Curse And Craving

6

Chapter Three STILL IN THE CLUTCHES OF SLEEP, MY BLEARY EYES COULD TELL THAT IT wasn’t time to get up, but I wasn’t sure what had roused my consciousness. That was when I sensed it—the feeling of a presence behind me. I wasn’t alone. Someone was watching me. I slowly turned my head and took in the horrifying black form of a man looming over me. “Jesus Christ! Becca, wake up!” Heart pounding in my chest, I opened my eyes and realized I’d been dreaming. I was in my room with Ashley, ensconced in darkness and drenched in sweat. The shadow man wasn’t real, but he might as well have been. He’d haunted me for years. My reoccurring nightmare from childhood was back. “God, Ash, I’m so sorry,” I said as I rubbed my eyes, trying to scratch the image of his terrifying presence out of my mind. “It’s okay, but your screaming scared me half to death. That must have been some bad dream.” “Yeah. It’s actually a reoccurring dream I used to have as a kid. It’s been so many years since I’ve had it that I figured I had outgrown it.” “You want to tell me about it?” I sat up in the dark, the room lit only by small slivers of light that crept in around the blinds. “It’s a waking dream. I feel like I’m waking up for real, and this man is standing over me. There’s no face or defining feature, just this shadowy man. I used to wake up screaming about once a month like clockwork as a kid. My mom was convinced I was being haunted by a spirit, so she started burning incense in my room at night. It may sound silly, but it was supposed to guard against evil and keep the bad spirits away. After she started using the incense, I didn’t have a single nightmare. Even when I slept over with friends, the dreams stayed away. I eventually stopped thinking about him, figuring the spirit had moved on.” Looking back on all those nights I had woken in abject terror, my body gave an involuntary shudder. “That’s awful, Bec. I’m so sorry. I could see why you had the dream, though, considering all the big changes in your life. And the odd encounters you’ve had probably don’t help.” Ash spoke softly as her hand absently rubbed circles on my back. I nodded, realizing she was probably right. “It’s late. Let’s try to get back to sleep, or I’m going to be a zombie at work tomorrow.” I MANAGED to arrive at work the next morning just before the rain began. Knowing moisture was an unavoidable part of the climate, I didn’t plan on letting showers stop me from getting around, but my boxes still hadn’t arrived, and one of them contained my rain boots. Therefore, when lunchtime rolled around, I headed down to the coffee shop on the first floor rather than venture out onto the wet streets. “Hot cocoa on a day like this would hit the spot,” said a voice beside me. I glanced over to take in the man smiling at me with mischievous brown eyes. He was about five-foot-eleven and trim, judging by his cut jawline. The rest of him was obscured beneath a brown wool coat. Dirty blond hair waved in loose curls every which way, enlivened by the humid weather. He was an attractive man, but the kicker was his dimples—he had two perfect dimples on either cheek. He was a panty-dropper in a boy-next-door kind of way, and I instantly felt the effect of his good looks. My cheeks heated as a smile crept across my face. “I was going to grab a sandwich, but a hot chocolate sounds good, too.” “Excellent. You figure out what you want, and I’ll start with the order,” he said with a wink and walked to the counter. “What?” I was suddenly confused. Was he planning to eat lunch with me? “Unless you’ve got plans already, I’ll join you for lunch. Just tell me what you’ll have, and I’ll get it ordered.” I didn’t normally eat with strangers, but his confident, congenial manner swept me away. “I’m not meeting anyone, but I don’t even know your name.” “I’m Ronan, and you are?” “Rebecca.” I wasn’t the best at chance encounters and flirting, but I wasn’t exactly the Virgin Mary either. Besides, it was time I met one man in this country who wasn’t a total fruitcake. Just in case he was yet another Irish nutjob, though, I decided to vet him and make sure I didn’t need to go running back to my office. We put in our order and found a table by the windows. He took off his coat and set it on the back of his chair, giving me an unobstructed view of his physique. He was exceptionally fit but not particularly bulky—more like a swimmer or a runner than a weights kind of guy. “Were you touring the museum?” I asked after we sat down. “Something like that, but I seem to have gotten a little sidetracked.” He peered at me from under thick, dark lashes, and my chest warmed at his attention. “You as well?” he asked, seeming genuinely interested in learning more about me. “No, I just started working here. Yesterday was my first day.” “So that would explain the accent. New to Ireland, are you?” I nodded in response as a server brought our food to the table. “Ronan, I have to ask because you seem to be decently well-adjusted, and so far, that hasn't been my experience around here. You don't happen to make a habit of chasing girls down the street or have any other stalker-ish tendencies that I should know about, do you?” I asked with one brow raised as I took a bite of my sandwich.