What the Heart Desires

  “I’ll try it on later. Right now, we have to go.”

  Dirt spun under the tires when he shifted into drive and tore away from the field. Although he didn’t notice anyone following, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t. Nate would return. Whether he chose to send someone after them right away or bide his time would remain a mystery for now. Either way, Layne didn’t want to lose their head start.

  The dirt road wasn’t the smoothest. Their bodies bounced around the cab the faster he drove. Without knowing for sure if they were being followed, the urgency to escape made his foot heavier than normal.

  A few more bumps jostled his body and Heaven’s. In fact, she slid across the seat, straight to his side. When he sensed she was about to move away, he curled his arm around her, teasing her skin with his fingers.

  “Do you want me to stop somewhere so you can call Dylan?”

  Her body tensed. She didn’t look his way when she answered, “No. We can’t chance stopping. If someone is following us, they’ll catch up. Once we’re on the interstate, we’ll be in Brightsville in three hours.”

  His eyes fell to the gas gauge. Relief prickled his skin when he noticed the needle pointing to Full. They’d definitely make it to Brightsville before they ran out of gas. Then she would be back where she belonged—with her husband and daughter. And he would be where he belonged—standing on the sideline, loving her from afar.

  CHAPTER 17

  Passing cars pulled Heaven from a deep sleep as she struggled to open her eyes. Heaviness induced by lack of sleep and crying kept them closed. She’d cried a lot within the last twelve hours. In fact, crying over Layne’s ‘death’ gained her what little sleep she had. It did little to help.

  She didn’t sleep much this time either. The truck’s firm bench seat proved no more comfortable than the concrete floor they’d sat on for hours. Besides, she’d been too anxious to sleep. Between worrying over someone tailing them, to worrying about Layne falling asleep at the wheel, she may have snuck in thirty minutes. The last sign she remembered seeing put Brightsville fifty miles away. They had to be near the exit. If not for her uncooperative eyelids, she’d open them and find out how close they were.

  Layne would know. All she had to do is ask. She sensed his heat circling her. The zealous throb hinted to its new intensity, as well as his new strength, but it spoke of something else. It spoke of his fear—of facing Dylan, their family, and their future.

  Making love to him changed things, not just for him, but for her as well. She loved Dylan, would always love him. Of all the things that changed, loving him wasn’t one. They were soulmates. Yet she couldn’t deny what she felt for Layne any longer.

  God, she’d made a mess of things.

  As she forced her lids to part, she blinked the cloudiness from her vision. A dull blue sky, along with a cornfield, surrounded the area. It wasn’t the rows of freshly plowed dirt that made her heart beat faster, but the baby blue water tower in the distance. Bold black letters spelled a familiar word.

  BRIGHTSVILLE

  It seemed too good to be true. After what happened with Nate, she wasn’t sure if they’d make it back. Had she not healed Layne or encountered the strange man, they wouldn’t be there now.

  The mysterious man showing up proved an odd situation. If he didn’t work for Nate, how did he know she and Layne were at the abandoned quarry? How had he known to rescue Dylan months prior? She never had the chance to ask, nor would she get one. The man was long gone. She would always be grateful for what he did to help them, but some mysteries in life didn’t need to be solved.

  “You doing okay?”

  Layne’s voice was steady, though his soul was anything but. He’d sensed the influx of emotions inside her. It would take time getting used to their new connection and the fact he could sense her feelings the way she sensed his.

  As he came into view, she noticed him wearing the t-shirt she found in the truck. He must have put it on once they arrived in town. The first stoplight on Morton Avenue always held up traffic coming from the interstate.

  “I’m fine.” She finally looked his way. “I didn’t… I honestly didn’t know if we’d ever see any of this again.”

  He refaced the road as he offered her a tight-lipped smile. “We’ll be at your parents’ house in a few miles. Just relax.”

