The Man of her Dreams: A Paranormal Romance by Nathan Stratton

should be the judge of that,” she said again, and Philip paused for a long moment, then shrugged again, as if it were no big deal.
     
    “Turn around,” he said.
     
    Alexis hesitated, then nodded and turned around. Her heart was pounding with the question of what he would look like. Surely he was more handsome than he thought he was. She knew already that his inner gorgeousness shined through. She grinned, dying to turn around, so eager to see what he might look like…
     
    “Okay,” he said, and she spun around. She stared. Her mouth dropped open. She blinked hard, stared some more, and finally tried to find her voice. It took a few tries before she what she wanted to say squeaked out on a whisper.
     
    “Oh my God,” was all she could utter.
     
    Philip had transformed completely – and he looked majestic. He had the same coloring, the same hair, even the same build as before. His muscles still bulged beneath the fabric of his shirt. But there was something about him that stood out and made it clear he would be the kind of man that warranted a second or third or even fourth glance. There was a regal bearing about him, something that Alexis was sure could not be cultivated – rather, it was something he must have been born with.
     
    His lips were a little fuller than Evan’s were, and he was a little taller. His face was more chiseled, a little squarer, making him appear even manlier. His eyes were darker, making him appear somewhat dangerous. And his smile was different – more genuine, as though he was glad to now be hiding who he really was anymore.
     
    “You’re gorgeous,” she finally said.
     
    Philip actually blushed. She watched as the redness filled his cheeks and turned his ears red. The shot of color was a delight, and Alexis laughed out loud when she saw it. With that the tension was broken, and Philip walked toward her with a smile on his face. He stopped when he was only a foot away.
     
    “I’m not,” he protested. “But I’m glad you see me that way.”
     
    She reached out with one hand, came within an inch of his chest, then pulled back. Philip looked at her with that same smile while she bit her lip and contemplated something that had been in the back of her mind ever since their first encounter.
     
    “You said that you…” she started, then trailed off abruptly. What was she doing, anyway? She couldn’t ask him such a thing, could she? It would tell him exactly where her mind was going, and that would give him the upper hand…
     
    But at the same time, the curiosity had become so significant that she felt as though she no longer had a choice when the words finally came out of her mouth in a rush.
     
    “You said you seduce women. Okay, I get that, I understand. But what I don’t understand is that you said you don’t get any enjoyment from the act. How can that be? I mean, you don’t like it at all? Or you are just opposed to it because of the reasons you’re doing it? Or you’re just… well, are you still in love with someone? Or…”
     
    Philip simply stared at her quietly until she ran out of steam. As she trailed off, she blinked up at him and shrugged, her face bright as a tomato.
     
    “…Well?”
     
    He finally looked away, his gaze going to the clouds above them. Then he nodded once, briskly, as though he had made a decision about what to tell her.
     
    “There’s physical pleasure,” he said. “Of course there is. But there isn’t much… emotional pleasure. Each time I’ve seduced a dreaming woman, I’ve always been acutely aware that it was me who did the seducing, and that I was doing it under false pretenses. It’s hard to get excited about that.”
     
    He paused, searching for his words. “And to answer your other question, yes. For a long time, I was in love with someone. I loved her so much that it was impossible to forget about her while I was with others. So that dampened the enjoyment quite a bit, as you can probably