She walked slowly toward him across the field, wearing men’s clothing, trousers and a white collared shirt.

He didn’t think she’d ever been more beautiful. Her long, blonde hair was down and the breeze played with it, whipping it out to trail behind her.

The pants she wore fit tightly, and his eyes followed the shape of her legs from her hips to her ankles.

He wanted her more than he ever had before.

What would happen if he grabbed her and kissed her, pulling her down to lay with him in the grass?

She’d probably kill him.

“Will you be speaking to me tonight?” she asked as she drew near him.

“Maybe.”

He shouldn’t be here. Isabel had shown him how to leave the dreams when he found himself in them. Something kept him from leaving tonight.

Her sarcasm earlier had puzzled him, and he’d decided to try to find out the truth. The words ‘Sentence me to life as an old maid’ were haunting him. He wanted to know if she would rather marry him than face the possibility of a life alone…

Of course his intent had been to find out how she really felt about the marriage, but his thoughts at the moment were of a considerably more carnal nature.

“You’re going to marry me,” she stated, looking up at him with those big green eyes, a slight pout on her lips.

She was driving him mad.

“I am?”

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you going to ask your father to let you out of it?”

“What happened?” she ignored his question and touched a finger to the bruise on his cheek.

He pulled back as though he’d been burned. In fact he had, her touch had scorched him. If she touched him again, he didn’t know if he’d be able to control himself…

“You happened. Don’t you remember?”

She nodded absently and sat down on the grass, gazing up at him for a moment before laying back, her hair fanned out around her. The top three buttons of her shirt were open revealing a long ‘V’ of creamy white skin.

Oh God, did she know what that was doing to him?

Of course not.

“I don’t want to be an old maid, Michael.” Her voice was soft, feminine, slightly pleading, and her fingers were brushing her throat.

“Maria…” his voice was husky, too husky. He tried to clear his throat, but couldn’t – a lump had lodged in it.

For a moment he wondered if this really was her dream. Maybe this was something of his own creation…if that was the case, it wouldn’t hurt anything if…

He crouched beside her, and reached out his hand, gently caressing her cheek. She closed her eyes and let out a little gasp…

No, you can’t do this, it isn’t right!

Michael opened his eyes. He’d never left the dream so abruptly before. His chest was heaving, and sweat was pouring off his forehead into his eyes.

Rolling over to bury his face in his pillow, he groaned. What had he been doing? A poor innocent girl having her dreams violated by a lout like him, it was despicable!

His anger at himself did nothing to quench his desire for her.

That image of Maria: lying on the grass, eyes closed, mouth open in a small gasp – it made him burn.

He wanted her.

Michael imagined himself going into her room, climbing into bed beside her, making her forget she’d ever looked at that other man…

Before he knew it, he wasn’t ‘thinking’, he was ‘doing’.

He was closing her door quietly behind him when he suddenly came to his senses and stopped himself.

“Michael?” she asked sleepily, sitting up in bed.

‘Oh great, Guerin, how are you gonna’ get out of this one?’ he mentally kicked himself.

***

Maria was staring at the shirtless man at her door, she would have been frightened, but she was fairly sure it was him…

“Um, hi.”

“W-what are you doing here? Is something wrong?”

“Uhh-.” He was interrupted by the sound of horses outside.

Quickly, he strode to her window.

As he passed, the moonlight played across his bare chest, and Maria felt her heart skip a beat. He was magnificent. If only he’d come and kneel over her like he had in the dream…

Staring out of the window, Michael whispered, “It looks like we’ve got company.”

“What do you mean?” she whispered back.

“Well, that’s why I came in here, ah - I heard a noise, and it sounded like it was outside your window.”

“Well, who is it?”

“I think it’s Max’s friends…Nacedo and Serena.”

He shook his head slightly, barely looking at her as he started to walk to the door.

“Michael, wait!” she whispered loudly.

“What?” he asked, not stopping or looking at her.

She jumped out of bed and caught his arm as he was reaching for the door.

“Please, I’m frightened. Don’t leave me here alone, let me come with you.”

