Reclaimed (3 page)

The shadow flew through the air and out of sight. It travelled so fast she questioned the validity of it. Nothing, human
or
animal, could move so majestically.

Except…no, it couldn’t be possible. In the dream the man might have done it, but in real life he was simply a man. He didn’t leap over buildings in real life. Unless...she’d fallen asleep. She pinched her bicep as hard as she could and winced as pain shot up her arm.

Nope, definitely not a dream.

She rubbed her aching arm as a sound came from above her. Frozen in fear, she glanced at the ceiling. The shuffling noises pulled her from her panic, and she scrambled for the phone on the coffee table.

A soft, menacing chuckle met her ears, and the phone crashed to the floor loudly, followed by an unmistakable rolling sound. She dropped to her knees to search frantically for the missing batteries.

“Shit, shit, shit!” she exclaimed.

Oddly enough, the feeling of terror that had come upon Sabrina left. Somehow, she
knew
whoever, or
whatever
, had caused her fear had left. This made no sense at all.

But hell, what
had
made sense lately?

Nothing, absolutely nothing.

***

Sabrina sat by the stream in the purple moonlight once again. It seemed like she’d been watching the water move over the rocks for hours before she sensed him behind her. He walked to her side and held out his hand. She took it and rose slowly to her feet. His cool palm caused her to tremble, partly because his hand felt so cold against hers, and partly because of the sensations that shot up her arm at his touch.

“Hello, Sabrina. Did you miss me?”

“Why am I even dreaming of you? This makes no sense. I only saw you once, and yet I can’t get you out of my mind.” She met his intense blue gaze. “This is crazy. I’m asking questions of a person in my dream. And to top it off, I’m now imagining things jumping on my roof while awake. I have gone insane,” she muttered under her breath.

“Something came to your house?” he asked. His grip tightened on her arms, and his eyes flashed possessively. “What was it?”

“I have no idea! But it jumped on the roof. It reminded me of you, except for one minor detail: you’re not
real
. You’re a figment of my imagination.”

“Don’t doubt me, Sabrina. I’m real. I’m here. I’m always here for you.” He captured her hand and kissed it. “Go to McGuiness’s Tavern tomorrow morning. I’ll be there. You’ll see I’m real, and not some silly dream.” He caressed her cheek, and she trembled.

“But who are you?” she whispered. She licked her dry lips and clutched her hands into fists. His gaze followed the movement of her tongue, and he grabbed her and lifted her so her feet dangled in the air. Despite the roughness of the movement, fear didn’t consume her. Hunger for his kiss overwhelmed her—made her tremble in his arms.

Instead, he seized her hair and jerked her head backward. Her neck exposed, he lowered his head to the sensitive spot where neck and shoulder met. She heard him inhale deeply, and she shuddered in his arms. His breath felt cool on her skin, and she trembled in an odd mixture of fear and desire. When his lips met her skin, it seemed as though a bolt of lightning jolted through her body, making her jerk in his arms.

Instant lust.

“I’m yours, Sabrina. And you’ll get your questions answered. All you need to know right now is you’re mine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“No, wait. Tell me now,” she demanded. But she spoke to air, for as quietly as he’d come, he had left. Once again, she stood alone in the dark night. She looked up at the moon and shivered.

“Son of a bitch,” she mumbled. Only the silence of the forest surrounding her answered.

***

Sabrina had lost it, simply lost it. They might as well slap on the straightjacket now and strap her to the bed.

Padded walls, here I come
.

Things were getting out of her control. She obviously struggled to separate dreams from reality, and night from day. While awake, she saw shadows jump onto her roof and heard evil chuckles echoing in the night. Yet, when sleeping, she would dream of a man tempting her to fall in love. Everything had become backwards.

It made no sense.

Yet, even knowing she hovered only a couple of steps away from being committed didn’t stop her from taking extra care arranging her hair and applying her makeup before rushing out of the house.

She had no errands to run, nowhere she needed to be.

