She went to sleep with a pillow at her back, imagining he was beside her.
Chapter Five
“You trust Liam.”
“Kaya?” Dani looked around the living room, sure she’d heard her friend’s voice. Everything was out of focus. Which was why it only took her a moment to realize she was dreaming.
“Shortbread, I need you.”
Liam? She walked toward the kitchen, her heart pounding in her chest as she took in the scene. It was as though she’d just stepped away. He was still standing there at the counter, his cheeks flushed, blue eyes dark with desire for her.
Instead of running away, she walked toward him without hesitation, wrapping her arms around him as he lifted her back onto the counter to finish what they’d started. The instant the thought came into her head they were both naked.
“I like the way you dream, Dani.”
Just a dream. You can do anything in a dream.
“Don’t hide from me again. I want you too much.”
She kissed him and they both moaned at the contact. “You never did before.”
“I always did. It would scare you to know how long.”
“You don’t scare me, Liam.”
“Yes, I do.”
Before he could say more, before she could argue, he was gone and she was suddenly alone again. “No! Liam?”
What did it say about her that even her subconscious wouldn’t let her have her way with him?
“Wish, Butterfly Maiden.”
Dani jumped down from the counter, whirling around and covering herself. “Kaya, if that’s you, you are so not allowed to be in my sex dream.”
No one answered, and she noticed something new. A line of cornmeal on the tile, leading toward the door.
Cornmeal?
“Is this like breadcrumbs? Am I supposed to follow this?” When no one answered, she sighed in frustration. “I’m never drinking again.”
She walked the line, thinking about Liam. She shouldn’t have left him like that. He was her best friend, not some accidental one-night-stand or drunken mistake. It wasn’t fair to him.
The path led her outside the house to the edge of the lap pool, the waterfall sparkling as if it were lit by starlight.
A coyote howled.
It was getting closer to the house. For some reason the sound made her think of the mysteriously sexy Stax.
“Is anybody there?”
“Changing your name can’t erase your scars. Is that why you won’t take what you want?” Bailey’s voice. Dani touched the mark on her side and looked behind her, but she was still alone.
“Yes,” she admitted anyway, her throat tight as she stood alone in the moonlight. She was afraid. Afraid she’d make the wrong decision again and ruin what she’d found here. “Yes, that’s why.”
“You think it makes you weak.” Kaya now.
“I was weak. You never would have let it happen.” She stomped her foot in frustration. “I can hear you. Why can’t I see any of you?”
A shadow finally stirred on the edge of her vision. Thank God. “Liam? I’m not liking this crazy, disjointed dreamscape at all. What do you say we go back to the kitchen and give that sex scene another shot?”
It wasn’t Liam. She knew because the figure did nothing to ease the growing foreboding inside her. “Who are you?”
The shadow moved closer, becoming more familiar, and she realized she couldn’t move. Her feet were stuck to the ground. Part of it. She wouldn’t be able to escape him this time.
“No.”
A glint of silver flashed in the moonlight and he came out of the darkness with the knife in his hand and a cruel, familiar smile on his lips. “Sal.”
“You’ve been waiting for me.”
“Yes.” Always.
He got so close she could smell the stale smoke and insanity on his skin. Could see that strange spark that had always been in his eye. She’d thought it was passion the first time they’d met. She’d been so wrong.
“Did you ever think I wouldn’t find you, you ugly bitch?” He said, his voice gentle and his smile frighteningly tender. “No matter where you go or what you call yourself, I’ll never let you go.”
She tried to fight it now. Tried to move. “No.”
“I promised, remember? I wrote it on your skin for everyone to see. For him to see. No one else can have you. As if he could want you anyway, when he can do so much better. You should have stayed with me.”
“Let me go.”
He lifted the knife as stars fell around them and she started to scream—
Dani sat straight up in bed, scrambling back until her body was plastered against the headboard. Alone. She was alone and safe and Sal would never be able to find her. Never be able to hurt her again.
She took a breath, forcing herself to relax even as her head started to throb, reminding her of what happened last night. She’d had too much to drink and acted like a fool with Liam, and her dreams didn’t mean a thing.