“I don’t feel like talking,” I tell her, the words an explanation and a warning. My grip tightens, lifting her against my body and turning us toward the bed.
Carina giggles again, resting her head on my shoulder and pressing a kiss against the side of my neck.
My dick jolts like her mouth landed there, swelling inside my slacks. I ignore my own arousal, ripping the comforter off the bed one-handed before laying her on the sheets. I want to taste her first.
Carina wiggles on the mattress, working her underwear off her hips and down her long legs. She throws them at me with a smirk, her expression shifting to scandalized when I stuff them into my pocket.
“Lev!” She laughs, chastising me with red cheeks.
I tuck that away too—the memory of her naked and beaming up at me.
I crawl over her, settling between her thighs. Holding my body weight with my arms so I don’t crush her. Her legs wrap around my waist, and we both groan at the resulting friction.
And then we stare at each other, and it’s far more intimate than sex. She’s silent, and I am, too, the only noise rustling fabric.
I wonder when she’ll speak off the script that these nights follow. It will happen one day. I wait for it every time.
I can’t do this anymore.
I met someone else.
Her mouth opens, and I brace myself. “AmI going to have to do all the work? Or are you going to fuck me?”
I shove upward so I can admire her under me again. My hands slide up her legs, pulling her thighs apart. “Please?”
“I do not know that word.” She exaggerates my accent, and I’d smile at the imitation if I wasn’t distracted by the sight of her soaked cunt.
My mouth lowers, and she learns it real fast.
DREAMS BECOME NIGHTMARES
I’m weightless. The water around me is calm—cool and dark and mysterious.
I roll my head to the right, already knowing what I’ll see. Lev holds the knife to my throat for a few more seconds, the sharp steel blade the same temperature as the water. Without warning, he releases his grip on the handle. The weapon sinks slowly, steadily shrinking beneath the smooth surface. I have time to grab it, but I don’t. I watch until the blade is nothing but a speck of silver far below before shifting my gaze back to him. The danger isn’t gone.
We stare at each other, floating side by side like twin buoys.
“You should be careful who you trust.”
“I don’t trust anyone.”
He nods, satisfied, then turns his face away, gazing overhead.
I don’t know what’s up there. My eyes remain on Lev until the wet silk I’m wearing drags me down to the lost knife.
I wake with a gasp, bound in place. Panic suffocates me as I’m held frozen despite repeated attempts to move. My surroundings are black and quiet, the only sound my strangled gasps. I manage to free one hand, yanking desperately at the ropes immobilizing me.
Not ropes, I realize. Sheets.
I reach up, fingers hitting headboard. Blindly feel the way over to the table beside the bed, then to the lamp I dimly recall being there. The bulb’s filaments flicker to life a few seconds later, illuminating the luxurious room.
I sit up straight, pulling and twisting until I’m freed from the white cotton prison. My pulse continues to pound rapidly, echoing in my ears, but the crush of fear has receded.
I reach for my phone, set on the table by the lamp, tapping the screen to check the time. It’s five fifteen a.m.
No Lev.
No note.
