Dream-Hunter (Dark-Hunter #11)(6)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

face-to-face with the intense blue eyes of her dreams.

It couldn’t be…

It wasn’t possible and yet there he was before her in all his almost nak*d glory. She knew those perfect, sardonic lips. The slash of his dark brows over eyes that were so pale a blue they radiated. She knew that strong jaw, dusted with whiskers. It was one she’d teased with her teeth and tongue for hours on end.

Against all reason, it was him .

Something hot and needful went through her like a sharp needle as she fought the urge to reach out and touch him to make sure he was really here.

Arik couldn’t do anything more than stare at Megeara. She was even more beautiful in reality than she’d been in her dreams. Her deep blue eyes captivated him as tendrils of her wet blond hair hung down over them. Her pale skin begged for his touch just as her partially opened mouth needed his kiss.

He started toward those lips, then coughed more as he tried to breathe through the stinging pain in his chest. His body shook uncontrollably as he was assaulted by horrifyingly intense sensations and emotions. Even the cries of the birds above him were piercing to his ears-the droning of the ocean. And the heat of the sun on his skin… it was blistering. Never had he felt so out of control. Why wouldn’t his body obey him?

Why the hell couldn’t he stop coughing and shaking?

He half-expected Megeara to pound on his back as her accomplice had done. Instead, Megeara’s touch was gentle as she lightly hit him to help dispel the water from his now human body.

Then she started to gently rub his back in a circle. Chills spread over him as he felt a heat the likes of which were unimaginable. Forget the heat of the sun, this was even more scorching.

No one had ever touched him so gently and he’d never really felt a touch before, especially not against his flesh. All he wanted was to pull her into his arms and taste the taut ni**les that were so apparent through her wet white shirt.

If only his body would obey him.

"I think he’s going into shock," Megeara said to the others. "Grab more blankets."

Another woman pulled Megeara away. "Let me look at-"

"No!" he snarled, reaching for Megeara’s hand to keep her by his side. He hadn’t come this far to lose sight of her now.

Megeara covered his hand with hers in a soothing caress. "It’s all right. Stay calm." She took a blanket from a young woman with glasses, then wrapped it around him.

Arik closed his eyes and savored the fleeting sensation of her hands on his shoulders. The feel of her skin on his… it was electrifying. Hot.

If only he could stop shaking.

Geary wasn’t sure what to do. She exchanged a frown with Althea, who was on board as their physician.

"I need to check him out and make sure he’s okay," Althea said in English.

Geary agreed. "I know."

"I’ll be fine in a few minutes," the unknown man said in perfect, accented English. His voice was so deep and resonant that it literally echoed around them. Those intense, predatorial eyes pierced her. "Just don’t leave me."

Geary found herself nodding even though the possessive command of that tone made her want to run. It wasn’t in her nature to let anyone tell her what to do, but in his case, there was something unnaturally compelling about him. Alluring.

Honestly, she didn’t want to leave him. And that really did scare her.

Her heart hammering, she used a corner of his blanket to towel dry his hair, then brushed it back from a face that was truly flawless.

"Do you prefer English or Greek?" she asked him.

"It doesn’t matter."

Wow. He was extremely bilingual. He was also extremely exposed, and the sight of him with those pants clinging to his every asset brought the most wicked images to her mind. In her dreams, she’d twisted that body of his like a pretzel and licked every inch of it.

Okay, so it wasn’t quite that body. In her dreams, there had been no scars. But his body was close enough to the one she was used to to evoke a fervent heat inside her.

Geary brushed a drop of water off his cheek with the blanket. "What happened to you?"

He looked away. "I don’t know."

Thia gave her a wicked grin. "Well, it isn’t every day we fish a nearly nak*d god out of the sea, now is it?

Glad I came back early from my shopping trip. This was definitely worth it."

The man snapped his head toward her and gave her a fierce scowl. It was obvious her words touched a nerve with him.

"Thia?" Geary said in a steady tone. "Do you mind?"

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. See if I save his life next time he’s drowning." Turning around, she headed belowdecks.

Christof stepped forward. "We should report this to the authorities."

Even more fury snapped in those pale blue eyes. "No!" His tone was firm and commanding. "No

authorities."

Teddy exchanged a frown with her. "Why? You running from them?"

"No. I just don’t want to be interrogated when I can’t remember anything."

Christof narrowed his eyes on him. "Do you know your name?"

He hesitated. "Arik."

"Arik what?"

He looked up at Geary with a confusion that tugged at her heart. "I don’t remember."

Geary tilted her head, not sure what to think. Something deep inside told her he was lying, but she wasn’t sure about what. "Did you hit your head?"

He nodded.

"He could have amnesia," Tory said. "If he fell from a boat he might have been run over by it. Or maybe he was beaten and then thrown overboard. Could be pirates."

"He’s not bruised," Christof pointed out. "And there hasn’t been a lot of pirate activity here for several hundred years."

"Yes, but I said could . Weird and unusual things happen all the time. Did you know that there were seventy-five pirate attacks on civilian boats last year alone? Six more were against the U.S. Coast Guard.

One group even tried to take over a cruise ship."

Ignoring Tory’s statistics, Geary dropped the blanket to Arik’s shoulders. "What was the last thing you remember?"

"I… I don’t know."

A strange, warm feeling came over her as she watched him. The whole moment was so surreal. She couldn’t believe she was looking at… Arikos.

That had been a dream and yet the man before her was an exact copy. A copy named Arik.

Could they possibly…

Don’t be stupid.

It was just some strange coincidence. Maybe some sort of premonition.

Her face flamed red at the thought. Well, not that kind of premonition. She wasn’t about to jump nak*d into a pool of chocolate with this guy.

