Warm waves rolled up the sand where Phaedra walked, salty white foam sparkling on the tops of her bare feet. All around her was the scent of lemons and sunshine and sea spray.
The fragrances of home.
Not Italy. Not the mist-shrouded shores of the colony, either.
Atlantis.
The way it had been before the annihilation that swept it under the sea so many years ago.
The Atlantis she never knew, but dreamed of from the time she was a girl living in the new realm Selene had rebuilt for the survivors of the ruined paradise.
Phaedra tipped her head to the indigo-and-lavender predawn sky where the moon and stars danced in the hour between night and daybreak. Her favorite hour.
And she had seen this sky before, not long ago.
Her heart ached with yearning to be back where she belonged.
With Micah.
She didn’t know how long she’d been away from him, but it felt like a lifetime. The anguish in thinking their separation might last forever was more than she could bear.
She took another step and glanced down as her toe lifted a small shell out of the wet sand. It was shimmering white and kissed with iridescent silver, tossed in the surf and weathered into the shape of a tiny heart.
The diminutive thing of beauty broke through her sorrow to bring a smile to her lips. She crouched and picked it up, folding her fingers around it as though it were a precious treasure.
When she stood up again, she realized she was no longer alone.
Micah was walking toward her from the other end of the beach.
Wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, he strode barefoot over the dusky sand, handsome and strong. The sight of him was so comforting she couldn’t hold back her smile. Nor could she hold back her love.
Running to him, she threw herself into his open arms. He lifted her off the ground, and she clung to him, laughing as he held her and spun with her under the starlight.
“Is this a dream?” she asked when he set her back on her feet in the sand. “Are you real?”
He grinned. “Do I feel real?”
She ran her hands over his broad chest and muscled biceps, then she cupped his squared jaw in her palms. “You feel real.” Smiling, she rose and brushed her lips over his. “You taste real.”
He stroked his fingers along the side of her face. “I’ve been looking for you, Phaedra. It feels like I’ve been searching for you all my life. Until now, I thought I’d lost you. Youaremy destiny. So, I came to find you and bring you home. Home to me . . . as my mate.”
“But the Dreamscape—”
“I don’t care if we’re soul bonded or not. I don’t care if fate disagrees with the fact that we’re together. All I know is that I love you. I want you at my side, in my heart, in my blood. I want you, Phaedra . . . forever.”
Hope burst inside her and spilled off her lips in a happy sob. “I want that, too. I love you as deeply as any soul bond could bind me to you. Deeper than that. I love you with every fiber of my being, Micah.”
His lavender eyes began to glow with the light from a thousand amber sparks. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
Holding her face in his hands, he lowered his head and kissed her. The feel of his mouth on hers was better than any dream. Better than any joy she’d ever known before him.
“I’m yours, Micah,” she whispered against his lips.
He moaned in pure, masculine agreement. “And I’m yours.”
Phaedra slowly opened her eyes. She wasn’t kissing Micah anymore. The beach was gone. Above her head it was no longer the starlit, predawn sky, but a white clinical ceiling fitted with a pale fluorescent light.
She abruptly sat up—only to realize Micah was seated at her bedside, his head resting on his folded arms at the edge of the narrow mattress. He lifted his head and gave her a drowsy, sexy smile that sent spirals of heat licking through her.
