Dreamscape (27 page)

Not knowing what else to say, Lanie said, “Yes, I heard my father had blue eyes like mine.”

He looked at her in question. “You say you
heard
?”

She hastily amended, “I mean I’ve often heard the color of his eyes compared to bluebird eggs.”
Jesus, knucklehead, be careful.

Satisfied by her answer, he chuckled. “I’m glad you cleared that up for me, my dear.” The mention of her father brought a thought to Richard’s mind. This was a wealthy woman in her own right. Leaving his seat to refill his tea glass, he brought the coffee carafe to her, his eyebrows raised in question.

Lanie covered her cup with her hand. “No more, thanks, I mean thank you. Too much caffeine makes me jittery.” He gave her an odd look.

Seeing the brief confusion in Richard’s eyes, Lanie mentally retraced her last sentence.
Caffeine.
Did the average Victorian know about caffeine?

The pretty thing was nervous, and Richard found it as delightful as he had when he was a boy and the nigra girls eyed him nervously. Richard chuckled. Returning the carafe to the table, he sat beside her on the small loveseat. “I hope we can be friends, Lanie. My visit will end in a few days and it would do me great honor if you’d accept my letters. I’d like to know if you’re well.”

Lanie’s mind whirled.
His visit will end in a few days? Did that mean they set a date for Jason’s murder?

“Lanie? Are you adverse to correspondence?” Richard pressed. What was wrong with the girl?

“I–uh no, no that would be lovely, Richard.” She smiled at him.

His smile widened. “Ah, you give me hope.” He reached to run a finger up and down her wrist.

Lanie looked at his hand.
Hope?
What did exchanging mail in this time mean exactly? She set her cup on the table before her, the movement dislodging his hand.

In a flash he took up her hand in both of his. “I know this is terribly forward, but I cannot get you from my mind.”

She stood, but he didn’t let go. She’d frequented this era as a Victorian woman so many times, yet in this moment struggled to recall the proper verbal decorum of the time period. It was starting to get frustrating. She tried, “You mentioned Jason was making his rounds. If the accident victims are doing poorly today I should to go to them as well. There are several I really should check on.”

Cathy and Bertha walked in the room at that moment. Both women blinked in surprise as Richard hastily dropped Lanie’s hand and rose.

Seeing the intimate contact between Richard and Lanie, Cathy fairly trembled with suppressed rage. She looked from one to the other and back again. “What goes on here, Richard?”

Lanie said, “If you’ll excuse me. I should find my doctor’s bag and see if I can be of help to Jason.”

Cathy didn’t utter a word as she passed. Bertha stood uncharacteristically silent.

Outside the door, Lanie heard, “What godly reason would you have to hold that woman’s hand, Richard?” Cathy’s voice cracked, “Why would you touch
any
woman when I’ve freely given myself to you and have since I was twelve years old?”

Twelve?
Lanie shuddered. These people were beyond horrible. She turned to the sound of the front door opening. Jason was home. Giving him a wide smile, she hurried down the few stairs she’d climbed to throw her arms around him. “Jason, you’re here!”

Lanie’s forward manner took him by surprise. He set her arms from him but didn’t remove his hands from hers. Chuckling, he said, “I am.” Where had her dream taken them now?

Having left her brother to talk with Cathy, Bertha stood unnoticed outside the parlor door and watched the overly familiar display between Lanie and Jason, and she didn’t like it. Why was he still holding the woman’s hands after peeling himself from her extremely inappropriate embrace? The thought made her frown.
He should have been mine.
Bertha’s eyes narrowed as they followed the pair up the stairs.
Damn that woman. Let go of her hand, Jason!
Curious, she left the steadily rising voices of her cousin and brother and followed quietly.

Bertha peered through the railing. The harlot had him by the hand and was leading him into her bedroom. Once the door closed she hurried to press her ear against it. She’d witnessed enough of her brother’s rut to know what it sounded like behind closed doors.

Watching Richard was a long-standing game she played with her brother. Peering from her hiding place in the cupboard, she watched when he brought the nigra girls to his bed. Richard always liked that they didn’t want to lie with him but they had to because they were Papa’s slaves. That was the fun of it, they had to. The game continued after Cathy came to live with them and Cathy didn’t mind once he’d had her too and told her of the game. Sometimes she and Cathy would watch together when there were still nigras to play with. By the end of the war, the nigras left and it was just her watching the two of them. Her eyes filled with tears. Jason was kissing Lanie up against the door, she could hear it.
He should have been mine. He’d never kiss her if he had a wife to love him.
But he wasn’t hers and he had no idea she loved him.

Her hand flew to her mouth to stifle her sob as she ran down the stairs to her own room. After a good cry she came to the determination that Richard and Cathy wouldn’t kill him. She had to stop them. The thought gave her pause.
There really was only one way to do that. They would never listen to reason. They never did.
She pictured the way Jason’s eyes lit when they fell on Lanie.
Yes,
her minded added Lanie to the rest.
There is only one way to do that.

Wrapped in Jason’s arms, Lanie’s mind thrilled to finally be able to interact with him as herself, not a Victorian version of herself, but the woman she was. Her arms wrapped around him and pulled him closer. Kissing him soundly, she slid her tongue along his.

This new boldness surprised Jason, but he fell into her sweetness and after several moments up against the door, the wild kiss ended. He leaned away, though he still held her in his arms. Searching her face, he saw her looking at him as though she hadn’t seen him in a while. A thought came to him.
She knows
. The modern Lanie had come into her dream.

Lanie was so happy to see him but also a tad embarrassed for her binge drinking that had followed her waking in tears. And thinking on that now, she realized how grossly unfair that had been. Jason had tried talking with her when he appeared and found her crying. And to pay him for his concern, she’d behaved like an idiot. She looked into his eyes, and without thinking said, “I’m so sorry.”

