She rubbed his cheek. “Good boy. Come with me.” She pulled him up and led him outside to the muddy pit. The smell of moist earth reminded her of hot summer days rolling through the marsh in a swamp buggy. He was still barefoot. “Feel the mud between your toes.”
He looked down, as though he’d never seen mud squishing around his feet before. She had to keep him in the place between his memories. While this was close to a memory, they’d actually been fighting in the mud. She thought it was worth the risk.
“You like making love in the mud, love the way it looks over my skin, my bare breasts. Take my shirt off.”
As long as he kept obeying her, she’d be safe. If she lost him, he could kill her. He pulled her shirt over her head, dropping it to the damp ground.
“Take off your shirt. And your pants.”
He complied, standing in all his naked glory. The muscles in his body tensed, rippled.
“Take off my pants. Stay here with me. Think of nothing but my body.”
He stepped closer and worked the button on her pants, unzipping them. He hooked his fingers over her waistband and pushed them down, using his foot to dislodge them completely.
“And now my panties. Very slowly. Very, very slowly.”
His focus was now on her belly button as he knelt in front of her on one knee.
“This is how you proposed to me. You offered me this ring.” She held out her hand, the wrong one, and showed him a ring she had made.
She could see him trying to pull the memory. He seemed to give up and continued with his assigned task. He wrapped his index fingers around the thin strap at her hips and slid them down. Slowly. His movements were deliberate, studied. His face was even with her pelvis. At any moment, she had to be ready for him to shift to a violent memory where she was the villain. “You’ve touched this body. Made love to this body. Do you remember?”
There! She saw the mist in his eyes swirl. For the first time, he seemed to remember something she wanted him to.
She took his hands and ran them down her legs. “You traced circles in the spots behind my knees, and we were both surprised how erotic it felt.”
He took over the motion, staring at his fingers as if they were moving of their own volition. The memory was there, at the edge of his mind. She could see it. Dare she let him slide into it rather than keeping him in the fantasy?
Yes.
His thumbs rubbed down the front of her thighs, his fingers skimming the sensitive skin behind her knees. He moved his hands up now, his thumbs grazing her inner thighs.
“You made me crazy with want without even touching me,” she said, sliding one hand up to the apex of her thighs. “You pleased me in remarkable ways. Do you remember, Kade? Please, please remember.”
She saw him shift into another memory a moment before he punched her in the stomach, sending her backward into the mud puddle. The breath gushed out of her, from the impact and the shock. Her Dragon heated, but she restrained it, scrambling back as he approached.
“Where should I start? Being a hotheaded asshole who skipped past me up the ranks because of his daddy, even as he broke all the rules?”
He was Dune! Somehow so affected by those vile words, he’d assimilated them.
She held out her hand as the dagger materialized in his hand. “Back, Kade!”
Magick crackled along the blade’s edge; his fingers tightened on the handle. He stared at her and saw himself.
“We made love in this mud puddle, Kade. Get down here, on your knees. Down, now!” She jabbed to the place in front of her.
He was caught between the warped memory and that sensual place she’d reached.
“You love me, Kade. You want to feel the mud over my breasts.” She grabbed a handful and rubbed it over them.
He stood frozen, his body reacting as his mind warred with his warped memory.
“Touch me, Kade. I need you to touch me.” Her hand moved over her breasts, fingers sliding between them as she held his gaze.
His dagger slid back to a tattoo, and he took three stiff steps toward her and dropped to his knees. His hands slid over the places her own hands had just been, their mouths colliding. She let go and slathered mud over him. He kept stroking her, kissing her fiercely. She ran her hands down his back, slippery with mud. He gripped her around the waist and pulled her against him.
He made sounds of pleasure as he plundered her mouth like a man starving. He kissed to her jaw line, her neck. Her Dragon instincts, already on alert, reared up as his mouth moved across that vulnerable area. He had her in his grip, his strong hands splayed on her back. She wouldn’t be able to move if he shifted to a violent memory and attacked her.
