Parallel Desire Read Free

have the happily-ever-after that he'd been denied. But with every passing day, another chamber of his heart went dead cold.
    In his future, she was dead, murdered by the man whose body and identity he'd chosen to seize in a murderous act of his own. At least he had been justified, acting in a moment of blind fury and grief. And that grief hadn't stopped dogging him since that day five years earlier, when Hope and their unborn baby daughter, Leisa, had been ripped right out of his arms. And now, after all that he'd once endured, it was happening again: Hope was alive and well in this world, sure, but she might as well be dead. Dead to him.
    Just as dead as the man he'd once been—Scott Dillon.
    Every part of his soul that answered to that name had died long ago, too. All that remained in its place was a shell, a hulking hollow of his former self. Staring down at the cell phone clutched in his hand like a lifeline, he realized that he couldn't possibly stop himself. It was inevitable: He had no choice but to try reaching out to Hope once again.
    Hitting speed dial, he lifted the cell to his ear and held his breath. She answered after six rings, sounding slightly winded, and his nasty streak of jealousy kicked right in. What the hell had she been doing before he called?
    "What's going on … Jake?" She always stumbled over his assumed name; then again, he couldn't imagine that she would want to call him Scott, either.
    For a moment, he let silence grow between them, listening to the sound of her soft inhalations across the line. "I needed to hear your voice," he admitted at last. "That's all."
    He could practically sense her urge to groan aloud. He'd been calling her far too often lately, more frequently with every passing month since he'd last seen her back in December. It was May now, and not one of those months had dampened his love for her—or the ache lodged deep inside his chest.
    "Jake, this has to stop. You know it does." Her voice was gentle, tender. Loving, even.
    "I can't seem to help myself, sweetheart."
    "But you're going to have to, Jakob." Her tone was firm, insistent. "You're killing yourself like this, and we don't want that."
    " We ?" he mimicked distastefully. Yeah, he had no doubt that his calls were bugging the shit out of his younger self.
    " I don't want it, Jake. I want you to start living again, to figure out what you need … here, now. Not keep mourning me forever like you've been. It's time to let go."
    "What's he doing?" Making love to you, kissing you from navel to collarbone? No wonder she sounded so breathless, he thought, muttering a quiet curse.
    "Scott's not here right now," she told him, her tone more clipped than usual.
    He buried his head in one hand, staring at the floor beneath his cowboy boots. The dismal room he'd been calling home lately, with its torn mattress and lopsided dresser, only made his mental state more dark and oppressive.
    "What if I can't stop?" he whispered into the phone. "What if it's not possible?"
    "It's not what I want, Jake. Don't make me start screening your calls." She attempted a laugh, but he knew her too damned well. The jocular note was entirely false. "I love you, Jake, and I always will; but I really just want you to let this go."
    " This … or you?"
    "Our past. I want you to move on."
    "Where am I supposed to move on to? Huh?" He felt tears sting his eyes. He'd been caught in an impossible triangle with his younger self and his one-time wife for five months now, and he wasn't even treading water. He was sinking fast. He guessed that Hope could read that in him; no wonder she was getting more forceful.
    "You should go back to the main base in Wyoming."
    "And if Scott returns? I can't be in the same place as he is, not if I don't want to obliterate us." He laughed mirthlessly. "You of all people know that I can't occupy the same space and time as my younger self. The universe just isn't going to tolerate that kind of displacement."
    "Scott