she was flying and her usual jeans and T-shirt were unacceptable. With a thought he dropped a long white gown over her head, the simple silk flowing from shoulders to toes, outlining the curved perfection of her body, clinging to the beauty of her breasts and their outthrust nipples. She liked the gift, the pleasure clear on her lovely face, and he couldn’t help but stare at her just a few moments longer. They had so little time together, and…
…and there were rules he must follow.
Shapeless and dark, he thrust himself up against her from behind, his arm ringing her shoulders and his brute’s body like a solid wall of muscle and masculinity against her. She startled, her hands immediately going to the arm that held her so tightly. She didn’t call out a name, telling him that she didn’t have any notable men in her life whom she felt would come up on her like this. Why the idea should please him, he didn’t know. Nor did he care.
He wrapped his hand around her neck, the delicate length of her throat so unexpectedly narrow compared to the rest of her voluptuous body that he had a moment of fear that he had grabbed her too hard. Then he laughed at himself because it was only a dream, and grabbing her too hard was a part of the nightmare to come.
He could see into her mind, all her thoughts and emotions, all the trials of her life…and most of all, every fear she had ever had. It impressed him that she did not have very many things that scared her. She was as tough as she was beautiful. But everyone had fears no matter how tough a person was, and she was no exception. He merely enjoyed the challenge for what it was. She began to struggle against him in earnest, her feet and legs flailing as she tried to kick him. But she couldn’t hurt him here in this place. Not really.
Enjoying how she fought him, he threw her down on the bed that suddenly appeared. He followed over her, a dark hulking figure she could not make out or fight off no matter how hard she tried. She gritted her teeth in frustration, and he simply held her there, trapped and immobile.
“Who are you? What do you want?” she wanted to know. Then he paid great attention to the details of her trapped body. How soft she felt. How incredibly perfect she seemed. As far as jobs went, this wasn’t the worst one to have.
“You tell me first,” he taunted her, his voice like gravel and sand. “Obey me or you will not like the consequences.”
She thought about it, the stubborn set of her lips telling him she’d rather get her teeth pulled than tell him anything, but in the end her psychological make-up was going to defeat her.
“Kathryn,” she spat out.
Kathryn. Oh, how he loved to hear her name. He asked her for it every time, just to hear that defiant burst of passionate declaration. In the first three or four dreams he hadn’t asked for her name, not wanting to attach himself to her too personally, perhaps knowing on some level that there was a danger of it with this creature that was not present in others. Now he knew, and he could not take back the knowing. And he didn’t want to. He liked her name. Liked her. It was as bold and glorious as she was. She was, he thought heatedly, a one-of-a-kind and most perfect thing.
He rose over her, relieving her of the burden of his weight as he hovered above her. She might not be able to make his features out, but her mind would interpret his menacing and covetous expression as he ran his eyes over her stretched-out body. He reached to hold her hands above her head in one of his, then raked a hard hand and curved fingers down over her face, throat, and chest.
“You always fight,” he growled, and his harsh hand yanked up the gown and exposed her legs all the way to her thighs. The movement was such a hard one that she shimmied in all of her softest places, emphasizing just how much of a woman she really was. “But I know what you really want,” he told her as his hand scorched up over her thigh and his palm briefly cupped her bare sex. Kathryn gasped and lifted a leg as if to kick him, only succeeding in opening herself to him.
After all, as far as struggles went, this one was quite mild. Perhaps she was beginning to remember the game. Perhaps she was becoming too complacent.
“So, you have no desire to fight?” he asked her hotly, his breath coming quick even though she was being too easy. Just being this close to her stirred him to distraction. “Where is your fear?”
As he said it everything around the room exploded into flames. The only thing left untouched was the bed, but the heat felt all too real and dangerous. Kathryn cried out, struggling harder now to get out from under him, to get away from the thing she feared the most. He could feel her heart racing; she was panting hard for her breath. He tore at the top of her gown, exposing her to the waist, pulling her breast out to meet his mouth. When she screamed it was with a splendid combination of terror and arousal. She was filled with confusion as to why she would react in such a way. But he knew her mind far better than she did, and knew that the excitement of a forcible seduction was one of her darkest fantasies, one she would only ever indulge in here, where it was safe. The fear of the fire only heightened the adrenaline coursing through her. The more intense the danger, the more excited she became.
But still the key element was in her resistance to herself. She felt how she responded and thought it was wrong. She felt shame and guilt, like something was defective within her because she grew wet as he gnawed and devoured her nipple over and over again. He wished then that he could truly taste her skin, truly smell the scent of her. He wanted her in real dimensions, not these imaginary ones. He shifted up to crush his mouth upon hers, the full perfection of her mouth calling to him incessantly, day and night, with no quiet to be had. Frustration wormed through him as he kissed her with great passion but could experience none of the depth and flavor of her. He knew she could feel his passionate intentions, but he was just outside of truth of definition to her as well.
With a roar of fury he burst away from the bed and the object of his dissatisfaction. Ever since he had stumbled upon her the first time, he had been utterly obsessed. He’d tried time and again to stop, to carry on his work elsewhere, to fill his time with better sources of fear and focus.
But always she lured him back, with her infuriating perfection and needful body. She craved so many dark and wonderful things; she had the deepest of fears and yet faced them with such unbelievable courage. She was utterly fascinating.
And he wanted her.
Not just in this realm he was limited to, but beyond it. In the real. He would take her—yes! Yes, he could keep her then, keep her for his very own, and no one could stop him. No one would dare to stop him.
He reached out for her, pulling her to her feet and into the fire. Her dress immediately caught flame at the hem and she screamed, struggling to brush away the flames.
“Tell me where you live and I’ll make it all stop,” he promised her.
“Stop it! Please!”
“Tell me,” he coaxed her as the flames leapt higher against her.
Drowning in terror and flame, she did.
Ripping out of the horrifying nightmare with a gasp, Kathryn instantly tried to beat out flames that no longer existed. Her sudden movement nearly toppled her out of the plain wooden chair she’d pulled up to her sister’s bedside. It took her a moment to shake off her disorientation, to realize she had fallen asleep while watching over Jillian. She hurriedly left her chair to lean over her sister’s bed. Jillian was shivering weakly, her breath rasping in a sickening staccato rhythm.
“Hush, now. Rest, love,” she crooned gently to the sick girl.
Kathryn rubbed the grit of weariness
