She lay panting as Brann moved to lie down next to her again. She rolled her head, struggling to bring in enough air. “I think I left the earth with that one.”
He leaned over and kissed her, then touched the sides of her lips with his thumb. “You have my blood on you.”
“It was so good, all of it, the way you worked my sex and the way you taste. Oh, Brann.” Her emotions rose up like a wave, all her affection for him, how much she’d loved the past five months with him, everything.
For a moment, she was taken back to how it had all begun. She knew she’d done a bad thing, and given how close she felt to him, she almost told him the truth.
But she couldn’t. She was afraid to lose this moment with him.
She cupped his face with her hands. “You’ve come to mean so much to me.” Her throat was tight all over again.
He caught her hand, turning it to kiss her palm. “When I’m in the dreamglide, I remember everything. But the moment I fall out of it, my mind closes up. Yet the emotion remains and I feel the same way. I just wish I could remember more.”
She wished it as well.
Then again, she didn’t.
***
Brannick felt the fae part of him come alive as he kissed Juliet’s palm over and over. He could feel what she was feeling, the profound way she had enjoyed her time with him.
Though his memories still lagged, he knew he felt the same way when he was with her, as though he wanted to devour her.
Full of such a demanding drive toward her, he slid his legs over hers, positioning himself between her thighs. “I need to be inside you.”
He balanced himself on his forearms and leaned down to kiss her. He lowered himself onto her, loving the feel of her hands as she fondled the muscles of his back and his arms.
Placing his cock at her entrance, he pushed, then drew back, wanting to watch her as he made his way inside.
He rested on his forearms and curled his hips. He loved the way she held his gaze, lips parted. He kissed her freckles again, pushing in farther with each touch of his lips to her face.
What was newly fae within him felt connected to her, his awareness of her emotions heightened. “I’ve wanted to be here with you, just like this, from the moment you walked into that club.”
“You have been.” She dragged her fingers through his hair.
“In the dreamglide?”
“Uh-huh.”
As he pushed, her body rolled. He loved that his cock brought her so much pleasure.
But he needed something more from her. Using his hand, he shoved her thick, brown curls away from her neck and licked up and down her throat.
She moaned heavily. “Yes, Brann, please. Take from me at my neck.”
He stopped the movement of his hips, angled his head and struck quickly. The moment the blood flowed, he began thrusting steadily once more.
Her whole body jerked, and she moaned. “I feel dizzy from the thrall again and it feels so good.”
What surprised him was that though he was drinking from her like a vampire, the rest of him was channeling his fae instincts. He reached for something he didn’t at first understand. Yet he felt compelled to keep at it, to keep pressing into the unknown. It was like walking through a fog within his mind.
He pushed, the same way his hips kept pistoning inside Juliet, driving toward ecstasy.
He was after something.
Suddenly, he broke through. He saw the blurred edges of the room. He was in bed with Juliet, drinking from her, in more than one place.
Brann, what have you done?
I think I’ve created a dreamglide and pulled us both in.
She grew very still beneath him, but he didn’t know why. His own need seemed to escalate. He’d heard about this, being in both places at once. Hell, Roche had built an entire sex club around just this experience.
He felt completely captured by his former experiences with Juliet as well. He became one with them in terms of emotions. He could remember them all.
He drove into her faster. But Juliet had grown so still, as though stunned. Juliet, be with me. Please. Don’t leave me now. He kept drinking from her.
He felt her move once more, her arms snaking around his back. I’m here. This is incredible. Every sensation feels twice as erotic and intense. But hold on tight, I’m feeling something.
I am too, like it’s going to pick us up.
Just like that, they were airborne, yet he remained joined to her. He groaned because his real-time-self continued plunging in and out of her and drinking from her throat.
The wave passed at least for the moment. He was now in real-time. Her blood was a fire down his throat, building him up.
Brann, this is amazing. The way this feels.
I know. It’s extraordinary. Like gliding.
Here it comes again. I want to come like this with waves picking us up.
She cried out as the dreamglide wind catapulted them, rolling them over, yet keeping them entwined at the same time.
I’m close to coming, Juliet. How about you?
***
Juliet held tight to Brann. But she wanted to experience the gust-like sensations in a different way and stretched her arms out to each side.
Brann, go faster. Here comes another gust.
Brannick pistoned into her, going vampire fast. I can feel it, but I can’t hold back anymore.
Me, neither.
When the gust came, they rolled and rolled. The orgasm swept over her just like the wind, flowing through every part of her.
Pleasure peaked, drifted away then with another roll through the dreamglide, peaked higher still.
She cried out in a loud constant cry. In the dreamglide the sound reverberated,
Brann released his hold on her neck, swiped the wounds, then drew back to shout his ecstasy. The wind didn’t stop but kept rolling them over and over.
Juliet opened her eyes within the dreamglide and there in a beautiful panorama were all the times she’d been with him from the beginning. The erotic nature of it combined with the wind, and that Brann continued to drive into her, sent her soaring once more.
