Page 63 of Delirium

She ran off before I could stop her again, leaving me alone in the hallway.

Just like the night before apparently.

Alone.

Except I could remember the taste of her skin on my tongue. I could still recall the way her body curved beneath my touch, and the way she cried out as I pushed my way inside.

I could recall all of this as clearly as I could see the back of my hand.

I wasn’t a stupid man. I knew Scarlett wasn’t lying to me. But that left only two options.

Option one, Scarlett was sleepwalking, and couldn’t remember anything from last night. Which meant I’d possibly taken advantage of an unconscious woman. Or…

Option two, it never actually happened.

I didn’t know which option was worse. All I knew was I wanted off this goddamn ride, and out of this godforsaken rainforest.

Chapter

Twenty-Two

SCARLETT

What the fuck was happening?

James hadn’t looked great this morning, pale and shirtless, but I had just chalked it up to the stress of the day before. I doubted any of us got any decent amount of sleep.

But was he so sleep deprived he really thought we hooked up last night? Surely I would remember having sex with someone.

The only alternative was that he had convinced himself a dream was real. I pressed my lips together as I made my way toward the wheelhouse. If he really was sick, I probably shouldn’t have left him. I should’ve felt his forehead, checked his pulse,anything. Instead I’d run away, unsure what to do with this newfound knowledge that Jameswantedhis dream to be real.

“Earth to Scarlett.”

Nash waved his hand in front of my eyes, a goofy grin on his face.

“Good morning, darling. Glad to see you up and at ‘em this morning. I’m going to get theCarpe Diemrunning in just a moment here, and we’ll be off.”

I scrubbed my hands over my face. “I’m sorry. Apparently, I’m still half asleep. I was on my way to come and ask if you needed help and instead I’m on a different planet altogether.”

Nash caught my wrist in his hands, pulling me close for an embrace. “Hey. Shush. It’s all good. I don’t need any help running this old thing, so long as she decides she likes me today. I’m more concernedyou’reokay. If our conversation last night was too much for you, I’m not worried. We don’t have to do anything about it. We move at your pace, whatever you’re comfortable with.”

I shook my head, trying to find solace in Nash’s warm gaze. “It’s not that. It’s…” I trailed off. It really wasn’t my place to talk about James. He’d told me about his dream in confidence. It was personal for him, and telling Nash felt like a violation of his privacy. But if something was wrong with him, shouldn’t I speak up?

Nash frowned. “Tell me. Don’t keep secrets from me. Not here. Not now.”

Just like that I was thrown back into the realization that we shouldn’t be here, just outside the city we couldn’t wait to leave behind. Me dragging my feet was keeping us here for longer than we needed to be.

I took in a deep breath, and hoped James would forgive me. “I think James might be sick. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. But we just had a really weird conversation, and I’m worried.”

“What kind of conversation?” Nash’s frown didn’t lift as he pulled me with him into the wheelhouse, directing me to sit in the small chair while he started flipping switches. “Was he aggressive? Did he hurt you?”

“No! Nothing like that.” The motor beneath us began to churn, chugging along with a fair bit of metal on metal. “He was insistent something happened last night that didn’t actually happen. A false memory. Maybe even a hallucination. To him, it was real. He didn’t look good though, Nash. He was pale, and sweaty, and his eyes were unfocused.”

“And you’re sure whatever it was never happened?” Nash rubbed the back of his neck as he flipped the switches off, and the motor chugged to a halt.

“Well, it involved me, and I have no recollection of it, so…”

Nash fell back on his heels, staring up at me from the floor. “Are you telling me James had a sex dream about you, but thinks it was real?”

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