Aurora's Promise by Eve Jameson Page A

of driving my
own car.”
    “You don’t know where you’re going and the portal doesn’t
open until tomorrow.”
    “Tomorrow?” That her plan would so suddenly manifest sent a
jolting shock through her. “But what about Ellen and Am—” Aurora snapped her
mouth shut to cut off her incredibly stupid blunder.
    “Amdyn?” Connyn asked.
    Aurora nodded, glad his attention had been on the road
rather than on her face.
    “What about them?”
    “Don’t we have to wait for them? All do the leaping world
thing together?”
    “Of course not. If they’re there, they’ll go. If not, we’ll
leave without them. They’d do the same if the situation was reversed. Our
primary objective is returning our mates back to our homeworld safely and
immediately. Together or separate is no matter.”
    “But—”
    “Don’t worry. Your other two sisters are already there. And,”
he said, pulling into a parking lot, “we’re here.” He pulled under the hotel’s
portico and put the car into park. “I’ll check us in and then we can get
something to eat.”
    “Leave the car running,” she said when he reached for the
keys. “It’s too cold to sit out here without the heat on.”
    He gave her a hard stare. “Don’t go anywhere.”
    “Jesus,” she said, looking out into the swirling snow. “Where
would I go?”
    “Nowhere I wouldn’t find you,” he stated flatly as he got
out of the car.
    “Royal,” Aurora mumbled under her breath, perversely
welcoming the brief rush of irritation at his blatant egotism that pushed her
nervousness off center stage. “Royal pain in the ass, you mean.” Things were
happening a lot faster than any of them had planned. The wild, spinning feeling
of being so out of control left her chilled as she watched the hotel’s automatic
doors slide shut behind Connyn.
    There was one thing she could take control of right now. She
could at least drive her own damn car. Unclipping her seatbelt, she maneuvered
herself into the driver’s seat. Not such an easy thing in a little sports car
when being nearly all legs of a five-foot eleven-inch frame. She couldn’t
remember the last time she’d scrambled over car seats when it didn’t involve
getting at least partially naked.
    By the time Connyn returned she had soothed her doubts with
a focused, deep-breathing chant, adjusted the seat and mirror and securely
rebuckled herself. She had also made sure that only the passenger side door
remained unlocked. She smiled sweetly into his glare, wondering if he would
refuse to get in and knowing if he did, she’d go to dinner alone.
    “Even if you don’t have the same eye color,” he growled as
he got in the passenger side, “you definitely share with your sisters the same
ability to drive a reasonable man insane.”
    Though her smile deepened, Aurora didn’t comment as she
headed for a steakhouse they had passed earlier. Dinner was civil without any
major verbal clashes and when they came out of the restaurant, he didn’t even
ask for the keys. Aurora enjoyed a tiny thrill at her small victory as she
purposefully raced the engine and took the first corner fast enough to spin the
tires a bit, but was in no way convinced there’d been any lasting ground
gained. Yet.
    He directed her to the left side of the hotel and then
carried their bags up to a room on the second floor. Though expecting that he’d
chosen a room with a single bed, seeing the solitary, king-sized proof
dominating the room’s space sent a nervous shiver through her stomach. She
closed the door behind her but stopped at the open closet beside the door to
hang up her coat. Not sure of how the next part of the evening should or would
play out, she took her time arranging her coat on the hanger. Out of the corner
of her eye she watched Connyn set their bags on the end of the bed, flip on a
table lamp and then turn to stare at her.
    When she still didn’t move further into the bedroom, Connyn
asked, “Are you still angry with