake, barely holding onto his need. “I like your ass.” As he flexed his thighs, he ground her against his cock. “A lot.”
Her swallow brought all kinds of other images to his head and if it hadn’t been for his panther, holding him in check, he might have stripped her bare and buried himself inside of her.
Letting out one long, slow breath to pull himself back from the edge, Xavier focused on True’s face and saw the conflict in her eyes. Thinking with the head on his shoulders, he realized their next logical step.
Logical, if you wondered about what a shifter and a witch should do about her dreams.
“In the morning,” he gave her a smile and hoped that she couldn’t see or feel how much he still needed to spread her out underneath him, “we’re going to go see Wren.”
“Wren?” True seemed even more confused. “Why her?”
He smiled and lifted a hand to brush her tangled hair from her face. “Because Wren has been around Mystic for longer than any of us and she has her own magical mojo. If there’s something tying your dreams to Mystic, she’d be the one to figure it out.”
The look of joy and hope in True’s eyes made Xavier and his panther feel like they were ten feet tall.
“Okay,” she nodded, and he swore he could see the tension in her shoulders fade away like shadows under the sun. “We’ll see Wren in the morning.”
A quick look out of the window and Xavier could see her eyes fill with sadness again. “Are you going back to your place?”
Xavier drew in a breath and heard the tremble in her voice. “I want to stay,” he kept his gaze fixed on hers.
Her cheeks flushed red. “Just in case I need you to pull me back from the edge of crazy?”
He shook his head and answered her and put all of his focus into his words, so she wouldn’t think he didn’t mean what he said. “I want to stay because I need you to know that I’m here to pull you out of the water again.”
She put her hands up to her cheeks. “I said that, didn’t I?” She hissed in a breath and shook her head. “You must think I’m crazy.”
He reached out a hand and braced it on the bed, lowering both of them onto their sides, facing each other. Xavier tugged her closer and tucked her against his body, fitting them together in ways that he never imagined he’d fit together with anyone else.
“I don’t think you’re crazy, True.”
Xavier placed a kiss on the top of her head and breathed in her scent.
“I think you drive me crazy.”
She wrapped an arm around his waist and placed a kiss of her own over his heart.
“And I love the way it feels, baby.”
She sighed, and the sound was truly music to his ears. “Me too.”
True didn’t know what to expect when she and Xavier walked up to Wren’s little shop in town. The walls on three sides were floor to ceiling windows and as they stepped inside, she realized that there was a skylight above their heads as well.
“It’s perfect for stargazing, you know.”
Startled, True lowered her gaze and saw Wren standing before them, a sweet smile on her face. “Stargazing, yes,” she agreed. “It looks perfect for that.”
Xavier’s arm around her shoulders kept her close and she appreciated the anchor it gave her. Since she’d startled awake a little less than an hour before, True had felt like she was actually in danger of floating away.
It was a crazy sensation, but with her life the way it was, crazy was kind of normal. Still, it was great to have Xavier there to help her shrug off some of her worries.
Wren gestured to the little glass-topped table in the center of the room with its white scroll-work legs and three chairs clustered close by. “Come, have a seat.”
True and Xavier looked at each other before he spoke.
“I brought True here, since you know more about Mystic than I do. She’s had dreams… nightmares, really. And they’ve only gotten worse since she came here. I’m hoping you can help her.”
It was strange that he was now speaking for her, rather than grumbling about her, but she didn’t want to question it, not when it felt so good.
They sat across from Wren and the older woman poured all of them a glass of tea. She gave Xavier a look when she handed him his glass. “I bet you’re sorry you missed the tasting at the bar, hmm?”
He almost smiled at Wren’s words. “I am.” True felt his hand settle on her thigh and turned to look at him. “I’m not saying I’m not going to act like an ass in the future, but I’m going to try not to.”
She covered his hand with hers and gave it a squeeze.
Wren set her glass down and looked over at the two of them. “Looks to me like the tide has turned, hmm?”
At the mention of water, True’s stomach churned a little.
The older woman continued to speak. “But I know you’re not here for couple’s counseling,” she gave Xavier a pointed wink. “Everyone knows I’m blissfully single.”
True sat in her chair and struggled to keep herself calm.
Wren looked between the two of them, her eyes seeming to focus on something inside their heads. “Tough night?”
