Harlequin Nocturne March 2016 Box Set (14 page)

CHAPTER 11

H
e'd been waiting all week for Friday, but not for this reason. Another account compromised. This time it had been his mother's.

The credit union was insured, of course, but that didn't help make him feel much better when he'd pulled up Mom's accounts after she'd called him questioning why her automatic bill payment hadn't gone through from her checking. Kent had spent all morning trying to figure out where the money had gone, how it had been withdrawn without a trace. His stomach sick, he'd transferred a couple thousand of his own money into Mom's account to cover the rest of her bills. Fortunately, the thief hadn't drained her savings or money-management accounts, and Kent worked quickly to change Mom over to all new accounts, but in the end it didn't make him feel much better.

He'd called Stephanie immediately but got her voice mail. He hadn't left a message. He'd spent the rest of the day fielding inquiries from the board and sifting through data files to see if he could catch any signs of other thefts. Nobody called to complain, so he supposed everything was all right, but for how much longer?

By the end of the day, his head hurt from clenching his jaw. His stomach churned from the stress. He got out of work too late to go home and shower or change. He was going to be late picking her up.

He wasn't even sure he wanted to.

It wasn't Stephanie's fault, and he knew that. She was one investigator working on a case that Kent could see was unusual. But if she'd done her job by now, his mom wouldn't have had her checking account wiped out.

Sitting in the parking spot in front of her apartment, he pulled out his phone. He should call. Make an excuse. Send a text?

Too late—the curtain of her apartment door twitched, and the door itself opened as Stephanie peeked out. He could see her smile from here. Shit. She waved him in.

He'd make an excuse, Kent thought. Say he was coming down with something, which was what it felt like, sort of, to stand on her front mat and think about telling her he didn't want to go out with her, after all.

He opened his mouth, but before he could say a word, Stephanie pushed up onto her tiptoes to put her arms around his neck. Her cheek pressed to his, she said softly into his ear, “I'm so sorry about your mom. We are going to catch this son of a bitch. I promise you, Kent. I'm going to make it my mission in life to track him down and make him sorry he ever lifted a single cent from anyone.”

His arms had gone around her automatically. His eyes closed. He pressed his face into the softness of her dark hair and breathed in the sweetness of her perfume, something light and fresh. Citrus. Damn it, she felt good in his arms, and her words had taken away some of his earlier frustration.

Stephanie stepped back from him, though she let her hands run down his shoulders to rest lightly on his forearms. His hands had anchored on her hips. She looked up at him, her brow furrowed, her mouth thin.

“If you don't feel like taking me out, Kent, I get it.”

It had been what he'd been thinking all day long, but when he was faced with her actually saying it, all he could do was shake his head. “No. Look, it's not your fault—”

“It is. If I'd caught this guy before now,” she said, “your mom would've been okay. So would all those other people.”

His fingers curled a little on her hips. She wore soft leggings and a slouchy sweater, but beneath that, he could feel her curves. “It's not your fault he's a thief.”

She tipped her face to look up at him. “I've been on the case for six months. It's long past time I caught him. That's all. You might not blame me, but I take responsibility. So if you don't want to go out...”

“No. I asked you out. We should go out.”

Neither of them moved. A flash of a dream came to him, the two of them walking through fields of flowers, hand in hand. He remembered her laughing.

“I...dreamed about you,” he said. “Night before last.”

Stephanie's smile was like watching a flower bloom. “I know you did. I was there.”

Kent shook his head a little. “Okay, this is weird. What's going on?”

He saw the hesitation in her expression and waited for her to give him some lame explanation, but Stephanie drew in a short, sharp breath. She took another step back. Squared her shoulders.

“He's using their dreams to get their information,” she said. “And I've been trying to find him in the dream world, but I haven't been able to yet.”

Stephanie had told only three people in her life about the Ephemeros who hadn't already known about it. The first had been her high school boyfriend, her first love. She'd had a vulnerable moment after the night she lost her virginity and spilled her truth to him. He'd broken up with her the next day.

The other two had been strangers on a train. Both had been sleeping and had shown up in her world because of the proximity. They'd woken, startled, and given her guilty glances very much alike despite their not knowing each other any more than they'd known her. Her explanation of why the three of them had been having the same dream had spilled out of her on a whim. Rodney and Darryl had gone on to become a couple. They sent her Christmas cards every year.

Now she sat across from her kitchen table with Kent staring at her, and she waited for him to get up and walk out. Call her crazy. Tell her to never darken his doorstep again.

Instead, he said, “Can I do it, too?”

