Yawning, I sat up from where we’d fallen asleep. A vast meadow rested beneath a sky painted with warm golds and cool silvers. The blossom tree arched overhead, its branches heavy with pink flowers—its petals falling over us like gentle rain. They blanketed the ground and clung to Rook’s nakedness as if they were as addicted to her as I was.
Reclining on my side, I propped my head in my hand as the babbling of a river snaked in the distance, glowing faintly as if it flowed with quicksilver instead of water.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Rook as she slept. Her long black hair gleamed, her thick eyelashes like ebony feathers, her lips as perfect as the petal lingering on her cheekbone.
Reaching to brush it away, my fingers tingled.
She smiled in her sleep, fisting my heart with agonising love.
Everything about this place was a drug, and she was by far my greatest addiction. I didn’t know why we hadn’t woken back in reality, but the longer I looked at her, the more I fell into her. I never wanted to wake up. Never wanted to return to the real world where we hurt and struggled and died.
If we could stay here for the rest of eternity...I would be happy.
My fingers drifted from her cheek to her throat. She sucked in a breath as I traced a lazy path over her shoulder and down her arm, making her break out in goosebumps. Her bare breasts begged me to kiss them. Her honey skin gleamed with white-etched snowflakes.
My hand took liberties while she slumbered, cupping the weight of her breast and running my thumb over her taut nipple. Ice frosted her eyebrows and lips, making it seem as if she’d dipped herself into sugar again...ready to be eaten.
I sucked in a breath as I rolled on top of her.
Being this close quieted all my fears, erased all my worries. I had no pain, no weakness. I had nothing in my mind apart from her, and Iwantedher.
A faint breeze stirred the blossoms overhead; a flurry of petals drifted over us. A few crowned her hair while one landed on the very lips I wanted to kiss.
She mumbled in her sleep—
I kissed her.
Her eyes flew open, hazy and sleep-trapped.Well, hello there.
The petals turned to ash on my skin as I caught fire.I need you again.
Fuck, I’d been so naïve back in Cinderkeep. So oblivious to what this woman would mean to me and just how much I would need her to survive. In so many ways...
Her cool hands cupped my cheeks. The iciness of her skin on my overly heated face made every thought disintegrate. “I love you, Lucien Ashfall.”
The bond flared with fire and ice as she returned my kiss.
Auroras tangled around fluffy clouds and petals shot into the sky.
This place reacted to us like itwasus. An extension of who we were as I gave her all my weight andkissedher.
I reached between us to thrust inside her—
The dreamscape ripped apart.
Rough, bruising hands grabbed my ankles, yanking me backward. I landed on the floor amongst broken crockery and spilled food from last night. My eyes flew wide just as another man jerked Rook off the bed, leaving her dazed and hurt beside me.
“Hands behind your backs!” a pot-bellied guard yelled.
I snarled as one of the guards kicked my shoulder, pinned me onto my stomach, and lashed a zip-tie around my wrists. Rook’s horrified gaze met mine as she suffered the same treatment.Howdid this happen? Weren’t we just about to have sex?
“Get up!” another guard barked.
Straining against the imprisonment, I glanced down my body as two men hauled me onto my feet. Fully dressed. Pants zipped. Shirt buttoned. Rook cried out as another man hooked her elbow and jerked her upright. Her dirty nightgown hung down to her ankles. Every part of her was appropriately covered.
I don’t think we were.Having sex, I mean.
Her eyes narrowed on me, searching for signs of what we’d been doing before we’d been rudely snatched out of the dream.So everything we experienced was mental? We didn’t touch each other at all this time?
