The sun was fading from the sky, turning a dusky orange that blended into the low-lying clouds that shimmered as red as the rose that lay in her palm. She swept her pale hair back behind her slightly tapered ear with long, elegantly fingered hands. Her skin was flawless and creamy, and dappled in the silvery moonlight, made her look like something out of a dream. Her lashes, long and luxurious, fluttered as she studied the bouquet of roses in her lap. Her shoulders stiffened as she seemed to realize someone was watching her. She upturned her face, that perfect face that could bring even the strongest of men to their knees, and those lashes lifted to reveal eyes so sapphire, so deep a blue, that for a moment it was as though you could look in them and drown...

Then he woke, gasping.