Sean turned to me, his gaze burning with a mixture of anger and desire. "I'll wait for you in the inn's parlor." He left the room, sucking all of the air from my lungs.

"Dear me." Aunt Lavinia fanned her flushed cheeks as she approached me. "Do you think it's safe to go? He looked a bit upset, dear."

"Oh, Cassie, this is wonderful!" Gemini clapped her hands. "We'll have a wedding fit for a queen!"

"My word, Cassie, he's exactly like the viscount, only more, more...dangerous. I think you had better stay here." Andromeda reached for my hand. The moment she touched me, her eyes widened and a hot blush rushed to her cheeks. "You love him."

I pulled my hand away before she could discern anything else, especially about Mary. It wasn't the time or the place to tell them about Mary tonight, and Sean and I had a great deal to discuss at the moment. "I'll be back in the morning and we'll talk about everything. I have much to tell you," I said. "Meanwhile, I suggest you ladies retire before everyone's reputation is ruined. You aren't drinking cocktails again?" I asked, studying their flushed states a little closer.

"Certainly not." Aunt Lavinia huffed out her generous bosom. "I'm chaperoning this venture. Surely that is acceptable."

"It's almost midnight and this looks to be as close to a gentleman's gaming hell as you will find outside of London. There are no other guests from the village present, and the men are all bachelors."

"Yes, I know dear," Aunt Lavinia blinked, as if agog at the thought. "Such manly ones too," she whispered. "But I wonder how it became so late? Why, we we're just having dinner a short time ago, then decided to play cards. It must have been the viscount's spiced wine that made me lose track of time."

"Spiced wine," I choked out. Good Lord. They were all slightly inebriated with an aphrodisiac!

"Yes, a most invigorating beverage you simply must try. Mustn't she, my lord?"

Turning, I found the viscount studying me very intently. "So, you're the absent sister who's been conducting an important investigation? On my brother, it would seem."

"I haven't time for explanations now. I'm sorry to be rude, but everything will have to be said later. For now, I must go. And my aunt and my sisters shall immediately retire to our apartment without any more spiced wine to guide their way."

After giving my aunt a pointed look, I ducked from the room with my sisters and my aunt gasping at my rudeness, to a viscount no less. But I had to call a halt to the evening's shenanigans and I couldn't wait another minute to see Sean, whom the viscount was not, no matter how much they looked alike.

I entered the parlor ready for battle. It was empty. "Sean." I searched the shadowed corners. Feeling a breeze, I saw the French doors stood ajar and I moved that way.

He stood in the moonlight at the end of the terrace, gazing out at the sea. The wind brushed his dark hair and ruffled his cape. He had one boot planted on a low stone wall, his hand resting on his bent knee, looking so haunted, so handsome, so alone. My heart tumbled over itself, reaching out to him before I could rein it in. My love for this man of shadows and the night ruled my every day.

"We have to talk, Sean." I moved to him. He kept his gaze on the sea, drawing mine to it as well.

"Yes, lass, we do. I received your note."

"You weren't supposed to until morning. I've barely left the castle. How?"

"I had to see you. I went to your room and found you and Bridget gone, and nearly leveled the castle with my fear that something had happened to you. Prudence enlightened me as to the letter and to your flight." He turned to me, a man who'd lured my heart into his darkness, and left me there alone. "I don't suppose you've been able to tell your family about Mary yet. Do you need to go see them before we talk?"

"No. I've decided to wait until morning. A few hours won't change anything and given their state of mind at the moment, it would be crueler to tell them now than to wait. They think I've returned to the castle, and those at the castle think I'm at the inn."

"Good. We have some time to be together, then. To talk. If you are well enough to do so?" His gaze searched mine as he reached out and brushed a strand of hair from my face. "I'm sorry about Mary. I know your heart grieves," he said softly I drew a deep breath of the sea air. "She was a beautiful, giving woman. I cared for her deeply and shall miss her. But my heart is more at peace now than in great sorrow. Since dreaming of her death, I've had time to accept that she's gone. Staying so busy at the castle, becoming involved with everyone there that Mary cared about, has taken away a lot of the pain. I fear my aunt and sisters haven't fared as well."

