Risking It All by JM Stewart

Author:JM Stewart [Stewart, JM]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-08-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Cecelia woke with a startled gasp to a darkened room. The smell of gunpowder filled her nostrils. Her heart hammered in her ears, and her T-shirt clung to her perspiration-dampened skin. She took long, deep breaths in an attempt to slow her rapid breathing as she scanned the darkness in search of something familiar to ground her. Menacing shadows stretched and weaved along the walls, over the floor and across the ceiling, as if reaching for her. Outside, the wind whistled past the house, too reminiscent of the screams echoing through her mind.

“It was a dream.” She turned to stare at the clock, hoping it would ground her, the way it had the night she spent at Kyle’s, and repeated the mantra over and over. Terror refused to release its hold on her chest. The muted red numbers of her clock read 3:05, the color reminding her of the blood. Of the awful eyes that stared blankly back at her. God, she’d never seen the eyes before. They stared at her, cold and lifeless.

Four days had passed since the night at the river. Each morning Kyle called before she left for work to chat and see how she was doing, or so he always said. It was a step in the right direction for them, but all her mind ever concentrated on was his voice, still husky from sleep. It still sent tingles down her spine. Would things ever be the same between them?

The dark shape of her phone resting beside the clock taunted her. It teased her with what she wanted so badly her hands shook. To call Kyle. The simple sound of his voice used to calm her. Would it now? Could she even do that anymore, call her best friend at three in the morning because she needed him?

His words that night floated into her mind. She couldn’t forget them. I won’t deny I want you. . . .

She closed her eyes, and the images from her dream flashed before her, as if in some awful form of an answer. The sightless eyes. The blood seeping across the carpet. The fear that gripped her chest so tightly she couldn’t breathe. It always left her wondering what was real and what was a dream, and she always woke in a sweat-filled panic, forgetting for a moment where she was. It was a dream. It had to be.

Then how come those sightless eyes made her chest ache?

The thought taunted her, and tears pricked behind her eyelids. Unable to resist, she opened her eyes and snatched her phone off the nightstand. With trembling fingers, she found Kyle’s number in her favorites, then rolled onto her back, heart thumping, and stared at the ceiling as the line rang. It was late. Chances were, he was asleep.

“Morgan.”

A single word, but his deep voice washed over her, wrapping around her like the soothing comfort of a warm blanket. Her mind drew up an image of them, as they’d been that night she lay in his bed.

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