In Wildest Dreams

By Linda Palmer

Ellie Boone bakes novelty cakes for a living. Kit Macchiano is the handsome photographer who lives down the hall. They occasionally have lunch together, but never without her best friend and other neighbor, Hanna. Both women are fascinated by Kit, whose bachelor lifestyle contrasts sharply with their where-are-all-the-good-men desperation.

Ellie never tells Kit that her parents hunt mythical monsters for a living and host their own cable television series. But they do, and they're in a jam, with the threat of cancellation hanging over their heads. For that reason, Ellie's mom begs her to accompany them on a hunt for the Cherufe, a legendary Chilean cave monster. Ellie, who hasn't traveled with them getting lost in a cave at age six, reluctantly agrees, but only if Hanna can tag along.

Ellie tries to convince herself that she can overcome the lingering trauma of her childhood misadventure. For one thing, her resulting nightmares rarely recur these days, thanks to a male presence a personal dream catcher--her subconscious inserted into a paraticularly bad dream years ago. For another, she'll have sweet, funny Hanna around for moral support. But a last-minute emergency sidetracks her friend. And though Kit volunteers to step in for Hanna, Ellie isn't thrilled and only agrees out of desperation.

To make matters even more awkward, her parent can't be talked out of their assumption that the two of them are a couple. It's only when Kit and a frightened Ellie are deep inside the cave looking for the Cherufe that d j vu slams her. She's suddenly sure they know each other way better than she originally thought. In fact, it almost feels as if Kit has helped her through this ordeal before.

But how? Her dream catcher is just a figment isn't he?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Uncial Press
• Release date: Jul 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781601742056

Linda Palmer

Linda Palmer admits it all started when she fell in love with Roy Rogers in the fifties. The family TV was boxy; the picture was black and white. That didn't matter. Roy's cowboy courage won the day and inspired her to  create elaborate scenarios when playing with her sisters and friends outside. Indoors, she read romances in every genre from Sci Fi to Gothic. Linda began writing for pleasure in the third grade, mostly poetry, and has letters from her grade school teachers predicting she'd be an author. Her poems eventually became short stories; her short stories became books. And even though a writing career was never actually a dream, it was something she pursued with intent after winning some writing contests and joining local and national writers' groups. Silhouette Books published Linda's first romance novel in l989 and the next twenty over a ten-year period (writing as Linda Varner, her maiden name). In 1999 she took a ten-year break to take care of her family, but learned that she couldn't not write. She began again in  2009, changing her genre to young adult/new adult paranormal romance. She has now written over a hundred novels and novellas ranging from traditional romance to erotica. Linda was a Romance Writers of America Rita finalist twice and won the 2011 and 2012 EPIC eBook awards in the Young Adult category. She was also a finalist in that category in 2013 and in 2014. Linda has been married to her junior high school sweetheart over fifty years and lives in Arkansas, USA with her family. Ever a hopeless romantic, she still falls for unattainable Hollywood heroes that inspire her to write romances about alpha males and the women who stand up to them. Linda hints that her current crush's name starts with Tom and ends with Hardy. Her website is www.lindavpalmer.com. You can also find her on Facebook: Linda Varner Palmer.

Book preview

philosopher

Prologue

I stood in the park with the sun high overhead and thick green grass beneath my Disney princess flipflops. A Frisbee lay nearby. I scooped it up. Woof, fetch!

Before I could toss it, I was lost in that awful cave again.

Not that I could see anything in the dark. But the park was definitely gone, and I remembered the stink, the chill, and the scrape of creepy things on bare rock. My whole body trembled. My heart began to pound.

Mommy? Daddy?

My echo answered me.

Certain I was about to fall into a deep, dark hole, I stayed glued to the spot and hugged myself. It wouldn't be like before. They'd find me soon. They had to.

Get out of her head now!

I jumped. It was a boy's voice and close by, though I couldn't see him.

Help me! Once again, my echo was all the reply I got. Something slithered across my bare toes. I screeched.

I told you to leave her alone.

Chill out, will ya? I'm just having a little fun.

I mean it, Ben. Stop now.

Why? You got a crush on her? He snorted a laugh. She's still playing Barbies, bro.

I heard a strangled yelp, some curses, and a scuffle that quickly escalated into a fist fight from the sound of it. Dropping to my hands and knees, I shielded my head even though I still couldn't see a thing.

Suddenly everything went quiet. Waves of warmth took away the cold.

He's gone, okay? You're safe now.

Who was that?

