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Chapter 1

Holly Tate usually didn't hallucinate with a hang-over. But this morning, facing her, beside her bed, in front of her half-opened, hang-over encrusted eyes, a royally pissed-off self-proclaimed elf straddled a ladder-back chair, his arms folded in front of him on the top of the chair's back.
 

"Edan Fariss, Prince of the Elf Kingdom of De'erjia."
 

Okay, make that a pissed-off Royal Elf. As if.
 

Black eyes as cold as a Yule night regarded her. Winter frost coated his deep baritone. The sound reverberated though Holly as though she were standing in bell tower.
 

He touched his fingertips to his forehead.
 

Holly's attention momentarily focused on the thick mink-colored hair that fell in waves past his shoulders. Why did her hands hold a memory of curling softness sliding through her fingers?
 

How exactly he managed to end the open palm salute with a mocking bow while still straddling the chair Holly wasn't sure. But bow he did, adroitly managing to make her feel like a total doofus.
 

His tone of I-am-dealing-with-a moron-whom-I-must-humor, didn't help her self-esteem.
 

He also had the advantage of being fully dressed while she huddled under her favorite lilac sheets totally naked.
 

Holly still couldn't figure out why she wasn't screaming for the police. She could take him out and get to a phone. She knew S-I-N-G: sternum, instep, nose, groin. She'd seen that Sandra Bullock movie how many times?
 

Maybe she couldn't do anything because she couldn't open her eyes enough to find the phone, much less dial 9-1-1. Every time she cracked open her eyes a trifle wider, a hundred screaming demons used the light to sear pain into her brain.
 

She couldn't form a thought, much less talk on the phone. A multitude of monkeys were using her brain to slam cymbals in an attempt to finish the complete works of Shakespeare in Morse Code before her skull exploded.
 

Actually, much as she hated to admit it, part of her wanted to buy into this over-enthusiastic Lord of Rivendell wanna-be who was dressed entirely too early for the area's Ren Faire. Fawn-colored pants outlined dancer-strong thighs then tucked into calf-high soft boots planted firmly on the floor. It didn't help Holly's concentration one bit that the thong that was supposed to tie the linen shirt together was undone revealing honey colored skin.
 

Her body hummed with energy, feeling the friction of that silken flesh sliding against hers. Her breasts remembered the pleasurable flattening against hard muscle covering strong bones.
 

Holly shook her head, trying to shake away the erotic fantasy. She only succeeded in dislodging some of the monkeys in her skull who screeched and began pounding louder.
 

"And I..." her voice trailed off; she still couldn't believe what he said.
 

"You summoned me."
 

Disappointment flattened Holly's want-to-believe hopes. "I knew we were too loud in the bar."
 

"I beg your pardon?"
 

"You eavesdropped on us. You heard us talking about summoning and either followed me home from the woods or asked someone where I lived. I can't have you arrested for rape because I was obviously stupid and let you into my house. But I want you out of here. Now."
 

A sudden thought seared through Holly. "Please, please tell me I wasn't so drunk that I didn't make you use a condom."
 

Dark brows drew together in puzzlement.
 

Holly covered her face and moaned.
 

"Would 'condom' have been the sheath you insisted I must use as a covering?"
 

Holly peeked through her fingers at his face creased with an annoyed frown that matched his disgusted voice.
 

"Um, yes."
 

"Ridiculous. I told you there was no need. But you insisted. It greatly diminished my pleasure."
 

"Too damn bad," Holly snapped. She wrapped the sheet around herself and struggled to her feet. "Bad enough I was so stupid to lower myself to a bar pick-up, but at least I was coherent enough not to risk a disease or pregnancy."
 

Holly stood with the sheet draped around her and straightened her spine to her full height. Okay, so 5'2" wasn't an imposing stature and even though she logged her food, did her exercises, and religiously went to the weigh-in meetings each week, she just couldn't get off that last stinking twelve pounds. Damn plateau.
 

Nevertheless, despite her apple-shaped body, she still had her dignity. She flipped the loose end of the sheet over her shoulder and kept the image of the proud Greek goddesses in mind. She pushed unruly mounds of hair out of her face and behind her ears, inwardly wincing at the thought of what bed head did to her curls.
 

"Please leave. Now."
 

What's-his-name, oh yeah, Edan - Holly still felt sick that she'd allowed a bar pick-up whose name she couldn't remember into her bed - Edan swung one booted leg behind him, effortlessly set the chair to one side, then looked down at Holly. With her nose level with that lovely hollow at the base of his throat and feeling the ghostly taste and soft texture of it on her lips and tongue, Holly figured she'd better look up before she leaned forward to lick it.
 

