Chapter 3

• “Jennah?”
• She turned to see Dominic a few feet away from her. She smiled. “Hi.”
• He strode over to her in long strides. “I thought it was you.”
• She nodded and grinned again. “Who else would be in my dream but me?”
• He stared down at the floor for a moment and then smirked at her. “You’d be surprised.” He put his hands in the pockets of his dark jeans and flashed a sexy smile. “I hoped you’d come back.”
• She laughed. “You have?” At least the man in her dreams was happy to see her.
• “I have. I thought we could go skating.” He looked her up and down slowly. “Do you like ice skating?”
• She bit her lip so she wouldn’t laugh loudly. It was just a dream. Why not? “I do, actually.”
• “Perfect!” He held out one large hand. “We’ll get our jackets and gloves and do that then.”
• Shaking her head, she took his hand and let him lead her. “So, Dominic, I woke up last time when I asked if you were from around here...”
• His laugh was deep, and it caused her insides to flush with a heat she hadn’t felt in a very long time. “I’m not. I’m in the area, though, and once I finish one last job I’m going to find some place quiet and relocate with a more peaceful line of work.”
• She studied his darkly shadowed jaw and noticed the lines that only hard times could put on such a young man. “One last job? What is it you do?”
• Almost black eyes watched her seriously for a moment. “I wish I could tell you, really I do, but there’s too much at stake and too many people involved to tell you...just yet.”
• Jennah glanced up at the stern look in his eyes and nodded. “Okay, I’ll just think of you as a non-British James Bond then.” He laughed again. “Can I at least ask how old you are?”
• She hadn’t even noticed she was in her jacket with her white mitts on until he patted her hand with his black-gloved one. “Is age a problem?”
• “I like to think it’s not, most of the time.” She stopped suddenly when she realized they were at a pond. The snow had been pushed to the sides so the white ice was visible in the shadowed night. She was beginning to like her dreams.
• He motioned to a small bench. She sat down. He knelt in the cold snow in front of her and began to take her boot off. This was certainly a first.
• He grinned up at her. “In life experience I’m much older than my true age, if that matters.”
• She just sat there and let him slip her skate onto her foot. “And your true age would be?”
• He grinned at her again. “Twenty-four.”
• She frowned and tried not to groan out loud. “You do look older,” she whispered.
• He gently picked up her other foot and worked her boot off. He knelt there, rubbing her foot in his big hands. “Is that a bad thing? That I’m twenty-four, or that I look older?”
• She tried to ignore the warm feelings his hands were creating and sending up her legs. “It’s not a bad thing that you’re only twenty-four. I’m just jealous.”
• He chuckled. “Why is that?”
• She swallowed as his hand rubbed the back of her calf, and it tingled all the way up her leg. “I’m twelve years older.”
• He gave her a playful look. “I don’t have a problem with that.” He slipped the skate on her foot. “And you don’t look your age anyway.”
• When he finished lacing her skate and stood up, she was surprised to see he already had his skates on. Dreams are much simpler than the real world, she thought.
• He helped her walk to the ice and then glided backwards away from her. She watched how smoothly he moved on the skates and hoped for a moment that she was going to look as graceful. It would be her luck to glide out and fall on her face.
• “Come on, Jennah,” he goaded her playfully.
• She grinned and pushed with one foot to slide a few feet slowly. She actually did like skating and was pretty good at it. At least she had been the last time she’d done it. Lifting her head, she watched as he came back toward her. Taking a few easy strides, she picked up momentum without any wobbling or unsteadiness.
• He circled her until he was skating backwards beside her. He turned and— she couldn’t have ever done it as fast and fluidly as he did—his arm came around behind her and he was pushing her to keep up with his stride. He leaned down so he spoke softly beside her ear. “It’s better with the night air brushing against your face.”
• “Just catch me when I fall.” Despite her words, she was smiling and couldn’t remember when she’d felt this relaxed. As they neared the end of the pond, he turned quickly and held her waist as he spun her around to head back the other way.
• “I promise to cushion your fall if you do.” He glanced behind them.
• She clung to his wrist and jacket, but didn’t want him to slow down. She’d never skated like this and it was like an invigorating dance. Jennah peeked around him to see how close they were to the other end, and was just going to tell him they were getting too close when he slowed and began to turn the corner gracefully. “I think I like dreams with you in them.”
• He watched her for a few seconds. “And if I told you it wasn’t exactly a dream?”
• She raised both eyebrows. “I’d laugh at you because I know it’s a dream. The last time I was sitting beside you at the library, and then I was in my bed waking up to my alarm.”
• He smirked. “That’s pretty convincing.”
• Jennah nodded. “Yep.”
• He pulled her closer and grasped her hip, swinging her into the next corner until she’d gone around in a complete circle, all while clinging to him. She was laughing while she grasped his arm tighter and let him lead her all over the glossy surface. She could feel the cool night air on her cheeks, but didn’t care. Dream or not, she hadn’t had this much fun in a while.
• Dominic lowered his head so his cold cheek touched hers. “Can I talk you into coming back to my place for hot chocolate?”
• She leaned back and gawked at him. “Your place? I thought you weren’t living near here.”
• He grinned, his dark eyes filled with mischief. “If this is a dream, I can get us to my place.”
• She bit her lip and nodded. This wasn’t like her at all, but it was just a dream. He pulled her closer to him and stopped them in the middle of the pond.
• “Close your eyes.”