by Brook Wilder
Olivia nodded her head, unable to speak out loud again, and Preston kissed away her tears, one by one, drop by drop. Slowly, he got to his feet as he took a few steps back from the bed, and then he shed his clothes. Piece by piece they fell. His shirt first, and then his jeans, his boxers.
She loved the way his body looked as he turned and twisted. She loved the way the moonlight caressed his muscles like a lover, falling over his chest, his abs, across the sharp bones of his hips. The sight of him alone made her breath hitch and chase away some of the visions.
“Come here.”
Olivia’s brows furrowed at Preston’s command. She would much rather that he come back to bed, cover her with his body, and drive away the terrible memories that still haunted her. But, instead, he held out one of his hands towards and reluctantly she did what he asked. She rose and went to him.
She felt his fingers close over hers and lost her breath as he spun her across the room. She was even more surprised when she reached for him and he stopped her, turning her around so that her back was to his front.
Before she could say anything, Preston pulled her close against him and wrapped his arms around her in the sweetest hug. Just a hug. Just their two bodies, pressed together so close that she could feel the heat coming off him in waves. He surrounded her completely.
“Close your eyes,” Preston whispered.
Instead, Olivia rolled them up at him. But he gave her a mock stern look.
“Trust me, Red.”
And she did.
Finally, she listened, doing what he told her and let her eyes slide shut. Immediately, those awful memories were there to greet her, hiding behind her eyelids, and Olivia couldn’t help the way her body tensed.
“Just think of me, okay?” Preston said roughly, the demand in his voice impossible for her to ignore. “Nothing else. Just me.”
He ran his hands up and down her naked body, his fingers teasing spots she didn’t even know she had before.
“Feel my touch.”
She let herself sink back against him, sinking into the deep, velvet rough sound of his voice.
“Feel how your body reacts to mine, like we were made for each other.”
Slowly, inch by inch, breath by breath, she gave into him, gave into the spell that he wove around her. She let herself get lost in him. Because she knew that he would always catch her.
He teased her for long minutes, drawing her body tighter and tighter with his touch, until all she could think about was him. There wasn’t room for anything else beside the bonfire of desire and need that he had stoked within her.
Only when she threw her head back and begged for him did Preston finally step back towards the bed, drawing her with him.
He hastily slid on a condom before sitting in the middle of the bed and he pulled her on top of him. She was so ready for him that she barely needed any help at all to slide him all the way inside her.
They rocked together, both of them panting and lost in each other. As close together as two people can be. Olivia let out a cry as the pleasure became too much and they both climaxed together as one, their arms, legs, and souls entwined together.
Chapter 11
Preston knew it was a dream, but it didn’t make it any better. It didn’t make it any less horrifying and it didn’t banish the fear that choked him until he felt like he couldn’t breathe. Or maybe that was just the smoke that was filling his lungs.
Everywhere around him was fire.
Red fire. Scarlet fire. Flashing and flickering between crimson and gold like the scales of some great, terrible dragon. A monster from his worst nightmare. No, this was worse than anything he had ever imagined.
There was no escaping it. It surrounded him. It was the very air he breathed, harsh and painful, blistering his lungs with every inhale and scorching the inside of his nose with every exhale.
It was a great beast that threatened to overwhelm him with its vicious, furious heat as it swirled around him in this vast empty place. He couldn’t escape it. He was trapped in its lair. In its world. His whole world was nothing but fire and flames.
But suddenly a new sound cut through the roar of the inferno. A sound that stabbed through Preston like a rusty jagged knife. It was a cry. A woman’s cry. It was Olivia.
He turned around and around, searching for her, calling out for her, but he couldn’t see her through the smoke and flickering wall of flames. That terrible beast blocked her from him and he dashed forwards, looked desperately for her, but she was nowhere to be found. Her screams of terror still reached him, though, still wrenched through him until he fell to his knees.
His own screams filled the air then, and they weren’t screams of pain, as the heat from the flames licked at his flesh, leaving bright red welts along the skin of his arms and legs. He screamed because he knew in that moment that he would never see her again. He would never see her smile or the way her eyes lit up when she thought of something.
He would never hear her laughter or the little gasp in the back of her throat when he kissed that spot just below her ear. Or the way his name sounded on her lips.
He would never feel her arms wrapped around him, or the silken softness of her hair, or the incredible way she made him feel, like a brand-new person, seeing the world in a brand-new way.
That was all gone now. He knew it. It was all gone, because she was gone. And he would never find anyone else like her again. No one else would light up his world like she had.
