by Sotia Lazu
Cassandra glared at him. “You came to break up with me with your skin still carrying her scent.” She wrinkled her nose and turned her gaze to the ceiling. “Meant-to-be. Stupid meant-to-be, always getting in my way. Where is my meant-to-be? Why can I never see it?”
“Cassie, you need to calm down.” He took a step back, but she closed the distance. All of a sudden, she took up his entire field of vision. Quinn was about a foot taller than her; there was no way he needed to look up to see her.
“They can see more, you know—my sisters—but they won’t tell me what. They only said she’s your soul mate, that you were always supposed to end up with her, but I say she’s immaterial. You’d have fucked anyone who made it easy enough for you, because you’re a dog.” Her voice was shrill, laced with pain.
Quinn opened his mouth to protest, to say he’d been a dog once, but had never meant to hurt her. She’d taught him so much in and out of bed. She’d given him the world, and he’d wanted so much to give her the love she longed for, but it just wasn’t working.
Whatever Alice was doing was working. Too well. The way she twisted her hand one way and her head the other with every down stroke was draining his self-restraint. He ached to hold her head in place and begin thrusting uncontrollably into her mouth until he sent his cum down her throat.
Then he wanted to taste himself on her lips.
Just a few more pumps. He had to keep going for just a few more pumps.
He wanted to say all that and more, but all he managed was a loud woof.
“You won’t be hurting anyone else, because no woman will ever think you’re ‘The One’ again.” Cassandra narrowed her eyes, but now she seemed as gleeful as she was hurt. “And to throw in the good old curse-breakin’ clause, unless your ‘One’ asks you to be with her before this year is gone, you’ll stay a dog for the rest of your life. Your memories will disappear for good when the next year rolls in, if you don’t manage to break the curse in time.” She patted his head. “But remembering won’t be easy till then, either.”
The headaches, only being his real self when Alice was asleep next to him—it was the curse.
It had taken him almost six months, but he’d found her. No matter how crazy Cassandra was, she obviously had magical powers. And if magic existed, maybe soul mates did too. He had to admit that whatever part of his human self had remained with the dog had been linked to Alice on a level he couldn’t quite fathom, and that link had eventually led him to her.
But the year would be over in about twenty-four hours.
He had to tell Alice. Now. Before she woke up.
His entire body spasmed with the force of his release, and he could no longer stop his hips from jerking off the mattress. Over and over he spilled inside her, while his panic rose to engulf him.
He’d been wrong. His memories didn’t resurface when she lay asleep next to him, but when they touched in her dreams.
If they didn’t touch the next night…
“Alice—”
She looked up at him with those big green eyes of hers, and he was lost.
He just needed a handful of moments. Had to let her know.
Had to tell her.
What?
Her hand felt good on his head. His doggie head. He rolled over so she could scratch his throat. Alice was the best. He’d be so happy if she kept him.
“You wouldn’t believe the dream I had, Prince,” she said. “If things keep going this way in my sleep, I think you should spend tomorrow night in the guest room. I’m starting to feel like a major perv waking up next to you, after…”
Panic.
Fear.
But of what?
Blue eyes and sharp cheekbones.
Pain.
Chapter Seven
New Year’s Eve.
Her last chance to have actual sex that year, and it was already late afternoon. Dream cunnilingus aside, Alice could use an actual messy, sweaty carnal session.
Maybe she should bite the bullet and go by Becca’s that evening. If Colin and Brad’s friends looked half as good as Becca’s lovers did, Alice might be in for a treat.
She didn’t realize she’d stopped walking until Prince took hold of her hand with his jaws and gave her a light tug.
“Ready to go home?”
He gave her one of those mystifying nods, and she couldn’t think of a possible scenario in which she didn’t keep him forever. She communicated better with him than with most humans she knew.
She picked up after him, then steered him back to her parents’ house. Yeah, she’d probably drop by the party, just to check things out. Not like she’d jump in the sack with a guy she just met, merely so she didn’t have to change the year by her lonesome.
Though she’d jumped in the metaphorical sack with a guy, merely because he’d carried her groceries.
And she kept dreaming of that man, as if he’d meant something.
She was being silly. Her dreams weren’t about him per se. Her subconscious was obviously telling her she was done with one-night stands. That was what her beautiful stranger’s dream-visits were about: her need for a relationship. He’d been the last guy she’d had sex with, and her id was apparently looking to make a lasting meaningful connection where there had only been an isolated sexual one.
There. All explained.
Back at the house, she hung her coat up and got her cell out of the pocket. She’d call Becca and casually ask what time the party would start. No commitment to make an appearance.
Of course, she could stay with her dream lover and hope this time he did more than eat her out. She remembered his cock in minute detail. Remembered it filling her. Stretching her just this side of pain.
