And once again, I’m too late.
I come awake with a gasp,clutching at the coverlet. Grasping for what’s real.
“Inara.” Rex is beside me. He touches me, and I jerk but then lean into him. “What’s wrong?”
I reach out to touch his face. It’s still dark, and I’m half-trapped in the horror of the dream. I trace his forehead, eyebrows, down his cheeks. Reassuring myself he’s here.
He seems to know what I need. “It’s okay,” he rumbles, scooting closer and letting me mold my palms over his bare chest. His dense muscles, the familiar smoothness of his skin and scars.
At last, my heartbeat slows. I’m no longer trapped in the terrible vision. I’m in bed with Rex, naked but clean, sore but sated.
Rex catches my wrists when I retreat. “What happened? Was it a dream?”
I nod, unable to speak. I touch my throat, and my fingertips glide across smooth metal.
I’m still wearing the collar. Its slight weight soothes me. Which is a sign of how far gone I am, submitting to Rex.
“What was it about? You can tell me.”
“I can’t,” I choke out. “It’s too horrible.”
“Then just be with me.” He folds me into his arms, and I let him draw me down onto the bed. Wrapped in him, the intensity of my vision seeps away. The picture warps; the colors fade and flow away, replaced by Rex’s warmth and solid presence.
This is everything I’ve longed for. Everything I haven’t allowed myself to want.
It’s wrong of me to lie here with him and allow it. “I shouldn’t be here.” I make a half-hearted attempt at rolling away.
Rex responds as I knew he would by trapping me half underneath him. “Wrong. This is the only place you should be.” His dark eyes glitter as they move over me, taking in my nakedness and the collar. He runs a finger along the metal circle and covers it with a possessive palm. “Inara, don’t be afraid. You can tell me anything.” His thumb tips my chin up, forcing me to meet his eyes. I expect to see dominance or madness, but he’s giving me a soft look that’s devastating in its gentleness.
I came here to entrap him. But he’s trapped me. Not with chains or rope but with his compassion.
I want so badly to tell him about my visions. To share the secret I’ve carried for so long.
The night the Bondage Killer came for my family, I had a vision of my family’s impending death. But I lay there in my bed, knowing the horror was coming, and did nothing to stop it.
My dreams aren’t just dreams. They’re visions. I dream of people’s deaths, and it happens. It’s happened over and over. My parents, my brothers, and then my grandmother and aunt. All of them dead after I had a vision of their demise.
And now I’m afraid it’s happening again.
“My dream. . .” I start and stall.It might not have been just a dream. It might have been a vision. I see people’s deaths before they happen. And I’m afraid. . . they die because of me.
That’s why I can’t allow anyone to be close to me. Why I’ve kept everyone at arm’s length. Until you broke down all my walls.
“Inara?” Rex prompts.
He wants everything. But if I give in, he’ll own every part of me.
I cannot allow that.
“It was just a dream. A bad one.”
He tilts his head. He senses I’m not being fully honest. I cross my arms over my chest, shivering, and he leans into me.
“Do you dream of the past?”
He’s asking if I dream of my family. Flashbacks to the murders.
My voice comes in a whisper. “Sometimes.”