Just my big brother, acting like the bully he is. Forget him. I want to show you something.

The heavy darkness receded. I saw that I was alone and crouched in the middle of an arched cavern. Random shafts of sunlight revealed swirled rock formations in rainbow colors. I stood and slowly turned to take it all in.

See there? Caves are just hidden castles.

Did fairies build them?

Yeah, sure, so you shouldn't be afraid.

But why is it so dark?

So you won't see them. Watch this. A rock to my left lit up for a split second, just long enough for me to spot Tinkerbelle sitting on it. So what's your name?

Ellie Sierra Boone.

Hey, Ellie. I'm Topher, your personal dream catcher.

Why can't I see you?

Because I'm hiding. Don't be scared anymore, okay? I'll never be farther than a whisper away. Now we should probably get out of here before we upset the fairies. On the count of three, I want you to wake up. One. Two. Three.

I opened my eyes. I saw familiar things—my TV, my bookshelf, my stuffed unicorn. I did not see my dream catcher. Sighing softly in disappointment, I let my drooping eyelids close.

I stood in the park with the sun high overhead and thick green grass beneath my Disney princess flipflops. A Frisbee lay nearby. I scooped it up. Woof, fetch!

My dog shot after it, his beagle ears flapping in the breeze.

Chapter One

I had a god-awful dream last night. My friend and across-the-hall neighbor Hanna Mills scooped some queso into her mouth with a chip even as she shivered all over.

I was working on the salsa and chips that made Esquina Tijuana a hotspot. "Yeah, well, we did watch Night of the Living Dead and Paranormal Activity right before we went to bed, so..." Once we'd figured out that we both loved scary movies, we'd started bingeing on them every chance we got.

So no bad dreams for you, huh?

Nah. Never for me.

Must be nice. Mine range from showing up at school naked without my homework to being attacked by a zombie in the alley behind Starbucks.

I snorted a laugh. I used to have doozies. The worst were when I was nine and still traumatized about getting lost in a Warsaw cave three years earlier.

Poland, huh? What were your folks looking for?

A basilisk.

Hanna never even blinked at my crazy answer, but then I'd told her all about my adventurous parents. Leigh and Rich Boone hosted a long-lived TV series called Myths and Monsters aka MaM, and basically roamed the planet looking for creatures that didn't exist.

What stopped the nightmares?

I hesitated. Did I really want to go there? Let's call him a dream catcher.

Look. There's Kit. Hanna half stood and waved to our newest neighbor, Kit Macchioni, who'd lived down the hall for two months now.

With a nod, he began making his way through the tables. I pretended to check out the cafe, which was busy for a Wednesday night. What really had my attention was Kit, smokin' hot in jeans, a Henley, and brown Sanuks. Yeah, he had good reason to be so full of himself. Too bad he was so opinionated. We wound up knocking heads every time we got together.

So what's a dream catcher? Hanna asked.

Wishing I'd kept my secret, I quickly worded my reply. Dream catchers originated with the Ojibwa Nation to assist Asibikaashi in taking care of her people. It keeps away bad dreams and thoughts. Yeah, I'd done my homework...years ago.

Huh?

He's a product my subconscious created to calm my fears.

For the hundredth time, I wondered how old Kit was. Hanna guessed he was in his mid twenties, like us. I figured early thirties. Either way, we were both fascinated by him and his crazy lifestyle.

Ah. Sort of like a split personality, but not really? She always had a theory, and, yeah, she was staring at Kit, too. A Canadian transplant, he had charisma and then some, no doubt the reason he entertained a new girl in his apartment every night. Or maybe it was his build—tall and perfectly proportioned. Any girl would feel petite next to him. His thick lashes and dark brown eyes simply added to the allure.

I shrugged slightly. You could call him that, I guess.

Has he aged with you?

I never really thought about it.

Thought about what? Kit slid into our booth next to Hanna.

She and I both inhaled his dreamy cologne and then burst out laughing because we'd caught each other doing it. Girls will be girls, I guess, and he was some kind of hunky, even if neither of us actually wanted to own him.

He glanced from me to her in confusion. Did I miss something?

Somehow Hanna got an answer out. Ellie's cure for nightmares.

Kit quickly gave his order and a dashing smile to the server who'd miraculously appeared and now flirted with him. Which is...?

Something silly. Why had I brought this up? I deliberately ended any dream discussion by dipping another chip into the salsa. I really didn't want to talk about the dream figment that had guarded my sleep the past eighteen years. Both of