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walked right past as if he wasn’t there. Nick was hidden, no longer in danger of being arrested, but when he tried to move, he couldn’t. He was trapped!
    Inside, he flailed. Nick had never been the kind of man who could stand being restrained. He needed his freedom, he needed his independence, and he lived by his own rules—part of the reason he probably hadn’t really been cut out for the military in the first place. But just as he thought he’d break free or die trying, the bark on his body became skin again.
    They fell forward together, away from the tree. She released her hold on him and he was no longer inside her—a sensation that left him with a strong and unexpected sexual longing.
    “Who the hell are you?” Nick demanded, his blood boiling.
    “Dessa,” she said simply, as if he’d been asking her name.
    “ What the hell are you?” Nick clarified. He should have been thanking her, but he couldn’t hide his fury.
    In the face of his anger, the woman blinked those astonishing eyes. “I’m a dryad. A tree nymph,” she tried to explain.
    Sure, why not? Nick had seen his own body split into three parts. Hell, he was even calling his other thirds by their own names these days. Why not add a tree fairy to his rampant madness?
    As if she could read his mind, Dessa shook her head. “You’re not mad. The old stories are real. The worship of people in Nuristan Province aren’t just silly superstitions. You just stumbled on to the truth that most mortals never see…”
    “Lucky me.” Nick laughed darkly.
    “You’re not lucky,” she said very sincerely. “You’re hurt. You’re broken.”
    What did she know about it? Suddenly, he felt vulnerable, and her intense gaze seemed cloying. He needed to get out of here. “Look, thanks for hiding me. I need to be on my way before security doubles back.”
    “I’ll hide you,” she said.
    “No.” He feared she’d trap him inside that tree again.
    She took out her manager’s passkey. “Trust me.”
    It wasn’t as if he had many options, so Nick let her lead him down a series of hallways. “The path we took avoided the cameras. They won’t look for you here,” she said, locking the doors behind them.
    In the dim light, Nick squinted and made out a cascade waterfall beneath a canopy of indoor trees. There were plastic sheets draped over chairs; the air was muggy, and it was darker than it had been beneath the geodesic dome. “What is this place? A dryad’s lair?” he teased, trying to cover his unease.
    “It’s going to be a new tropical addition to the gardens, and part of the renovated spa. Only a few employees have the key. If we wait until dark, we can probably go out the back and sneak out across the grounds.”
    “We?” Nick asked.
    “This resort is surrounded by acres of forest,” Dessa said. “I’ll need to show you the way.”
    “Not to nitpick, but aren’t they going to notice you’re not at your desk?”
    She gave an enigmatic smile. “I think my co-workers all suspect by now that I’m a little eccentric.”
    “I thought you were dead, ” Nick suddenly sputtered. “I thought you died in that forest fire. How is it that you’re here? Are you following me?”
    Dessa shook her head. “No, there’s a…connection between us. You’re following me, and I’m glad, because I think I’m the only one who can help you.”
    So, she’d seen him meld together. She’d caught him in the monstrous act that he’d been trying to hide from the world. He couldn’t look her in the eye.
    “You think you’re broken here,” she whispered, touching his forehead. Then her fingers trailed a scorching path down to his chest. “But it’s your heart that’s broken.”
    Afraid of her touch, he grabbed her hand in a crushing grip. He must have been hurting her, but she only stared at him and said, “You’re a chimera, Lieutenant.”

Chapter Six

    “A chimera?” he asked, and Dessa watched his lips curled with doubt.