Hear Me When the Sun Goes Down (11 page)

I felt it like a physical loss when he looked away, the engine giving a low roar as he started the car.  “I can fix this.  I promise I’ll find a way.”  There had to be a way, otherwise what was the point of anything?

Rob held my hand in the darkness for long seconds before he pulled away to attend to the shifter.  “Let’s go meet up with Gunnar and Tucker.”

I knew I should be patient.  I knew I should wait. 

I’d never been ruled by my hormones before, and being undead, could I even really place the blame there anyway?  But the more the universe conspired to keep Rob and I apart, the more I burned to be with him. 

I was good for the rest of the night.  We picked up Gunnar and Tucker at the bar, stayed for a single drink and then skedaddled back to the mansion so I could make my meeting with Faust and Erlendur.  I even sat at Jakob’s side for an hour, hoping to get a chance to talk to him in private about leaving for California, but it wasn’t in the cards.  If I had to hear –
bide a moment, petal, this is important
– one more time, I thought I might lose it and tear out a handful of his perfect blonde hair. 

Then I tried waiting for him in our suite.  It figured the one time I actually wanted him there he was a no show.  Bridget kept me company playing cards, though my heart wasn’t really in it and she
won eighteen hundred and twenty seven packs of gum off of me.   

Rob was tired and cranky by the time I got changed for bed, and I couldn’t
honestly blame him.  It was a terrible blow to him to learn about Jakob’s extra guard detail.  He barely said two words the whole night and made up his bed on the couch instead of staying up with me for a last cup of cocoa after Bridget left. 

Jakob came in soon after that
.  As I lay in my room, listening to the sounds of him getting ready for bed, I wondered if I should go bother him now, or if he might take my appearance in his bedroom as a different kind of sign.  He didn’t come visit me, and I admit, I was grateful when I heard him settle down. 

I had something else in mind, something that kept me from sinking into oblivion as the night wore thin and the sun contemplated its undoing.  I’d never tried it before, but I knew it was possible for a vampire to enter another’s dreams.  Jakob had done the same to me not all that long ago, and that meant there was a chance I could do the same with Rob. 

In dreams we could be together without fearing Jakob’s discovery.  In dreams I could tell him those three little words he’d asked me never to say out loud.  In dreams we could both have everything we wanted, at least for a while.  What did I have to lose? 

Moving slowly, so as to avoid the clumsiness that tended to invade my limbs like a zombie plague in the late hours of the night, I tiptoed out into the sitting room, wincing as the chair creaked from my weight.  Rob’s chest rose and fell smoothly, with no sign that he’d heard a thing. 

Only how the heck was I supposed to slip in there?  The best I could do was try to mirror the actions in
Dreamscape
, that creepy sci-fi/horror movie from the eighties with lousy effects and a pretty hot Dennis Quaid as a psychic who could put himself into other people’s dreams.  Only I didn’t have the benefit of any psychic powers. 

Or did I?

I could compel people with a single thought.  Never mind the fact that I couldn’t compel Rob or his family, I had to give it a shot.  Sitting in the chair, I closed my eyes, matching my breathing to Rob’s, concentrating on the slow, steady beat of his heart until I felt like every breath I took was linked to his.  I slipped into his unconscious mind, the dream arresting my senses as I was thrust into a world of color and music instead of the dark sitting room. 

We were in Pandora’s Cross, Rob’s favorite bar where everyone seemed to know him.  The place was crowded, the dance floor packed with bodies, swaying to
Sentimental Journey
.  Rob sat at his usual table, all alone, drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other.  As far as I knew, he only smoked when he was very upset, and I wondered why he felt the need to smoke in a dream, where he could do anything he wanted. 

I thought about approaching him and asking for a dance, or even insinuating myself into his lap, but chances were he wouldn’t go for it and I didn’t want to break the cover of the dream.  Besides, I wanted to tempt him into breaking his rigid control in a place without consequences. 

