The Ivory Road: A Walk in the Sand (11 page)
Read The Ivory Road: A Walk in the Sand Online
Authors: Siobhan Muir
Siobhan Muir lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with her husband, two daughters, and a vegetarian cat she swears is a shape-shifter, though he’s never shifted when she can see him. When not writing, she can be found looking down a microscope at fossil fox teeth, pursuing her other love, paleontology. An avid reader of science fiction/fantasy, her husband gave her a paranormal romance for Christmas one year, and she was hooked for good.
In previous lives, Siobhan has been an actor at the Colorado Renaissance Festival, a field geologist in the Aleutian Islands, and restored inter-planetary imagery at the USGS. She’s hiked to the top of Mount St. Helens and to the bottom of Meteor Crater.
Siobhan writes kick-ass adventure with hot sex for men and women to enjoy. She believes in happily ever after, redemption, and communication, all of which you will find in her paranormal romance stories
.
Connect with Siobhan online at:
http://www.facebook.com/siobhan.muir.35
http://twitter.com/SiobhanMuir
http://siobhanmuir.blogspot.com
http://pinterest.com/siobhanmuir.35
Her Devoted Vampire
(from Evernight Publishing)
Queen Bitch of the Callowwood Pack
(from Siren Publishing)
Not a Dragon’s Standard Virgin
(from Siren Publishing)
Cloudburst Colorado Series
A Hell Hound’s Fire
(from Three Lakes Books)
The Beltane Witch
(from Three Lakes Books)
Christmas I.C.E. Magic
(
Happy Holidays from the Crescent Moon Lodge Anthology
)
Cloudburst Ice Magic
(from Three Lakes Books)
Bad Boys of Beta Squad Series
Bronco’s Rough Ride
(from Three Lakes Books)
The Navy’s Ghost
(from Three Lakes Books)
Rifts Series
Take the Reins
(from Three Lakes Books)
A Centaur’s Solstice Wish
(from Three Lakes Books)
Coming Soon
Second Chance Succubus
The Ivory Road Serial: Outback Dreams
Order of the Dragon
(Warbler Peninsula #1)
Read on for an Excerpt of
The Ivory Road: Outback Dreams
, Book 2 in the Ivory Road Serial, coming soon from Siobhan Muir…
An antique oak desk and a matching chair stood beneath the window facing west, but the light cast an amber rectangle on the large bed beside the entrance door. Iliana’s suitcases had been left in front of a large ornate wardrobe set on the other side of the door next to the northern window. She rose, an irrational hope there might be a doorway back to the other dimension through the wardrobe sparking her motion, and had the wide doors open before she could stop herself.
Don’t be silly. Such doorways don’t exist.
Except she’d had some sort of experience with magical doorways.
Yeah, if it wasn’t all a heatstroke dream.
She knocked on the walls inside the wardrobe just to be safe, but no secret doors opened. She knelt to her suitcases and unpacked her clothes into the wardrobe before undressing for bed.
Her mind strayed to another moment where she’d undressed for Brandon Crowe, her dream lover and companion.
He seemed so real.
Everything had seemed real, but when she found herself at the park entrance next to her jeep, only four days later, she knew she’d imagined it all.
I think.
Iliana groaned as grief threatened to spill out of her eyes.
No. No more crying tonight.
She took a few gulping breaths as someone knocked on her door. She squared her shoulders and opened the door.
“Here you go, love. Hearty chicken and rice with green beans.” Elle gave her a narrow look. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
Iliana forced as smile as she took the tray. “Yes, just exhausted. It’s a long trip to get here and I didn’t sleep much the night before. Teach me to stay up late before a trip.”
Elle chuckled. “Not as young as you used to be, eh?”
Iliana snorted. “No. Apparently I slowed down when I turned thirty.”
“Yeah, that’s the way of it. Just take your time with your meal, and leave the dirties out by the door. I’ll have someone come for them.”
“Thank you. I’ll be more lively tomorrow, I promise.”
“No worries. Have a good rest.” Elle let herself out and Iliana sat down at the desk to enjoy her meal.
The chicken was tender, but she didn’t taste much of it. She let her gaze drift out the window to watch the wranglers bring in the horses for feeding. Looked like a bunch of mountain men driving a herd of brumbies. A group of kangaroos hopped across the field behind them, pausing to watch the humans work for a moment or two.
Don’t see that every day.
Kind of like stepping across a dimensional boundary. It was a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Except, Aussies saw kangaroos all the time and she’d stepped across dimensions twice in one week. At least, she thought she did. She groaned as she shoved her plate away from her, her meal half-eaten.
Ugh, I don’t know what’s real anymore.
She threw herself out of her chair, grabbed the woolen blanket on the back of the rocking chair, and settled herself on the hope chest near the window. She turned her head toward the stormy sky and let the tears fall. No matter what reality claimed, she’d had a helluva experience with Brandon Crowe. Aristotle had been as real to her as Martin the bag boy and the blue-eyed chauffeur.
Iliana sighed and closed her eyes, letting her tears slid down her face. She’d deal with it in the morning. Her sobs quieted after a while and she drifted into a doze. The house creaked around her as the wind picked up outside and she thought she heard voices. Bits of conversation, muffled by distance and doors, hit her awareness.
“Don’t worry, Crowe. I’ll go look for Iliana. I’m sure she didn’t mean to go.” The voice sounded like Aristotle’s smooth tenor.
As if a horse can have human tones.
“Where could she be?” Brandon’s baritone rumbled through her, warming her chest with familiarity and longing.
I’m here, Brandon. I didn’t mean to leave you.
“And you’re sure she took nothing beyond one bag?” Frustration filled Brandon’s voice.
“Yes, master. Walked out alone as plain as day.”
Iliana wanted to jump up and down, wave frantically, or scream to get his attention, but she couldn’t reach him. His face filled her mind’s eyes full of bewilderment and worry.
I’m here, Brandon. I swear.
He swung around, looking into the distance. The world beyond swirled out of her sight, but the tension mantling his shoulders pulled at her chest and made her whimper.
“Iliana!”
She jerked awake and sat up, clutching the woolen blanket to her chest as her heart thundered under her hands. The sun had set, but the sky retained some of the sun’s evening light. Motion outside her window made her turn her head. Another range rover parked in the driveway outside the house and the driver got out to unload someone’s bags.
Iliana almost turned away until the passenger stepped into the light from the porch. She gasped and pressed her hands to the window. “Brandon.”
The man looked up straight at her as if he’d heard her exhalation and her breath froze in her throat. He wore jeans and a button-down shirt under an Aussie duster raincoat, and a wide brimmed hat sat on his head. He appeared clean-shaven and wore his hair cropped close to his head. The driver handed him an umbrella and he was lost from her view.
Iliana sat back and blinked a few times, trying to get her breathing under control.
Not Brandon. That has to be Taggart Crowe, coworker. Costar. Not Brandon.
She turned her gaze and scanned her room, remembering where she sat and why she’d come.
I’m in Australia to make a movie and Brandon Crowe is a figment of my overactive imagination.
As much as she wanted Brandon to be real, she had to deal with what sat in front of her. He existed in her dreams and imagination, but reality was a completely different beast.
She sighed and rose, dumping the blanket on the window seat. She took her time getting undressed and ready for bed. Elle’s voice drifted through the door from the hallway with someone else’s deeper response, but she tuned them out as she switched off the light.
Tomorrow is a new day and a new adventure.
It didn’t bring the usual joy.