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  I wanted to laugh. He was right. He had sneaked into my bedroom at Zandra’s house and asked me to choose him. I’d been so convinced that I didn’t know him well enough to choose to marry him that I refused to let my mind know what my heart already felt. In my mind, I had to know everything about him, every obscure detail, before I could be in love with him.

  At least that’s what I’d thought before Zandra told me she’d murdered him. Then the reality of the situation hit me: Drake was kind, generous, protective, sexy, and he’d been willing to break his engagement with Bianca just for the chance that I might choose him.

  To humans, breaking engagements was fairly common; it was much different for Centaurs. Breaking an engagement could result in a blood debt and could end a family’s bloodline. I was threatened with paying the blood debt for my mother breaking her engagement with Kyle Richardson. An arranged marriage between Gage Richardson and me had been brokered by his father and my grandmother; luckily, Gage didn’t want it any more than I did.

  For Drake to want to take a chance on me the way he did, while he was betrothed to Bianca was the same as putting his desire for me before his obligation to his family. If things didn’t work out between us, he didn’t have any siblings who would carry on the bloodline, and his family’s blood would end with him.

  That’s not the kind of love you can stumble across at the beach. It was the rip your heart out, put everything you had to give into another’s hands, and hope that they love you back. It seriously worked, because once we escaped, I didn’t need years, or months, or weeks to decide. The details of his life up to this point were far less important than the man who lay beside me.

  No matter what I learned, it wouldn’t change how I felt. But there was so much about him I didn’t know, and I wanted to know everything. Since he was giving me free range to ask anything, I let my interrogation begin. “You work for your dad; what do you do?”

  “My father owns a residential construction business. I work wherever he needs me: laying foundations, hanging drywall, digging ditches, basically anything except plumbing and electric. The hours suck, it always feels like I need a shower, and I’m exhausted when I get home at night. Pretty glamorous, right?”

  “Doesn’t sound like much fun. Have you ever wanted to do anything else?”

  “There are good parts, too. At the end of the day, I can see what I’ve accomplished. I think most jobs don’t give you the satisfaction of ever really being done. If I worked at a bank, or in a store, or as a teacher, every day would be a lot like the previous day. I would never really finish anything and say, ‘hey, look what I did,’ so from that perspective, I’ll always want a job building something. What about you?”

  “I don’t have a career or anything. I was a cashier when I lived in California, but I’ve been gone long enough that I’m sure I’ve lost that job. Any hobbies?”

  “None that I can’t live without. The weather’s great in South Carolina from September through June, so I’m usually up for anything. You?” Drake’s hand began caressing my shoulder. His touch sent shivers through me a second time.

  “I’m used to California, so beach days in the summer, snow skiing in the winter, movies, dance clubs – nothing out of the norm. Daniel and I get together around each other’s work schedules, and fit in whatever we have time for.”

  Drake’s brows raised, “Daniel? Who’s Daniel?”

  I couldn’t believe I’d never mentioned Daniel to Drake. “Daniel’s my best friend. We’ve known each other since elementary school.” I could see the questioning look on Drake’s face – the same one I’d gotten from every guy I’d ever dated. I needed to elaborate before he’d jump to the wrong conclusion. “I can see it in your face, so I’ll just answer now. No, he’s not an ex-boyfriend. No, we’ve never been on a real date together. No, I don’t have romantic feelings for him. And no, we’ve never slept together.”

  Drake looked like I’d offended him, “What makes you think I would need that kind of reassurance?”

  “Every guy does.”

  Drake’s eyebrows furrowed. “I’m not like other guys, Camille. I don’t care if your best friend’s a man, not unless he’s devastatingly handsome, a rocket scientist, or a celebrity.” He paused for a moment and added, “But for curiosity’s sake, what qualifies as a ‘real’ date?”

