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A week later
Marie awoke slowly to the smell of coffee and stretched luxuriously before she opened her eyes. She sat up and looked around Ethan’s bedroom, pleased anew at the changes to the formerly stark and barren space. She’d cajoled and teased her panther into painting and hanging light fixtures, though he’d left the shopping to her and Kat. Now warmth and color filled the space, and it was a retreat that they’d enjoyed for many hours of the night and even occasionally during the afternoon, after they made their daily trip to Dr. Herman to visit the now nearly healed panther.
Since she’d heard five days earlier from Alaric that he and Bastien were safe but still on the trail of Lord Justice, she’d been able to relax and enjoy this respite from worry. She’d firmly placed to the side any thoughts of what would happen between herself and Ethan when she had to return to Atlantis.
The door opened, and the coffee smell that had woken her entered the room in the form of a tray carried by a very sexy alpha male panther. “Good morning, ocean girl. I thought you might need some caffeine, after you kept me up all night.”
“I kept you up? Whose idea was it to try out every item of furniture?” She tried to sound indignant, but it came out as sleepy satisfaction. How the man could be so deliciously edible even in simple jeans and a white shirt was beyond comprehension. She tried not to think about how she must look, with her bed-tangled hair.
He placed the tray on the bedside table and leaned over to kiss h
er, then sat back, the smile fading from his face. “This is it, then.”
A sudden lump formed in her stomach. “Yes, this is it. Alaric arrives to transport me back to Atlantis this night. So we have several hours.”
He swore under his breath. “I don’t want several hours with you. I want several years. Several lifetimes, even.”
She caught her bottom lip in her teeth, then sighed. “I feel the same way about you. I never thought—you are the alpha, and Kat warned me—”
He interrupted her. “Kat warned you because of the way I was before I met you. But now I could never touch another woman, Marie.” He took her hands in his. “You’ve touched my soul, ocean girl. I don’t know how it happened, or even how it happened so fast, but there it is. I don’t know how I’m going to let you go.”
“The soul-meld takes whomever it will, Ethan, as you know. But free will reigns over all. You are…You may seek another if my absence—”
He cut her words short, his golden gaze burning into her as he frowned. “I don’t ever want to hear you say anything like that again. Whether you’re in my bed or thousands of miles away, you’re still mine. Don’t even think about forgetting that.”
She tried to smile. “Still such a surly kitten, mi amare. I thought I’d tamed some of that arrogance by now.”
“Never tamed,” he said, his voice husky. “But always yours.”
She felt the tears spill over her eyelashes. “But I must leave. My duties…I cannot abandon the temple, even if some part of me might wish it.”
He pulled her into his arms. “And as much as I might want to, I would never ask you to abandon your responsibilities. If anyone can understand responsibility, it’s me. But somehow it helps to know that some part of you thinks about it. For me.”
They’d discussed the matter frequently enough, and sometimes with Kat, too, that they both knew how unlikely it was that Poseidon would ever allow him entrance into Atlantis. Perhaps at some time in the future. Certainly not now.
“I offer you my vow, Ethan of Florida,” she said, putting all of her love for him into her gaze. “We will find a way.”
“We will find a way,” he repeated. “I offer you my vow, as well. I love you, ocean girl. Remember that every time you look at that ring.”
She glanced down at the flawless diamond on her left hand, a symbol of a promise, he’d said when he’d offered it the night before. A tingle of curiosity made her wonder how it would resonate with the gems in the temple and what song Erin could sing from it. Surely such a beautiful gem, which held the promise of unending love, could sing powerful healing.
“You’ve got your scholar face on again,” he said. “What’s percolating inside that beautiful head?”
As his laughter rumbled in his chest against her cheek, she looked up to find his golden eyes filled with heat. Shimmering silvery blue light began to sparkle and swirl around her, and she fell back onto the bed, pulling him down with her.
“We have all day, my beautiful, fierce panther,” she said, lifting her face for his kiss. “Can you think of any way we might spend it?”
He kissed her with leisurely skill and tenderness until she gasped for breath beneath him. “Oh, I’ve got an idea or two,” he drawled. Then he cast a glance up at the ceiling. “Do you think I should get an umbrella?”
It took her a moment, but then the peals of her laughter rang through the room.
Together, she silently vowed, they would refuse to be daunted, no matter what peril the future might hold. Love and laughter would help them to surmount any obstacles. The shape-shifter had found his lady, and she had finally come home.
SEA CROSSING
Virginia Kantra
For Kristen
