Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

Billy had been asleep for several hours when he slipped into a dream that could best be described as erotic. He'd been having these dreams off and on for the past few months, but he'd never seen the woman's face. Always the same woman too. He didn't know how he could tell when her face was always obscured, but somehow, he knew.

She was back again, but this time, they were in a garden. In the garden he'd been in tonight, as a matter of fact, behind Amalie's house. And when she turned to face him, surrounded by the light of a dozen fireflies, he wasn't really that surprised to see she had Amalie's lovely elfin face. From the determined, pointy little chin and wide blue eyes to the slight pointiness of her ears and the pale creaminess of her skin.

She was gorgeous. And she was—at least for tonight—the woman of his dreams. He walked beside her in the seemingly endless garden with fireflies dancing around them. They didn't talk, but when she paused to sniff at a night-blooming flower, he took her hand in his. He couldn't resist. He had to touch her in some way. He had to have that connection with this woman who stirred his blood, and had done so for the past few months.

The sensible part of his brain knew this was just a dream and that, in all likelihood, his dream woman had taken on Amalie's face simply because he'd met her today and thought she was beautiful. Just a coincidence. Right?

He touched her hand in the dream, and electric sparkles danced up his arm and through his body. Magic.

She looked up at him and smiled.

"I waited so long for you to get here," she whispered. It was Amalie's voice, but with a warmth in it he hadn't heard today.

They'd talked as they'd worked, but not about intimate things. Not about feelings and hopes…and desires. They'd just talked about the gear and how to install it. The threat the Venifucus posed and the events of the past week on Long Island. They hadn't touched on any truly personal subjects. But he felt as if he knew her somewhere down deep, where particulars didn't really matter—only the soul and the heart mattered on that level.

And on that level, he felt he knew her. And he really liked her. Hell, he more than liked her. He knew down deep that he could very well fall in love with this woman. The question was, could she fall in love with him and be his forever mate?

His brother had fallen for a magical woman, and they showed every sign of having the sort of lifelong bond that all shifters craved. Billy just wasn't so sure he could form that kind of bond with a woman who had seemed so stand-offish at first. Would she even want a man in her life on that forever sort of basis? Or was she more of a solo flyer who might dally with a man from time to time during her life, but mostly go it alone?

He just didn't know her well enough to understand that facet of her personality yet. But they had time. Maybe. He'd have to convince her to let him stick around and get to know her better. He'd planned to stay nearby even if she tossed him out tomorrow. He couldn't shirk his duty to protect her just because she didn't want him around. He'd promised her grandmother, and the Admiral. He'd made Amalie's safety his duty, and Billy was never one to abandon something he'd taken on as a sacred trust.

"I'm sorry I made you wait," he replied to her in the dream. "I'm here now."

She smiled again. "I'm glad." Then, she stepped closer and raised her lips to his. She was smaller than him, but she stood on tiptoe, and in the magical space of the dream, it was simple for her to reach his height and match their lips together.

The kiss started out innocent and gentle but soon turned sultry and even tempestuous. In the foggy surroundings of the dream, they were suddenly horizontal, laying on a cloud, both of them wearing only their skin. Touching everywhere.

The kiss turned molten as he sought entrance to her willing body. Time stood still, even as it sped into oblivion and they raced together toward a pinnacle of pleasure he'd only ever experienced in these forbidden dreams. This time, the woman had a face. This time, he called Amalie's name as he shuddered in ecstasy. This time, she whispered his name in his ear, even as her body shuddered and shook around him.

The sound of his name echoed as he jolted awake. Sweet Mother of All! That dream had been something else. Hotter than any of the previous dreams, he was hard, and his blood was raging. He might have come in the dream, but not in the real world, and he hurt.

Shaking his head, he threw off the sheets and turned to sit on the side of the bed. Dropping his head into his hands, he cursed under his breath. There was nothing for it. He had to get up and do something to relieve this stress.

He'd go on a prowl around the grounds. His inner lion was itching to get out, and letting the cat take over for a little while was probably a good idea at this moment. The man was almost out of control. At this point, the cat had better sense than his human half.

Billy opened the door and shifted into his lion, slinking outside into the dark yard to patrol the perimeter. It was either that or knock on Amalie's door and beg for her to let him make love to her.

Like that was going to happen tonight. Maybe it would in a few days, after he'd had a chance to seduce her with his questionable charms. But not tonight. Resigning himself, he loped into the darkness on silent paws.

Amalie dreamed of Billy again. This time, she knew his name, and when they made love, she whispered it to him. That seemed to break the spell, and she was released from the dream. Her body was thrumming with unrequited desire, but there was little she could do about that.

Getting out of bed, she padded down to the kitchen to get a glass of cold water. That helped a little. When she got back to her bedroom, she went to the window as if drawn there, to look at the shed at the other end of the garden. The door was open, and she frowned.

A moment later, she saw a large, dark shape slinking out of the bushes at the edges of the property. It paused, and as her eyes adjusted, she realized she was looking at the darkly golden fur of a…lion. Billy was a lion shifter. Sweet Mother of All.

The golden glow of his eyes shifted to her, and their gazes met and held for a timeless moment. She gasped, and the spell was broken. He moved forward, toward her window, but she retreated, running scared from the wildness of him.

She bolted for her bed and slipped under the covers. She wasn't sure how she was going to sleep after that startling encounter, but somehow, between one thought and the next, she drifted back to sleep. She didn't dream again that night, which was both a relief and oddly disappointing.