  “Daniel isn’t hard on the eyes, but it’s never been like that with us. We were always each other’s automatic guest for friends’ weddings, school dances, work holiday parties, that kind of stuff. I can’t wait for you to meet him. I should probably call him. I wonder if there’s a phone on the plane?”

  I looked around the bedroom but didn’t see one. As I moved to get out of the bed, a hand caught my wrist and pulled me back, leaning me back into the mattress. “Not so fast.” Drake hovered over me on the bed. His mouth slowly closed the distance with mine. I’d kissed him since our escape, but this one was different. This kiss was slow, methodical, deep.

  I felt his hand cup the back of my neck, my mouth molding to his. Having been denied contact for so long, Drake’s kiss sent sharp shivers through my body. My hands instinctively began running up and down his silhouette. I was ravenous, hungry. . . starving for his touch.

  The shivers morphed from tingles to full-fledged desire. I wanted to feel his skin against mine, for him to gather me in his arms and to stay lost there. Drake rolled onto his side, his icy blue eyes reflecting the longing I was sure my eyes were broadcasting to him. Drake brought his hand to my face and caressed my cheek with his knuckles. His voice was intense when he softly said, “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

  I closed my eyes, savoring all the fantastic feelings ripping through me. I thought of what he had said to me last night, “Tell me your promise again, Drake.”

  I kept my eyes closed but could hear the smile in his voice when he leaned in close to my ear, feeling the warmth of his breath as much as hearing his words: “I promise to protect you. I promise always to put your needs before mine. I promise I’ll never let you go to bed angry, and you’ll never wake up alone. I promise to love you the rest of my life, and when this life is over, I’ll spend my eternity in the pasture with you.”

  I wasn’t sure if that was some Centaur creed or what, but I loved how it rolled off his tongue. Drake had promised eternity to me. My heart was pounding hard in my chest, my blood ablaze. I reached over, grabbed both sides of his t-shirt and tugged it over his head. Drake’s eyes opened wide while the sight of him nearly took my breath away. My hands were drawn to his chiseled chest; his muscles screamed for me to press myself against them. Without hesitation, I stretched over his naked chest as a gravelly moan escaped his lips. I could feel his heartbeat pounding in sync with mine, his breathing labored, “Camille, we’d better slow down unless you think one of the pilots doubles as a priest.”

  I had nearly forgotten. I was so lost in the moment with Drake that it was easy to toss out a few of the Centaur rules that seemed stupid to me. I understood thousands of years of traditions wouldn’t be able to dissolve in front of my eyes, but it didn’t mean I had to like them. Drake had grown up as a Centaur, where acceptable behavior didn’t include pre-marital anything; instead marrying as early as sixteen was encouraged. These practices were archaic to me.

  I’d grown up in California, as a human. Mom had turned her back on Centaurs and all the rules that governed them. She had never once acknowledged that either of us was something other than a normal human, and she never discouraged me from any kind of dating.

  I think I got some form of sex-ed classes in school every year from sixth grade up. Sure, most of the curriculum talked about abstaining, but in reality the teachers focused on safe-sex and pregnancy prevention. I had never put the premium on abstaining that Drake did, because no one I knew thought that way. On the flip side of the coin, none of my friends were willing, nor would their parents have allowed them, to be married at sixteen the way Centaurs did.

  I was twenty-two,
and marriage wasn’t anything I’d ever given a second thought to. I loved him, I was sure I’d never want another, but I wasn’t willing to elope with him. I had a feeling that as long as I clung to my desire not to be married, Drake would cling just as hard to his belief that “uniting” before marriage was off the table. I knew exactly where his beliefs came from and how far entrenched they were in his mind. Regardless of what I thought of them, I was sure he wouldn’t miraculously change his mind here.

  Drake detangled himself from me, “That wasn’t much of an interrogation, but if that’s the response I get: ask another question. I thought you’d want me to start at kindergarten and work my way forward.”

  Still distracted by his shirtless body next to me, I said, “Oh, all right. I’ve met your mom; since she’s the reason we were able to escape, I already like her. What’s your dad like?”

