SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (132 page)

And she walked right over to Hilly and gave her a great big hug.

Hilly didn’t respond. Didn’t move. Complete shock had taken over. Apparently the intervention had worked, despite her not telling Dillon’s spirit her true emotions. He must have read her mind, like he had on so many other occasions.

After Nanette was finished hugging her, she felt very real fingers gripping her arm and pulling her out the doorway.

“Let go of her, Phil,” Dillon ordered Hilly’s captor.

“Yes, sir.” Phil let go, apologized and walked out of the room.

Dillon looked over at Hilly the same way he had countless other times, as his assistant, and nothing more. “I don’t know if you two have officially met, so let me introduce you. This is Nanette, Hilly. She’s seen you with me at the courthouse countless times. Sorry I never introduced you before this, but I saw no reason to.”

Nanette smiled and then stepped toward her again and gave Hilly yet another tight hug. Hilly didn’t move. She simply continued to stand there, holding onto the plastic handle on Dillon’s suitcase, dumbstruck.

“I want to thank you for sitting by Dillon’s side all this time. I was in Darmsala, India attending a conference with the Dalai Lama and couldn’t get here any sooner. The staff tells me Dillon probably wouldn’t have woken up without your constant attention. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

Hilly stood the suitcase straight up and then gave Nanette a little hug, for real this time “When did this, I mean, how did this happen?”

“Sometime early this morning. They aren’t exactly sure what triggered it, but one of his nurses heard him call out and when she stepped inside the room his eyes were wide open. And if I didn’t know better, I’d be jealous of you, Hilly.” Nanette walked over and sat on the edge of Dillon’s bed. “The very first word out of his mouth was your name. Isn’t that sweet? You must be the absolute best assistant ever.” She leaned in closer to Dillon and swept his hair off his forehead. “If ever you get tired of working for Spencer and Spencer, you always have a job with me. I’d love to hire you as my personal assistant.”

Hilly was about to tell her that she didn’t work for Spencer and Spencer any longer when Dillon interrupted her plan.

“As if I’d ever let Hilly go. She’s my right arm,” Dillon said, then turned to Hilly. “I’m glad you stopped by this morning. Before we leave, I’ve made a list of the clients I need updating on. I couldn’t get access to a laptop this morning, so I wrote them down.” He held up a sheet of paper. “Can you take this and have a report ready for me tomorrow morning? I won’t be able to be in the office for a few weeks, but I’ll be working from home. Nanette has arranged for everything I need. I’ll have Martha set up a desk for you somewhere in the condo. There’s no room for you on the company jet, but I’ll see to it that you’re reimbursed for your flight home this afternoon.” He tilted his head and gazed at the suitcase Hilly was still holding onto. “I see you brought my bag, and my laptop, thanks. Just leave them by the door. Someone will bring them along.”

Then he turned back to Nanette while he held out the sheet of paper for Hilly.

In a mental fog, Hilly slowly walked over to take the paper from Dillon. She grabbed for it, but it started to slip from her hand. Dillon turned and reached out for the paper, and when he did their hands touched for a brief moment.

That same blue light that had sparked between them when she’d fastened the necklace around his neck flashed between them again. It felt as if a shockwave surged through her body and into his. She quickly stepped back from the jolt, and with a sudden clear head she said, “Wait. I don’t work for you anymore. Your father fired me.”

Dillon didn’t seem to hear her. Instead, he merely looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. “Hilly, there’s something I need to tell you,” he mumbled. “Something important . . . I . . . ”

“Don’t rush it, Dillon. We need to take your recovery a day at a time. Together,” Nanette said, taking his hand in hers then tenderly sweeping his hair back from his forehead.

Nanette loved him and it appeared that he loved her, no matter what his spirit had told her. Hilly saw it in their eyes. How could she have been so stupid as to think he would wake up loving anyone other than Nanette? His grandmother had been wrong. All the ghosts had been wrong. Even Dillon’s spirit had been wrong. “What a fool I’ve been. It was all a crazy dream. All of it. Just a dream.”

Hilly dropped the paper on the floor, stood the suitcase upright and let go of the handle. “I don’t want to work for you Dillon Spencer. Not now. Not ever. And in case there was ever any doubt, I do not love you. In fact I want to get as far away from you as possible.”