One thing remained certain, however: she was going to the McGuiness’s Tavern for every meal necessary. Hell, she’d even
sleep
there next to Zeke. Desperation to see if her dream became reality, or if she was going insane, ruled her.

And yet, she feared the answer.

***

Upon arriving at the tavern, Sabrina discovered, much to her disappointment, they didn’t open until lunchtime. Even Zeke, ever present, hadn’t shown up yet. His empty jar still sat there, but he was nowhere in sight. Lunchtime wouldn’t arrive for two more hours, so she hovered outside the door. She could go shopping until lunch, or go home and come back later. Or she could, more sensibly, return home and forget this whole idea. The very suggestion a man in a dream could tell her she would meet him in the reality of daylight rang of ludicrousness, so why had she even come?

She cursed and decided to head home.

Absorbed in contemplating her stupidity, she spun and crashed into a rock-solid wall. She broke free from her thoughts and raised her gaze to see she hadn’t run into a wall at all. She’d collided with a man. A very tall man, considering the fact her nose throbbed from slamming into his chest. She stumbled backward and embarrassed herself further when she tripped over her own feet. Arms reached out to steady her, and she blushed in mortification.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I wasn’t watching where I—” She broke off. Finally finding her feet steady on the ground, she lifted her gaze to his face.

Mistake.

Huge
freaking mistake.

It was
him
. She stared, stunned into speechlessness. He’d come. He’d actually showed up. And, perhaps even more shocking, he looked even more attractive when she rested in his arms. A small tingle raced up her spine, and her heart quickened.

“It’s okay. Please, don’t worry.” He cocked his head to the side with a small smile and inquired, “Do you come here often? I think I’ve seen you here before. Oh, that sounded like a horrible pick-up line, didn’t it?”

She laughed—with a hysterical undertone, to be honest—and mentally flinched at the forced quality that rang through it. “No, I do come here quite a bit. I’m new to the area, and this has become a common place for me. Um, my name is Sabrina. Sabrina Hodges, nice to meet you.” She stepped back to offer him her hand. A covert glance at her outstretched fingers revealed they weren’t shaking like the rest of her body. But it went to hell when his fingers closed over hers. Pure electric energy shot up her arm, settling into unadulterated lust.

Dear God
.

“I’m Isaac Sterling. Nice to, uh, run into you, Sabrina.” He smiled fully and her eyes widened. It was not fair to unleash such a devastating creature upon women. It became obvious to her, here and now: God was a man.

Unfair
.

“If you were looking for breakfast, it isn’t open yet, but I might be able to take care of you. My friend Connor is the cook here, and we had a meeting planned inside. Why don’t you come in? He’ll make you an omelet you’ll never forget.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t. I just wanted to grab a bite to eat. It’s nothing that can’t wait.” She protested and shook her head. “Really, I’ll be fine.”

“Ach, now, you wouldn’t be turning me down, would you? Talk about breaking a man’s heart on the first meeting….” He held his left hand dramatically over his heart.

She couldn’t help but return his smile. She watched his eyes widen and then darken, and she beamed even wider at seeing the evidence of her effect on him. “Well, I’d hate to break such a kind man’s heart.” She leaned in and whispered, “You did forgive me for running you over.”

“Indeed. I saved you from falling, too,” he said. He chuckled and gave her an exaggerated wink.

“A gentleman wouldn’t have reminded me, you know.”

“Who told you I’m a gentleman?” he teased. His crooked grin caused her heart to do odd little flip-flops in her chest.

“I just can’t interfere in your meeting, though. It wouldn’t feel right.”

“Okay, I’ve got a solution, if you’re sure I can’t convince you to join me. Why don’t you give me your number, and maybe you can make your recklessness up to me at dinner? We’d be able to call it even, I’d say.”

“Hmmm…maybe.” She glanced up at him through her eyelashes and hoped her cheeks weren’t blushing from the excited racing of her heart. “Do you have paper to write it down on, or a phone to put it in?”

He smiled and pulled his cell phone out while responding, “How about I give you my number now, and you can call me on your phone—presuming you have one—and we’ll have one another’s phone numbers right away?”

