Dreaming of the Wolf (14 page)

One thing was certain: Ferdinand was dead.

With all those thoughts running through her tired mind, she finally succumbed to sleep and dreamed like she’d never dreamt before.

With the hotel curtains shut tight, the bed covered in an orange floral spread, and prints on the walls of floral bouquets, Alicia dressed in a satiny black nightgown touching her ankles, with a slit up the side and spaghetti straps that bared her shoulders as she headed from the bathroom to the bed. But her attention was drawn to the sitting room as a flicker of movement caught her eye.

She
turned. To her astonishment, Jake Silver stalked toward her, naked, his lean muscled body gorgeous in the low light of the room, his eyes and lips smiling in a lustful, greedy way. She knew as soon as she saw him that he desired her as much as she craved being with him. But somewhere in the back of her mind she knew this was a big mistake. Yet she couldn’t remember why. Why was seeing him not a safe thing to do?

And
she
vaguely
wondered
why
he
was
here. How he had found her. And why he had no clothes.

She
didn’t care and stretched her arms up to take hold of him. To embrace him. To make love to him. She wanted him with a passion that she couldn’t quell.

His
kiss
on
her
mouth
started
a
low, slow burn growing in the small of her belly, the heat spreading outward as his hands cupped her face, holding her just the way he wanted her. The pressure on her lips increased until she openly invited him in. And he leaped at the invitation, plunging his tongue into her mouth, his hands shifting to her shoulders, gripping her as if he’d lost her forever and had once again found her. He pulled her into his hard embrace, holding her tight as his mouth kissed the top of her head, his arms encircled her back as if they were two lovers reunited.

The
familiarity
felt
phenomenal. As if they belonged together. As if they were bound to each other in some mysterious way.

Yet
something
was
terribly
amiss. She felt it in her bones. Something was wrong with her. She couldn’t… be with Jake. Because… because…

No
matter
how
hard
she
tried
to
think, she couldn’t come up with the reason. His hands brushed down her naked back, his mouth sweeping across her jaw, lower, his tongue on her throat, and then his lips took in a nipple, licking and sucking, and she squeezed his broad back and moaned.

Hot, hot, she was burning up with heat. Delicious, sexy heat. And the realization dawned that he wasn’t upset with her for leaving him without a word.

All
that
seemed
to
matter
to
him
was
that
they
were
together
again. She cherished him for it, wanted to meld with him, be one with him, and never let go.

Forever, he touched her and kissed her, as if he couldn’t get enough of stroking her. Then he looked into her eyes, his gaze filled with the smoky haze of lust and something more—a yearning to be with her almost as if this wasn’t enough. And then he swept her up into his arms and carried her to the bed and collapsed in it with her in a purely fun-hearted way.

The
kisses
began
anew
as
he
fondled
her
breasts, his mouth on hers, on her cheeks, on her eyes. She kissed him back rabidly, her fingers stroking his shoulders, his back, his waist, hips, and buttocks, wanting to feel every hard inch of him.

And
then
his
fingers
began
stroking
her, capturing her in a web of exultation, the feeling uplifting, tantalizing, wanting, until the world split in two.

***

Jake couldn’t wait a second longer when he felt Alicia shudder with climax, and he plunged deep between her spread thighs—into the woman of his dreams. He thought he’d lost her for good. The worry that had plagued him for days was thrust aside as he wrapped himself in her heat and loved her like no other woman he’d ever been with. He wanted her, body and soul. He swore this was only the beginning.

Jake jerked awake, stared at the empty mattress next to him and wondered what the hell had happened. She was real. Alicia Greiston had been with him, loving him as he’d loved her back.

He raked his hands through his tussled hair, staring into the dark. He had barely thought of anything but Alicia since he’d lost her—wondering if she’d planned her disappearance or if the men she’d been after had planned it for her. And he couldn’t quit berating himself for not having stayed with her.

But the dream had been so real, like she had truly been with him. He wasn’t a dreamer. Had never recalled anything that he dreamed. The experience left him longing for her touch, to know she was safe, and when she was gone, he felt bereft. He couldn’t quit thinking of her, sharing a kiss, a smile, heart pounding, bare bodies pressed together, breath intermingled, hands clutching each other, tongues touching, her lips parting for him, offering herself to him fully.

In that brief nocturnal moment, she was his. He prayed she was alive and well, that his dream of her was a manifestation of the real Alicia Greiston, and he wondered if it represented a need to make everything real between them again. He vowed to find her and keep her safe, no matter how long that took.

Tomorrow, he was searching for her again.

For seven weeks, Jake had visited Alicia in her dreams while she was kept on the run, sure Mario’s men were searching for her. But her dreams were so real, as if Jake was coming to her in the middle of the night and overwhelming her with deeply pleasurable emotions as she ravished him back.

She couldn’t put it off any longer. Having remained human for a whole week without one inkling of an urge to shape-shift, the second time she’d had such a shift-free week, Alicia had made up her mind. She’d finally tracked down Mario Constantino and Danny Massaro once more, and foregoing her bounty hunter’s fee, she had called the police and told them where to find the bail-skippers. Tackling them alone would be too dangerous. And with the shape-shifting problems she was having, her situation was even more precarious.