"I am not a 'bar pick-up.'"
 

Disdain twisted full lips. Holly had a fleeting memory of those lips smiling at her in the moonlight, closing over her aching nipple, gently pressing themselves down to her body to…
 

A hot shiver leapt through her. Don't think about where those lips, that tongue went.
 

"I am a Prince of De'erjia. And you summoned me."
 

Holly had the wild thought that maybe, just maybe, he really was a prince. He definitely had that chilly, haughty royal look from glittering obsidian eyes down cold. Prince Charming, he wasn't.
 

"Right, right. I summoned you. So, go back to wherever I summoned you from and let me get dressed and try to forget this entire episode."
 

"I have no wish to remain any longer than you desire, but you must release me from the summoning."
 

"Fine, fine." Holly flapped a hand. "Shoo. Go away. I release you from whatever. Just go."
 

Holly's fingertips could still feel the strong corded muscles in his arms that she'd clung to as he thrust deeply into her. He now crossed those arms over the broad chest Holly remembered lying against, remembered seeing gilded in the moonlight.
 

He tapped one booted foot, the soft leather barely audible against her hardwood floor.
 

"That is not how it works. You must use the proper procedures to release the enchantment. The way you did last night to summon."
 

"And how exactly did I so-called 'summon' you last night? 'Here, Prince. Come, Prince'." Holly whistled the multi-tone whistle that had called numerous dogs to her heels since she was a child. The same way she did then, Holly crooned, "Good boy, Prince. You were a very good boy to come."
The sticky, feel of her own hot honey pooled between her legs and reminded her just how good he had been, how she had come herself, bucking wildly against his body. Definitely not a boy.
 

She forced herself to the cold-voiced command, the way she had to when dealing with delightful, rambunctious puppies in her training classes. "Now…Go…Away."
 

Edan touched a warm hand to her forehead. "Remember the moonlight. Remember the forest. The trees."
 

Vaguely, Holly recalled the floating ride from the bar to the forest. She remembered the car and, in the butter yellow morning light, came the realization she and the other girls were damn lucky not to have had an accident as drunk as they'd been from their bar drinks and the adrenaline of exhilarated anticipation.
 

But they'd gotten to the forest, stumbling, cursing, and giggling as they made their way between the trees and through the underbrush to a clearing.
 

She could feel the moonlight drenching her skin as she danced with the other girls, sky-clad as though it were a Beltane evening. Words came from her throat, pulled upward on the moonlight path.
 

The other girls had their own ideals of the perfect immortal being. Holly knew what she wanted.
 

An orthodontic-needy vampire didn't intrigue Holly. Besides, since her too-close brush with death, she gave to the blood banks regularly. Not a chance she'd let some dude suck blood she wanted used for saving lives.
 

Shape-shifters made Holly think of schizophrenics. She'd dated too many men who turned into animals she'd had to fight off to keep out of her bed.

Granted they'd been in human shape, but still. She dealt with dogs on a daily basis. She sure didn't want to deal with some dude shifting into some critter while with her.
 

And a god? Not a chance. Until she became a full-time dog groomer and part-time trainer, she'd had a couple of bosses who thought they were gods. Entirely too high maintenance for her.
 

With the heel of Edan's palm against her forehead and his voice musically whispering "Remember," Holly remembered her song for an Elf in the silver moonlight. An Elf like those from Terry Brook's fantasy sagas who battled with humans using broadswords and bows and arrows, an Elf of Tolkien's that she'd loved years before the movies, although the movies reinforced her desire to be one with an Elf.
 

Holly stepped away from Edan's palm. The loss of his warmth cut as quickly as the ice shards still in her heart.
 

"It didn't work," she said flatly. "I came home with nothing. You followed me home from the forest after you heard me. You are not an Elf."
 

"Did you truly believe the song would work?" Edan's voice vibrated in her frozen heart, threatening to sear the healed scarring open.
 

"Of course not." Holly wrapped her arms around her waist holding her sheet tighter. "It was a joke. A drunken playtime for me and my friends."
 

"And when you made a sincere wish, the summons invoked me."
 

"What sincere wish?"
 

"Think," Edan commanded.
 

Holly ignored the clamoring monkeys still pounding cymbals, closed her eyes to the sunlight making her eyes tear. She thought it was the sunlight. Surely, the tears weren't coming from her heart yet again.
 

