Chapter 19 - Star
The pressure on my neck is both exciting and scary. I’ve never done anything like this before, and if I were ever going to start a new life in the world of doms and subs, I would one-hundred percent not choose a guy like Quaid.
I would choose someone less intense. Someone more comfortable showing emotion. Someone who wanted to explore the softer side of control. Because Quaid doesn’t seem to have a soft side.
Which should frighten me—but it doesn’t.
Perhaps I am na?ve?
More likely, I am just stupid.
Because he’s a very serious person and even though our conversation beforehand felt in depth while we were having it, I find that the pressure of his hand on my neck is much more of a turn on than I expected.
It’s dangerous. I understand this on a rational level, but… it feels good. And in this moment, when the darkness is encroaching on my vision like a hood being thrown over my head, all I can feel is anticipation.
“Stars,” he whispers. “See the stars.”
At first I think he’s calling me by name, but then the stars appear and I know he’s not. I understand where this is going and it’s… beautiful. The tiny bits of light start as pinpricks. The space around them more gray than black.
But it only takes a moment for that to change. For the lights to brighten and expand while the black turns to emptiness.
I am lightheaded, gasping for air, and then…
the song is all around me and I’m running through a maze.
I don’t stop and listen, of course—one doesn’t stop in the middle of your flight-or-flight response to ponder the specifics of the situation—but I fully understand that the Minotaur is behind me and I am running for my life.
Two seconds ago I was in bed, being sexually choked out by a man who absolutely knows what he’s doing, and ready to have the orgasm of my lifetime—and now I’m in this damn maze being chased by a monster.
“Faster!” Quaid yells behind me. “Go faster!”
I glance behind me, find his panicked face urging me on, and kick it up into my last gear.
We’re wearing clothes in this dream—or whatever it is—but just barely.
I’m wearing my dress, but no bra, and my flopping girls are not happy about the running.
I have no shoes—which seems to be OK since the floor is very smooth stone.
Quaid is also half-dressed. Like we were interrupted while getting dressed. He’s got no shirt or shoes, just pants.
“Faster,” he says again. “It’s gaining on us!”
I try, I do. But I don’t have another gear and I’m just about to panic when Quaid passes me—grabbing on to my hand as he goes by—and begins pulling me down the corridor.
“We’re almost there!” he yells. “Sing it!” And when I look up ahead of us, he’s pointing at something. Bright lights glowing on the dark stone walls.
Symbols. Like the ones we’ve seen a few times.
But I seem to be missing some critical information, because even though I understand that ‘sing it’ is most likely referring to my earworm, this isn’t my song.
It’s Aric’s and I’ve only heard it once while I was in the middle of a very stressful situation just like this one.
And at no point in time did anyone explain to me that there would be a pop quiz on that fucker, so why the hell would I memorize the words?
But to my surprise, I do know the words.
And they come spilling out of my mouth. It’s not in tune, in fact, its kind of shrieky, but nonetheless, singing it badly seems to be enough.
Because as soon as I finish with ‘A final gift to be your eyes’, Quaid’s glasses flash a bright light and everything becomes… I don’t know. Dreamy. Foggy. Spinny.
I don’t think spinny is a word, but it does describe what’s happening because suddenly Quaid and I are slowly rotating up in the air!
He’s reaching for the lights on the stone wall, while I’m focused on the charging Minotaur that just came around the bend.
The first thing that hits me is the smell. It’s monstrous. But then, all I see are teeth.
My heart aches for a second, picturing Aric running from this thing for five years. But there’s literally no time to wax poetic about that, because he’s covering ground like a damn racehorse in the Kentucky Derby!
“Hurry!” I scream. “Hurry up!”
These words come out of my mouth, but I don’t know why. Or what Quaid is doing behind me. All I know is that he’s interacting with the lights on the wall.
“I’ve got it,” he says. “Last one and—”
I blink. Blink again, because the light I so bright, I have to put a hand up over my eyes.
“What the hell did you just do, Star?”
