All of these characters belong to the amazing Karen Marie Moning. I own nothing and Barrons, he's busy right now…

I couldn't have done this without my beta Indigobuni! She's keeping my head in this game even when JZB is trying to kick me out.

Also, special thanks to the wonderful TraderMare who has been an eager pre-reader for me.

And last but not least, thank you to all of you who have read, alerted, favorited, rec'ed and sent me words of encouragement. I am blown away by the response this story has received! Sadly this is the last chap of this particular fic, but I do have a couple of other Fever fics in the works. Until then, if you need more after this chap just go to the beginning of Dreamfever – I still don't know why she ever left that basement…

Enjoy!

"Mac!"

Growling, I whipped my head around to find a pair of gorgeous green eyes looking up at me from under dark bangs. She smiled as she bent down to kiss me reverently where she had just bitten me…on my ass. At least I wasn't facing her. Thank fuck for that.

It had taken me a few days but I finally figured out that if I covered myself in food, she would eat. She was losing too much weight and burning calories like she was running a constant marathon. The sex was amazing and it sated her like nothing else would, but I needed her back, in fighting condition. Our enemies were growing stronger.

I turned around and sat up with her in my arms. "Mac, you need to eat more." I spoke slowly. She took that as her cue to begin licking my neck.

I buried a hand in her hair and held her to me. She still smelled different. I noticed it after I'd brought her downstairs.

There had been so many smells in the abbey that I hadn't been sure. And everything had been masked by the smell of fresh paint. I will not forget the part that old witch played in all of this. Hers will be a slow, painful death.

But now I was sure of it. She smelled like the rhymer...but as quickly as I thought it, I dismissed it. It wasn't possible. There was no way Darroc had access to it, but... was that fuck V'lane there? I swear I'll rip that fucking faery to pieces if he laid one hand on her.

She no longer cowered when she sensed my anger like she had when I first took her out of the abbey. She straightened herself so that her breasts were in my face while her hands began massaging my scalp and then my shoulders. We stayed like that for a while.

"Mac." It came out as a sigh.

I'd also been working on getting her to speak. I talked to her incessantly. My Mac would have liked that. I kept looking into those green depths thinking I saw her in there, but then her eyes would glaze over. I focused on the basics, eating, speaking. But all she wanted to do was fuck.

I'd wanted her from the moment her tight pink ass walked into my store. But not like this.

I thought I could do this, not let it affect me, but it was quickly becoming impossible for me to separate this from my own wants and desires.

I pulled her down so that her face was level with mine. "Mac, your name is Mac. And I'm Jericho."

Her full lips parted. She stared at me, then at my lips. Her lips moved as if she was trying to understand, or maybe she was just mimicking me.

Come home Mac, come home to me.

She and I had a way of communicating. Neither one of us was willing to give in first. There had been moments, several memorable ones in fact. But just when I thought she might admit that she felt something for me, I'd slam it back in her face. We didn't need to complicate things. I knew deep down that would be a mistake with her. She'd always told me that when this was over she was going home to her quiet little life in Ashford.

I respected that. I respected that she had loyalties that lay elsewhere. So did I. She could never know about them. It would mean her certain death. And I wasn't about to let that happen.

I wanted her to want me. I wanted her to despise me so she wouldn't want me. If she had admitted that she had feelings for me, would I have done things differently? I kept hoping she would go home, go someplace safe. It would have been safer, for both of us.

But she just had to keep pushing, trying to get inside my head. I hated it. I craved it.

She tried to make my bookstore a home of sorts. I wanted her to tell me the real reason she bought me a cake. She wouldn't. Would she and I never get past the walls we had so carefully erected?

She wanted me to be more like her. I wanted her to become more like me. I thought if she did it would keep her alive. I watched her eat the cake. I should have just stayed away that night. She could have eaten her cake, disappointed, but at least she would have enjoyed it.

I smashed a lot of things that night. After she had finally gone up to bed I went out and smashed some more.

I was never going to apologize for wanting to keep her safe, from everything. Including me. Especially me. I knew she wouldn't call me to send a plane for her, but I wanted her to know it was still available to her.

I went to such great lengths, and for what?

The walls had come down and she was lost to me. It wasn't supposed to be like this. I wanted her back in her safe little pink world.

Instead, while I wasted my time trying to do something that was never going to work, she had been raped, her will taken, her mind gone.

This woman was under my skin. Deep. I was going to make sure she walked away from this.

The only question was, would I?