“A little, yes. More than that, I don't know. I mean, everyone shapes their dreams—it's just a matter of if they know it and can do it on purpose.” She got up to refill both their mugs of coffee. She'd pulled a frozen cheesecake out to serve, too. Funny how she'd never have bothered to pick up a cheesecake at all before last week, but it had ended up in her cart because of him.

He nodded but said nothing. He leaned forward to put his elbows on the table, then pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Huh.”

“Yeah.” She laughed. “Crazy, right?”

“So when I dreamed about you...”

“The dream world is a real place. It's called the Ephemeros,” she told him, picking her words carefully. “What happens in it can affect people in the real world, though most of the time, it doesn't. When we met there, it was because we were both asleep at the same time, and though geographical proximity is not at all required, it's usually a factor in who meets up. But you can dream about anyone, anytime. It doesn't necessarily mean that actual person is in there with you. It just means you've shaped them, or that you've put out a...well, like a signal. And someone who can shape not only themselves but also everything else comes along and helps your dream be whatever it needs to be.”

“Someone like you?” Kent asked.

She nodded. “Yes. Someone like me.”

“You can make dreams come true?” His smile tipped a bit on one side, rueful. Contemplative.

“Yes. I can. There are people who do it all the time.”

He wrapped his hands around the coffee mug. “Hmm. Why?”

“Because dreams are important,” she said. “Without them, without living out whatever it is we do inside them, well...we go mad. I mean, literally crazy.”

“I want to try it.”

Stephanie dug her fork into the cheesecake and let herself savor a bite before answering. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Kent seemed surprised. “Just like that, okay?”

“Well, sure.” She shrugged. “It's not like there's a secret club that you have to apply for membership to. You either can or you can't.”

“Can you teach me?”

“I don't know.” She thought about that for a few seconds. “I know it's possible to practice shaping and to get better at it. But I'm not sure you teach someone to do it if they can't already. Kind of like telling a good story. You either can or you can't.”

“The other night, in the field. I made a flower, didn't I?”

She laughed. “Yes. You did.”

“On purpose.”

“Yes.” She hesitated. “The other part is knowing you're dreaming. Have you ever had one of those dreams, where you knew it?”

“Yeah,” he said, sounding eager. “Once, I dreamed I was being chased by a shark, but I knew it was a dream and I turned around and punched it.”

“Yikes. Brave,” she said with a grin. She let out a small breath, then said, “I know you were angry at me about your mom. I really am sorry.”

“It just makes me all the more determined to catch this jerk. And this is your job? I mean...you do it all the time?”

“When needed. Yes. I shape in dreams to help sleepers along, to help them reach their goals in the dreams, whatever they are, but that's not my job. It's a responsibility.” She shrugged. “I'd been doing that without really knowing why for years before Vadim approached me about joining the Crew. The money's good. The work isn't usually hard. And this really shouldn't have been that difficult for me. I guess I... Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough.”

“I'm sure you take your job seriously, Stephanie.”

“I like being here,” she said suddenly, as though daring him to challenge her. “I like working with you. I think maybe I didn't try hard enough because I knew that once the job was over, I'd have to leave.”

They stared at each other quietly.

“Sorry about the date. I really did mean to take you out,” Kent said. “To be honest, I've been thinking about it for a while.”

“You didn't bring the flowers,” she told him with a small grin. “Or the candy. How about I take a rain check?”

He sat back in his chair. “Deal. So...how do we catch this asshole?”

CHAPTER 12

“T
his isn't the first time I've ended up in a woman's bed on a first date,” Kent said in a low voice. “But it's definitely not the way I'd expected things to go.”

Beside him, Stephanie giggled. She'd lent him a pair of oversize sweatpants and a T-shirt, then tucked them both into her bed. They'd been staring in silence at the ceiling for about ten minutes while he tried to fall asleep by timing his breathing to her steady, even breaths. It hadn't worked.

“You're a little naughty. I like that.” She turned to face him.

He rolled, too. Their knees touched. He wanted to touch more than that but kept himself from it.

“I'm not tired,” he said. “Sorry.”

“Me neither.”

“You don't have any tricks?” He settled a little more into the pillow.

“Deep breathing. Um...” Stephanie laughed and pulled the covers up over her nose for a second. “Orgasm?”

It was not what he'd expected, and he laughed even as several muscles tensed in places he hadn't been paying much attention to for the past few weeks. “Um...”

“Sorry, sorry.” She laughed a little breathlessly. “It's true, but a little too much. I know.”

“I'd be game, if you are,” Kent said.

Her laughter eased and she pulled the blanket away from her face. “On the first date, huh? What a player.”