He looked her up and down, and she blushed slightly – she was only wearing a light cotton shift.

“Well put on a robe or something. And hurry!”

She grabbed her dressing gown and threw it on her shoulders as she followed him out of the room.

***

Max swallowed hard, but continued to look Nacedo in the eye.

“You’re a disgrace as a leader,” the dark haired man sneered.

It took everything Max had to keep the look of fearlessness on his face, “I don’t care what you think of me as a leader. The fact is she is married to him.”

Nacedo cast a disgusted glance in Alex’s direction. Isabel stood tall next to him and glared back at Nacedo.

“I don’t recognize their human marriage. Let her keep him in her bed if it amuses her, but the Second is her mate,” Nacedo said in a very ‘final’ tone.

Max tensed and opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Serena who stepped between them.

“Please, Max – Nacedo. There’s no reason to turn this into a contest of wills,” the red headed woman said softly.

“Don’t forget your place underling. Just because they’ve stepped out of rank doesn’t mean you’ll be allowed to,” Nacedo spat at her.

Serena had only been a crewmember on their ship (the only one to survive the crash), while Nacedo was their appointed Protector – and he never let her forget it. Max had always thought it a strange irony that Serena's 'lowliness' had never kept Nacedo out of her bed.

She sighed and gave Max an apologetic look as she backed away.

Max shook his head and turned his back on Nacedo to try to cool off. He looked around the study slowly. Alex and Isabel stood side-by-side, hands clasped in front of the bookcase near the window. Kyle was sprawled out on the sofa, asleep, completely unaware of the conflict around him. Michael stood behind him in front of the desk, making himself a human shield between Maria and Liz (who were sharing the large leather desk chair) and Nacedo whom he had immediately identified as a threat. Tess stood near Serena in front of the window.

The sun still wasn’t out and he guessed that it was about 4 a.m., everyone was still in their nightclothes – except for Tess who was oddly clad in only a man’s shirt.

Drawing himself up, Max turned around to confront Nacedo again.

“We’re obviously not going to reach common ground, so-.”

Nacedo cut him off, “No, Max, we’re going to reach my ground. I want all of you to get your things, we’re leaving here immediately.”

Throwing a glance at Serena, Nacedo turned to leave the room.

“Hold on,” Michael growled. “I can’t speak for the other two, but Isabel and I aren’t going anywhere.”

Nacedo whirled and raised his eyebrow at the half naked, and mostly wild-looking Michael, “Oh no?”

Max moved to Michael’s side. For the thousandth time since Michael had awakened him to say Nacedo had arrived, Max cursed his blasted royal seal. As Protector, Nacedo had a mirror of the seal, and Max and Isabel (being royalty) could not use their powers against him. Of course, the Protector couldn’t use his against them either.

“So, Max, I see you’re taking orders from your Second. That’s leadership indeed.”

“I’m not taking orders from anyone, Nacedo,” Max said evenly.

“Fine, we’ll play it your way. You’ll be begging for my help in a matter of time anyway. Serena, Tess – let’s go.”

Tess shook her head and backed up a step. Nacedo lunged at her, grabbing her wrist. For an instant when their skin touched there was a faint glow, but Tess gasped and quickly pulled away from him.

Nacedo was staring at Tess in surprise, and then a small smile played on his lips, “Well, well, well…” he started to laugh.

Tess, looked equally surprised at something, and had her forehead wrinkled in disbelief, Max almost missed her whisper of, “Oh, no.”

“So, Max, you haven’t been wasting your time after all,” Nacedo cackled.

“What is it?” Serena asked.

“Oh, it’s just something that will guarantee that they’ll be returning to us eventually,” Nacedo smiled wickedly and winked at Tess, “You didn’t even know, did you?”

Tess cringed and took another step backwards.

“What did you do to her?” Max asked harshly.

“I didn’t do anything to her, Max. This does change things, though. Now you’ll need me. You can stay here, if that’s what you want. BUT…when you come to me for help -,” he grinned, “and believe me, you will - the four of you must come together or I won’t do anything for you. Have your ‘play time’ if you insist. I imagine we’ll see you within the month. Come, Serena.”

