Dream - Dream Specter Part 3

He formed from nothing but darkness. His hand snaked around her throat and pulled her back against a solid wall of flesh. Her fingers dug into that hand, frantically trying to pull it away.

Jared hadn't noticed how pet.i.te she was. Her head barely reached his collarbone. Controlling his grip, he stood firm as she struggled in panic.

Considering her emotions, Jared found his suspicions crumbling. There was too much innocence inside her. Locking his arm over her waist, he continued to hold their bodies together. It intensified his link and he was just enjoying it far too much.

Her body fit into his. He let his eyes slide down the smooth column of her throat and over the mounds of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Releasing her throat, he trailed his fingers over her neck and smiled. His body jumped with antic.i.p.ation as he filled his lungs with her scent.

She couldn't panic. Rosh.e.l.le repeated it over and over. Her body wouldn't obey. She was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm. His body burned along every millimeter of her back. He didn't allow her even the smallest gaps between their bodies, instead she was pressed to him. Her eyes suddenly widened as her back felt the very clear evidence of his arousal. The thick erection seemed to set off a pulse of sensation deep inside her body.

"You shouldn't be here," Jared whispered his words in her ear. He lowered his head further in search of her scent. "But I'm not complaining."

That hand stroked over her neck again in a smooth motion that made her belly clench. Rosh.e.l.le renewed her attempts for escape but he held her firmly against him. Her rapid breathing pulled his smell deep inside her. Heat pooled in her abdomen as his hand moved back up her neck. A single finger traced the contours of her lips.

"Stop that!" Rage gave her the ability to snap out of panic's grip. Just what did he think he was doing? "Let me go!"

"No." He whispered the word a millimeter from her ear. His breath hit her skin and she shivered in response. Her entire body seemed to have become a network of receptors that were screaming in unison.

Jared stroked a hand over her neck again. Her body quivered in his hands and he grinned. There was something intense about her reaction to him. His staff throbbed as he let his lips gently nip the side of her neck.

"You can't just handle me."

"Maybe you should stay on your own property, because I've wanted to handle you since we met."

Oh sweet Jesus! It hadn't been a dream. He wasn't a dream.

No, the solid steel of his body confirmed that this wasn't some dream-spun creature. The strength he held her with was extreme. He wasn't hurting her, instead he was scorching her skin with his mouth. His lips made a trail down her neck as he bit and lingered over each touch. Her body seemed to explode with heat as she listened to the tiny moan that escaped her own lips.

Turning her body, Jared wrapped his hand over the back of her head. His mouth sought hers and settled over her lips. She gasped in shock and he seized the opportunity to explore her mouth.

She was being invaded. On every level. Rosh.e.l.le couldn't seem to remember where her body began and his ended. He moved in and around her in so many ways. The way his lips took command of hers just seemed a natural progression of their joined souls. She pushed against him but the solid steel of his chest remained firmly rooted in place.

He lingered over her mouth. Tasting and exploring the satin of her lips. There was a spicy scent that came from her skin and Jared trailed his lips down her neck as he searched for its source. She tasted better than she felt. His body was surging forward with impatience and demands.

Her clothing was a barrier. Jared wasn't in the mood to be stopped by anything. The snap of a b.u.t.ton as he popped it free hit his ears. He curled his fingers into the thin cotton of her blouse and hesitated. The extreme tide of emotions her body sparked left him off balance as he considered her pa.s.sion-drugged face.

Her body shuttered as his hand cupped her breast. His thumb brushed across her nipple and it rose to stiff attention. A second b.u.t.ton popped free and then a third. The night air graced her skin a second before his hand cupped her bared breast. Pleasure rose from the contact as another moan escaped her. This time it was more of a whimper as she struggled against her need for that touch. How could her body need his touch?

Yet somehow she did. Her back arched and her hips thrust forward as she balanced on the edge of desire. She felt each finger as it gripped her and the harshness of the thumb that pa.s.sed over her nipple again.

He bent her back over his arm. Her breast rose up in tempting display as Jared fit his aching s.e.x into the notch of her thighs. Her body shivered and he stroked a firm hand down her neck again. It wasn't about wanting to handle her. He needed to touch her. Taste her, sink into her body and touch the essence of her that he could smell on her skin.

"Oh, G.o.d." Rosh.e.l.le felt her body shatter as he captured her nipple with his mouth. She couldn't feel the ground beneath her feet as his tongue circled the nub and lapped over its peak. Pleasure spiked through her so intensely, it bordered on pain. She clung to his biceps and marveled at the tightly corded muscles her fingers found.