She agreed and called the number he gave her. His ringer went off, and she couldn’t help but notice he had chosen an old-fashioned phone ringing noise for his ringtone. No fancy ringtones for this hunk of a man.

“Ah, the pleasures of the twenty-first century, huh? Now I don’t have to worry you brushed me off by giving me a fake number,” he said.

“And now I have your number so I can call and harass you if you don’t call me. It works both ways, buddy,” she replied. She couldn’t believe that she could smile and joke. In her dreams, tenseness usually revolved around them, and the air always filled with a hint of danger.

“Yes, true. I have to ask. Are you American?”

“Guilty as charged.” She raised an eyebrow and inquired, “Is that a problem?”

“Certainly not. I love Americans,” he assured her.

Too quickly
, she snickered.

“And are you British, or Scottish? I’m having hard time placing your accent. I’m usually so good at that, too.”

“You’re not to blame for the confusion. I’m a mutt.”

“From?” she asked. Curiosity made her want to know everything about him, right here, right now.

And tell me, how do you come to my dreams?

Yeah, because that would make a good impression, Sabrina. Run from the crazy lady, Isaac.

He shrugged. “I’m a local, but I’ve moved around a lot. Well, my American friend Sabrina, have no doubt you’ll be hearing from me about our date.” Gallantly bowing over her hand, he brushed his lips across her knuckles so lightly she thought maybe she’d imagined it. When he withdrew, however, she swore she could feel the fire where his lips had been moments before.

She barely resisted the urge to place her lips in the same spot on her hand, like a teenager kissing a Robert Pattinson poster.

Get a grip, Sabrina. He kissed your hand. It’s not like he threw you to the ground and had his way with you.

I bet you would like him to, wouldn’t you?

Plastering a smile on her face, she said, “Yes, I’m looking forward to it.” She smiled one last time in what she hoped seemed a demure fashion—but more than likely took her another step closer to a padded room—and attempted to walk gracefully to her car. She wondered how graceful she could appear, though, when her heart felt like it would race right out of her chest.

Great, just great
.

She reached the car and couldn’t decide whether to be terrified her dream had come true, or excited she had met him, and better yet, had a tentative date planned.

Some way, somehow, her dream had come true. But to even think this man, this Isaac, could invade her subconscious and tell her he would to meet her at a tavern reeked of stupidity. Men didn’t come to you in dreams and claim you as their own, and they certainly didn’t meet you in real life at the places they named in said dreams.

Things like that just didn’t happen.

The man from her dream and the one she met today didn’t even seem like they could be the same man. They were identical in appearance, yet the man in her dreams seemed harsh, rough, and dangerous as opposed to the subtle magnificence of the man at the tavern.

Concluding it an odd coincidence, she shoved any lingering doubts aside. She had gotten a tentative date with an incredibly attractive man.

She didn’t have time to sit around worrying. She had a date to plan.

Chapter Three

She’d somehow gotten back in the woods, though not alone. He already stood beside her, and he seemed angry. His eyes accused her as if she had done something to betray him.

“What’s wrong, Isaac?”

He tensed and hissed at the sound of her voice. His eyes looked hard, bitter. “You went to the tavern today?”

After a slight hesitation, she nodded. “Yes, you were there.”

Looking up into the sky, he muttered something under his breath. She followed his gaze and noticed the stars twinkled merrily above in the purple moonlight, completely at odds with the tension swirling around them both.

“I see.” He jerked her into his arms and pressed against her. “You’re mine, you remember that.” He threaded his hand through her curls roughly, making her scalp sting painfully. She bit back a gasp, narrowing her eyes at him.

“You’re hurting me,” she said.

He released his tight grip upon her curls instantly, and his eyes darkened in remorse. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he whispered. He gently rubbed her scalp to soothe away the pain.

“You’re much nicer in person, I’ll have you know. Maybe I need to stop having these dreams,” she muttered.

His face turned red, and he glowered at her. “Never say that again,” he ordered.

“Or, what? I’ll never see you again? This is all fake. As a matter of fact, I am leaving. Now.”