Passion Of Sleepy Hollow

by Lexi Post

  “Yeah!” The boys started to pretend to ride horses using the pumpkin buckets they brought for the weekend as the disembodied heads, but Braeden tensed as he stifled the thread of exhilaration that wound through his body at the idea.

  He stared hard at his brother. “I believe that is your role from now on.”

  “I’m more than happy to leave it in your capable hands, especially because I know how much you like to ride that devil horse.”

  “He’s not a devil horse. He’s perfectly well behaved.”

  Stephen snorted. “Yeah, and I’m as old as Grandmother. There’s a reason he’s called Daredevil.”

  Braeden looked out the window, the scenery a blur, but Kat filled his mind as she did every waking hour and every night at midnight for the past year. His resentment had long passed and in his heart was a dull ache that roared to life at night. Everything about her returned with a vengeance at night. Her smile, her body, her kindness, her drive. She always had something to do. Was it motivation or a need to fill the time?

  He couldn’t fault her for her willingness to get her hands dirty. Her only fault was she was still in love with Brom. He’d hoped he’d found a woman who would love him for himself, but so far, that was not to be. At least he’d visited his family more often now. He had Reed to thank for that. He grinned. What would Reed think of Kat?

  His eyes caught the highway sign as it sped by. Sleepy Hollow. What? “Stephen!”

  The whole car quieted at his yell but Marilyn kept driving, driving toward Sleepy Hollow.

  His brother turned around again. “Yes. I’m right here. You don’t have to yell. I think you’ve been spending too much time with my kids.”

  The boys giggled but Braeden didn’t laugh. He was too focused on trying to breathe as icy fear sped through his body and froze his lungs.

  “Braeden? What is it? You’re as white as the Catskills in winter.”

  He struggled to relax his chest enough to pull in much-needed air. “You said you were going to visit friends for Halloween.”

  “We are.”

  “Then why are we headed to Sleepy Hollow?”

  Stephen glanced at his wife before meeting Braeden’s gaze. “Our friends live in Tarrytown. After years of coming to the festival, we’ve made a few good friends nearby.”

  “You failed to mention that.”

  “I thought I did. How else can I ride as the Headless Horseman since you won’t?”

  Braeden broke eye contact with his brother and stared at the roadside as it sped by. The trees were bare of leaves, much like his soul, stripped, exposed to the elements, only for him there was a blizzard brewing.

  The boys began their chatter again, oblivious to the pain of their uncle. Braeden hoped they never experienced what he’d gone through, kept going through.

  Stephen interrupted his thoughts. “You can stay at the hotel. There’s no reason you have to visit Sleepy Hollow unless you want to ride again.”

  The midnight ride on Daredevil called him. It was as if he were drawn to Sleepy Hollow. As the car sped closer, the pull grew stronger. By time they reached the hotel, his muscles were strained to their limits.

  As soon as he dropped his bag in his room, he told the family he was headed for a walk and left. Marilyn’s show of concern for him made his muscles tighten even more. She validated every feeling he had. Without a backward glance, he strode from the hotel.

  His strides ate up the sidewalk, freeing his muscles to move, releasing the built-up energy pulsing through his body. He didn’t pay attention to where he headed. He simply walked. After an hour, he looked up to find a road sign welcoming him to Sleepy Hollow.

  He stopped and stared at it as if it were a monster that had suddenly appeared in his way. He tried to turn back, but he couldn’t make the first step. The need to continue on was like the burning of his muscles when he hadn’t exercised in weeks. It had to be appeased.

  Running his hand through his hair, he glanced back the way he’d come. He couldn’t go back. With his brain reconciled to the idea, it took his body half a second to respond. His legs carried him past the sign and into Sleepy Hollow.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Newtime—October/Oldtime—Friday

  Braeden found himself standing in front of the stables, the scent of hay enticing him forward. The sound of a horse from inside fired his reflexes, and he stepped into the dimly lit barn. Without thought, he strode forward to Daredevil’s stall. The wily horse was already waiting for him and nickered as he approached. “How have you been, boy? I’ve missed you.”

