19 - STAR
The pressure on my neck is both exciting and scary. I’ve never done anything like this before, and if I were ever going to start a new life in the world of doms and subs, I would one-hundred percent not choose a guy like Quaid.
I would choose someone less intense. Someone more comfortable showing emotion. Someone who wanted to explore the softer side of control. Because Quaid doesn’t seem to have a soft side.
Which should frighten me—but it doesn’t.
Perhaps I am naïve?
More likely, I am just stupid.
Because he’s a very serious person and even though our conversation beforehand felt in depth while we were having it, I find that the pressure of his hand on my neck is much more of a turn on than I expected.
It’s dangerous. I understand this on a rational level, but… it feels good. And in this moment, when the darkness is encroaching on my vision like a hood being thrown over my head, all I can feel is anticipation.
“Stars,” he whispers. “See the stars.”
At first I think he’s calling me by name, but then the stars appear and I know he’s not. I understand where this is going and it’s… beautiful. The tiny bits of light start as pinpricks. The space around them more gray than black.
But it only takes a moment for that to change. For the lights to brighten and expand while the black turns to emptiness.
I am lightheaded, gasping for air, and then… the song is all around me and I’m running through a maze. I don’t stop and listen, of course—one doesn’t stop in the middle of your flight-or-flight response to ponder the specifics of the situation—but I fully understand that the Minotaur is behind me and I am running for my life.
Two seconds ago I was in bed, being sexually choked out by a man who absolutely knows what he’s doing, and ready to have the orgasm of my lifetime—and now I’m in this damn maze being chased by a monster.
“Faster!” Quaid yells behind me. “Go faster!”
I glance behind me, find his panicked face urging me on, and kick it up into my last gear. We’re wearing clothes in this dream—or whatever it is—but just barely. I’m wearing my dress, but no bra, and my flopping girls are not happy about the running. I have no shoes—which seems to be OK since the floor is very smooth stone.
Quaid is also half-dressed. Like we were interrupted while getting dressed. He’s got no shirt or shoes, just pants.
“Faster,” he says again. “It’s gaining on us!”
I try, I do. But I don’t have another gear and I’m just about to panic when Quaid passes me—grabbing on to my hand as he goes by—and begins pulling me down the corridor.
“We’re almost there!” he yells. “Sing it!” And when I look up ahead of us, he’s pointing at something. Bright lights glowing on the dark stone walls.
Symbols. Like the ones we’ve seen a few times. But I seem to be missing some critical information, because even though I understand that ‘sing it’ is most likely referring to my earworm, this isn’t my song. It’s Aric’s and I’ve only heard it once while I was in the middle of a very stressful situation just like this one. And at no point in time did anyone explain to me that there would be a pop quiz on that fucker, so why the hell would I memorize the words?
But to my surprise, I do know the words. And they come spilling out of my mouth. It’s not in tune, in fact, its kind of shrieky, but nonetheless, singing it badly seems to be enough. Because as soon as I finish with ‘A final gift to be your eyes’, Quaid’s glasses flash a bright light and everything becomes… I don’t know. Dreamy. Foggy. Spinny.
I don’t think spinny is a word, but it does describe what’s happening because suddenly Quaid and I are slowlyrotating up in the air!
He’s reaching for the lights on the stone wall, while I’m focused on the charging Minotaur that just came around the bend.
The first thing that hits me is the smell. It’s monstrous. But then, all I see are teeth.
My heart aches for a second, picturing Aric running from this thing for five years. But there’s literally no time to wax poetic about that, because he’s covering ground like a damn racehorse in the Kentucky Derby!
“Hurry!” I scream. “Hurry up!”
These words come out of my mouth, but I don’t know why. Or what Quaid is doing behind me. All I know is that he’s interacting with the lights on the wall.
“I’ve got it,” he says. “Last one and?—”
I blink. Blink again, because the light I so bright, I have to put a hand up over my eyes.
“What the hell did you just do, Star?”
