Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 24

Mac awoke with a jerk; she'd been dreaming again. Jon's arms tightened around her, but she could still hear the deep even breathing that signaled he was still asleep. Carefully, she eased out of his arms and the bed and padded softly to the bathroom. Closing the door quietly, she flipped on the light switch. Blinded briefly by the quick change from darkness, she blinked several times at her reflection in the mirror.

She giggled softly at the woman in the mirror. Standing there in nothing but the waistband of her sweat pants, the strings still tangled in a mess of knots. While she stood there, she replayed the events of the dream in her mind. Since she was a small child, she had dreamed of other people, strangers really, from different times. Dreams of the past. That's what she'd always called them, but she wasn't sure who the people were or why she dreamed of them. But, tonight the dream had been slightly different. She had dreamed about this particular woman before, but tonight the woman and the others in the dream had been speaking Italian. The strange thing was that Mac had understood every word they had spoken, just as if they had been speaking English. The only words of Italian that Mac knew were the few endearments Jon had used, well the ones he'd translated for her, anyway.

"Mac? Are you okay," she heard Jon's voice from the other side of the door.

"Yeah," she answered, "I'll be right out."

She put the puzzle of her dream away for another time, used the bathroom and washed her hands, splashing a bit of cold water on her face before she left the room.

"Come back to bed, moglie mia," Jon's voice met her when she walked back into the bedroom.

"I'm sorry that I woke you," she told him softly, as she climbed back into bed with him.

"Don't worry about it," he said sleepily, as he pulled her back into his arms. He quickly fell back to sleep with his chin resting on the top of her head.


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The next morning, Mac awoke to Jon's voice in the other room, apparently he was on the phone. She could tell by the few words she could make out that it was a business call. She stretched lazily and let out a big yawn.

Good morning, tesoro mia, Jon's voice sounded in her head.

He had linked their minds when he woke up, but he'd went about his morning business calls maintaining the link. He'd sensed her beginning to wake up and had waited until she was fully awake to talk to her.

Do you have to be so cheerful? she responded.

No, I guess I could be a morning grump too, he joked.

Aren't you in the middle of a business call? she asked.

Yeah, but they can wait a sec while I say good morning to my beautiful life mate, he told her.

G'morning, she answered. I don't suppose you could back off and give me a minute alone, huh?

I guess I could, he sounded disappointed, we'll talk later.

Mac felt him go. Did he think everything was okay between them just because he'd told her he loved her and convinced her to feed last night? Apparently so. But, Mac still wasn't sure she was comfortable with just how much her life was about to change. She had realized last night after he'd left her locked in her room just how big a change this was going to cause. She was going to have to quit her job that she loved, because she couldn't go off chasing a story and be gone from Jon, since she needed his blood to survive. Also, Mac realized that close friendships would be hard from now on, because after a few years people would wonder why she didn't age, but she supposed that Jon could teach her how to mask that the way he did. What had he called it? Oh, yeah. A glamour. She'd have to remember to ask him to show her how to do that.