“Like a Jules Verne story. Do I look green? Is there any part of me that is green?”
Her gaze slid down the muscles of his abdomen to the trail of dark hair that led to his jutting member. He brought a hand up to stroke it along her throat and then down to her breasts.
“I don’t see anything green, but I see plenty that I like. You look pretty damn good for a hundred plus year old man,” she said.
“I will take that as a compliment. Women are much more… aggressive in this time. I like it.”
“Do you now…” Sam reached out and touched him. He hissed in a breath.
The fire began to heat the room but an cool zing ran up her spine with the look her gave her. He leaned in to her and took possession of her mouth. Her nipples beaded and ached for attention. She didn’t have to wait long.
Hadley rolled the tip of one breast between his fingers, as he tasted the other.
Walking over to the rug by the fire, she sat on the floor and motioned for him to join her.
“I’m tired of the bed already.” She giggled.
“Fine. It will give us more room to do all the things I dreamed of.”
“Hey, it’s not just you, we dreamed the same thing.”
Hadley grinned. “Then you are a very naughty girl indeed.” He slid on top of her with lean, masculine grace. Wrapping his hand around himself, he used the tip of his cock to pleasure her until she moaned.
“I just want—“ Sam didn’t need to say another word because he gave her what she craved in one deep, hard thrust.
He kneaded the flesh of her hips to pull her tighter. All she could do was open for him and take him deeper. Hadley swallowed a groan and his body grew rigid.
She cried his name as complete satisfaction engulfed her.
Sam had enough. With the lack of sleep the last few nights, she called in sick once again to work, then pulled on a pair of jogging pants, T-shirt and hoodie. She waited until it was a respectable hour and then headed down to the bookstore.
Throwing open the door, she stormed inside.
Hadley spun, a look of surprise on his face. “Samantha, I am most happy to see—“
“Stop with all your politeness.” She made her fingers into a C shape and snapped them together in a ‘shut it’ motion. “We need to talk.”
“I told you— we do.”
He held out his hand for her to take, but she glared at him.
“Let’s go into the back. I may be able to make a bit more sense of it all for you there. Would you like a cup of tea first? Things always go better with tea.”
“Do I look like I want tea?” Sam walked off, leaving him to trail behind. When she got to the top of the wooden stairs, she stopped and spun on him. “I don’t know what is going on, but stay the hell out of my head!”
“I can’t.”
She blinked at his reply. “What do you mean you can’t. You will.”
“I’m not the one responsible for your dreams.”
“Who is?”
“I do not know.”
“When I’m not thinking about you or dreaming about you, I think about this bookstore. I can’t stop. There are voices in my head telling me that I need to come back here and help you. Day and night. Twenty-four-seven. I’ve turned into a crazy cat lady! Did you slip me a hallucinogenic?”
He looked shocked. “Drug you? Good God, woman, what kind of a man do you think I am. Be reasonable, when did I have time to give you opium or absinth?”
She paused to ponder his question. “I have no idea who you are or why there is a herd of your friends setting up an occupy movement in my head.” She tapped her forehead with her fingertip.
“This is what I tried to tell you the other night. You are my guide. I need your help to leave this place. If I am right with my conclusion and with the contact I’ve had with other travels through the portal, you will continue to have these dreams until we come to an agreement.”
“An agreement? An agreement that I didn’t agree too? For what?”
“This place is a portal where I guide others to different times and places. I arrived here in the year, 1889. You tell me it is the year 2012.” He watched her for a long moment as if waiting for her to absorb the information. “I know how fanatical this all sounds. It sounds insane to my own ears. That is why I brought you back here, so you can see and understand.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Please, do not make me beg as it is most unbecoming, but I have no other plans.”
The broken look in his eyes made Sam go against her better judgment. Why was she having these feelings for him, she barely knew him. But every time they were together, it felt as if she’d known him for years. Even loved him. Crazy.
“Just for a few minutes, take my hand, and trust me.”
Memories of the dreams made her take the leap and trust him. She had to chip off the hard shell she’d built around her heart, even if it was for a few minutes. Sam wanted to feel that bond with someone special. He needed her.
Hadley slowly inched the large wooden door open and urged her to follow him. A blast of cold air washed over them.
“This is the street where I live… lived.” He cleared his throat. “The residence, where I grew up.”
A beautiful horse drawn carriage distracted Sam as it drove past. She turned in complete circle and stared. No cars. No... anything that should be here. “Are you trying to tell me that when we stepped out that door, now we’re in 1889?”
“Partially. The portal is based here, so this is why we can step out. We see this time, but it does not see us, for we do not exist here.”
“How do you know this?”
His brows knit in a frown. “I came back the other night. I knew this was true of other times I traveled to, but did not want to believe Arthur it would happen in my own time when I tried to return home. ”
As he spoke, a well-dressed couple came out of the residence. The woman looked up at the sky. “Do you think it will rain?” she asked.