  “Yah, probably more than he missed you, I’d guess.” The rough voice behind him was well known and well liked.

  Braeden stretched his hand out to stroke the stallion down his neck, but he turned his head to greet Ludo. “It is good to see you.”

  “Yah, and you. Does this mean you will be riding tomorrow night?”

  “Yes. No. Ah shit. I don’t know.”

  Daredevil swung his head away and shook it.

  “Tch, tch.” Ludo stepped to the horse and gentled him with touch. “I don’t think your horse is happy with your reply.”

  Braeden moved away. “He’s not my horse.”

  “No, but he’d like to be. He was Brom’s horse. No one has been able to ride him besides me until you came, but I can’t handle him at a gallop anymore. My bones ache.”

  “You’re the only one who can ride him?”

  Ludo nodded.

  Hell. If he didn’t continue his role as Headless Horseman, Daredevil was doomed to sedate walks about town until one of Stephen’s kids grew up. He didn’t like that at all. The horse was meant to run.

  “Come.” Ludo lumbered away toward his tack room. “Have a drink. The setting sun is causing a nip in the air.”

  Braeden peered out the barn doors and noticed Ludo was right. The day had turned a blustery gray that darkened by the minute. He should let his brother know he wouldn’t make dinner. He looked back at Daredevil, who watched him. Shaking off the horse’s uncanny stare, he pulled over a hay bale and sat.

  The stableman poured and they drank in companionable silence for the first two sips.

  “You will have to see her.” Ludo’s comment, though vague, was clear and Braeden didn’t pretend not to know what he meant.

  “Will I?”

  “Yah.”

  He took another sip of the scotch. “What good will it do? She still loves a dead man, and I don’t want half her heart. I want it all.”

  Ludo stroked the side of his tin cup. “If you want her, then you should fight to have her. Would you give up so easy if you knew Jurgen was courting her?”

  “Has he been bothering her?” Reflexively, Braeden crushed the tin cup in his palm.

  “I don’t know. I don’t see either of them much.”

  “If he has caused her any trouble, I promise—”

  “Promise what? You aren’t here all week and if you stay in Newtime, you will age much faster than Jurgen.”

  Braeden stared at the mashed metal in his hand and slowly bent the cup back into shape, careful not to spill the liquid inside.

  “If you loved her, you’d do what it takes to claim her whole heart. Trust me, being a part-time lover is not the answer.”

  Huh? What did old Ludo know about… Oh, that was why he was never at the barn at midnight. He was with his own female friend. “Who is she?”

  Ludo stared out the barn doors at the growing darkness.

  “Ludo? Who is it you care about?” He couldn’t say the word “love”, for that would mean that was what he felt for Kat and he couldn’t go there. Not with her in love with a ghost.

  The other man threw back the rest of his scotch and hissed. He set his cup down and interlaced his fingers before meeting Braeden’s gaze. “Nora.”

  “The widow with the two young ladies?”

  At Ludo’s nod, Braeden whistled. “You have good taste, my friend. So why not ask her to marry you? I don’t see a time glitc
h or a ghost standing in your way.”

  “I can’t. She is only with me because she has no other options. I could never tie her to me, especially if there’s a chance we could someday live in Newtime. If that happens, she could choose whoever she wanted and not be stuck with me.”

  “What? That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. Has she said she wants to find someone else?”

  Ludo shook his head, his own conflict clear in his dark eyes.

  Braeden raised his brows. “So where did you get the idea she is with you because you’re her only option here?”

  “Because she is always talking about getting the girls married in Newtime. I figure once she has accomplished that, she’ll start looking for a man herself. I would just be in the way.”

  “Hell, you’re more twisted up than I am.” Braeden shot to his feet. “You just sat here and told me to fight for my woman, even against a dead man, while you aren’t willing to fight for yours against an improbable future man?”

  Ludo chuckled. “Hmm, I see what you are saying.”

