“I thought we might enjoy our rendezvous at the pagoda after all. This afternoon?”
She nodded joyfully. “Oh, but what will I wear?”
He chuckled and hugged her against him. “You’ll find something. You are perfection in anything you wear.”
Smiling at that, she snuggled against his side and closed her eyes. Her last thought as she drifted away was that there was nothing more perfect than that moment.
A wailing unlike anything she had ever heard filled her ears. Even through her closed eyes, she could see a dull red light pulsating. Pain, so much pain.
Voices, shouts. She could feel the press of bodies surrounding her. The air was thick with their presence, so many words one over another.
Hero fought to get away from them, struggled to get back to her haven at Ian’s side, but the nightmare had her firmly ensnared in its talons.
The howling grew louder. The red light grew brighter, moved closer, until Hero was certain she could feel its heat against her skin, and still the voices jumbled in her head.
Ian, her mind cried.Help me. Don’t let me go!
A whimper escaped her.Please, no.
“Come on, lass!” a voice shouted. “Bloody hell. Fight!”
Hero woke with a gasp, sitting upright in the bed and feeling the chill of the early morning air waft across the fine sheen of sweat that covered her body. Pressing a hand to her heart, she took deep, gasping breaths, desperately trying to soothe the ache in her chest.
“Hero? What is it?”
Still, her heart was racing. Her head ached so badly she couldn’t suppress the whimper that escaped her. Immediately, comforting arms encircled her. Ian drew her against him, tucked her head beneath his chin, and rocked her gently.
He murmured soothing nothings in her ear, and after a few moments she felt the pain fade as the lingering tendrils of the nightmare receded. Exhaling a shuddering sigh, she melted into his embrace.
“Bad dream?” he asked, and she nodded into his chest. “Do you want to talk about it?”
She shook her head in the negative. The terror was gone and she had no desire to revive it.
“I hope it wasn’t a vision of our honeymoon.”
A slight smile tilted her lips at his teasing, and she lifted her head to look up at him. Her breath caught in a way that had nothing to do with her nightmares. Awash in the light of early dawn, he was more gorgeous than she’d ever seen him. His dark hair was mussed. Locks normally combed away from his face curled and feathered against forehead and cheeks. His cheeks were darkened by the overnight growth of his beard. His dimples deepened and his grin flashed in stark contrast. Beneath his thick, straight brows, his brown eyes caught the light and glowed like amber as he smiled down at her and reached out to tuck a stray tendril of hair behind her ear. “What is it?”
Her heart pounded once again, but for a much more pleasurable reason than her recent dream. Pushing the nightmare away, she smiled back, already feeling the rush of longing coursing through her, and her head buzzed pleasantly. “You look very handsome when you first wake.”
His brows rose at her tone, and Hero knew he could hear her growing desire in the husky tones. Brown eyes darkened to black and he skimmed the back of his knuckles down her cheek.
The bleakness in Hero’s eyes faded away as she studied him. The melding of blues and greens softened and blended, easing the crystallization of her terror. The anxiety that inundated him since she cried out eased with her innocently provocative words, only to be replaced by the sensual stir of arousal.
“Yer a lovely sight as well. Tousled. Warm. Flushed.” Still holding her gaze firmly, Ian moved his hand down her throat and brushed his knuckles over her breast. Her breath caught as his fingers slipped over her nipple and his hand enclosed her breast.
He could feel the fluttering within as her chest rapidly rose and fell, and he inhaled deeply, savoring the swell of his answering need as it flowed through him. “Yer heart is racing,” he murmured. “Because of the dream?”
She shook her head mutely and his smile widened. “Because of me?”
A blush was his only answer, but Ian didn’t need words to know what she wanted. What he wanted. Pushing aside the covers, he lifted Hero against him and kissed her, brushing his lips over hers. “This is a pleasurable way to spend a morning, but I hope you don’t make me late for my wedding. My fiancée would not approve, I think.”
She slipped her arms around his back and over his buttocks, and he groaned against the flood of want that overwhelmed the gentle swell. “I think she’ll forgive you,” Hero whispered in his ear before she caught the lobe between her teeth. “Love me, Ian.”
“Thoroughly,” he whispered, astounded that his passions could rise so rapidly. The previous night the urge to devour her, to possess her, had almost overwhelmed him. He had feared that his unleashed passions would frighten her, but Hero had met him wholeheartedly, bringing them to a thundering climax. It had been incredible but over too quickly.
Now, with the urgency gone, he would savor. He would make love as he never had before and, bending to kiss her tenderly, he proceeded to show her how.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
