Chapter 24

He smiled as he watched her melt away in the crowd. She was attractive. He liked her and he knew that with a little effort, he could deepen her attraction to his. Most of all, maybe she could make him forget Anya. No, that was impossible. No, he corrected. Not impossible. Just so incredibly unlikely that his brain refused to consider the possibilities. He couldn’t deal with that now. He had a more serious battle in his hands than sorting out the possibility or otherwise of him forgetting his long-lost lover. His first mate. Who was gone for more than a century? The fact of her existence in his thoughts was enough, and ending that existence wouldn’t be as simple as he’d thought.

The thought of being in love with another woman made him feel guilty. He was loyal by nature, whether he wanted it or not. He still considered making love with other women as disloyalty to Anya. A disrespectful act. Yet what he felt about Mary was so deep, so complex, that loving her, having her under h