10. Chapter 10
A chill ran over me that settled into my bones. I reached to pull the blanket up around me, but my hands refused to cooperate. I was too tired. My fingers went limp on the sheet. I peeled one eyelid back to confirm that it was too much effort to get it.
I glanced at the ceiling, already on the edge of sinking back to sleep when something dark and small blurred in the crease where the ceiling and wall met.
My sleep-fogged brain struggled to make sense of what it was. It’s just a shadow. Go back to bed.
Then why was my heart suddenly racing out of my chest?
Something wasn’t right.
My eyelid threatened to collapse, but I held it open with sheer force of will. The shadow was the size of a bug. The possibility that it would fall on my face woke my brain up a sliver more, but not enough to move.
What is that?
The shape blurred and grew, moving with thin long legs. A spider? No.
My pulse pounded in my ear as adrenaline surged through me. I tried to move my fingers, but I couldn’t command the muscles and tendons. Every digit weighed a thousand pounds.
The shape grew from the shadow as tendrils pulled from the darkness. Definitely not a bug.
Move. Damn it.
Shadows billowed down like a cloud toward me, growing by the second. I quivered, but was locked inside my body.
Damn it.
Helplessness slinked through me like tar. The realization that I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop what happened next made tears prick my eyes.
The shadow continued filling the room with its presence getting closer to me. The lamp on the nightstand popped as the bulb burst in a rain of glass.
It spread out until it was a blanket hovering over me.
Scream. Do something. Anything.
It fluttered over me, wrapping me in a cocoon of shadow.
The cold air pricked my skin painfully. Everything was shrouded in darkness that reminded me of the night my mother abandoned me to go be her best version of herself.
The dark, new moon when she dumped me on my aunt’s porch without so much as a warning call.
I sat on the porch swing in the darkness until sunrise when Aunt Jackie found me.
I hadn’t thought of that in years. Why was that where my mind went?
How could she leave me defenseless to what she knew lived in the night?
I hoped she lived with regret and shame.
The air grew thick and every breath became a struggle, until I was gasping for air. The shadows touched every inch of my body as it morphed into the shape of the shadow man from the forest.
The bed dipped as he settled to sit beside me. I drew in greedy sips of air as his fingers hovered over me for a moment. Then he gently caressed my cheeks.
“Dandelion.” His deep voice resonated inside me. Around me. From everywhere.
Why Dandelion? I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t get my voice to work.
His touch rolled over my bare chest to my stomach, bringing attention to the fact that I was naked. I wasn’t sure when that happened, but the cool touch soothed those jagged edges I pretended weren’t still inside me. I hadn’t been touched like I mattered in so long.
He was a monster meant to kill me. What was I thinking?
Yet instead of flinching away, my body pressed into his touch, practically begging for more. At least try to fight, but my muscles grew unbearably heavy. If it was so heavy, how was I arching into his hand?
The quiet grunt of desire that left him made my core throb for something I shouldn’t want. Just because Esme went to the dark side didn’t mean I was going to.
His face tilted, and that sensation came over me again. That he was studying my face more intently than a man ever bothered. His fingers continued down painfully slowly as if he was taking a leisurely trip through the mountains.
What are you doing? But the question didn’t reach my lips.
His touch trailed over my pubic bone.
Wait. Instead, all that came out was a ragged breath.
A finger slid between my lower lips, grazing my clit. I gasped at the touch, even though I saw it coming from a mile away.
“How dare yo–” But the way his touch shot up my spine cut off the rest of what I intended to say. My thighs parted obediently, begging for more.
Another sign of my body’s betrayal. Or was he the one in control of my body and he did it?
That or I was a weak bitch giving in to baser needs that shouldn’t be desired.
Rat bastard.
His touch was soft and almost hesitant as he explored me with calm, deliberate movements. I could feel his hot gaze flickering from the wetness gathering between my thighs to my face. Intently watching my reaction to him.
“You deserve everything.” His voice sent a wave of shivers over me.
Fuck. Don’t listen to him. It’s a trap. He’s a monster.
So why did my hips roll against his hand? Why did it feel like he was touching something deep in my chest that yearned for recognition?
Stop it.
Why did he feel so good? His fingers touched every good nerve I had, and when two of them entered me, a wild gasp I couldn’t control tore from my lips.
A deep growl that should have scared me made my thighs quiver uncontrollably. That was when his touch morphed into something hungry and passionate, setting a pace that had me mewling.
He hit my G-spot with a precision that made me see stars. Fight it.
It was useless; the dam building inside my gut twisted tighter and tighter.
“Fuck yes.” A shameful whine left me. “Don’t you dare fucking stop. I’ll kill you if you do.”
You’ll kill him either way.
“I would never.” His tone made me want to drool. Like he was desperate to serve me. My heart raced at the needy devotion that he promised.
I came closer and closer to the edge, hovering over sweet bliss. Needy whines I couldn’t hold in and the sound of his fingers going in and out of me were the only noises in the room.
Damn, if an asshole monster couldn’t hit it just right.
“That’s it, Dandelion,” he whispered in my ear, making me shiver. “Come for me.”
My eyes popped open as an orgasm washed over me with enough ferocity to make my eyes roll back, rubbing my thighs together to draw it out while a moan of pure ecstasy left my lips.
I panted, lying there to recover when I realized that the light on my bedside table was on. My oversized T-shirt was soaked with sweat, but on my body nonetheless. Every body part trembled, but I had the strength to sit up and scan the room.
Where was that monster that had been following me around?
Did I even care while the sex-fog blurred my thoughts? I wanted a nap. If the monster was lurking nearby who even cared. I hope he enjoyed the show.
That’s when it hit me. I slapped my forehead with my hand.
Way to go, Sasha. Wet dreams about shadows now, really?
Worse. I fucking loved it.
I needed to get laid. When was the last time I even had sex? Last Christmas. Holy shit. It’d been almost a year since I fucked my own husband.
Maybe that affair shouldn’t have surprised me so much. It wasn’t like I’d been enthusiastic to touch him.
Then again, he never touched me like that.
Even on our best days, he couldn’t make me cum that hard. I didn’t even know that was possible.
I flopped onto my back, letting the air whoosh around me as I hit the pillow with a little satisfied sigh and closed my eyes.
“Sweet dreams, Dandelion.” A self-satisfied chuckle filled the air, like he knew exactly how hot and bothered I was.
The bed creaked as the dip beside me flattened out, like someone left my side. My breathing stalled, and I sat frozen in place.
Wait.
Was that a figment of my horny imagination?
Or did that really happen?