She hadn’t realized how lonely she’d been. Oh, she’d enjoyed relationships since John’s death. But at no time did she ever feel like she fell in love with those other men or wanted them to love her. Until she began to have those erotic dreams, with a lover who wasn’t real, and that just made her sadder. Lonelier.
But erotic dreams or not, Killian seemed so familiar to her. Recognition existed between them, beyond just the dreams. Even within the dream, her body knew him. Like her cells carried memories of him she couldn’t access, but they recognized Killian and responded to him. Boy, how they responded.
The door opened, and her gaze shifted to the two beautiful women walking in, a blond and a brunette. A matching pair. The kind who looked like they were on their way to a model shoot. Anna watched them place their orders, and then stood aside chatting and smiling while the few male eyes in the house checked them out. And they knew it. The door opened again. Enter Killian. Her gaze shifted back to the women, and as she suspected, theirs focused on Killian. One licked her lips, and both came to attention, chest out, head high. The way women do when there’s a man around and they want his interest. And who wouldn’t. About six three, two hundred pounds of prime grade A material and a face to put the cover models to shame had just entered the arena. But when Anna looked at Killian, he wasn’t returning the obvious stares of the women. He looked directly at her and moved in her direction. But the women weren’t deterred. At least, not one of them. Like a track star, the blond crossed quickly on her four-inch heels to intercept Killian.
Her hand lifted as though to touch him, but before it could make contact with his arm or she could open her mouth to say something to stop him, he moved around her dismissing her.
Anna stifled a smile at the put out look on the woman’s face behind him. And then she too ignored her because Killian pulled out the chair in front of her demanding all of her attention.
“Hello,” he said. “I’m glad you came.”
“I almost didn’t.”
“But you couldn’t stay away.”
She shook her head.
“Neither could I. How did you sleep?” And then he smiled.
That’s when she knew. Somehow she knew. She leaned toward him. “The dreams…they’re real?” She couldn’t believe she’d asked that out loud.
He leaned forward too. “They can be.”
His answer scared the crap out of her. She stood to get the hell away from him.
“Don’t be afraid,” he whispered.
She pushed her chair back, but immediately realized she’d put herself in an awkward place. Her chair sat in the corner. The small bistro table lay between them, and she had to move past him to get out; he had to let her pass him. For a moment, she froze, not knowing what to do.
“If you truly wish to leave, you can. But please stay. I’ve searched for you for so long. The choice is yours.” He pushed his chair back and pulled the table out for her to make it easier for her to get by him and leave—if she really wanted to.
Slowly, she sat back down. “Okay. So can you tell me what’s really going on? Do I know you?”
“You do and you don’t.”
“Excuse us.” Anna had been so captivated by Killian she hadn’t noticed the women she’d seen earlier approaching. The brunette spoke this time. “But you look familiar. Do you model?” They ignored Anna. Clearly directing their questions at Killian.
Killian turned his head to look at the woman. “No. I don’t.”
“Would you like to?” the other one asked. Without waiting for an answer, she offered him the business card she already held in her hand. But when he didn’t lift his hand to take it, she said, “Here, it’s got my name and number on it. We’re models.” She gestured to herself and her friend with it. “I could arrange for a photographer to do a photo shoot of you with us.” Again she offered him the card.
This time, he looked at the card without touching it, and then back up at the woman. “No, thanks.” He turned back around, dismissing them.
The looks they shot at his back made Anna chuckle to herself, but he couldn’t have cared less. His entire focus was on her, Anna. Anna would bet neither woman had ever been turned down like that before. They spun around and sashayed out on their heels. Anna couldn’t help but smile.
“Why didn’t you take the card?” she asked.
He shrugged. “That is not who I am nor what I’m interested in.”
“Oh, well, who are you and what are you interested in?”
“You. Only you.”
She heard his answer with her ears, but it drifted from there to her heart and found its way into her soul. She blinked, clasping her hands together in her lap. “Who are you Killian? Really?”
“I think it best I show you, Anna.”
She frowned. “Show me? Show me what?”
“Who I really am.” He stood up and held out his hand to her.
Without conscious thought, she found herself standing too and placing her hand in his. At his touch, heat rushed through her system. He squeezed her hand, and her gaze shot to his. “Where…where are we going?”
