The Knight of Her Dreams (Dragons and Dreamphasers) (34 page)

Dominick turned to face her, shaking
his head with a laugh.  “Oh no, my lady.  You’re not going to sleep on me yet.”

“And how am I supposed to stay awake
while you make me wait forever?” she asked in mock protest.

“Because, my love, your waiting is
over,” he said huskily, swiftly lowering her back against the pillows while
looming above her with a most roguish smile.  “And as to your staying awake, I
assure you, I’ll help you manage that now, my impatient little temptress.”

To prove his words, Dominick
proceeded to do just that, pressing searing kisses down her neck, as her hands
reached up to hold him there possessively.  He merely chuckled at the attempt,
his mouth moving downward to kiss her breasts again while his hands traveled
lower.

She nearly jumped at his touch, her
fingers clutching at his hair.  “Oh, what are you doing, Dominick,” she
breathed, “You’re making me feel so...”

“Restless?” he murmured.  “Lost to
desire...”

Her attempt at a reply trailed off
with glazed eyes.

He chuckled again quietly when
Julianna began to tug at his hair, softly pleading for him to return beside
her, and he acquiesced, his mouth capturing hers once more.

She decided to see about teasing him
back.  Her mouth escaped his to press heated kisses to his chest, distracting
him as her hands slid past his waist.  Her light caresses had full effect on
him, as his eyes flew open to stare into her own devious ones, his hands
grasping her shoulders tightly.

“You seem a bit restless yourself,”
she whispered, her hands still teasing him where they remained.  He tried to
protest, but the words didn’t have a chance as her caresses became more
intense.

“Julianna, you’ll drive me mad,” he
groaned against her mouth, swiftly clasping her hands to draw them away as he
shifted to cover her body completely with his.

Their senses were so heightened, it was the most natural
thing in the world when he
slid the warmth
of his desire deep within the hot depths of her own yearning body, stealing
exhilarated cries of pleasure from both.  In moments, the undeniable heat of
passion caught them.  Julianna’s hands clutched Dominick’s back as he slowly
stroked deeper within her, crying out softly as her legs tightened about him.

Their sounds of desire mingled as
they kissed each other fiercely, while they sought sweet heaven.  They glided
on a wave of bliss, while the world disappeared around them, their passion
building ever higher.

“Dear heaven, love,” he breathed as
her arms tightened about him.  “Julianna... you feel so wonderful.”

“So do you,” she whispered.  “Oh,
Dominick, please...”

“Yes… Come with me... now,
sweetheart.”

His soft words inspired her to pull
him closer, yielding sweetly as his deep thrusts sent them over the edge.  Both
cried out, their bodies exploding together as they soared through the warm
mists of mindless ecstasy.  Shuddering with pleasure, they kissed passionately
anew, sharing the encompassing warmth of a most heavenly afterglow.

When Dominick finally relaxed against
his companion, he brushed a hand across her passion-dampened forehead, kissing
her tenderly once before cuddling her close in their desire’s sweet aftermath.

“Did I mention before how much I
liked your choice of a new dress?” he murmured, stroking her back.

A mischievous smile curled across her
mouth in remembrance of how said dress had ended up on the floor.  “You mean my
‘lady in red’ look?” she asked.  He nodded with a seductive growl.  “I thought
it might keep you from thinking me too businesslike.”

He gave a low laugh.  “As long as all
our business is conducted here, I don’t mind,” he informed her, twining a
finger around her curls before kissing the reddish strands.  “You realize that
even if you wore nothing, you’d still be a lady in red, thanks to your hair,”
he added roguishly.

“And I have a temper to match the
color,” she said in mock warning.  “You’d best remember that, my dream knight.”

“How could I forget?” he murmured
against her cheek.  “I find it to be one of your most endearing traits.”

“Really?” she laughed.  “I do believe
that’s one of the best compliments I’ve ever received.  Probably since you’re
the only one praising that particular trait of mine.”

