“So,” V’Aidan said as she thumped a cantaloupe, “what are you listening for?”

She held it up to his ear and thumped. “This one is too ripe.” Then she held up another one and let him hear the difference. “This one isn’t.”

She put the good cantaloupe in the cart, then turned around to catch him thumping bananas. Erin quickly grabbed them away from him. “We don’t thump those.”

“Why?”

“It’ll bruise them.”

“Oh.” He looked around, then paused. “What about those?”

She turned to see the grapes. “Only thump if you want to turn them into wine.”

He pulled her into his arms. “What about if I thump you?”

She smiled. “I’d probably make all kinds of interesting noises.”

He grinned at that and gave her a quick, scorching kiss that sent heat throughout her entire body.

As they walked through the store, Erin couldn’t help noticing the stares V’Aidan collected. She became aware again of just how different the two of them were. He was tall, sexy, and gorgeous and she was plain and simple.

She’d only had a few boyfriends and most of them had been as average-looking as she was. But V’Aidan…

He deserved a beautiful woman.

“Hey?” he asked as they reached the dairy section. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.”

“You look sad.”

“Just tired.”

She saw the concern in his celestial eyes. “How tired?”

It was then she caught his meaning. “They’ll be after us again when we sleep, won’t they?”

He looked away and she had her answer.

“If they don’t kill him, I will.” M’Ordant’s words echoed in her head.

“I won’t let them have you,” she said, taking V’Aidan’s arm. “There has to be some way we can fight them.”

He draped his arm over her shoulders and held her close. “You would fight for me?”

“Yes.”

“Then I am the luckiest being in the universe.”

V’Aidan gave her a tight squeeze as he inhaled the scent of her hair. And he wondered morbidly if she would feel that way if she knew the truth of his past.

If she ever knew the truth of him…

He wanted to tell her. But he didn’t dare.

V’Aidan clenched his teeth. She would never know, any more than he would let her be harmed because of him. He would fight this battle, all right. Fight until either he won or they killed him. But he would do it the way he had lived since the dawn of time.

Alone.

He and Erin finished shopping and were putting their items in the car when V’Aidan heard a woman shrieking in the dark parking lot.

He saw a man running away.

“Oh, no,” Erin breathed. “He stole her purse.”

Without thinking, V’Aidan took off after the man. He caught up to him at the alley beside the grocery store.

The man turned on him with a gun and aimed it straight at his heart. “Don’t mess with me, man. I’m your worst friggin’ nightmare.”

V’Aidan couldn’t help laughing at his words. “You have no idea.”

The man fired the gun. V’Aidan ignored the bullet that entered his chest without pain or blood. He took the purse from the man, then caught the thief by his throat and held him against the wall.

It was then V’Aidan felt himself slipping. He felt his true form welling up. His hand went from that of a human to –

“V’Aidan?”

Erin’s voice brought him back. He recovered himself and stared at the thief, who was now ghostly pale from having witnessed the changes on V’Aidan’s face.

“The next time you want to steal from someone, think of me waiting for you every time you close your eyes.”

The thief quietly wet himself.

Erin ran up behind him with a security officer in tow. V’Aidan released the thief into the officer’s custody then handed him the woman’s purse.

“Are you all right?” Erin asked, her eyes falling to the hole in V’Aidan’s shirt where the bullet had entered his flesh. Mortal weapons couldn’t harm an immortal being.

V’Aidan nodded. His powers were returning.

“Take me home, Erin,” he said, his heart tugging at the word. He’d never had a home before. Never really understood the meaning of the word and what it entailed.

Until now.

He followed her to her car and they drove back to her apartment in silence.

In fact, they spoke very little as Erin made their dinner and they ate it.

Afterward, he helped her clean up and watched her closely. What would it be like to stay here, like this? To have this woman by his side every night? If he had such, he would never make her hurt. Never let her want. He would do anything in his power to shelter and comfort her.

But all the wishing in the world couldn’t make it real.

It was only a dream…

Once they were finished cleaning up their dinner, they lay entwined on the couch while she watched television.

V’Aidan watched her. He held her cradled to his chest, feeling her breath fall on his skin.

