Beatrix Li took a single step down the dark path and felt ice crunch under her foot.

She knew this was a dream, but it felt so real. Her breath misted in the crystalline air. Stars and planets hung low, casting odd shadows against the rocky terrain.

The world was black and white.

And it was framed - a perfect rectangle with only darkness outside the lines - as if she were standing on a stage.

You’re just dreaming about the book again, she told herself.

Beatrix had spent enough time drawing and re-drawing the panels of her graphic novel - she certainly recognized the terrain.

She was inside her own comic panel.

But she shouldn’t be able to smell the tang of the copper mines in the air, or hear the shimmering song of the frozen lichen moving gently in the breeze.

She turned back, but behind her was only darkness, outside of the frame.

There was no place to go but forward.

She took another step and another, grateful that there was a path between the crags. Twin boulders stood side by side in the near distance, like a gateway.

But Beatrix didn’t know what lay on the other side.

She had never drawn anything beyond the boulders.

She picked up her pace, unaware if safety lay ahead.

A shooting star blitzed across the sky and she stopped to admire its glittering trail. Beatrix loved drawing light and shadow, which was why she had created this world in the first place, and the humans who visited it.

When she looked down again, she saw a flicker of color near the boulders.

She blinked and it disappeared.

Colored panels were expensive to produce, so Beatrix used them sparingly. This world was meant to be black and white.

But as she got closer to the rocks, she saw another flash of purple.

She began to run. Cold air filled her lungs.

When she got closer, she was startled to see a familiar shape.

A butterfly.

The butterfly fluttered closer. Its violet wings were enormous and webbed with delicate turquoise patterns. It sank, then rose with a dainty flap of those impossibly lacy wings.

She had never seen a butterfly in nature with colors like these. Yet it did not belong on this foreign planet, either. It shouldn’t have been able to survive the cold.

The butterfly sailed on a current between the boulders, then hung in the air a moment, as if waiting for Beatrix.

She followed.

The world erupted into a riot of color as soon as she stepped between the massive rocks.

The icy ground turned pale blue. The cliffs and crags took on the sepia-tones of a Pennsylvania winter.

And the air was filled with the trembling wings of a thousand technicolor butterflies.

Beatrix closed her eyes and counted to seven.

When she opened them again the butterflies were still there.

And a man stood before her.

Tall, dark and handsome didn’t begin to describe him. He gazed down at her hungrily.

There was something familiar about his brown eyes and the curve of his sensual mouth.

Beatrix tried to place him, but the air was sizzling between them, pulling her closer.

The man reached out to touch her hair.

Shivers of need ran down her spine at his gentle caress.

He cupped her cheek in his warm hand and leaned down toward her, unhurried.

Every cell in her body thrummed in anticipation. She ached for his touch with a desire so fierce it frightened her.

Somewhere in the distance, bells began to ring.

She tried to ignore them and lose herself in the pull of his big body.

But the sound startled the butterflies and they began to dart away.

“Please,” Beatrix murmured, but her plea was lost in the sound of the pealing bells.

And the man whose hand still cradled her cheek was fading away, the warmth of his touch dissipating.

Beatrix awoke with tears prickling her eyes.

Her cell phone cheerfully blasted its alarm on the bedside table, oblivious to the fact that it had shattered the best dream she’d had in a long time.

Beatrix slapped it into submission and flopped back down, rubbing her eyes.

She’d never been a morning person.

And today was moving day.

She and her two roommates, and the three aliens they had taken in, had to pack up their belongings from this rented Philly condo and take a car down to Baltimore for the next leg of the Comic Con circuit.

She ran a hand through her hair and tried to decide whether to get up and get moving early like she had planned, or just snooze for ten minutes.

There was a gentle knock at her door.

“Beatrix?” a deep voice said.

Buck…

The dream flashed back before her eyes and she saw what she hadn’t before.

She had been dreaming about Buck.

“Give me a minute,” she groaned.

She was exhausted, embarrassed and a little turned on. Definitely not a good combination for seeing Buck face to face.

“You said you wanted to be up early,” he said through the door.

“I know, I know, I’m getting up,” she told him, suddenly feeling decidedly more awake.

“Okay, I’ll see you later,” he said, sounding a little amused.

Bea waited until his footsteps told her he was leaving. Then she slid out of bed and wrapped a robe around herself.

She had time for a shower. That was one good thing about being up early.

She grabbed her caddy and headed to the bathroom.

Maybe a good soak under the hot water would get her head in the game. Dreaming about a hunky alien wasn’t on her agenda right now.

Beatrix’s real dream was on the razor’s edge of coming true. She had written a break-out graphic novel that was on every teenager’s night stand right now. She had a studio interested in making it into the movie version she’d been envisioning ever since she conceived the story.

And she finally had a star, her friend and roommate Kate, who would get butts in the seats, and had the investors interested enough to make the movie happen.

But she’d lost a lot of funding last night.

It was a big price to pay, but her principles were her principles and she would never allow an investor to dictate casting at all - let alone when it came to casting the man who had harassed the star of her film, who also happened to be Bea’s friend.

She had two weeks to make up the shortfall.

If Beatrix Li was ever going to be a morning person, now was the time to start.