Her hips thrust towards him, making Jared curse. His s.e.x throbbed with need as her scent rose hot and spicy from her core. The need to tear into her clothing rode him hard. He gritted his teeth as his eyes caught the tight little bud of her nipple. She was still bent over his arm, oblivious to her helplessness. He could impale her body with her back against a tree and she'd never be able to stop him.

But he wasn't an animal even if his body was raging with primal need. Catching the side of her shirt, Jared pulled it across her breast as he took a last taste of her lips. Her frame shuddered as she regained her composure. Cupping her face, he stared into her wide eyes.

"I've enjoyed your visit. Feel free to come back, Rosh.e.l.le."

A second later, she stood alone.

Her eyes flew open as she frantically searched for him. Every shadow could have been him. She could still feel the man so very keenly. There was no way for her to condense the stimulus into a single point of location.

But he had released her. Rosh.e.l.le sent her eyes over the dark forest again. Where was he? She shook her head trying to force her brain to resume logical functions. Her emotions rolled dangerously and she turned on her heel in retreat. The need for escape pounded through her bloodstream.

Jared watched her go with half-closed eyes. The curve of her hips was sultry. Her taste clung to his lips as he set his shoulders firmly into the trunk of a tree. He lingered over their link even as distance made it harder to hold. She was struggling against his mental hold just as determinedly as she had against his body.

The corners of his mouth twitched up slightly before he released her. It really was a pity she was a civilian. Bending over, he snagged her jacket from the forest floor. The garment had droped from her fingers and she seemed to not think it worth stopping her escape to retrieve. Her scent clung to the fabric. His body tensed as desire sent another demand along his nerves.

If she found the courage to come back up his mountain, Jared wouldn't let her leave it quite so quickly. Turning back up the mountain, he climbed back towards his world.

The next two days gave her little time to consider anything other than her patients. As far as the medical center was concerned, it was a two hundred percent increase in workload. The nurses grumbled. Rosh.e.l.le silently prayed in thanksgiving.

While she focused on her patients there was no time to think about him.

While Fate might have been feeling kind, it wasn't completely forgiving. He floated across her mind every time she closed her eyes. The deep rasp of his voice was rooted inside her head.

"Well, it's about time this place quieted down." A nurse ambled past with a loaded supply cart. She raised her eyes up and raked them over Rosh.e.l.le. "A good night's rest should be prescribed for you, Doctor."

"Yes, Ma'am." There was no way Rosh.e.l.le was going anywhere near her bed before total exhaustion forced her to.

Besides, she needed a new jacket. She needed a lot of new things. Her belongings currently consisted of what she'd had stored in her locker at the medical center. Her one and only jacket was lying up on that mountainside.

It could just stay there. He wasn't a rude boy any longer. Rosh.e.l.le wasn't even sure he was real. But she certainly wasn't going back up there to find out!

Fine. She was a coward. In big, bold capital letters. It was an easier than dealing with him.

Rosh.e.l.le's cell phone began to chime for attention the second she slid her key into the car ignition.

"Listen very carefully...." While the phrase itself was almost comical due to its abundant use in television melodramas, the tone that delivered it forced a shiver to rise along her backbone.

No late-night movie actor had ever been able to instill absolute terror using nothing more than his voice. The phone line disconnected almost before her brain finished processing the information that she was issued.

Rosh.e.l.le sat with the tiny bit of technology clutched between frozen fingers. She had to get help, she needed to call...

No one!

The man on the other end of the line was brutally explicit on just what would happen if Rosh.e.l.le involved anyone else. It was a joke. A horrible, sick prank. Rosh.e.l.le snapped to attention and forced a new line of numbers into the phone. She would just call...and Christina would answer and that would be the end of it.

"Really, Doctor, I did expect better from a person of your intelligence level. However, proof can be provided." The slight sounds of the phone being handed off came across the line. "Speak to her," drifted next, but it was not spoken into the phone itself but instead to someone in the vicinity of the unit.

Someone hissed a reply back but it came across as nothing but m.u.f.fled sounds.

"Your friend is very stubborn, but we will break her."

The chilling certainty of the man's ability to do just that seemed to be conveyed in the arctic tone of his

voice.

"No!" Several people in the parking lot turned their attention towards her apparent distress. Forcing her

voice to mask her growing terror required tremendous amounts of will.

"That won't be necessary."

"Twelve hours."

This time the silence of the disconnected line was as startling as a gunshot. Her fingers fumbled as she

tried to turn the key in the ignition. There was so much to do and she only had twelve hours, really only

four because it was already one in the afternoon. The obstacle that had been placed in front of her seemed almost too steep to scale, but she would. Christina was the only true family that she had.

If they wanted her land that bad they could just have it!