"There was a falling star in the dark side of the sky."
 

At Edan's prompting, Holly saw the star again, streaking golden red across the starlight splattered dome above her face.
 

"And you wished," Edan reminded her.
 

Almost unable to hear herself, she whispered, "I wished that the song had worked."
 

Edan lifted the deep brown hair curtaining the sides of his head. Like Holly had done with her frazzled curls, he tucked its heavy weight behind his ears.
 

He lifted Holly's hands and placed them on his ears.
 

He placed his own hands against Holly's breasts.
 

Gently he rubbed her nipples into peaks.
 

Hot desire shot through her and Holly realized Edan's face reflected the same ecstasy she was experiencing as she gently rubbed her fingers over his ears' peaked points.
 

"Edan Fariss, Prince of De'erjia." Edan's voice slid through her ear channels as sweet as crystal chimes. "You summoned me with your sincere wish on the falling star. The song needed sincerity to work." Breathy pants made his voice seem hesitant. "I wish to return to my realm." He slid the sheet off Holly's body, baring it to the fair morning sunlight. His black eyes glittered with need and pleasure while his ears throbbed seductively under Holly's fingertips. "Later."
 

"No." Holly stepped away from his hands and removed her hands from his ears.
 

Edan nearly staggered from the shock of interruption of pleasure. He reached for Holly to continue to pleasure her, for her to pleasure him. Once she was thoroughly satisfied, he'd return to his realm. That she satisfied him was simply a bonus. However, he would insist this time that he not employ the sheath that detracted from the pleasure much as though he were walking through dewdrops wearing his boots.
 

To his annoyance, Holly pushed him away and gathered the bedcovering around her body, once again hiding her sunlit rosy perfection from his view.
 

The absence of the coverings on the bed woke Holly's small dragon bedmate who'd tolerated him when Holly was lost in their joining. Holly, being mortal, obviously could not see and did not know a youngling had appointed itself her protector.
 

On some plane of her existence though, she must be aware of the dragon. Small green porcelain dragons cavorted on her bookshelves. A crystal dragon reflected and shattered the morning sun's rays into a rainbow across the mellow deep brown wooden floor reminiscent of Edan's own abode.
 

Edan watched the dragon mince its way across the rumpled bedclothes and land with a thump on the floor between him and Holly. The dragon, too young to have determined its sex, hissed a clear warning at Edan. Edan went no closer to Holly, well aware that even a young dragon would bite and possibly flare anything it perceived to be a threat to its ward. Instead, he bared his teeth back at it, both an acknowledgement of the dragon's right to its property and a warning that he would defend himself if need be. This was just not the moment he'd choose to take issue.
 

"There's no need to get snitty." Holly's voice detracted him from his eye-to-eye glare battle with the dragon.
 

"I beg your pardon?"
 

Edan shifted his view from the dragon to Holly's green eyes. He'd watched humans periodically throughout his life, had even befriended a few, but he still did not quite grasp the intricacies in the nuances of conversational speak. It didn't help that every culture in each different era had its own versions of words and even versions within version, depending upon the tone of utterance.
 

Now Holly's face had twisted in a scowl, her brows furrowed. Her eyes no longer held the softness of summer grass, but bore the yellow spark of sun blazing in the desert.
 

"Just because I don't want to have sex with you, there's no need to have a snit-fit."
 

The vibrations in Holly's voice enthralled him as tightly as the Sirens of antiquity. His ears wanted to hear her voice as much as his body wanted hers against him, around him. He wanted - no, he realized with a shock, he needed - to hear her voice raised in her songs of pleasure as he entered her body, as his own pleasures spiraled upward to merge with hers until they both crested in the cosmos only available to joined lovers.
 

"Snit-fit? What is 'snit-fit'?"
 

"That ugly pouty feeling you're obviously experiencing because I don't want sex with you right now."
 

"As much as I would enjoy joining with you again, I assure you I do not pout…"
 

"Then why the sneer?"
 

Due to the annoyance underlying Holly's vocal vibrations, Edan managed to hide his smile at Holly's lovely full lips twisting her mouth in mimicry of the traditional teeth baring used in dealing with dragons. He glanced at the chartreuse dragon leaning against her calf, obviously sharing his enjoyment.
Holly might not be consciously aware of her dragon, but her hand reached down to rub the side of her knee. The dragon preened under her stroking hand.
 

