Love Untold

Love Untold: Chapter 44

Love Untold: Chapter 44

Reese scratched the back of his neck and slowly approached Chrissie as she dug through her bag.  She retrieved a key from its depths and tried to fit it into the lock.

Clearing the nervousness from his throat, he said, “Um, hello?”  She jumped, dropped the key and turned to face him.  Her eyes widened and all color drained from her cheeks, but Reese had his own issues.

Disorientation smothered him.  He couldn’t breathe.  It was her.  He wasn’t crazy.  

“It’s you,” he gasped.

*****

It’s him...

Chrissie’s breath left her in one full swoop.  She staggered backward into the door, her legs giving way.  Instantly, his arms wrapped around her waist, drawing her back to her feet and to his chest.  “Whoa, I’ve got you,” he said in a voice so familiar, the sweetness of it drowned her.

“Race?” she whispered, though without any air in her lungs, she didn’t think it was possible to say anything at all.  “Are you real?”  

Keeping one hand on her back, his other reached to curl around her neck below her ear.  “Are you real?” he repeated, his blue eyes drinking up her face.  “I can’t believe it...It’s you...I’ve been dreaming about you...You’re my wife...”

“Wh-what?”

The man -- Race! -- nodded and smiled, and Chrissie sucked in a lungful of air.  Oh, God!  He even smelled like Race.  “I’m sorry...I’ve scared you, didn’t I?” he asked sheepishly, but he didn’t let her go, and she clung to him tighter.  “You must think I’m nuts, huh?”

“Nuts?”

That’s it...it was official.  Chrissie Hill was as crazy as a whole migration of loons.  He was standing right there, holding her like he’d done it a million times, and she didn’t know who this person was, other than he looked just like Race, and he...

Wait -- what?  He said he’d been dreaming of her, too?

Another dream...a nightmare...he wasn’t real...she imagined him, she just had to wake up and he’d be gone...again.

No!  Not again!

“Who are you?” she asked in a bare whisper.  Please, please be real!

“Reese Jackson,” he offered, sweeping his gaze all around her face, landing on her scar.  He touched it gently.  “What happened to you?”

“Reese...Jackson?  Not Race?”

He frowned.  “Um...no.”  He cleared his throat again with that nervousness.  “Who...uh, is Race?”

Chrissie started shaking.  It was creepy...the similar sounding names, the face...surreal.  “He’s...he’s you,” she said, marveling at the fact that he still held her in his arms.  She didn’t want him to let her go.  She wanted to stay there forever.

“Me?” he laughed.  “And I thought I was the crazy one.”

She blinked...and the months came crashing down on her.  She shoved him away.  “I am not crazy!”

“Whoa,” he said,  holding his hands up defensively.  “I didn’t mean you were.  I’m the one who’s lost his mind.  I’ve been dreaming about a woman that I thought didn’t existed, and now I’ve seen you, and you’re real, and...um...you’re probably going to call the police on me now, aren’t you?”

Chrissie leaned back against the door and cooled her blood.  She had to get it together.  Okay...focus.  There’s a man standing right in front of her, who looked exactly like Race if a little -- how did Dena put it? -- rough around the edges, and who claimed he’d been dreaming of her, and now they’ve met, and it was all real and a dream, and she was either dead or very, very lucky.

Staring up at him, she decided on lucky...and blessed.  Peace and completion settled in Chrissie’s soul.  “I’ve been dreaming about you, too,” she said, watching for any sign that he didn’t believe her.  “I know your face...I searched for you, but...”  Tears poured out of her eyes.  He stepped closer to wipe one away with his thumb.

“Shh...don’t cry...”

Chrissie closed her eyes as more tears surged out onto her cheeks.  “I can’t help it...” she gulped.  “Please, be real...I don’t want to dream any more...”

“No more dreams,” he said in a hush.  “No more delusions and fantasies.  You’re real, and I’m real, but I’ve been in love with you in my dreams.”

Chrissie opened her eyes and smiled.  “Really?  You were in love with me?”

His eyes -- yes, his eyes were the same, blue and streaked with dark blues and lighter blues, and now they dilated with awareness and something so very intense.  “Yeah,” he said softly, tracing a line across her chin with his finger to circle her mouth.  “I can’t believe I finally found you, and you’re even more beautiful in real life, and yes, I think I can fall in love with you very easily.  And if you’d just give me a chance, I know I can make you happy...I’ll do anything for you, and one day, you might love me, too.”

“Are you always this confident?”

“With you...” he shrugged, not taking his eyes off her, “With you, anything is possible.  I’ll make sure of that.”

Chrissie sighed.  Everything was right in the world again.  Race was only a dream, but Reese was real, and the two men were the same, and Chrissie laughed softly through the pure joy in her heart.  “Normally, I don’t fall in love with men I’ve never met, but for you I’ll make an exception.”

