“I guess I just confessed I’m into you.”She gives a nervous laugh.“Are you... are you into me as well?”
The vulnerability in her voice is painful, but at the same time, such a privilege to witness.
“More than anything.”I let that hang there for a moment.“I know it’s wrong. I know we shouldn’t be doing this. But Wren, I want you like I’ve never wanted anyone. When I’m with you, which is basically all the time, I am crazy with lust. But I will keep myself in check if this is inappropriate and you don’t want it.”
“I do want you. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me. Usually, I have more control. But the fact that you’re inside me, literally... it’s so intimate and erotic that all I can think about is you. It’s consuming me.”
She rubs her eyes and takes a deep breath, lying back atop the duvet and fixating on the ceiling.
“This is a conundrum, isn’t it?”she asks.
“Yes.”
“Our relationship should be professional.”
“It should be.”
“Yet here we are.”
Silence again.
“Do you want to unmerge? We can maintain more distance if I’m not inside you,”I offer.
“No. I don’t want that.”
“Then what do you want?”
She thinks for a long moment.
“I want whatever you can give me in our shared dreams. Maybe if we do things in dreams, it will be different than if we did them in the real world. Maybe that’s a compromise we can both live with.”
Without warning, I send a wave of sensation through her body. I make her nipples tingle and harden, and send heat directly to her core. Pleasure pulses through her, making her gasp out loud and arch her back.
“I never imagined you could do that to my body,”she says, breathless.“How... how are you doing that?”
“If I can control your movements when we train...”My voice has a dark edge, almost a chuckle.“If I can repair your muscles, enhance your strength, heal your injuries... then I can do anything to your body.”I pause.“And I will do anything you want, as long as you give consent.”
She feels dizzy with arousal, her head spinning. She recovers, though, when she thinks about why we’re here, in this dingy motel. It’s certainly not to hook up, but because we’re on a mission together.
“I need to think.”I can tell she’s struggling to sound normal. She sits up quickly.“I need to go for a walk. We need to go for a walk.”She corrects herself because we’re merged and, naturally, we go everywhere together.
She grabs her jacket and heads for the door. She needs air and space to think, even though I’m literally inside her.
I don’t protest. I just flow with her movements as we leave the motel room together.
Chapter Fourteen
Wren
Present Time
I stand at the makeshift workstation while Garrett Blanc positions himself behind me, watching. The room is cramped and dim, barely large enough for the equipment laid out before me. I inventory what I have to work with: basic burners, beakers, graduated cylinders, pH meters, and thermometers. They’re functional but nothing fancy.
This is a test, and I need to pass it. I push everything else from my mind and focus on the work.
I start with the base chemical compounds, measuring precisely with the graduated cylinder. Crimson Haze requires exact proportions or the whole batch becomes useless, or worse, lethal. I set up the heating apparatus and adjust the temperature dial, watching the numbers climb. When it hits the right degree, I add the first compounds and watch them mix, the liquid shifting from clear to pale amber. I test the pH carefully, making small adjustments until the reading is exactly where it needs to be.
Behind me, Garrett lights a cigarette.