  She wanted to relax, wanted to think of nothing but holding her daughter in her arms. Adalyn had to be starving. The swell of her breasts said as much, and soon, she’d get the chance to nurse her daughter. She’d get to see Dylan too, though she didn’t know how she would face him. He may not be able to sense her emotions, but would she give away subtle clues to what transpired between her and Layne?

  The thought had little time to linger when Layne’s energy wavered with disappointment. Granted, he was happy to be free and even happier they were safe. Yet nothing awaited him back at her parents’ house, no child, no soulmate, nothing but his parents.

  “What about you, Layne? Are you okay?”

  “I’m peachy.” His tone held its normal sarcasm, which didn’t surprise her in the least. He’d spent a lifetime hiding his true feelings with snide comments.

  “You know I can sense otherwise.”

  His knuckles whitened as he tightened his hands around the steering wheel. He kept his eyes on the road, jaw clenched, body stiff and unyielding. It was as if the old Layne had returned, the one that didn’t give a shit about anyone but himself.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Seriously?” Her snort gained his attention, at least for a brief moment. When he refocused on the road and said nothing, irritation shot through every nerve. “After everything we’ve been through, you’re going to pretend like we can’t sense what the other is feeling?”

  “I never said we couldn’t.”

  “Then why lie to me? I know you’re not fine. You’re upset.”

  His cheek dimpled when he clenched his jaw tighter. “If you can feel me, why ask if I’m okay? You already know I’m not.”

  Straightening her back, she folded her legs under her bottom and turned to face him. “So let’s talk about why you’re upset.”

  A soft chuckle left his throat as he shook his head. Nothing about his energy spoke of amusement. If anything, it spoke of frustration, anger, even guilt. She had a good idea why, but she wanted to hear it from him. She needed to hear it from him.

  “Again, if you can sense me, you should know what’s bothering me, Heaven.”

  “Do you regret making love to me?”

  “I didn’t say that.” The words came out in a growl as he gazed into the rearview mirror and then back to the windshield. “The time I spent with you means everything to me. You mean everything to me, but what happened between us will destroy your life. When Dylan finds out we made love—”

  “Do you plan to tell him?”

  He faced her, brow furrowed, confusion filling him. “I figured you would. Hell, hasn’t he already sensed it?” His eyes went back to the road, but he wasn’t finished. “He feels your emotions easier than I do. He has to know by now.”

  “Adalyn keeps blocking my connection with him. She did it the second Raphe captured us, and she’s still blocking it. I doubt he knows anything.”

  He grew quiet as his conflicted emotions battled for preeminence. When they passed the local park, she knew they were less than a mile away from the house. Maybe that’s why he hadn’t spoken. He knew if he waited long enough, there wouldn’t be time for a deep conversation.

  It wouldn’t stop her from speaking her mind.

  “Layne, I’ll be honest. I’m just as confused as you are. He’s my soulmate, and you’re my Keeper. I have feelings for both of you. I want to be with both of you, but it doesn’t work like that.”

  “Says who?” No humor showed on his face, nor did it thrum through his energy. “I want you for myself, but I know I’m not your soulmate. Still, if Dylan was willing to share you, I wouldn’t think twice.”

  Share?

/>   Her cheeks pulsed with heat at the images running through her mind. Exactly what did he mean by sharing? Taking turns kind of sharing, or the three of them at the same—

  “I, uh…I’m not sure what you mean by sharing? Do you mean the three of us together, or separate, or what?”

  His eyes flashed to hers and then down her body, before moving back to the road. “I’d rather it be separate, but I’d take whatever I could get. As long as I could be honest about my feelings for you and spend time with you, I wouldn’t be picky.”

  He sounded as if he’d entertained the idea before now. It didn’t come as a shock, but he wasn’t thinking about every aspect of the situation. “You’re only saying this because you haven’t found your soulmate.”

  “I don’t have a one, Heaven. Mason said the majority of Keepers don’t.”