“Preston! Preston, please!”
Olivia’s voice shattered him, the pleading in it broke him to pieces, but he swept himself back together and chased in the direction it had come from. That he’d thought it had come from.
But all around him, all Preston could see was the smoke. Thick and black and roiling like a churning ocean around him. It twisted and twined itself around his body. He tried to run but he was caught tight.
“Preston, help me!”
He turned sharply, and there she was! She was caught by the monstrous, fiery dragon. Its maw was opened wide, scarlet and crimson, and Olivia was trapped between its teeth. He called out to her, but it was no use. In the blink of an eye, the beast swallowed her, burning her alive, and she was gone. Just like that, Olivia was gone.
Preston jerked awake with a gasp.
All at once, the terrible dream collided with the reality of the last twenty-four hours, and the aftershock ricocheted through Preston, throwing shrapnel of memories in its deadly wake.
He lay there in the middle of the bed, completely frozen as he forced himself to remember what had been nightmare and what had really happened. Hell, what had really happened was bad enough. He certainly didn’t need to go adding monsters and imaginary fire dragons to the mix.
Preston scoffed at himself in the dark, discounting the night terrors as nothing more than his mind trying to work off the last of the adrenaline that was still pumping through his system. That was all. There was nothing more to it than that.
But he still rolled over onto his side. He still reached out for Olivia’s warm body, to pull her close and maybe lose himself in. To drive back the demons that only she could keep at bay. And he froze.
She wasn’t there. The other half of the bed was empty and cold. The heat from her body had already seeped away telling him that she hadn’t been in the bed next to him for some time.
The nightmare came back in full force and the same panic he’d felt in the dream, when he hadn’t been able to find her, filled him up to the brim right now.
He rolled off the bed and jumped to his feet, leaving the rumpled sheets behind as he fled the room. Preston opened his mouth, about to call out to her, but something caught at the corner of his eye. There was a flickering light coming from down the hall and he turned towards it.
The flickering was all too reminiscent of his dream and it sent unease settling deep inside him, but he still padded forward on bare feet until he reached the living room.
Only when he finally
caught sight of Olivia did he let out the breath he realized he’d been holding since he had discovered that the bed was empty.
Dawn looked like it was just breaking outside, and Olivia was sitting on the couch watching the morning news as she ate a bowl of cereal.
He must have made some noise, because she jumped and glanced over at him sharply. She relaxed again when she saw it was him, but he looked away abashed. He shouldn’t have scared her like that. Should have announced himself.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she finally said, her voice soft, almost a whisper, as if she didn’t want to break the early morning quiet. “I always wake up at six. I tried to stay in bed but… my body just wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Well, I’m sure I could think of a few ways to make your body listen,” Preston said, hiding his unease as he walked towards her and laid a gentle kiss upon her cheek.
He just needed to reassure himself that she was real. That she was really there. Only then did he let out a relieved sigh at finding her well and whole, and not being swallowed by a fire dragon.
Preston shook his head at himself, thinking that he was being ridiculous, acting like some overprotective boyfriend. But that didn’t stop him from walking across the living room to the front bay of window.
He stretched, trying to banish the last of the dream, but it still sat there in the pit of his stomach, coiled and waiting for its moment to strike. He flicked the curtain back just enough to peek outside.
There wasn’t much to see, besides a thin trail of smoke waving up into the pale morning sky. But it was several blocks away. Too far to worry about. Probably someone just burning leaves or something.
He scanned the street and sidewalk in front of Olivia’s house, but both of those were empty as well. Not a sound reached his ear, except for the muffled voices of the morning news anchors. Olivia had the volume turned down so low he could only make out every other word or so.
Finally satisfied, he let the curtain fall back into place once more.
“You want coffee? I just made a fresh pot. I can get you some if you want,” Olivia asked as she got to her feet, not quite looking at him.
He nodded.
“Uh, yeah. Coffee would be great,” he said, after he realized that she couldn’t see his nod.
It was obvious that she still felt a little uncomfortable with him after the night before, or maybe it was her near death experience. Either way, he would give her a little bit of time to process everything that had happened, and then he’d let her know in no uncertain terms that they were in this together, that she could tell him anything, that she could open up and let him inside that convoluted head of hers.
But Olivia paused half-way to the kitchen and turned towards him with a serious expression on her face. He held his breath, wondering what she was going to say. Afraid she would tell him to leave. That everything was too much for her. That she wanted him to go away.
“How do you like your coffee?”
Preston nearly choked on a relieved bark of laughter at her question.
