It hadn’t taken long to realize it didn’t matter how much he cared for a woman or took pleasure in her body, the morning after one of his dreams he felt nothing for her—nothing compared to what he felt for Beth Ann.
Beth Ann’s creamy, soft legs cradled him, her fingernails dug into his back as she bit his chest in small, demanding nips. Here, she wanted him. Here, she loved him. And here felt better than any waking moment with any other woman.
Unable to hold back the words, Alex gave in. With a guttural growl that barely masked his pleading, Alex said, “For God’s sake, Beth Ann, stay with me. Love me.” And because his mind warred with his heart in a constant struggle for dominance, he added, “Choose me or let me go.”
She gasped as her legs tightened around him and her nails dug deeper into his skin. With an expression full of both pleasure and agony, she whispered, “I can’t.”
Holding her tight, gripping her hair and trapping her with his body for as long as he could, Alex drove them both to the edge. One final thrust and they both arched, tension bowing them taut in a release so great not even the long gouges made by her nails halted it.
But as soon as the pleasure ebbed, the pain burned. Long streaks of fire stung his back until a blue light shone from behind him, momentarily bright against the darkness. He felt the itch as each wound re-knit itself, leaving his back as smooth and unlined as it had begun.
Alex released her and brushed damp tendrils from her brow. She’d bitten her bottom lip until it split, and a thin line of blood marked her soft flesh. Normally it was hard to see a wound and do nothing about it, but with Beth Ann, it was impossible to do nothing. Alex touched her lip with his thumb and blue light glowed from his fingertips. Her lip instantly sealed as his split open, bringing the damage into him, then his body healed and both marks were gone.
“You should leave this for me to nibble on.” Alex lowered his head for one last kiss. “I’m much gentler.”
She caressed his cheek, giving him a familiar apologetic smile. “I wish …”
“I know.” Alex buried his face in the curve of her neck. He couldn’t be upset with her. It was only a dream. His dream, at that. And until he could figure out how to stop having it, he just had to deal with the endless disappointment.
Alex opened his eyes, knowing the bed beside him would be empty. But he hadn’t expected to wake up in the dream bed, in the dream room. Usually when Beth Ann left him, the dream was over and he was left alone in his apartment, missing her more than ever, wishing she was real. But the burgundy curtains hanging from the corners of the four-poster bed left no doubt he was still dreaming.
The candle had burned lower, proof that time had passed while he slept. Rising from the bed, Alex pulled on his dark green sweats and matching AK Martial Arts T-shirt, staring at the door. It was always locked so he couldn’t leave, even when he wanted the dream to be over. He hated that door.
Bringing the candle with him, mixing cinnamon apple pie and sex in the air, Alex reached for the handle. It had never opened before, but he had to try. He’d always wondered what was on the other side. An end to the dream? Or Beth Ann? Was she waiting to share more of herself if he was brave enough to follow?
Alex pulled the door wide and stepped out into a forest so thick, so lush, it was barely lit by a moon over half-full. Cupping his hand protectively around the tiny flame of the candle, Alex continued forward. There was a click behind him. Alex looked back in time to see the door disappear beneath rustling trees and tangling vines.
Alex stiffened as the atmosphere changed, an ominous chill flowing around him. His stance became looser, more fluid, and more deadly. Blowing out the candle, he set it down before continuing. He stepped cautiously, sliding past dark shrubbery and low hanging vines to a break in the tree line. Alex jerked a few steps forward, his surroundings all too achingly familiar. He’d nearly lost everyone he loved here.
Movement brought his eyes to the center of the small clearing and a hellish light brightened around him, trapping him. It was the same kind of barrier that had left him helpless to aid his friends, beating at the light like it was bulletproof glass. The barrier didn’t come down unless a heart stopped. And the bitch in the center didn’t have a heart to sacrifice.
