All through dinner, and into the night, Sky had an increasingly strange feeling. It was as if she was coming down with some ailment.

First, she felt feverish. Then, every joint began to ache, and her throat felt raw and began to burn. By the time she finished showering, dried her hair and put out the light, her head was aching as much as the rest of her body. It didn’t help that Eartha and Windy kept asking about the Faun in the garden.

‘Do you think he’s hungry?’

‘Why can’t he use the spare bedroom?’

‘Why is he sleeping outside in the night air?’

She had to explain, until she was almost ready to scream, that Fauns were creatures of nature, and preferred sleeping under the stars. The truth was, she didn’t want him near her aunts, parading his perfect, nude body around them or her.

She tossed around in her bed for over an hour before realizing she wasn’t going to get any sleep. Even taking aspirin hadn’t helped.

She finally got up, went into the bathroom, and turned on the light. The image in her mirror said a lot. She looked like a shipwreck; one that had happened in a hot, tropical setting.

Beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. She took off her nightgown and fanned herself with her hand, but the heat seemed to intensify. A few moments later, she realized her other symptoms had disappeared, but the heat kept rising. It was the kind of heat women feel when they need sexual attention.

Magic. There was no other explanation.

The thought of the green-eyed brute in the garden came, unbidden, to her mind. He was probably out there laughing his butt off at her discomfort; knowing that he was the cause. She grabbed up her silk robe, and slid her feet into a pair of house shoes.

* * *

In the garden, Rowan knelt before the small fire he’d built. As a rule, Fauns didn’t need the warmth of flames unless it was winter. Finding fuel and the rocks to circle the flames was a chore meant kept his mind off his physical condition. Its intensity was something he hadn’t bargained for.

Sky was a very beautiful woman.

Their mutual attraction was born of physical need. It wasn’t anything he could stop. Not even if he wanted to.

He gazed in the direction of the back door when he sensed her presence. With his otherworldly vision, he easily made out her graceful body in the green silken robe. With all that dark brown hair spilling around her shoulders and her chest, her ethereal presence was almost more than he could take. He briefly closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath to quell the symptoms his body displayed. The erection he had wasn’t going away, no matter how he focused. Finding it easier to kneel beside the fire again, he did so and concentrated on fueling it.

Sky marched forward, toward the glow of the tiny fire. He heard every step she took. The woman wasn’t hiding her angry stride through the plants.

“I see you’re making yourself right at home. In our garden!” she furiously proclaimed.

Rowan didn’t rise. He couldn’t. Her proximity caused his senses to reel. He kept his hands over his genitalia, to keep her from becoming even angrier at his obvious sign of arousal. Finally, he moved his palms away.

She gazed down at his erection, but amazingly said nothing. Then, her gaze wandered over his body.

“What’s wrong with you?” she softly asked. Your skin looks flushed. Are you ill?”

“It’s not an illness. What’s wrong with you is the same thing that’s wrong with me.”

“Well…stop it! Quit trying to use some sort of magic, to force me to come to you. That’s what you’re doing, isn’t it? It’s repugnant!”

He shook his head. “Forcing any woman to do anything isn’t how I operate. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m in the same predicament that you are. Only worse.”

She looked him over again. “You are ill, aren’t you?”

“No. This is what happens when a Faun and his chosen woman don’t satisfy their sexual desires. Together. It only happens if both of us are attracted to one another.”

“That’s insane!” Sky blurted. “I’m not anyone’s chosen anything.”

“If you intend to bitch at me for wanting you, please get it over with, then walk away. The closer you are, the worse my physical condition gets.”

She tilted her head and stared at him for a long moment.

He glanced at her several times, before focusing on the fire again.

“Rowan, you really aren’t using some kind of Faun power to conjure this, are you? You wouldn’t make yourself subject to one of your own spells.”

“Please leave, Sky. Your presence isn’t helping. You won’t admit you want me. I’ve been told that anyone lacking Faun blood won’t suffer through this the way we do. If you go, I think you’ll be better near dawn.”

She put her hand out.

“Don’t! Don’t touch me if you don’t want me to respond.” Rowan finally dragged his gaze off the flames and looked her over. “I can’t help wanting you. That’s the way it is. I’m a creature of instinct. My instinct is driving me to desire you.”

“W-what will you do?” she asked.

He shrugged. “The farther you get, the better off I’ll be. Right now, my blood feels like lava. Please…leave,” he demanded.

Completely ignoring his request, she put her hand on his shoulder.

He shuddered. “Either leave, or let me touch you. Don’t torture me,” he begged.

“I didn’t mean to cause you pain. You didn’t tell me you’d go through a physical response like I did. When you said I’d suffer by denying you, you never said you would hurt. Why?”

“Y-you weren’t exactly in a r-receptive mood. D-didn’t think you’d believe m-me.”

