“Tell me about Ohio in the early 1800s.” She smiled when she said it and he realized she was relaxed, that she was asking a question about his past, and perhaps for the first time could ask without worrying that he might think she knew too much about the dimensional worlds.

“Raw. Ohio was raw back then.” He talked of the family farm that he grew up on, the siblings birthed and buried because that was the way life was two hundred years ago, of the brother who lost his arm in an accident, his mother and father, that Rachel was the only one of his family to ascend.

She shared as well, the brighter spots of her life, of trips to San Diego in the summer to visit an aunt and of once making her mother smile because she’d baked a cake for her birthday.

She reached over and put a hand on his nearest bicep, the one pressed into the jammed-up pillow. She stroked lightly and it was a comfort. Without thinking, he covered her fingers with his hand and pressed them. He met her gaze and she smiled.

“This is nice,” she said, but she yawned. And after a few minutes her eyelids started to fall.

Yes, this was nice, and his heart began to hurt all over again.

Damn, what was he supposed to do with this woman?

Chapter Six

Elise dreamed she was ready to fly. She stood at the northernmost edge of White Lake. She wore a soft, light-blue flight suit with a halter to allow for wings, and soft leather shoes. Gideon always said that his wing-locks were sensitive, but the closer she came to mounting her wings, as the apertures all down her back in a V began to weep, her entire body developed a low, exciting hum that reminded her of sex.

Her back thickened, both muscles and all the surrounding tissue. She gasped and arched her back. The next second, her wings flew through her wing-locks, rushing from her back, forming through a sudden complex combination of feathers and a mesh superstructure.

She cried out. She felt light and at ease with the world.

As though she had been making use of her wings forever, she drew them up and up until the tips of each span almost touched in the center above her. Then she drew them back down in a powerful sweeping motion, which of course propelled her into the air. She lifted her face into the wind and soared, flying high over White Lake.

Her wings moved separately from her arms so that with each forward thrust she could simply hold her arms in front of her and embrace the flow of air and savor.

The sun was on her back, a beautiful spring morning in the desert. She looked down at the dark, blue-green water below and saw her shadow, then the shadows of several other flyers.

She glanced left and right. Spread over several hundred yards or so were eight female ascenders, four on each side of her, all facing forward, powering their wings in unison as though they formed a flight team.

She turned her attention to what was in front of her now. Other female ascenders preceded her, a row of five, a row of three, then one and she recognized the lead woman … Alison, the woman Warrior Kerrick had taken as hisbreh, or mate, when she went through her rite of ascension. Gideon had told her the whole story of their relationship just a couple of months ago.

Elise knew she was meant to be here, destined to be here. But why? What was her purpose in being part of this team, of flying over White Lake on Second Earth, of flying behind Alison?

“Hey.”

Elise heard Gideon’s voice, but it was far, far away.

In slow stages, the dream began to fade.

“Elise.”

She awoke and opened her eyes. She had the sense that she hadn’t been sleeping very long. She was still facing Gideon but he was propped up on his elbow and looking down at her. Concern etched his dark blue eyes.

“What is it?”

“You were making a funny sound in your throat, like you were trying to speak. I was worried.”

“I was dreaming of White Lake and of Alison and many other women. We were all flying, but in a coordinated pattern as though we were meant to accomplish something. What do you think it means?”

He shook his head. “I have no idea. Maybe one day you can talk it over with Alison. Scuttlebutt says she dreamed of White Lake during her ascension as well. But just so you know, we put a lot of stock in dreams on Second.”

She sighed and nodded.

“So you’re okay?”

“Yes.” She smiled. “It was a good dream. I liked being there. I felt as though I belonged. Oh, and I mounted my wings and flew. I love it when that happens.”

He nodded as though that seemed perfectly reasonable.

The dream had helped her to understand more of the world she had entered, more of Gideon’s world, who he was. “Gideon, I want you to know that I loved all those times we were together at the Blood and Bite.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, it was pretty great.” She heard a soft growl leave his throat and her body responded. He’d done that a lot over the past two years, growled like a jungle animal, and every time the soft rumbles had worked her up so fast. She’d loved it.

Though the room was dark, she could still see him. It was … romantic.

“I can see you,” she said.

