Dreams That Bind Us (Romancing The Keys #3)

Chapter 1

K ey West

Anna writhed against her satin sheets as the hot, wet mouth moved slowly and insistently down her neck, leaving a trail of sucking nibbles and licking caresses across her sensitive skin. She jolted as a hot tongue darted down her chest and sharp teeth delicately grazed a rib. Hard hands gripped her hips, holding her in place as the lips slid inexorably toward their goal. Her fingers sifted through his short, silky locks and she arched against him.

"Please," she pleaded, desperate to relieve the ache that only he knew how to extinguish.

He growled in response, his hands tightening as his bristly chin brushed against her lower belly. "Spread wider," he ordered in that deep, commanding voice that had haunted her dreams for months.

Her legs responded automatically to his demand, her knees falling further apart and her hips lifting.

"Good girl," he breathed, making her aching flesh quiver.

She bit back a shriek as his mouth took swift possession, bringing her to a screaming peak in only seconds. She lay there panting and pliant as his lips meandered up her belly, pausing briefly at her breasts to torment her delicate tips one more time, and then nuzzled her neck.

Her breath caught in her chest as he rose up, his jaw tight with desire as his hard muscled body pressed over her. She didn’t resist as his fingers threaded through hers, lifting her arms and pinning her to the bed. His hard cock notched into place and she stared helplessly into his vivid green eyes and chiseled face—the only part of him she'd ever been able to see.

"You're mine," he growled. "Stop fighting it."

With a surge, he filled her completely…

Anna jerked awake, a strangled gasp ripping from her throat. She panted, her body still throbbing from the intense orgasm. She could feel the marks his teeth and lips had left on her body…her dream lover.

Her heart raced as she stared at the ceiling, wondering how to make the dreams stop. They had begun several months ago, emerging from nowhere, and were relentless, only growing more erotic each night. She was desperate for a reprieve. With a frustrated groan, she curled into a ball on her side and pressed her face into her hands.

No matter what she did—meditation, alcohol, sleeping pills—nothing seemed to work. Each night, the dreams returned, even hotter and more intense than the other. She could see his hypnotic gaze every time she closed her eyes, day or night. And while her mind craved peace, her body yearned for the touch of this handsome phantom, her midnight lover.

I just need to focus. It's only a dream, that's all.

She repeated the mantra to herself, desperately hoping some part of it would take. But her internal words of encouragement did little to assuage her growing fear.

These dreams were a message. She knew it deep in her soul and ignoring them would get her nowhere. Her aunt's tarot reading last year replayed in her mind.

He'll come to you first in your dreams, then in the flesh, and he won’t stop until he captures you, heart and soul.

Anna shivered, thinking of all the relationships that had ended in heartbreak and wondering how this dream man could possibly be different. At the time, each man had said the right things, but eventually vanished like ghosts when she inevitably revealed her paranormal talent.

No, she couldn't allow a man to capture her soul, to open herself to something like that happening again. But something big was coming and her life would change as a result. The thought terrified her.

She'd spent so many years barricading herself from people and relationships, building an impenetrable shell around her heart. There was no way she would ever allow those walls to come down. Opening herself to a man was the path to pain and self-destruction.

Wasn’t it?

James jack-knifed in the bed, his hands reaching for the woman who always seemed to hover just out of his reach. He found nothing but air.

Sucking in a deep breath, he slumped against his pillow and groaned, grinding his palms into his eyes. It happened every night now: an amazingly erotic dream of a mystery woman with curly, blonde hair and eyes the shade of mesmerizing teal, similar to the waters surrounding the island. He could barely see her face, as if she were standing in a fog. But it was the silky locks and hypnotic gaze that always drew him in.

His hand wrapped around his rock-hard cock and squeezed, hissing at the sensation. The dreams had started when he'd moved to Key West months ago, yanking him awake and leaving him aching for more.

Hell, he hadn't been this horny since he was eighteen years old, and it was for a woman who didn't exist. He finished himself off and padded to the bathroom to clean up.

Bracing against the cool porcelain counter, he stared at his reflection. There were dark circles under his eyes, probably from the lack of sleep, and he really needed to shave. He ran a hand over his bristly chin and grimaced. He'd grown lazy since he left New York.

If she were alive, his mother wouldn’t be pleased. She would remind him that, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” A pang of heartache hit at the thought, and James hung his head, letting the waves of grief roll over him again.

It had been six months and it still wasn't any easier. She’d passed quickly from a stroke in her sleep, so she hadn't suffered. Now the misery was all his because he never had a chance to say goodbye.

If only he had made the time.

She had been such an important part of his life and, in the blink of an eye, she was gone. Her final request, left in her will, was why he’d uprooted his entire life from New York to Key West, something he never would have considered a year ago.

His parents had married in Key West and returned to the Keys often before his father passed away unexpectedly at the age of thirty-eight. So it wasn’t surprising his mother wrote of her lifelong dream to open a luxury resort in Key West. But she'd never acted on it nor shared it with anyone.

James learned of it at the reading of her will and was stunned to hear her request for him to fulfill it in her stead. Now here he was on this island paradise, honoring his mother's greatest wish while losing sleep over a seductress who haunted him every night.

He huffed out a sigh and drummed his fingers on the sink. It was time to get his life back in order and somehow figure out how to get that intoxicating figment of a woman out of his head.

If that was even possible.