Focus. Feed the dog. Take a cold shower. Then get ready, go to the party, and find someone to rock her world. Starting tomorrow, her subconscious could obsess over someone new.
Only, she couldn’t keep her mind off the gorgeous face of the man she’d only met once while awake. Sleeping with someone else felt like cheating after the past couple nights.
The die was cast; she was going to Becca’s party, before she got even more attached to a fantasy.
She took a quick shower and pulled on her favorite pair of jeans. High heeled pumps, a sparkly backless top, and large hoops completed the ensemble. Under Prince’s watchful gaze, she sat at her mother’s dresser to do her makeup. When she took in her reflection, her gaze fell on the rumpled sheets behind her. The bed looked so inviting, and the long walk in the cold had sapped some of her strength.
She glanced at her slim wristwatch. A little after nine. She had time for a power nap.
Or one more naughty rendezvous with her dream lover.
Prince bounced after her, but she held out her index finger. “No,” she said. “You’re staying on the floor this time.”
He gave her something like a shrug and got comfy on the rug-turned-dog-bed.
Alice kicked off her heels and fell on the bed face-first. “Just one more time,” she whispered as she closed her eyes. “Please.” She couldn’t say why, but it was imperative to see him tonight.
When he said he’d call, she believed him. He wanted to see her again; she’d seen it in his eyes when her nails had raised welts on his shoulders. What they’d shared had been as unique for him as it had for her.
If he didn’t call despite that, she didn’t want to be tempted to make the first move. Not again. He knew she was available; the ball was in his court.
“Till you call, you’re my beautiful stranger.”
Long fingers closed around her ankles and flipped her on her back. She didn’t bother to suppress her squeal of delight. “You’re back.”
He pulled her down until her ass hung off the edge of the mattress. “Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.”
She had the sense he’d meant to add tonight.
“I—”
Something rubbed along her slit. It took a heartbeat for her to realize it was the blunt tip of his cock. �
��I don’t think I can take it slow this time,” he said. “I need to be inside you.”
She bit her lip. “Then what are you waiting for?” After three consecutive nights of foreplay, she was nothing if not ready for him, her body humming with anticipation, her nether lips swollen with need.
He didn’t speak. For one long moment he did nothing, and then he buried his entire length inside her in one hard stroke.
“God!” Just the previous night she’d struggled to fit her mouth around him, but he felt even bigger now.
Giving her no time to adjust to his size, he began pounding her to the mattress. Her pussy ached from the force of his first thrust, but closed around him greedily with a fervor that matched his, their coupling bearing none of the gentleness of the previous nights. This was what she wanted—what her body hungered after.
“You like it rough, don’t you?”
She hadn’t said it in so many words, but she did. She loved the coarse hair of his legs scratching her inner thighs; his fingers pinching her buttocks, bruising the flesh; his cock making her writhe with a mixture of pleasure and pain.
It hurt so good.
“Don’t open your eyes.”
She shook her head. Blindly, she sought purchase on his upper arms, digging her nails into the steely muscle. The bed shook with the force of his thrusts, and she held on to him as to life itself.
He splayed one hand on her stomach and used the other to lift her legs to his shoulders. The new angle exposed her to more of him. The pressure was too much. He went too deep. The abundance of stimuli made her lightheaded. She cried out. It didn’t take much more than his two fingers pinching her clit to send her spiraling toward the edge and then tumbling over it, overwhelmed by the release of the tension that had been building up in her belly since she’d felt him between her legs.
“Don’t open your eyes,” he said again, but now she needed to. She needed to see his face mirror the pleasure that arched her back and short-circuited her nerve endings.
Against her better judgment, despite the voice in her head that said she was risking everything, she opened her eyes and looked up at him.
His features contorted, but in agony, not ecstasy. He pulled out of her, and his hot spendings sprayed her chest and stomach. “No, Alice.” The frustration in his voice and dread in his light brown eyes made no sense. He’d just come all over her. He should be exhausted but satisfied.
“What? What’s wrong?”
He squeezed his eyes shut, and shook his head, face pinched. The movement reminded her of Prince. Her mind was a scary place.
He met her gaze again.
She could tell he meant to say something important. “Tell me, what?” She needed to hear whatever it was. He had to speak now, before she woke up.
“It’s nothing. I just don’t want to leave.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes, I do.” His expression told her she’d never see him again, if she let him go this time.
She reached for him. “Stay. Please.”
He disentangled himself from her and lay by her side. “I wish I could, Alice. Believe me.”
She felt a knot of unshed tears form in her throat. “No. You have to stay. Just a little while.” The loneliness she’d refused to acknowledge every time she told her sister she was done with love, overpowered her, ripping through the haze of her recent bliss. It was essential that she didn’t let him disappear this time.
“There’s no little while. I found you too late. What comes next is forever.” His eyes were filled with infinite sadness.
