Love in Her Dreams Read online

  LOVE IN HER DREAMS

  Isobelle Cate

  Erotic Romance

  Secret Cravings Publishing

  www.secretcravingspublishing.com

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

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  A Secret Cravings Publishing Book

  Erotic Romance

  Love in Her Dreams

  Copyright © 2013 Isobelle Cate

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-61885-788-0

  First E-book Publication: July 2013

  Cover design by Dawné Dominique

  Edited by Colleen McSpirit

  Proofread by Laurie White

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Secret Cravings Publishing

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Secret Cravings Publishing

  www.secretcravingspublishing.com

  Dedication

  There are so many people I’d like to thank that I might end up writing another short story!

  This book is dedicated to all the wonderful authors I have had the pleasure of meeting online and whose works have inspired me to write by allowing me a glimpse of the worlds you create, and the love and passion that fuels your stories. You have all enriched my life.

  To the incredible women at the helm of Secret Cravings Publications, who made it possible for me to share with you a glimpse of the worlds I envision: Dawne Prochilo, for taking a chance with me. To Sandy Sullivan, Jean Joachim, Beth Walker, Ariana Gaynor, and Becky Hollada, thank you for the warm welcome when I joined the SCP family and for taking care of Love in Her Dreams. To Dawné Dominique. What incredible talent! Thank you for the beautiful and amazing cover. It was so spot on!

  To Colleen McSpirit. Thank you for editing the story and giving it, its sheen. And Laurie White, my proofreader. Your thoroughness is much appreciated.

  To Holly J. Gill and Emily A. Lawrence. Thank you for the incessant laughter and giggles, the serious discussions, and the girl talks we have had. To Sable Hunter, your wisdom and generosity continues to astound me.

  To my husband, Enrico and my son Gabriel. Thank you for your patience, your understanding, and your love that will forever encompass my heart. I love you too.

  And I didn’t forget you, Buddy. Thank you. Without you, I would never have discovered the writer in me.

  The Cravings e-book Club

  The Cravings Paranormal e-book Club

  Have you heard about the newest idea in ebooks, the ebook club? Secret Cravings Publishing has started two ebook clubs and we invite you to become a member of either The Cravings e-book Club or the Cravings Paranormal e-book Club. Join now and get two books absolutely free!

  As a member, you will receive Trouble With a Cowboy* by Sandy Sullivan and Forget Me Not** by Jaden Sinclair FREE, just for joining!

  You’ll also receive 4 BRAND-NEW EBOOKS, specially selected by our Editorial Director, every month for a total price of only $9.99 for all 4. This comes out to barely $2.50 per book, much less than the retail price and you’ll be able to enjoy your books even before they hit Amazon or Barnes & Noble. We send your books before they are uploaded to the popular sales sites. One of several privileges of club membership.

  *Trouble With a Cowboy, a western, erotic romance:

  Can some slashed tires and an ornery bull bring two hard-headed people together for some fun in the sun and a little more?

  **Forget Me Not, paranormal erotic romance:

  A war is brewing, a war that could destroy an entire vampire race if left unchecked, and Julian Marino has been requested to participate in it. He stops his search for a long time friend to go home and discovers there is more at stake than just his wants.

  As a member of the Cravings Club, you’ll receive 4 books in a variety of genres every month. We will try to match your books to your preferences, however, if you’re a major paranormal fan, I suggest you join the Cravings Paranormal Club. Everything is the same, 4 books every month for $9.99 except that 3 of your 4 books will be paranormal. The remaining book will be of a different genre.

  As a club member, you will also receive:

  · our monthly newsletter

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  To join and tell us your favorite genres and heat levels plus which format works best for you, go to the Secret Cravings Publishing website (www.secretcravingspublishing.com) At the bottom of the page you’ll see a button for the club. You can sign up there and share your preferences for genre, format and heat level with us. You will be charged, automatically, through PayPal, only $9.99 every month. Your books will be shipped within 1 day after PayPal payment has cleared. You may cancel at any time by clicking on the “unsubscribe” button located on the Cravings Club tab at the bottom of our website and keep the FREE BOOKS as our gift.

  We hope our Secret Cravings books will delight you each and every month.

  Best wishes,

  Beth Walker

  LOVE IN HER DREAMS

  Isobelle Cate

  Copyright © 2013

  Chapter One

  Tamsyn stretched on the immense bed, the sheets tangled around her limbs. As she arched her back, the silk sheet gradually fell down to her waist like a lover's caress. Her twin peaks lifted up in the air and puckered at the gentle whiff of coolness. She sighed as a ghost of a smile formed on her lips. She heard the fall of the shower spray on his body. The thought of him made her shiver. After the pleasure he gave her last night, she still wanted more. She couldn't get enough of him.

