Was this where he went every morning when he left their bed? His face was open and without guile, and she sensed he was telling the truth. Had she let her doubts and fears take over? Was Portia right?

"So every morning when you leave my side, you come here?" It wasn't that she didn't want to believe him, it was only that it seemed too simple an explanation. He hiked here every morning so he could think and stretch his legs. It was beautiful here, with the last warmth of summer lingering in the air, but with the trees around them displaying all the colors of autumn. Surely there was more to it? She studied him, and a look crossed his face.

"Every morning except for one." He turned away from her and spread the blanket he had tucked up under his arm over the grass. He smoothed it so it was wrinkle free and he would not look at her. A small fragment of doubt lingered inside her, and as she stared at his back it stubbornly refused to go away. Here it came. He was going to tell her something that would devastate her and ruin everything.

Why couldn't she let it go? Why did she have to open her mouth, and let the garbage that was festering inside her out?

"You don't have to tell me." There was still time to save this. As long as he didn't tell her, she could pretend that all he did was come here and she could get rid of the baggage she was carrying. She could move forward with better intentions and more awareness.

He turned back to her and there was a ghost of a smile on his face. He reached out to her, and she stepped toward him, putting her hand in his. They went to the blanket and settled upon it. The warm breeze blew her hair across her cheek and he pushed it away and tucked it behind her ear.

"I've come to realize that it is better if I am honest with you. I had thought to keep this from you, but I can see now that this was a mistake. I want there to be no secrets between us. On the morning I speak of I did not leave your side, since we were not yet intimate. It was before the gala at the gallery but after you had made your police report. Do you remember what was going on at that time?"

She nodded. How could she forget? The police could not find Kevin and Rickman had suggested that they take matters into their own hands and set a trap for her obsessed ex-boyfriend. A trap that had worked, and had also put the man beside her in danger. A brief spurt of shame shot through her. She should have remembered all that he'd done for her, without asking for anything in return, before she'd started imagining that something sinister was happening. She was safe and unharmed at this moment because of him.

"I remember. Listen Andor, I've been silly. You don't have to tell me anything more." Portia was right, she was looking for reasons to think he was not what he seemed because she thought she didn't deserve a man like him.

"That morning I took the car and drove into the city. I went to Kevin's apartment building." He stared into the distance, as if he was seeing something in his mind's eye instead of what was in front of him. "I was determined that you were not going to be bait for him. He'd done enough damage to you already that I couldn't risk putting you in any more danger."

The shame she felt was replaced by a warm feeling in her belly as she laid her hand on his forearm. Even before she'd shared her body with him, he'd been watching out for her. He'd wanted to keep her from harm.

"What happened while you were at Kevin's building?"

"He was not there, and I suspect that he was hiding in the apartment of a friend of his. I cannot prove it, but he did get the message that I'd left with his friend so I have to assume that he was there as well." He took her hand from his forearm and held it.

"What was the message you gave to his friend?"

"I told him that you are mine and that I would protect you no matter what. I warned him to leave you alone, or suffer the consequences." He finally looked at her and there was a fierceness in his eyes when he'd said that she was his.

She knew that his possessiveness should make her nervous, and that if it had come from anyone other than him, it would have. But unlike Kevin, his proclaiming that she was his didn't scare her. It wrapped her in a cocoon of safety. Andor had shown her that he would not hurt her.

"If Kevin had been at his apartment that morning, what would you have done?" She waited for his answer with a feeling of excitement inside her. She knew it was twisted, but a part of her wanted to know just how far he would have gone to protect her.

"I would have done whatever it took to keep him from you. I would have made it so he was incapable of hunting you on the night of the gala. I think perhaps it was for the best that Kevin was not there that morning, and that he was taken into custody of the police. Where you are concerned I find myself operating on instinct, and it has been that way from the moment I first saw you."

"I still can't believe that I did that, went up to you and suggested that you pretend that we were together. You must have thought I was crazy." It seemed like such a long time ago that she'd seen the fortune teller and had been afraid that Kevin was after her at the fair. Even then, when he didn't know her at all, he'd stepped in to look out for her. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him. She rested her head against him and closed her eyes. She could feel the warmth of the sun on her face, and it matched the warmth that his nearness was stirring inside her.