She held onto him this time, her body arching with his, slamming against his groin, feeling the push-pull of his beautiful cock as pleasure rose and fell.
Another wind came. He held her gaze in the dreamglide. “Can you come again?” He smiled at her, his green eyes lit with a glow.
“Yes. But it may be the death of me.”
His smile broadened, the one she knew so well from all her dreamgliding time with Brann. She returned his smile and gripped his shoulders. He held her tight.
This time, when the gust came, she leaned up and kissed him as they rolled around and around. They were stationary yet moving, a miracle of the alter life.
He plunged his tongue as he continued to drive into her over and over. She could feel him come this time, his cock pulsing inside her.
Ecstasy took her on yet another ride, only this time, she must have fainted with the joy and pleasure of it.
When she opened her eyes, the dreamglide was gone. She was in bed in Agnes’s small house and looking up at Brann.
His back was arched, his body very still, his eyes closed. His skin glowed with a silvery light as it had in her canal home, and he looked like he was caught in an out-of-body experience.
When he finally opened his eyes, they were still lit up. He glanced down at her, then around the room. “Everything seems so quiet like when a storm passes.”
“It was a storm of wind, yet we were completely safe.”
He began to relax as he lowered himself to his forearms. “So that’s why Roche built an entire business for dreamgliding sex. It was incredible.”
She stared at him, waiting, wondering. Had the dreamglide changed things for him? Prompted any memories?
She worked at staying as relaxed as possible, but how much did he remember now?
“What are you thinking about?” He stroked her curls,
petting her head in a way she’d always loved. Did he know that?
“I’m wondering if the dreamglide changed anything for you.” She searched his green eyes. He seemed content, something he’d allowed himself to experience in a dreamglide, and now he was clearly feeling it during real-time. Even the furrow between his brows had eased.
He smiled. “I feel like it changed everything, yet nothing really. And you’ve never done this before?”
“Participated in dreamglide sex combined with real-time? No, never.” She smiled and caressed his face, tracing a finger over an eyebrow, down his cheek, then his lips.
He kissed her, a beautiful, warm, lingering kiss. He was still buried inside her, and because he was a big man, she could feel him even though he was no longer erect. “I feel wonderful when I’m with you, Brann.” She shook her head. “I could so get used to this.”
“Well, I did ask if you wanted to date.”
“You did.”
“I don’t remember your answer.”
She caressed his face, running her thumb slowly along his cheekbone. “You know damn well I’d love to.”
He nodded several times in a row, his brow growing furrowed once more.
Her fae senses told her that his mind was shifting gears in a major way.
Oh, God, was he remembering?
He searched around and located the extra washcloth. He carefully slid it between them and as he pulled out, he placed it against her well. “Would you mind if I headed back to the shower?”
“Of course not. Is everything okay?”
“Sure, I mean, yes. Can’t explain what’s going on, but I need to think. About all of it.”
Juliet’s heartrate rose as he left the bed and she found it hard to breathe.
She knew his memories hadn’t completely returned, but her fae instincts were screaming at her that she was in serious trouble.
***
Brannick felt uneasy as he got the water steaming hot, then climbed under the spray. His fae intuition had kicked in again, letting him know that something big was on the way. He needed to prepare for it, yet it didn’t feel like Roche. This felt different, like it had to do with Juliet.
He had to bend to wash his hair. Most showers weren’t built for men his size. He took his time, but fear jabbed at him. He was in trouble; he just didn’t know what it would look like when it arrived.
As he finished rinsing off, something similar to the dreamglide suddenly rushed through his mind.
The he understood.
The memories were coming.
Yet, he resisted.
He planted a hand on the wall and stepped out of the tub.
A piercing headache followed.
He slid to the floor and put both hands over his eyes. What the hell was happening?
Images began flying at him erratically, one after the other, of his bedroom and Juliet, then her bedroom and him pulling back the comforter and dropping onto the bed. She leaped on him and laughed.
Another memory followed, the one on the bridge when she wore her red-flowered dress. He understood that all his prior experiences in the dreamglide were coming forward, one after the other and that his newly acquired faeness was telling him to let them come.
The moment he accepted the memories, the headache ceased and it was as though a movie began to play in his mind. He could now hear the conversations, all the ones Juliet had told him they’d had.
He saw himself completely relaxed with her and enjoying being her lover. The memories were sequential as well, though he was working through them backward, the most recent first. He also let them move swiftly through his head.
He smiled a lot and at times became so aroused that he almost called for Juliet, then another memory would take him on a different dreamglide. One time, he’d actually gotten into a canal paddle-boat with her, though it hadn’t lasted long. His size had started sinking the small craft.
He’d levitated her out of it before it sank and they’d returned to her home laughing and shortly afterward made love.
Back the memories went. His affection for her grew more and more profound, until he was all the way at the beginning, asleep in his bed.
That’s when he understood exactly what Juliet had done to initiate the affair.
And that’s when he knew he’d never be able to be with her again.