"They didn't appear stricken this evening."

"No. I think they are inside, though, and are desperately latching on to any reason not to think about Mary. Your friends and your brother are giving them ample fodder to fuel their escape. Both times that I've seen my sisters in the gentlemen's company, they've been in their cups so to speak, cocktails at breakfast and spiced wine for dinner."

"Spiced wine for all of them?" Sean's chest heaved a little as he choked back a laugh.

"It's not amusing," I said. "Considering its...its stimulating properties, I would think you'd be outraged on my behalf that men in your association are practically seducing my entire family."

"I fear I have a confession to make. The wine is no more stimulating than gingerbread cookies or flavored candy. In fact, it is even less inebriating than regular wine. You only feel its effects because it is sweeter and you tend to drink more."

Surely not, I thought. Just the memory of that night, the flushed warmth and tingling need stealing through me, captured my senses again. "Then why did you infer otherwise?"

Leaning closer, he whispered in my ear. "The power of suggestion has a tremendous effect on the mind and the senses, and I was bent on seducing you. Kissing you. Touching you. Making love to you."

My breath caught, my breasts grew heavy, my flesh damp. "Why?" I whispered, wanting to know his heart, wanting to hear him say that he loved me, just as I had told him.

He cupped my cheek then slid his hand down to press against my breast, over my thudding heart. "Can you honestly not know? Lord woman. What you have done to my life!" He brushed his lips over mine, lightly, so unexpectedly that I didn't have time to respond before he pulled me into his tight embrace, speaking softly into my ear. "I want to dance beneath the stars now, and nothing less will do. You've turned my world upside down, taken everything I believed to be irrevocable and ripped it apart. You came to me last night, gave me your heart and soul, and though I selfishly took that moment, I knew I had no right to more. No right to bring you into the darkness of my world. I still don't have the right."

"Yes, you do." I lifted my head from the solid warmth of his chest to gaze into the moonlit sea of his eyes. "I-"

He brushed another kiss to my lips. "Shh, let me finish."

"After you left me in the library earlier, I went back to my rooms, determined that my life would go on as before. I'd built a world over the past eight years in which I could content myself, to some measure, until my days in this godforsaken life should end. But there you were, in my bed. You were in my study. You were in the music room. You were in the castle, so I went outside to escape you and walked to the edge of the sea and you were there as well, in the stars, in the caressing wind. In my mind. I once told you that I would give up this life in a heartbeat. That is no longer true. I cling to every heartbeat now, Cassie, because you are in my heart as well."

"You mean, you weren't just being noble and trying to save me from scandal?"

He grabbed my shoulders. "God no. Noble would be to send you away. Noble would be to never let you decide if you wish to live your life during the hours of the night. Noble would be never to subject you and future generations to the Dragon's Curse. I am being wholly selfish in wanting you with me, wanting you to share my life, such as it is. I will do everything in my power to escape fate, yet I can't demand that you share it. I love you. I want you to marry me, but I won't accept your answer until morning."

My heart swelled with the passion pouring from him to me. "There's no need to wait. My answer-"

He pressed his finger to my lips. "Not until morning." He stepped back, taking my hand in his. "Come let me show you of my love until then. We've had little time together. Tonight will be our night." He urged me down the steps. His horse waited at the back of the inn. He mounted, then pulled me into his lap to sit side saddle before leading the horse down to the shore.

Once on the sand, he came to a stop. "If we're going to do this often, you're going to have to give up sitting properly."

"What do you mean?"

"Too much pressure on my hip." Sliding his arm about my middle, he lifted me off his lap a little. "Move one leg to the other side of the horse to sit astride."

"But-"

He pulled my skirts up, exposing my stockings and drawers from the thighs down. "You're covered completely and no one will see."