  Braeden raised his cup. “Here’s to us both. I, for one, am done running my thoughts into circles. It’s time to claim what’s mine.” He swallowed what scotch was left, slammed the misshapen cup on the hay bale and stalked out.

  The cooler night air freshened his spirit as he marched toward the Sleepy Hollow Inn. Lights inside illuminated the packed-dirt road and his feet slowed. Kat was everything warm and right. He had to force Brom from her heart.

  He didn’t want to have her only in dreams as he had for the past year. Luckily, over time, the nightmares and Brom’s laughter had faded, and he’d been left with sweet, sexy dreams of Kat. He’d come to look forward to them, going to bed earlier in the hopes of longer dreams. In a way, he’d been no better than Kat. Living in a dream world, but his could become reality if he had the guts to take what was his.

  Opening the door softly, he stepped into the inn and tapped the bell at the counter.

  “Braeden.” The tortured whisper escaped Kat’s lips as she stared at the back of the man waiting at the counter of her inn.

  He must have heard because he started to turn in her direction.

  Panicking, she retreated two steps and swung around the corner of the hallway, plastering herself against the floral wallpaper. Her heart beat faster than the day she met him, and she folded her arms across her stomach as heat swept through her body and hope ignited in her soul.

  It couldn’t be him. She peeked around the corner. Yes, it was. He was here. She ducked back against the wall and tucked her stray strands of hair into her braid. She groaned as she looked at the blueberry stains soaked into her apron and onto her dress from making pies earlier. She should change.

  The bell rang again.

  “Hold your horses, I’m coming.” Irritated at his impatience, she strode into the entryway. Her steps faltered as Braeden gazed back at her. She tried to restrain herself, but as soon as the corner of his lips quirked upward, she lost her control. She ran to him and he swept her into his arms.

  Oh Lord, he felt so good. She pulled her head back from his shoulder and kissed him with everything she felt for him.

  His tongue met hers and he drank from her mouth like a bee from a flower.

  She riffled his hair as she inhaled the forest-like scent that was him alone.

  He pulled away and gently set her down. One hand stroked the tears of happiness from her cheeks as the other held on to her waist. “I missed you.”

  She grinned like a darn fool. “I missed you too.”

  “I missed you more.”

  “You did not.”

  “I did. For me it has been months, while for you only a few days.”

  She sighed. “True. But it was I who hurt you. I was the one who made you angry. I was the one left behind. Again.”

  He lifted her lowered head. “I didn’t stay away. Someone hit me from behind. By the time I awoke, it was the next day and the village had disappeared.”

  “Jurgen.”

  “That was my thought as well.”

  She held tight to his light sweater, a new anger starting a slow burn. “It’s time that man learned his place.”

  “Whoa, it is never a good thing to back a man into a corner. I think we should first make sure it was him. I was distracted by the sight of the black horse and rider heading toward me, which I had thought was Jurgen, but now I don’t think so. We need to investigate.”

  She agreed with a slight nod, but in the back of her mind she planned a rather scalding cup of coffee for the man. If he hadn’t hit Braeden, then they might have been able to reconcile. “Can you forgive me for what I did?”

  She stared at him, anxious to see forgiveness in his eyes, but that wasn’t the case. Something like determination appeared instead. She stepped back, but he kept his hand on her.

  “Kat. You need to let Brom go. You need to let your past go. It’s time to move forward, live in the present.” His eyes pleaded with her as much as his words. He truly cared for her. He looked away. “Sometimes to do that you have to confront your past. Something I learned to do this last year.”

  “But Braeden, I—”

  He put his finger to her lips.

  She mumbled anyway. “Bub Ib albreaby bib.”

  “Shh. I think I know how you can confront your past and let it go, but you have to trust me. Can you do that?”

  She nodded, but his finger remained where it was.

  “Good.” He smiled.

  Her heart sped and her body flushed. Without thinking, she stuck her tongue out to lick the finger over her lips.

  He jolted back, wary.