  It was time to get up, but she wouldn't join him in the shower. She'd shower later. Tamsyn knew that if she joined him, she'd never be able to leave.

  After all, this was just a dream.

  Tamsyn sat up on the mattress and turned to look at the pillow where his head had lain. She bent down to smell the pillow one last time and left the bed. His scent of musk, Hugo Boss cologne, and their own unique scent of sex surrounded her like a diaphanous gown of sated desire. By the time he came out of the shower, she'd be gone. He knew that.

  They both knew that.

  * * * *

  Tamsyn’s dream was becoming more real every night. The first time he invaded her thoughts, sensations ran through her body. Sensation
s producing a fire in her womb and thrumming in her sex. Her mind went into overdrive as her senses clicked, bringing her body erotic bliss at the feel of his touch. But it was just a trace of a touch. Like a sensual mist that caressed her skin. Warming it. Heating it. Until ecstasy consumed her when she screamed her release and he shouted his own climax. A conflagration that consumed them both until the satisfied sighs, heated breaths, and thudding hearts returned to a semblance of normalcy. Of quiet.

  Of reality.

  Tamsyn entered the bathroom. Her own bathroom. She turned the tap before entering the shower stall. As the warm spray caressed her body, sliding against the orange water scented gel, she closed her eyes. She imagined her mystery lover’s hands on her skin. Palming her breasts, shaping her waist, before parting her thighs to play with her sweet nub. The shower’s steam took her hot breath with it to swirl around her. Her body heated and she was so sure he was there with her. But when she opened her eyes it wasn’t his hands that caressed her. It was her own.

  Groaning in disappointment she finished her shower. Once she got out of the cubicle and wrapped a towel around her body, her mind drifted to the things she had to do especially after the law firm she worked for told her to take a week off. Not that she was complaining. It was high time she took a break from the crazy, unstable legal world. The recession made finding jobs in law firms more cutthroat than it already was. Tamsyn had to get away from Gemma Dobson, a boss who worked her to the bone, but it wasn’t only that. Gemma passed Tamsyn’s work as her own and collected the accolades and pay that rightfully belonged to Tamsyn. Gemma knew she could get away with it because she was screwing the senior partner. No one complained. After all, they needed their jobs. Tamsyn was grateful for having the job in the firm for two years, but she wasn't too keen on working for her boss. Gemma was a lazy sloth who made the most of her long, unending, and unblemished legs, a tiny waist, long black hair that reached the middle of her back. She had a pair of “come to me” eyes and boobs, although not as big as Dolly Parton's, big enough for men to ogle at. Everyone knew she was cosmetically enhanced.

  Dimly Tamsyn heard the phone ring in the bedroom. She quickly got out of the shower and dried herself.

  “Ow!”

  Tamsyn grimaced when she stubbed her toe on the steel pole of the laundry hamper on her way out. She tossed the towel on the bed and walked naked to pick up the portable phone.

  “Yes!”

  “Ooohhhh, a breathless yes,” the voice on the end of the line exclaimed. “Someone with you?”

  “Tia! Shit, you made me stub my toe,” Tamsyn complained, wincing as she hobbled toward the bed and lifted her foot to check the offending part.

  “You're overreacting.” Tia laughed.

  “No, I'm not. I just got out of the shower,” Tamsyn said as she sighed. “Why'd you call?”

  “I wanted to know if you'd like to go out today.”

  “Thanks, Tia. That's a nice gesture, but I've got a lot of things to do. I won't be good company.”

  “Oh, Tams, you have to get out.”

  “I will. It's just that I'd like to get started on the flat now that I've got time on my hands.”

  “No thanks to that Gemma,” Tia retorted.

  “She isn't exactly the person who said I might be made redundant,” Tamsyn reasoned as she sprawled on the bed.

  “True, it was your HR department. But I bet she didn't do anything to stop it,” Tia said. “I've kept my mouth shut for a long time, Tams, but I can't understand how you can put up with a boss who is stone cold lazy and makes you do all the work while she takes all the credit.”

  “It's a job, and it's hard not to have one.”

  “And you deserve the raise and awards that were rightfully yours.”

  “Where did you hear that?” Tamsyn sat up. Many of her co-workers had congratulated her when she had been instrumental in closing a huge compensation package for their client, garnering almost a hundred thousand pounds for the firm. But when the senior partner had announced the coup, he had congratulated Gemma. Tamsyn remembered every moment. The feeling of blood draining from her face because of shock and disbelief before it surged to make her beet red. The embarrassed covert looks she had received. Then later the anger at the unfairness of it all.

  “I've got my sources.”

  “Tia...” Tamsyn warned.

  “Okay, okay.” Tia inhaled deeply before she muttered, “Jeff told me.”

