DREAM LOVER (9 page)

“I take it you’re not too keen on the idea of marriage and children.”

Nic’s eyes locked with hers.  “Maybe I was just waiting for the right woman.  What about you, Rachel?  Wouldn’t you like to have a home and a family of your own?”

Rachel suddenly had a vivid image of holding a dark haired baby in her arms.  “Someday,” she replied wistfully.  “But right now I need to concern myself with packing and getting on the road.”

“Not so fast,” Nic protested when she tried to extract herself from his arms.  “I’ve decided that since I have a vested interest in the Covelli mansion it might be a good idea if I came with you.  After all, if I’m going to live there one day, I may have a few ideas I’d like you to incorporate into the restructuring.”

Rachel’s eyes narrowed.  “Tell me you’re not going to be offering
helpful
suggestions at every turn.”

“I wouldn’t dream of telling you how to do your job.  I was thinking more along the lines of taking a walk through the place so I could let you know what I like and don’t like.  You know, just to give you a better idea how my tastes run.  You don’t have any objections to my tagging along do you?”

“Depends on how much of a distraction you intend on being,” she said with a smile.

“During the day, none at all.”

Rachel’s heart fluttered.  “Does that mean you plan on spending the night with me?”

“Oh no, Miss Delacourte, I think I can safely say one night with you wouldn’t be nearly enough time to do all the things I want to do to you.”

“I…I thought you worked nights at the lab,” she said in a wobbly voice.

“Only on occasion, but as luck would have it, I’ve decided to take a few weeks of vacation time and spend it with a certain fascinating young woman I’ve just met.”

Two weeks alone with Nic sounded like heaven, though she wondered how he was going to fill his time while she was working.  “I spend a lot of time just sketching at first, won’t you get bored?”

“Not if you allow me to just sit and watch you work.”

“Not on your life.  I wouldn’t be able to draw a straight line if I knew you were watching me, though I wouldn’t mind if you talked to me while I worked.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he said, then sealed the agreement with a kiss.

                       ***

Once they were on the road, Rachel told Nic about the nightmare.  “I hadn’t realized what the burning pain in my shoulder was before.  Now I know it was from the gunshot, but what I don’t understand is why the nightmare has suddenly changed.”

“Maybe it hasn’t changed.  Obviously what happened in the nightmare you had today was a prelude to what happens in the original one.  It’s possible you’ve actually dreamt of it before and just didn’t remember any of it because the last part is so much more traumatic.”

“I suppose, but I can’t help wondering if it had something to do with you being there.”

A wide grin spread across Nic’s face.  “I guess we’ll know after tonight, won’t we?”

“You’re completely shameless, Nic Covelli,” she feigned an indignant huff.  “Do you suggest sleeping with all your patients to prove or disprove a theory?”

“I’ll have you know I’m very particular about which patients I sleep with.”

“Do tell,” she replied dryly.

“First and foremost, they have to be female.  I’m also partial to green eyes and hair the color of a raven’s wings.  Her lips and skin have to be soft as silk, and of course she has to possess the ability to slip into my dreams every night to make wild, passionate love to me.”

Rachel couldn’t contain her smile.  “How fortunate for me then; I just happen to meet your stringent criteria for a prospective lover.”

Nic reached across the seat and gave her hand a gentle squeeze.  “No, honey, I’m the fortunate one.  We’re almost there but we’ve got a little time to kill before we meet Grandfather for dinner.  Would you like to take a quick tour of the town?”

“That’s a wonderful idea.  I can’t wait to see the mansion.  Antonio showed me pictures of course, but there were only a few of the outside and the ones inside the mansion didn’t give me more than a vague idea of what it looked like.”

“He must have been quite impressed with your work.  It’s my understanding he didn’t even put it out to bid and that you were the only one he offered the job to.”

“I just hope I live up to his expectations.  I’m always a little nervous before starting a new job, but now that I know it’s
your
house, I’m even more anxious about getting it perfect.”

“I have all the confidence in the world that it’ll be another Delacourte masterpiece.”

They spent the next thirty minutes driving around the small town which Rachel found extremely enchanting.  The mansion itself was on a hill overlooking the town and was just barely visible from the south end.  According to Nic, he not only owned the land it sat on but also all the acreage clear to the bottom of the hill, which is why the town hadn’t encroached any closer to the mansion in over a hundred years.

“The townspeople stay clear of it anyway,” he told her as they pulled into the restaurant parking lot.  “The rumor that it was haunted started even before my great grandfather died, but it really picked up after his death.”

“Maybe Antonio can tell us more about it since he lived there when he was young.”

“Maybe.  I doubt my great grandfather would have had any in-depth discussions about it with Grandfather. They weren’t very close.”

“What about Antonio’s mother?”

“She died giving birth to him.”  Nic got out of the car and hurried around to help Rachel out.  “Try not to mention his mother.  My father told me it was purely a marriage of convenience. After she died, my great grandfather declared he’d done his duty to carry on the Covelli name and would never marry again.”

“That’s just about the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.  Why was he so bitter about marriage?”

“I don’t know.  My father was reluctant to even tell me that much.  He only did it so I wouldn’t ask Grandfather any questions that would upset him.”

They hadn’t taken more than a few steps inside the restaurant when Antonio appeared out of nowhere, greeting Nic with a hardy handshake and warm smile.  “Nicolo, what are you doing here?”

“When I heard through the grapevine that you’d hired the talented Miss Delacourte to restructure the mansion, I couldn’t resist tagging along.”

Antonio’s eyes sparkled with amusement as he took Rachel’s hand in both of his.  “I am sure Nicolo’s sudden interest in the mansion has more to do with your beauty than talent, but I can hardly blame him.”

