Nobody's Dream (26 page)

Free.

For so long, her body had been weighing down her spirit. She enjoyed being able to soar and to leave her cares and sorrows behind.

Fly.

Anxious to be on her way, she projected her spirit on the astral plane, through the doorway, and out the picture window in the living room. The wind continued to howl, but she did not feel the coldness of its kiss. Down the mountainside, her metaphysical spirit floated. She had not astral projected since
Mamá’s
birthday. At least she did not have as far to travel this time. Drifts of snow dotted the mountain, heavier in some places than others. She followed the state highway down from the pass before veering off to float over trees and fields in a shortcut to her destination. She had never been to his place before, but her heart knew exactly where to go.

The ranch-style farmhouse sat dark and lonely beneath the waning moon. Of course, there were no lights on inside. He would be asleep, which was just the way she wished to find him. Cassie’s spirit drifted down toward ground level, and she found an open window, not that she needed it to be open in order to enter the house. She slipped inside and saw her golden-haired husband tangled in the sheets, his chest bare.

Lucas.

Her heart ached to reach out and touch him, to brush the lock of hair off his forehead. Her ethereal hand extended toward him until he grimaced and rolled over. The sheet rode low on his hips, showing her he was naked below the waist, too. Cassie turned away ready to flee, but his cry of anguish drew her back to him.

“Stay, Cassie!”

How did he know she was here? Her mother usually sensed her presence when she visited, but
Papá
and Eduardo never had a clue. Lucas was not a shaman and did not seem particularly spiritual. So how had he detected her?

She turned back in his direction, but saw his eyes remained closed. He stretched his hand out beside him and then grabbed the pillow in his fist. “Can’t have you, can I?”

Why would he be dreaming about her? Well, they
had
married recently.

Fearful that he would become fully awake and possibly see her, she pulled away from the bed into a far corner of the ceiling. Soon, his breathing became steady again, and she watched him as he slept. The alarm clock beside the bed showed it was nearing four o’clock. Lucas was an early riser, so she could not linger much longer. She glanced around the sparsely decorated room, but had no interest in the furnishings or décor.

A loud noise pierced the air, and she recoiled. Lucas groaned, and his hand slapped blindly at the clock on the nightstand. He rolled onto his back and covered his eyes with his forearm. Cassie’s gaze strayed to his erection tenting the sheet.

Leave. Now!

Even more quickly than she had projected here, she returned to her mountain and reintegrated with her body lying in a bed so much tinier than Lucas’s bed. However, his bed did not seem enormous like ones Adam and other American men liked to sleep in.

Images flashed across her mind’s eye of sharing her twin bed with Lucas those first few nights while she had tried to combat his hypothermia, but she forced them away. Their bodies had filled the small space, forcing them to spoon against each other’s bodies.

Her face grew heated at the memory.

Tamping it back down, she wondered why Lucas set his alarm so early. He did not wake naturally at this hour given how groggy he appeared to be. Perhaps the man had many responsibilities to attend to and needed to start the day early in order to keep up.

Cassie lay in the bed for a long time, wondering if there was anything she could help him with. She knew nothing of horses, but knew how to cook. Perhaps she could prepare him some meals and store them in his freezer so he wouldn’t have to waste time in the kitchen. He didn’t seem fond of cooking.

After a while, her eyelids became heavy. She had no reason to be up this early. Time to sleep and figure out how she was she going to rid herself of this growing fixation on Lucas Denton.

*     *     *

The alarm blared again, and Luke turned it off this time. He’d spent another restless few hours in bed. Another night filled with dreams of Cassie. Her essence had permeated the room so strongly moments ago he thought she’d been lying beside him when he reached out for her.

How could he be so obsessed with a girl who wanted to have nothing to do with him? She’d sworn off all men in general, not just Luke Denton in particular.

What had happened to make her so distrustful of men? Could he change her opinion of his gender with time and patience?

Hell, he didn’t care what she thought of other men. He wanted her to want to spend time with
him
. Only him.

Not likely he’d see much of her again. Time to quit obsessing about her and head to the barn. “Make hay while the sun shines,” Momma often said. Well, the sun wouldn’t be shining over the mountain peaks for hours, but he tossed the bedspread off and stumbled toward the bathroom. A cool shower would revive him a bit. He had a lot on his agenda today, including some grueling training sessions with O’Keeffe and SAR exercises with Picasso.

Coming out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom fifteen minutes later, he couldn’t shake the strong presence of Cassie.

He needed coffee. Black and hot.

In the barn half an hour later, he no longer sensed Cassie’s presence.
Good
. He immersed himself in his chores instead.

Clicking his tongue, he waited to see which mustang would respond. Picasso—Pic—came to his stall door first, as usual. Luke smiled. The gelding had shown great strides in learning to trust him over the past six months. But many long months of neglect had undermined the years of training that had once put this horse at the top of his game nationally. Luke intended to see the horse back on missions doing what he did best soon—saving lives.

Focus on those you can save.

But a voice in the back of his head told him not to give up on Cassie, either.

