The Key (Heartfire) (3 page)

Dylan felt whole for the first time in his life.

The girl looked less than thrilled to see him. Her pretty face was in shock, leaving two bright pink spots on her cheeks. For all his surprise, she looked even more rattled than he felt. He needed to reassure her- he needed to-

The girl turned and scurried into the back of the clubhouse. But he'd seen the look of recognition in her face. The shock and the... something else. Joy almost. But she'd looked horrified as well.

He realized that for the first time in forever, he didn't feel alone. Even though she'd just run out of there like her shoes were on fire.

"She's hot right? I'd like to unload on her ass."

Dylan cringed. His suitemate Chuck was not subtle about women. All he talked about were stats and how to get girls. As many as possible. And now he was talking about
her
in the same way.

Dylan didn't like it. He didn't like it at all.

He set his tray down on a table and walked purposefully toward the kitchen. Suddenly, a heavyset middle-aged woman with red hair stood in his way. He looked down at her, impatient to get past her.
 

But his good manner won out.

"Excuse me please."

"You can't be back here son. Can I get you something?"

"The girl who was here- did she leave? I need to talk to her."

"Kaylia? I think she just went out back for air."

"Okay, thanks."

Dylan walked swiftly out of the building and jogged to the back where the employee entrance was. He walked around the loading dock and dumpsters. But there was no one there.

It didn't matter though. His whole body was thrumming with the possibility of seeing her again soon. Talking to her. Kissing her. And he wouldn't have to fall asleep to do it.

She was here.

She was real.

Kaylia

☼

"Cute outfit."

Charisse was looking at her like she was the Lochness monster. Kaylia had just walked in the door and just wanted to hide. Everyone was staring at her today and she didn't like it.

Kaylia stared down at herself, wondering what was wrong with her now.

Oh.

She'd forgotten to take the spotted apron off. It was a nicer one, a dark green made for serving in the front of the kitchen. But it was still less than glamorous. Not to mention splattered with small bits of mashed potatos.

Fantastic. She was wearing part of the dinner she hadn't gotten a chance to even taste. Because she hadn't finished her shift. Because she was ridiculous. And now she would go to bed hungry because of it.

Brilliant Kaylia.

She pulled off the apron, tempted to throw it away. Just hide the evidence of her foolishness. She hoped she didn't get fired for running out of there like that. Not to mention looking like a freak as she ran through campus.

Yeah, this semester was off to a fantastic start.

She couldn't lose her job. Not now. Not ever. For four years her work study was a priviledge as well as a burden. It was part of her arrangement with the scholarship office. She'd have to tell them she'd gotten sick or something. Otherwise she was screwed.

No work study, no partial scholarship, no college. The rules were very clear on that.

Way to go Kaylia. And on your first day too.

She sighed and pulled the apron off, hanging it on the hook on the back of the door.

"You smell like French fries."

"Mashed potatoes actually. One of the many hazards of workstudy. I'll get cleaned up."

Charisse wrinkled her nose and tossed her something. Kaylia stared at the expensive looking bottle in her hand. Rose scented shower gel.

Well, that was subtle.

"Here. My mother gets me buckets of this stuff. You look like a rose girl."

She held up another bottle.

"I'm more of a lemon verbena girl myself. You can have all the rose stuff."

"Thanks."

Kaylia grabbed her shower caddy, adding the rose scented shower gel, shampoo, conditioner and a dry body oil that Charisse had chucked onto her bed. In her case ' dorm shower caddy' was an old rubber bucket that had been under her grandmother's sink forever. Nan had raised her on a strict, extremely limited income. They used what they had.

Kaylia kind of liked it that way too. Just looking at the waste and excess around the dorm was a little dizzying to tell the truth. But she couldn't judge people for having money, just like she hoped they didn't judge her for... not having it.

She knew they did judge her though. She might not react to the stares and whispers, but she always noticed them. She knew she didn't quite belong.

Never had. Never would.

Even here, where they were all supposedly intelligent over-achievers, she was still just the girl from the wrong side of the tracks. The girl who had to work just to stay in classes. The girl who smelled like French fries.

Kaylia padded down the hall in her shower shoes (also-known-as 99 cent flip flops). She looked around, relived that it was not crowded for once. She was shy about showering around other girls, even if they were all in the same boat.

She pulled off her clothes and stepped into the shower stall. The water was steaming hot and the pressure was good. One of the few perks of communal showering she supposed.

She poured some of the expensive gel into her hand and inhaled deeply. It did smell pretty good actually, especially compared to the drug store soap she'd used to wash her face and body every day since she was five. Kaylia went through the motions of soaping herself off but only one thought was running through her head on repeat.

The one thought she'd been fighting against thinking ever since she'd run out of the dining hall almost an hour ago.

He was real.

Chapter Four
 

Dylan

☽

Dylan sat in Freshman Lit, staring blankly towards the front of the lecture hall. It was the third day of classes. He'd spent every day since Freshman orientation looking for her. She hadn't appeared in the kitchen again and he hadn't seen her in the quad.
 

He was beginning to think he'd imagined the whole thing.
 

Until now.

Two rows ahead of him to the right. A girl sat there that drew his eye repeatedly during the class. He could see her profile and the short dark hair that curled around her ears perfectly, revealing a graceful neck. Her hand fluttered to her throat as if she felt his eyes on her. His breath caught as she glanced over her shoulder as if she knew someone was watching her.

Yes. It was her.
 

He was not crazy after all.

Well, maybe he was a
little
bit crazy.

Dylan started to stand in the middle of class the moment he saw her face. He sat down abruptly. He had to get to her, to speak to her, to know her name.

It was her, but she was different.

