Fine. I preferred my spritemead over a date with a boy anyway.
Gathering my purse, I left my mouse-mug and the papery dough cake on the table and headed out into the early afternoon sunshine.
Orlando at least had the weather right. Muggy, hot, and oh-so bright. I smiled as I wandered toward the portal, absorbing the elements along the way. The tropical plants here wouldn’t survive easily in my home world, but maybe I could manufacture a greenhouse to accommodate them.
I paused to touch a particularly beautiful tree with large green leaves sprouting from the top. Mmm, this would be easy to—
Pain shot up my side as something hard rammed into me, sending me several steps forward. “Sorry!” a human shouted as he pedaled by on a two-wheeled contraption.
A bicycle, my memory supplied, recalling a course on mortal transportation.
I glowered after him, ready to give him a piece of my mind, when a hand brushed my arm. “Are you all right?” a deep, masculine voice asked, the accent decidedly smooth.
“Oh, I, yes. Thanks.” I glanced up into a pair of ice-blue eyes, the color and perfection of the irises stunning me into silence.
“Are you sure?” he pressed, his fingers trailing up my arm and leaving a trail of goose bumps in their wake. His lips kicked upward, revealing a pair of dimples that didn’t seem to match his ruggedly square jaw or the dark brown stubble dotting his chin.
A proper five o’clock shadow, I mused. Then blinked. Wait, why do I care about such a thing?
“Careful, beautiful,” he cautioned, his arm sliding around my waist. “You’re swaying.”
“I am?” I whispered, my throat going dry as his intoxicating scent surrounded me. Mmm, a dark spice tinted with an earthy aroma. I leaned into him, pressing my side into his hard torso.
Melting.
Falling.
Ensnared by his masculinity and grace.
That’s not right, I thought, frowning. I don’t even know this guy.
I attempted to step away, only my feet refused my mental command.
What’s happening to—
“You’re bleeding,” he murmured, his hold tightening as his opposite hand drifted across my arm.
I glanced down to see the trickle of red oozing from my skin.
And blinked.
“How?” I asked, trying to shake myself out of this daze, to force my legs to work. But I felt spellbound, lost to the stranger’s touch, as if being pulled into a dream.
A part of me recognized the magic, felt the dark tendrils of it seeping into my pores. With it brought memories of the time I nearly died, how I’d fought to cling to the source of my existence in a futile effort to save everyone but myself.
“The bike,” the stranger beside me said softly, drawing me from the nightmarish image threatening to capture my mind. “He clipped you as he took the corner. Clumsy fool.”
“Oh.” I swallowed. “I’m… okay.”
Minus the daydreamy state I’d lost my senses to.
The world shifted as he moved us into the doorway of a building, one I recognized as my destination. Odd. I could have sworn that was a block away.
Who is this guy? Why is he holding me?
His arm loosened, giving me a chance to flee, but I found my back pressed up to a wall instead, my vision lost to a haze of momentary darkness.
Something’s wrong. A thought that had tried to appear moments ago, only to disappear beneath this strange magnetism. Whatever spell he’d cast over me had my mind short-circuiting, my body bending beneath his command.