Chapter Seven

Early evening, Friday, June 1

“I
think it’s time, Adam.” Karla had been surreptitiously timing contractions for the last two hours. At first, she thought it couldn’t possibly be time. She wasn’t due until July the eleventh and today was only June the first. Despite a bolster pillow against her lower back in the glider chair, the area had been killing her all day.

He glanced away from the latest baby book and the notebook in which he had been scribbling further plans of attack for how to manage life with twins. “I’m going to stay up a little while. You go on to bed, Kitten. I’ll go downstairs and work on this some more.”

They had been sitting in their new bedroom for the past two hours. Doctor Palmer had warned them to expect the babies anytime. Should they be heading to the hospital? But what if it was a false alarm?

Good grief! What if the babies had wanted to come while they were driving to or from San Diego last week for Damián and Savannah’s wedding! No wonder Doctor Palmer had not been happy about them making the trip.

She didn’t want to worry him unnecessarily. He had enough worries now. At least they no longer had to worry about where they would raise their family. She still couldn’t believe they now owned this amazing place. Closing on Marc’s house this morning with the very jet-lagged Marc and Angelina had been a dream come true.

Even though this was too much house for Marc, if would be a wonderful place to raise their twins. If these babies really were about to be born, she needed to give Marc an extra kiss for making it possible to move from the cramped quarters above the Masters at Arms Club into a real home. While she loved the club—after all, it had brought Adam back into her life almost eleven months ago—a kink club was no place to raise children.

He stood and picked up his cell phone, checking for messages again.

“Stop worrying.” As if he could. Adam had so many family members to worry about now, both blood-related, adopted, and those he’d brought into the Masters at Arms Club. Their kink community was strong and supportive of each other.

“I’m sure Megan’s fine now that your Marine is there to take care of her.” Apparently, the night before last someone had broken into their brother Patrick’s condo where Megan had been staying since graduation early last month. Thank God she hadn’t been home at the time of the burglary. Grant and Adam had located one of the Marines they served with who was living nearby, and he had sent him to check on his little sister immediately. Both of them had reported in yesterday that everything was fine.

Karla had never heard Adam mention this Marine before. Most of the ones he had been close to had attended their wedding, except Wilson.

Dark circles under his eyes and what she once thought were laugh lines at the sides of his eyes were testament to how he took on the troubles of his loved ones.

But he obviously didn’t understand what she’d meant by her earlier comment. One more contraction, and she would grab his attention. These babies seemed anxious to meet their parents—much sooner than expected.

As her enormous belly hardened with the next one, Karla timed it at almost exactly five minutes since the previous one. “Adam, I mean I think it’s time for the babies!”

He turned from his path toward the door. Eyes opening wider, his stare remained blank. “What did you say?”

“I thought I’d just been having more Braxton-Hicks practice contractions, but they’ve gotten progressively…”
Don’t tell him how much it hurts.
“…stronger… And closer together.” Doctor Palmer said one sign would be the inability to talk or smile through a contraction. “I have no clue what going into labor is supposed to feel like, but I think this is the real deal.”

She’d had to use every bit of the discipline Adam had taught her to hide from him the fact she was in so much pain. Mainly because of the expression on his face right now. Fear bordering on terror. She hoped he would make it through the delivery with her. She didn’t want to be alone for this.

He shook his head with firm resolve. “It can’t be time, hon. You’re not due for another six weeks. We still need to set up the bassinet, choose the right bottles for breastfeeding multiples…” He paused to glance down at his notes. “Hell, lots of things aren’t ready.”

Karla sighed as he ticked off all the reasons she couldn’t possibly be in labor before she reminded him of the facts. “We’re having twins, Adam. Doctor Palmer said they can come weeks early.”

He met her gaze. “But not six fucking
weeks
early!”

She’d rarely heard Adam shout before, much less drop the F-bomb around her. Hearing the anxiety in his voice only increased her nervousness. She blinked away the waterworks that threatened to spill. God, she hoped her hormones returned to normal quickly after birth.

Suddenly, a look of steely determination came over his face and he stood. He squared his shoulders like a man on a mission—Operation Delivery perhaps—and crossed the room to slide his arm around her back.

He tossed the notebook onto the bed. “Here, let me help you up, Kitten. We probably should get you checked out. Better safe than sorry.”

She leaned into him, wanting his comfort as much as to have him lift her enormous body out of this chair. She hoped that the next time she sat here she’d be holding both of her babies.

Her
healthy
babies. Doctor Palmer said at her last checkup the babies each weighed over four pounds. Big, healthy babies for multiples this early. That must be a good sign.

Please, God, don’t let me lose either of them
. Adam had already had one baby stillborn with Joni. The thought of losing a baby after carrying him or her all these months…

Don’t go there, Kitty.

Adam steered her toward the door. “I’ll call Doc Palmer’s service on the way to let them know we’re heading to the hospital.”

Any control she had over her emotions went out the window. She was about to start a whole new chapter with Adam. He held on to her arm as they navigated the winding staircase. When another contraction hit, she stopped on the landing.