She pulled the teddy bear out of her purse as her emotions floated up to the surface, and she tossed the bear on Dillon’s bed. “This is for you,” she told him. “A gift for the Dillon we all hoped you could be.”

Then she turned and ran out of the room, bumping right into Frank. He glared at her, belittling her with his put-upon gaze. “Watch where you’re going,” he ordered, but Hilly didn’t stop. She was too busy concentrating on getting out of there before she broke down and cried.

A Shadow at Twilight: Chapter Nine

It had been eight long months since Dillon Spencer last saw Hilly Thompson in his hospital room in Glenwood Springs, and now, on this warm summer’s day as he walked up to My Blue Heaven Café in Breckenridge, he wondered if he would finally get to see her. He had tried to contact her countless times. She never would respond. Even when the final paperwork had to be signed on the close of escrow for his grandmother’s café, she’d given her best friend, Sarah James, power of attorney.

After that, he’d backed off and hadn’t tried to contact her, until today.

Just this morning, while packing for a short business trip, he came across an item in his suitcase that obviously belonged to Hilly. He decided to try to return the item in person. So there he was walking up to what looked like a closed café, wearing his heart on his sleeve, and over-thinking what he would say if he saw her.

A lot had changed in Dillon’s life since his accident. The biggest was probably the fact that he no longer worked for his dad. He had started his own practice here in Colorado. He worked for next to nothing now, helping people who really seemed to need an attorney. Occasionally, he’d take on a rich client just to keep the lights on, but for the most part, he dealt in handshakes and “pay me when you can.”

He felt happier this way, had more down-to-earth friends and had taken up skiing in his spare time. He wasn’t very good at it yet, but he’d learned to be patient with himself, a trait that took some getting used to.

Just before he reached the door, he grabbed at his grandmother’s ring and slid it on its chain a few times. A nervous habit he’d picked up ever since he had woken up in the hospital and found it clasped around his neck.

The glass door to the café was locked, and when he peeked inside he could see someone wearing a painter’s cap and white paint-stained overalls painting the far wall behind the counter. He knocked, and that person turned around.

It was Hilly.

For a moment neither of them moved. They merely stood staring at each other through the foggy window. Dillon questioned if this was a good idea. Did she hate him so much she wouldn’t even open the door?

But then she put the roller down in its pan on the paper covered counter and walked to the door. Dillon watched her the whole way, thinking she was even more beautiful than he had remembered.

When the door opened he started talking before she could turn him away. “I had some questions about this,” he said, holding out the teddy bear she’d given him at the hospital. “Maybe you can tell me who Teddy and the gang are?”

She reached for the bear, her forehead crinkling in a cute bemused way.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Let’s just say they’re a group of concerned souls who banded together one magical night.”

He stared at her for a moment, and that same dream he’d played over and over in his head came rushing back once again. “Can I come in? I promise not to stay long. I’d love to see the place. It would mean a lot to me.”

She hesitated and for a moment, he thought for sure she would slam the door in his face, but then a miracle happened.

“Sure. Come on in,” she said, and in that instant the tension between them seemed to disappear.

“I miss this place. I have a lot of good memories here.”

“You’re welcome anytime.”

“Do you mean that?”

She smiled. “Yes.”

“This is going to sound strange, but I keep having a crazy dream where I’m in a plush bathroom sitting on a wooden chair and you’re there taking a bubble bath. Doc Holliday appears along with Maggie Brown, and a little girl who’s bouncing a ball. I can’t remember much more, other than Teddy Roosevelt keeps telling me to man up.”

Her eyes grew wide as she closed the door behind him, then walked back around to face him. A sly little smile curved her beautiful lips upward. A smile he swore he’d seen in that silly dream . . . or was it a dream? He never quite knew for sure. Those days he’d spent in the coma had completely messed up his reality.

“Sounds like you might need a sleeping pill,” she told him, then handed back the bear.

But at once he remembered something else about the dream. Something he hadn’t connected until that very moment. “And you were wearing this. I found it in my suitcase.” He held up a small blue gift bag. “I thought you might want it.”

“You could’ve dropped it in the mail.”

“I wanted to see you, Hilly. See the café. Besides, I’m living in Vail now, so it’s an easy drive.”