“You’re turning pale. Rowan, you’re really burning up.”

“I’ll b-be all right if you l-leave.”

Perversely, the woman knelt beside him and ran her hand over his arm. He gasped, and gripped a piece of firewood with both hands. She didn’t realize what her touch and her proximity was doing. He refused to take her without her full cooperation. That meant that he would suffer until he either got her to come to him willingly or she left. But, how far away did she need to get? If the walls of the house didn’t stop this attraction, only leaving the premises altogether would.

“Rowan, if you go back to the Fairy Realm, this will stop, won’t it?”

He nodded and gripped the firewood in his hands tighter.

“Then go home.”

“N-no.”

“Bloody hell, you’re stubborn!”

He tried to smile, but his blood seemed to scorch every vein in his body. The pain was almost unbearable. He’d never suffered through anything like this. Still, he wasn’t leaving. His physical response proved, as nothing ever had, that he was overwhelmingly attracted to the woman next to him. His curiosity about her was aroused to an absurd level, even as his body burned.

She pushed his hair back with the fingers of one hand as her other one ran down his back.

“You really are magnificent. I do find you attractive. Any woman would. You’re so…so…perfect.”

“A-admitting the attraction will help you.”

“But it won’t cure you completely, will it?”

Rowan slowly shook his head, even while his hands were still clenched around the small piece of wood.

She reached for the wood he gripped, and pried it from his fingers. “It…it has been a long time between men. The last one only cared about how good he felt the next morning,” she admitted.

Rowan saw her gaze slide down to his erection. “Don’t toy with me. If you d-don’t want me, please leave now? I can’t say it strongly enough, woman. Why aren’t you listening?”

Ignoring his begging, she kept speaking. “In a way, we’re both creatures of magic. Aren’t we?”

He watched her dark gaze as it softened. When she suddenly leaned into him, and kissed the corner of his mouth, he felt his body tremble with anticipation. It took strength he never knew he possessed to keep from pushing her beneath him and taking her.

Her physical contact was already easing his discomfort. In place of the pain, a rush of energy flowed into his veins. His senses fixed on her. He let her take command, and knew he would do whatever she wanted.

“Rowan, lie down.” She patted the soft ferns already lying flat beneath her legs.

He did as she asked, in double quick time, and stared up at her. Surely, she wouldn’t renew his pain by teasing him and walking away? What woman could be that cruel? She might be angry over his arrival, but that technically wasn’t his fault.

She tucked her hair behind her ears, and began a slow, soothing stroke of his chest and shoulders. “Is that better?”

Yes,” he softly responded.

“I don’t like to see others suffer,” she said as her fingers ran lightly across his chest and wandered downward.

He closed his eyes as her hand wandered lower and lower. “Don’t stop,” he begged.

* * *

Aroused, and no longer caring whose magic might or might not be the reason, Sky knew she wanted this amazingly handsome creature more than she’d ever wanted any single thing in her life. She placed the flat of one palm over his rock-hard abdomen and pressed against his flesh. Rowan breathed as if he couldn’t get enough air. He dragged it into his lungs.

The amount of control he displayed was astonishing. The way his glowing, green eyes fixed on her told her he was trying, with every beat of his heart, not to touch her. For some reason, that really turned her on.

She leaned over and ran her tongue across his lips. “Kiss me.”

He opened his mouth, took her tongue in his mouth and moaned as the kiss deepened.

For the next hour or longer, they made love like two souls who couldn’t get enough of each other.

Eventually, Sky rested her head against his chest as he began to run his hands over the length of her body.

“You’re beautiful,” he murmured.

“So are you. If that adjective can be applied to a Faun,” she joked.

He grinned. “A man should make it his life’s ambition to satisfy you.”

“I’ve never been with a denizen of your realm. Was I…pleasing?”

“I can barely breath,” he responded. “And I am quite satiated. This experience is beyond words.”

“I think I could sleep for a week.”

“Rest then. I’ll still be holding you when you awaken.”

She drifted on clouds of beautiful fulfillment until the first rays of dawn lit the little garden.

As she opened her eyes, he kissed her face and began a new exploration of her body with his tongue. Sky was enchanted with his determination to please. He carried on, with great gentility and care. Eventually, when they were mutually pleasured once more, they stretched out next to each other. He spoke first.

“I cannot believe that what we’ve experienced is merely because you are from this world, and I am from another. What we’ve shared is special. It is more than coincidence that we met. I know it!”

She smiled up at him, and played with the soft strands of his hair. “Why do you say that?”

“It’s no mere chance that we met. You gave me your heart when we made love. I felt it.”

She stared at him for a moment. “I don’t even know you. We only just met last night.”

“That doesn’t matter. Not where our hearts are concerned. We have no choice. We’re bound to be together. Forever.”