Nacedo jerked his head toward the door, and then walked out of it.

“Tess, Max,” Serena reached her hand out to Isabel, “Izzy – I’m sorry, I wish things could be different…”

Max went to the woman and hugged her. He loved Serena, and he knew she loved them.

There were tears in the woman’s eyes as she pulled away from him. She touched Isabel’s cheek and then squeezed Tess’s hand before walking toward the door to follow Nacedo.

Pausing with her hand on the doorjamb, Serena turned around and walked to Michael, wrapping him up in a big hug as well. The man seemed flustered, but gave her a weak smile when she pulled away. She put a hand to his cheek and healed his bruise, whispering, “I’m glad they found you, we were all worried.”

She dropped her head as tears ran down her cheeks and ran from the room.

Max waited until he heard the carriage pulling away outside to release the breath he had been holding.

Tess had been creeping toward the door and was nearly in the hall when his voice halted her, “Tess! What did he see?”

“What did ‘who’ see, Max?” Tess asked innocently as her eyes darted around the room.

“Tess,” Isabel stepped forward, “what did he see? Don’t try to pass it off as nothing.”

“Oh, Nacedo?” Tess asked in a falsely surprised tone. “When he touched me, he accidentally got a flash of me kissing Max.”

Max heard Liz whisper, “Kissing Max?”

His heart dropped. Oh no.

Isabel repeated Liz’s words, much louder.

“Well, it was right after we got to Sodinay Town. I saw someone kissing on the street, and I wanted to try it, so we did – a couple of times. Then, Nacedo saw me wearing this,” Tess swept her hand over the shirt she was wearing in place of a nightgown, “I guess he assumed…” she raised her eyebrows and moved her chin in suggestion.

“Oh.” Isabel said softly, giving Max a slightly disgusted look.

“Whose shirt is that?” Max asked, hoping to prove that it wasn’t his. He could tell what Isabel thought, and he was hoping Liz wasn’t getting the same impression.

“This?” Tess asked, and let out a nervous giggle, “Oh, this is, uhh, the one that Michael got for me, the night of the fire. It’s, um, much softer than my nightgown.” She shrugged as though to say ‘silly me’.

Michael, in a tone that said he could care less ‘who was kissing whom’, turned to Max, “What did he mean when he said we’d need his help?”

“I don’t know. If he thought that Tess and I were, well, uh…Maybe he thought we’d be wanting to follow our ‘destiny’.” Max had no idea if that was what Nacedo meant. Right now he was worried about Liz thinking he was with Tess.

Michael nodded slowly, seeming to accept the answer, “Well, I guess if we don’t ever need his help we won’t have a problem, right?”

Max nodded slowly, “I suppose not.”

“Good,” Michael said.

Isabel smiled and hugged Alex. Her husband gave her a big grin and said, “Well, you didn’t get much sleep, I think you should go get caught up, Mrs. Parker.” They practically ran out of the room.

Max noticed that Tess had managed to sneak out of the room. She seemed to be absent nearly every time he thought to look for her.

Maria stood and walked to her brother who was sound asleep on the sofa. She hit him with a pillow, and he fell on the floor.

“Go back to bed, Sleeping Beauty,” she said.

He grinned at her and did a quick push-up before hopping to his feet and heading out the door mumbling, “Well, I guess the mean guy left…”

Michael laughed quietly at the fact that Kyle had slept through the majority of the encounter.

Liz walked past Max and out of the room without a word to anyone. He moved to follow her, and ran into the hallway on her heels.

“Liz!”

“I’m a little sleepy, Max, I’m going back to bed,” she said without turning around as she ascended the staircase.

“Please, I need to-.”

“Really, I’m tired, we could speak later,” she cut him off.

He stood at the foot of the stairs, staring after her in frustration, before he decided to go back to bed himself.

***

Michael was still chuckling at Kyle when he realized that he was alone in the room with Maria. She was pretending to straighten the cushions on the sofa, but had turned a twenty second job into a three minute ordeal. Finally, she sighed and looked around, then walked to the door.