She watched as his eyes contracted and dilated and dimples formed on his cheeks as he grinned down at her.  “Well, as I said earlier, I’m Reese Jackson.  I’m thirty-one, I’m an extreme sports exhibitionist, and I’m terrified of living another day without you.”  And then he boldly kissed her, and Chrissie fell over herself kissing him back, trying to merge their bodies as one.

Reese Jackson...not Race...but the same person...

He picked her up, pressed her back to the door, and she wrapped her legs around him.  “I love you...I’m in love with you...and I don’t even know you...” he murmured against her lips.  “Is that crazy?”

“Insane,” she agreed and fused her mouth to his.

*****

Now, surely everyone can guess what happened next.  But in case you were wondering...

*****

Reese bent at the knees, bringing Chrissie down with him, still kissing her, and felt around the ground for her key.  She didn’t protest, and he just wanted to get her inside so they could talk about each other, get to know each other for real, and kiss some more in private.

Yeah, lots more kissing.

With the key in the lock and the way finally open, he carried her into her cabin and kicked the door closed.  She nibbled on his lips and jaw and licked where his dimples grinned at her, and she said, “I know we’ve just met, and we shouldn’t, but I need you...it’s been so long...”

He blew up to full mast.

No...he wasn’t making love to her five minutes after seeing her face.  She wasn’t that kind of girl, she hadn’t been in his dream, and he didn’t want her to be now.  He set her down on her feet.  “Maybe, we should know more about each other first,” he offered as she trailed her lips to his neck and her fingers tugged at his clothes.

“I’m Chrissie,” she said, “and you’re Reese, and we loved each other, and we were married in my dream.”  She blinked at him, moving a little back as a thought occurred to her.  “Were we married in your dream?”

He touched a fingertip to her lips.  She was even more beautiful in real life.  “Yeah, we were married.”

She smiled, and he seriously considered skipping the talking bit.  “Did we make love?” she asked.

His finger traced the shape of her mouth again, and he thought about all those dreams of her, and how they fit together like pieces of a puzzle, and how he’d not been able to sleep with another woman since having those dreams, and he said, “Oh, yeah...we made love.”

“So...we’ve done this before?”

He tipped her chin up.  “Not like this.  Can’t we get to know each other first?  This feels like...I don’t know...like if we do this...we barely know each other’s names.  Am I making any sense to you?”

She shimmied up against him and smoothed her hands up his chest to lace behind his neck.  “In my dream, I turned you down after we first met.  Isn’t that ironic?”

“And in my dream, we were already married,” he replied, pulling her closer to him.

Her eyes met his, and he lost himself in the clear blue color of them.  Even better in real life.  “Would you like to get married first?” she inquired with a impish smile.

“Married?”  The word that once upon a time sent him into fits of cold sweats since the reality show sounded so wonderful coming from her lips.  “You want to get married?  After ten minutes?”

Clouds floated across her gaze and she broke away from him.  “You make it sound...crazy.  I’m not crazy.  I don’t care what the shrinks say.”

Okay, this was getting out of hand.  She obviously had a pet peeve about being called crazy, and he’d have to remember that for the future.  He meant no such implication.  In fact, they were both a little crazy.  “Chrissie...” he began and stopped, grinning.  “I like that.  Chrissie.  I never had a name for you.”

“Really?  What did you call me?”

“Just...you,” he answered.  “I didn’t want to name you because I was afraid if I met a Jessica or an Amy, that I’d be disappointed that she wasn’t you.”

“You were Race,” she said.  “Horace Jackson Willard.”

Reese blinked.  “Horace?!”  And she giggled, “I know.”

“Well, the Jackson part was right,” he commented, feeling empty without her in his arms, so yes, he was crazy, too.  He tugged on her until she fit against him again, and they both sighed happily.  “Hmm...Chrissie Jackson...I like that even better.  I think we can work out this marriage proposition.”

“After only ten minutes?” she teased him, but he kissed her and she shut up...for all of five minutes.  Then she pulled away and asked, “So...you’re an extreme exhibitionist.  What, exactly, is that?”

Reese tugged her over to the couch, told her about his livelihood and the reality show, and the torment of becoming the country’s most eligible bachelor after that, and she giggled, and he stopped to kiss her again, just because he had to taste that laughter.  He explained how he started dreaming about her, the past five years of his life, looking for her, and she told him about her dreams and her coma -- which made his heart stop beating to think she suffered that way -- and he kissed her scar, then her temple, then her cheek, and again, her mouth...

And the day elapsed with stories of their lives, sporadic kissing and cuddling, and long, deep gazes into each other’s eyes, still not sure if this was just another dream and they were dreaming together, in which case, neither cared.