"I did not think you were crazy. I saw you before you came up to me, and I remember that I very much wanted to meet you. I was waylaid before I could approach you, and I thought my chance to know you was lost. Imagine my good fortune when you came up to me, and suggested that I walk with you. I knew you were doing it for protection, but I was grateful for any opportunity to be with you." He moved so that he could cup her face, and he lowered his face toward her.

She lifted hers and he kissed her softly on her lips. She put her arms around his neck and pulled him down on the blanket so they lay together under the warm late September sunshine.

How different her life would have turned out if Portia had not insisted that she get out of the house and go to that fair. She would not have met him, she would not be protected by him even now. She certainly would not be falling in love with him.

He deepened the kiss as his hands stroked over h body. There were too many clothes separating them, and she wanted nothing more than to make love to him here in the spot where he spent his mornings while she slept alone in his bed. She pulled back and looked at him.

"Do you want to return to the house? I would not like for you to burn?" He stroked a finger down her cheek, where she could feel a flush of heat. It was not the sun that was making her skin burn, but him. She didn't want to waste time returning to the house. The ever present desire for him that flared to life whenever she was in his presence demanded release.

"I want to make love with you, here in the sunshine. I want to give you something to remember and think about when you come here tomorrow morning." She grasped the hem of the sweater she was wearing and pulled it off over head, throwing it aside.

Although the sun was warm, there was a breeze that had a small bite of fall, and a shiver skated across her skin. He put his hands on her belly and the warmth of his palms spread heat inside her, chasing the chill away. More than anything she wanted to feel his bare flesh against her, and she tugged his shirt out of his pants and started on the buttons.

She spread the fabric as soon as the last button was released, and smoothed her hands over the hard muscles of his abdomen and chest. He came down upon her, and kissed her with a mounting desire that she answered with a longing of her own. Her eyes closed at the pleasure of his hard body against her, and she speared her fingers through the silk of his hair. How could she have allowed the doubts inside her to forget this? How could she have thought that he had anything other than the best of intentions for her? She pulled back and framed his face with her hands.

"I need you so much." Perhaps that was what frightened her the most. This need for him, this longing that nearly overwhelmed her when she was with him. Some instinctive part of herself knew that if something happened to take him from her, she wasn't sure she would recover. If it turned out that this was just an illusion, that this feeling between them wasn't real somehow, it would devastate her more than anything she'd gone through before.

"Make love to me."

He stripped the clothes from their bodies, and as he stroked and caressed her in the autumn sunshine, she vowed that she would no longer allow her doubts to creep in. And as he entered her body and made it sing with pleasure she could no longer think at all.

* * *

The red date circled on the calendar on his desk was ever present in Andor's mind. As the chill of autumn chased away the heat of summer, the night of the Hunter's Moon loomed on the horizon. The time with Lyssa passed much quicker than he had anticipated, in a haze of companionship and lovemaking. They'd grown even closer since he had taken her to the clearing and admitted that it was where he went every morning. He could no longer see the doubts that had clouded her eyes on that day. How long would this closeness last once he told her the truth?

This damn curse made it impossible to hide his true nature from her. The whole point of it was to make sure that the woman he chose for his mate knew full well what she was getting into. Was Lyssa ready to hear the truth about what he really was?

It was encouraging that she loved dragons, and when they'd first met he'd take it as a sign that she was meant for him. Her loving dragons was one thing when they were the mythical creature she assumed them to be. Could she love a living, breathing dragon who wanted to make her his forever?

With a sigh he shoved away from his desk. With the deadline looming he could no longer allow himself the luxury of doubt. A few months ago, if asked, he would have been assured that the woman he chose as his mate would embrace a life with him. How could she not want him when in his mind he had so much to offer her. How arrogant he'd been, to think that all that was important to a woman was the riches he had. Not everyone loved treasure the way he did. Lyssa certainly did not seem to be overawed by his financial worth. The way he treated her was more important to her. Had he proven to her that he could be trusted with her heart?

