"Perhaps someday you will find out the answer yourself," a voice answered. It was Drake's voice, but it wasn't—this voice was deeper, with more resonance, a voice that seemed to fill the room.

I shivered again in the water, aroused by his nearness despite my intentions to resist him. "Let me see you. You've never let me see your dragon form. Come out here and let me see you. Let me see what you really look like."

The shadows moved, shifted, seemed to part as if they were as tangible as a curtain. From the depths strode a man, long-legged, broad of chest, hips narrow and powerful. He was also stark naked, a fact I didn't miss, nor did I neglect looking at the part of him that was leading the way. I've always thought the sight of a fully aroused man walking was a bit comical—the engorged bits of flesh bobbing with the rhythm of the walk—but Drake didn't walk. He glided. His muscles rippled in a beautiful symphony of power as he approached, his hands relaxed at his sides, the long, thick muscles of his thighs capturing my gaze. I loved Drake's legs. I loved the strength in them, the ability they had to move with all the grace and power of a very large panther.

He stopped at the edge of the pool, arrogantly male, watching me with unreadable eyes as I lazily swam toward him. As I approached, an image arose in my mind of his hands skimming me, touching me in all sorts of sensitive places, stirring me until I couldn't catch my breath. "I'd tell you you're beautiful, but you already know that, don't you? You know how much I like to look at you. You know I want to touch you, and taste you, and feel you burning deep inside me. You know all that, and yet you know you can never have me except in this dreamscape."

With a swift, graceful move he dived into the water. It was about nipple-high on him, allowing him to walk slowly to where I was still languidly treading water. "This is your dream, Aisling. You summoned me to it."

My eyes widened in surprise. In the past, Drake had come to me in dreams, always initiating them himself, and it had only been with practice that I had learned how to end them despite his wishes to the contrary. But I had never called him to me in a dream—I didn't think I knew how. "Is this some sort of a trick? Something to make me even more confused than before? I didn't summon you, Drake. I want you out of my life."

"You want what I represent out of your life, but if you truly wished me gone, then you would not have called me to you tonight."

I swam around him, a need building within me to touch him, to have him touch me, but I knew what would happen if I did. We'd have wild, fiery dragon sex, and I'd end up torn with indecision. I hated being indecisive. I liked my life in control. "And just what, Mr. Smarty Pants, do you think you represent in my life?"

"The future," he answered, standing still in the water, the tiny waves of my wake caressing the wonderfully warm flesh of his back and chest. I wanted to be those waves.

"Ha" I said, putting as much scorn as I could into the word. I swam a complete circle around him and stopped to face him, just a scant foot separating us. "I'm not afraid of the future. I'm a professional. I am in control. I am—"

"Mine," he growled, his hand a blur as it snared me, jerking me forward until I was pressed tightly against his chest. "You tease me purposely, Aisling. You tell me you don't want me, but you tempt me shamelessly, offering yourself in body but not in mind. Make the decision, mate. Make it now. Accept me, or not, but do not torment me any longer."

It was strange, but in the dream world his fire didn't touch me. The heat of his body sank into me everywhere our skin touched, but his fire was missing. "Where does your fire go when you dream?" I asked, unable to keep from sliding my hand up his arm to the lovely muscles of his shoulders. There must have been oil in the water, too, because his skin was as slick as the finest satin, smooth and enticing. Even the curly dark hairs on his chest rubbing against my tight, sensitive nipples were soft and silky.

He just looked at me, his eyes bright with emotion, so tilled with need that it almost hurt to look at him.

Almost.

I sighed. "All right, I admit that maybe my mind isn't quite as clear as I'd like it to be when it comes to a relationship with you, but I'd like to point out that I am not the one who moved an important peace summit just on the hopes of getting lucky."

One eyebrow rose in a silent objection.

"Don't you give me that look! You can't possibly deny the fact that you came after me."

His eyes were deep and dark and infinitely beautiful. "I don't wish to deny it. I have explained to you that as my mate you have a role in the summit. Since I knew you would be attending this conference, I rearranged my life to accommodate you."

When he put it like that, it took all the fun out of being annoyed

I sighed again, aware that he was still waiting for me to give him an answer. "The truth is, I don't want to make a decision, because you want something from me I can't give. You want all of me, you want me forever at your side, for going my own life to be a part of yours. I can't do that, I won't do that. I have a life of my own to lead, and even though I'm willing to admit that there's something between us"—

He growled deep in his chest, the arm that was banded around my back sliding lower to pull my hips against his. I wiggled a tiny little wiggle to let him know I appreciated his anticipation.

"—neither of us is of a particularly accommodating nature, and the bottom line is that I'm not going to give up being a Guardian. If you are willing to try to work out some sort of an agreement that will allow me to study whatever it is apprentices study, and working together whenever possible, well, then, I'm your girl. But if you can't see your way clear to working out a compromise, then there's no hope for us."

Drake was silent for a few moments, the muscles in his jaw working. I thought he was going to refuse outright, but he surprised me. "I am here to negotiate a peaceful settlement of hostilities between the septs. I want the same with you. Therefore, I will agree to do whatever it takes to achieve that goal."

"You will? Really?" I goggled at him, hope glowing warmly in my heart, while in my less ethereal girly parts, outright celebration was the order of the day. "You won't fight me anymore on this? No more snarky comments about being a Guardian? No more saying things to potential mentors that might ruin my chances with them? If they ask, you'll say you support my decision?"