by Tessa Cole
It sounded like angel-boy was in. Good. It was time to get this dream going.
Chapter 3
Annie
Unfortunately we didn’t just instantly arrive at the town and once again I feared the dream was turning into one of those dreams. The kind where I searched for something — usually it was a bathroom, but in this case it was two more lovers and a bed — and never actually found it.
We walked for what felt like a good thirty minutes with the heat beating down on me, and I was covered in sweat and my calves ached with the exertion of walking through the sand before I’d even reached the dunes Rion had mentioned… which was something I didn’t want to think about.
People didn’t sweat in dreams and even if they did, my sore legs felt all too real.
We reached the apex of the sandy hills and beyond I could see the town in more detail now that it was much closer.
It didn’t look like much. ‘Town’ seemed a bit liberal a word for it. It was more of a village. A really small village. There were a few larger buildings near the shoreline and at the center of town, but the rest of the buildings were huts. Actual honest to goodness huts. And there couldn’t have been more than a couple hundred people there. I was sure, though, that — as in most dreams — it would change by the time I reached it and it would end up being something else entirely. Something with a comfy bed big enough to fit me and all soon-to-be four men.
Except the village didn’t change.
It stayed the same small, too-rugged-to-be-quaint village, and by the time we walked up from the beach onto a packed sandy-earth road between some huts toward the center of town, I was getting woozy. Something, along with everything else — the heat, my sweating, and my sore calves — that also felt a little too real.
I swayed, bumping into the reed-woven wall of the hut next to me, and bounced off to march forward once again.
“Are you well, goddess?” Rion asked from behind me. “You don’t seem to be accustomed to the heat.”
“The gods live on a high mountain, don’t they?” Delphon said. “It’s probably much cooler up there.”
“Exactly,” I replied. Though I wasn’t sure what I was agreeing to. My thoughts were hazy and muddled. This was usually how I felt when I’d been out in the sun too long. Just like that time in Barbados.
My gaze slowly dropped to my arm, and I couldn’t tell if it was because I’d thought to look to see how bad of a burn I’d gotten or if it had just fallen of its own volition.
I frowned.
I wasn’t lobster red yet. Odd. In fact, I seemed to be only just a tad darker… I was actually tanning! How odd. But then dreams were strange things.
Rion drew close and placed a strong, steadying hand against the small of my back, guiding me as we moved deeper into the town. I snaked my arm behind his waist, letting it slip down over his wrap to clutch at one iron-hard butt-cheek.
He made a bit of a humming noise at that, but didn’t dissuade me, and we stepped out onto what I guessed was a main street.
“Wha…?”
The street was filled with all manner of strange and wonderful beings.
My subconscious was going crazy and I had no idea what any of it meant… other than I was horny.
A group of three half-men-half-horses walked by. What were they called again?
Jeez. With the heavy haze muddling my thoughts everything was so hard to remember.
Centaurs.
That was it. They were centaurs.
Going in the opposite direction were a gaggle of slight, slender girls, their skin and hair curious shades of blue and green. They passed by a woman with wings for arms and the legs of a bird haggling with a merchant selling fruit at the side of the road. The merchant himself was a giant of a man with only one eye above his nose, who was crouching down to be a bit less intrusive.
Then there was a large fellow with the head of a bull—
There was a name for them… mini-towers!
I giggled.
It wasn’t the right word, but the man certainly towered over almost everyone else here. Maybe the mythology professors, or whoever it was who decided those things, should rename them.
Everyone seemed to be some odd creature from mythology or fairy tales, and the really startling thing was that — like my two companions — everyone was either naked or barely clothed, and nobody seemed to care.
I giggled again, my head swimming. There was something I was supposed to remember…
“I think we need to get you some water,” Rion said.
He scooped me up — what a gentleman… angel… gentle-angel? — and carried me across the square to one of the larger buildings. It looked like some kind of pub with a large awning shading the front door and the rough-hewn tables and benches placed underneath. And with the raucous sound of many voices coming from within, it sounded like a pub, too.
And sure enough, the sign nailed over the door said “cantina.”
Which only reaffirmed my belief that this was a dream.
Wouldn’t the place have a proper name?
Funny how I could come up with all manner of strange people and a weird name like— whatever the hell Rion’s full name was, but my subconscious couldn’t come up with a name for the cantina.
Delphon opened the door for Rion and we entered the darkened interior.
The sights, now harder to see in the dim light, and sounds all began to blend together for me and my mind was on the verge of turning into mush. Which was very un-dreamlike… or maybe it was very dreamlike. I couldn’t figure out which.
Rion laid me on a long bench and two other men appeared. It was hard to make out much, but one seemed shorter, scruffy, with horse’s legs? He was introduced as Aethan. The other was the big one Delphon had mentioned. A brick wall of a man with shiny black skin, huge in every way and had to duck to keep from hitting his head on the ceiling. He gave a small smile as he was introduced, Kephas, or Keph.
Is this the one who’s bigger than Delphon?
I looked between his legs, there was a shadow there, hard to see the dark skin in the darkened interior. But the swaying shadows certainly suggested he was… aptly proportioned for his massive size.