“Just a splash of milk, if you have it. No sugar. Otherwise black is fine.”
Oliva nodded, and then smiled at him, and it was the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen in his life.
It damned near took his breath away. How had he never noticed how beautiful her smile was, the way it lit up her whole face and made her eyes dance like gemstones in the bright morning sunlight.
“Perfect,” she whispered, turning on the heels of her bare feet and disappearing into the kitchen.
He couldn’t have agreed more.
As Olivia left to pour them both cups of coffee, Preston was pulled back to the window and that trail of smoke in the distance.
He was extremely careful as he pulled back the curtain just enough to see out of the front window and peer outside once more. Almost immediately, his eyes found the telltale ribbon of dark gray smoke that marred the morning sky line.
It was just a hair thinner now, lessened a little bit, but still enough to fill the surrounding air with a light gray haze, almost a smog that hung over the town. His thoughts reeled as he tried to pinpoint exactly where it would be coming from and frowned as he formed a map in his mind.
That’s odd. That smoke would be coming from right near downtown main street. Pretty close to where…
Preston heard the crash of the glass breaking and jumped straight into the air, but it took a few more seconds to figure out where the sound had come from. He turned back to the living room.
Olivia was standing stock still just inside the room, and she was staring at the TV screen, not moving a muscle. Her expression was one of pure shock. Preston’s brows furrowed in confusion and panic as he followed the line of her empty, outstretched hands.
The mug of coffee she’d just filled had slipped from her fingers and shattered on the hardwood floor, spilling dark liquid all over, but Olivia didn’t even seem to notice. She still hadn’t moved.
“Here, be careful now,” Preston murmured as he walked towards her carefully. He helped her, guiding her around the sharp broken shards to the mug. But she moved like a zombie, her gaze never leaving the screen.
Still confused, he turned and looked over his shoulder to see what had upset her so much, and it hit him like a punch to the gut as he stared at the local news anchor.
Olivia whispered a single word.
“Jonathan.”
Chapter 12
Her whole body was shaking. A part of her was aware of Preston leading her over to the couch, but she couldn’t feel her legs. She’d gone numb. All numb.
Olivia stared at the screen. She stared at the pretty lady with her perfect blond hair and watched her perfectly painted lips move, but she couldn’t comprehend the words. The images, though, she had no problem understanding those, and they tore her apart.
One after the other, they flickered on to the screen.
A video of Main Street in downtown Hightower, zooming in on the smoldering ashes of where Fulbright Law had used to stand.
The terrible images of a man being carried away on a stretcher, his face blurred and indistinct. But the blood that covered the front of his white shirt was as stark as daylight. It was Jon.
There had been an attack at the law firm late last night. A local gang had attacked the lawyer for reasons unknown. The victim was in critical condition and being held at the nearest hospital because of the wounds he’d sustained. They had no further information at this time.
They had no further information.
They had no further information.
The last sentence the blond news anchor had said kept skipping over in Olivia’s brain like a scratched record. It made her want to scream and shout and rage. She knew. She had information. She knew who had done this. And, what was even worse, she knew why. She knew exactly why.
Suddenly she couldn’t breathe.
It was like a hammer blow to the chest, knocking all the oxygen from her lungs and she couldn’t draw any back in again. She was going to hyperventilate.
And then Preston was there, his calm, concerned eyes locked on hers as he pushed her head down below her knees and told her to breathe.
“That’s it, sweetheart. Nice and slow. Easy breaths. One at a time. There’s no rush. Just breathe in through your nose. And out through your mouth. Just like that.”
Olivia could feel his hand rubbing small circles on her back and a part of her, the cowardly part of her, wanted to stay just like this. Her face turned away from the world, Preston’s calm voice telling her that everything was fine.
If only she could believe him. If only she didn’t know the truth now. Everything was not fine. Not even a little bit.
Finally, when she felt like her whole world wasn’t collapsing, Olivia forced herself to sit up. The news was already on to something new. A parade that was happening in another town, far away from where her heart was breaking.
“I have to go see him. I need to talk to Jon.”
“No w
ay, Red. Absolutely not.”
Olivia turned to him with one eye brow arched sharply at him.
“That wasn’t a question. I don’t have to ask your permission, Preston. My boss, my friend, is in the hospital in a critical condition because… I am going to see him.”
She stood up on legs that still didn’t quite feel like hers, but Preston stopped her again.
“Just listen to me first, okay?” Preston pleaded with her.
She forced herself to take a deep breath when what she really wanted to do was snap at him to get the hell out of her way. But finally, she nodded.
