“No, of course not. I would never violate our dreamglide agreement.” She cringed slightly. She might not disrupt their current agreement, but she’d had no problem violating his dreamspace and seducing him within her dreamglide. In many ways, Roche had done the exact same thing to her. He just hadn’t been as successful. If Brannick ever figured out exactly what had happened, she doubted he’d ever be able to forgive her.
In that sense, Brannick was a conundrum because during their first time together, his dreamglide self had engaged in their affair without the smallest hesitation. He’d also told her he didn’t care that she’d seduced him.
“But I would never know if you broke an agreement, would I?” He ground his jaw.
She could tell the situation was getting to him, but that wasn’t exactly her problem. He was the one who’d instigated the gag order.
What she found intriguing right now, however, was that he didn’t automatically ask her to remove the block. Apparently, he didn’t really want to know all that had happened between them.
In that sense, she was grateful. She was convinced he wouldn’t be able to handle everything they’d been doing for the past five months. Not yet.
He paced away from her a few feet, his gaze skyward, then he spun in another circle. As a footbridge, Talisman was only about seven feet from rail to rail, though it spanned the thirty-foot wide canal stream.
She knew what he was doing. His training as a border patrol officer was always present, even in the dreamglides they shared. He was constantly checking his surroundings, which gave her a feeling of security.
“Let me understand. If you have a block in place, then why have I been remembering anything at all?”
She shrugged. “No one really knows, but it happens. Some say it has to do with the individual involved. You might be overcoming my block because you’re an extremely powerful vampire. Another theory is that proximity will facilitate sudden memory surges.”
“Memory surges?” He echoed the words softly. He drew close once more, his brow still severely pinched. “Like when you wore that red-flowered dress on this very bridge?”
A gasp left her throat. “You remember that?”
“I’ve seen little else since I touched down. I can even smell a fragrance that was in the air, very flowery.”
“I wore perfume.”
“How the hell can I remember a scent from a dreamglide?”
She smiled. “Because this is part of the alter fae world. You might as well ask how you can levitate the way you do. This is what it is to be fae. That’s all.”
He was still frowning. “I get your point.”
She remembered the dreamglide moment he was referring to extremely well, one of her favorites, in fact. She’d wanted to dress up for him, so she’d donned the silk dress with white flowers on a red background. It showed a lot of cleavage and was cut longer in back at the hem. She’d even worn heels so that he had a much shorter distance to travel when he kissed her.
She moved to the side of the bridge. She’d been right here when he’d taken her in his arms. She placed her hand on the warm stone. It was early May and hot during the day. But at night, it was a beautiful balmy time of year in the Valley of the Sun.
All the trees and the water had helped to cool things down as well.
His voice was very low as he asked, “Are you thinking about what happened in the dreamglide?”
She nodded but shifted her gaze to look at the canal water. She saw the moon reflected in the breeze-swept ripples.
He came up next to her and slid his hand along her lower back. “As I recall, you stood here.”
She didn’t look at him. She was afraid to. “I did.”
“You looked so beautiful. You’d dressed up for me.”
“Yes.” Her gaze skated to his face, then got stuck there. “The time we spent together in the dreamglide was like dating.”
His hand was warm through her dress.
“And I kissed you, but not on the li
ps.”
A shiver ran through her. She felt his interest like a soft jolt of electricity against her skin, and that wasn’t fae at all, just very human. Her intuition told her he was actually thinking about repeating the process.