Her hair was longer in the dreams, her clothes were shabby and casual compared to the plain white nightgown he was used to seeing. It was the sort that you saw in old movies. White cotton and lace. Virginal.

For some reason Dylan had always found it incredibly arousing. In fact, just being with her in dreams was more satisfying than any of the fumbling sexual encounters he'd had in the back seats of cars or in a basement rec room when one of his friends parents were out of town.

He felt it now, a fission of desire that went straight to his gut... and lower. Blood was starting to throb in his groin where he was developing a sudden erection. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

Nice. A spontaneous English Lit 101 mega-boner.

That hadn't happened to him since Freshman year in high school. He would have been embarrassed but he wasn't. He knew it was because of her. He was overwhelmingly drawn to her in every way.

Including his dick apparently.

Dylan was stymied a moment later when the class abruptly ended. He couldn't stand up right away for obvious reasons. But he couldn't let her disappear on him again.

Hi, yeah I'm the guy from your dreams. The one with the massive public erection. Emily Bronte does that to me.

Not.

Yeah, that would not go over well. He cursed when he saw her making a beeline for the door. Boner or not, he couldn't let her get away again.

He stood up and chased after her.

Pushing his way through the crowd, Dylan lifted his arm and touched her shoulder just as she stepped out of the building. She turned and her eyes widened. She stepped away from him, almost stumbling down the stairs. He reached out for her and steadied her.

The next thing he knew she had darted out into the crowd of milling students on the quad. She was pretty fast for such a little thing. Dylan followed her, unwilling to give up so easily. He still held his jacket in front of him, trying to hide the trouser tent he was sporting.

"Wait- I just need to talk to you-"

She ignored him, weaving through the crowd of students until she stopped short, blocked by a game of catch football. Dylan grabbed her shoulder and turned her to face him.

"I know you."

Her big eyes blinked up at him. He knew she was about to lie to him. Even before she opened that beautiful mouth of hers.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I've never seen you before in my life."

"Yes, you have."

He smiled at her, shaking his head.

"It's okay. I'm scared too. This whole thing- it's crazy."

She stared at the ground as if willing him to go away. Then she shook her head, as if she was trying to clear it.

"Yeah. I guess you're right."

His heart was clanging in his chest as she took a deep breath and looked up at him. Her beautiful golden eyes were rueful as she seemed to relax suddenly.

"It
is
crazy. I think I'm going crazy."

Dylan smiled at her.

"Maybe we both are."

Kaylia

☽

Kalia's heart was beating so fast, it felt like it was a horse that might gallop away from her. He was here. And he was demanding that she talk to him, that she admit what was happening.

God help her, she wanted to talk to him too.

She wanted everything in the dreams to be real. The long walks. The handholding. The kiss.

Especially the kiss.

Everything inside her warned that there would be consequences if she gave into that desire. That this was not a free gift. She didn't know if it was just nerves, or a lifetime of being the odd girl out, but her internal warning bell was clanging and it was
loud.

She let herself look at him, silencing the voice inside her that told her to run. She just...
looked.
Her eyes drank him in like the tall, cool drink of water that he was.

Lord have mercy the boy was fine.

His eyes were the same as she remembered, his shoulders just as broad. His hair was shorter, cut for the upcoming football season most likely. She missed the tousled curls he'd worn the last time she saw him. It softened him somehow. Now he looked... hard.
 

Determined.

He was staring at her, begging her with those deep blue eyes to say the words that would make this all real.

Too real.

Once she said them out loud though, she wouldn't be able to take them back. It was a line in the sand and she realized with a sense of inevitability that nothing would stop her from crossing it. Maybe this was fate. Maybe it was magic. Real magic, not the kind you read about in fairy tales. Either way, she couldn't fight it any longer.

She sighed, unable to resist the entreating look in his beautiful eyes.

"Your hair is shorter."

He smiled at her with such relief that it almost made it worth it when they both ended up in the loony bin.

Almost.

"Yours too."

She ran her hand through her new haircut distractedly.

"Yeah, well my Gran cut it. She wanted to make the cut last until I went home again for Thanksgiving break."

He was just standing there, staring at her like a kid on Christmas morning. Then he held out his hand expectantly. She looked at it as if it were a snake that might bite her.

"I'm Dylan."

Dylan. The name suited him. It was unusual. Pretty almost. But strong.

She sighed, ignoring his hand.
 

"Look, this isn't a good idea. We should just act like none of this ever happened. Otherwise we are basically admitting that we are insane."

"Like I said, maybe we are. I'm okay with that."

He was still grinning when he said it. She sighed again, feeling like she was speaking to a slow-witted child. Except he wasn't, was he? He was a big, beautiful looking young man. An Adonis really. How could he be here talking to her when she'd conjured him up out of loneliness all those years ago?

He was supposed to just be her imaginary friend dammit.

"Come on, just tell me your name. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal-"

She lowered her voice, whispering at him as she started walking around the outskirts of the game again.

"The big deal is that stuff like this isn't supposed to happen."

"Yeah, it's weird. But it's
good
weird, you know?"

She stopped and stared at him. He was so handsome. So big. So actually there in the flesh that she had to resist the urge to reach out and poke him.

"I guess."

"So, what's your name? Otherwise I'm going to have to call you dream girl."

She sighed again and stared at the hand he was once again holding out. Patiently waiting for her to accept it. She reached out and slid her small dark hand into his.

"Kaylia. I'm Kaylia."

He smiled at her and clasped her hand. A jolt shot through her. He jerked as if he felt it too. It was like an electrical current that seared her, straight to the soles of her feet. She let go abruptly, reaching up to touch the top of her head.

Her hair was sticking straight up.

Dylan's was too.

He smiled sheepishly as if that were a totally normal reaction to a handshake.