Shadow Dreams Read online

  “So?” He sat on the side of the bed and brushed the hair off my forehead with a gentle hand. “So are you,” he pointed out.

  I wanted to answer but my teeth started chattering. Being separated from his heat and put into the cold bed was too much for my system.

  He frowned, looking like a thundercloud. “Look at you, freezing to death. Guess I’ll have to warm you up.” He pulled up the covers and bumped me gently with his hip, indicating I should move over.

  “Wait a minute…” I felt my foggy brain trying to react to the situation. This was definitely not right, no matter how drunk and disoriented I was.

  “You wanna freeze to death?” he asked, giving me a stern look from those dark eyes.

  Hesitantly, I shook my head. The gap in the covers had caused me to break out in gooseflesh all over again and I was shivering from head to toe.

  “All right then, I won’t bite. Never did before, did I?”

  It wasn’t biting I was concerned with but somehow he was in the bed before I could say anything. He turned to face me and demanded, “Come here.”

  I don’t know if I would’ve gone to him or not but he didn’t wait for me to come. Instead, he gathered me close in his arms, pillowing my head on his hard bicep while he rubbed briskly over my back and sides with large, warm hands.

  Acting on instinct I huddled close to his heat, feeling it penetrate my bones. At last my shivering stopped.

  “That’s better, isn’t it?” he murmured, pulling me even closer. His deep voice vibrated through me deliciously and the brisk rubbing had turned to long, lazy strokes over my sides and back. His musky, wild scent filled my senses and I became aware that something long and hot was branding my lower belly.

  This wasn’t right—I didn’t even know him. I tried to pull away but he held me close.

  “I won’t hurt you, just want to hold you. I promise not to do anything you don’t want.”

  I was still trying to wrap my mind around that statement when it occurred to me why he had looked so familiar. He was the man in my dreams. Just another dream, I thought and was surprised how disappointed I was. But at least it allowed me to relax. He was only a dream, and dreams can’t hurt you.

  “I know ‘bout you,” I murmured, feeling my eyelids grow heavy again. “In the morning you’ll be gone.”

  He sighed and his arms tightened around me. “Yeah, you’re right. I was hoping to make a little more headway tonight but the moon will be setting soon. You’re in no condition to listen anyway.”

  I wanted to ask what the moon had to do with anything but my eyelids felt like they had been dipped in lead.

  He tilted my chin up and gave me a soft kiss on the lips. His mouth was warm and firm and he buried one hand in my hair to hold me in place and explored me thoroughly while his thickness throbbed against my belly. He tasted wild—delicious. The kiss made my heart pound despite the fact that I knew it was only a dream. Strange though, my dreams had never been quite this vivid before.

  “Your husband was a fool,” he whispered, releasing my mouth at last and stroking one large hand through my hair.

  I opened my mouth to say something, I don’t know what, but just then I lost the fight with my lead-dipped eyelids and everything went black.

  Chapter 4

  The next morning I awoke with a hideous hangover and the knowledge that I would have to go into the office and finish some work I had left. I had conveniently put this out of my mind the night before when I decided to kill most of a bottle of strong red wine by myself.

  Groaning, I sat up in bed, wincing as the morning sun lanced at my eyeballs. Shadow came around to my side of the bed and licked my knee with his warm, taffy-pink tongue.

  “Ugh, I feel horrible,” I told him, scratching absently behind his pointed black ears. “This is why I shouldn’t drink.”

  He gave a short, sharp bark that sounded somehow disapproving. The sound seemed to go straight through my head like an iron spike in my brain and I winced and pushed him away.

  “Keep it to yourself, buddy,” I said, staggering out of bed on legs that felt like crooked sticks. Then I looked down at myself. Why was I naked? I never slept in the buff even when Douglas and I were married. For one thing he never seemed to take the hint and for another there was no point in going to bed naked when the person you were sleeping with refused to cuddle.

  Despite the Arizona heat, I was cold natured so I mostly slept in a long sleep-shirt. (My favorite one had been a gift from Patty and had ‘sleep diva’ printed in pink glitter letters across the front.) But now here I was, naked as the day I was born. Come to think of it, I couldn’t even remember getting out of the tub and getting into the bed. I had a brief flash of memory—something about a large man drying me off and talking about the moon? The feel of a hard body against mine and a long, delicious kiss … but then it was gone again.

  I shook my head. “I must’ve really been out of it last night,” I muttered, going to the bathroom to start the water for a hot shower.

  * * * *

  I let Shadow out into my back yard while I fixed breakfast which mainly consisted of strong black coffee. He sniffed around excitedly and then went modestly behind a tree to answer the call of nature. He came back immediately when he was finished and whined at the door to be let in.

  I had thought to leave him outside in the yard to play and explore while I did my time at work but the appealing look in his big brown eyes changed my mind. I opened the door and gestured with my coffee mug.

  “All right then, if you’re sure you’d rather be cooped up in the house all day than play outside.”

  He gave a short bark that I took to mean yes.

  “Well, I know it isn’t much fun to be stuck in here with no company, boy.” I talked to him as I led him into the den which had hardwood floors and seemed the ideal place to leave him. “I’m sorry I have to leave you alone when we’re still getting used to each other,” I told him as I spread the morning paper out in front of the brown and white spotted leather ‘cow-hide’ couch.

  Douglas had thought it would be fun to have a Southwestern theme for this room, but he had taken many of the decorative touches with him when he moved out. All that remained was the ridiculous couch and a large, potted cactus in one corner. There was still a big screen TV, however, and I grabbed the remote and flipped channels until I got to ‘Animal Planet.’

  “There, that oughta keep you happy,” I told the big dog, ruffling my hand through his fur.

  In a motion so fast I barely saw it, he leaned up suddenly and caught my hand gently between his powerful jaws. The big eyes looked sad and he whined softly in the back of his throat.

  I held my breath for a moment. He could bite my hand off with no problem if he wanted too. A voice in the back of my head whispered, I won’t bite. Never did before, did I? I shook my head. Where was that coming from? A muddled remnant of last night’s dream, no doubt.

  “Let me go now, Shadow. Good boy,” I said softly, tugging gently at my captured hand. He released me immediately and I examined my palm and fingers but there wasn’t so much as a tooth-print or a scratch. In hindsight, the gesture hadn’t seemed aggressive at all. It was more like he was begging me not to go.

  Shadow whined again.

  “I know, boy, but I’ve just gotta go in and finish this project or my boss will skin me alive come Monday. We have a big client coming for a presentation. Tell you what,” I wiped my damp hand on the inside of my jacket, mentally racking up another dry-cleaning charge. “I promise when I come home we’ll go to the park for a run. Won’t that be fun?”

  He looked at me doubtfully and then padded over to the cow-skin couch and plopped onto it. Dropping his head on his front paws, he gave me the most desolate look imaginable. Geeze—talk about a guilt trip. I shook my head. I was losing it, letting my dog make me feel guilty.

  Placing the remote firmly on top of the big-screen TV, which was now showing a documentary on the wildlife of Australia, I gave hi