"Ah," Edan held up his hands, partially cupped in the traditional sign of promised silence to dragons with his index fingers straight upright and his thumbs pointing outward yet curved to his palms to indicate a dragon's horns, "that was not directed at you nor at the cessation of joining, but at the situation in general. Particularly at the problem that, until you release me, I cannot return to my own realm."
 

With a slight bow to the dragon, Edan retrieved the thong tie for his shirt from under the dragon's rear paw. Ah, there was his hair tie under the pillow on which the dragon had been sleeping.
 

"Do you have to talk like a college English prof? I mean, you've got a cool accent and everything, but, gag, every time you talk I feel like I'm back in college."
 

"'Prof?'"
 

"Short for professor."
 

Edan couldn't decide whether his fascination came from Holly's voice or the way her emotions flickered across her face. He had not blinked, yet her face changed from annoyance to amusement to a softening of being loved as the dragon imparted its contented hum against her calf. Those wonderful ivy-colored eyes of hers enchanted him like no Elf woman had in millennia.
 

Unlike other Elves, he'd never had a mortal lover before. It seemed futile to him to spend such a fleeting time with a lover who would pass to the beyond where he could not follow.
 

But Holly. For the first time, he realized the attraction of a temporary liaison with a mortal lover. Perhaps he'd simply enjoy these moments and not press Holly to release him for a time. Eternity did have its moments of boredom.
 

Plus a human who'd attracted a dragon without invoking it or even realizing she had it was not the average run-of-the-mill human.
 

"Ah. Professor. An instructor at a school of higher learning. As for the formality of my speech, you must…" Edan allowed himself to be distracted by the sunlight on Holly turning the pale purple bed linen translucent. He saw the darkness of her nipples in hard peaks and the shadows of her curls that cushioned her deep secret joys at the apex of her legs.
 

He cleared his throat and forced himself back to his explanation. "You must remember that the language in which we are speaking is not my natal language. I learned the formal version of this language and must be educated in the more casual delivery and words."
 

"Yeah, right."
 

"Of course, some forms of communication require no speech."
 

Once again Holly evaded his overture and the dragon hissed.
 

"I said 'No' and 'No' doesn't mean 'Maybe' in my book. Go away. If we can't send you back to your realm right now, at least go to the kitchen or something. Go get some coffee. There's cereal and bread for toast. I'm going to take a shower and get dressed. Then we'll figure out how to click your heels and send you home."
 

Understanding only a few words of Holly's chatter, Edan allowed himself to be pushed from the room. He heard the click of a lock, knowing if he truly wanted, a pitiful mortal lock would keep him out no more than the closed door kept the dragon from materializing through it and coming to stand at his feet.
 

"Kitchen?" he politely asked the dragon. Not worth his while to annoy a dragon, even a youngling.
 

Behind him, Holly's bedroom door muffled the sound of water falling with the roar of a nearby waterfall or sudden summer shower. Ah, shower. Now Edan understood. Mortals had learned to direct water into falling in a 'shower' to cleanse themselves. When last he'd been around mortals, it took several people carrying buckets of hot water to fill a tub in which to bathe. Excellent. Much easier on everyone this new shower device. He'd have to experience it himself. With Holly.
 

Anticipating Holly's wet skin sliding against his during a join, feeling the individual drops of water hitting his skin while he enjoyed Holly's deep inside fluids embracing him in the most intimate of holding, Edan felt his hardness throb against the tightened cords of his breeches. Yes, he should definitely stay a few days and enjoy Holly's body before he helped her release him from her summoning.
 

Unlike the dragon, he couldn't phase through the doorway off the dining area to which the hallway from Holly's bedroom led. Not seeing a handle, he gave a gentle push and saw the kitchen. Hmm, no woodpile, no bustling servants.
 

But there was the deep, rich smell of brewed coffee. He remembered coffee: the tasty bitterness, the increased zing of his brain synapses as his body ingested the fluid.
 

He crossed the room to where a full glass carafe of coffee waited on a platform beneath brown container. No servants, but the coffee was ready. Hmm, perhaps in addition to the 'shower,' mortals had learned to utilize a minor form of magic to brew coffee without the servants they'd previously used the way House Brownies helped out amongst Elf. Quite a bit of time had passed since Edan had last been in the mortal plane.
 

A sharp bark distracted Edan from his re-acquaintance with coffee.
 