He would not know the answer until he revealed the truth about himself to her, and once he did, there would be no going back. He needed to do it soon. Before the Hunter's Moon rose and the wildness of his nature took over.

With a sound of disgust he left his office and made his way toward the door to the basement. He had no idea where this insecurity was coming from, but it needed to end. Lyssa was his mate, she was made for him, and she would accept him for who he was. He could not let himself think anything else.

He stood outside the door leading to the basement where his brothers slept. Lyssa was continually drawn to this room, and he found her on several occasions admiring what she thought were stone dragons. Little did she know that beasts lay dormant under their stone facades. Would she caress him with the same awe and admiration that she had shown when she touched his brothers if he was before her in his true form? Or would she recoil from him, unable to accept him for what he really was?

He clattered down to the basement, his booted feet stomping on the steps. So much for his resolve to stop being so insecure. There was so much riding on how she reacted to the truth that the significance of it almost overwhelmed him. It was not the prospect of his going feral that worried him. If it came down to it, he would make arrangements for Rickman to make certain that he did not live long enough to be a danger to anyone. While he hoped it would not come to that, it was not what worried him the most.

What if she rejected him, and he lost her? He knew now that he was deeply in love with her, and if she could not accept the truth of what he was, then he did not want to go on without her.

He shoved those thoughts aside as he turned on the light at the bottom of the stairs. Worrying would do nothing but disturb his peace of mind. He needed to tell Lyssa the truth about himself, and he needed to do it soon. Fretting about it would do nothing to change that.

The light came on, flooding the basement and chasing away the shadows that clung to his brothers. Gedeon remained the same as he had when Andor had woken. There was no change in him, and Andor wondered if and when his older brother would wake.

What state would he be in when he was reborn in this modern world? Gedeon had been the fiercest of them all, and it was his mindless pursuit of what he wanted, without regard for the consequences that had doomed all of dragon kind. Perhaps it was for the best that he slept now.

He turned his attention to Iszak and he could see that the blue color that had started at the tip of his tail had spread. His brother would be waking very soon, which was all the more reason to tell Lyssa the truth. It would be better if it came from him, rather than a strange man emerging confused from the basement.

He turned away from his brothers and went back to the stairs. With a flick of his hand he shut off the light and left his brothers to what remained of their slumber. As long as Lyssa was ignorant of the truth, he needed to minimize the risk of her seeing Iszak when he woke. He was certain he had a little more time to tell her the truth before his brother stirred in the bowels of the house, but he was unsure how much. Telling her should happen sooner rather than later.

He left the basement and went in search of Rickman. His minion was in the kitchen in the midst of eating a sandwich. He jumped for a second when Andor loomed up beside him.

"Can I help you?" Rickman spoke around a mouthful of food, and for a second there was a softening inside Andor. Rickman would never be a forelock tugging minion, and Andor realized that he liked that about him. Rickman may have irritated him with his irreverence when he had first woken, but now he realized that he would not have it any other way.

Where was this sentiment coming from? Andor cleared his throat and made sure any softness that might be lingering inside him was not in display.

"I need you to lock the basement door."

"Why? Lyssa knows the dragons are down there, and I hid the book away. Why do you want to lock it now?"

Did he say that he liked Rickman the way he was? How foolish he was to think that he enjoyed having his every command questioned.

"It is because of Lyssa's fondness for looking at my brothers that we must now lock the door. Iszak will be waking soon and I don't want her to see him before I have had a chance to tell her the truth."

"You going to do that soon?" Rickman took another bite of his sandwich, as if they weren't discussing what caused a deep anxiety inside Andor.

"It appears I will have to. The Hunter's Moon is looming on the horizon." There must have been a note of something other than confidence in his voice, because Rickman put his sandwich down and looked at him.

"You have to tell her, and things will turn out how they are meant to. There is no point worrying about since it won't change anything."

"Indeed." Andor turned on his heel and left his minion to his sandwich. Rickman was correct. Worrying would change nothing, and the sooner he faced that, the sooner the feeling of dread would leave the pit of his stomach. Lyssa would accept him for who and what he was. She was his mate and anything other than spending the rest of his life with her was unthinkable.