Shadow Dreams Read online

  Rising up a little, he withdrew his tongue and replaced it with two long, strong fingers. I cried out loud as I felt the delicious deep thrust inside my cleft and then he was sucking my clit between his lips, licking and tasting me relentlessly while he pressed deeper and deeper inside my sex, as though he was searching for my soul.

  I felt the hot wash of orgasm break over me in a sudden flood and there was a high, keening wail, not unlike the lonely call of the coyote I’d heard earlier that night at the park. It was me. I was trembling under his hands, under his mouth, coming apart in a sweet flood of release as he lapped at me, tasting my intense pleasure.

  “God, you’re delicious. You sing so sweet for me, baby,” he murmured at last. And then he was on top of me again and I welcomed the heat of his big body, welcomed the feel of his thick shaft between my thighs.

  He took my mouth in a searing kiss, feeding me the taste of myself as he sucked my tongue the way he had sucked my clit. I felt the velvety slide of his cock parting the lips of my sex as he rubbed over me, against me, but never quite inside me.

  “Please,” I whispered and this time the word held no fear or doubt. I wanted him in me—needed him in me, filling me, fucking me, owning me.

  “Wish I could but there’s no time,” he whispered. I saw him glance up over my shoulder through the window and a shadow of something like fear or regret passed over his hawk-like features. “I better go now,” he said, beginning to pull away. “There isn’t enough time.”

  “Wait,” I protested but then he was leaving me, pulling away despite my efforts to hold him.

  “Later … we’ll talk later.” The low voice faded into the darkness and I knew somehow that there was no point in following him. How can you hold onto a dream when it fades away? I rolled on my side instead and watched the moon through the window as it sank into the blackness of the sky like a white stone disappearing into a pond.

  Chapter 8

  The persistent ringing of my bedside phone woke me and for a moment I felt disoriented. Shouldn’t there be someone beside me in bed? Then I remembered yet again that it had been six months since the divorce and the only person in my bed since was just a dream. I was just going to have to get used to sleeping alone.

  “H’lo,” I mumbled sleepily when I finally managed to fumble the phone off the hook.

  “Angelina, are you okay?” It was Barbara and I could tell she was upset.

  “’Course I’m okay,” I said, sitting up in bed and trying not to yawn in her ear. “What’s wrong?”

  “Oh,” she sighed in obvious relief. “It’s just that I was watching the morning news and … didn’t you tell me you were taking Shadow for a run in the park when you got off work yesterday?”

  “Yes,” I said and suddenly everything hit me at once. The park, the man who’d attacked me, the stale stench of his breath and the malevolent glint of his knife… “Oh my God,” I whispered, half to myself. How could I have forgotten such a horrible thing? It should have been uppermost in my mind the minute I woke up, but instead all I could remember was that I’d had that damn dream again.

  “What is it?” Barb still sounded plenty worried and I hastened to reassure her.

  “Nothing, Barb. I … I’m fine. What did you see on the news?”

  “Well, now don’t get excited, hon, but they found something in the White Tank Mountain Park. Was that the one you went to?”

  “No,” I lied immediately, although I wasn’t sure why. “Why, what did they find?”

  “There was a man found on the path—badly beaten but that isn’t what killed him. He had his … his throat was ripped out, Angelina,” she finished in a rush. “He had a knife and they found some rope and a gag in his car. They aren’t for sure, but they think he might be the serial rapist that’s been around your area.”

  “Oh, you mean the one we never talked about?” I said, still feeling numb. His throat ripped out? I remembered the blood on Shadow’s jaws and the choked gurgling sound I’d heard coming from the dark path. Surely not … surely that blood belonged to a rabbit…

  “Be fair,” Barbara was saying as I tried to pull my mind back to reality. “You know Patricia and I knew about it. And we knew you knew about it. We just didn’t want to upset you, hon.”

  “I know,” I said and sighed. It must have been a rabbit. It had to be. I needed to get off the phone and think. “Listen, now that you got me up I really ought to let Shadow out. So far he seems to be completely house-trained but…”

  “Oh, yes, Shadow. I almost forgot,” she interrupted me. “You do remember about his appointment tomorrow, don’t you?”

  “What appointment?” I stretched, trying to get rid of the tingling feeling in my limbs. I must have slept like a rock.

  “The vet’s appointment,” Barb said. “Don’t you remember?”

  “No,” I said, feeling irritated. I wanted to get off the phone and try to think everything through, not sit in bed naked all day talking on the phone. Naked, what was I doing naked? It looked like I was beginning to make sleeping in the buff a new nighttime practice.

  “Geeze.” Barb sighed, a long-suffering sound that never fails to make Patty or myself feel guilty. She knows it too. “I guess that whole lecture about responsible pet ownership went right in one ear and out the other. The woman at the shelter even went out of her way to make the appointment herself.”

  “Well I’m sorry she went through the trouble and I do intend to be a responsible pet owner, but there’s no way I can get him anywhere tomorrow,” I said. “We’ve got a huge presentation for the Bardine Corporation and if I miss one second of it Phelps will kill me.” (Ronald Phelps was my boss, and sometimes nemesis, at Thackery Advertising Agency where I worked. Didn’t much like him.) “I was at the office most of yesterday just trying to finish the report and get prepared for the damn thing,” I told Barbara. “Everything has to be perfect.”

  “Oh, Jelly, I’m sorry.” She sounded really contrite on the phone. “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that the woman kind of bent the rules for us, letting you take him over the weekend and everything…”

  Just then the topic of conversation himself came clicking into the room. He stopped by the edge of the bed and barked once, looking at me expectantly.

  “Hey, is that him?” Barbara sounded delighted.

  “Yup,” I ruffled the fuzzy pointed ears that had given me such comfort the night before when I was trying to drift off to sleep. “Look, Barb, I really should go. I think he needs to go out.” Shadow’s big plumy tail swished as though in agreement.

  “Okay, hon, I’ll let you go. Listen, tell you what. I’ll drop in tomorrow morning and take him myself. I’ve got your spare key and I don’t have any clients scheduled until ten.”

  “Oh, Barb, are you sure you don’t mind?” I said, ruffling his fur. Shadow barked again.

  “Not a problem,” she said dismissively. “Just leave his paperwork out where I can find it, okay?”

  “Will do. Thanks a million, you’re the best,” I told her.

  “You’d do the same for me,” she said. “Besides, I’m just glad you’re all right. At least there’s one less sick-o out there to worry about.”

  “At least,” I agreed.

  * * * *

  I got dressed and let Shadow out. While I watched him water Douglas’s prize rose bushes through the kitchen window I sipped a cup of coffee and considered things carefully. Why had I lied to Barb about being in White Tank Park the night before? It had been almost a reflex but now I was glad. If Shadow had killed the man who’d been intent on attacking me, I didn’t want anyone knowing it. Not even my best friends.

  I sighed and poured the rest of the coffee down the sink. At least there was one less thing on my itinerary today. Going to the police was out. They wouldn’t let me keep an animal that might have killed someone, even if that someone was a serial rapist. I would have to keep things to myself and be more careful in the future.

  I whistled for