In Other Worlds (14 page)

KNIGHTLY DREAMS

ONE

“Well,” Taryn Edwards said into her cell phone as she stood beside the road, watching the steady Dallas traffic pass by her broken-down car, “I would throw myself under the nearest bus, but considering my luck today, I'm sure it would break down less than a millimeter from me and just ruin my clothes. . . . Probably break my watch, too.”

“You wear a Timex.”

She snorted. “Trust me, today not even my Timex could take a licking and keep on ticking. Give me a Tonka truck and I'll squash it with my ink pen.”

Janine's laughter echoed through the static. “Taryn, is it really
that
bad?”

Holding her cell phone in a tight grip, Taryn looked at her stalled-out Firebird, which was the prettiest, most expensive lawn ornament she'd ever purchased.

Of all the rotten luck, especially since all she wanted to do was get home and drown her woes in gallons of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. “Considering the fact that I'm stuck out in this wretched heat wearing high heels with a black car that currently wouldn't go downhill with a hurricane pushing it, I'd say yes.”

Janine laughed again. “Do you need me to come pick you up?”

“No. I appreciate the thought, but I have to wait on the tow truck, which seems to be the only thing moving slower than my DOA Firebird.”

“Jeez,” Janine said. “You are in a pissy mood.”

That's because I just caught my boyfriend in his office with his secretary showing her a position I'm sure would qualify them for the Kama Sutra Hall of Fame.
. . .

Pain sliced through Taryn's heart as she remembered the sight of them going at it on his desk. Unable to breathe for a moment, she wanted desperately to tell Janine the whole story, but the last thing she needed was to cry on the side of the road. Her dignity was all she had left, and she had no intention of giving Rob that last piece of her.

“Taryn, why don't we . . .”

All of a sudden the phone, much like her car, went dead. “Janine?”

Nothing.

Taryn tried to redial the number, but the static was so severe, she couldn't hear anything.

“Great,” she mumbled, turning the phone off and glancing at the shopping center across the street. It would be a bit of a hike through screaming traffic, but at least it had a grocery store where she could grab something cold to drink and a few shops she could browse in to pass the time until the tow truck could get here.

And with any luck, a car or truck might plow into her and put her out of her misery.

Dodging traffic, she made her way over to the shopping center. Damn, she actually arrived without bodily injury. It really wasn't her day.

Disgusted by that, she headed for the grocery store, but as she drew near the entrance for it, she happened to see the small bookstore next door.

Taryn paused and frowned at the cozy-looking place. When had they opened that? She couldn't recall ever seeing it here before.

She stared up at the hand-painted sign: DAYDREAMS AND RAINBOWS.

How odd.

Well, thank God for small favors. A good book would cure her woes tonight almost as much as Ben & Jerry.

Heading inside the cheery store lined with bookshelves, she saw an elderly woman straightening the books on the wall to her right. There was something about the old woman that appeared youthful, almost sprite-like as she came off her ladder to greet Taryn. The woman moved with surprising agility. Her platinum gray hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and she wore a pair of faded blue jeans and a pink summer sweater.

The store smelled like musty old books, and there was a small café in a corner on the far left where a pot of coffee percolated.

“Welcome,” the woman said, her brown eyes bright with friendship. “I'll bet you're looking for something to read.”

For the first time that afternoon, Taryn smiled. “You must be psychic.”

The woman laughed as she closed the distance between them. “Not really. You are in a bookstore, after all.” She winked as she came to rest in front of Taryn. “So, what's your pleasure? Thrillers, science fiction . . .” The older woman tapped her chin as she studied Taryn. “No.
Romance.
You look like you need a good romance to read.”

Taryn wrinkled her nose at the very thought. She'd given up reading romance novels a long time ago. She had buried that naive Cinderella-wanting-Prince-Charming part of herself in the closet along with her Barbie dolls and other childish fantasies and beliefs. “To be honest, I don't read those.”

The woman looked offended. “Why not?”

“One man, one woman. Happily-ever-after. Forever and ever . . . bologna.”

The woman shook her head at her. “My name's Esther,” she said, extending her hand.

“Taryn,” she said as she shook a hand that felt like warm velvet in her palm.

Esther gave her a probing stare. “Now, tell me about this man who stole that dream from you.”

Taryn had never been the kind of person to confide in anyone much, least of all a perfect stranger, and yet before she knew it, her entire history with Rob Carpenter came pouring out of her right down to the grittiest of details.