Sky quickly pushed herself upward. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I won’t leave you. Not ever. I can’t.”

She shook her head and sighed heavily. “What if I don’t feel the same, Rowan? I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but it was just sex. Okay. I needed it. Badly. But that doesn’t mean what I think you’re suggesting.”

He slowly shook his head in denial. “You think the way you do, because your world has hardened you. You’ll soon see.”

“I think it’s time for me to get back to the cottage. My aunts will be up soon, and I don’t want them to know where I’ve been.”

He slowly stood and offered her one hand.

She took it and looked him over as she did so. “You really are the most incredibly handsome man. I won’t deny that. The sex was stunningly wonderful. But I don’t love you, Rowan. That’s what you’re inferring, isn’t it?”

“There’s no inference. I state it as fact.” He stepped closer and kissed the corners of her mouth until she returned a deep kiss of her own. Eventually he broke the contact, and got back to the point. “You’ll see. And you’ll come to know that your aunts’ summons was meant to happen. Their misspelled incantation was supposed to occur. That’s why I’m really here! We’ve met by Nature’s decree, not by any coincidence.”

She swallowed hard and pushed him away. “I don’t know how things are done in your world but, in mine, we don’t decide we love someone on the basis of a one-night stand. Rational people don’t, that is.”

He straightened and faced her squarely. “What we experienced wasn’t a ‘one-night stand’. It was real. We made love, it wasn’t just sex.”

“Rowan…when I get home this evening, I want you gone. It has to be that way. You don’t belong here, and I’m too busy for this kind of distraction. Do you understand?”

He crossed his arms over his chest and stared, refusing to answer.

“Good morning and…and goodbye,” she quietly told him, then turned and redressed in her robe and house shoes.

“I won’t go, little witch. Not ever,” he muttered as she walked away.

* * *

After enjoying a delicious, but very quiet birthday breakfast with her two aunts, Sky made her way to her room, and put on one of her best business suits.

The announcement that the Faun had to go was met with resistance and even sadness. But Eartha and Windy had to learn that they couldn’t meddle with powers that could ultimately backfire and put them all in jeopardy. Her decision was final. Like it or not, Rowan must leave. If that meant she’d have to take drastic action, and force him back into his realm, then so be it.

With her decision made, Sky caught a commuter train into the outskirts of Barnsdale, the way she had every workday for seven years. She put her mind strictly on the tasks of business.

* * *

Fitsby, Sotherland and Sotherland was one of the best advertising firms in the country. Given her years of loyal service, she hoped there would soon be a reward for her hard work. This reward would, if she was lucky, come in the form of a promotion to a new senior executive position in charge of women’s advertising. That announcement was due any day now.

Everyone expected her to be the new exec in the company. She humbly accepted her coworkers’ early congratulations, but always followed those remarks up with a careful codicil that ‘the job wasn’t hers…yet’. But, as everyone was fond of telling her, it was ‘in the bag’. She had earned it, and the promotion was sure to be hers.

Along with the hike in prestige, the promotion would grant her greater monetary benefits she desperately needed. The cost to keep up the old cottage and the surrounding lands was exorbitant, and the inheritance deeding the property to her had only come with a small stipend. In this increasingly expensive economy, that inheritance wasn’t worth much. Simply put, she had to have that new job. Her home and her aunts’ futures were in her hands. She had used every bit of imagination in securing this promotion, without the use of magic.

When she got to work, the senior partner’s secretary came in with a message that Sky was to come to his office, asap. Straightening her pin-striped skirt and matching jacket, she patted her coiffed hair into place, and marched toward the big man’s domain with an air of professionalism. As she did so, smiles and thumbs-up signals greeted her from fellow employees.

Outside Olin Fitsby’s office, Sky took a deep breath, softly rapped on the closed oak door, and waited for the summons to enter.

“Come in,” Fitsby called out.

She breezed in with her head held high and a bright smile on her face. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

Fitsby cleared his throat and motioned toward a chair on the opposite side of his enormously expensive mahogany desk.

She swallowed hard and looked the man straight in the eyes.

“I won’t mince words, Ms. Pyewackett. You’ve done an excellent job presenting your advertising promotions and marketing ideas. You’re an asset to this company and I, for one, am proud to call you a member of Fitsby, Sotherland and Sotherland.”

Something about the way his glassy, gray eyes shifted made Sky nervous. There was a but coming in his diatribe.

“While your work is exemplary…highly professional…you must understand that many of our clients are, uh…shall we say…their thinking originates in another age. Though we consider ourselves much more enlightened, we must put our clients first, and consider their desires.”

“What would those desires be, sir? I’m ready to adapt.” With that said, she held her breath.

He cleared his throat again. “I know that you were hoping for the promotion into executive status, but we’ll be giving Mr. Donough, from the seasonal advertising division, the new position.”