  She would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought the same. After the last twelve hours, she considered it to be true, but they had no proof. “Maybe you don’t, Layne, but we don’t know for sure.”

  “Do you think I’m ever gonna love anyone as much I love you?” He pierced her with his fiery gaze. “It’s not going to happen. It’s not supposed to happen. Our fate is intertwined, Heaven. I’m your Keeper. I’m destined to love you.”

  Silence fell between them. She stared toward the windshield, noting a bend in the road in the distance. The driveway to the house was not far beyond it. In fact, it formed into the hill that led to her parents’ property. They were almost home.

  As happy as the thought made her, it knotted her stomach too. She couldn’t imagine walking into the house, facing her husband and family, when so many things were unresolved between her and Layne.

  Once they made it around the bend, Layne slowed the truck. Then he turned into the driveway. Their alone time would end soon, and they were no closer to working through their issues.

  “Heaven?” His voice softened as the truck ascended the hill. “I don’t want to fight with you after everything we’ve been through. Dylan is your husband. You have to decide whether to tell him what happened.” His head turned in her direction. “It won’t be easy. Your decision is like a double-edged sword. Either choice will inflict pain. Lying is wrong, but you know what the truth will do to him.”

  “You’re right, Layne. I do know. I knew it the second I asked you to make love to me.”

  She could see the pain in his face, could feel it inside him. He felt responsible for putting her in this position, but he wasn’t to blame. She made the choice to save him, made the choice to go against her vows. Now she was faced with another choice—to be honest or live with a lie.

  And lies brought them into this mess.

  After months of questioning the reason, she finally understood why their parents lied to them over the years. They did it out of love and fear. They did it to protect them. But if she chose to do the same, whom would she be protecting—the man who swore to love her forever or the man who would give his life for her?

  Concentrating on his face, she waited for him to look her way. When she sensed him fighting the urge, she gave up. “You’re right. This isn’t an easy decision because my decision will affect more than our lives. It will affect the entire human race.”

  She sensed the way her words hit him—like a fist in his gut. He didn’t want to be the reason why she failed at her mission. She knew he wouldn’t be. If only she could convince him of the same.

  “Layne, you said yourself that part of my soul merged with yours. Look inside me. Sense what I’m sensing. You won’t be the reason I fail. You’ll be the reason I succeed.” Leaning closer, she whispered one assurance in his ear. “I don’t regret making love to you. I hope you feel the same.”

  Once they topped the hill, the garage and house came into view. Layne steered the truck behind her mother’s car. It was the same spot where Dylan normally parked, but she didn’t see their car or any others.

  The thought had little time to settle before Layne shifted the truck into park and killed the engine. He rubbed his face with his hand then opened his door. It was official. Their conversation, as well as their time together, had ended.

  Heaven fought to keep her lips from trembling despite the crushing sensation in her chest. And when the pain became too much, his hand touched hers. “I’ll stand behind your choice, no matter what you choose.”

  So he’d said before. It didn’t make her feel any better. The only thought on her mind was putting separation between them. They had to for Dylan’s sake. Even if he forgave her, he’d never allow them to be alone together.

  As she forced the passenger side door open, Layne’s hand brushed hers. His energy spoke of the emotion ruling him. Devotion—complete and utter devotion to her alone.

  “Before we go in the house, there’s something I want you to know.”

  The seconds ticked by, but time mattered not. Only he did, and the words spilling from his lips, words that said no matter what happened, he would always love her.

  “I don’t regret making love to you, Heaven. I never will. Real love doesn’t have regrets.”

  * * *

  The front door swung open once Heaven released the handle. It smacked into the stop on the adjacent wall. If anyone were asleep, they wouldn’t be after the ruckus she’d made. Yet the longer she waited to sense her family, the more she sensed their void.

  Desperation thickened her heart. She entered the living room and swept across the floor, determined to find her husband and daughter. Before she reached the dining room, she noticed a map lying across the coffee table. Red ink stained the paper in tiny circles that wrapped around the names of towns. Some had a large X through them, some had three words: To Be Searched.

