“But I wasn’t brave,” she whispers, the words cracking at the seams as tears fill her eyes. “I could’ve saved a mother who loved her child more than anything. Instead, I saved a mother who wished she succeeded inkilling her child.”
She squeezes her eyes shut, though a tear slips through and trails down her reddened cheek. I brush it away instantly with my thumb, my chest aching again, though for an entirely different reason now.
I used to enjoy seeing her in pain. It’s ingrained so deeply inside her, it became the marrow in her bones. It’s a fucking cancer slowly killing her, poisoning her bloodstream and depriving her organs of oxygen until they suffocate.
Now, all I want to do is fucking take it from her, give her my marrow and replace her agony until my bones ring hollow.
I rest my forehead against hers while sharp, staccato gasps warm my lips.
“You saved me,” I whisper, my throat tightening around the confession. “You gave me a reason to keep breathing when all I wanted to do was follow her into the darkness. My torment is suffocating, but you are my oxygen. It isyouwho keeps me alive, darling.”
She tenses, shaking her head, sensing what’s coming, but she can’t stop it any more than I can.
I drag my thumb down her plump bottom lip, trading between watching her mouth and the melted coins in her eyes. There’s panic swirling within them, but there’s also a desperate need as potent as my own desire.
“I love you, Reverie. Resisting you is like swimming against a riptide. The harder I fight, the deeper I sink.”
Her face crumbles. “Dread,” she whimpers.
“I told you I’ve never been afraid to drown, but I lied,” I say. “Nothing has ever scared me more than you. But you were right when you said it’s peaceful once you let go. It only hurts when you breathe again.”
Her bottom lip trembles beneath my thumb.
“I’m not afraid anymore,” I whisper. “If the only way to love you is to drown, then I won’t hold my breath, Reverie. I’ll inhale you and keep you safe inside me.”
My stare drops to her lips as I run the pad of my thumb over it again, my own parting as my mouth waters.
Then, I lift it back up to hers, and whisper, “Darling, you are my reverie, and I will follow you anywhere, even if it’s only into a daydream.”
A whimpered exhale shudders out of her, and I waste no time crushing my lips against hers, swallowing it down. I can’t take her notsaying it back, so I don’t give her the option to say anything at all.
My tongue dives past her lips, greedily demanding more of her. It’s an unquenchable thirst, an insatiable hunger.
With a moan, she rises onto her toes and tangles her fingers in my hair, only to yank me down into her with a strength I don’t dare resist.
A satisfied growl rumbles deep in my chest. With the touch of her tongue, a monster emerges, and it will do anything to devour her.
Her nails dig into my scalp while she lifts higher onto the points of her toes, nearly climbing my body. My hands drop to her ass and squeeze, using my firm grip to tug her roughly against me. A silent agreement passes between us—it’s not enough. In a matter of seconds, our hands become feverish and restless, grasping at each other’s bodies, tugging and clawing, attempting to get closer even when it’s physically impossible. Our tongues clash mercilessly, as if the electricity sparking between them is the sole conductor powering our bodies. The second the last spark dissipates, so will our existence.
The desire overwhelms logic and reason. I’m blind with need, and I would sooner rip her apart than tear myself away from her.
There’s nothing to stop me. Nothing thatcan?—
“Dread,” she gasps, forcing her head up and heaving in a deep breath. Instinctively, I circle my arms around her and trap her against me before she can step away. With a growl, I nip harshly right beneath her jaw, earning a breathless chuckle.
“This is extremely inappropriate in front of your mom,” she says, pushing against my chest with both hands and arching away—except there’s no strength behind it, no real effort to escape.
“Baby, she’s a fucking plant,” I say against her neck, inhaling her sweet tuberose scent before capturing the sensitive flesh below her ear between my teeth.
With another sharp gasp, a violent shiver racks her body, and her fingers curl into my hoodie.
“Dread,” she groans, wiggling in my hold. “It’d be no different than fucking me on her grave. That’s just…reallywrong.”
“Then it’s a good thing we have a cottage right behind us,” I murmur in her ear, only to deliver a sharp nip to the soft lobe.
She trembles just as I capture her lips between mine again, drinking down her whimpers greedily. I taste a soft moan, and it snips the last string holding on to my control.
A deep rumble vibrates my chest as I bend to grip the backs of her thighs and lift her into my arms. She’s wrapping her legs around me while I spin us and slam her against the wooden cottage wall.
