Dreams Made Flesh

couldn't have that immediate assurance that she was still with him? *No.*
    As soon as Ladvarian trotted back to Jaenelle's room, Daemon stripped out of his clothes and shrugged into a robe that was a token gesture of modesty. He didn't need it for warmth. The warming spells he'd put on Jaenelle's suite of rooms and this one guaranteed she wouldn't catch a chill.
    The fire burning low in the hearth was enough light to see by as he made his way to her bed, shrugged off the robe, and slipped under the covers. The bed, specially built and strengthened with Craft to accommodate Kaelas, the eight-hundred-pound Arcerian cat who had slept with Jaenelle since she brought him home as an orphaned kitten, meant he could sleep with her without fear of bumping her during the night and causing an injury.
    As he pulled the covers up, he heard the change in her breathing, felt her roll onto her back.
    "Go back to sleep, sweetheart," he said softly. "It's just me."
    "Daemon." She sank back into the deep sleep her body demanded.
    Propped up on one elbow, Daemon watched her sleep for a long time. Had he heard longing in that one word?
    He shifted closer to her. Then he reached out and touched the ends of her golden hair. The kindred had used Craft to crop her hair very short. A practical thing to do while they'd tended her body when she was still connected to the healing webs. It had grown out enough to look shaggy. It was also the one thing he could touch without fear of hurting her.
    So he brushed his fingertips over her hair, wishing she was healed enough that he could brush his lips over hers, could slip his tongue into her mouth and kiss her the way he wanted to kiss her.
    Someday he would be able to kiss her that way again. Someday he would be able to do a lot more than just kiss her.
    He wouldn't allow himself to believe anything else.
----
    Three
    « ^ »
    Too restless to sleep, Lektra paced her bedroom. Roxie's scheme had to work. It had to. They would stir rumors and provide nuggets of information that, if strung the wrong way, would ruin a man's reputation. They would also be Daemon Sadi's most vocal defenders. In the end, when he was freed of his obligation to take care of that crippled invalid, he would feel grateful to the woman who had loved him enough to publicly defend him against the charges of infidelity.
    And she did love him. She did. So why should that beautiful, virile man be trapped playing nursemaid to a woman who no longer had any use for him? Why should he spend the next few decades sitting by a sickbed, reading aloud to a lump of flesh? Or, worse, why should he have to hide his revulsion if Jaenelle Angelline still wanted something sexual from him?
    She'd fallen in love with Daemon the first time she'd seen him over a year ago. He had come to Amdarh with Jaenelle to shop for Winsol gifts and attend a few parties before returning to SaDiablo Hall to celebrate Winsol with their family and Jaenelle's First Circle. It had made sense that he would have agreed to be Jaenelle's Consort. At the time, she'd been the Queen of Ebon Askavi…-the most powerful Queen in Kaeleer. Every strong, ambitious male who had been trained for a consort's duties had wanted to wear the ring Daemon had worn on his left hand. But Daemon, beautiful Daemon, had won that coveted position.
    And no wonder. He'd looked at Jaenelle as if no other woman existed…
    or would ever exist. And when they danced together, every move he made was a prelude to the bedroom dance, a promise of what he could offer in private. Even when it was a dance that required several couples, you could see him bank that sexual heat when he turned to another partner, could watch it flare as soon as his hand touched Jaenelle's.
    An exquisite male. The kind of male that made all the others seem lacking in some essential.
    She would have waited for him to be free of his contract. After all, the Eve years he was required to serve in Jaenelle s court was nothing to someone who came from one of the long-lived races. Once his contract was completed, he would have been free to look elsewhere for a lover. She'd even tried to join the Dark Court so they could be together in some way. But the letter she'd received from the Steward made it clear there were no plans to expand the Dark Court to accommodate all the Blood who were offering to serve.
    Then there was all that talk of a war between Kaeleer and Terreille, and news of fighting in other Territories. And then there was that