See, Noctorno took me outside into the overcast day. He also took me somewhere secluded and gave me privacy while I attended to nature’s call while I was in nature – not my favorite thing in this world or my own, in fact, I never did it in my own but once and that was bad enough so I never did it again. But it was the call of nature and nature was my only choice so I answered the call.

Then he took me back to the cave, lifted me onto his horse, Salem (who seemed to snort his greeting at me though I couldn’t sense this like I could sense what Aggie meant when he chirped, it was only the impression I got), he got on Salem behind me and we took what seemed to be a long ride to the river.

My bath wasn’t all I’d hoped it would be seeing as he took off his boots and waded in with me, we both got in fully-clothed, we had no soap and although the river was gorgeous (regardless of the gray day) and crystal clear, it was danged cold.

Sopping wet, we rode back, he stoked the fire while I sat by it, hugging my knees shivering then he informed me he’d be back and he took off.

That was when I decided on my plan. I sat there pulling my stiff fingers through my hair, detangling it and hopefully drying it as I alternately got up and fed fuel to the fire and decided what to do to get out of my latest dire predicament.

I was going to tell the truth.

He’d likely think I was mad but I didn’t care.

I had to do something.

I heard hooves on stone and knew he was back.

I bit my lip and felt a thrill race up my spine. I didn’t know if this thrill was fear or something else and I didn’t think about it.

I had to concentrate on what I would say to get him to believe me.

The hides were swept back and he walked in looking great even though his shirt was wrinkled and his hair was mussed. Or, maybe it was because of the latter. He was also carrying two jugs hooked to just one finger with the rest of his fingers wrapped around a rough sack and another rough sack in his other hand. He dropped the sacks and put the jugs on the table.

Then he turned to me.

“I’ve returned,” he announced the obvious, a smile playing at his gorgeous lips.

“Goodie,” I muttered churlishly.

The smile grew full-fledged.

Ugh.

“Fresh milk,” he said, tipping his head to the jugs. “And ale,” he went on.

Yuck. I hated milk and beer. Still, it was something. Though, I wished I knew how to use that kettle contraption. I’d checked it out and it was beyond me. There was no filter. And even if I figured it out, there was no water. And I needed caffeine, stat.

“Right,” I mumbled.

He lightly kicked one of the sacks with the toe of his boot. “Porridge oats, bread, butter, sugar and salt beef,” he went on.

Now we were talking.

“Fabulous,” I murmured.

He lightly toed the other sack. “Clothes for you. And shoes.”

Oh dear.

I bit my lip.

He smiled again.

Oh shit.

“Now, love,” he started walking toward me, “I hope you spent my time away thinking about how creative you can be.”

Oh shit!

I started backing up.

“We need to talk,” I informed him.

His head tipped to the side but he didn’t stop moving. “Well, that’s creative but not what I was thinking.”

Oh shit!

My back hit stone so I lifted a hand, palm out.

“Noctorno,” I whispered.

His chest came up against my hand and kept coming, pushing it back so it was caught between our bodies.

Yes, that was how close he was.

Yikes!

“Uh –”

“I warn you not to delay, Cora, I’m hungry and it’d be a shame, me eating in front of you,” he advised.

I stared up at him and all I could see were his light blue eyes. They were very blue and very clear. Like the sky on a sunny, cloudless day.

“Your eyes are like the sky on a sunny day,” I blurted and his mouth twitched.

Oh God. Why did I say that?

But I knew I said it because he was that close and he was that hot. A hot guy that close would make you blurt anything, even if he was a jerk.

He pushed closer and I felt his heat hit more than my hand and let me tell you, his heat was hot.

Wow.

His head dipped so his face was close to mine. “Sweet,” he whispered in his deep voice.

Wow… and… nice.

“You’re very hot,” I told him.

“I can get hotter,” he told me.

Yikes!

“Noctorno –”

“Whatever you do, I want you to do it with your mouth.”

Oh dear.

“And tongue,” he went on.

Oh man.

My fingers fisted in his shirt and I said quickly, “I’m not of this world.”

He blinked and he did it slow.

Then he growled, “Pardon?”

“That’s what we need to talk about.”

He straightened to his full height, his head turned to the side, his jaw got hard then he muttered, “Gods.”

“No, seriously,” I said.

His head turned back to me. “Yes, I see. You’ve used your time thinking how creative you could be.”

This wasn’t starting great.

I persevered mostly because I had no other choice.

“Okay,” I began, moving up to my toes which did take me higher but even though I was relatively tall, he was far taller and I didn’t even get close, “listen to me, all right?”

“I told you, I’m hungry,” he reminded me.

“I’ll hurry but promise to listen, okay?”

He stared at me but said not a word. I took this as a yes.

“Right, okay. I’m not from here. I’m from somewhere else.”

“And where are you from, Cora?” he asked with ill-concealed impatience.

“Uh… earth?” I ventured.

His lips thinned before he told me, “I’m from earth too.”

Well, at least we resided on the same planet…ish. Good to know (kind of) I wasn’t beamed to a different galaxy, just catapulted to an parallel world.

“Okay, that answers that but I’m from an alternate universe earth where we have computers and smart phones and, uh… cable TV.”

He scowled at me.

I kept at it. “I’m an administrative assistant. I work at an ad agency. I live in an apartment. I’m single, as in, not married. I had a boyfriend, his name was Brian, but he wouldn’t marry me so I had to cut my losses and break up with him before, you know, life passed me by.”

He continued to scowl at me but at the mention of Brian I felt his body go still and I watched his face go hard.