"This is very sudden, Rosh.e.l.le; are you sure you want to do this?"

It was strange the way the simplest of questions could break through a person's panic. Standing in the

land deed office, as she was just a breath away from complying with a kidnapper, Candice Talbert's question reached out to slap her back into rational thought.

If she signed the land over, what a.s.surance did she have that Christina would ever be seen again? The hand that held an ink pen began to shake as the horrible possibilities started to circulate inside her head. For that matter, she was to deliver the papers later tonight; once her signature was affixed to the deed then she herself would have no other purpose.

Except to blow the whistle.

Firmly placing the pen back into its holder, Rosh.e.l.le aimed a smile at Candice.

"I believe you're correct. I think I'll just take a few days to think it over. In fact, I'd appreciate it if you'd remember to try and talk me out of it if I try this again."

"Well, just don't go sending that thing over with a delivery boy."

"Candice, I promise you that if I do sell, I'll find the courage to look you in the eye. In fact, if you don't get it from my hand, don't accept it."

"Well, now, I've got a form you can sign to that effect."

"Really?" That would sure make things more interesting tonight. Rosh.e.l.le forced her hand to stop shaking as she applied her signature to the contract Candice slid onto the countertop. The stakes were rather high, but what choice did she have? Walking out with a deed in her hand seemed like hoisting a white flag of surrender.

"That's a girl." Candice would have added a few more bits of advice but her guest rounded on her heel and started down the hallway. Some people just had no respect for their family roots. Still, Rosh.e.l.le didn't seem the sort to just sell up after her kin pa.s.sed on. Candice considered her encounter with the young woman before reaching for the telephone, maybe her friend Ruth would have some light to shed on the situation.

So, just what was the thing with her grandmother's land?

Phone calls were one thing, but kidnapping? Benton County had one of the lowest crime rates in the country. Most people in town didn't even bother to lock the doors to their cars when they stepped into the local market.

The entire thing just defied logic. Deed the land over and Christina would be released. That just didn't seem very likely.

So, what if she called their bluff?

Dropping her head into her hands, she renewed her attempts to soothe away her headache. Nausea was rising up from her stomach to join it. Just what the h.e.l.l was going on? It had all begun with him.

Abruptly her mood changed as anger burned away at her body's distress. She had every right to live on her land! No dream specter was going to drive her out and she was not going to put up with her friends being held hostage!

After all, she really didn't have any other choice. Christina was all she had.

"Now, Rosh.e.l.le, you're asking an old man to break the law."

Forcing her mouth into a smile, Rosh.e.l.le twisted her hands. "Mr. Findlay, it's not like the gun laws were made for someone like me. I'm not a criminal, just a little scared. Why my grandfather's rifle sat in the corner of the kitchen every day that Abba lived and I just would feel so much better with a bit of protection about."

Tomas reached up to scratch his head as he eyed her. Rosh.e.l.le held her breath but kept her eyelashes moving. She'd watched Christina twist men around her little finger with just a smile and a few eyelash flutters!

"I'm not going hunting. I promise no one will even know the gun left this store. Unless something happens." Now she let her eyes open wide. The gun shop owner melted right in front of her. He took the credit card she held and rang up the sale.

"Well, now it just ain't right for a woman to be all tied up in knots and so on. What you need is to get on with settling down. You young folks don't take family as serious as you should. Waiting to have your babies 'til half your life's gone. A good, st.u.r.dy husband is all the protection you really need."

Her smile melted off her face the second she stepped out of the shop. Clutching her purchase under her arm, Rosh.e.l.le forced her feet forward.

Her feet stumbled as she looked at the Benton County Sheriff Station. Sitting just half a block away it was so very tempting to go lay her burden on law enforcement's shoulders.

But she couldn't take that chance. The thought of never seeing Christina toss her blonde curls again stiffened her resolve. Clutching her purchase to her chest, she turned away from the sheriff's station.

Rosh.e.l.le had never been so grateful for her odd senses. Tonight, she bowed her head in grat.i.tude for the singeing sting that would inform her when she was no longer alone. She opened her mind and for the very first time attempted to feel for her approaching company.

Standing in the shadows cast by a half-dead tree, she waited. Her anger was still biting away at her emotions. Rosh.e.l.le intentionally allowed it free rein. It was better than being afraid.

Her fingers curled around the handle of the small caliber pistol. Her baggy sweatshirt let her keep the weapon concealed in its folds.

It was going to be one of the greatest tests of character that she had ever undergone. Threatening to take another human being's life was something that was in direct conflict with every thing that she believed in.

It was amazing how loud the sensation was when she was attempting to use it. Rosh.e.l.le felt her senses ring in a near-deafening level across her mind.