“Preternatural vision. Nice, isn’t it?”

“Is it always like this, for all ascenders?”

“Nope. Again, you’re special and I guess in this way, so am I. Hey, what’s with the strawberries?” But he chuckled again.

She sighed and her body started experiencing that loose, liquid feeling like she was melting. “Mmmm. Toffee.” As she had earlier, before she fell asleep, she put her hand on his bicep. “Don’t you think you’d be much more comfortable under the covers?”

He cleared his voice. “Uh. Maybe I should go.”

He rose up as if to leave, but with that movement, her fingers slid down his arm and she caught him on the inside of his elbow and tugged. “The hell you should.”

He met her gaze. “You’ve been through a lot, Elise. I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

At that she laughed outright. “You gotta be kidding me.”

“I’m trying to be a gentleman here.”

“Well, screw that. You’re what I need and I need youright now.Besides, there was something I always wanted to do with you at the Blood and Bite, but I couldn’t because if I’d suggested it then you would have known you’d failed to put me in thrall.”

She watched his eyes flare and a delicious wave of toffee rolled over her and tightened all the muscles of her lower abdomen until she was squirming against the sheets. She loved how he smelled because it wasn’t just toffee, it was him, a very male scent that rippled through her nose and sent vibrations into her brain.

This was the way it had always been, proximity, touch, a little whiff of him, and her body became a bed of coals.

“What did you always want to do?” he asked, his voice low. Another soft growl left his throat.

She licked her lips. “How about I just show you?”

He didn’t exactly speak, it was kind of a groan, growl, and soft grunt combined.

She had him.

“Roll onto your stomach, Gideon.”

“My stomach?”

“Well, strip first. That would be helpful, then after that just do what I tell you to do. Got it?”

He didn’t wait to be ordered again, but sat up and while still on the bed, he pulled his T-shirt up and over his head, which of course gave her a fine view of all that lean, muscled warrior physique. She cooed and ran a hand up his chest. She wanted to keep touching him, but he moved backward, slid off the bed and shucked his jeans. Oh, God, he’d gone commando … again. She licked her lips because he was fully aroused. She was finding it hard to breathe.

“On the bed, warrior.”

But his gaze fell to her chest. “Not yet. Not until you’re naked as well.”

She grinned. This was so much fun. She stood up on the bed, but stayed out of reach as she pulled her chemise over her head and dropped it on the floor behind her. She took her time easing out of her baggy sleeping shorts.

His gaze never once met her eyes, instead they flickered over various parts of her body: her breasts; her navel, which he liked to tongue; her hips; and the thatch of hair between her legs.

When he reached for her, she put out a hand and backed up just a little making sure she didn’t ruin the show by falling off the bed. “No-o-o, warrior. This is my ascension and I get to call the shots. On your stomach. Now.”

He grinned this time, then obediently pulled the covers back and stretched out beside her … oh, yeah … face down. Oh, God, what a body.

“Now spread your legs wide so I can get where I need to be for this.”

He obliged her. “Sweet Jesus, Elise, what are you planning to do?”

“Not gonna tell you.” She smiled and climbed over his right leg so that she could plant her knees between his thighs. “Are you comfortable?”

“Oh … yeah.”

She realized that trust was so not an issue between them. He was fully exposed to her, vulnerable and beautifully on display, the hard mounds of his ass and his lean, muscled warrior body from tight muscular legs to a back that angled into broad, powerful shoulders. She stretched out her right hand and ran two fingers from the top of his spine down to the base. Even this touch caused his body to undulate. She smiled and her body responded in turn, tingling low and growing damp.

The air was all toffee and very male.

Anticipation was a good thing.

She leaned over him and smoothed her hands over his back, starting at the spine and spreading wide so that at last she felt what she wanted most to explore.

“Oh, God, my wing-locks.”

“Yes.”

“Remember, they’re sensitive.”

“Oh … yes. I experienced them in my dream.” A shudder of pleasure ran straight through her, all the way to her toes.

She smiled again. She leaned down, stretched out over him, and got close, skin to skin. She licked along the very top wing-lock, to the right, a long ridge just above his shoulder blade.

He cried out, then said, “I’m serious, Elise.Sensitive. If you keep that up, I’ll come fast.”