Page 100 of One True Love (Love Mark 1)

“No,” he said slowly, only to shrug. “But maybe I made that idea up in my head because I wanted to show you something you’d never seen before. I mean, sharing something with you that I thought was your first experience did make it more meaningful to me. So, it could’ve just been a coincidence that it really was your first view.”

“Maybe,” I murmured. “Or maybe we have more control in each other’s dreams than we originally thought.”

“I guess that’s possible,” he drew out slowly, studying my expression with a slight frown. “But why are you saying this as if it’s a bad thing?”

“Because it is,” I insisted. “Because if I had any kind of control in that dream, then...then the things I said to you, the things I felt for you…there might be some truth to them. And if there’s any truth to them, then…”

“Then you’re starting to fall for me,” he surmised quietly, his eyes flaring with instant pleasure.

I hissed out a harassed breath and pressed my hand to my brow. “But we can’t have that,” I muttered, shaking my head insistently. “We can’t have that.”

“Why not?” he asked, amusement littering his voice.

“Because!” I dropped my fingers to send him an incredulous glance. “That would have problems written all over it. We absolutely cannot be together, Urban. I’m not—”

“I know,” he muttered, sending me a moody scowl. “I know we can’t be together in the real world. But what’s the harm in letting it play out in our dreams? No one else knows about them, and it’s not like it’s really happening, so—”

“No!” I cried. “No.” Shaking my head, I pressed my hand to my chest. “Not even there is safe, anymore. It feels wrong.” When he frowned and opened his mouth to protest, I quickly added, “Last night was just too real. It feels as if I’m giving you some unfair false hope for something that could never be, and it…it’s making me a disloyal person.”

“Vienne,” he whispered, shaking his head and stepping toward me, but I held up a hand, and he paused.

“I know you’re going to repeat that it’s only a dream so we’re not really doing anything wrong, but I feel wrong.” Eyes glittering with tears, I shook my head. “In my heart, I’m being unfaithful.”

Because I wanted the dreams to be real.

His shoulders fell, and I watched the fight drain out of him. Agony entered his eyes as he bowed his head and nodded. “Okay, then,” he said in a suddenly hoarse voice. “What do we do to stop the dreams?”

“I don’t know.” My laugh was watery and hopeless as I looked up at the ceiling and then wiped the moisture from my eyes. “Is that even possible?”

He shrugged. “I always dream less after drinking too much ale. I suppose I could get drunk every night before bed.”

I laughed at his offer, though I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. I would never have him do such a thing. But the alternative was…there was no alternative. I’d probably still dream about lying in his arms, about growing closer to him, and I’d cherish every night of it.

Feeling the hopelessness of our situation weigh down on me, I hugged myself. “I wish…I wish…”

“You wish what, my lady?” He sounded closer, close enough to pull me into his arms and hold me through this pain, but I knew he was still many, many feet away, respectfully keeping his distance.

I turned my watery gaze to him. “I wish your mark was gone. I wish I could just claw it off your face so we wouldn’t have to deal with this anymore. So we didn’t have to hurt or hope for anything more.”

Except that wasn’t what I really wanted at all.

Urban studied me thoughtfully for a moment before shaking his head. “But the thing is, you don’t have the mark and you’re already experiencing some of the bond. So I don’t think this is the mark’s fault. I think… I think that if I were able to meet every woman in all the realms, and I got to know each of them to the best of my knowledge, the one I would choose after that, the one who could make me the happiest, would be you. The mark has merely cut out all the hard work of searching through every other woman out there and pointed you out directly to me. It didn’t make me fall in love with you. It just recognized you and made me infinitely aware of you so I’d pay attention to you and fall on my own. The rest is all on us.”

“But…” I threw up my hands, exasperated. “How? How in the world could a mere tattoo possibly know something like that?”

Shrugging, he chuckled. “I don’t know. It’s magic. The work of divine intervention. Something. I just know it works.”

I gaped in disbelief. “And… And you just trust that?”

He seemed too practical for such blind devotion.

“Sure. Why not?” His grin turned playful. “It seems spot on so far.”

“What?” I sputtered. “Did you just…” I shook my head, not sure I was hearing what I’d just heard. “You can’t really mean that. You don’t know me nearly well enough to be able to determine such a thing.”

His gaze heated as it moved over me, making me hot in the most private places. “But I’ve been paying attention. And it’s not wrong yet.”

“But that’s just… That’s… I don’t understand. Me? Out of all the women in all the realms? Why me? I’m not remarkable at all.”

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