He’d only seen Maeve once in a vision, but hers wasn’t a power to be forgotten. Her hair was the deep, dark red of garnets and her eyes were a bright hard green to match the cursed emerald at her throat. Once broken and beaten, now Maeve stood alive, well, and holding a dagger to Beth Ann’s throat.
“Come forward, healer. We have much to discuss.”
With his heart in his throat and his hands held carefully at his sides, Alex left the relative safety of the tree line. Beth Ann’s eyes were wide in her pale face as she held absolutely still, her chin lifted to accommodate the blade. Her gaze kept shifting to the side, but Alex couldn’t surmise her message.
Maeve laughed. “Your hands don’t scare me, Alex.”
Suddenly, all became silent and though Maeve’s mouth still moved, Alex didn’t know what she was saying. Straining to listen, he tried to move closer to her, but his body was frozen. Only his eyes could move. Alex searched the darkness, trying to find the unseen menace.
Until a voice as deep as the pits of hell, as resonant as his darkest nightmares, spoke in his ear. “I look into the future and this is what I see.”
Like spotlights in the darkness, the trees to the sides of Maeve lit, showing huddled figures at their base. He should have seen them before but they’d been shadowed, hidden from his gaze and only now fully revealed.
As the delicate features of each small face were bared to his gaze, Alex fought harder against the spell that bound him. He didn’t know them, had never seen them before, but they were children. That alone strengthened his resolve to save them.
“They are your future, every single one of them. Including her.” Alex looked at Beth Ann, until the voice moved and he could see a figure at the edge of his vision. Not a man, but something else. Something black with red embers burning within it, like a snuffed fire that still smoldered. “They were once my future. Let’s hope you aren’t as foolish as I.”
Alex looked at the children filling the clearing. He counted ten children of varying ages and his eyes widened, swinging to Beth Ann. The children weren’t theirs, together, but as he watched her gaze shift to each of them, bright with tears, full of love and determination to save them, he knew they would be.
His future. Alex swallowed, but couldn’t speak.
“You can save them. If your love is great enough.”
With a burst of movement, Maeve struck and the clearing ran red. Screams filled Alex’s ears—his own among them.
“It started out as one of those dreams.” Alex had told Geoffrey enough about them before that no more explanation was needed. He tightened one hand around the grips on a case of pop and the other hand around his grocery bags as he headed toward his truck. He always needed fuel on research nights. “So how can the rest of it be real?”
“It might not be, but there’s nothing about Maeve that should be taken lightly. The best, the safest thing to do is treat the dream like a warning.”
Setting the groceries in the bed of his truck, Alex said, “What I don’t understand is how she could even know about Beth Ann. I haven’t seen her in years, so unless Maeve can tap into my dreams, Beth Ann shouldn’t even—”
Alex stilled, staring as a heavily laden grocery cart rolled past his truck, pushed by a slim blonde woman in khaki shorts that showed off a pair of long legs and a short-sleeved peach top that made her tanned arms look soft and entirely biteable.
“Judging by the sound of your tongue hitting the ground, I take it you just saw her.”
“How did you know?
“Murphy’s Law, destiny, fate—pick one.” Geoffrey’s tone was as flat as ever, but something gave it a grimness that sent chills along Alex’s spine. When a man had lived for close to a thousand years like Geoffrey had, i
t was prudent to pay attention to his words.
“So you’re saying I should treat every part of my dream as real? Believe the voice really knew the future?”
“There are different views about visions, Alex. Some believe they can be changed. Some believe they can’t, that whatever is seen will come true. And some fight so hard to prevent it, they make it happen. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“Just friggin’ great.” The first time he’d seen Beth Ann in years and he would put her in danger whether he left, stayed, or went over to her. And at some point in the near future, he would watch helplessly as a homicidal bitch took her life because if he tried to stop it, he might cause it.
“Not the best of choices, I agree. The question we need to ponder is: if the vision can’t be changed and it is destined to happen—”
“—Then how do we fix it after it happens?”
“Exactly.”