In a metal cage stood a large rat. No, wait, it was not a rat. Rats did not bark or wave their long tails. This animal's tail waved like a curled rope above its body. This animal had a round head with a small, sharp nose, and round, large, dark eyes. With its dark fawn coloring it resembled a minute deer, but the head was as round as an apple and the smell wasn't right for a deer.
 

Edan thought about the scent. A dog? A miniature dog? The only dogs Edan knew were large dogs, used by hunters, but this did smell somewhat like a dog. It did not have the pungent odor of the hunting dogs. However, underneath the slight floral scent, Edan caught the musky whiff of dog glands.
 

The dragon moved to the cage where the dog barked again. The dragon looked at the dog, then at Edan. Then it phased through a door. Through the door's window, Edan could see wooden fencing enclosing a wide grassy area, shaded by two large oaks.
 

The dragon phased back inside the kitchen, went to the dog's cage, gave Edan a command gaze, then phased back outside.
 

Ah, Edan understood. The dragon wished Edan to release the small dog to the outside. Very considerate of the dragon, Edan thought, to think of Holly's dog's comfort in needing to be outside so as not to soil Holly's living area.
 

If he were not here, the dog would have to wait until Holly came into the kitchen. But since he was here…
 

"Open," he commanded the cage. A latch released and the tiny dog bounded out and came to Edan.
 

Remembering the hunters with their dogs, he placed his palm upward to the dog busily sniffing and licking his stag-skin boots. Distracted by his hand, the dog imprinted Edan's scent on its tiny brain then returned to the more interesting odor of his boots.
 

The dragon phased inside again and hissed at the dog, which promptly followed it to the doorway and scratched a metal plate fastened on the wooden door.
 

Edan followed, futilely twisted the round handle, then huffed in disgust at himself. "Unfasten."
 

At his command, a latch above the handle twisted itself. From the middle of the round handle, a small button, as hard as Holly's nipples beneath his tongue, popped against Edan's palm.
 

Ignoring the cat, sunning itself on the porch railing, the dog ran down the cottage's back steps to the furthest portion of the yard from the building.
 

For a moment, Edan thought he looked into one of the gardens that embraced Elf abodes. In addition to the ancient oaks, dark ivy climbed the wooden fence on one side. He took a deep breath of the morning air and looked at the hollyhocks marching along another side of the grassy area and jasmine twining a trellis near the porch. In one corner, Edan saw a small plot containing the gray-green of bay leaf, the deeper green of basil, a rosemary bush, and other herbs thriving in deep, dark soil.
 

The cat landed with a heavy thump on the wooden porch and loudly called to Edan. Obediently, Edan held open the door and bowed the cat into the kitchen, according it the same dignity as the dragon.
 

In the kitchen, Edan began a search for a cup to use to enjoy the pleasure of coffee. The cat called loudly, weaving to and fro in front of a small door beside the cabinets. The dragon phased back into the kitchen and the dog scratched on the back door. Edan opened the door again and the dog joined the cat in front of the small door.
 

"What is it?" Edan snapped the cupboard door closed on plates and bowls and turned to the dragon hissing like a container of boiling water. The dragon phased through the small doorway before which the cat continued its complaint.
 

Stifling his irritation and beginning to miss the House Brownies from his own home or, at the least, the servants from his previous visit to the mortal plane, Edan followed the commanding dragon and opened the door. Beneath the scents of cinnamon and dried thyme, the sweet aroma of sugar, and the cool dusty odor of grains finely ground, Edan smelled an odd scent. Not quite meat. Not quite fish. Not quite vegetable.
 

Yowling with happiness, the cat bumped its head on a clear container that emitted a slightly fishy smell. Fish. Cats. Edan studied the container. He flipped opened the flimsy latch and spied a small cup. Filling the cup, he carried the dry fish-smelling pellets to a small bowl with a drawing of a cat in the bottom, placed on a portion of the cabinet far away from the food preparation area.
 

He returned to replace the cup and spied the dog sitting before yet another container. With a sigh for the further delay of enjoying coffee, Edan filled a cup of meaty smelling pellets and emptied it into a bowl near the dog's metal cage.
 

"They are both eating," Edan told the preening dragon after he'd shut the small door. "May I have coffee now? Or must I perform more morning rituals? Perhaps slay something for you to break your fast?"
 

With a pop, the dragon returned to its own plane for its hunting. While Edan kept careful control not to annoy dragons, he still resented the way they would order one around when they had self-appointed themselves to someone's care. On second thought, Edan realized when he finally found cups for the coffee - several of which sported dragons either painted on them or shaped into part of the cup - it wasn't the orders that annoyed him so much as the indulged amusement the dragons released when one obeyed their commands.
 