“I'm the furthest thing from a player you could ever meet,” he told her quietly. “I think you know that by now.”

Silence.

“Yes,” she said finally. “I know.”

Did she move first? He thought so, although he was moving, too. The kiss was light, soft, gentle, the hint of her breath tickling his lips until, oh, damn, her mouth opened and she drew his tongue in against hers with a low groan that got him hard as rock within half a minute.

She broke the kiss with an embarrassed laugh, though she didn't pull away. “I thought it would be good, but I didn't know how good.”

“So...how long have you been thinking about this?” He let his hand slide up to rest on her hip beneath the blankets. She wore a pair of lightweight boxers and a man's T-strap undershirt. There was the tiniest bit of bare skin between the bottom of the shirt and the top of the drawers. When he touched her there, she shivered.

“Oh, for about six months.” She pressed her face to the side of his neck. “Since the first time I walked into your office and saw you with your shirtsleeves rolled up. I have a thing for sexy forearms. And guys in glasses.”

Heat spread through him. He let his fingers trace more bare skin, easing up the hem of her shirt. Then over her belly, pausing at the small dip of her navel. Across her ribs. Higher still, to just below the curve of her breast. He stopped.

Stephanie let out a low, shuddering sigh. “You can touch me, Kent. This is real. We're really here. We can do this.”

He wanted to. Everything about it felt right, even if the smart part of his mind, the part resisting the heat pooling in his groin, told him it was probably going to end painfully in the long run.

As if she felt his hesitation, she nuzzled against his throat, nipping lightly with the perfect amount of pressure to make him squirm. “If you don't want to...”

“I do.” He pulled her closer so she could feel how much. “I just...”

She moved to look at his face. “It's soon. I know. You just broke up with Carol. I won't be sticking around. It's not something to jump into. I understand. But what if we just look at it as something to try? I mean...no strings, no promises?”

“Is that what you really want?”

Her brow furrowed. “Truth? No, not really. But I'm not saying I think we should jump into something serious right off the bat. As far as sex goes, I'm not exactly a prude about one-night stands and that sort of thing. I don't hop into bed with just anyone, either.”

He stroked a fingertip over her eyebrows to smooth the crease, then tucked her hair behind her ear. “I like you a lot, Stephanie.”

“I like you, too.”

He kissed her again, tasting her sweetness until she gasped and moved against him. She shook a little. She pressed her head to his chest, and he tightened his arms around her.

“There are other ways to fall asleep,” she whispered.

He kissed the top of her head. “But that's not really what this is about right now, is it?”

Her shoulders shook as she laughed. Her breath heated his skin through the T-shirt's thin material. When she put her hand flat on his belly below the hem of it, the warmth of her fingers made him draw in a long, slow breath. His cock throbbed. When she slid a hand lower to cup him, he couldn't hold back the small groan.

He didn't move, though. Uncertain if this was the direction they should go, if they both really wanted it, if they'd be making a mistake. It didn't feel like one. It felt like the best shot at happiness he'd ever taken.

Kent was right. This had nothing to do with sleep and everything to do with orgasms. More than that, too. It was something Stephanie had wanted without admitting it to herself for months.

“Sometimes, in dreams, you jump without knowing you have a place to land,” she murmured into his kiss as she slid a hand into the sweatpants she'd lent him and found his hard, thick length. She stroked, gratified and aroused at the way he drew in a gasp at her touch. “But sometimes, when you jump, you fly.”

Kent pulled her closer, his kiss getting deeper. His tongue thrust against hers as his hips moved, too. She tugged the sweatpants a little lower on his hips to free him, almost too nervous to look at his nakedness now that she had the chance. Then she didn't have to, because they were kissing so hard and fast all she could think about was how good he tasted, how delicious, how his touch was making her crazy.

He rolled them both to get on top of her, nudging her knees apart with his. One hand slid behind her neck to cradle her. The other moved up to cup her breast. He thumbed her nipple erect, then pinched it lightly, making her cry out into his mouth.

He pushed himself up to tug his shirt off over his head; Stephanie pulled off hers while he worked, too. For a moment, she wished for the Ephemeros to give her bigger boobs and a flatter belly. For a second, she shielded herself from his gaze. Kent ran his hands up her ribs, tickling a little, then let his palms go flat on her skin.

“You're gorgeous,” he told her.

She believed him.

Arching, Stephanie put her arms over her head to curl her fingers around the headboard's spindles. She closed her eyes, smiling, as Kent let out a low whistle of appreciation. Her nipples tightened at more tickling touches as he moved his fingertips over her.

