“Colin.”
“You scare me a little bit,” she admitted softly.
At this pronouncement, he stopped moving toward her.
“This is a far better ending than the one we had before,” she offered, her voice somewhat breathless and definitely rushed because if she didn’t say it, she wouldn’t. Instead she’d do something insane, like invite him inside then offer him a drink then, maybe, totally lose it and rip his clothes off. “I think we should stick with this,” she finished.
Mallory came loping out of the darkness and instead of immediately entering the house after his business was concluded, as he usually did, he sat next to Colin and leaned his big body against Colin’s legs.
Sibyl stared in shock at her dog.
“Mallory, get inside,” she commanded and Mallory leaned forward, licked her hand and then decided that, even though he liked Colin Morgan, he liked his sleep better. So he ambled into the house and disappeared.
Sibyl looked back at Colin. “Thank you again, you’ve been very nice tonight.”
Colin didn’t respond.
There was light but it was dim and she couldn’t see his eyes all that well. What she did see was his hand coming up and, before she could react, he traced a finger in a whisper-soft caress from her temple, along her cheek, to the corner of her lip. Then, all the while Colin watching his finger’s movements, it dipped and slowly traced the bottom edge of her lower lip ending on her chin. The whole manoeuvre, in real time, probably lasted five seconds, but it felt like it took a blissful, beautiful, dreamy eternity and that was why Sibyl stood silent and unmoving as he did it.
It was not a goodnight kiss but, somehow, seemed far more intimate.
Then, his eyes coming back to hers, he murmured, “Goodnight, Sibyl.”
And with that, he left.
Chapter Seven
Bargain
Sibyl woke up the next day, her limbs hopelessly entangled with the covers of her bed.
She saw distractedly that Mallory stood beside her bed, looking curiously at her, not in his usual loopy manner, but as if he was standing at attention, awaiting her command.
She was sweating, she was panting and she remembered every vivid detail of the dream she’d just had.
“I’m going insane,” she told the dog and he melted out of his unusual stance and moved toward her, his tail wagging, his body shaking, his cold nose snuffling at her hand.
She lay back on the bed and absently pet her dog.
Last night, after Colin left, she hadn’t allowed herself to think about him, the night or his desire to see her again (and hers to see him). She had definitely not thought about his light caress. She figured it was simply bad luck that she’d run into him. She had managed to live a year in England without ever seeing him and she hoped she could continue with her life and never see him again (or, at least, this was what she told herself).
Unfortunately, that did not include seeing him in her dreams.
The real man was clearly unbalanced, or perhaps not, but she was not going to allow herself to discover the truth.
The dream man was anything but.
Last night, in her dream though, he had been blond. His hair the exact colour of hers, golden and thick. He’d been wearing some sort of tunic, hose and high, soft leather boots with a gold, intricately linked chain settled low on his narrow waist. She had been wearing a gown of soft, pale blue wool, she also had a belt made of delicate silver filigree inlaid with roughly cut aquamarines tied low on her waist.
Sibyl blamed her father for her dream’s medieval wardrobe.
They were riding a midnight black steed, the horse’s muscled power beneath her, her lover’s same power emanating into her back as he held her close to his chest atop the horse. One of his arms was wrapped protectively and possessively about her waist.
This moment was a stolen one, her lover wending his expert way through a heavy wooded area until he found the place for which he was looking. They were not supposed to be out there alone together some foreign part of her knew and felt the illicit excitement of it.
He alighted from the horse then dragged her off, sliding her tantalisingly down the length of his hard body.
Then he bent his head to kiss her and it was sweet and wild and beautiful and absolutely everything a kiss should be.