“I love all your others as well,” he
decided, a devious smile crossing his face as his arms encircled her waist
beneath the covers.  “Although I must admit to finding this passionate nature
of yours most intriguing.”  Julianna smiled knowingly as he leaned forward to
kiss her again.  “Dear heaven, woman, it seems I’ll never be able to get this desire
for you out of my system.”

The brightness of her eyes dimmed
slightly.  “And would you leave if that ever happened?” she whispered.

“Oh no, love,” Dominick replied
seriously.  “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.  I love you for every
moment we share, no matter what we do.  I wouldn’t leave you now, even if you
pushed celibacy on me.”

“Hmmm...” she murmured in
consideration.

“But I hope you wouldn’t be that
cruel to this poor man who adores you so much,” he continued, his eyes taking
on an exaggerated look of melancholy.

“I’d be punishing myself equally as
much if I did,” she laughed.  “Now please get that silly look off your face,
before you complain of my laughing all night.”

Resting his cheek against hers, he
embraced her tightly.  “Ah, Julianna, I love to hear your laughter, and you’re
certainly the last woman I’d ever complain about.  Just to hold you like this
is like holding the sun, and I’ve always been most fond of sunny days.”

“Mmmm, me too,” she murmured,
apparently pleased, snuggling against him as she shut her eyes happily.

The perfect time
, Dominick thought.

“Julianna?” he whispered, earning
another quiet murmur from her.  “We’ve been together for a while now, haven’t
we?”

Her eyes opened with puzzlement.  “If
you don’t know the answer, then I’d say you’ve been out in your sunny days too
often,” she replied.

“No, that’s not what I meant,”
Dominick laughed.  “I mean, we’ve been happy together, in all ways.  And after
giving our relationship serious thought, I was hoping we might make it
permanent.”

Julianna moved back to sit up,
pulling the blanket up to her neck.  “Permanent, how?”

“Well… let me think,” he replied,
shrugging once with a boyish grin.  While she sat confused, Dominick reached
back to withdraw something from the night table drawer behind him, keeping his
hand tightly closed around the object.  “Now, I know this might sound strange
at first, but hear me out.”

She nodded for him to continue, and
he opened his hand, holding out a small velvet box to her.  Julianna gasped as
the implication sank in, even as he lifted the lid to reveal a beautiful gold
ring with a brilliant emerald in the center, a circle of diamonds surrounding
the sparkling gem protectively.  Before she could blink, he took her hand in
his, placing the ring upon it gently.

“Dominick, it’s beautiful,” she
whispered, touching the precious ring with shaking fingers.

“I remember how you once said how
much you love both diamonds and emeralds,” he said softly.  “And since you’re
most beautiful to me in many ways, I thought it right to grant you a ring that
has the same added beauty.  A ring to symbolize how much I love you,
Julianna.”  She smiled up at him with tear-filled eyes.

“You’ve been so good to me.  How can
I ever thank you enough?”

He took her hand in his, kissing it
softly before caressing her fingers as he looked deeply into her eyes.  “Would
you do me the honor of marrying me?” he asked.

Julianna’s eyes brimmed with new
tears as she squeezed his hand.  “Oh, yes...” she whispered.  “Yes, I’ll marry
you, Dominick.”

Giving a short laugh of happiness as
he embraced her, her heart raced with joy.  So much that she nearly forgot the
all-too-real distance and circumstances separating them.

Almost.

Upon remembering, she slowly
stiffened and pulled back, earning a look of concern from him.

“What’s wrong, love?  Is it the
ring?”

“No,” Julianna replied quickly. 
“It’s wonderful.  And I love you so much, Dominick.  But for once, we have to
face reality.  How can I marry you?  We can only be together when I’m asleep.”

“So it seems,” he agreed.  “But I’ve
given it some thought, and since our two worlds are both undeniably real, there
may be a solution to our dilemma.  I’ve decided to see my grandfather about
trying to find a way to bring us together in reality as well.”

Hope surged through her.  “Is that
possible?”

“I’m not sure, but if it is, I’m damn
well going to find out.  I’ll do everything in my power to find a way.  Until
which time, at the very least we’ll be engaged in reality, even though we can
only share our dreams together at the moment.”