I slid my leg over, feeling very strange as my thighs settled against his and my bottom pressed intimately to his body and the saddle pressed against me. He groaned softly in my ear, pushing harder against me. "I want you."

I gasped, as fire spread through me.

Keeping one hand under my breasts, about my waist, he urged the horse on until we were racing across the sand. Salty wind and humid mist buffeted us as my body melded to his and the freedom of the flight filled me, making me want to dance and laugh and sing all at the same time.

"This is how being with you makes me feel, lass." The need vibrating in his voice shivered down my spine.

"You do the same for me." I leaned my head back against his shoulder and angled my face to press a kiss to his neck. He turned his lips to mine and covered my mouth with his. His lips and tongue were hot and demanding as he tangled his passion with mine then set us both on fire by sliding his hand to cup my breast, kneading its softness to an aching point. Breathing raggedly, he brought the horse to a stop.

"I want you in the moonlight." He slid from the horse and reached for me.

Unsure, I placed my hand in his, feeling his warmth and his strength in his grip, and the fire gleaming in his eyes. He led me up from the water's edge and the damp shoreline until we reached the soft powder of sun-warmed sand where the moon made a silver bed of light.

"First, dance with me beneath the stars. Let me feel you move against me, with me, to the music in our minds."

I walked into his embrace and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his body as close to me as I had the strength to do. He began to hum as he swayed with me beneath the stars, the wind and the salty breeze caressing me as his deep voice and the feel of his supple flesh against mine enlivened me until I nearly burst with the need for more. "Touch me," I whispered. "Kiss me. Make me yours."

He laughed. "Oh, I will. There's no doubt of it. I want to see the cream of your skin set aglow by the moon. I have a number of things in mind to experience with you tonight." Stepping back, he slid his cape off and spread it on the ground.

Then he kissed me deeply, his deft fingers undoing the buttons of my dress to touch me. "I want you naked beneath the stars." With skilled determination, he set out to satisfy his want. Soon my dress fell to the sand, then my chemise, my drawers and boots, leaving only my dark stockings and garters. "Lay down for me, Cassie."

Moving to the black cape, I lay back against the silk lining, smelling his scent and that of worn leather. Kneeling beside me, he threaded his finger through my hair, spreading it out about me. "Your hair is the sun that I can see without pain."

Then he moved my arms up, sliding my fingers behind my neck, bringing my breasts higher. He kissed me, groaning so deeply that my stomach clenched in anticipation. Leaving my lips, he nipped my neck with a tingling bite.

"How much have you read of Powerful Vampires and Their Lovers?" he asked.

I blinked, trying to think past the pleasure rippling through me and the luring almost fearful tension of being naked outside and making love beneath a full moon. "What?"

"The book you are reading, remember?" He smiled.

"Not...not past 'Forbidden Fruit'."

"Good. Then tonight will be a surprise." He nipped my neck and breasts again with tiny, almost stinging but pleasure-inducing bites that tingled as the coolness of the air replaced the heat of his mouth. "Don't move." Sliding his hands down from my breasts, he brushed over my stomach and eased off each stocking, spreading my legs far apart as he finished.

"Sean, this feels-"

"Sensual, Cassie. Don't mistake the excitement God meant for a man and a woman to share for something wrong or sinful. It is what we were created to be." He stood at my feet, between my legs, looking down at me, and stripped off his clothes as I watched. Like velvet covered marble, his body gleamed in the moonlight, a mixture of light skin and dark hair, hard need and supple muscle. He was beautiful and powerful in an elemental way, and his desire for me, so evident in his arousal, filled me with a hungering satisfaction that only making love to him could satiate.

He fell to his knees between my legs and planted his hands on either side of me so that he could lean over me. Once again he nipped at my skin, starting with my breasts until they throbbed with pleasure, their tips hard and wanting. I tried to reach for him, but he pressed my arms back down as he rose to his knees to look at me. "For now, just feel the pleasure I want to give you."