Xavier picked up her hand and wrapped both of his around it before he settled it down against his thigh, but even the heat of his skin couldn’t stop the shiver that ran down her spine. “You could say that.”
Wren nodded and her eyes fixed on True’s face. Almost as if she was reading something printed on True’s forehead, the older woman nodded and hummed in turn. “Sure, sure… I see.”
Nervous, T
rue almost blurted out some words that might have been seen as sarcastic, so she bit down on the inside of her cheek. She didn’t want to offend the other woman.
“I don’t offend easily, sweetheart.”
True’s heart skipped a beat in her chest and might have fallen right out of her chair if Xavier hadn’t been holding her hand in his.
“Don’t worry… much,” Wren gave her a wink. “I don’t read your thoughts so much as I get impressions of them.” Taking another sip of her iced tea, Wren set the glass down and blew out a breath. “Okay, tell me what’s got you so spooked and what’s gotten him all protective?”
True had thought she was ready to explain, but she hesitated.
Wren filled the silence with a little observation of her own, leaning her forearms against the glass tabletop. “He’s so hot when he gets all snarly, but I get the feeling this goes much deeper than just a time or two in the sack. If you let this one into your pants,” she jerked a thumb in his direction, “you’ll end up like Celeste before you know it.”
All True could do was stare in wide-eyed surprise at the other woman.
“It’s true,” Wren gave her a wink. “Some folks say it’s in the water and maybe they’re right, but there’s just something about this town now that’s all about the love.”
True swallowed the knot in her throat. “Now?”
The question seemed to knock the wind out of Wren’s sails and she sat back in her seat. “The end of the resort was an odd time for Mystic. It all started around the time of Prohibition.” She looked at True and then at Xavier, a question plain in her eyes. “Do you know what that was?”
True couldn’t help but answer. “When they made alcohol illegal. All of it.” She turned to look at Xavier. “I think that’s what that other room was beside the bar. A Speakeasy. A secret bar where they served alcohol to patrons.”
Wren sighed as though remembering a lost love. “I was always a good girl,” she winked at True, “I never knew where the speakeasy was, but it was a really well-kept secret here in town. And there was a reason for it.” Wren’s expression dimmed. “Shifters have no problem with alcohol. They can probably drink their weight in it and suffer no ill-effects, but humans,” she looked straight into True’s eyes, “even magical ones could lose themselves in liquor.”
True felt something deep inside her chest. “You know. You know who I am.”
Bobbing her head back and forth, Wren finally answered. “I know what you are and I know who you are.” She turned toward Xavier. “And you’re mixed up in this too. It just took me a while to realize what I missed.”
Xavier sat forward, worry creasing his brow.
Wren turned back to True and smiled, but the smile wasn’t free or easy. It was careful. Cautious.
“What do you see in your dreams?” Before True could start Wren changed her words. “In your nightmares.”
True made a last-ditch effort to hold herself together. “I fall. Lots of people dream about falling, right? It’s not like it’s unique or unusual. I bet on any given night, thousands and thousands of people dream about falling.”
The look in Wren’s eyes called ‘bullshit.’
“It’s night,” True could feel herself breathing faster, “and I’m on a cliff, high up on a mountain. And I feel so sad.” True’s eyes closed and the imaged flowed back in like she’d just opened a gate to floodwaters. “And upset. Frustrated. I want to be free to… free to- and then I’m falling, and the more that I struggle and try to save myself, I feel like I’m only falling faster!”
True reached out and a gentle hand took hers. Without looking she knew it was Wren. And even though her hand was smaller, more delicate, True felt such a strength coming from the older woman’s fingers around hers.
“And then I’m underwater and drowning. My dress is too heavy and my feet can’t find bottom. I don’t know how to get up above the water or put air in my lungs, I’m dying and all I can think of is… is…”
True’s eyes flew open and she turned her head, staring at Xavier as if he’d somehow changed in the last few moments. The man sitting beside her, holding her hand in his… wasn’t.
“You.” She sucked in a breath but she still felt like there wasn’t enough air in her lungs. “It was you.”
Eleven
True couldn’t seem to gather her thoughts into a single cohesive line. When they left Wren, she just didn’t know what to do or where to go. She had vague memories of him driving her back to the resort, but when they were on the grounds, he didn’t even bother going by her cottage. Instead, he drove up the dirt road along the mountain and parked in a garage that from the outside, looked like a cascade of greenery.
