He released his tight grip upon her curls instantly, and his eyes darkened in remorse. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he whispered. He gently rubbed her scalp to soothe away the pain.
“You’re much nicer in person, I’ll have you know. Maybe I need to stop having these dreams,” she muttered.
His face turned red, and he glowered at her. “Never say that again,” he ordered.
“Or, what? I’ll never see you again? This is all fake. As a matter of fact, I am leaving. Now.”
Thunder boomed overhead, causing her to jump and look at the sky. Grimacing at the clouds hovering above, she started walking faster, Isaac forgotten in the face of the coming storm. Dream or no, she despised storms.
She got caught off guard when he swept her off her feet and into his arms. She hadn’t even heard him behind her. He scowled down at her, his eyes practically shooting fire balls at her. Why would he be mad at her?
No. Not mad—furious.
Absolutely irate.
“Put me down,” she growled. She shoved his shoulders with both hands.
“No. You need to be home, but you walk too slowly.”
She realized he prepared to run and instinctively closed her eyes to avoid the dizzying speeds she knew he would achieve. She’d seen him run before. It was mesmerizing, yet terrifying.
When he halted, she opened her eyes and realized they were on her doorstep. She met his gaze, surprised to see that instead of his usual arrogance, he looked down at her desperately, his eyes beseeching hers.
“May I come in?”
She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, Isaac got thrown violently to the side. He crashed into a tree, and she tried to run toward him, but couldn’t move.
Her legs wouldn’t move. She was…
Frozen.
***
She awoke terrified of something—or someone. But she couldn’t remember…. Oh God, her dream. Isaac had been hurt.
No, no. It had been a dream. Not reality.
He was okay. She felt fine, too. All remained good in her world.
Right?
She checked the clock, groaning in dismay when she saw it was only two o’clock in the morning. She punched her pillow and tried to relax and seek more sleep.
Eventually she found it, in the form of dreamless slumber.
***
Sabrina attempted to keep busy by writing her latest book. Even so, it seemed the past two days had been more along the lines of two weeks, since they’d passed unbearably slowly. She couldn’t stop thinking about Isaac. Even now, one word sat alone on her computer screen.
Isaac.
The reason she couldn’t stop thinking of him? Simple. They had a date tonight. And she couldn’t seem to think about anything else, no matter how hard she tried to focus.
Marie had called yesterday, and she’d filled her sister in on her new love interest. Perhaps she had been too enthusiastic in her descriptions, while trying to be, at the same time, cryptic in how much information she revealed. She had been forced, as well, to repeat the whole conversation that had occurred over the phone between her and Isaac verbatim to her sister. She smiled, remembering.
Her phone had rung, and she immediately knew it would be him, even before she had looked at the caller ID.
“Hello, Sabrina. It’s the man you ran over yesterday. Isaac, in case there’s more than one of us.” His unique chuckle had washed over her to whisper of pleasures to be had at his hands. “I’ve called to cash in on that date we spoke of.”