Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
SELENE
My composure steadied somewhat as I stared into his eyes, viewing him in a whole new light. The idea that this was all a dream settled into place, and everything became easier when it wasn’t real.
“Are you saying you’re someone who could charm a woman like that and make her fall for you?”
His eyes held mine, giving away nothing. “Wouldn’t that frighten you?”
The sense of him drew me in again, and I shivered. “No.”
He seemed genuinely surprised by my answer. “No?”
“My heart isn’t available for stealing,” I said lightly. “It’s not that it’s well guarded. There’s just not enough left to take.”
Something slowly shifted in his expression, gone too quickly to name.
The air between us grew warmer still, creating goosebumps along my arms and down the back of my neck.
The moonlight intensified, and the clearing grew brighter than it should have been.
The yearning to touch him again came stronger this time.
Nothing was stopping me, I realized. Nothing in this space mattered.
My hand trembled slightly as I placed it on his chest. The steady beat beneath my palm startled me. He felt solid.
Yet he didn’t stop me as the man from the pub would have.
I swallowed as my body warmed with the desire to test him further.
I raised my gaze and met his eyes, drowning in the need that mirrored my own. Though, of course, that’s what I’d find. Here, he was exactly what I needed him to be.
My pulse thundered as I struggled to draw a breath.
Did I dare?
He held my gaze for a long, delicious moment. Then his attention slid to my mouth. He wanted this too. As a dream man should.
His look became an invitation I couldn’t resist.
I rose onto my toes and slid my fingers behind his neck, drawing him down. For a fraction of a second, nothing happened.
Then his mouth met mine.
The contact stole the air from my lungs. I stilled, registering the warmth of his lips. The way he felt steady. And real.
I gasped softly against his mouth. He didn’t move. It was as if he was waiting, giving me the space to decide what this was.
So I did.
I inched closer and brushed my lips against his again, slower this time, testing him. When I parted mine, just slightly, the change in him was immediate.
He pressed a hand on my back, drawing me in until there was no space left between us. I leaned into his chest, reveling in the hardness of him, losing myself in the lines of what was him and what was me, until it no longer mattered.
My dream man deepened the kiss, his mouth possessing mine. Something in my chest tightened in response, and the stillness he’d held shattered. Heat pooled inside me as we explored each other, and I couldn’t get enough.
He lifted his other hand, threading his fingers into my hair, angling my head as his mouth moved more firmly against mine. The world slipped at the edges. The mist, the water, the sound of it all faded until there was only the heat of him and the way my body responded.
I lost all sense of who had started it. I only knew I didn’t want it to stop.
He broke away, abandoning my mouth to trail kisses across my skin. His breath was uneven as he drew my hair aside, his hand warm at the back of my neck. His mouth followed the line of my jaw, then lower, each touch slower than the last, as if he were forcing himself to take his time.
For a moment, I had the distinct sensation of falling. I tightened my arms around him, holding on without thinking, as if the ground beneath me had shifted. I pressed my fingers into his back, anchoring myself to the only solid thing left.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, Maeve’s words came back to me. Is this what she meant? Was he stealing my heart?
I didn’t pull away. If anything, I leaned into it.
He was the one to stop us.
His eyes remained closed as the moment unraveled between us. He dropped his forehead to mine, our breaths ragged. I placed my hand on his chest and found his heart thundering like mine. It was all so surreal.
We stayed that way, suspended for several moments, and I was afraid to move. Afraid if I did, I’d wake myself and this would all disappear.
After a moment, he drew back just enough to look at me.
He studied my face intently, the way the pub man had stared at me across the room all evening. But my dream man’s gaze was stripped of the careful distance.
He lifted a finger and drew a wayward strand of hair away from my face.
Then he dropped his gaze lower. To my mouth.
He drew his thumb across my lower lip, slow and deliberate, and his expression held something that flickered at the edges before he controlled it.
Something that looked almost like grief.
“A stór,” he said softly.
The words meant nothing to me, and I searched his gaze for the meaning.
“Go home.” His voice had changed. Still low, but firmer now. “You don’t understand what you’ve stepped into.”
Before I could respond, he took me gently by the shoulders and turned me, guiding me toward the path. At the edge of the trees, he gave me a light push, as if to send me on my way.
I turned back immediately, but there was no one there.
The grove remained. The waterfall still spilled into the pool, silver and quiet. The mist still moved at the edges, and the moon still hung low and generous overhead. The air, however, had cooled considerably.
I closed my eyes for several moments, trying to steady myself. The sensation of his hands and his mouth, the heat of him, still clung to my skin.
I didn’t know what was real and what was imagined. Panic crept over me as I called out, wondering if he’d come back. “Hello?”
“Selene?”
Clara’s voice cut through the quiet, too sharp, too close.
I swiveled away from the grove and strode down the pathway toward my friends. They appeared seconds later. Maeve glanced past me. “You said you found the clearing in the grove? Show us.”
Clara’s expression held the same enthusiasm as she nodded. “Let’s go.”
I blinked, so confused. “It’s this way,” I said slowly and turned back to show them.
I led the way, though the path felt…off somehow.
Still, I hoped they could help me make sense of what had happened. Was it possible I’d really had that encounter? He’d seemed real. And yet…hadn’t. I touched my lips as I trudged along, carefully stepping over large roots in the path.
When we’d gone much farther than we should have, I stopped. I turned to my friends and buried my face in my hands out of frustration. “I don’t know what is happening here.”
I lifted my head, hoping they’d believe me. “We should have found it already. I didn’t leave the path. I know I didn’t. I don’t… I don’t understand.”
Clara narrowed her eyes in a wary look, but Maeve only chuckled. “Ah, I see what happened. The forest will do that. Make you think you’ve seen things you haven’t.”
I swallowed, still wondering if I was dreaming. “Even people?”
Maeve widened her eyes in interest. “Did you come across the Moonlight Man, then?”
I hesitated and then smiled as if I’d been teasing them. “No.”
Clara complained she was tired and suggested we try again another night. I agreed, and Maeve conceded. I allowed my friends to go first this time, with me bringing up the rear.
I glanced back several times and found nothing but a grove of fairy trees. I should have told them the truth, but I couldn’t. There was no way I’d ever admit to having that kind of wild fantasy.
Because that’s what it had to be. I didn’t care what the lore said. People didn’t come upon random strangers in the forest and share that kind of heated encounter. Maybe I’d drunk too much. Or it was the exhaustion from traveling. Or both.
That seemed more likely.
I quickened my steps to catch up with my friends. “Sorry, I was lost for so long. I hope I didn’t worry you.”
Clara lifted a hand. “It was but a minute or two. No need to apologize.”
I stumbled on a root, but caught myself before falling. A blip then. Same as had happened before, only this time, I’d combined my dreams with that stranger.
At least that made sense. Or close enough.