Flexing my will inside the dream, I was suddenly wearing an evening gown of slinky white satin, my hair long and smooth, Veronica Lake style over one eye, no trace of my singed locks in sight.  Long gloves reached my elbows, and multiple loops of pristine pearls encircled my throat.  Instead of going to his side, I wended my way through the crowd to the stage.  I didn’t even have to speak to them to get them to play the song I wanted,
Embraceable You
.  This sneaking into dreams was pretty shiny!

Rob blew out a long plume of smoke and came to the
edge of the stage, the crowd of dancers obscuring his way from time to time before he reached me.  I sang the last few bars to him alone and when the song was over, he held out his hand to help me down from the stage, the band already starting in on the next song,
Harlem Nocturne
. 

“I thought I told you not to single me out any more,” he said, but there wasn’t a real hint of censure behind it. 

“I thought I was singing to the crowd.”

He raised a single brow.  “Were you?”

“No.” 

A faint smile curved his lips, and he picked up a flower from a passing tray, tucking it behind my ear.  “There, now you’re a picture.”

This was a side of him I rarely got to see, and never in public.  It had me smiling back at him like a loon, gathering my courage to say what I’d come to say.  “Thanks, I…”

“Dance with me,” he said, already pulling me up against him, swaying to the beat of the music. 

It had been far too long since we’d last danced, the last time I’d been too tipsy to appreciate it, really.  I’d almost forgotten how well we moved together on the dance floor.  Rob was a contradiction in so many ways; his rough exterior and powerful presence masking a surprisingly tender appreciation for beauty and simpler times.  It made sense though, he was light on his feet in combat, of course it could translate onto the dance floor. 

“Sing… just for me,” he commanded, and I smiled against the shell of his ear. 

“I always sing just for you.”  I gladly hummed along though, the song familiar to me from old reruns of
Mike Hammer
.  I could almost believe we were in an old noir movie, with the music and the setting.  I felt like some gangster’s moll, hopelessly head over heels with her hired muscle.  All that was missing was Jakob in a Fedora, chomping on a cigar while he watched us dance through slitted eyes. 

Rob spun me out with a great flourish, pulling me back up tight against his body as the last note hung in the air.  I didn’t recognize the song that came on next, but it felt like everyone around us moved in slow motion to the languid trumpet strains.  He’d lost his smile, replaced by a hunger so sharp, I thought he might take me right there in the middle of all those people.  At that moment I might not have cared. 

Instead, he caught up my hand, pulling me outside, through an employee entrance to the darkened alley.  An overhang protected us from the worst of the rain, which fell in sheets to splash on the cobblestones. 

The door had barely clicked shut before Rob pulled me back into his arms again, his mouth slanting over mine as he pressed me up against the building.  The bricks were hard and cold against my back, but I didn’t care
. I was entirely too focused on the heat before me, the wonder of his mouth and the feel of his hands on my body. 

But I wanted more.  With a surge of strength, I pushed back, flipping him against the wall as I pinned him there.  I split his shirt open, buttons flying, my gloved hands sliding against his skin, revealing his chest, smooth and healthy, the scar not having taken a permanent hold in his mind yet.  The stupid gloves kept me from feeling his skin and I let go of him to reach up and tug one of them free with my teeth.  I tossed it aside in the alley and started in on the next one.

“Allow me,” he said, taking hold of the end and slowly drawing the glove off my arm.  Only instead of tossing it aside, he pushed me back against the wall again, bringing my hands together up over my head as he kissed me deeply.  We weren’t under the protection of the eave anymore, and the rain coursed over us in rivulets, adding a cool tingle against the heat from wherever our bodies touched. 

There was a sharp delight as he wrapped the long, satin glove around my wrists, binding them together as his mouth ravaged mine.  Once done tying, his hands slid lower, over my curves and down to my hips and back up again, his thumbs brushing against the undersides of my breasts.  I kept my arms up, even though I could’ve easily brought them down between us, or even torn
the glove in two if I wanted, but that wasn’t what this was about.  This was about Rob taking control of a situation he felt utterly powerless over in real life, and I was all kinds of happy to give it to him.