Julianna shook her head in
confusion.  “I understand what you’re saying,” she replied, “but I don’t see
how this is going to work.  After all, even if your world’s dreamphasers can
accept the truth to an engagement like this,
I
can’t prove your
existence on Chavernos to those of Earth.  They’d think I’d lost my mind.”

“That would be a problem,” he agreed
on a sigh.  “In which case, I’m afraid the only thing you can do to prevent
this, is to keep it a secret between us for now.”

“But that’s just the point,” she
argued regretfully.  “Since there’s no proof so far that we can
ever
reach one another to be married, why pretend otherwise with an engagement?”  At
his silence, she stared down at her ring sadly.  “Everything’s all been just a
dream between us anyway.  One that’s merely taken us awhile longer to wake up
from.  Why bother with mention of an engagement at all, when it’s only another
illusion?”

As her words trailed off, she saw
Dominick clasp her hand, lifting her head to face him again.  The warmth of his
smile affected her so much that she nearly forgot her question.  Fortunately,
he didn’t.

“What we have between us is certainly
no illusion, love,” he whispered, kissing her palm.  At her slight smile, he
added gently, “Let me try to explain my reasons for wanting this engagement. 
In past times, I’d briefly thought I knew what love was, but always ended up
confusing that emotion with something else.  Yet with you, the feelings of love
only grew stronger and clearer to me.  Knowing you weren’t one to give your
heart lightly, and still innocent to the ways of love, you can’t know what it
meant to me for you to trust me that first night in our dream castle.”

She blushed slightly, as he continued
on a sigh.  “When you granted me the blessing of your love that night, it was
more than magic between us.  You touched the depths of my soul.”

His smile dimmed slightly as a wave
of regret filled his eyes.  “And yet... ever since that night, although our
evenings together have been more than wonderful, there are times when I’ve felt
sadness from you.  As if you’ve felt guilty regarding the passion we’ve shared,
and that ours was only a temporary affair.”

Clasping her hands tighter, he shook
his head.  “It could never be that now, love.  You’re the other half of my
soul, and I need you with me always.  That’s why I want us to be engaged now,
even if we can’t be married immediately.  I want you to know that my commitment
to you is real, to ease your mind and heart, even though both our worlds can’t
recognize it yet.”

Seeing tears in her eyes, he brushed
them away lightly.  “Sweetheart, I wish I could marry you right now in reality,
and carry you off to my homeworld this night.  But for now, I can only promise
that we will be married in truth one day as soon as possible.  Can you
understand, and would you accept this, until we can be together at last?”

“I do understand, Dominick,” she
whispered, loving him all the more, despite the sharp cut of reality raking
across her heart.  “And I’m not questioning your devotion, which you’ve proven
time and again.  But you’re overlooking something.  What if there’s
no
way to bring us together in reality.  Then what will we do?  Keep pretending
otherwise?”

Dominick’s gaze lowered, and he
sighed heavily.

“I don’t know,” he said finally. 
“It’s certainly not my choice that our two worlds separate us, but it’s where
our lives dictated us to be.  I suppose if we can’t be together in the waking
world, we’ll either have to settle for our time in the dream-state... or I’m
not sure what.”

That
would
put a snag in
things
, Julianna
considered, biting her lip as another problem occurred to her.

“What about children?” she asked. 
“Is it possible to create them in the dream-state?”  It seemed a moot question,
but due to their unconventional meetings, Julianna wouldn’t assume anything,
until Dominick shook his head sadly.

“No, it’s not,” he whispered, meeting
her gaze again.   “Even powerful magic has its limits.  We can’t have children
together unless we’re both on the same world in reality.”  She looked away to
consider this, as he expected her to, squeezing her hand once.  “I know I’m
asking a lot, with the future so uncertain.”  He shut his eyes painfully.  “But
if we can’t reach each other... I’ll release you from our engagement, and
sunder all ties between us, if that’s what you wish.”