“Trust me. Listen to your heart.”
Her heart banged against her chest like it wanted to leap out of her skin. She took a deep breath to get much needed air and took in his scent. Coming around the table and into his arms, she put her free hand on his chest. She might as well have touched the door to a vault. And inhaled him again. His fragrance carried hints of the forest, of the outside, of the sun, the earth. She could wrap herself in that scent and never want for any other. “What have you done to me?”
“Nothing yet,” he said. “And I will do nothing to you that you do not want me to. Come with me.”
“All right.”
He kissed her forehead and, without releasing her hand, turned and led them out into the night.
“We can take my car,” she said once they stood outside on the sidewalk. At least it wasn’t raining as hard as it had been last night. Just a light drizzle. Her hair though already began to frizzle at the ends.
“No need.”
“I’d prefer we take my car,” she said firmly. Thinking she really didn’t know this guy and needed to try to keep some kind of control. Although she felt no fear of him.
“We won’t need a car.”
“Oh, is the place in walking distance?” She looked around. They were on a well-lit street, and there were plenty of people on the sidewalks. “Which way?” she asked.
He waved his hand in a vertical line in front of him, and a dark slit appeared in the air.
“What the hell?”
“Come,” he said. “Trust me.”
* * *
Chapter Four
He didn’t give her a chance to tell him nay. He could see it on the tip of her tongue. Instead, he just stepped through the portal, bringing her with him. And he let it shut behind him. “Behold,” he said raising his hand in front of him. “My home.”
Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound would come out as her head swiveled around. He knew her brain struggled with understanding what her eyes saw. He smiled.
There were unicorns in the distance, black and white ones. Their ivory horns prominently displayed. And bright red fruits that looked like apples, which they were, grew off several trees to their right. Flying above the pond were three water sprites, dressed in a rainbow of colors. Their translucent wings reflected the sunlight; their bell like laughter rang in his ears. But the sun also shined brightly overhead, and they clearly weren’t in Kansas any more.
“Ohmygod! Where am I? What is this place?”
“This is my home, Tal al Ral.”
She turned to face him then. “What?”
“Sometimes your people have referred to it as the realm of the fairies. But it is one of many. And we prefer to be called fae. Fairies are actually annoying tiny creatures.”
She raised her hands and fanned her face. “Okay, breathe, Anna, breathe,” she panted. “This is just ano
ther fantasy. Another dream. Yeah, that’s right, of course.” She stopped fanning herself and relaxed. “I dreamt about this place before.” She turned and pointed to the spot near the pond where they’d made love on the dream plane. “I know that spot.” She turned to look at him with laughter in her beautiful eyes. “I’m probably still sitting in that coffee shop having another one of those fabulous dreams where you made mad, passionate love to me.”
He grinned and put his arms around her, pleased when she put her arms around his waist. He couldn’t wait to prove the reality of her dream and make mad passionate love to her. This time in the real world.
* * * *
Anna wrapped her arms around the gorgeous man who had taken her to their private slice of paradise, even if only in a dream. But it made her happy and it seemed so real, and she did not want to wake up. She never wanted to wake up if it meant she could spend the rest of her life held by him like this, in this land of unicorns.
“Come.” He stepped partially out of her embrace but left his arm around her waist as he guided her away from the pond and toward the trees.
When they went around the trees, she noticed the house. At least it looked like a house. She’d never seen anything like it. On top of a small hill, it blended into the landscape. Like a rambler, it had one level but sprawled out so it became part of both the sky and the ground. The roof was painted the blue of the sky and the walls an earth tone, and there were many windows so she suspected even indoors you still had the perfect views of paradise. She smiled. She couldn’t have dreamed a better fairy—oh, right—fae home.
He raised his hand, gesturing for her to turn the door handle and enter. The ornate handle in the shape of braided vines opened under the slight pressure. Of course, no door would be locked in this place. Not in her version of paradise.