With her life turned upside down by this strange being that she’d become, nothing mattered but trying to get her untenable condition under control. Although she thought maybe the condition had gone away since she hadn’t had another episode of changing into the wolf for a whole glorious week, twice now. She hoped that maybe it truly was some weird virus that had finally run its course. Still, the worry lurked in her bones that at any moment she might once again become a wolf through no choice of her own.

But she had to take care of one more thing before she disappeared for good.

She drove to Breckenridge, intending to go to the art gallery to see if anyone could give her information on where Jake lived or just send word to him to let him know she was all right. She couldn’t see him any further. Not now that she was whatever she was. She had to vanish from Colorado altogether. Yet the dreams wouldn’t allow her to let him go.

Nursing a cold cup of brewed tea that had been hot at first, she sat in the restaurant across the street from the art gallery, waiting until a tourist busload of visitors filed out of the gallery, her thoughts centered on Jake’s first kiss at this very table after he had rescued her from one of Mario’s men. Gentle and unassuming, his kiss had sparked a desire for him that she couldn’t have quashed even if she’d wanted to. She thought back on ice skating with him, making love with him in the woods. She’d never been so adventurous or uninhibited with a man. Nor enjoyed being with one as much as she had with him.

Her nighttime dreams of Jake had made her believe she was being punished for running away without a word and not telling him she was all right. She was safe, at least as safe as she could be, with this wolf business that plagued her now… and Mario’s men tailing her from time to time. At least that’s who she
thought
had been following her. Although having found “bugs” on her car four times in the early days while she tried to track down Mario, she thought maybe someone
else
was on her trail.

But Mario had said Jake would be dead if he continued to tag along with her, and she knew that hadn’t been idle bullying. Mario’s kind didn’t make pointless threats. Hopefully, he was behind bars again. She’d had the notion that she might get in touch with Jake after Mario and Danny were again incarcerated, but that didn’t matter now. Not with what she’d become.

She clutched her teacup tighter, then released it and sighed. With nerves steeled, she paid for her tea, left the restaurant, and headed across the street to the gallery before the shop closed for the evening. Chimes rang when she opened the door and stepped inside.

A woman in a flouncy floral skirt and pink shell was talking to a man wearing a ponytail and dressed in black as if he was a goth. The man’s chin rested on his fist while he nodded and stared at a blob of orange splashed against a sea of purple. Alicia raised her brows. If only she could get thousands of dollars for “artwork” like that while staying hidden at home. She hadn’t attempted any more bounty hunting, what with the unpredictability of her new condition. She wasn’t sure how she was going to earn a living in the future.

Another woman dressed in a business suit was speaking to a small group of what looked to be college students and a slightly older woman who might have been their art teacher.

A suited man was busy talking to a woman who seemed more intrigued by him than the painting they were standing in front of.

Alicia frowned. She needed to question the staff pronto and return to her hotel room, then leave the area forever. That made her sad as she thought about how she wouldn’t be able to visit her mother where she’d died any longer, although she’d made one last trip there before she’d stopped at the restaurant.

The art gallery staff continued to court those they had been speaking to when she’d arrived. Not being able to question them about Jake, she searched for the paintings he had done. A group of paintings of naked women caught her eye, and she smiled a little, thinking of her conversation with him about painting his old girlfriends in the nude and the sexy smile he’d given in return. But the name signed at the bottom wasn’t Jake Silver.

She checked on landscapes next, mostly featuring the Rockies, but none of them had his signature either. Lots more blob pictures were featured all over the place, not his unless he was too embarrassed to sign what he painted and used a different name to disguise his own.

But then she came across a display of photographs. And became engrossed in them. Wildflowers of Colorado. Wild, exotic, in colors so vivid that they looked unreal. The details so defined that she felt she could reach out and touch them and feel the soft velvety petals. Deep orange paintbrush and red fairy-trumpet flowers, cinnabar-red alpine wallflowers and rosy pussytoes, fuchsia fairy slipper orchids, bright pink primrose, and spotted wood lilies in a tangerine color.

Her mother had taught Alicia the beauty of wildflowers in their natural habitats when she was younger. Her mother had loved to hike and observe the great blue sky, wisps of clouds, majestic mountains, and towering trees. Even though her mother had been an extrovert and fed off the hustle and bustle of being around tons of people as she waitressed in a busy cafeteria, she still liked to soak in the beauty of nature, and Alicia had shared her mother’s love of the wilderness.

Alicia tried to rein in her sadness when she thought of her mother dying alone in that wilderness with no one to protect her. She took a deep shuddering breath, reminding herself why she’d become a bounty hunter, which had ultimately led her to the unfortunate condition she was in now. Who would have ever thought?

But for the moment, seeing the photographs brought back the happier memories of Alicia and her mother on nature walks, and tears formed in her eyes.

“May I help you?” the woman in the flowery skirt asked. Ponytail man had left, apparently without buying the orange blob as it was still hanging on the wall.