  “Jeff? As in the firm's Jeff?” Tamsyn's eyes widened, then she squealed. Jeff Broughman was the head of HR who didn't have a funny bone in his body. He was as staid as a plank of wood.

  “Ouch, darling. My dainty ear.”

  “I can't believe it.” Tamsyn giggled. “How did you do that?”

  “If you must know, Jeff is pretty sexy.”

  “No kidding?” Tamsyn couldn't picture the nearly reed-thin head of HR as being sexy. She liked men who were muscled, but not overtly so that they looked like a walking billboard for steroids.

  She heard Tia sigh before her friend spoke.

  “Look, instead of burning the lines, I'm coming over.”

  “Now? You've got work.”

  “And I own the damn company. I'll be there in an hour.”

  Before Tamsyn could protest any further, she heard the phone click.

  True to her word, Tia arrived on the dot. Tamsyn opened the door to allow Tia to breeze through.

  “Mwah.” Tia bussed Tamsyn's cheeks.

  “Your voice is still quite gravelly,” Tamsyn commented.

  Tia arched an eyebrow. “These things take time, darling.”

  “Don't I know it,” Tamsyn said as she grinned, watching her friend sashay into the room. They had been there for each other through all the years when Tamsyn was growing up and Tia's name was Terence before he decided to have a sex change. Tamsyn had been Tia's only friend for a very long time after she made the decision to change. Even when Tia found a group of transgenders who supported each other through the difficulties of being accepted, Tia never forgot that Tamsyn had been there for her. She would do anything for Tamsyn.

  Not too tall for a man and professing he had a woman's heart inside his body, no one would know Tia had been a man. Already having some effeminate features before his change, it wasn't too difficult to make him look more feminine. Tia had flawless skin the color of the most delicious cream. Perfectly formed eyebrows, thickly lashed eyes, a pert nose, and cupid's bow lips graced a heart-shaped face. Tamsyn envied Tia's long, straight, bluish-black hair that fell like a silk curtain in a bob just below her shoulders. Slim legs encased in hip-hugging denims carried a torso of a narrow waist, a flat stomach, and pert, beautifully-shaped breasts the size of apples that bounced firmly when she walked. A fringe that softened her face covered a prominent forehead.

  “Nice smell,” Tia commented inhaling as she waited for Tamsyn.

  Tamsyn stalled a moment before she closed the door. She could feel the heat rising up her neck and cheeks.

  “I don't smell anything,” she said, her back still to her best friend. “Probably the shampoo and shower gel from the bathroom.”

  “You don't smell that really sexy Hugo Boss cologne you like on men?” Tia raised a mock brow. She sniffed again. “It's coming from the bedroom.”

  “Tia!”

  But Tia ignored Tamsyn and walked toward the bedroom. Tamsyn was so glad she had made the bed. How would she be able to answer Tia's questions about the thoroughly tangled sheets and the indention of another head beside her pillow? The scent Tia noticed had come from the sheets. His cologne and his own manly scent. It was all his own and it turned her on. The scent that woke Tamsyn almost every morning that brought an ache and longing that had no release in her waking moments. That reminded her that even in her dreams she had been with him making love. But the scent was always fleeting, disappearing in an instant. How Tia could smell it baffled Tamsyn.

  Her best friend knew she wasn't in a relationship or seeing someone. She had
n't been for a long time. How could she when she used her dream lover's attributes as her criteria in finding a man?

  Tia turned to look at Tamsyn with a frown. She inhaled again.

  “It's gone.”

  “Because there never was any scent in the first place,” Tamsyn said. She walked past Tia to close the bedroom door. “Now sit in the lounge and I'll make us some tea. Or would you prefer coffee?”

  “Coffee, darling. I know you're a coffee addict and today is all about making you feel better.”

  Tamsyn chuckled, shaking her head. She was feeling better already by just having her best friend around. She walked to the corner kitchen and switched on the Jura coffee machine. Soon the smell of the rich blend wafted around her. She surreptitiously looked at Tia who had sauntered to the balcony. Tamsyn worried her lower lip. How could Tia smell the cologne that was part of her dreams? Could the scents found in dreams find its way into the real world? That wouldn't be too hard to believe when the caresses, the kisses, and the feel of his shaft thrusting into her over and over again until she exploded into a million blissful pieces felt so real as well. She had expected only she could smell him. She did not expect the smell to be noticed by someone else.

  She felt gentle fingers on her forehead.

  “There's no reason to frown when making coffee,” Tia said beside her. “It's not that difficult to make, you know.”

  Tamsyn grinned. She gave her best friend a hug. “Thank you.”

  “For what?” Tia asked smiling back.

  “For making me smile,” Tamsyn said as she waited for the machine to fill the two latte glasses.