“For what exactly?” Jason asked. Fearing anything he might say would affect how the dream unfolded, he didn’t acknowledge the change in her yet wondered if she’d tell him somehow.

Having just apologized to the wrong man Lanie groaned inwardly.
Lanie, you idiot!
Jason the ghost had gotten the full brunt of her irrational behavior and here she was with the dream Jason, apologizing to him for acting poorly to the ghost Jason.
Good grief, this is so confusing.
She knew the dream Jason was a flight of fancy, a figment of her imagination as any other dream. The ghost Jason…well, people would say he was, too. She loved a man in dream, this man, and transposed that emotion onto Jason the ghost who haunted her house. Seeing her mistake, she didn’t know how to answer. “Uh, I should have gone with you this morning.”

Jason found himself quite confused. This wasn’t the modern Lanie? He considered her, wondering which woman he held in his arms. “That’s all right. There was nothing I could do so your being there was not necessary.”

Lanie’s mind backtracked to the details of the accident in the town square. “All those injured people…which one took a turn for the worse?”

“Eliza Blakely. I’m afraid little Tommy will lose his mother in a matter of hours.”

The young mother had broken ribs that punctured her lung. Without X-rays there was no possible way to determine if there were other internal injuries. Apparently there were. Frustrated that the toddler would be an orphan and there was simply nothing they could do about it in the 1880s, Lanie’s eyes filled with tears.

In the waking world Lanie rolled over in her sleep. Feeling the shift, Jason was pulled into Lanie’s time. Seeing the small frown turning her lips, he caressed her bare back in an attempt to soothe her. “Shh, it’s all right, love. We did our best. Dream a more pleasant dream for us.”

Pulled into her synapse again, Jason found himself standing in the dark hallway outside Lanie’s bedroom door. Testing the knob and finding her door unlocked, he quietly slipped inside. She was waiting for him. Apparently just come from the bath, her raven hair curled in slightly damp ringlets around her face, she was naked. Looking for all the world like a siren of the sea, Lanie unbound her hair until it lay like an ebony cape around her. Her alabaster breasts peeked through the dark strands. Her cleft was trimmed to the skin, and he knew the modern woman he’d fallen in love with stood before him. She held out her hand. He locked the door behind him and followed as any travel-weary sailor might.

“Make love to me, Jason,” she solicited as her fingers sought the top button of his trousers. She slid her warm hand inside to curl around his cock.

Jason drew a ragged breath. In their two physical encounters, as wondrous as they were, she’d never treated him to this bold advance. He surged to life in her hand.

“Mmm, yes, you’re so hard,” She purred as she stroked him slowly. Her words thrilled him. Not that he loved the Lanie of his era any less, for she, too, was a part of the whole, but this beautiful creature of the future with her intelligence and compassion was the woman who haunted his mind in both worlds. Not once did she release her sensual hold on him as he hurriedly undressed. He kicked his shoes and clothing to the side and crushed her to him, forcing her hand into a longer stroke.

She tightened her wonderful caress deliberately.

Jason whispered at her ear, “Temptress.”

She replied in a sultry voice, “I want to learn every inch of you.” The last part punctuated by her other hand as it caressed his full and heavy balls. She slid down his body until she knelt before him.

He melted into those eyes looking up at him. Though he couldn’t see the endless blue in the dimly lit room, he could see they sparkled with purpose in the soft lamplight. Petting her silky hair, he invited huskily, “Have your way with me, siren. I won’t stay your hand.”

“I wasn’t thinking of using my hand…” She had the devil’s own gleam in her eye, and it took his breath away.

Laying soft kisses over his thighs, she came to his balls and pressed more warm kisses there. Her tongue came out to lick his cock from base to tip and his hands wound into her raven tresses. She licked him back and forth and around the head until he thought he’d die all over again from the sheer joy. But there was more to come. She trailed more kisses to his balls while her hand stroked him slow and sure. Then her hot tongue pressed to his root and slowly, firmly followed his full length to the tip. With her eyes upon his face, she opened her mouth and took him in.

He groaned as her heat engulfed him. He’d only been treated this way once before by the freckle-faced maid that cleaned all the medical school student’s rooms. This was so much better than that. She sucked as she pulled away then pressed forward again to draw more cock into her mouth. Over and over she moved with Jason’s hands twisted in her hair guiding how long and how deep. When he could take no more bliss without spilling his need, he breathlessly pulled away. She tried to pull him back. Extracting himself from her questing hands, he said hotly, “You must stop now or this will move beyond either of our controls.”

Laughing with delight, she reached for him again. In self-defense he stood and turned her around, but still her hands came at him from behind. “Minx.” He filled his hands with her breasts and rolled her nipples between his fingers.

Lanie whimpered and for a moment her hands didn’t move. She felt his breath warm at her ear when he urged, “Yes, little minx. Make your little helpless sounds, for we are by no means done.”

Jason punctuated his words by sliding his hand between her rounded cheeks. One hand continued to play with her breasts while the other found her slippery slit and dallied there in the warmth. Slipping his fingers inside, he moved in and out as his other hand’s attentions grew firmer. Lanie’s legs trembled under the onslaught. Wanting to give her more, he stopped his fondling.

“Nooo.”

Chuckling, he nudged her to the bed and when she made to roll on her back he stopped her. “Up on your knees, love, I mean to lose myself in you.” He positioned her that she lay with her bottom in the air.

Lanie’s heart pounded. The two times he’d made love to her he’d brought her to such exquisite heights. She had no doubt he would again.

She was right. He settled behind her and, with both hands, spread her wide. There he treated her to the same maddening licks and kisses she’d given him. And when she was near mindless from the gathering pleasure, he gave her more.