“I’m Goddess Extraordinaire Annie Chambers,” I said, or tried to. The words were a bit slurred and sloppy. “Ravish me!”
Then I blacked out and was floating in a dark place weightless, bodyless, with nothing and no one around me.
This was more like the dreams I was used to.
The other dream had been so very… odd. Yet a part of me wanted to go back to it. It seemed a much more preferable option to waking up cold and bleeding in that alley.
A hint of light and sound and a cool, refreshing liquid whispered across my senses, and I was suddenly aware that I was drinking.
A rough wooden cup was softly pressed to my lips, gently tilted forward, and a trickle of water dribbled its way into my mouth… most of the time. Otherwise I could feel the wetness where it had gone down my chin.
Even before I opened my eyes, my other senses seemed to be on high alert. The cool and refreshing water was the best thing I’d ever tasted, a cacophony of noise surrounded me, hurting my ears and making my head throb, and I sat, reclined back, my torso and head resting on something hard, while the reek of old beer, wine, roasting meat, and sweat assaulted my sense of smell.
I crinkled my nose as my eyes fluttered open, and I fell into a stunning, dark silver-rimmed gaze.
It belonged to an enormous man, his flesh as near to midnight black as I’d ever seen. His face was kind, with rounded cheeks, and even though he was bald, I got the sense that he was around my age. He cradled me, holding me gently against his large body as if I was a doll, and while I felt delicate and fragile, I also felt completely safe.
“Feeling better?” he asked, his voice soft and incredibly deep, as he took the cup from my lips. A cup which seemed quite tiny compared to his massive, thick-fingered hand.
My thoughts instantl
y leaped in a highly inappropriate direction given that I’d just passed out — probably from heat stroke. But his large fingers made me think of other large things, which had me thinking of that large… member filling me and—
“I, ah…”
My thoughts leaped again and I remembered this was a dream. There wasn’t anything inappropriate about my thoughts toward this man at all. He was a figment— a very large figment of my imagination.
I tried to adjust a little to see how impressive he actually was, but wasn’t at a good angle and moving made my head swim and my thoughts swirl back toward the dark nothing part of the dream.
“Did you want up?” he asked.
I wanted him up.
But it was probably better if I made sure I didn’t pass out again first.
I pressed my forehead against his bare chest, closed my eyes, and sucked in a long, slow breath, trying to steady myself.
“Just breathe, little goddess,” the man said, his deep voice rumbling through me as his hand, so large it seemed to span my entire back, swept slow, gentle circles on my back.
I sucked in another breath
“That’s it.”
“Thank you—” I searched my memory for his name. I’d heard it before I’d passed out. And besides, this was my dream. I’d named him.
It floated around in my mind for a second, just out of reach before I captured it.
Keph.
His name was Keph… and I had no idea why my subconscious had decided that was a good name for him.
I raised my head to look him in his stunning eyes again. “Thank you, Ke—”
Something oddly shaped about the length of my forearm flew by my head, hit the wall beside Keph’s shoulder with a heavy thunk, and dropped to the floor.
Keph’s gaze jerked up, while mine followed whatever it was that had hit the wall.
It looked like a piece of wood.
No, it looked like a piece of table leg.
My senses lurched and the magical little bubble I’d fallen into when I’d looked into Keph’s eyes popped. Noise roared around me. Noise I knew I’d been hearing, but hadn’t been paying attention to before.
I turned in Keph’s embrace and became suddenly aware of two things.
The first was that the room was in chaos. Everyone except me and Keph were in the middle of a massive brawl. Chairs and tables were smashed and people wrestled and punched and went flying in all directions.
Food and beverages were tossed about with abandon, sometimes as a result of being knocked off a table, other times on purpose, thrown into someone’s face.
The other thing I became aware of was Keph’s aforementioned member that I’d been curious about.
Moving had shifted me to the side and I had a perfect view of it because the man was completely naked!
Delphon had been right. Keph was huge, and it was just lying there. It wasn’t even erect.
Man. My subconscious was really trying to tell me something if even in the middle of a bar brawl I was getting hot and bothered thinking about a guy’s monster cock and what it would look like when it was standing proud.
I wrenched my attention up and tried to pretend that I hadn’t just gotten an eyeful, though I was fairly certain I was in the throes of a full-body blush and was very hot and very bothered.
Why did no one wear any clothes in this God-damned-uber-sexy dream?
Though, I wasn’t wearing much myself.
I’d been too warm. Perhaps that was it. Everyone was too hot for clothes.
I giggled a bit at that unable to help myself then heaved my attention back to the fight.
“So ah… what’s happening?” I asked Keph who didn’t seem at all ruffled by the fight even after he’d nearly been hit by a table leg.
“The others got tired of waiting, so they started a brawl. It’s common when we meet like this.” The words rumbled out from him, deep and soft, and made a shiver of desire rush over me.
I couldn’t quite imagine what part of me wanted my dream men to be brutish and go start fights, but apparently that’s where this dream had gone. Though… Keph was quiet and calm and didn’t look one bit worried.
A few feet away, a man — also naked — swung a chair at another guy, who ducked, and the chair swept toward me and the quiet giant holding me.
