She shook her head and laughed at the foolishness of it all. It was well past time to forget her bizarre encounter with the strange lady from The Magic Boutique.

Pushing herself deeper into her cushiony chair, she opened her book and proceeded to read the first line. “What makes you think you’re not the original owner, Bella?” The book fell from her fingers. Her heart pounded like thunder in her ears and her mouth went suddenly dry.

She squeezed her eyes shut then blinked them back into focus. She scooped the book up, flipped to the beginning, and concentrated on reading the passage again. This time the line read as it should. Obviously the old lady had shaken her up more than she cared to admit and now her mind was playing tricks on her.

She diligently tried to shrug off the gypsy-woman’s warning and force her focus back on her story. A short while later her eyes grew heavy and soon fatigue overtook her. She felt herself slip away.

“Caira.”

The voice was soft, hypnotizing, pulling her awake. She sensed a movement in the shadows. A gasp caught in her throat as the air around her seemed to stir with energy.

“Caira. Wake up,” he commanded in a gentle voice.

As she took in the hazy vision before her, she had difficulty remembering how to breathe. Although he moved in the deep shadows of the room, she instinctively knew it was him.

Zarek.

Her pulse jumped in her throat. Excitement coiled in her veins.

She drew a breath and said calmly, “I’m awake.” Of course she wasn’t awake. She’d obviously fallen asleep while reading. She wasn’t about to admit that to him, or herself, and risk the possibility of spoiling a perfectly good, erotic dream.

His voice was like a rough caress. “Caira come to me.” He held his arms out to her.

She reacted to the intensity she heard in his deep sexy tone. Her body buzzed to life as she rose from her recliner and crossed the room, slipping into the dark shadows with him. There appeared to be a highly charged, glowing blue aura of energy radiating from his magnificent, muscular body as he stood over her.

He wrapped his thick arms around her small waist and crushed her body to his. She sucked in air, raised her gaze to his, and gripped his shirt. His steel gray eyes blazed with heat and hunger. The way he looked at her with such need and desire made her insides quiver.

He slid his fingers through her hair and brought her lips close to his. A smile touched his mouth as his eyes moved over her features with tender warmth, appraising her.

As he breathed his words over her face, she could taste the sweetness of his mouth. “I have waited centuries to hold you like this.” The heat in his voice licked over her skin. Her body liquefied under his smoldering gaze, forcing her to lock her knees to avoid collapsing.

Sexual energy leapt between them as she arched forward and pressed her breasts into his firm chest. He wedged her legs open with his knee, her pussy pressed hard against his thigh. She began trembling, with need, urgency, and utter excitement. His thick cock curved her stomach inward as she leaned into him.

“I want you, Caira.”

“Then take me.” Nestling closer, she gyrated her hips and rubbed her pelvis against his leg. “I am ready,” she added. A surge of heat rushed through her veins when his cock throbbed in response to her bold touch and words. “I’ve always been ready, Zarek.”

She’d dreamt of him before, of course. But it had never been like this. It had never felt so real, so vivid. Her senses seemed to be amplified. Everything about her was heightened, even the hairs on the back of her neck were alert. She didn’t need to touch him to know how his hard muscles would feel beneath her fingers. Nor did she need to draw a breath to bask in his arousing, heady male scent. Instinctively she knew his skin would taste sweet and salty, and at the first delicious touch of her tongue to his naked flesh, she’d lose herself in him, body and soul.

Her hands shook as she put her palms flat on his chest. She could feel his blood surging though his veins. She could feel his every breath, his every heartbeat as though it were her own.

As though they were connected.

As though they were one.

Those thoughts vanished when he lowered his head. His eyes fixed upon her parted lips as the pad of his thumb brushed her cheeks. The artist who painted his portrait should have been commended for capturing the sharp angles of his face to perfection. He was so beautiful, so flawless. He slanted his head sideways. It was then that she noticed a deep, purple scar on his face. Every sculpted angle and plane of his face was burned into her mind forever, yet she’d never seen this mark before. It didn’t exist in the portrait but gave off a hazy, violet glow in her dream. She reached out and traced the pattern of it. Her mouth formed a question.