Love me, Erin.

The words hung in his heart, unspoken as he ran his hand through her hair. He had no right to ask for her love. Had no right to ask anything of her.

“You are a scourge, boy. Despicable. Unsightly and cold. No one will ever welcome something like you. It’s why you have to creep into their dreams. It’s the only way anyone will ever have anything to do with you.”

All too well he knew the truth of Hypnos’s words.

Over the centuries, he had hardened his heart to the world. To everything. He’d shut himself off completely until the night when a pair of fear-filled brown eyes had looked up at him with kindness and hope.

Now, he just wanted a way to live out his life staring into those eyes. Feeling her tiny hands on his skin.

Erin listened to V’Aidan’s heart beating under her cheek. He smelled of warm sandalwood and spice. She ran her hand over where the thief had shot him, still amazed that no scar or wound remained. It was an awful reminder of the fact that her entire day with V’Aidan had been an illusion.

He wasn’t born of her world. And no doubt tonight they would be parted for eternity.

The thought broke her heart. She couldn’t stand the thought of not seeing him again.

If this was her last night with him, then she wanted it to last.

Crawling up his body, she met his gaze and saw the hunger in the crystal silver gaze. She cupped his cheek in her hand and kissed him.

V’Aidan growled at the taste of her as his body roared to life. He tore the shirt from her as he rolled to press her down into the couch.

Erin heard the cotton fabric tear but didn’t care. She wanted him with the same desperation. She pulled his shirt over his head and feasted on the sight of his bare chest. Only scars remained of the wounds he’d suffered, and he’d told her that, by tomorrow, if he survived tonight, even those would be gone.

He removed their clothes so fast that she could barely follow his moves. He leaned her up against the back of the sofa arm and drove himself deep into her.

They moaned in unison.

She wished she could keep him inside her forever. She never wanted another day without him in it.

V’Aidan made love to her feverishly, savoring every deep stroke. He caressed her breasts as he kissed her, felt her from the top of his head all the way to his toes.

Her warm body surrounded his, fit him to perfection. And the feel of her hands on his back…

It was bliss. Pure bliss. He closed his eyes and delighted in the feel of her breasts on his chest, her tongue on his throat. Oh, yes, he wanted to stay here with her.

Forever.

Erin ran her hand through his long hair, her fingers clenched as pleasure ripped through her, each thrust deeper and harder than the last. She wrapped her legs around his waist, bucking her hips in time to him. Drawing him into her body even deeper. She clung to him as she came, crying out his name.

He kissed her lips and quickened his pace until he released himself inside her.

Erin lay still, feeling his essence fill her. She didn’t want to move, didn’t want to feel him leave her.

“I love you, V’Aidan,” she said before she could stop herself.

V’Aidan froze at the words. Pulling back, he stared at her in disbelief. “What?”

Her cheeks turned pink as her brown gaze shredded what was left of his heart. “I love you.”

“You can’t. It’s not possible.”

“Possible or not, I do.”

V’Aidan gathered her into his arms and held on to her desperately. He shook from the force of what he felt for her. So powerful, so overwhelming.

Sated to a depth he’d never known before, he pulled her on top of him and listened to her even breaths as her sleep took her.

He wanted to wake her up but knew better. Unlike him, she had to have her sleep.

“Erin,” he whispered softly as he stroked her hair. “I promise you, I’ll always be what you think I am.”

Resigned to the inevitable, he closed his eyes and waited for M’Ordant and Krysti’Ana to come for them.

6

V’Aidan woke up to a piercing screech that felt as if it would shatter his eardrums.

He groaned at the awful sound as Erin stirred on top of him.

“What is that?” he asked.

“My alarm clock,” she said, rising from him to rush to her bedroom.

It wasn’t until her return that they both realized what had happened.

Nothing.

“Did you have any dreams?” he asked.

She shook her head. “You?”

“No,” he said, smiling.

“Do you think…”

His smile faded. “No. They can find us. Sooner or later, they will.”

Erin closed her eyes and cursed the thought of it. “Maybe they won’t bother.” She saw the doubt in V’Aidan’s eyes.