I ached for him.
I wanted him to come out of his bedroom and repeat everything he was doing to her on me. It didn’t matter if it was slow, fast, rough, or gentle. It didn’t matter that I’d never had sex before. I needed him topush me over the edge I lingered on. Even if it was just his fingers or his tongue—anything to give me relief from the torment he caused.
The bed shifted and rustled as if he were moving.
“Wait. Where are you going?” she asked, breathless.
“That’s what it feels like to ache, Lucille. Just a reminder for when you feel the need to provoke me again with him.”
His bedroom door squeaked as he left his room, and I ripped myself out of the dream-walk so fast that I woke up gasping, waking Rune. I flung off my blankets and luscelered into my bathroom, slamming the door and throwing up every shield I possibly could in my mind to hide my emotions. Heaven forbid Ronen woke and felt my lingering arousal or panic. If he could block his emotions, then I could too, right?
Or maybe it was just him and his shadow powers.
Regardless, I reinforced my mental barriers with my Hellfire, wrapping the flames tightly around my feelings until sweat slid down my temple. I hoped it worked, but I wasn’t sure how I’d know. If I was unlucky enough, he was probably already awake either with a smug smirk on his face for affecting me so thoroughly, or pissed off that I’d entered his head again.
I slumped to the ground, resting my head on the shower door. Truly, I should get in and wash off the heat lingering in my core. But the cool glass calmed my flushed face and eased my adrenaline. My eyes eventually closed.
Bang!
I jerked awake, pushed myself off the tile floor, and groaned. My neck was not happy with me for falling asleep on the ground.
“Lucille!” Ronen bellowed.
Oh no.
I stood and quickly locked the door.
Another bang had me stepping farther into the bathroom. That was definitely my bedroom door, and it was most definitely damaged—or the wall was.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he snapped at someone.
“The same as you,” Aspen retorted.
This night just kept getting better and better. And it had to benight, because I felt utterly exhausted. But I couldn’t tell. There were no windows in my bathroom.
“Lucille!” they both shouted.
Rune whimpered and scratched, her claws peeking beneath the crack in the door. I should open it. Or at least answer them, but I was paralyzed with apprehension. My mouth wouldn’t move, and neither would my feet.
Did Ronen know I invaded his dream? He had to. Why else would he be this upset?
Last time I invaded Ronen’s mind, he lost it. Remembering how my hallucination stole his clarity and reduced him to a male I didn’t recognize haunted me. I’d never forget what I did to him. This time, I hadn’t purposefully altered his mind, but entering his head—even his dreams, sexual or not—probably didn’t sit well with him.
But why was Aspen here?
“Move, Rune,” Ronen barked.
Shadows slithered through the keyhole, flipping the lock. In a panic, I erected a wall of ice and felt a slight numbness in my toes. It wasn’t major, but I was surprised to feel it at all. I shouldn’t have been feeling any Divine Wasting.
One of them twisted the knob. It didn’t budge. Then they both slammed into the wood.
“She has to be alive,” Aspen said, voice shaking.
Alive? Why wouldn’t I be alive?
Before I could wrap my mind around that and let them in, Aspen’s blue flames obliterated my door, revealing two worked-up, worried males.
My mouth popped open.
