Page 105 of Xantera
“Saskia, hey. It’s okay.” I sprint to her and grip her shoulders. “I’m here. It’s just a nightmare. You just have to wake up for me, okay? Wake up, baby.”
She doesn’t see me, but I see her. I see her more clearly than anything I ever have before, and I grab her jaw with one hand and swallow her scream with my lips.
“Lucan,” she sighs into my mouth, eyes still clamped shut. I drop my head to her neck, skimming my teeth over the sensitive skin below her ear.
I groan. She gasps.
“I’m here,” I whisper against her racing pulse.
It’s not real. It’s her imagination, my imagination. Our minds intertwining desperately, trying everything to manifest this into existence while the heat of my body presses her against the wall.
Her hips grind against mine as if she could bring this dream to actual life. Her hands skate up my chest before she grasps the back of my neck tightly. My fingers lace into her hair, tugging her mouth back up to mine.
Saskia pulls me closer, clinging to me, not wanting to let go. Because as soon as we do, our fantasy will end, the illusion we’ve created will crumble, and once again, we’ll be two people who can’t reach each other.
Her lips part.
Instantly, the world collapses around us, our tongues meeting in this subreality.
“No,” she cries softly as darkness fades.
And then she’s gone.
Opening my eyes, I find myself tangled in the sheets, sweaty and disoriented.
I lie on my back, and with a calming breath, melt back into the mattress.
My mother sick, my father dying. Thatkiss.
It was only a dream, Lucan whispers hoarsely, filling my mind. His voice sounds strained, tired, like he hasn’t gone to sleep all night.And you don’t have to do this.
I do, though.
His voice drops to a chilling octave, one worthy of belonging to a Monster.And what if I commanded you not to?
My breath hitches.I thought you said you couldn’t control me, not if I didn’t want to be.
Care to find out?he growls.A battle for yourmind.
After a split second of internal debate, I sigh out,You would never do that.
Lucan’s anger that he knows I’m right, that his own morals would never allow him to command me without my consent, bursts out as if I lit him on fire.
He pivots with a different, deeper tone that I feel all the way down to my toes.Then I’ll just make youwantto stay in this bed all day, little nightmare.
A spark zaps up my spine, and Lucan chuckles darkly.
You can’t hide that desire from me. Pain. Pleasure. Mixed. I’ll drive you out of your mind with it. If that’s what you want, what you need. You want to feel alive? I’ll shock you back to life. You want to feel reckless? I’ll absolutely wreck you.
Filthy images flicker through my mind, thanks to Lucan, and I fist the sheets in response as my own dark fantasies morph into his, merging together when he picks them out of the recesses of my mind. Even though he’s miles away, the sensation of his teeth drags down my thigh.
I gasp.If only you could actually touch me,I can’t help but think.
A whimper leaves my lips when the feeling dissolves into claws up my inner thighs, and his canines sink into my shoulder. I breathe through my nose, my mind on fire, as if I’m pinned to the bed.
Get up, I tell myself uselessly.
Everything in me wants to lie here.