His hands framed my face, pulling back to meet my gaze.  “I’ve mussed your hair,” he realized, tucking the loose strands back behind my ear. 

“I don’t care.  I wouldn’t mind a little mussing.”

“Told you, there wouldn’t be nothing little about it.”  The corner of his mouth tugged up into a half smile before it covered mine again, and I tasted the sweet rain mingled with his unique tang, my senses on overload as those talented hands had me gasping for breath.  He was the one to break the kiss, his lips traveling south, keeping me pinned against the wall with his body.  Nibbling and sucking, his teeth scraped the sensitive skin down the side of my neck, nudging at the pearls there until he reached up and tore them free.  They skittered every which way, already forgotten as his mouth pulled against my flesh hard enough to mark me, for a short time anyway, branding me as his. 

“Feel like living dangerously, do you?” I approved, wishing I had the use of my hands, but there was something thrilling about being entirely under his power.

“I feel like
living
for once,” Rob rasped against my skin, hands moving lower again, with purpose.  There was no fumbling, his hands were strong and sure, testing my readiness for him and lifting my hips with ease.  Now I did lower my arms, but only to place them around his neck, pulling him closer as my legs wrapped around his waist in anticipation.  He slid into me, hot and fast, and the breath left my body in a ragged moan of devastating pleasure.

The sitting room superimposed over the alley for a moment, and I could see myself sitting on the chair, my head thrown back in rapture.

Rob froze between my thighs, his face buried in my neck as he edged closer to wakefulness and I chased after his mouth with mine. 

“Don’t stop, it’s safe here, I promise,” I coaxed, but he pulled back to look at me, brows drawn together.

“This isn’t real.”

“It’s real if you want it to be,” I insisted, lips teasing the corner of his mouth, willing him to stay in the dream, but it was no good.  In the next instant I slammed back into full consciousness, sucking in a breath even as he rolled to a seated position, eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“What did you do?”  His words came out as a harsh whisper.

“The only thing I
could
.”  I pleaded with him to understand, to go back to sleep where the dream waited, or another, I wasn’t picky. 

“You ought not to have done that,” he said shortly, tugging on his pants with brisk movements, and his shoes after that. 

“Where are you going?” I said as loudly as I dared, following him to the door, but he didn’t answer me.  Rob didn’t stop at all, flinging open the door and striding down the hall bare chested.  I scrambled after him, shutting the door as quietly as I could, with Tucker following after me in wolf form.  He was fast, but I was faster, and I caught up with him in the deserted kitchens, trekking with purpose to the garden outside into the biting air. 

“Hey, don’t walk away from me,” I demanded when he showed no signs of slowing. 

Rob turned, his breath steaming in the bitter cold.  “Not here,” was all he said, his head jerking to the maze out back.

I might have preferred the deserted levels the Order had vacated, but I could understand his need
to get outside.  “Stay inside, Tucker.  I’ll be fine,” I said, following after Rob, keeping half an ear attuned to make sure Tucker did as he was told and no one else had the bright idea of following us into the hedges.  As near as I could tell, no one else was crazy enough to attempt it so close to dawn.  In fact, there were few signs of life in the mansion at all, it being late for vampires and early for humans on staff. 

We were nearly to the center of the maze when Rob whirled on me, his words harsh and guttural.  “You ought not to have done that,” he repeated.

“Okay, so maybe I should’ve asked you first, but what’s the big deal?  I didn’t do anything but join you in there, I didn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to.  Did I?”  The sudden flare of doubt plagued me, but that wasn’t his concern at all. 

“You do realize Jakob can do the same thing, right?  What if he was to enter your dream and find you and I together like that?”

“He couldn’t blame me for a harmless dream.”

“Want to bet?  What if he learned we was sharing the same dream?  You were sitting out there in the
same room for anyone to see.  Alls it would take is a quick look into each of our heads.  He’d end us before we could so much as open our eyes.”