She was lifted uncomfortably off the ground, her dress strangling her body like a vice, feet dragging behind her, and she glimpsed Hysterian above. He was clutching the back of her dress, almost ripping it to lead her to a hovercraft on the roof.
For a time, Alexa knew nothing else but a spinning, vibrant world.
A beautiful world where her nightmares couldn’t get to her because they were dead.
And she laughed. She laughed and laughed until her throat went hoarse and she tasted blood in her mouth. She couldn’t stop even when her ribs hurt, and her stomach cramped. Bile bled into her mouth, mixing with her blood, and she vomited.
“I love you, Hysterian! I love you. I love you,” she wiped her mouth. She heaved again.
She laughed.
Twenty-Nine
She didn’t knowwhen her mind cleared, only that she woke to having water and broth trickling down her throat time and time again. Clarity returned more with each meal. Exhausted, Alexa groaned, rolling over in the soft bedding. Bedding she knew well. Her brain strained, trying to break from the cage of her skull. Her eyes snapped open.
Hysterian sat beside her, watching her.
It took her a moment to remember Dimes, Raphael’s blood on the walls, and Hysterian’s broken body. It all came back to her as they stared at each other.
He was clean, dressed in a uniform she knew all too well, and only the slight char to the tips of his usually perfect hair gave any evidence of his state at Dimes. He’d made a full recovery, at least from what she could see, and Alexa sprang forward, wrapping her arms around him.
She didn’t care if he held her back, or if he even liked her. She didn’t care if he planned to take her to the authorities and make her face her crimes. All she cared about was that he was here, whole, and she wasn’t alone.
His arms came around her to hold her back. Gloved fingers tugged at her hair as they threaded through it.
Tears slipped over her lashes as she held him, needing more.
She didn’t know how to say it—she didn’t want him to deny her—but with her soul finally clear of all the grime covering it, Alexa tore at Hysterian’s pants, fumbling to open them.
It had been so long.
To hell whether she could touch him or not, she needed him inside her. Her fingers shook with her desperation.
He released her to help her unveil his cock, straining to break from the nano mesh covering that hid it from her view. Alexa gripped it, rising up. She wasn’t wearing her dress anymore but a large shirt and cotton underwear—he’d changed her—and as her mind fumbled with that notion, his fingers tore her panties from her body. She lowered onto him.
A cry tore from her mouth and her head fell back as her body struggled to open for him. The heat of his turgid tip burned her. The burn, the ache was perfection, and Alexa refused to let it beat her, impaling herself fully onto his length. Wet, she gloved him.
His grunts filled her ears, his heat branded her flesh. Nearly suffocating on it as she rode him like her life depended on it. She fucked him through the madness in her mind. His power poised between her legs, she filled herself with him until she couldn’t.
The orgasm that hit set her soul on fire.
Hard fingers dug into her hips, taking over when her strength faltered. He jerked her body up and down, rutting her through the waves of her bliss until he found his own.
She felt him expand, his body tensing, and then a bright flash of teal blasted the room, shooting from his eyes as he roared her name, plowing higher. Her feet swung as she bore down on him, wrapping her limbs around his large frame.
They stayed that way, limbs locked together for hours, refusing to acknowledge anything else.
Only each other.
Everything else was dust. She couldn’t let it in.
When she was naked, wrapped back in blankets, and gulping down her third cup of water, she knew their moment of heaven had come to an end. She watched as Hysterian straightened his uniform and tucked his cock back into his pants.
“Rest,” he said. And then he was gone.
Alexa had no reason to fight him. She fell asleep.
When she woke the next time, she was alone. There were food and fresh clothes beside her. She ate, rose, and showered. The door to Hysterian’s quarters was open when she left the bathroom.
