Free Heat of the Night by Sylvia Day Page B

Dreamers. It was a symbiotic relationship. He could don a fantasy and connect to another individual, fulfilling their dream while satisfying his own need for affection. A few hours of being the love of someone's life was enough 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 Dreamer's memories became an open book. Everything 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 moments in order to save his own sanity.
    Of course, the brightest 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 overwhelming affection in fantasies. When he shared Aidan's dreams, he discovered what it was like to give that love back.
    Connor pulled out the menu he wanted and closed the drawer. Something warm and soft rubbed against his ankles, and he glanced 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 with when he was home alone. However, he was fairly certain it would make Stacey anxious, so he dropped the menu on the granite countertop and decided to borrow something of Aidan's to wear.
    He reached the top of the stairs just as the upper floor guest bathroom door opened. Stacey emerged into the short hallway engulfed in a cloud of fragrant steam. Her hair was wrapped up in a white turban and her curvy body was hidden beneath a matching towel. 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 view with 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 them.
    Suddenly his decision to remain aloof and give her the space she wanted was trampled by the more pressing desire to feel her arching beneath him. He had no one in this plane he could talk to. No one with whom to share the details of his hellacious day, no Dreamer to lose himself in, no Elite to strategize with. He had no idea if he would ever go home again. But for a while, Stacey had enabled him to forget all of that. She had given him reason to smile and something else to focus on—her.
    Just as he was focused on her now.
    He gestured to the master bedroom across the hall. "I was going to find something to wear."
    She nodded. "I'll be down in just a minute."
    "Okay," he said lamely, arrested by the weird feelings he was experiencing.
    Turning, Stacey walked to the door of the guestroom she was occupying. Connor didn't move, riveting by the gentle, unaffected sway of her perfect ass. Stacey turned the knob and stepped a short way into the room.
    "You're staring," she tossed over her shoulder before disappearing from view behind the closing door.
    "I know," he muttered. He continued staring long after he heard the click of the latch.
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Chapter 6

     
    The coast on a balmy night was always beautiful. This evening was no exception, but Aidan was too focused on his mission to enjoy the soft silver lighting of the full moon or the music of the ocean tide. With silent steps, he rounded the