She stepped into a wide-open room. Drapery glittering like opals covered the walls. The drapery captured the sunlight within its folds, turning it into a kaleidoscope of color. The white eggshell color of the thick carpet in the room made her almost afraid to walk on it and leave stains. She took off her shoes and left them by the door, immediately sinking her toes into the lushness of the weave. The furniture in the room consisted of two long wide comfortable looking pearl-colored lounges almost like day beds instead of couches, and a large round glass table in the center with what looked like a bowl of fruit, but nothing she recognized. She walked over to the nearest lounge chair and touched it. While it looked like leather, it wasn’t. The smooth and soft texture appeared more like silk than leather and unlike any material she’d ever felt.
She ran her hands over the back of the chair, enjoying the sensation. As she did, Killian sat down and stretched out on it. One leg lay on the chair long and wide enough to accommodate him…accommodate them both. His other leg remained on the floor.
She grinned at the sight of him laid out like a feast for her, but his clothes had to go. Why bother dreaming if you couldn’t dream up a hunk in the nude? “I don’t think so,” she said coming around to the front and sitting between his spread legs. He sat up when she grabbed the end of his shirt, bending forward so she could lift it up and over his head. Tossing it behind her, she took a moment to pause and enjoy the view. “Damn, my dreams are good.”
His chest was muscled, and his flat stomach contracted at her glance. She had to touch him. With her thumbs, she massaged each of his nipples, smiling as they pebbled from her attention. He raised his hands and placed them around her head, bringing it down as he lifted his. Their lips met and locked. She lay spread out on top of him, thrust her tongue into his open mouth, and inhaled him. One minute, he wore his jeans and she had clothes on, but she wished these final barriers away, and the next they were gone. Yes, she thought, you gotta love your dreams.
Skin against skin at last. He rolled them, until he lay on top. Every glorious inch of his hard body covered her smaller softer one. Every curve fit together perfectly. They fit together perfectly, but they always had. Anna opened her legs wider for him; she’d missed him so much and couldn’t wait for him to claim her again. She opened her eyes when he stopped kissing her to look into his beautiful golden orbs.
Tears pooled in her eyes, but this was just a dream. No matter she wished with all her heart for it to be real. For him to be real because she loved a dream.
He kissed each eyelid, but his tenderness made her cry harder.
“Do not cry, my Anna,” he said. “Believe. And it will be.”
As she’d done for countless times before, she reached between their bodies and guided him into her body. He entered her slowly. She wanted fast. She wanted him to fill her completely. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she flexed her hips until finally, blessedly, he lay fully encased in her sheath. She had found her way home.
For a moment, neither one of them moved. They just stared at each other. As if seeing each other for the first time, as if this were the first time they made love. It was and it wasn’t. They’d been lovers since the beginning of time. Her muscles contracted around him, and he smiled.
“I claim you Anna lost child of the Tal al Ral. I claim you as mine own. I am for you as you are for me. Though our world grows old with time and has been forgotten, we will always, no matter the place or time, be joined. My love. My life.”
“I claim you Killian of the Tal al Ral. I claim you as mine own. I am for you as you are for me. Though our world grows old with time and has been forgotten, we will always, no matter the place or time, be joined. My love. My life.”
And then he began to move. As the world shattered around her, she closed her eyes and believed. Not a dream. This was real. He was real. And she smiled. All mine.
* * * *
The applause shook the rafters. The summer graduating class usually held a small graduation ceremony. But there were a lot of people in the auditorium. Her friends were all there in the front row; they’d come back early to watch her get her diploma. Surrounding them were members of her new fae family, Killian’s brother, his mate and their fae friends. And front and center, his pride glowing for all to see, sat her mate. He had been that since the beginning of time, and her husband as of a month ago. Killian stood tall and clapped loudest of all.
Bio:
LaVerne Thompson is the mother of two teenage girls, a wife, a former intellectual property attorney, a multi-published best selling author, an avid reader and a writer of contemporary, fantasy, and sci/fi sensual interracial romances. As someone who has lived in an interracial relationship for more than 23 years—her husband is an Anglo-American, she is from Trinidad—she wanted to write stories that were more reflective of their experiences. She is currently working on several projects. When not working on one of her stories, or shuttling her girls to and from school and their various activities, she can usually be found on online. Visit her website or check out her blog to see excerpts of some of the stories she's currently working on.
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Believe: A Single Title from Dreams & Desires, vol. 4 Page 2