Dream Bound Read Online Free PDF Page A

be turning away qualified people, but instead he’d ended up with exactly the number he needed. Hopefully, that was a good sign.
    An omen of success.
    But what if some of them decided against going? Would any of them drop out at the last minute, figure he was nuts and they wanted no part of his stupid project? Shit. He couldn’t think like this. Not now, not when he was so damned close.
    He focused on the lights spreading across the valley and searched for calm. Impossible. Not with his heart pounding and his mind practically tied into knots. Tomorrow was the beginning.
    “Or maybe it’s just the fucking end.” He tipped the glass back and took a big swallow, choked down the fiery liquor, and breathed deeply through his nose. Getting drunk probably wasn’t the smartest thing, not with the long drive tomorrow, but he knew he’d never fall asleep sober.
    He’d come home from the office tonight, still wound tight after talking to the kids a couple of nights ago. He was energized by their excitement, tired of waiting, and ready to head out right now. He’d grabbed a bite to eat, showered, and realized he was wide-awake. Put his jeans back on along with a warm flannel shirt and poured his first drink.
    It wasn’t going to be his last.
    He upended the glass and finished off the rest of the Jack, stared at the empty glass a moment, and then refilled it. Grabbed the bottle and stepped out on to the deck, flopped down in one of the redwood chairs, and stared at the stars.
    He hated to admit it, but he was living proof a heart really could break.
    “Are you up there, Zianne? Did you realize, when you left my bed that last morning, that you weren’t coming back? I can’t imagine you knew and didn’t tell me, so I have to believe that somehow, something went terribly wrong.”
    The stars blurred and his eyes stung. Angry, frustrated, scared half to death, he ran his arm across his face, wiped away the tears he’d not allowed to fall for almost twenty fucking long years. Twenty years. It seemed almost impossible now.
    He’d been drunk the first night she came to him. God, it was still so clear, like it had happened yesterday. She’d just appeared out of nowhere—naked in his shower, her long dark hair swirling over her shoulders, her violet eyes sparkling, her lips ... oh, damn, her lips were like a dream, which was exactly what she was—his fantasy woman brought quite literally to life.
    He’d imagined her, described her to Dink while they’d gotten quietly drunk that night. First Dink had given Mac a perfect description of his fantasy lover, which, as Mac had expected, described him perfectly. Mac had described Zianne, a woman created totally out of his fantasies. Not an hour later, she’d materialized on her knees in his shower, perfect down to the long dark hair and violet eyes.
    He’d never forget how one minute she wasn’t there, and the next she was kneeling in front of him, taking him in her mouth and giving him a blow job unlike anything he’d ever experienced.
    He didn’t learn until days later that the power of his imagination—his sexual fantasy—had given her form and substance, but her intelligence, her heart, and her amazing inner beauty had been all her own. That night had marked the beginning of the most amazing four months of his life.
    Four months of Zianne, of learning who and what she was, and even more important, discovering just who he was, what he was capable of, how his mind worked.
    Four amazing months that would shape the rest of his life, which prepared him for the challenge he faced now and would continue to face in the coming days.
    But what if they failed? What if there was no one to contact? What if the Gar had discovered Zianne’s subterfuge and pulled their huge star cruiser out of orbit, had disappeared into space, too far for Zianne or her people to connect with Earth?
    Had she been left, stranded in space? Was she still alive?
    Too much could go wrong. Might have already