Dreams of Seduction by N. J. Walters

She grinned as she remembered her attempt at scones. The blackened biscuits had been hard even with the crust cut away and nowhere near edible. Not even the gulls would eat them and they’d eat anything. She’d been forced to toss the two she’d set out for the birds into the garbage.
    Her grandmother had plenty of old cookbooks in the kitchen, along with her handwritten notebook.
    Maybe she’d have another go at it. Only this time she’d set the timer on the oven.
    A car horn blew and Maggie waved before she even recognized the driver. This was Burnt Cove.
    Chances were she knew who it was. Sure enough, as the truck rolled past her, Amos Peters shot her a toothless grin. The man was ninety if he was a day and continued to live independently in his cottage just beyond hers.
    Traffic was getting thicker the closer she got to the center of town. Not that it ever got anywhere near the traffic in California. A traffic jam in Burnt Cove was four cars reaching a four-way stop at the same time. Grinning, Maggie dodged across the road and headed straight for Clancy’s Bakery. What she needed was a cup of coffee and something sinfully delicious to go with it.

    Jed saw her coming in the distance. Her red jacket was a splash of color matching the cloak of the maple trees as she walked up the side of the road. It should have clashed with her hair, but somehow it looked right on Maggie. Her red hair was braided, the long, thick tail falling over her shoulder and almost touching her waist. She was wearing jeans and sneakers and looked young and carefree as she crossed the road.
    He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She continued to haunt his dreams night after night. Her ample breasts filling his hands, her lush curves pressed against his hard body. Her long, shapely legs twined around his hips as he pumped into her, both of them sweaty as he pushed them higher and higher until they came.
    His cock stirred, pressing against the zipper of his jeans. “Down boy,” he muttered. He hadn’t purposely traveled outside his body since that first night, but that hadn’t stopped Maggie from invading his dreams.
    He’d done a lot of thinking about those dreams and he was almost certain that she was sharing them with him. There was a sense of connection, of actuality, that was too real to be denied.
    Somehow, someway, they were sharing these hot, erotic nighttime escapades. Jed awoke after each, mentally and physically spent, the evidence of the encounter spewed across his stomach. The loss of control should have been embarrassing, but because it was Maggie in the dreams, it just felt right.
    It would feel even better when it happened in reality. If it happened.
    He watched her go into Clancy’s and decided he needed a coffee to start his day. He planned to spend the day working on several new paintings he had in various stages of completion, but first he needed to make his first real connection to Maggie.
    His long legs ate up the sidewalk as he zeroed in on his destination. He said hello and nodded to several folks who passed him, but he didn’t stop. His entire being was focused on reaching Maggie.

    Maggie ordered a large French roast coffee and a blueberry muffin. Clancy himself was manning the counter this morning and he chatted about the weather and the upcoming Halloween celebration as he served her. Clancy was six-foot-six and built like a linebacker, an unlikely candidate to run a bakery. But the man had a golden touch in the kitchen. She paid for her breakfast and carried it to one of the small café tables.
    She dumped her purse on the empty chair and settled into her seat by the window. Rubbing her hands together, she picked up her knife and cut her muffin in half before slathering creamy butter over the golden brown sides. It melted immediately over the warm muffin. This was going to be good. She reached for her coffee to have that all-important first sip of the day.
    “Morning, Clancy.”
    Maggie froze with her cup an inch