  Drake’s demeanor changed when he answered, “He’s Centaur. Very set in his ways. He doesn’t mix with humans, at all, not even in his business. Humans see houses he’s built and try to hire him – he won’t even return their calls.”

  “Really?” That statement made my heart skip a beat when I remembered what his mother had told me yesterday. “Your mom told me that you’d asked them about breaking your engagement with Bianca. She told me, at the time, she thought you wanted a human. How did that conversation go?”

  “Mom basically told me to do what made me happy. . . Dad glared. I knew what his reaction would be when I asked; I was more hoping for my mom to be okay with it.”

  “But you didn’t tell her you wanted to break it off to be with another Centauride?”

  Drake’s expression was shy, and I wondered if he was going to answer me at first. When he spoke, his eyes locked on mine, “I didn’t know if you felt the same for me, Cami.”

  Having not grown up with two parents, the dynamics of two people with opposite belief systems sounded foreign. “If she had been against it, neither of us would be here right now, would we?”

  “The fact that Bianca was still in love with Gage had a lot to do with me wondering if I could go through with marrying her – I’d thought that even before I met you. My parents are like most Centaurs: they didn’t know each other that well in the beginning. They started a family and a life together, but love for each other wasn’t one of their priorities. I wasn’t sure how they’d feel about me breaking my engagement, regardless of the circumstances.”

  “That’s sad.”

  “It’s not happy or sad, Cami. It just is what it is.”

  “It’s not sad that you almost married someone you didn’t love? Someone you knew would never love you back? By standing up for yourself and breaking the engagement, you risked your parents disowning you. You don’t think that’s sad?”

  A smile began to creep across his face. “When you put it that way, it’s a little sad. But there are things we get to experience that humans will never know the pleasure of.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like running so fast it feels like you’re flying. Being united with another where words are no longer required because you are so attuned to them you can hear their thoughts and share in their joy. Those are things humans never experience, and I think that’s sad.” Drake looked away. He was searching for a subject change when he asked, “You haven’t told me much about your mom. What was she like?”

  Almost no one had asked me about her. Lots of people told me they were sorry for my loss, but no one would know why that loss was such a big gaping hole because no one knew her like I did. “She was intensely private. She didn’t hang out with other moms. She wasn’t on any school committees and only came to the school when she had to for conferences. She only had one friend that I knew of. She was always working, but Mom always had time for whatever was important to me.”

  I stopped for a second, remembering how she told me, “Everything in life is your choice. Choose wisely.” I’d heard that phrase from her my whole life, but I didn’t understand its double meaning until after she died.

  “I went through a phase where I told her I wanted to be a Marine Biologist – she worked it out so I could help a Marine Biologist from SDSU. After that lost some of its novelty, I decided I wanted to be a cop; she pulled some strings so that she and I could ride along with a cop a couple of weekends. Whatever I told her I was interested in, she found a way to help me do it. She’s everything I ever wanted to be . . . I still want to be.”

  Drake was still caressing my cheek with his knuckles, “But she never told you about Centaurs?”

  I shook my head, “Nothing. It’s almost like, in her mind, she wasn’t one. I guess I shouldn’t claim to know her mind, but since I showed up in South Carolina, every Centaur kind of lets it run their lives – she wasn’t like that at all.”

  Drake shook his head, “It doesn’t run our lives. It’s who we are.”

  “Only because you let it be who you are. My feelings for you don’t have anything to do with you being a Centaur. You could be a human house painter, and I’d feel the same way.” Drake looked away, and I worried I’d unintentionally struck a nerve.

  I needed for him to understand, “I feel the way I do because you risked everything that was important to you, with no promise that I’d feel the same for you. When it was obvious Bianca loved Gage, you didn’t try to guilt her into staying with you. You didn’t try to force her to marry you. You were willing to let her be with Gage – you found a way to be happy for them. When I was teetering on the edge of folding in on myself from loneliness at Zandra’s house, you appeared out of nowhere to back me off of the ledge.”