Edan still smelled the sweet vanilla of dragon laughter. He hated to be laughed at. To be the center of a joke, even a dragon's idea of a joke, held no dignity.
 

Bossy creatures, dragons were, no matter what shape they took. Just because they'd been around the planes and realms longer even than Elf and others, they thought everyone needed to be at their beck and call. Obviously, they knew what was best for everyone. Or thought they did. He'd had enough of dragons for the morning and finally found a plain green cup, one without dragons on it.
 

Edan lifted the carafe of fragrant coffee and began to fill the cup. His mouth salivated at the realization of tasting coffee again. The door from the dining area opened.
 

Edan forgot about the coffee when Holly's ripe body glided across the floor, then her round rump molded itself into the beeches she wore as she bent to pat the rat-dog. All his senses focused on Holly, Edan over-filled his cup, sending coffee streaming down his hand and across the cabinet.
 

"Ef'ken ho'ser," Edan cursed at the hot splash across his hand.
 

Before the last syllable died on his lips, Holly had taken the coffee cup from him and immersed his hand under a stream of cold water from a metal pipe over a sink.
 

"Are you okay?"
 

The cool water relieved the sting, but his body heated at the touch of Holly's hand. His senses began to spiral out of control at the scent of lemon verbena floating from her damp hair. She had braided the sides to meet at the back of her head in a bright red band, from which her hair curled in waves and ringlets to her shoulders.
 

"Edan? Your hand? Does the burn still hurt?"
 

Burn? Burn? Yes, he burned for her. He needed to take her again. Now.
 

The straps holding up the bib attached to her breeches kept her skin from him. He pushed the straps down her arms and reached for the scrap of blue cloth of the under blouse. Holly knocked his hand away and pulled the straps back up onto her shoulders.
 

"Obviously, your hand doesn't hurt that much." Even sarcasm could not stop the Siren pull of her voice; its sweet cadences slid against Edan's ears and hummed into his being, stringing him tight.
 

"Look, Edan, we had our fun. I acknowledge you're an Elf. Elves and humans have no future together. I can't become Elf. You want to return to your realm, which means you don't want to choose a mortal life. We've had a fun night. Let's just leave it at that."
 

She detached white paper lightly sprinkled with multi-colored flowers from a tube of papers standing on a wooden column and wiped up the spilled coffee, then discarded the paper in a container under the sink. Reaching into the cabinet, she drew out a dragon emblazoned cup and poured coffee into it.
 

Edan watched the hips he'd gripped sway under her pale blue breeches as she walked across the kitchen to stop at the cat's perch and rub between its ears. He could still feel the resilience of her skin under his fingers and the lovely softness that covered her bones and cushioned his body.
 

"And if I choose to remain in this plane for our pleasure?"
 

Edan watched in enchantment while lust, wonder, and delight flittered across Holly's mobile face. Then her round jaw firmed and the sparkle left her peridot eyes, which turned the flat, muddy grey-green of pond scum.
 

An odd sensation began to grow in Edan. What was it? He could only equate the uneasiness to the long, tiring days of winter with its slate grey skies and continual chill.
 

The chill deepened as Holly said, "I want more out of life than just momentary pleasure. I thought I wanted an Elf, but - as great as last night was - um, what I can remember of it - I guess I need a human. A mortal. Someone who will be a companion and a helpmate, besides just great sex."
 

"I can be a companion. A helpmate. I fed the dog and the cat this morning." No need for Holly to know the dragon and the animals instructed him in how to do it.
 

"Oh." Holly looked at the animals' bowls as though suddenly realizing they'd been fed. "Well, thank you. I appreciate that."
 

A bit of the chill eased in Edan.
 

"But there's more to being a life-time companion than feeding the animals."
 

Edan crossed the room and eased the curls on Holly's shoulders through his fingers. "Must you plan a life at this moment? We could simply enjoy the next few moments."
 

Holly stepped back from him. The sadness in her eyes increased the chill within Edan.
 

"I can't," she whispered so quietly that a mortal would not have been able to hear her. "I've merged fantasy and reality. There's an old saying: Be careful what you wish for, you may get it. I wished you here, my fantasy became reality. But it's not really reality. I have to live in reality. I can't live with the fantasy that you might choose to stay with me. I wish you'd go back to your realm before I break my heart wanting you to stay."