Page 181 of Somebody's Watching Me
“I’ve started dreaming about my mom again,” she admitted. “Laura Jean was in the one I had where you turned into Michael after he tried to take me, and then a few more times since.”
“You never told me the full dream, just that I turned into a terrorist while we had sex.” He waited patiently for her to elaborate, and when she didn’t, he sighed. “Spill it, Jamison.”
Since these bizarre dreams of her mother began shortly after Toby’s attack, Liam always listened and interpreted them in his analytical way that drove her insane. She didn’t want to hear how these nighttime visits from her mom were nothing but visions derived from stress, or how they were some hidden fear she kept buried from everyone, including herself. She liked pretending the dreams were real. She liked thinking that she was important enough for her mother to visit from beyond the grave. It wasn’t true, of course, but what was wrong with wanting something fantastical to be real?
“In the first one, I was sitting with her in the rocking chairs on Haven’s porch. It was strange, and not like the other dreams I’ve had with her in them. She faded right as CeCe appeared.”
“Adult CeCe or kid CeCe?”
“Adult.”
He snickered when a towering wave knocked the wayward seagull out of the sky. “I noticed Simone has changed some of the photos in the library, and there’s an adult CeCe in one of them. That would probably explain why she’s showing up in your dreams.”
She held him a little tighter. When they finally learned what little they now knew of CeCe’s life with Toby, Simone had gone into a deep depression. To help her find closure after Toby’s arrest, Liam recovered photos of CeCe as an adult and brought them home to Haven House. There weren’t many, but at least she looked happy in them.
“CeCe was kind of terrifying in the dream, and she called me out for being afraid of her.”
“Don’t you love it when the monsters of our minds tell us that we’re ridiculous for being afraid of them,” he mused. “It’s extremely counterintuitive.”
“Stop.”
“Sorry.” He gave her a swift kiss. “Go on.”
“She turned into a monster from there, and I freaked out and ran into the house where the rest of it played out.”
“It was only a dream, and there are hundreds of reasons you could have had it.”
Arms around his neck, she snuggled against him. “The one last night was even more crazy.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask.”
“My mom and I were having coffee in a café with Michael, and a girl came in. She was blurry and distorted, like a bad signal coming through.”
Staring off at the waves swiping across the shore, she tried to recall the next part. When she woke and found Liam missing, it felt as if she had run a marathon, with her heart nearly beating out of her chest.
“Mom was lecturing Michael about the forest, but he wasn’t listening because he was too busy watching the blurry girl. I think he was crying. I could feel this awful pain coming out of him, and that’s when the girl turned into a ball of white light and exploded.”
Liam stroked her back lightly. “The explosion is because Sinclair blows stuff up, and the girl is probably one of the kids he killed. It’s just your subconscious messing with you.”
“Thank you for analyzing my dream, Dr. Cohen.”
“It’s what I’m here for.”
She lifted her head and kissed him. “And I love you for it.”
“Are you still on birth control?”
Her smile wavered, not expecting the question. “Yes.”
“Good.”
A gusting shot of salty air circled them, ruffling his hair. She toyed with the wavy curls on top, pushing them back from his face. “Why do you ask?”
“We didn’t use any protection last night.”
And there it was. That stupid ball of doubt, bouncing around in her gut. “Worried I’ll get pregnant?”
Peering down at her, Liam cocked an eyebrow. “I didn’t exactly restrain myself.” His hands slipped lower to give her ass a squeeze. “And honestly, the sex was so good last night I’m kind of worried I might be pregnant too.”