CHAPTER 9
Brannick stayed on the bathroom floor for a long time, his bare ass on the rug. He stared at the cupboard opposite and barely saw it. He kept running the last few images over and over in his mind of what Juliet had done to him in the dreamglide.
She’d broken a huge Revel Territory law to start the process. He saw everything now, every single memory he had of her, including the fact she’d used her dreamglide to break into his dreams without invitation or permission.
She’d essentially hijacked him in his dreams. In that sense, she was no better than Roche. Even the Tribunal prosecuted any fae caught doing so.
Dream boundaries were most often violated for the purpose of gathering information like security codes and passwords. The sale of the information following a dream hijacking became the evidence used in a trial. The cartels, being vulnerable to this kind of tampering, made sure the Trib took this crime seriously. At least twenty fae were serving time for dream violations.
Though Juliet hadn’t stolen anything from him, she’d broken the law and infringed on his basic alter right.
Yet he was also appalled at how much of a willing partner he’d become right away, without hesitation, as though his unconscious mind didn’t care about the rules. Instead, he should have turned her away and reported her then and there to the Board of Sages. Her own kind would have prosecuted her immediately.
Everything he believed about Juliet became tainted. She’d violated a sacred trust and shattered every reason he had to trust the woman.
He rose from the floor and slowly put on his leathers and tank. He hadn’t meant to get dressed again. He’d planned on staying through the day with Juliet, making love to her, sleeping beside her, then doing it all over again.
He couldn’t now, and given that dawn was close, he needed to get the hell out of Agnes’s compound.
He worked on his socks and boots. When he finally stood up, he met his reflection in the mirror. He drew close, staring at the groove between his brows. Juliet was always trying to smooth it out. But she couldn’t. He lived in Five Bridges. He’d lost his family to dark flame and his parents and sister to the bad choices he’d made.
From that point, when the cartels had taken their revenge, when his sister had been sacrificed by one of the dark covens, he’d promised himself he would take a different approach to his life here.
And he had.
He’d shut down his need for vengeance and had kept his road straight and narrow, no exceptions. He ran his tunnel rescue system in the same way. He’d set up specific guidelines. Because of it, he’d saved over three-hundred women, a few of them as young as thirteen. Without those rules, his organization would have collapsed a long time ago.
He served as a border patrol officer because he was committed to the rule of law. He’d thought Juliet held the same values.
He moved into the bedroom. She sat up in bed, but she’d never appeared more somber.
Yet, seeing her brought the most recent memories rushing forward, of making love to her, of experiencing a combination of real-time and dreamglide sex.
He’d kissed her freckles.
He’d felt something profound for her.
He’d asked to date her.
Now all of it seemed like the worst kind of manipulation. She’d essentially seduced him into a relationship with her.
“Juliet.”
“You know everything, don’t you? The memories have finally merged.”
“They have. You seduced me into this relationship during a dream hijacking.”
She sighed heavily. “I did.”
“Which also means that you lied to m
e from the time the first memory surfaced in the garage.”
“Only about how the whole thing started with you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” He needed to know her rationale.
“It’s very simple. I loved my time with you, and I didn’t want the dreamgliding to end.”
“So you deliberately misled me.”
She seemed oddly relieved. “Yes. I should never have approached you in the dreamglide and for that I apologize, but not for the rest, not for what followed. Knowing you, being with you despite the questionable beginning, has been one of the finest experiences of my life.”
“You don’t sound remorseful at all. I’d think you’d at least give me that.” He scowled at her, angry by her almost indifferent attitude. He had no idea what she was thinking or how she justified her actions.
***
Juliet’s heart beat so hard in her chest she felt as though it would burst at any moment.
It was difficult to look at Brannick. Though she’d always known this moment would come, she’d hoped oh-so-foolishly that it wouldn’t. Yet here it was, her terrible sin exposed.
Oddly, she remembered that old saying about chickens coming home to roost. And they had, by the thousands and each of them squawking at her for being so stupid and for breaking such a critical law in the first place.
His voice beat at her from across the room. “So you have nothing to say.”
She glanced up at him once more. She could feel her heart tearing at each of its moorings. “Would you have asked me to date you, if you hadn’t felt this kind of connection to me?”
He frowned even harder. “I don’t know. But it’s not the point. Or are you trying to justify your behavior, because this doesn’t fly. The end doesn’t justify the means. Ever.
Juliet reached under the comforter and began pulling the top sheet up around her. Once she was sufficiently covered, she slid her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. She moved toward him, though she kept her distance. She knew she had to fight for him. She could see his anger. But the fae part of her intuition told her he was using her wrongdoing as an excuse to end the relationship.
She had to fight, something she’d never had to do until she’d come to Five Bridges. She was weak in that way, and being fae didn’t help. But she was done with trying to play by the old, human-based rules. She lived in this world, and she’d been lonely as hell until she’d met Brannick at the White Flame.
Bad Boys of the Night: Eight Sizzling Paranormal Romances: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set Page 159
