Cecily breathed in the delicious air of the meadow.

She knew she was dreaming, but the details seemed more real than any dream she’d ever had.

Crystal drops of dew sparkled on the leaves of the ancient maples and oaks surrounding the clearing, and a low mist clung to the ground as it always had at dawn.

Cecily hadn’t been in the glade since she was a child. She and her friends had played here often, pretending to be the Knights of the Round Table.

It was certainly the children’s kingdom. The only other regular visitors were the Quakers in town, who used to come for their outdoor weddings. Cecily and her friends would sneak up and watch through the trees as the women in white cotton braided their long hair with ribbons and flowers, and the shirtless men danced and played their guitars under the afternoon sun. The most interesting part had always been the kiss at the end of the ceremony.

Though her mother called the Quakers hippies, Cecily herself couldn’t imagine anything more romantic. It was half Shakespeare, half King Arthur.

Cecily had always imagined she would have her first kiss in the meadow.

It hadn’t worked out that way, of course. Her actual first kiss had been at the town pool on a blisteringly hot day, with the scent of chlorine thick in the air. It hadn’t been particularly romantic.

She’d always wanted a second chance at a first kiss in the glade.

But that could never happen. Aside from the obvious fact that her fist kiss was more than a few kisses ago, her Aunt Stacy told her the woods behind the high school had been leveled to make a parking lot for the new shopping center.

Of course, anything was possible in a dream.

She took a few steps forward. A rabbit hopped into the trees, but otherwise it was perfectly still, nothing but birdsong and the rustle of the breeze through the grass.

Cecily found that odd. There should be sounds coming from the shopping center, it couldn’t be more than a couple of hundred yards away.

She closed her eyes and listened, but there was no hint of car engines or any other human interference.

The breeze caressed her hair like a lover and she opened her eyes again.

She wasn’t alone anymore.

A man stood at the center of the glade. He was built like a god, tall, with broad shoulders, dark hair and piercing blue eyes.

There was something familiar about him, but she knew there had never been anyone like this in her hometown.

His hungry gaze beckoned and she went to him without hesitation.

The dewy grass tickled her bare toes as she closed the distance between them. The air seemed to hum with electricity.

He lifted his hands, palms outward as she reached him and she placed her hands against his, knowing instinctively what he wanted from her.

The air around them swirled and out of the corner of her eye Cecily saw ghost images, like a sped-up special effect, herself and her friends as children, the weddings, the rabbits and the squirrels, the dawning and setting of a hundred translucent suns.

At first she was frightened, but the man sent waves of remembered comfort through the place where their hands touched.

And then it was something more than comfort.

The rush of memories receded as she looked up into his ocean blue eyes and lost herself to the agony of longing she saw there.

He leaned down slowly, as if afraid she would startle like one of the rabbits from her memory.

But Cecily had never craved anything more than this man’s kiss.

When he pressed his mouth to hers, she saw a universe of stars spread out before her and heard the sound of distant chimes.

Flames of desire licked her insides and she kissed him back greedily, tasting the starlight of distant planets, feeling crystalline sand between her toes.

She was there and she was not there.

She was lost and found, tangled in the arms of this strange prince, in the enchanted glade of her childhood, panting with lust and yet transported beyond the confines of her body.

“Please,” she whispered, not sure what she was begging for.

His mouth smiled against her lips and she felt the press of his big body more firmly against hers. For all his gentleness the evidence of his own need pulsed hard and huge between them.

He pulled away slightly to look at her.

She had the feeling again that she knew him, but his identity was just out of the reach of her lust-addled mind.

“Cecily,” he said softly.

She searched his face for clues.

“Cecily,” he repeated, louder this time.

The glade began to fade away.

There was a knocking sound.

“Cecily,” Kate’s voice said.

Cecily turned and found she was in her bed, tangled in the sheets, gray dawn filtering through the blinds.

“I’m up, I’m up,” she called to her roommate.

“Awesome,” Kate called back. “We’ve got to get on the road soon. The guys are grabbing coffee.”

The guys.

She knew who the mysterious stranger was now, of course.

She couldn’t escape him, even in her dreams - Solo, the tall, dark and handsome, the gentleman, the alien. He was her ceaseless companion by day and her reckless lover by night.

Well, in her dreams at least.

Though she had every intention of resisting the attraction in real life, in these moments between sleep and waking she wondered how long she could realistically hold out.

Cecily stretched and unwound the sheets from around herself.

There was no point worrying about it today. Today was the day they all piled into the rented RV and began their journey west. She wouldn’t be thrown into any dangerous scenarios for the duration of the cross-country road trip. She and her two roommates, and the three aliens they had taken in, would be thrown together twenty-four seven. They wouldn’t have the time, or the opportunity, for any fooling around.

It was still unbelievable to Cecily to learn that there was life on other planets, let alone that she and her roommates had taken in three fugitive aliens. When the other two women began falling in love with the massive, hunky men, Cecily had decided to steel her heart against the temptation.

She lived a wonderful, carefree life, traveling the country to do make-up and special effects. She had a community of close colleagues, no shortage of friends with benefits when she wanted them, and zero intention of pinning her hopes and emotions on a man. Her mother had allowed herself to be hogtied by love and Cecily saw where that had gotten her.

So Solo was hot, so what? Cecily could have nearly any guy she wanted. Solo’s impeccable manners and kind-hearted smile could make someone else happy. Cecily was her own woman.

Though the thought of Solo and another woman did give her a pang, Cecily would get over it. She always did. She had a handful of ex-friends-with-benefits who had settled down. There had been no hurt feelings or jealousy on her part. Hell, she was “Aunt Cecily” to one or two of their kids. Solo would be no different.

Solo needed more than a fling. He needed to find a woman to click with so he could become permanently human and thereby cement peaceful relations between Earth and his home planet, Aerie.

Maybe she could help him pick someone nice, someone who would appreciate him.

The thought troubled her somehow, and she pushed it aside, grabbing her robe and heading to the shower.

Hopefully, a hot shower and an even hotter cup of coffee would tame her wild emotions.

It was going to be a fun day - she was sure of it. Cecily had always loved road trips.