“No, we will be there soon enough. Don’t worry about it.” The heavyset man swung open the wrought iron gate and motioned for her to move out to the street.
Hadley stepped forward and touched the woman’s face. For a second her eyes widened, but she shook her head and brushed at her face with the back of her hand. They were invisible to the couple. The woman stepped forward and right through Hadley, as if he were vapor.
Sam felt her knees threaten to buckle.
When Hadley turned, his eyes welled full, but he didn’t cry. He tipped his chin, put on a brave smile, and attempted to straighten his waistcoat. “You see the problem, that was my mother. She does not see me, because I do not exist here. I am a ghost now in my own time, and they have been dead for over a hundred years in the year 2012.”
Was she really standing in London in 1889?
When he reached for her hand again she felt the tremble in his. “If you have seen enough to convince you that I am not lying, may we leave? Please.”
They headed back across the street to the bookstore. He guided her to the front door and when they stepped through, they were where they began. Hadley sat heavily in a wooden chair by one of the bookcases. He dropped his hands between his knees and looked at the floor.
Sam swallowed. There were so many unanswered questions, but she knew what she saw.
After a long moment of silence, he said, “Right now, I am a ghost. My only existence is here at the bookstore. My only chance is to leave with you, my guide, into the year 2012.”
Sam slid down the wall and sat on the floor beside him. “Wow… I’m just not sure what to say. I’m not sure if I’m ready for all of this. I just came out of a relationship in the states—one of the reasons I took the job here in London. I’m not ready for… well… I’m not sure what to call this since I only met you a few days ago. But, according to my dreams, I am in love with you and we have a… future.”
He threw her a crooked grin. “Don’t forget the kids.�
�
“How do you know…”
“I do not wish to concern you any more than I am sure you already are, but I believe I have shared your dreams.”
“All of them?”
His eyes narrowed but there was humor and possible a little lust lurking in their depths. “I am a gentleman first and always will be. I will say no more to embarrass you.” His grin faded as he went back into his thoughts.
She pushed herself up the wall and stood. “There is just a lot of stuff to think about. I worry about paying my cell phone bill and my rent, not saving someone’s soul from oblivion.”
“None of us knows how this entire conundrum works. Maybe I never need to see you again after we leave here.”
“What about our dreams? The… well, that and the children?”
“Right now, it’s only figments of our imagination. You have my word, if you wish for me to stay away and never see you once we leave this premise. I promise you on my honor.”
“You sound like a Boy Scout.”
“Pardon?”
She bit her lip. “I need a day to think about this.”
“I will need your decision soon, time is of the highest importance.” He nodded his features tight. “But I understand.”
“I’ll come back then and tell you what I decided… one way or the other… I promise.”
He didn’t get up from the chair, but when she moved off, he called her name, “Samantha?”
She put her hand on the wooden stair railing and turned.
His searing blue gaze met hers. “Goodbye.”
****
When she was gone, he drew out his watch.
It was three minutes to twelve.
Chapter 5
Hadley swore he was not the one conjuring her dreams, but if he wasn’t, who was. Sam was a grounded woman with both feet firmly planted. She’d never believed in the ‘woo-woo world’. Spirits? Ghosts? Other lives? Past, future, who cared. Time portals? WTF?
Who did he think he was by feeding her this line of baloney?
That’s why he took you into the portal. He knew how crazy it all sounds and you wouldn’t believe a word of it.
She saw it with her own eyes. 1889 England.
Sam wanted to say it was faked, but the woman he said was his mother walked right through him. If she’d been standing any closer, she would have walked through her too.
Veering off the sidewalk she stepped into the closest liquor store to buy two bottles of wine. A dark red Cab that wouldn’t give her a headache, but make her drunk enough to not dream.
The next day, Sam threw herself into work. Neither of her plans the previous night worked. She was hung-over and the dreams were stronger than ever.
This time, no sex, just a siren’s call telling her Hadley needed her help. Voices scraping inside her skull and doing a mambo on her brain.
Maybe if she waited a week or two, this portal and its minions would go somewhere else and take Hadley with it. She would move on. But he said he couldn’t, he needed her. She was ‘his guide’.
Again, baloney. She’d never been that important to any man or her boyfriend wouldn’t have left her. And as far as a ‘guide’, she became lost walking around the block. She wasn’t the one he needed.
Sam pushed away from the desk and moved to look out the large office window. In the past, she’d only had casual relationships lasting a few months. She was hurt when her last boyfriend left, but they both knew, it wasn’t a permanent relationship. It was not a long term, love you forever.
Love you forever? What was that#? She’d never experienced it.
She closed her eyes. Yes, she had, with Hadley. Her dream life with him seemed so real. When she woke, it took hours to convince herself he wasn’t there. When she was in the dream, she saw the children and the day at the zoo they just return from. She remembered their whole lives. The life that didn’t exist and he loved her. She saw it in his eyes and especially in the way he touched her. It was the kind of love she only dreamed of.