Instead of going out into the hall, she closed and locked the door. For a moment she stood with her back to him, then she turned and started to walk toward him.

Oh no. Obviously she wanted to talk. What about? Had she changed her mind since her dream last night? Would she prefer to be an old maid? Maybe she wanted to be certain he wouldn’t back out of the deal.

He knew that whatever she had to say, it wouldn’t be pleasant.

“I know that shirt,” she said seriously, standing in front of him, hands on her hips.

What shirt? He looked down, he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

What shirt?

“Uh, what shirt?” he finally said out loud.

“Tess’s shirt,” she said tersely, raising her eyebrows.

What was she talking about? Tess’s shirt? Oh yes, Tess had only been wearing a shirt, not a nightgown – a man’s shirt…wait, Maria didn’t think…

“Well,” he spat, “it wasn’t mine!”

She looked at him quizzically.

“Um, I know it’s not yours,” she said, “are you deranged? I know that shirt because I bought it. For my brother.”

He didn’t like the way she was looking at him. It was as if she thought he was dense or something. What was he missing?

“What am I missing here?” he asked her, genuinely curious.

She shook her head in disbelief, and began to speak slowly as if he wouldn’t be able to understand if she didn’t, “Tess was wearing my brother’s shirt. Nothing else. Doesn’t that make you wonder where she would have been last night? Don’t you remember what we saw at the table the other morning?”

“Oh, yeah…” realization was dawning.

“The Nacedo guy, he ‘saw’ something when he touched her – something that he thought would have them needing his help…Come on, Michael, am I the only one with a brain in this group? Tess was obviously covering something – stuttering, stammering, acting very nervous. I seriously doubt that he just saw her kissing Max, I mean that’s not really a very big deal – not big enough for all of his laughing and gloating. And I’m pretty sure Nacedo didn’t see her with my brother, or he would have been angry – like he was at Isabel. ”

Of course. He’d known something was wrong with Tess’s explanation of Nacedo’s reaction, but when Max and Isabel had accepted it, he had too – he’d always thought Tess was a little strange, but if the people who knew her best seemed to believe her then…

But, Max had seemed distracted, and Isabel had been overjoyed about getting to stay with Alex…

Maria was watching him with her eyebrows raised, waiting for him to come to the same conclusion she had.

“Maria…you don’t think…?”

“Yes, I do think. I don’t know, but I definitely think.”

“W-why didn’t you say something when everyone was here?”

“Well, I don’t really know the three of them well enough to bring it up, and it is my brother after all…I’d like to be certain before I raise everyone’s suspicions…” she shrugged.

“But – Kyle, he didn’t say anything, if that were the case, don’t you think he’d-.”

She shook her head violently to cut him off, “No, Kyle slept through the whole thing. And, if you’ll remember, Nacedo said to Tess, ‘You didn’t know did you?’. I don’t think she knew until just now, so Kyle couldn’t have known either.”

Michael nodded slowly, wondering what to do with this new information, “We need to find out if you’re right...”

Maria nodded, “I just don’t want to say anything until we’re sure.”

He nodded in return, “All right. We’ll have to watch them then.”

She was still nodding when her stomach grumbled.

A slight blush crept up her cheeks, and he couldn’t help teasing her a little, “I take it you’re hungry.”

Maria smiled sheepishly, “I don’t suppose the cook is up yet…”

He knew what she was getting at, “No, I don’t think so.”

She nodded and looked at the ground. He couldn’t believe she was too embarrassed to ask him. Maybe she was remembering the slaps she had given him in this very spot. She should be too embarrassed to ask him for anything after that. Michael nearly laughed when she started nervously shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

Biting back a grin he decided to put her out of her misery, “Well, we could run upstairs and get dressed,” she looked up at him and pursed her lips, and he kept a straight face as he continued, “and then I could whip us up some breakfast. We could strategize while we eat.”

Maria smiled, turned and started to walk out of the room, calling back over her shoulder, “If you insist. Give me five minutes.”

He shook his head slightly as she walked out the door. If nothing else, life with her would keep him on his toes – hot and cold, that was Maria.

***