"Okay," she said quietly. "Teddy, take Arik below and find some clothes for him."

Arik started to protest leaving her, then stopped himself. She was skittish of him. He could sense it. If he

pressed her too much, she might bolt and push him away.

That was the last thing he wanted.

No, he must tread carefully in order to gain her trust. He was here, in her realm. And he’d have plenty of time to seduce her shortly. For now it was best to humor her.

He stood up slowly, his eyes never wavering from her gaze. As a wave crashed into the boat, he staggered slightly and almost lost his balance.

Megeara reached out, her hands steadying him.

Arik closed his eyes as heat from her touch seared his every nerve. There was nothing to compare to the sensation of human contact-to the feeling of those delicate hands touching his flesh-and he couldn’t wait to feel them stroking the part of him that was hard for her.

He bent his head low so that he could inhale her sweet, feminine scent of open air and woman misted with a light touch of perfume. It was even more intoxicating than it had been in her dreams, and he wanted to bask in it.

Even more he wanted to smell it on his sheets and flesh. To drink her in for hours on end until he was fully sated and content.

Geary tensed at the feel of Arik’s hot breath against her damp skin. What was it about this stranger that set her entire body on fire?

She forced herself to step away from him even though what she really wanted to do was walk closer to that magnificently muscled body.

His eyes showed his longing as he met her gaze again and he noted her actions. "Don’t be afraid of me, Megeara." He all but purred in her ear. "I would never hurt you."

It wasn’t until he’d left that she realized he’d called her by a name no one used.

CHAPTER 4

ARIK CRINGED AT THE HARSH SENSATION OF DENIM SLIDING against his bare legs. The roughness of it was hard to take. How did humans stand it?

The man, Teddy, had loaned him a white shirt and jeans. But the texture of each was itchy and heavy.

The clothing Arik was used to had no weight or texture. At least none that he could feel, and in dreams…

well, since he was considered an Erotikos Skotos, clothing was seldom ever worn since all it did was get in the way of other, more pleasurable sensations.

After fastening the jeans, he reached for the stiff white shirt at the same time the door burst open. He

paused at the sight of Megeara standing in the low, narrow entrance-way, looking much like a puppy caught in a deluge. Her damp khaki shorts fell to her knees. She wore a baggy white shirt untucked that made her appear to be a blob of material. Or at least it would if it weren’t wet. As it was, it left very little of her lush body to his imagination.

In this realm, she hid every indication of the full curves he knew she possessed. Even her thick, blond hair was pulled back severely from her face into a tight bun.

But her face was the same. Those intelligent, sharp and clear, almond-shaped eyes that took in the world around her. The light smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. And her lips…

He had spent entire nights kissing those luscious lips. Watching them dance over his skin as she nibbled and teased him until they were both blind with ecstasy.

The memory of it, along with the sight of her tight, puckered ni**les straining against her shirt, made his entire body burn with hunger.

"How do you know my name?" she demanded in an angry tone that was undercut by a note of apprehension.

He hesitated as he sensed her fear. He would have to play this carefully if he were to get what he wanted from her. He didn’t know much about the human world, but he knew from dreams that scared hosts wouldn’t let him touch them. So it only stood to reason that they’d be skittish in this realm, too. If he wanted her in his bed, he’d have to gain her trust.

"You told me." It wasn’t a lie. On the night they’d met while they bathed in chocolate, she’d given it to him.

"No. I didn’t. No one calls me Megeara. No one."

"What do they call you then?"

"Geary."

"Then Geary you are."

"Yes, but that doesn’t explain how you knew my name when I hadn’t said it."

"Maybe I’m psychic." He’d meant that as a joke, but by the look on her face, he could tell she didn’t find it amusing.

"I don’t believe in psychics."

"Then how do you explain it?"

Geary narrowed her eyes at him. He was playing with her, and she didn’t appreciate it in the least. "Do I know you? Have we met?"

He hesitated before he answered. "There’s no need to be afraid of me, Megeara. We did meet before.

Years ago when you were giving a paper at Vanderbilt."

Geary frowned as she remembered the event clearly. That had been her first paper in public… ever.

She’d been incredibly nervous. So much so that she’d stumbled on her way to the podium, dropped her pages and notes in front of everyone, and then spent ten minutes, red-faced, as she struggled to put them together again. She’d been halfway through the paper before she realized that one page had fallen underneath the heavy wooden stand and they had to stop everything again to retrieve it.

The event had left her humiliated as people laughed at her. After that fiasco, she’d been lucky anyone had ever invited her to speak on anything.

"I don’t remember you."

"I was in the audience at the time. Dr. Chandler introduced us afterward, but we didn’t really converse.

You seemed a bit harried before you were pulled away by Dr. Chandler to meet her old college professor."

She vaguely remembered that part. The fact that he did lent credibility to his claim. It was true that she’d been preoccupied with saving some dignity at the mixer… still, a man this hot should have been branded in her memory.

A teasing smile quirked one corner of his mouth up. "You left quite an impression on me."

She had to bite back a laugh. Yeah, right. A guy like this would actually remember an overweight frump who’d embarrassed herself? "I find that hard to believe."

But there was no laughter in his intense gaze. Only sincerity. "You shouldn’t. It’s true."

Geary frowned as she struggled to recall him from her past, but honestly, she’d been in such a fog that day that it was entirely possible they had met and she’d forgotten it. "Why were you there?"

"I was a student, of anthropology. I asked you about Atlantis then and you were rather rude about it."

The smile spread across his face as he teased her with his eyes.

She was still skeptical, but it did make sense. She would have taken his head off over Atlantis back then.