Ildaria frowned at the suggestion, not at all comfortable with the thought of getting counseling.
“It’s up to you, of course,” Sofia said lightly, and then asked, “But would you really rather continue to carry around thetrauma of your childhood for the hundreds or even thousands of years you might live?”
She let Ildaria think about that for a minute, and then said, “Hurry up and eat. Then get dressed. We’re going shopping.”
“Shopping?” Ildaria jerked her gaze back to the woman.
“For a nice little negligee or something. And romance novels.”
“Romance novels?” Ildaria asked with disbelief.
“They have lots of sex in them,” she said, as if that should explain the matter. It didn’t, and when Ildaria’s expression showed as much, she patiently explained, “For pointers. Maybe ideas on how to seduce him, or at least what to do with him. We need to move this train along before it goes off the tracks.”
Ildaria started to shake her head. “I can’t afford—”
“It’ll be my housewarming gift to you. I haven’t given you one yet.”
“No. You—”
“Ildaria, you’re running out of time,” Sofia said, her tone serious. “G.G. has been avoiding you as much as possible sincethe dreams started.”
Ildaria dropped her eyes, a frown tugging at her lips. She had noticed that she saw less and less of G.G. during their wakinghours. It was only in dreams that they spent time together and while they did some talking and sharing, most of the dreamswere taken up with sex. Constant, heart-stopping, wake up sweaty and exhausted sex.
“He’s really struggling with his attraction for you, I mean seriously struggling. He’s starting to fantasize about kidnappingyou and having his way with you and it’s scaring the crap out of him. He’s afraid he’s becoming an obsessive stalker typeguy. Which he kind of is. I mean, all life mates go through it, but he doesn’t understand that’s what’s happening, and justthinks he’s turning into a freak,” Sofia told her unhappily, just reaffirming what Ildaria had picked up on in the latestdream. “You need to get him into bed soon, or he’ll fly off to England to avoid you, or to save you from him. I’m not surewhich it is. He’s pretty messed up right now.”
Ildaria bit her lip and admitted, “He mentioned something about England in the dream, but—” But her memories from the dream were already getting fuzzy. They always did. The only thing that remained long was the memory of the sex. What they talked about before or after, always faded quickly.
“He’s thinking about heading back home to London, England,” Sofia said quietly. “The original plan was for him to stay throughthe summer and spend the winter in England at the other club, before returning for the summer here again. But he’s startedmaking noises about flying back early and leaving me fully in charge all the time now that everything seems to be working smoothly here.”
“Oh no,” Ildaria breathed. “You don’t think he’ll really do that, do you?” That would certainly make it hard for her to convincehim to be her life mate.
“Yes, I do. He was putting out feelers last night, mentioning to everyone who entered the club that he has a nice apartmentand good pay for anyone who wishes to take over his job as doorman,” she told her sadly. “It’s why I came to see you today.”
“Damn,” Ildaria breathed, dropping back in her seat.
“Yeah.” Sofia eyed her sympathetically. “You need to step up your game, Ildaria, or you might lose the chance. I suspect he’suncomfortable enough with his feelings for you that he might not return at all. He’ll just leave me to run the place and stayin England.”
Ildaria sat still for a moment, her mind racing. The last two weeks had been wonderful in a way. She had her own place, and she loved her job. It was true she and G.G. hadn’t spent a lot of time together when not dreaming, but the truth was she’d been too tired to really worry about it too much. And it wasn’t just the shared dreams that had been making her tired. Aside from her double duty at the Night Club, Ildaria had been working at the restaurant as well. She’d given her notice two weeks ago and had rearranged her shifts so they wouldn’t interfere with her work hours here, but that still meant she had been missing a lot of sleep, and what sleep she had got was not very restful thanks to the shared dreams. Dreams G.G. didn’t even realize he was sharing with her.
“He knows about immortals. Why doesn’t he realize we’re having shared dreams?” she asked with bewilderment.
“From what I’ve read from his mind, while he does know about shared dreams, and did wonder at one point if that was what hewas experiencing, in the end he decided not.”
“Why?” Ildaria asked with surprise.
“Because he doesn’t feel like you are really there,” Sofia said gently, and when Ildaria’s confusion showed in her expression, she explained, “You’re letting him have his way in the dreams. The settings come from his thoughts, as does what happens. You never take control yourself, you just kind of go along for the ride. That’s probably because you’re not all that experienced,” she added quickly. “But whatever the case, it’s convinced him that he’s just having these dream fantasies about you on his own, and they’re so powerful and incessant that he’s beginning to feel like a perv.” She let that sink in and then said, “While Marguerite was concerned about how he might react to finding out he’s a possible life mate to you, and I did too, I think at this point he’d be relieved that he isn’t just gaining an unhealthy obsession with you.”
They were both silent for a moment as Ildaria considered that and then Sofia said, “Come on then, go throw on some clothesand we’ll head out to find you sexy outfits and books to help you seduce G.G. You can eat your sandwich in the car.”
Even