  His reaction sent fear sliding through her body. “What’s wrong?”

  “Let’s just wait until we’re sure we have a future as well as a present.”

  She didn’t like the sound of that but was willing to accept it…for now. “Fine. So did you need a room for the night?” She smiled shyly.

  He ran his hand through his hair and she barely kept herself from sighing at his tousled look.

  “No, I have to get back. I arrived with my brother and walked here, but he will be wondering where I’ve been.”

  He was leaving? “I don’t understand.”

  “Honestly, I hadn’t planned to be here, but I promise I will be back tomorrow, and I will ride as the Headless Horseman.” He pulled her against him once again, hugging her to him as if he were afraid to let go.

  She grasped him around the waist, anxious yet unwilling to push him but needing to feel him close. She’d been the one to ruin their courtship. She had to take what he could give right now. When he pulled away, she reluctantly let him go.

  He took her hand and walked to the door. “Trust me when I say I want this to work for us.”

  “I trust you, but that’s because I love you.”

  His face tightened and fear settled against her heart. “I will see you tomorrow.” He gave her a chaste kiss goodbye and slipped out the door.

  She stared at the closed portal as doubts assailed her. His withdrawal was palpable. Did he fear her calling him Brom again? Did she?

  She searched her heart for the answer. Only Braeden was there and she grinned. She could win him back.

  But first she had to get him to admit he loved her in return. That he desired her was clear, but that was also where his hesitancy stemmed from. Maybe some feminine wiles would help. Though what hers were, she wasn’t sure. Perhaps it was time to ask for help.

  Before she lost her nerve, she walked back to her room, donned her cloak and headed outside. Her fast pace helped keep her warm as she strode toward the village and the beginnings of the festival.

  * * * * *

  As Braeden strapped on the torso of the Headless Horseman, he hoped the crazy plan he thought of after talking to Ludo last night would work.

  Kat’s sultry look during the day had his cock in a constant state of readiness, but every time he thought to act upon his need, the memory of her calli
ng Brom cooled his ardor.

  It was as if she’d purposefully enticed him. The dress she wore to the festival when they met with Stephen’s family was one he’d never seen before and it fit her curves in all the right places. When it became warm, she’d pulled off her shawl, as she called it, and exposed her low square neckline along with her bountiful assets.

  Opening her armoire, he used her mirror to hook the black cloak around the neck of the Headless Horseman’s frame. He paused and inhaled the scent of warm brownies, which only made his hunger for her stronger. He could have resisted all the beautiful, tantalizing things about her today if she’d kept her hair in her usual braid, but with her flaxen strands loose down her back with only a ribbon to keep them away from her face, he’d been lost. He couldn’t help finding secluded spots throughout the day to kiss and touch her.

  He didn’t put it past her to be seducing him. Even those around him had been set back by her appearance. As he pulled on the black gloves of the costume, he grinned. Watching Jurgen’s reaction had been perfect, but the best had been when Irwin Crane hadn’t realized it was Kat. As they walked by, she said hello and for once, Irwin had been struck dumb. For Braden, it had been Kat’s soft giggle in response that melted his heart. For such a beautiful spirit, she was rarely appreciated.

  The door to her room opened and she entered. “Is this how these pants are supposed to look? I thought they were a skirt until I put them on. They’re quite strange.”

  Braeden stilled. She twirled around in the wide, black gaucho pants he’d found at a secondhand store. The pants were snug on her curvaceous ass, but spread wide from the juncture of her thighs. The pale-blue silk blouse he’d purchased matched her curious eyes, and her sunlit hair continued to move after she’d stopped spinning.

  He cleared his throat, which had suddenly gone tight. “Yes, that is how they are supposed to fit. Come here.”

  “I can’t see you. Where’s your head?”

  He flipped the drape over the frame before reaching for the buttons at her neckline. He buttoned one more.

  “Is that how far up it’s supposed to go? From what I’ve seen of Newtimers, most of the women have the shirts unbuttoned farther.”