Sky stared at him for a moment, then sat forward in her chair. “Mr. Fitsby, I don’t understand. I believe that I deserve that promotion much more than Mr. Donough. Nothing against him personally, but he hasn’t been with the firm as long as I, and he hasn’t the experience to deal with our female clients. Not the way in which they’ve become accustomed. I’ve been handling those accounts, working with the women in charge of different products, for a very long time. I know them better than anyone.”

Fitsby lifted a conciliatory hand. “I do understand, Ms. Pyewackett. But the owners of most of those companies…how shall I put this?” He stopped, apparently considering a tactful way to say what he must. “They’re men. When they heard their companies might be dealing almost exclusively with a woman ad exec from our firm, instead of the mixed-gender staff who normally works with you on all the campaigns, there were some phone calls made to my office insisting that the lead contact be a male. I am sorry. But we’re dealing with firms that are almost a hundred years old, and they drew the line at having one woman in charge of all their accounts. As this is a new position, and these companies are willing to sign lucrative contracts…you can see my dilemma.”

Sky felt her heart plummet. A big knot sat right over the remains of her breakfast. “You realize this is discrimination? You do understand the possible repercussions, don’t you?”

Fitsby leaned forward and clasped his hands. “Ms. Pyewackett, you’re a very intelligent woman, and I know you wouldn’t take any precipitous action. Later on, in several years, we can put you in charge of another set of accounts. We have some new business coming from other sources. I’m sure they’ll be much more open-minded than some of the old-name, European firms with which we currently deal.”

“I-I don’t believe this, Mr. Fitsby. This is outrageous. If your aim is to produce highly effective advertising and please the clients, then what matters most is the job done. Not the gender of the employee who does it.”

“Sky, I quite agree. But there’s nothing I can do about this. The new position has to go to Donough. I have the firm’s board of directors to please, and this was their decision as well. Now, I’m sure we can find some way to come to an acceptable arrangement where you’re concerned. There’ll be a substantial bonus in your pay this month, as well as holiday advances. I hope you’ll take this in the spirit in which it was given, and do what’s in the best interest of the company.”

She solemnly nodded. “I’ll do what I think is right, Mr. Fitsby.”

“Good. Now, let’s get back to business, and try to put this nasty bit of news behind us. Shall we?”

She was being dismissed, to go back to her office. Without even an afterthought concerning her opinion. “Thank you, Mr. Fitsby. I understand your position. Perfectly.”

“Grand,” he told her with a firm nod. Then, he turned his attention to some papers on his desk. She meant less to him than whatever he was looking at.

Sky walked out of the office, and stoically made her way back to her own. There, she sat at her desk, turned on the computer and drafted a two weeks’ notice. She knew that what she was doing would cost her. Dearly. But her loyalty and hard work—all the times she’d missed birthdays, holidays, and special outings with her aunts—it all meant nothing. The only thing that mattered to the firm of Fitsby, Sotherland and Sotherland was being a man. Not her business acuity.

There were other firms in town. And many of her old clients would probably follow her there. She had no contractual agreement forbidding her from contacting them.

By the end of the day—a day she spent doing only what was required of her instead of her usual thousand percent—Sky turned in her notice and made her way to the train station before anyone at work could make a comment. It was only then that she realized how desperate her situation was. Even if she stayed on at her current employment—even with the bonuses added in—in one years’ time, there wouldn’t be enough money for her and her aunts to keep their home. Not when factoring in inflation, taxes and upkeep.

Facing one of the lowest points in her life and the worst birthday ever, Sky put on a brave face, and attempted to summon the words she’d need to inform her aunts. They’d have to sell their home. She’d hang onto it as long as possible, but there simply wasn’t any other way to deal with the situation. The thought of being the Pyewackett responsible for such a loss was almost more than she could bear. She was crying by the time the train pulled away from the station. There simply wasn’t any magic spell, potion, or conjuring she’d dare use to secure their future. To do that would mean summoning some very serious forces into her family’s lives. The use of such power would mean hurting someone. In this instance, that person would be the innocent Mr. Donough. The magic might also adversely affect all the innocent employees at the firm. It simply wasn’t in her to wield that kind of harmful power, though she was quite capable of doing so.

Sadly, no one at work had even mentioned her birthday, or thought to wish her a happy one.

* * *

Miles separated them, but Rowan still felt her pain.

They were that connected. Though he didn’t know the source of such extreme emotions, he couldn’t ignore what he felt.

He paced in the garden and anxiously awaited her arrival home. Sky might not want him to be there, but he wasn’t leaving! Not in the face of the queen’s fury, or any other interference. This was where he meant to stay. His place was here, and these women were going to be his family. Nothing had ever been clearer or more important.

Right now, his attention must be on Sky, and whatever was making her so very sad.