In a swift move, he slid his hands beneath my hips, lifting me until only my shoulders rested against the ground and his face was...

"Heavens," I cried. "Whatever are you doin-"

"Feasting." His mouth covered my femininity, nipping and laving until I wept from the fiery pleasure, but he never nipped just the right place. My breaths grew short and raspy, my skin became fevered, my pulse raced until my body throbbed. "Sean. Sean...please." I arched to him, and his kiss finally centered on the very heart of my burning flesh. My eyes widened to see the stars as pleasure burst inside of me. Then he rose above me. Looking directly into my eyes so I could see his soul, he entered me, thrusting deep inside me as my body shuddered with the pleasure he'd given me. More pleasure washed over me, again and again in rippling waves that moved in tandem to his frenzied thrusts into me.

"Cassie," he cried, plunging then shuddering.

"Sean," I called out as spirit, soul and body soared beyond the stars into a blinding light of pleasure so shattering that my vision went black and my mind went blank.

"Cassie! Cassie!" I blinked, opening my eyes, surprised to find myself wrapped in Sean's arms.

I frowned. "What happened?"

"I think you forgot to breathe and fainted. How do you feel?"

"Exquisite. I saw beyond the stars."

"You did?"

"Yes. Having an astronomer for a husband will prove quite useful."

He bowed his head to mine. "Don't give me your answer until morning, Cassie. There are things you don't understand yet." He pushed me up from the comfort of his lap. "Get dressed."

We did, scrambling in the sand, shaking off our garments before sliding them on. I wished I hadn't ruined the moment. I went to him as he picked up his cape. "The last time you said to get dressed, I didn't like what followed."

He slid his cape over my shoulders. He didn't say anything, but gazed at me, intently serious.

I didn't like the silence. "If you love me and I love you, then why wait till morning before accepting my answer?"

He sighed. "There is only one reason why I would ever let you go now and that is if you don't want to stay."

"I can't imagine why I wouldn't."

"I can. Come, and I will show you."

Sean took me back to the castle, where we entered through his study. Tonight, as on the other night, there were roses and food and wine set on the table waiting, but the hearth was cold and the candles unlit. He set that to rights immediately, yet instead of lighting all six candles, he only lit two.

"First let's eat and then I have to show you something."

"Show me now."

"No. I want more time with you first."

He poured spiced wine, which, no matter how much he denied it, I still thought had stimulating properties. For as we ate, my body warmed then tingled, bringing a sense of anticipation that had me watching Sean's every expression, his every movement. I settled my gaze on his lips as he slipped tiny bites of cheese and fruit into the heat of his mouth. I remembered just how his mouth made me feel and everything inside of me burned for more.

When he took my hand, I thought he'd lead me to his bedchamber, but he didn't. He led me to the sofa before the fire. Then going to a shelf in the back corner of the room, he returned with a large, ancient looking book, and set it on the small table before the sofa.

"What's this?"

"The Dragon's Curse." Opening the book, he showed me a thousand years of Killdaren history, and whenever twins had been born, one had killed the other. This was why he honestly believed in his impending fate.

"How do you know twins will be born? Are they always born? That seems impossible." So many questions rambled through my mind.

Sean shook his head. "Ask one at a time. No one knows when the twins will be born. Many times they are not, but when they are..." He shrugged. "The evidence is there."

"But why? How?"

"The Tuatha de Danaan."

"The fairies?"

"The queen cursed my family for eternity."

"Why?"

"I am still searching through books to find the reason. It has to do with the spirit of Dragons being born and suffering the depth of betrayal." He shut the book, but left his hand on top as if he couldn't quite let go of it. "There has yet to be a way to break the curse."

"But what if you and your brother had never known of the curse?"

"I don't think it would have changed things. We were born with our hands about each other's throats. My only hope for a life with you is to never see my brother, to continue to look for an answer, and pray we don't have twins."

I set my hand over his. "I believe love can conquer anything. Even this. Is this why you won't accept my answer until morning?"