“I heard. The café’s not quite ready yet, but you can get a general idea of what it’s going to look like.”

Dillon gazed around the spacious room and the memories of his grandmother filled him with a combination of joy and sadness.

He’d come to terms with her death, and the role he had played, but missing her never left him.

“As soon as the walls are painted, the rest will be easy. I’ve tried not to change it too much. I love Margarita’s country style. I just wanted it to be a bit more . . . heavenly. What do you think?”

He looked up at the high ceiling where billows of white clouds wisped through layered shades of blue. The walls reflected the ceiling, creating an outdoors effect. “It’s beautiful. She always wanted to do something like this, but never seemed to get around to it. I’m glad you kept the name.”

“Why mess with a good thing? Besides, it reminds me of Margarita.”

“When did you meet my grandmother?”

She hesitated. “It’s a long story, and neither of us has the time to go into it.”

“That’s what I’ve been wanting to talk to you about. Ever since I woke up from my coma, I keep having strange dreams, if you want to call them dreams. I don’t know what they are, exactly. But seeing you here, and remembering that crazy dream in the bathroom, well, you were in the tub . . . wearing this.” He reached into the gift bag and pulled out a red lace bra.

Hilly’s face turned so crimson it nearly matched the bra. “Where did you get that?”

“It was mixed up with my things inside my suitcase from the hotel. You brought it to the hospital on that last day, remember?”

“Irene!” Hilly mumbled.

“Who?”

“Nobody. It’s not mine. I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s probably Nanette’s. She’s more the red-lace type.”

He’d cross-examined enough witnesses to recognize a crack in their outer shell, when he could push for the truth, when their smooth underbelly was exposed. He took a step closer to Hilly. She took a step back. “Believe me, it doesn’t belong to Nanette. We broke up months ago when I told her I was in love with someone else.”

“Maybe it belongs to one of your other girlfriends.”

“There are no other girlfriends, Hilly. There’s only you.”

She took a couple more steps back and ran into her freshly painted wall. “I’m not now, nor will I ever be, your girlfriend.”

He dangled the bra in front of her. “It was real, wasn’t it? That dream wasn’t a dream at all. It really happened. And you put it all together in the Molly Brown suite at the Hotel Colorado. I remember it now. I remember everything. Being in this café and seeing you has brought it all back to me.”

“That’s impossible. You were in a coma.” She squirmed against the wall, paint getting on her clothes and in her hair. But Dillon had her right where he wanted her.

“Only someone who truly loved me would put this on, get into a bubble bath and hold a séance to try to convince a stubborn bastard that life is better than death.”

Hilly grabbed the teddy bear and held on tight. “It wasn’t a séance. It was an intervention. And you forgot mulish, willful, obstreperous and annoying.”

“I’m annoying?”

“At times.”

His body ached for her touch. To see her smile. He had the strongest desire to kiss her, hard.

“I love you, Hilly Thompson. I love everything about you, especially your red lace bra, and those incredible breasts that this magical bra was made for.”

He was standing only inches from her now. So close he could smell the paint in her hair. It was intoxicating.

She squirmed away from him, put the bear down on the counter and pulled the bra from his hand. “Fine, but I don’t love you anymore. I may have loved you then, but that’s over.”

He walked over to her, pinning her next to the counter. “That’s a boldface lie.”

“You can’t know that,” she said, grinning.

He kissed her neck and this time she didn’t resist. “But I do know. I know it for a fact.”

He kissed her cheek, then her eyelids and forehead, holding her gently in his arms. She felt warm to his touch, warm and loving. Despite what she was saying, her breathing had gotten deeper.

“That’s impossible,” she mumbled, the fight fading. “You can’t know what’s in my heart.”

Dillon pulled away so he could look deep into her eyes. “I knew exactly what you felt for me when our hands touched while I was trying to give you that note in the hospital. I could feel your love, but I didn’t understand it then. Now, holding you, touching you, I know we have the kind of love my mom and my grandmother always talked about. The kind I never thought I’d find. The kind I was afraid of. Please tell me you still feel that kind of love for me, Hilly.” He let her go and took a step back. “Because if you don’t, I’ll leave now and never bother you again.”