“We were wondering if you could tell us about the woman who’s rumored to be haunting the mansion,” Nic said after their orders had been taken.

Antonio shot his grandson a disproving frown.  “I do not think telling Rachel about ghosts is a very good idea.  I have a groundskeeper and maid who are there during the day, but she will be all alone at night.  Not that I give much credence to this haunting, but a woman alone in a strange house…”

“She won’t be alone, Grandfather.  I’ve taken a few weeks off work so I can be on hand in case Rachel needs my assistance.”

Rachel grabbed her glass of wine and held it to her lips in a desperate attempt to hide the furious blush that stained her cheeks.  Far from being concerned about what Nic had so nonchalantly divulged, Antonio couldn’t have seemed more pleased, which only served to make Rachel’s blush deepen.  It was apparent to her, and probably to Nic too, that Antonio was hoping their relationship would blossom and eventually result in marriage and a house full of great grandchildren.

“It is about time you took a vacation, Nicolo, and one could not ask for a more delightful companion to spend it with.”

“I assure you I’ll give this job my full attention,” Rachel said stiffly.  “I’m sure you’ve guessed there’s an… attraction between Nic and I, but it won’t interfere with my work.”

“Forgive my grandfather’s transparent attempts to find out just how serious we are about each other, Rachel.  He wasn’t inferring you would neglect your job, though I’m certain he’d be delighted to delay restructuring that monstrosity if it meant planning a wedding instead.”

Antonio’s booming laughter instantly lightened Rachel’s mood.  “He is right,
bella
, nothing would make me happier than to see Nicolo settled down with a woman as refined as you are.”

“Given that Nic and I barely know each other, you may want to wait before sending out those wedding invitations,” she said with a teasing smile.  “And now perhaps we can get back to the poor woman who haunts the Covelli mansion.”

“I am afraid there is not much I can tell you, and I must confess that what I have heard may be nothing more than rumors and gossip.  My father, for whom Nicolo was named, was a bitter man who cared for no one, not even himself.  He rarely spoke to me and when he did it was usually to berate me for something.”

Antonio reached across the table and patted Rachel’s hand.  “Do not look so sad,
bella.
I managed to have a heart in spite of my upbringing.  It was not my father who told me what I am about to relay to you, but a conversation I overheard between two of the servants while I was searching for a book in the library one day.  It seems there was a bit of scandal involving my father and one of the maids who worked for the family.  They had fallen madly in love, but a marriage between a Covelli and the hired help was simply out of the question.

“It seems my father arranged to meet her in the gardens one night so they could elope, but she never showed.  He accused his family of kidnapping her and sending her away, but of course they denied it.  He was heartbroken, and though he spent the next few years searching for her, he never found her. Eventually, he gave into pressure from the family and married someone else.”

Rachel’s face had gone deathly pale and when she spoke her voice was strained.  “The woman…they thought the family had her killed, didn’t they?”

“Yes, they did,” Antonio replied solemnly.

An icy chill crept into her bones.  “Antonio… did these women happen to mention her name?”

“As a matter of fact, they did.  I believe they said her name was Rochelle.  Rochelle Beaumont.”

Rachel let out an audible gasp as a searing pain speared through her shoulder.  From somewhere far away she heard Nic call out her name, followed by the echo of another man’s voice.  It was cold with disdain, his cruel laughter drowning out her pleas to have mercy as he viciously tore off her undergarments and forced himself on her.

“Are you sure she does not need to be seen by a doctor, Nicolo?”

“I’m sure.  She’ll come out of it in a few minutes and be perfectly fine.”

Nic was sitting in the back seat of his grandfather’s limousine with Rachel cradled in his arms, fervently praying he was right.  If he hadn’t just witnessed the strange scene inside the restaurant, he would have sworn on his life she was wide awake right now, but the jade green eyes that were gazing up at him with such loving tenderness didn’t belong to Rachel.  Keeping his voice low, Nic explained to his grandfather that she was sleeping and that it was best to let her wake on her own.    

When she’d clutched at her shoulder as if she was in pain he’d known exactly what was happening, though he couldn’t even begin to understand how it was possible to slip directly into the nightmare from a completely wakeful state.  He’d managed to get her outside before she’d started sobbing her heart out and begging him not to hurt her, which earned him a look of utter disgust from his grandfather.

“
Mio Dio
,” Antonio had ground out, “if you have dared to lay a hand on this girl….”

“I know what it looks like,” Nic said as he attempted to subdue Rachel without hurting her, “but you’ll just have to trust me when I say she doesn’t know it’s me that she’s trying to fight off.”

Thank God his grandfather’s driver, Max, was watching for them and pulled up in front of the restaurant before they’d even reached the curb.  Rachel’s struggling had gotten progressively weaker and by the time Max came around to open the back door she’d stopped trying to wrestle free and allowed Nic to get her inside the car with minimal effort.  He’d pulled her onto his lap the moment he was settled in his seat and to his immense relief she’d stopped crying and let her head drop onto his shoulder.

Nic tore his eyes away from Rachel long enough to give his grandfather a reassuring smile.  “She’s fine, I promise.  Rachel has been suffering from nightmares where she’s walled up in a room and left to die.  She came to the center to do a sleep study.  That’s how we really met.”

Antonio sat across from Nic and Rachel, his face etched with concern.  “How does the poor girl even function with this affliction?  If she can be pulled into this nightmare without any warning, she is in grave danger of hurting herself.  What if she was driving when this happened?  She could get in a wreck and be seriously injured or killed.”

“I’m fairly certain this is the first time it’s happened.”  Nic stroked the side of her face with his fingertips, returning the soft smile she gave him.  “I think it was triggered by what you told us about the woman your father was in love with.”