His brow puckered into a frown as he grabbed her hand and anchored it to her side. The smile faded from his face. “There will be time for questions later. Right now I must taste you and hold you as I have so desperately longed to do.” The depth of urgency and emotion in his voice made her shudder.

Caira knew it was her dream, hers to control, but she could no more control her dream world than she could control the man in it, a man who gazed so deep into her eyes she thought she’d burn from the inside out.

All thoughts were forgotten when his hands stole up her silky night shirt, his rough fingertips heating her body to near boiling. His fingers climbed higher until he skimmed the underside of her breasts. Heat and energy transferred from his fingertips to her puckered nipples. They tightened with arousal while an explosive wave of pressure began building deep inside her. Sexual energy whipped through the air around them.

“I am going to make love to you, Caira.” She trembled as his rich voice rolled over her. “As your true love I can bring your mind and body to a higher level of passion that will leave us both sated and drained.”

She nodded, unable to find her voice. She closed her eyes, wanting nothing more than to listen to the sound of his hypnotic voice. It seeped into her skin, flooding her with desire.

“Are you prepared for me?” His voice was dark, seductive.

“Always.” He swallowed her response as his mouth closed over hers. She moaned and drew his tongue inside to mate with hers. She could feel herself burning up in his strong arms.

Pressure.

So much pressure.

Deep in her body.

Fighting for release before she melted all over him.

His hand slid over her breasts, kneading them, caressing her nipples with deft manipulation. His other hand began a slow descent, over her flat stomach, until he dipped a finger below the band on her pants. She pushed her pelvis against him, wanting to rub her entire body over his. She ripped at his shirt. Buttons popped and fell to the floor. His chest was magnificent. She stroked him, unable to keep her hands from his naked bronzed flesh. With much greed, she shoved at his shirt until it rolled off his shoulders.

“You are so very responsive, Caira.” He brushed his tongue over her bottom lip and drew it into his mouth, tasting her. With seemingly practiced, controlled patience, he worked the buttons on her shirt. He eased it open until the curves of her breasts were exposed.

“Beautiful.”

His words, his voice, and his touch made her insides shudder. Her entire body responded as though this dream was real. As though his hands were actually stroking her flesh with dark urgency, his mouth possessing hers with hunger. God, she never wanted to wake up. Ever. Nothing in real life could ever feel so good.

“Your lips are even softer than I remember.” The low growl of longing was deep in his throat. Barely audible. Had she not been so in tune with his every breath, his every emotion, she would have missed it.

He shifted his position, dipped his head, and drew her breast into his mouth for a taste. His warm, wet tongue glided over her trembling flesh, raising her passion to new heights just like he promised. Her body shook and her heart pounded as his mouth moved over her skin. His touch was erotic, intimate. God, she felt so safe, so cherished in his tender arms. She now knew why no other man appealed to her. She was made for Zarek.

He growled and sucked harder. “Yesssss,” she hissed. Throwing her head back, she drove her fingers through his long hair. “Oh God, that feels incredible.”

“And it tastes incredible, Bella, just as I remembered,” he added, curling his tongue around her engorged nipple.

Bella!

Deep in her arousal-fogged mind she fought to make sense out of it. Why would he call her Bella? Had the old woman’s stories seeped into her subconscious, rattling her more than she realized? Caira knew at that moment, as she floated on some level between sleep and awake, her brain was too foggy to rationalize anything. She pushed it far from her mind.

All thoughts were forgotten as his tongue continued its gentle assault. Biting, nipping, and ravishing her with hunger. Her whole world was pulsing, throbbing. She’d never been so desperate, so needy.

She could feel an orgasm pulling at her as he lapped at her breasts with demanding strokes. He dipped a finger between her moist folds and stroked from front to back, his finger bathing in her syrupy arousal.

“Zarek,” she cried out breathlessly as pleasure forked through her. The room began spinning as a rainbow of colors danced before her eyes.

“You are nice and wet for me.” He swirled his finger through her slick heat. “I must taste your sweet juices, Caira.”

“Please…” she begged, needing him to answer the urgent demands of her body. There was no time for him to taste her. She needed him to bring her over the edge now. Before she burned up inside. “I need to come.” She could hear the impatience, the greed in her voice.