“And I thought it was going to be difficult.” Alex snorted and watched Beth Ann lean into the back of her Durango, her bottom wiggling side to side as she rearranged a mountain of groceries. He licked his lips, but even his tongue was dry. Excuse me, miss? Can I help you with your groceries before my enemies target, torture, and murder you?
“Are you going to talk to her?”
“And say what? I know we haven’t seen each other since you turned me down for prom, but some evil witch-slash-demon visited my dreams last night and threatened you and our future children, so can I stick close?” Alex snorted.
“I have never known you to be speechless, Alex.” Geoffrey paused for a moment. “I may have prayed for it, but that request went unanswered.”
“Be careful, old man. I might accuse you of having a sense of humor.”
“I’m sure I could disabuse you of that notion.”
“True.” Alex smiled. He’d been a black belt for years, but five months of mixed martial-arts training with Geoffrey had taught him several painful lessons.
“Now armor up and go talk to her,” Geoffrey commanded in his I-have-led-knights-in-battle tone.
“Sir. Yes, sir!” Alex snapped out like the smart-ass he was, before he hung up the phone. He’d go talk to her. Surely talking wouldn’t lead to the vision? On the other hand, if whatever he did was destined, then did it matter what he chose?
Yes, his choices mattered. Even if only to himself.
A loud splash punctuated the quiet of the relatively empty parking lot and Alex turned to see white liquid pooling around Beth Ann’s feet.
Elizabeth gripped her hair at the sides of her head and stared at the river wending its way around her shoes. It was just a gallon of milk—overpriced, surely—but only one plastic container of a liquid that was probably too full of hormones to be truly healthy. But it was so symbolic of all that was wrong in her life that it was all she could do not to cry over it.
Who was she to know if something was necessary to a growing body’s health? It wasn’t like she’d ever had time to read, prepare, and learn how to be responsible for another person’s well-being. She wasn’t a mother, a nurse, or a pediatrician with years of knowledge to pull from the moment a situation required action. She was a software programmer, for God’s sake!
Elizabeth took a deep breath, pulling it in until both lungs were full and her chest was puffed out. She held it a moment before exhaling. She had to regain control of herself here and now, before it was gone completely. Lord knew there wouldn’t be time to do so later. Again she inhaled, clearing her mind of all problems except the most immediate. Step One—remove shoes from milk.
“Can I help?”
Elizabeth looked up into a pair of sparkling hazel eyes that were all too familiar and her breath whooshed out in a loud, embarrassing raspberry.
Alex laughed.
Elizabeth smiled helplessly, quick to step out of the milk. He looked just as she’d imagined. His hair was a touch longer, his arms thicker, and his chest broader than she’d remembered, but otherwise he was still the Alex she’d gone to school with. The Alex she dreamed of, when life was overwhelming and she needed to feel his arms around her even if only in her imagination.
Alex winked, then leaned forward and grasped the handle of the broken jug and turned toward the trash cans at the side of the building. Elizabeth took that as the perfect cue to remember how to breathe. Seriously, a shirt stretched over hard muscles and a tightly rounded butt that perfectly filled his black jeans should not equate to speechless ninny. Elizabeth shook her head and stared down at the milk puddling beneath her car. And around her flat tire.
With a wordless moan, she fell to her knees, mindless of the dirt, and pulled at a piece of glass wedged into the sidewall of her tire.
“Makes you just want to crawl back into bed and start the day over, doesn’t it?”
Elizabeth swallowed thickly. Just last night she’d crawled into a bed and the man standing behind her had been waiting in it. “Desperately.”
Chapter Two
“Do you have a spare?” Alex’s voice was so close it made her jump.
She paused a moment, thinking. “I think so.”
Elizabeth rose to her feet and peered through the bags littering the back of the SUV. Shoving a few bags here and there, she located the multi-use crowbar, ducked under the Durango and loosened the spare tire. When it was free, she rolled it to the ground and they both stared as it sank even lower than the other tire.