  Layne walked through the door. He crept into the house in her direction, each step amplifying his anxiety. When he noticed the map, he continued staring at it. Realization pinched his face the way it pinched her heart. No wonder they hadn’t seen any other cars in the driveway. Their families were somewhere searching for them.

  “Is that what I think it is?”

  His question flitted through her mind as he stopped beside her. She sensed his guilt—guilt stemming from the fact that while they were making love, their loved ones were searching for them.

  No! She was not going to succumb to shame. If they hadn’t been intimate, Layne wouldn’t have survived. He couldn’t have. Every time he moved away from her, his energy depleted. The level of intimacy they shared provided more healing than simply touching him. It had taken her weeks to heal him after the attack in Cleveland. They didn’t have weeks this time, barely hours.

  The stress of it all affected her as well. Though she hadn’t told him at the time, she spent a lot of energy healing him. Had it not been for their lovemaking, she would have been as weak as Layne. She needed his touch as much as he needed hers.

  Dylan wouldn’t see it that way…

  She scanned the room, searching for her phone as well as the house phone. Whichever she found first didn’t matter. She wanted to call Dylan, wanted him to know they were home and safe. Everything else could wait until he returned.

  With no sign of any phones, she turned toward the dining room as a door closed toward the back of the house. Rapid waves of energy rushed around her, making her head swim. She began to stumble forward, but Layne caught her arm in time. He pulled her against his chest just as her mom and dad appeared in the hall.

  Tears stung her eyes, though not because of her parents. She was happy to see them, but someone else took precedence, someone who lay nestled in her mother’s arms in a tiny, pink dress.

  “Heaven,” her mother gasped. “You’re alive. You’re both alive.”

  She rushed toward her parents just as her mother did the same. They greeted each other with an embrace before her mother placed her daughter in her arms. Adalyn’s warm body filled the void being away had caused. Tears trickled down Heaven’s face.

  Holding her daughter close, her shoulders shook with each sob. The
sweet, lavender scent of Adalyn’s baby lotion made those sobs increase. This was the moment she’d waited for, the one that made the horrible experience nothing more than a memory.

  “We’ve been so worried.” Her mother caressed her arm. “What happened? Where have you been?”

  “Nate happened, Mom.”

  Her father’s jaw tightened. His emotions went from gratitude and relief to full-blown anger. Once he noticed her staring in his direction, he schooled his features, but the wicked beat of his energy remained the same.

  “After I went to check on Layne, we walked into the woods. We were in the middle of discussing what happened with Faith and Jerry when Raphe showed up and captured us.”

  The sound of his name made her stomach lurch. She forced back the acrid taste in her throat as memories came flooding back, ones that had her holding Adalyn closer. At least Raphe was dead. He could no longer hurt her, but what she faced in his place proved even more horrid.

  “Raphe captured you? So he is working for Nate.”

  “He was.”

  Her mother’s brows creased deeper. She stole a glance at her father, and then Layne, before refocusing on Heaven. “Was?”

  “I’ll explain everything soon, but first, I need to call Dylan. I want him to know we’re safe. Where is the phone?”

  It was her father who raised his hand, showing her the phone clenched within it. But when she reached forward, he shook his head. “He won’t answer. We were talking to him just before we came in. His cell died, but he’s heading back to the house to regroup. He’ll be here in less than an hour.”

  Her father’s voice was laced with worry. It wasn’t until he stepped past her and Layne on his way to the couch that she noticed the stress on his face. He looked as though he’d aged ten years in the last twelve hours. Fear had a way of doing that to people.

  “Dylan will be here in an hour?”

  She caught a glimpse of him nodding. Between the mixed emotions pulsing in her soul, to the ones twisting inside Layne, only one thought spun in her mind. What would happen when Dylan arrived?