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Connor kneould happen next She would come doashed and dressed, an outward show of her inward decision to wipe the slate clean She would want to start over and pretend as if they’d just met and never fucked He knew because it was how he handled si had worked for centuries as an excuse not to spend the night

He wished Stacey had given them more tiht she ht Better to end this as a quick, unplanned rut than to risk a messy situation

By

nature

the

Elite

avoided

emotional

attachments Very few of the Warriors partnered and those who did rarely stayed that way

Detachment was required to succeed and for those Guardians ere unfortunate enough to fall in love with an Elite, it was a lonely and unequal ro as much love as they received In addition, for Connor it was simply bred into him to keep his focus on his mission

"The Bruces live and die by the sword" He repeated the familiar refrain aloud There was no other way

This hy he was especially suited to protecting sensual Dreamers It was a symbiotic relationship He could don a fantasy and connect to another individual, fulfilling their drea his own need for affection A few hours of being the love of soh to ease the chill of a house and bed he shared with no one else

Blowing out his breath, Connor straightened and moved into the kitchen where he found the drawer that Lyssa and Aidan used to hold their take-out menus They ate at Peony’s Chinese Restaurant so often they had an account there, a bit of information Connor knew because he’d visited with Aidan in the dream state

When a Guardian connected with a slipstream, all of the Drea stored in Aidan’s brain was now stored in Connor’s It had been a brutal acclimation at first, the rush of centuries of recollections--both Aidan’s and the thousands of Dreamers Aidan had protected Connor had learned to concentrate on the brightest htest moments in Aidan’s life were those he spent with Lyssa, which had forced Connor to experience what it felt like to be deeply in love with a woman For centuries he had been the recipient of such overwhel affection in fantasies When he shared Aidan’s dreaive that love back

Connor pulled out thewarlanced down to find JB circling his bare feet It was then he realized that he was still naked It was a state he was quite comfortable hen he was home alone

However, he was fairly certain it would ranite countertop and decided to borrow so of Aidan’s to wear

He reached the top of the stairs just as the upper floor guest bathrooulfed in a cloud of fragrant steam Her hair rapped up in a white turban and her curvy body was hidden beneath atowel She lifted her head and saw him--all of him Her eyes dropped down to where the cat rolled shamelessly around his feet and then rose up to his eyes, stopping at all the places that heated and hardened under her perusal

For his part, Connor enjoyed the vieith equal pleasure Her satiny skin was flushed pink from both the shower and the therapeutic effects of sexual release Her thickly lashed green eyes were bright as jade, her full lips reddened, her breasts accentuated by the knotting of the towel between theive her the space she wanted was tra beneath him

He had no one in this plane he could talk to No one hom to share the details of his hellacious day, no Dreaize with He had no idea if he would ever go hoet all of that She had given hi else to focus on--her

Just as he was focused on her now

He gestured to theto wear"

She nodded "I’ll be down in just a minute"

"Okay," he said la

Turning, Stacey walked to the door of the guestrooentle, unaffected sway of her perfect ass Stacey turned the knob and stepped a short way into the roo," she tossed over her shoulder before disappearing fro door

"I know," heafter he heard the click of the latch

Chapter 6

The coast on a bal was no exception, but Aidan was too focused on hisof the full moon or the music of the ocean tide With silent steps, he rounded the corner of thetoward Rooroups of twenty-so booze in their hands, and older couples strolling toward the beach

He wasn’t worried about the nuoes" seemed to be the rule around here Shit, he was fairly certain he could ask someone to help hi his key while in a co situation would work