The next morning, Amalie woke with the sun and felt refreshed. She decided to just not think about that sexy hot dream she'd had. She'd never get through breakfast with Billy—the least she could do was feed the man before she sent him on his way—if she thought about that dream.

She got ready for the day, perhaps taking a bit longer than usual with her appearance for no particular reason, she was sure, then went down to the kitchen. She was about to start preparing breakfast when she noticed a slip of paper tucked against the window of the back door. Amalie disengaged the security system, opened the door and grabbed the note. It was from Billy. He'd gone for supplies and was bringing back breakfast.

"How thoughtful," she said as she closed and locked the door and turned back to the kitchen to put away the frying pan she'd just taken out.

She was debating whether or not to make a pot of coffee or tea when she heard Billy's truck return, pulling into her driveway and shutting off at the far end near the garage, mostly out of sight from the road. That's where it had been parked last night too.

A few minutes later, she saw him walking through the gate with a few bags in his hands. He set them down on the patio table as she walked out to join him.

"You saw my note, I hope," he said by way of greeting as he started unpacking containers of food from two big bags. "I didn't know what you liked, so I asked the local diner guy to just give us two big breakfasts with a variety of things. Take what you like, and I'll eat the rest. I woke up famished this morning."

"That's another side effect of that particular ceremony," she told him. "Though you didn't sleep as long as I expected. If it were me, I'd still be in dreamland."

Now why had she referenced dreams? Silly girl. He looked up at her, twisting his head to the side to meet her gaze, speculation in his eyes.

"I had a doozy of a dream last night, and when I woke from that, I had to get up and go out on a prowl. I hope I didn't spook you too badly," he said in a gentle tone of voice that was also somehow challenging.

"No," she replied, shaking her head. "You didn't scare me. Surprised me, maybe. I mean, I knew you were a cat, but I never expected…"

"The king of the jungle?" His earthy chuckle warmed her as he returned to taking things out of the bags he'd brought.

"I've never seen a lion in real life. Just on TV. I didn't realize you'd be so huge in your shifted form," she admitted.

"Generally, shifters are larger than their animal counterparts in our shifted forms. Not always, but usually. But me and my brothers are a bit larger than the average lion shifter anyway. Good genes," he said, a smug expression on his face that soon disintegrated into amusement. "That's what Rich always says, anyway. Personally, I think one of our long-ago ancestors was Samoan. It would explain a lot."

"Don't you know for sure?" she asked before thinking better of her prying question.

"Not really." He shrugged, but she could tell she'd hit a nerve. "Our parents died when we were still pretty young, and we don't know a lot about their families. Especially our mother's."

"Oh, I thought shifters had like Packs or Clans or something," she said, feeling kind of clumsy. She hadn't meant to bring up such a personal subject first thing in the morning.

"The Kinkaids have a Clan, but we're not part of it. Our parents were renegades. Our dad was the Kinkaid, of course, but the Clan didn't really approve of our mother, so Mom and Dad went their own way. When they died, me and my brothers decided we didn't need the Clan either. We didn't know any of them, so why would we turn to them when we needed help? All we really needed was each other."

"That sounds kind of lonely, but obviously you not only survived, but thrived. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry."

He shrugged as if it didn't matter, but she could tell from the tension in his strong shoulders that it did. She wanted to touch him. To knead the stress out of those muscles and help him through the tough emotions she'd unwittingly stirred up.

But she couldn't. They didn't have that kind of relationship. They'd only met yesterday. And made love in her dreams for the past few months, but that wasn't real.

Was it?

He'd said he'd dreamed last night, and there'd been a strange look in his eyes when he'd told her. Had he dreamed of her the way she'd dreamed of him?

No. It couldn't be. That was ridiculous. This man could have—and probably had—any woman he wanted. He wouldn't be as affected by her as she was by him. A quiet spinster living on her own didn't see a lot of action of the male variety. Whereas a hunk like him probably never lacked for female companions.

Yeah, she was probably the only one dreaming. She was the pathetic loser in this grouping.

"Our mom came from a magical family but from all accounts, a shady one. That was why the Clan objected to her. They weren't sure she or her family could be trusted to be on the right side of things. But my father knew his mate. Mom didn't have an evil bone in her body, despite the fact that some of her relatives might've tread a bit too close to the line at times. At least from the little Dad told us when we were kids. Mom never talked about her family, and we didn't ask. We knew it made her sad to not have them in her life anymore, and we learned early on to just focus on our little family. With the five of us, we didn't need anyone else." He sighed heavily as he finished setting out the feast he'd brought, then stood back, looking down at the packed table. "Then, there were just three of us, and we carried on as we had before. We didn't need anyone. Only…" He shook his head, his long hair whipping around slighting in frustration. "Only we got mixed up with a couple of Clan Kinkaids on Long Island recently, and now, I'm not so sure what's going to happen. They're not the ogres we expected, and I actually kind of like them."

She paused to see if he was going to say more, then ventured gently. "Maybe it's time to bury the hatchet and make a new start. You are not your parents, and whatever problem they had with their families… You may not have the same. If you've met some of the Clan members and liked them, then maybe they're not all bad."

"Yeah, you might be right," he said after a long moment. He looked up to meet her gaze. "Sorry. I didn't mean to dump all that on you. You're surprisingly easy to talk to." He seemed confused by that idea then shrugged again.

She could watch his strong shoulders move all day. Was she drooling? No. Thank goodness.

She had to get a grip. Just because he was the sexiest, most fascinating man she'd ever met did not mean she was going to jump his bones in reality, like she had in her dreams. Right? Real life wasn't as simple as the dreamworld. There were consequences for actions in the real world that she'd have to take into account.

Dammit.