CHAPTER ELEVEN || HARRIS #3
“I needed that,” Reed said, curling up so that his head was resting on my chest.
“Me too,” I answered, realizing it was true.
I had needed Reed to remind me that I was a man, capable of feelings and pleasure.
I had spent so long alone, touch-starved and pretending it was okay.
I had spent years completely alone after Paul had died, and even before that.
My own fears had choked off any semblance of happiness I might’ve had.
Reed’s touch had ignited something in me—made me feel fully alive for the first time in a very long time.
“I would have guessed that you’d want to be…”
“On top? Dominant?” Reed snorted, giving me a sideways look. His eyes were still a deep gold. They hadn’t shifted back to their ordinary, human color. “Constantly in control, even in the bedroom?”
I realized he was right—maybe it was freeing to let someone else be in charge, at least behind closed doors. Maybe it was a relief.
He nodded. “Yeah, exactly.”
Even though I knew there was a psychic bond between us, it was still startling to have him intuit my thoughts so easily. “You heard what I was thinking?”
“You’re louder right now,” Reed murmured, a small, contented smile on his lips. “Or maybe I’m learning how to hear you better.” Then he paused. “And yeah, maybe it’s nice to not be in charge for once.”
“Are you—where do you usually land when you’re with a man? When you do… other things?”
He smirked at me, the mischief easy to read in his eyes. “Are you asking me if I’m usually a top or a bottom, Harris?”
I chuckled, the ridiculousness of my own question hitting me. It was absurdly mundane to be here with this supernatural creature I was mystically connected to, asking him what he preferred in the bedroom.
“It’s not ridiculous,” he said, apparently having heard my thoughts again. “It’s actually kind of nice. It’s normal. If you’d asked me, even a couple of weeks ago, if I could ever have anything even approaching normal, I would’ve told you that you were out of your mind.”
“I want you to have good and normal,” I said, before I could censor myself.
Something melted in his expression and he smiled again. “I know you do. Fuck, Harris. I’m really glad you came to Crescent Springs.”
“Me too.”
“For the record, I’m usually pretty versatile. It depends on the guy I’m with, usually.”
“Yeah?”
“With you, I want you to be on top, when we cross that bridge. I want you to be in control.” Then he paused and added, “If that’s okay with you? At least for right now. We can figure out later if you like it both ways.”
The thought of being deep inside Reed, giving him pleasure…
My cock began to stir at that, spent as I was.
“Not tonight,” Reed said softly, smiling.
I could sense he had intuited my thoughts yet again and wanted it every bit as much as I did.
But he was feeling cautious about the prospect of pushing things, of going too fast. Which meant he wanted to respect my comfort levels, even now.
He added, “There’s no need to rush a single thing. ”
I thought of the life waiting for me back in Los Angeles.
Why had I been afraid to lose it? My job meant very little—it was a nonstop parade of horrors, and I hadn’t actually enjoyed it in a long time.
And the idea of going back to my tiny apartment, empty and barren, and letting myself get consumed in work again…
It wasn’t a pretty thought. I didn’t want to be that guy again. He wasn’t really real. Not the way I was here, next to Reed.
“Yeah,” I said, realizing I wanted to stay here as long as he’d let me. “We’ve got all the time in the world.”
After that, Reed rolled over and turned off the light. He let out a soft noise of pleasure as my arms wrapped around him. Within a minute of holding him in the dark, his breathing deepened and the lingering tension in his body melted away.
I followed him into sleep.
* * *
The moon was larger than it ought to have been and seemed almost close enough to touch. The trees around us glowed faintly gold, almost the same shade as Reed’s eyes. And the air itself seemed to sparkle, as if filled with motes of pure magic.
Reed was beside me, dressed simply in a pair of black linen drawstring pants and nothing else. I realized I was wearing the same thing, except mine were cream-colored. Reed’s eyes were still bright gold, filled with wonder rivaling my own.
“We’re dreaming,” I told him, feeling awestruck as I looked around the forest.
“So we are,” he murmured. “I spent a long time turning our dreams into a nightmare.”
“Let’s not do that this time.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “Yeah, you’re right. Fuck that—and fuck being afraid. This is pure magic.”
I wagged my eyebrows at him, overcome by a childlike sense of joy, the emotion so pure and perfect it was almost enough to move me to tears. “If it’s magic, can we fly?”
He hesitated, considering my words. “I honestly have no idea. I’ve never tried.”
“If it’s us, we can do anything,” I assured him, wrapping my arms around his waist.
He copied me, his arms against mine, and held me close.
With a simple thought, the ground beneath us vanished and we began to soar upward.
Strangely, there was no fear. Because we wouldn’t fall. Not unless we wanted to.
Though I was falling, wasn’t I? Not physically, but every part of me was overcome by a fierce tenderness—a mix of softness and fire—and every bit of it was for Reed.
We shot up above the canopy of the forest, the trees becoming dark shapes far below us.
The Cascade Mountains stretched out on either side of us, dark peaks illuminated silver by the moon.
Even Mount Rainier, capped with snow and startlingly near, seemed surreal—so strikingly beautiful it couldn’t possibly exist in the real world.
“This is incredible,” Reed breathed.
“You’re incredible,” I told him. Then I kissed him again, as we hung suspended in the air, surrounded by the moon and a sea of stars.
We were startled awake by a knocking at the door.
The dream shattered around us and Reed bolted upright in bed. I did the same. The window on the far side of the cabin told me it was just before dawn, the night beginning to lighten to day.
Reed and I exchanged a troubled look. No one in the pack had interrupted us this early—not since I had arrived. Something was very wrong.
Another sharp knock at the door propelled us into motion. Reed and I both jumped out of bed and began pulling our clothing on.
I grabbed my gun from the bedside table and readied it, standing behind Reed so I could cover him. Though, the monster in the woods probably wouldn’t have knocked.
Reed pulled open the door.
A thin, short, redheaded man with bright blue eyes and a smattering of freckles across his nose stood on the doorstep, peering back at us.
“I’m Tamrand,” he told us. “I work at the grill. I need your help.”
“What is it?” Reed demanded.
“Sally’s gone missing,” Tamrand said gravely. “The monster took her.”