Dreams (Part One) (Dreams #1)
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

He’d had enough of the mating dance. He wanted her, and he was almost certain she wanted him. They weren’t kids.

They were mature adults. There was no need for games. He swore to himself that if she put him off again tonight, he would walk out the door. And this time he wasn’t going to go back.

Even if she did make the best stir-fried vegetables in the entire state of Oregon.

Damn.

He was kidding himself and he knew it. He’d see her again tomorrow, if she politely showed him the door tonight.

He’d make another date, and another one after that, until he finally got through her bedroom door.

Something about Diana Prentice fascinated him.

No, it was more than fascination. Diana Prentice was beginning to become an obsession with him, almost as much of an obsession as his writing.

He conjured up an image of her and felt the instant response of his body. At forty he shouldn’t be having this kind of problem, he told himself as he shifted his position a bit to ease the sudden tightness in his jeans.

Then again, it was vaguely reassuring to know he could still suffer like this.

But why Diana Prentice?

It wasn’t as if she were some young, tall, bosomy, centerfold honey pot. Diana was thirty-four, a little on the short side and built along rather compact lines.

Firm, straight nose. Assertive chin. High cheek bones. She had a smile that held a warmth of feminine secrets and a hint of mischief.

The only really spectacular thing about her was the color of her eyes. Colby was deeply intrigued by those eyes.

He’d spent a lot of time trying to determine their exact shade.

He’d finally settled on the approximate description of hazel. As a writer he should have been able to do better than that, and he knew it. But it was tough to come up with a word that covered the curious blend of turquoise, green and gold that characterized Diana’s faintly tilted eyes. They made him think of some exotic, mysterious feline. Sensual but untamable. She might choose to give herself to a man, but she would never be coerced or taken by him.

Her hair was an easier matter. Tawny. Definitely tawny. Pale gold layered with rich brown. Colby had been wanting to get his hands into the thick, sweet-smelling stuff for weeks. He envisioned using such a grip to hold her gently captive while he pulled her down onto a carpet of green grass and made love to her until she no longer had the strength to push him away.

Until she no longer had the energy to keep him dangling.

Until she surrendered completely.

She had to surrender to him. Why didn’t she realize it? She was his. She had always been his. She could not fight him forever.

He scowled, feeling uneasy about the odd turn of his thoughts. It wasn’t like him to think of a woman with such urgency and possessiveness.

The hell with it. He was brooding again.

Colby Savagar groaned and opened his eyes to study the fading light of the setting sun. Soon the mountain valley would be in deep shadow. The boulder on which he was lying was rapidly losing the heat it had been soaking up all day.

A bird wheeled overhead, searching for one last meal before seeking its nest in a towering pine nearby. Colby listened carefully and thought he heard the creature’s mate calling to it, but he couldn’t be sure. It was hard to hear anything up here above the waterfall. The constant roar of the foaming white water cascading down the cliff below covered most sounds.

Colby shifted position on the huge boulder, turning on his side and propping himself on one elbow. He drew up one leg to balance himself, and then he leaned over the edge of his perch to stare down at the plunging water. It was almost time for the daily light show. He didn’t want to miss it.

Below him, Chained Lady rails tore its way out of the cliffs, emerging from some mysterious source deep in the heart of the mountain. The wild water created a heavy, glistening white wall for over three hundred feet as it fell straight down to the river.

But Colby knew from previous experience that, for a few minutes, just as the summer sun set, the pristine veil would turn blood-red. The strange effect of twilight on the falls had never failed to mesmerize him.

He waited as the first tinge of color appeared in the mist that always hung around Chained Lady Falls. The sun dipped a little further behind the mountain. Brilliant gold, orange and yellow splashed across the sky. The billowing white plumes of water caught the delicate shades and reflected them. For a moment or two, gold poured from the cliffs.

The gold turned to fire a few seconds later.

And then the fire turned to blood.

Colby sat up and hooked one arm around his knee as he stared intently at the long fall of crimson water. Time hung suspended.

Then the sun disappeared completely and the falls returned to normal, pale and glistening in the evening shadows.

Colby raised his head and gazed out over the water to the roofs of the small town that clung to the banks of the river.

Maybe it had been a mistake to come back after all. What had he expected to find here? Nothing had changed in Fulbrook Corners in the past twenty years.

The falls still turned to blood at sunset just as they always had and Colby had discovered that he still hated his hometown as much as he always had.

The only thing different this summer was the presence of Diana Prentice. At the thought, Colby got to his feet and made his way over the jumble of massive rocks that marked the top of Chained Lady Falls.

Diana would be waiting for him. She had invited him over for dinner, and he had promised to bring the wine.

Colby wondered gloomily if he was doomed to spend another evening in a state of frustrated sexual tension. Then he wondered again why he was tolerating the situation.

That question was as unanswerable as the one about why he had come back to spend the summer in Fulbrook Corners.

“Relax, Specter, you’re going to get your dinner. You’ve never missed a single meal since you moved in with me, and you know it.“ Diana Prentice laughed affectionately at the huge brindled dog sitting expectantly beside her chair. She reached out to scratch the creature’s ears and he leaned closer so that he could rest his heavy muzzle on her thigh.

“Honestly, you’d think he lived on the edge of starvation.“

“Maybe he did before he met you.“ Colby eyed the big dog with wry disgust. There was no love lost between him and the monster, and Both parties knew it. They were polite enough to each other when Diana was around but that was the extent of their relationship. “Or maybe he’s got a bottomless pit for a stomach. That’s the ugliest dog I’ve ever seen in my life, Diana. No charm. No cute personality. Doesn’t do any tricks. Nothing to recommend him at all. And I happen to like dogs.“