Leo snorted his disbelief.“Maybe we dream together, but I can’t see us ever getting together in real life.There’s too much history between us.Too much betrayal.”
Betrys sprang off the bed.“I want to wake up.Wake up, Betrys.Wake up now.”
“You don’t want to talk about how you tricked me into signing the contract with Iseult?”
“I told you.I had no choice.”
“You keep saying that, but you don’t go into detail.Give me a reason, Betrys.Tell me why you lured me into Iseult’s web.”
Wake up.Wake up.Wake up!
Betrys kept thinking the words, willed herself to leave the dreamscape, to avoid Leo’s questions—the questions he didn’t ask when they were awake.
Wake up.
Her consciousness expanded outward, and instead of finding herself in her small room at Spiderus Mansion, she rested in a luxurious room ablaze with color.Beside her, Leo thrashed in the throes of his dream or nightmare.She shot off the sleep-bed and stumbled to the door.She wrenched it open and plunged outside into the darkness, each of her breaths coming in hoarse gulps.
It was quieter here, the black intense and somehow smothering.A shiver rippled in a series of bumps across her skin, and she realized she was naked.Yet instead of retreating, she wrapped her arms around herself and found a comfortable spot to lean against the wall while she tried to work out where she was and if she was still on the dreamscape.
Difficult to tell.This was all so confusing.
The cold started to bring more discomfort and drove her inside.Her gaze shot to Leo.Yes, he was still present.
She pinched her own arm and winced.Next, she attempted to summon clothes.That didn’t work either.On surveying the room, a comfy chair with a jewel-green robe tossed over the back snagged her attention.
A similar green to Leo’s eyes.
This time, the soar of emotions, the sudden breathlessness, held a different tone and meaning.No, she couldn’t think about Leo in that manner.This dream walking had to cease.Iseult had sent her here to find another man of Leo’s ilk.Yet every second she thought of signing up another man, nausea swirled through her stomach.If Iseult ever learned Leo was alive…
Goddess, her mind was a boggy mire.
It came down to two awful alternatives—signing up another man and sentencing him to a death warrant, or her son.She’d kept choosing the same path all along—continuing to save her son—but now she second-guessed her decision.
Either way, the path was intolerable because she suspected she’d never rid herself of Iseult, and Ricci wouldneverbe safe.
She donned the robe and tied the sash around her waist, grateful for the warmth.A knot formed in her throat because she knew what she had to do, even if the decision rubbed her raw.
Save her son.
She pictured Ricci’s face, her longing to see him almost overwhelming.
“Betrys?”
“What, Leo?”She snorted inwardly.That was her question—how did she get here and why?
“Come back to bed.”
“Why?”
“You wanted a capture experience.Sex is part of the package.”
She jumped up and whirled to face him.He lounged on the big sleep-bed, the covers pooled at his groin.
“Captured?”The word whooshed up her throat and emerged with a squeak.
His brows arched.“Isn’t that why you came to Middlemarch Resort?”
“No,” she blurted before she realized silence would’ve been the better answer.Aghast, she stared at him, her insides quivering with apprehension.He’d ask questions now, grill her about things she couldn’t discuss.