Elizabeth’s eyes widened. She wouldn’t cry in front of him. She didn’t cry in front of anyone, ever, if she could help it. She shook her head, her voice a hollow echo inside her skull. “This can’t be happening.”
Alex knelt beside her, his eyes soft with sympathy. “Got a lot of people waiting for you?”
Elizabeth’s shoulders sank and she looked at the tires again. “Yeah. A lot.”
Alex shrugged. “Well, we could call your husband and—”
“I don’t have a husband,” Elizabeth said in a flat voice.
“Oh.” His tone was carefully even. “Fiancé?”
Elizabeth shook her head, her dazed eyes still on the two flat tires. “Nope.”
“Boyfriend?”
Elizabeth wasn’t deaf to the curiosity he tried to hide, or his interest in her unattached status. A month ago, she would have been jumping for joy inside. “Nope. And no father.”
“I see.” Trying to understand, he hesitantly asked, “No one?”
She swallowed and licked her lips. “Just me.”
“What about all the people waiting for you?”
She smiled, or tried to, but her problems seemed insurmountable. She needed her car. Being without it wasn’t an option, but over the last few months, her bank account had dwindled to a point that replacing the tire posed a serious problem, especially since tires had to be replaced in sets of two or four. “They can’t help.”
With a definitive nod, he said, “Well, you’ve got me.”
Alex walked across the parking lot purposefully and Elizabeth stared after the man who’d fueled a thousand fantasies. Her eyes widened with surprise, relief, and, because this was her life, more than a bit of concern. Elizabeth looked at her car, disappointed she’d had to let her AAA coverage lapse, reduced her insurance so it didn’t include towing, forgotten to keep her spare in good condition, and had no ready cash that could be wasted on stupid emergencies. Not that there were smart emergencies, but still, small, annoying accidents weren’t what needed her attention most.
Money. She’d desperately needed to never again feel this crushing sense of panic. Like she was at the bottom of the ocean and couldn’t breathe; the surface was too far to reach, but she could only keep swimming anyway.
Well, she hadn’t wanted this sense of despair, but then, there were a mess of things she had now that she hadn’t wanted. And the alternative, dropping it all and running far, far away, was completely unacceptable.
A shiny blue truck pulled up behind her. She turned and watched Alex climb out and come around to her s
ide. Just add a cape and he could be her personal Superman. Elizabeth snorted. No man was that good. Besides, she didn’t need saving. A ride home was just a little temporary help, not a lifetime commitment. Alex started unloading bags from her vehicle into the back of his and she moved to help him.
“I really appreciate this. Thank you.” She didn’t know quite what else to say so she grabbed a few bags and put them in the back of his truck. On the driver’s side of the bed, she could see two plastic bags and a case of pop.
Her shopping used to be that simple. She’d pop in for five minutes, grab whatever she needed for a weekend alone, and leave. So much could change in just a few months.
“Don’t worry about it. Not a big deal.” He didn’t look at her, but embarrassment heated her cheeks anyway. What an impression she must be making. She’d tried so hard to be different, independent and capable, but she was right back where she’d started. Welcome home, Beth Ann.
No. Elizabeth shook the thought away. This wasn’t the same and she wasn’t the same. She just needed a ride home. She’d figure out where to go from there.
Elizabeth grabbed her purse, checked the car, and locked the doors while he put away the cart. Then she pulled herself into the truck, wishing she wasn’t quite so short. As if mocking her, he slid smoothly behind the steering wheel and closed his door. “That is so unfair to short people everywhere.”
Alex looked at her and gave that heart-stopping grin she’d dreamed about for twelve years. Shifting the truck into gear, he headed to the exit and paused before turning onto the street. “Where to?”
Willing her heart to work at a normal pace again, she gestured. “Take a right, past Hamilton, and turn on—”
“Is it where you lived when you were in high school?”
Elizabeth turned wide eyes to him. “You remember?”
He shrugged and switched gears, the veins in his hands and forearms bunching with each movement. There was something sexy about a man comfortable driving a standard.
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