The knot rose and came undone, drowning her logic under a torrent of emotion. She wanted to spend more of her nights with him, since her days weren’t an option. She wanted to get to know him, and this was the only way available to her. It wasn’t like she had something to lose. Whatever she offered in her sleep couldn’t possibly be binding in real life. “Then maybe stay forever,” she said. “Please?” She was aware of how stupid she was being, clinging to the made-up version of a man she hadn’t really gotten to know, but the possibility of losing him for good tore her up inside.
He gathered her to him, and she peppered his chest with kisses until he stopped her lips with his. The moment they both slanted into the kiss, her mind was consumed by thoughts that didn’t belong to her.
Unwanted. Useless for anything but pleasure. Lost.
Drunk in a bar. A woman asks him home.
Not Alice. Different woman. Cassandra. Sexy and scary.
“I’ll make you a star,” she says. She has huge blue eyes and long lashes. Her gaze is hypnotic, her voice sweet as honey.
No longer a bartender. No sleeping around. No playing only for his friends.
A crowd waiting for him. He comes out on a brightly-lit stage, and the crowd cheers. He plays his guitar, he sings, and they scream something that sounds like ‘hearts.’
Hertz. Quinn Hertz. His name.
Dizzy. The adrenaline is addictive. He’s a god.
She watches with a proud smile. He belongs to her.
She’s gorgeous and obviously into him, and he sleeps with her. Again. And again.
Waking up in a large bed next to her. Those eyes are amazing, and she takes care of him, and he takes care of her.
She’s in his arms. Bodies sweaty. She looks down at him. “I love you.”
Shit. He can’t say it back. Doesn’t feel it. “Me too.” The words burn. He’s a piece of shit.
Going out for dinner. Dancing. Drinking. More drinking. Can’t live a lie any more. He has to tell her the truth, and he’s on his way to her place, but there’s a woman.
A woman who calls to every fiber of his being. A woman he has to make his.
And he makes her his and he becomes hers, because he always was hers and hers alone.
Alice.
When he makes it to Cassandra’s, she knows. She already knows, and those eyes grow bigger. Scary. Witch? Demon? Goddess? Something else entirely? Whatever she is, she’s furious and powerful.
A curse.
His curse.
The curse is supposed to punish him. The curse is supposed to keep them apart.
Unless Alice wants forever.
Images and sensations swirled around her, making her gasp for breath.
A dog, alone and scared. A man, but not for long. Up to her. All up to her. Gone soon. Forever.
She felt a tear roll down her cheek. “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have asked you to stay sooner.”
“I was about to, tonight, but I didn’t want to force you to an eternity with me. If you knew, you’d ask me to stay just because you’re too nice to let me be a dog.”
But she’d asked him to stay anyway. Because she couldn’t fathom not seeing him again. Because he was the only man who made her body sing. Because even as a dog, he’d made her feel safe and like she belonged. Because she could see herself falling for him and landing in his arms.
White light filled her vision. She tried to blink him into focus, but nothing happened.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
When she opened them again, the light came from outside her window. The last few minutes of the year had slipped through her fingers, and she’d never again return to the dream she’d shared with her stranger.
And it had been a weird dream: a dog that used to be a man until he met her; a curse only she could break; and the mind-blowing sex that was the result of potential soul mates recognizing one another.
Good thing she was out of it and back to a world that made sense.
She wiped her still wet eyes.
She had to get started on finding Prince a new home. There was no way she could hold on to him and her sanity. She looked down at the floor.
He was still there—still asleep—but he wasn’t Prince. The man who’d strolled into her life six months ago and had haunted her dreams for the past four nights was curled up by her parents’ bed.
“You.” The word was too small, but cracked like a
whip through the silence.
He opened his eyes startled, but smiled when he saw her. “Quinn. My name is Quinn.”
She nodded mutely.
His grin widened as he took in his nakedness. “I think you broke the curse.”
Alice had a choice. She could either believe in it all, crazy as it was, or go have herself committed.
In the light of day, her mind screamed that she’d been too hasty to promise forever, when she knew next to nothing about him, but her heart insisted she wanted to get to know it all. If the only way to keep him was to bind herself to him, it would have to do. She scooted toward the middle of the bed. “I think you better come up here and explain everything once more. In words, this time.”
He crawled up next to her with a grace too feline for someone who’d been a canine till recently. “Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess,” he said. He cupped the back of her head and pulled her in for a kiss.
Maybe he could explain after they’d had the chance to remember how dream-sex compared to the real thing.
It wasn’t like he’d been going anywhere anytime soon.
And maybe later they could put up the tree. The holidays could last a while longer this year.
The End
To find out more about Becca and her boys, get Threefold now!
For Amanda’s love story, don’t miss The Tenant.
Can’t get enough of a sexy villain? Cassandra also appears in One Last Night.