It was easy to feel beautiful in the dream world. Even sleepers shaped themselves into loveliness. Stephanie had long ago translated her ability as a shaper into confidence out here where it wasn't so easy to whittle away a few extra pounds or to add curves. Even so, it would've been easy to worry, this first time, if her nakedness pleased him.

Kent gave her no reason for doubt. He bent low over her, whispering compliments in her ear as he traced her body with his fingers, then, moving lower, his mouth. Over the curves of her shoulders, down her arms. He placed kisses on the tender insides of her elbows and her wrists. He kissed her palms and curved her fingers over wetness he left behind.

He kissed her belly, murmuring her name and words of awe. Sending her higher. Over her hip bones, each one, pausing to nibble while she wiggled. Her thighs, her knees, her ankles. Kneeling over her, he took each foot and kissed her toes, laughing while she protested. Then he slid the sweatpants all the way off and knelt between her legs, fully naked.

Kent put a hand on his cock, lightly stroking. She pushed up on one elbow to get a better look. It was her turn to compliment.

“You work out?” she teased, letting one foot drift up to nudge his hard belly. “Mmm, abs.”

“Good genes,” he told her.

She arched again, offering her body to him. “Kiss me, Kent.”

He did, but not on the mouth. Again he bent to trail his lips and tongue over her thighs and belly, pausing to blow sweet, hot breath through the lace of her panties. Automatically, her hand went to thread through his hair, the silken feeling of it tickling the back of her hand as she lifted her hips to meet his mouth.

He'd slipped her panties off before she knew it, then knelt again between her legs. Gently, he parted her to his questing tongue, which flicked lightly over her clit before he pressed the flat of it to her and stroked. Kent settled onto his belly between her thighs, both hands sliding beneath her ass to lift her to his mouth as he feasted. It was not what Stephanie had expected.

It was so much better.

“Oh,” she said. “That's...”

“Good?” he said against her, looking up with a smile. He kissed her there, softly. Then again. He found her clit and sucked it gently before ducking back to the steady, slow stroking that was edging her closer and closer to going over.

She could've resisted, tried to make it last, but when she wriggled and whispered his name, the sound of his groan made it impossible for Stephanie to ask him to wait. She needed this, and him, and oh, fuck, he was giving it to her.

Hovering on the edge, Stephanie rolled her hips, mindless with the pleasure. Kent eased off, blowing soft puffs against her clit until she let out a frustrated gasp that became a laugh. Then a sigh. She looked down at him, her fingers toying in his hair.

“So close,” Stephanie whispered. “It feels so good.”

She touched his face. Eyebrows. Cheek. She stroked a finger over his lips. He closed his eyes for a second, his gaze hazy when he opened them again. He bent back to her.

Stephanie let him take her away. All the way. Up and over, pleasure coiling inside her so tight she thought she might surely break from it before it could explode. She came with a low cry, then his name. Her body moved; she came again, each wave throbbing through her while she clutched at the sheets so fiercely she pulled them free of the mattress. She fell back, panting.

Silence.

Stephanie licked her lips and breathed. She blinked as the world came back into focus. Kent hadn't moved from between her legs, though he now rested his cheek on her thigh. One hand had moved from her ass to cup her pussy, the warmth strangely comforting and still arousing, even if she didn't think she'd be able to go another round. At least not right away.

“Wow,” she said after a few more seconds of quiet broken only by her still-ragged breathing. She moved a hand over his hair, tugging briefly before letting her touch land on his shoulder. “That was...”

He laughed and pushed up on his elbow to move over her body. He kissed her mouth. He covered her with his weight, his cock thick and hard against her thigh.

“That was amazing. You were so... God, Stephanie. Fucking out of this world.” He stopped and looked concerned for a moment. “This is real, isn't it? We didn't fall asleep. I'm not dreaming.”

She'd have laughed except she could tell he was serious. She pulled him to her for another kiss, then sat up a little to point at one of the clocks on her nightstand. “No. See that? The clock. Can you tell the time?”

“Yeah.”

“Time, clocks, words, numbers, those things generally don't work right in the Ephemeros. The easiest way to tell if you're dreaming or awake is if you can read or tell the time.” She snuggled closer to him. “This is real.”

Kent pressed himself against her for another kiss. “Good. I thought... Never mind.”

She reached between them to take his cock in her hand, squeezing gently but enough to make him shiver. She looked at him. “What?”

“I just thought this had to be a dream, that's all. Because that's how it feels, too good to be true.”

If she'd ever had a sweeter lover, she couldn't think about it now. She kissed his mouth, her hand moving slowly. “No. This is real. And it's good. And it's going to get better.”