  A smile emerged at the memory, “Your crazy idea to sneak into my room, after everything I’d learned about traditions, rules, and acceptable behavior – that’s not something a Centaur does.” My fingers grazed his cheek as his eyes smoldered at my confession, “That was something a man in love does, someone who was willing to kiss his carefully laid out future good-bye. That’s why I fell in love with you.”

  Drake wrapped both his hands on either side of my face and pulled my mouth to his. Just before our lips touched, “I’m glad you noticed, Love. I was running out of ideas.”

  As my thoughts swam wildly, I wondered how long kissing him would be enough? My whole body ached for his touch. I loved the way my body reacted to his. How long could I hold out before I was willing to give in and be married to him? Or would I be able to convince him to give in to the desire he felt for me?

  Chapter 3

  (Camille – Dublin, Ireland)

  We landed in Dublin. One of the pilots, Chip, met us at the stairs before we could depart. “Mr. Strayer set up reservations for you; he just sent them to us.” Chip handed me the piece of paper, “We’ll refuel now. My number’s on that sheet of paper. As soon as you’re ready to go, send me a text, and we’ll meet you here at the plane. Any idea how long you think we’ll stay?”

  Drake shook his head, “Sorry, Chip, it could be a day, or we may be here for several weeks.”

  “Understood. We’ll need at least thirty minutes to file a flight plan and do a pre-flight check, so if you’re going to be in a hurry, give us as much notice as you can.”

  It took all of three seconds to realize we needed to find some clothes. It had been cool in the evenings at home, but we stepped out of the airport into what felt like an icebox. Icebox is a relative term, but having never been beyond the balmy weather of the southeast and southwest United States, the air was wet and cold. The low temperature coupled with wet air chilled me all the way to the bone: it was rainy and in the mid-forties, while we were dressed for eighty degrees.

  We found our hotel, a clothes shop that specialized in wool coats and socks, a shoe store with a sub-zero guarantee on their hiking boots, and a bookstore that carried local maps. I had expected the Ireland I’d always seen in the tourist brochures. The dirt roads, emerald green pastures that went on as far as the eye could see, the cobblestone streets hundreds of years old, the clip-clopping of horse dr
awn carriages – wherever they shot those pictures, it sure wasn’t Dublin.

  Dublin had an energy all its own. Pubs lined street corners, roof-top bars blared dance music, and enthusiastic voices echoed to the passersby on the street. Cars littered the street with the same hustle and bustle of any major city I’d ever seen.

  When Drake said we were going to be looking for the pasture of Thessaly, in my mind we weren’t going to look for it on foot – I was wrong. We had bundled up to prepare for the next ice age and driven our rental car south of Dublin.

  Once we were nearly an hour south of the city, we took a roundabout; eventually the pavement disappeared, and we found ourselves on a road with little more than one lane. Each time a car approached us, I squinted, hoping both cars would fit on the tiny road. Sheep seemed to own as much of the road as the cars, and fifteen minutes after we’d turned off the main thoroughfare, we found ourselves in our first traffic jam.

  Rather than a mangled car blocking the road ahead, it was a flock of sheep that decided enough traffic had passed, and they were in no hurry to yield the right of way. Cottages with thatched roofs littered the countryside. The further we drove south, the more it felt like we were going back in time.

  We were here to find my Uncle Zethus, who supposedly lived in the pasture of Thessaly and had an arrow with magical powers. I gazed out the window trying to remember the story Zandra had told me. A light caress on my arm turned my head. Drake kept his eyes on the road as his fingers nimbly wrapped around my hand. His thumb caressed the top of my hand, shooting tingles up my arm.

  I loved the sensations he could give me with almost no effort on his part. As my mind wandered to the light touch on my hand, a question came to mind. “What do you know about the arrow?”