Ahead of him on the path, Sim turned in his saddle to look back.
“By the saints!” Sim exclaimed. “What’s happening to you?”
Colin’s arms and legs refused to follow his commands as if he had turned to stone, and he could only watch as the faint green glow turned to a wavering emerald sphere surrounding him.
Like a swarm of angry midges on a late summer day, tiny dots of multicolored lights flashed and dived around his head, careening into one another and bouncing off the walls of the decidedly solid sphere. They moved faster and faster until they were but a blur, their brightly lit tails streaking out behind them.
Sim strained in his direction but Dair held him back with an outstretched arm. His words were barely audible over the buzzing and hissing of the manic lights.
“Stay yer ground. It’s the Fae.”
The Fae!Dair must have the right of it. Nothing of this world could bring about such as he experienced now.
The walls of the sphere shimmered and solidified to the point Colin could no longer see through them. In the next instant, his stomach plummeted to his toes, leaving him weightless as if his body were being tossed through the air into a great, black chasm.
By the Fates, what more could the damned Fae possibly want of him now?
Three
DENVER,COLORADO
FEBRUARY
PRESENTDAY
His hand, large and callused, stroked up her thigh to rest on her hip. She snuggled back against him, as if she could melt into the hard chest and powerful arms that held her. He drew her close, one strong hand slipping down to cover her breast. Her entire body tingled in response to his touch, her senses crying out for more. This was it. He was The One. She’d found her perfect man, her Soulmate.
Abby awoke slowly, keeping her eyes closed against the sun that filtered through her bedroom curtains. Dregs of the dream she’d been having still fogged her mind, not yet giving way to the reality of her waking world.
It had seemed so real she could still feel the heavy warmth of the man who’d held her in her dream. Still feel his arms around her. Still feel his roughened hand covering her breast.
Abby’s eyes flew open and she steeled herself not to move, not to scream.
The large, warm hand covering her breast was no dream.
Oh, damn! Whathadshe done last night?
Scenes of her evening out with the girls flipped through her mind as if she were scanning through a Rolodex. Nothing. There wasn’t even an inkling of any man in her memory.
This couldn’t be happening. She never did anything even remotely like this. Not picking up strange men, and certainly not forgetting that she’d even done it.
Though she wasn’t foolish enough to deny she’d been about as drunk last night as she’d ever been, she still would have sworn she’d come straight home and gone to bed—alone! A quick glance down confirmed that she was wearing the boxers and T-shirt she thought she remembered putting on last night before climbing into bed. Alone.
And yet. . . here he was, his big, warm body cuddled around hers like he belonged here.
How could she remember dressing for bed but not remember climbing in with this man?
She shoved at the panic crawling up her throat, fighting to rationalize her way through this. Men didn’t break into houses just to climb into bed for a good night’s rest. They murdered you, or attacked you, or at the very least robbed you and then left. They didn’t just go to sleep. No, there had to be a logical explanation for the man warming her bed.
Like being totally drunk and dragging some stranger home with her? A stranger she couldn’t even remember meeting?
After a moment of indecision, she carefully slid out from under his hand and rolled to her side to have a look at the mystery man in her bed.
Okay. Time for a new dating rule. From now on Drunk Abby got to pick out all the new men to date.
This one was something to behold with the covers draped low across his hips. From the dark copper hair that brushed against his shoulders, to the shadowed line of his strong jaw, right on down to the solid wall of muscle that masqueraded as a normal man’s chest, this guy was exceptional.
And, unless he was wearing some amazingly low-cut underwear, he was also exceptionally naked.
