But the dreams were softer here, and yet clearer. Towering trees and bubbling water, thrashing waves and the last light of the day.

A handsome man with tawny eyes who stood on a windswept cliff and smiled at her.

She sighed, wishing she’d been clever and polished, wished she’d known a way to flirt lightly, speak casually so that he might have looked at her with interest rather than annoyance and amusement.

Which was ridiculous, she reminded herself, as Liam Donovan wasn’t wasting his time thinking of her at all. So it was pointless to think of him.

Following habit, she tidied up, switching off lights as she moved upstairs. There she indulged herself by filling the wonderfully deep claw-foot tub with hot water and fragrant bubbles, settling into it with a sigh, a book and a second glass of wine.

She immediately decided this was a luxury she hadn’t allowed herself nearly often enough.

“That’s going to change.” She slid back, moaning with pleasure. “So many things are going to change. I just have to think of them all.”

When the water turned tepid, she climbed out to change into the cozy flannel pajamas she’d bought. Another indulgence was to light the bedroom fire, then crawl under the cloud-light duvet beneath the canopy and snuggle into her book.

Within ten minutes, she was asleep, with her reading glasses sliding down her nose, the lights on and the last of her wine going warm in her glass.

She dreamed of a sleek black wolf who padded silently into her room, watching her out of curious gold eyes as she slept. It seemed he spoke to her—his mind to her mind.

I wasn’t looking for you. I wasn’t waiting for you. I don’t want what you’re bringing me. Go back to your safe world, Rowan Murray. Mine isn’t for you.

She couldn’t answer but to think, I only want time. I’m only looking for time.

He came close to the bed, so that her hand nearly brushed his head. If you take it here, it may trap us both. Is that a risk you’re willing to take?

Oh, she wanted to touch, to feel, and with a sigh slid her hand over the warm fur, let her fingers dive into it. It’s time I took one.

Under her hand, wolf became man. His breath fluttered over her face as he leaned close, so close. “If I kissed you now, Rowan, what might happen?”

Her body seemed to shimmer with that sudden raw need. She moaned with it, arched, reached out.

Liam only laid a finger on her lips. “Sleep,” he told her, and slipped the glasses off, laid them on the table beside her. He switched off the light, closed his hand into a fist as the urge to touch her, to really touch her, lanced through him.