Keph caught the chair one handed and shoved, sending the man stumbling back a good five feet, then wrapped that large arm protectively back around me.
In the dim light it was hard to tell, but his skin looked shiny, more like black stone than skin, and when I ran my hand over his muscular forearm, it felt like stone, too.
He was literally rock hard, bringing a whole new meaning to the idea of chiseled muscles, and from that one-handed shove, he was strong, too. He could win this brawl in the blink of an eye.
“Why don’t you fight?” I asked.
He gave a single low chuckle. “I’d break people.”
Hunh. Yeah. I bet he would.
Large, strong, and gentle. I couldn’t think of a more perfect combination. And I was sure he could be just a little bit rough when he needed to, because, hey, this was my dream.
I leaned back into him. He seemed content to let the fight run its course, and I knew without a doubt he’d protect me. Until the others were done messing around, it was just him and me, and I was okay with that.
I slid my hand up his arm and onto his chiseled chest. God, but my hand seemed so tiny compared to everything of his, and I wasn’t a small woman. Sure, he was less defined than Rion, more rounded, with impossibly massive, rolling shoulders, but that didn’t make him any less attractive.
A green-skinned woman threw a mug that somehow still had liquid in it at another woman with horse legs, making her sputter with rage and reminding me that no one was actually human in this dream.
“So what are you?” I asked.
“Stone titan,” he rumbled.
“Yes, you are.” I couldn’t help myself as my gaze dipped to his lap again. “You’re so very… hard.”
He smiled and his massive hand shifted along the outside of my thigh, his palm alone was as wide across as my leg, and my thighs weren’t small. “And you are very soft.”
And now all I could think about was having that hand slide to the inside of my thigh, and his thick fingers driving me crazy.
I was more than ready. And this was a dream after all.
The bar fight— hell, the rest of this dream world didn’t matter. I wanted this man. I needed to know what sex with him would be like. I reached down and ran a single finger along the length of his cock. It twitched and rose and swelled and… holy fuck!
I was trembling with anticipation and a hint of fear. Would that massive thing even fit inside me? Even as wet as I was now, I was uncertain. I was about to climb into his lap when a large form smashed into the wall on the other side of me. He’d hit with his back and landed in a sitting position, his legs outstretched as if he’d just sat and hadn’t been thrown there.
It was my merman, Delphon.
“Oh, hey, you’re awake!” he said. He wore a wild grin, despite blood oozing from his nose and from a cut in his forehead. “And I see you’ve gotten to know Keph. Didn’t I tell you he was big?”
God yes, but… my desire and passion abated as reality — whatever strange dream ‘reality’ this was — returned to me.
I was in a room full of people, and I’d been about to mount Keph.
That, and Delphon was bleeding.
“You’re hurt.” I reached to check the wound — not that I’d know what to do with it. I’d tried to be a nurse, trouble was, I was pretty squeamish around blood. Except this was a dream and I couldn’t seem to stop myself.
The instant my fingers touched his forehead a strange rush of something swept over me, and his eyes widened. It felt as if energy passed from me to him and right before my eyes the cut on his forehead closed.
He blinked and reached up to touch the wound, probing tentatively the
n more seriously. “You healed me?”
“I did?” But the results were clear. “I did.”
I looked at my hand and the blood on my fingertips. I’d healed him. This wasn’t something I’d dreamed of before. Generally, if I had powers at all in my dreams, it was flight or invisibility, not… healing?
And yet, long ago I’d wanted to be a nurse or a doctor. My mother had been a nurse, and my father was a doctor. For the longest time, as a child, that’s what I’d wanted to be as well. Then I’d started taking biology courses and dissecting things. Taking care of people was one thing, but dealing with blood and vomit and all the other nasty things that came out of people… that wasn’t for me. And as much as I had an analytical mind, being good at math and puzzles and organizing things, I never got the grades in chemistry or biology to take that route, even if I’d changed my mind.
At the time, I’d figured it was for the best and taken business courses in college.
Except now I could heal.
Which had to be some deeply repressed desire from my psyche. It was only then that I realized that despite my long trek across the beach — wearing next to nothing — I hadn’t gotten a burn. Perhaps I could heal myself too? Nice!
Yep. I was some healing-powered-goddess in this dream. I could get behind that.
Delphon wiped the blood from his face and looked at me with so much more than the excitement and interest he’d shown on the beach. There was true wonder and admiration in his eyes.
“A goddess, indeed,” he whispered.
I gave him a knowing smile and winked.
“Amazing,” Keph added.
I turned back to him, unable to stop my gaze from dipping to his lap again, and my breath caught at seeing his half-aroused cock. All the heat and passion from a moment before returned to me.
“I am, and I think I deserve a reward, don’t you, gentlemen?” I started to rise. I felt strong enough, and the room didn’t spin. That was a good sign. “Why don’t we find a room and—”
The other two men joined us at that moment, the fight seemingly winding down.
Rion was everything I remembered. He hadn’t changed in the way that people in dreams sometimes did. He was still tall and lean and chiseled and now had a sheen of sweat on him, not to mention a couple of bruises, one on his cheek, the other on his side, that were starting to bloom a bright red.
