“Stay away,” I demand, my back hitting the wall by his headboard. “Don’t fucking touch me.”
“Landon,” he says gently, “I’m going to help you, okay?”
“Why would you?” I snap. “You don’t even like me. You just like breaking me.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is!No onetruly likes me. No one trulyknowsme, so how could they? Just… just stay away.”
Nate really doesn’t listen to anything I say because he crowds me against the wall anyway.
“You’re an insufferable brat with a violent streak,” he tells me, and I divert my gaze, unable to look at him anymore. “But that doesn’t mean you deserve to suffer. Just let me soothe you, alright? Let me fix it.”
“Everything is too crowded. This room is too small, and you’re too big,” I rush out, panic clawing at me. “I just need space. I need to be alone. I need—”
The room around me shifts, transporting me to an open, sunny beachfront as fog rolls over the white sand. The waves crash softly, salt and sun filling the air as Nathaniel peers down at me, concerned and completely in control.
“How about this?” he asks softly. “Does this feel better?”
“I… I don’t…”
“This?” he presses, and the beach shifts into a large field of wildflowers. Somewhere in the distance, a cow moos.
“You’re confusing me,” I breathe out. And I don’t just mean the sudden changes of scenery; I meanhim. Why is he doing this?
“One more,” he murmurs, and the field around us fades into an endless night, packed full of soft, beautiful stars.
And Nate is gone. It’s just me, all alone.
I take a deep, calming breath.
“There we go,” I hear him coo, and I know he’ssomewherenear me, considering we’re still in his bedroom, technically, but he’s nothere. Not visibly.
Slowly, I lift a hand, brushing it through one of the stars within reach and watching it ripple.
“You don’t have to have everything figured out, little Lanny,” Nate says softly. “It’s okay to be uncertain. To be scared.”
Everything inside of me calms at once.
“Touch me,” I whisper back. “Don’t appear, just… just touch me.”
I need it. I need his big, confident hands and his warm breath. But I also can’t handle looking into his eyes, not when I’m this confused about what I’m feeling and what I want.
Calloused fingers graze my cheek as I stare at the stars, my body shuddering under the feeling. I can feel his soft exhales against my face, so I know he’s close, but the infinity around me is so beautiful, so bright that I can almost think of nothing else.
“Like this?” Nate asks. “Or likethis?”
Suddenly, his invisible palm presses against my jeans, my soft cock reawakening at his touch. My hips snap forward roughly, shoving into his hand as I grunt.
He rubs gently, a tentative question as I begin to pant.
“Nate,” I gasp, my brows furrowing as my head tilts back, and I stare at the glowing stars. “Don’t stop.”
“Okay, babydoll. I’ll fix you. I’ll make everything better.”
And I believe him. As his hand unbuttons my jeans and slips into my briefs to pull me out, I’m certain he can fix me.
Not just through this sexual touch, but all of it. The illusions, the calming tone of his voice, the certainty that he’s here, even though I don’t have to see him.
