Page 46 of Married By Treachery

Rian looked at him, and then his shoulders sagged.

“Come, Rian.” Jake rested a hand on Rian’s shoulder. “Everything else is as we’ve discussed. You know this is our best chance. I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t necessary, but I will never get that blessing as myself.”

“You could. Your father’s practically blind. Just wear a fur and roll around in blood.”

Jake chuckled, patted Rian’s shoulder, and dropped his hand. “Unfortunately, there’s the matter of everyone else who isnotblind.”

They sat quietly.

Rian dragged a hand over his face. “Fates, I hope this works, Jake. Seeing that mortal… her color… makes me remember what we lost.”

Jake’s gaze slid to the sleeping girl, and his chest cramped. “I know.”

* * *

Raquel dreamed of Jake again,but this was not the forest from before.

This one belonged to Harran.

She recognized the knobby oaks standing stubbornly between the fluffy pines—thesmell. Of earth and rain and balsam. Somewhere, a bird chirped brightly, and a pair of vivid blue songbirds darted past, whirling and dancing around each other to welcome the spring.

And then Raquel saw herself with Jake. He stood behind her, his chin resting upon her head while his strong arms wrapped around her belly.

A belly that was swollen with child.

Hischild.

Somehow in Raquel’s dream, within the part of her consciousness that remained distantly aware that none of this was real—thatpart stared in complete shock while her dream self lovingly regarded the two children jumping in the newly fallen leaves.

One boy, one girl.

The girl favored Raquel, the boy Jake.

The boy possessed Jake’s easy grace and lightness even as he ran around, wielding his trusty stick as he attacked invisible foes. He darted around them and then jumped onto Jake’s back with a battle cry.

Jake released Raquel and feigned surprise and terror like any adoring father, letting his little cub have every advantage. Giving just enough resistance to prolong the fight, to build the boy’s endurance, and to help him believe that there was nothing he could not overcome.

The two wrestled and rolled, the little girl joined in, Jake laughed heartily, and Raquel’s heart felt too big for her chest.

And then the forest and children were gone, replaced by a bedchamber Raquel did not know. Like the forest, it was a place that belonged in Harran, with its wooden walls and thatched ceiling, the small wood stove and humble furnishings.

But Raquel wasn’t alone.

Jake was there, the two of them standing before the glowing hearth. He wore only breeches, and she a nightdress that draped from one shoulder, the fabric so thin she could see her slender silhouette through the material. His arms slid around her waist, and the inked vines around his biceps flexed as he pulled her against him and crushed his lips to hers.Claiming.

Raquel could not look away. She was somehow inside the moment and outside of it. Watching the way he held her, kissed her—knowing it wasn’t really happening—but also feeling every pulse of his lips as he crashed into her and drew back like the tide. As the heat of his skin burned through her thin slip, as his callused palms slowly slid beneath her hem.

Raquel knew this was a dream. That she should not want this like the Raquel in her dream so obviously did.

And yet she could not bring herself to stop it.

She could not bring herself to wake up.

His lips were like wine, his touch fire, and Raquel wanted to feel those flames all over her body. And so Raquel let her semi-consciousness drift into this moment, giving herself to it completely so that she and Dream Raquel were one and the same.

So that she could pretend—just for a moment—that this beautiful moment was real.

And when Jake lifted her gown, Raquel did not stop him. She helped him, eager to get it off. To feel his skin flush with hers, to feel his lips everywhere. He tossed her gown aside, but rather than pull her down with him, he drew back, grabbed her face tenderly between his hands, and gazed into her eyes.

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