Passion Projected
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PASSION PROJECTED
Jennifer Salaiz
POLYAMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: PolyAmour
PASSION PROJECTED
Copyright © 2009 by Jennifer Salaiz
E-book ISBN: 1-60601-674-1
First E-book Publication: October 2009
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2009 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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To my husband, Sonny, who always supported and encouraged my writing.
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PASSION PROJECTED
JENNIFER SALAIZ
Copyright © 2009
Marley knew a fine line existed between dreams and reality. But when the dreams began to affect her reality, she realized she had a problem. In all of her thirty-two years, not once had a situation occurred where something so overpowering controlled her thoughts and consumed her everyday life, not like her dream lover.
Restless fingers thrummed away at the computer desk while Marley considered whether or not she truly could be losing her mind.
Sure, people had dreams of men. Even sexual dreams like hers. But did they have the same guy come to them every night over a three month period, seducing them or teasing them into submission? Not likely.
Marley closed her eyes remembering the first time this dream lover appeared. Her fingers slowly came to a stop as she drifted into the memory, so clear now her dark bedroom materialized before her.
The warm silk sheets cocooned around her body, offering the comfort previous partners had neglected to provide.
A need to wake up pulled at the back of Marley’s memory.
Slowly, her heavy eyelids fluttered open to connect with the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen. They were a cross between the deepest blue and the most vibrant green. The most startling thing of all was that it was so dark, she realized that the eyes were actually Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.
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Passion Projected
7
glowing. The light behind the beautiful color dimly radiated, but enough for her to notice she wasn’t imagining their luminosity.
Marley felt no fear while she watched the silhouetted figure lean down toward her. With the softest touch, his hand eased over her cheek and down to her throat. Pleasure exploded in her mind causing her nipples to turn hard, but somehow she knew she hadn’t actually felt his touch on her body. Her mind was the only thing that felt his gentle caress. Heaviness enveloped her and suddenly she fell back asleep.
Aggravated, Marley shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts.
“Enough. This is ridiculous,” she whispered, standing from the computer desk. “Daydream, that’s all I ever do. For a man who more than likely doesn’t exist. I’ve got to be losing my mind.”
“Then why is he becoming more real, more solid? You know you
couldn’t feel him at first, not physically anyway, and over the last
month you have. Explain that, Marley!”
Tightness clutched at her insides while she lowered herself back down to the chair. Her conscience taunted her, tried to force her to believe he existed. The obsession over this dream man continued to physically make her feel ill. She would give anything to make this stranger a reality. But he couldn’t be real, could he?
At the sound of static breaking the silence, all of her thoughts ended abruptly. Marley turned toward the police scanner, cursing the Christmas gift her mother insisted she needed. The dispatcher’s frantic voice caused chills to run over every inch of Marley’s body.
“Officer needed…report of blood,” she practically yelled as more static filled the room.
A continued silence dragged on endlessly, making the minutes feel more like hours. The need to know what had occurred strangely pulled at Marley.
Anxiously, she paced back and forth over the brown carpeted living room floor. The sound of static once again passing over the air waves made her jump.
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Passion Projected
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“We…ground search.” More static echoed against her nearly bare, white walls.
“Shit.” Holding her hand over her heart, Marley moved in closer to the numbers that now ran from one to sixteen on the front of the scanner. She hated how most of the channels never came in clearly.
Of course she did live half an hour away from any other town.
After twenty minutes went by with nothing but silence, Marley walked over to her desk. She knew if she wanted to get an early start in the morning then she needed to get her work in order. But the last thing she wanted to do was anything pertaining to work. Her dream lover began to surface in her thoughts, but she quickly pushed it away. A sigh broke the silence as Marley stared down at the stack of papers.
The labels consisting of her online business’ name and her address printed out. They were just waiting to be placed on the packages she needed to ship off in the morning. Everything was ready but her.
Marley thought she would have things under control. She was sure everything would become easier. With an online business selling apparel and accessories, she wouldn’t have to put up with the stress of dealing with people. But since moving back to Refugio, Texas two years ago after quitting her human resources job in Austin, she grew more despondent than ever. Nothing had turned out the way it was meant to.
The clock read a few minutes until ten o’clock. The need to go to sleep clawed at the insides of Marley’s stomach. As soon as she went to sleep she would be in heaven and away from the current reality that held nothing for her to look forward to.
The sound of the cell phone ringing kept her from running to bury herself under silk sheets. A groan escaped her lips as Marley looked at the caller ID.
“Hello, Mother. It’s kind of late to be calling, isn’t it?” Marley stared at the screen saver bouncing her name off the edges of the computer screen.
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Passion Projected
9
“I know it’s late. You weren’t asleep already, were you? At your age, you should be going out and finding a man,” her mother said bitterly into the phone.
“No, I wasn’t asleep. What’s wrong?”
Short fingers ran through Marley’s black hair while she tried to keep herself calm from her nagging mother’s constant complaints. It wasn’t so bad at first, since she could use the excuse of being busy setting everything up for her business, but two years later and no more excuses, the nagging continued to get worse.
“I called you to watch the news. My scanner has been going off for the last thirty minutes, and I heard something about a news crew coming to the scene. I thought you might be interested to see what happened, since nothing around here ever does,” her mother said excitedly. “You have been listening to your scanner, right?”
Marley bit her lip while she walked to her leather sofa and grabbed the remote to the flat screen mounted on her wall. With a click of the power button, a dark haired, exotic news anchor filled the screen.
“My scanner only picked up static. I just turned on the news. I’ll call you in the morning, mom. Goodnight, I love you.” She hung up before she could get lectured about why she hadn’t found a man yet.
The lady’s voice cut off all thoughts, transfixing her to the screen as a large blue “Breaking News” bulletin posted at the bottom.
This is Malory Valdez reporting to you live here from Goliad, as it
appears that three people have been killed in what seems to be some
sort of animal attack. Authorities are not sure yet what attacked the
small family, but one officer speculates that it could have been a pack
of wild dogs.
The mother of the woman reportedly killed found the bodies when
she began to worry when her daughter hadn’t answered the phone all
day. She was too upset to tell us anything else, but we did get to talk
to the neighbors who claim that they heard what sounded like a pack
of wolves howling late last night. Authorities won’t go into further
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Passion Projected
10
detail, but assure us that it probably wasn’t wolves. Everyone is urged
to stay inside after dark until the wild animals are caught.”
Marley flipped off the television and stared at the blank screen.
“Wolves in this area? Not likely, maybe coyotes.” She wasn’t even sure about that. Whatever killed the family had obviously been strong enough to take down all three before one of them could retrieve a weapon or get help. The whole situation left her unsettled.