That wasn’t the point. Love may come someday, but she didn’t have time in her schedule now. She didn’t need Hadley. Didn’t want him. It wasn’t a convenient time.
But it wasn’t only about her. He’d said if he didn’t leave with her, he wouldn’t exist in any other time.
A ghost.
Sam rubbed her arms from the sudden chill in the room. Ghosts… how could he be a ghost when she didn’t believe in them.
Pulling in a long breath, she made up her mind. She would go back to the bookstore, ‘guide’ Hadley out, and then be done with the whole thing.
Hopefully, ALL the dreams would end, and she would go back to dreams of unicorns and rainbows and strange blurry street scenes.
****
Hadley tapped his foot steady in a nervous staccato beat on the floor. He was surprised there wasn’t a grove worn in the wood. He resigned himself to the truth.
Samantha wasn’t coming back.
How could he blame her? The whole concept of what was happening was ludicrous. Why would she care? They talked for a total of three times… if you didn’t count the dreams.
He was so deep in thought, he didn’t hear her enter the room until she stood in front of him. His head popped up and met her gaze.
One hand was firmly planted on her hip. “I still can’t wrap my head around any of this. But I can’t deny what you showed me and I am the last person to turn my back on someone who sincerely needs help.” Samantha’s dark hair flowed around her shoulders and fire burned in the depths of her dark eyes.
“I told you, I realize that I need you much more than you do I.”
“I know you do. First, let’s be clear about a few things.”
Hadley pulled out his timepiece and watched the hands tick forward. “I hate to press you on this matter, but if you agree to be my guide, we need to leave in the next thirty seconds or the travel will not be successful.’
“What?” Her eyes grew to round ovals. “I…thirty?”
“Fifteen… please,” he begged. “You have my word, once we leave the bookstore if you wish, you will never see me again.”
“Do I need to hold on to you or something? Fine. Follow me. I am not going to be responsible for anyone’s eternal damnation. Do I need to say an incantation or magic words?”
“I do not believe so.”
Samantha grabbed his hand in hers. With the other, she turned the front knob. Hadley looked back over his shoulder to see Arthur at the front desk. He was smiling.
She yanked his arm and pulled him over the threshold.
There was an immense feeling of pressure as if air was being suck tight around him. Hadley’s sight went momentarily black , but then the pressure vanished. They were out in the sun. He blinked and squinted his eyes.
Samantha still held his hand.
She turned to him and gave an unsteady smile. “If you really did just travel through time, welcome to 2012.”
Hadley stood rooted and looked around. It was just as he’d read in Arthur’s fantastical book. Metal carriages called cars and noise. His mouth dropped open.
Samantha put a reassuring hand on his arm. “Are you okay?”
“It’s so loud.”
“Wait till you ride the Tube or visit Piccadilly.”
“Tube?” he asked still trying to gain his bearings.
“I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do now. I’ll take you for some fish and chips and then find you a room for the night. Tomorrow, we’ll find you something more permanent. Like a job and a place to live.”
He nodded, still feeling like a child outside a toy shop looking in the window. He couldn’t stop staring. Everything was different, but it felt right. Was this how the people the guided felt when they arrived at their destination?
But he still asked himself. Why here? Why now? He hadn’t dreamed of living in a different time, he’d only dreamed of Samantha.
She reached in the large bag he recognized from their first meeting.
<
br /> “While I’m thinking of it, don’t let me forget to give my number. I know you won’t know what a cell phone is but…” As she pulled out a tiny white card of paper from her purse, a gust of wind caught it and flipped it out of her hand. “Damn,” she swore. She tried to grab it but it was just out of the tips of her fingers.
Samantha stepped into the traffic lane to try to grab it.
Hadley saw a flash of silver out of the corner of his eye and heard a blast of earsplitting noise. The machine was going to hit Samantha like a raging bull. He grabbed her sleeve and threw her back on the sidewalk. The force caused him to stumble forward into the lane and his leg twisted in a grate. Hadley crumpled to the ground. A glass bottle, broken in the street, cut through his pants and pain lanced though him like white heat.
The large machine called a ‘truck’ barrelled towards him. Hadley knew it was too late to get out of its way.
When death is eminent, people say they see their lives flash before them and fear takes over. He felt the opposite. In those seconds, everything was clear. The dreams he’d had of Samantha before they met. This was what he saw. Except now, he knew how the dream ended.
He was sent here, to the future, to save her.
Inner peace took over. He would not die alone in the bookstore and without ever knowing love. In their shared dreams, he knew how it felt. He closed his eyes and heard her scream. He waited for the pain in his leg to be gone and his life to end.
There was more noise but still pain. Metal scraping. Ear bursting grinding. More people yelling.
He opened one eye a slit. The truck stopped inches from him, and he could feel the heat from inside its metal front that looked like bars. Someone grabbed his arm.
Samantha.
Walk with Me Through Time (The Dimension Keepers) Page 3