“It was horrible!” she said, taking a tissue from Esther to dab at her eyes as she continued to tell her the whole miserable event. “I believed in that snake and he lied to me.”

Esther led her to a small table in the café area and made her a cup of coffee.

“So you see,” Taryn said before she blew her nose, “he told me that I was the only woman for him. That he would love no one else. And then the next thing I knew, he was calling me by the wrong name when he answered the phone. Good giveaway, you know?” She sighed. “I should have known then, but I stupidly believed his lies and now . . .”

Again, she saw Rob and his secretary on the desk, their clothes scattered on the floor around them.

Taryn fisted her hand in her hair as pain, embarrassment, and grief assailed her anew. “How could I have been so stupid? How could he be so damned clichéd?”

Esther patted her hand. “It's all right, love, and I am so sorry, but you shouldn't base your opinion of all men on the actions of one thoughtless ass.”

Taryn smiled at that, even though her heart was broken. “He
was
an ass.”

“Of course he was. You're a beautiful young woman with your entire life before you. The last thing you need is to be so jaded. What you need is a good old-fashioned hero.”

Taryn sighed dreamily at the thought as that buried part of her reared its ugly head. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, there was that tiny, infinitesimal part of her that still believed in fairy tales. At least, it wanted to. “Some knight in shining armor, come to sweep me off my feet. It does sound nice, doesn't it?”

“Yes, it does.”

She watched while Esther got up and went to the shelves on her left. After a minute Esther came back with a book in her hand. “You need a champion, my dear, and I know just the man. Sparhawk the Brave, the fourth Earl of Ravensmoor.”

Taryn studied the purple paperback where a handsome, bare-chested man with a sword grinned roguishly at her. The wind swept at his ebony hair, and his honest eyes were a deep, vibrant green. A wicked green that was tinged with a look of esoteric knowledge and intelligence, and they bore the glint of a man who knew his way around a woman's body. A man who would take his time and make sure he did the job right.

Oh, yeah, he was a major hottie.

His smile was devilish and there was something captivating about him. His arms bulged with strength and power, and he wore a gold, wolf-tipped torc that deepened the perfect tan of his skin.

He was striking and gorgeous, and the woman in her responded automatically to such overt masculinity. It might only be a drawing, but it was a damn good drawing. The kind that made a woman wish for one minute that she could find such perfection in the flesh.

At least for a night or two.

The title,
Knightly Dreams,
swept across the cover in gold foil, but the name of the author appeared to have been worn off.

Oddly enough there was no blurb on the back and she didn't recognize the publisher.
“Ma Souhait?”

“They're an old publisher,” Esther said. “Been around since before I was born.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes. You'll like it, trust me.” Esther looked out the windows to where Taryn's Firebird was waiting. “Your tow truck is here. You'd better run.”

Taryn pulled her wallet out.

Esther waved her hand at her. “Oh, pooh, dear, after the day you've had, consider it a gift.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” Esther walked her to the door. “Good luck to you and Sparhawk. And remember, sometimes our dreams appear where and when we least expect it. Sometimes, just sometimes, you can even find them waiting in your own bed when you open your eyes.”

Taryn arched a brow at the odd comment, but then Esther was quite a wonderfully eccentric character. “Thank you, Esther.”

With Sparhawk in her hand, Taryn headed across the parking lot, then crossed the street and told the driver where to take her car.

Later that night, after she'd had a good cry over Rob, a pint of Phish Food, and a long geld-the-useless-bastard conversation with Janine, Taryn pulled out her book and decided to give Sparhawk a try.

It was stupid, she knew that, and yet she couldn't seem to help herself from wanting to read the book and get Rob-the-Prickless-Bastard off her mind before she fell asleep.

She skimmed the first paragraph.

Taryn smiled at the image. Oh, yeah, he definitely sounded like someone who could get Rob Dickhead off her mind.

She sighed as she read more about the wandering rogue champion and his quest to claim his fair, if somewhat insipid, maiden. It was a pity they didn't make guys like this in modern-day America.

“Sparhawk,” she whispered, smiling slightly, “I wish for two seconds that you were real.”

Closing the book, Taryn laid it on her nightstand, turned out the light, and settled down to sleep. But as she lay there, all she could see was the last image she'd read of the hero.

A knight in armor on the back of his huge white stallion, riding into the forest to seek out the village enchantress . . .