From there, they walked.
Walked beside each other up the winding path.
Walked past his cabin and the still.
Walked until True put out a hand and touched his arm.
He stopped beside her and watched.
She felt his gaze on her and it gave her comfort.
How strange.
This man who had growled and snarled and snapped at her before had treated her with such gentle care and consideration that she felt even more uncertain, disconnected to the world around her.
Moving her fingers along the swell of his forearm, tracing along the veins under his skin before she wrapped her hand loosely around his bicep. When she held his arm, she felt comfortable enough to breathe.
And breathe again, settling her nerves just a little.
She didn’t let go of him and found that she didn’t mind holding onto him at all. His strength and his heat touched her on more than a physical level and she leaned in toward him, craving more.
He held out his free arm to her and she stepped in close, laying her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arm around his back. “I don’t know what to think.”
True felt his cheek touch her hair.
“Then tell me what you feel, True. Let me in.”
Lowering her hand, she skimmed her fingertips down his forearm and placed her palm flat against his.
“I feel you, Xavier. I feel you against me and I want to hold on because I feel… I fear that if I let go, I’m going to lose what’s left of my sanity.”
His arm wrapped tighter around her and tugged her closer against his chest. “Go ahead and hold on all you like.”
True leaned her head back until she could look up and meet his gaze with her own. “Is that you speaking? Or Landon.”
His body tensed against hers, stiffening in an awkward way. “My uncle died while I was a boy, True. If you think I’m reincarnated-” He shook his head as if the rest of his words were stuck to his skin and he wanted them off.
“I don’t know what to think. I mean, up until I got here and started to dream more. Dream deeper,” she squeezed her jaw and felt an ache in her cheeks, “it was all some crazy reoccurring… creation in my head. Sure, I didn’t understand what it was and if what Wren’s saying is true, I still don’t understand, but now that I’m here in Mystic, there’s no denying that what I see… what I feel in my dreams isn’t just a dream.
“There’s too much here,” she explained, “in this town, in myself. It feels like home and the longer I stay, I want to stay even more.”
She waited to see how he’d react. Part of her wondered if he would take the opportunity to walk away. She knew she wouldn’t blame him. What had she brought into his life but upheaval?
“I can understand if this is too much of a distraction for you. And maybe it is just a dream and I’ve hooked into it somehow. Maybe it’s just Elizabeth’s way of trying to come home? What if there’s something she’s trying to tell people?” She laughed at the thought. “Who would she tell? Wren’s probably the only one around who would know. Maybe Aaron.”
“The Huang’s.” Xavier’s voice was soft and gentle making her worry even more. “They run our local grocery store. It feels like they’ve always been here as long as I could remember.”
“You mu
st like them.” She felt Xavier tense against her. “I’m just saying that because I can hear it in your voice.”
His arm relaxed around her and he nodded. “Harry and Georgia are closer to me than Aaron, in a way. They give me perspective.”
Xavier let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her so he held her in his embrace.
“They helped me see that I was fighting for no reason.”
“Oh?” She couldn’t help the smile that touched her lips and eased herself closer to him. “How did they do that?”
Xavier slid a hand down to the curve of her back. “Harry reminded me that if I was feeling… or rather if I wasn’t sure about what I was feeling, to remember that there was someone I could ask that would never lie to me. Someone who would always be on my side and give me the right advice.”
Heaven help her, she felt something inside of him now. A shift of energy, a nudge moving under his skin, it was there and when she leaned back to look up into his eyes, she saw it.
The green irises of his eyes nearly shimmered with energy before the entire surface went dark and she knew that both Xavier and his panther where looking back.
“I take it,” she licked her lips and heard his sudden intake of breath, “your panther told you to throw caution to the wind and stop being grumpy around me? Stop avoiding me when you were forced to be in my presence?”
“We never avoided you,” his voice was deeper, thicker… stronger, “even when we weren’t with you, you were with us.”
Her heart felt too big for her body, pounding again and again against her ribs.
Belonging.
She felt like she belonged.
In that moment.
His arms around her.
His panther dark in his eyes.
She should have felt like running.
Wasn’t this dangerous?
Wasn’t he dangerous?
Instead, she lifted her arm and reached around him. Taking hold of his t-shirt, tugging it free from the waistband of his jeans. Flattening one hand against his bare skin.