I look to my right and find Quaid standing next to me. He’s naked. I look down at myself, find me in the same state, and then look out at the horizon. We’re on some kind of a cliff overlooking a peaceful summertime valley.
I look back at Quaid. “I didn’t do this.”
“Well, it wasn’t me. I don’t normally interrupt my fucking and choking to go into a dream.”
“Hmm.” That’s all I say back. Because yeah, when you’re on the verge of having the best orgasm of your life, you don’t generally want to interrupt that with a paranormal experience.
But then the maze comes back to me and I turn to him.
“Oh, my god, were you there? In the maze with me? Did you see it?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The maze! The Minotaur! It was chasing us and we were running towards a wall with glowing symbols. I had to sing the song, and we floated up into the air, and you were fucking with the lights, and then…” I blink. “Well, a big flash of light occurred and we came here.”
He’s shaking his head. “Nope. That’s not what I saw.”
“What did you see?”
“Code. Like… I was inside a computer, or something.”
“Like the green outlines in the maze?”
“No, it was literally code. All around me. Like those symbols on the walls that you light up.” We stare at each other for a moment. Then he says, “That’s your power. That’s the one I unlock.” He smiles. Like he’s proud of this fact. “It’s how we get out!”
“But what’s this place?” I ask. Panning a hand to the peaceful valley. It’s very picturesque. Almost unreliably beautiful. Like it was painted or something. But it’s real, we’re here, and I can feel the heat of the bright sun and the coolness of a gentle breeze on my naked body.
Quaid studies the valley down below, then looks around where we’re standing on the cliff. He points up. “Look. Is that a village up there?”
I turn and look up in the direction he’s pointing. It does, in fact, look like some kind of village. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “But when you saw us running in the maze, was it that time we were all running together? When we first figured out where we were?”
“No.” I shake my head. “It wasn’t that time. It was different because we—you and me—we were only half dressed. No shoes. It was like we were interrupted in the middle of sex and had to get the fuck out of Dodge, pronto.”
“Do you think that something is happening back in… reality, or whatever? Are Aric and Declan in trouble?”
I shrug. “I didn’t get that feeling. In fact, I got the feeling you and I were on a mission. Like, on an assignment. I was supposed to sing the song and you were messing with the glowing symbols on a wall.” I let out a huff. “It doesn’t make much sense, does it?”
Quaid looks at me and smiles. I think, fully realizing that we’re naked. “Feels like paradise to me so, I’m not complaining.”
“But it’s not real.” Again, I pan a hand to the place where we’re landed. “This is like a dream.”
“Hmm. You’re right. It is like a dream. I’m stuck with a naked woman in paradise.
” He thinks for a moment, looking around a little.
Then his gaze meets mine. “Let’s think about this logically.
The only reason we were having sex is to unlock your power.
The one you and I share—for whatever strange reason.
And this is what happened. I saw code and you saw… ” His eyes light up. “The future!”
“Why would it be the future?”
“Because it hasn’t happened yet. You saw… the plan!”
“The plan to escape?” At first, I’m not sure. But the more I think about it, it did feel like a plan. Like I said. A mission. An assignment.
“We need to get back,” Quaid says. “We need to get back and tell Aric and Declan because all the puzzle pieces are finally starting to make sense to me.”
I let out a long breath. “I’m really glad you’re here because it doesn’t make any sense to me at all. Most importantly though, how the hell do we get back?”
My question makes him smile as he takes a few steps towards me. One hand snakes around my hip, pulling me right up next to his naked body, while the other goes back up to my throat. He starts walking forward, forcing me to go backwards.
Suddenly, I can feel the roughness of the cliff behind me, and then Quaid reaches down, hooks his hands under my knees, and lifts me up, pressing his stomach right into my open pussy.
Bracing himself against the wall to keep me in place, he reaches down, gives his cock a couple of priming tugs, and slips it right up inside me.
I close my eyes, moaning, and then he’s got his hand on my throat again and the stars are back…
The next thing I know, I’m lying down on the bed having the orgasm of my life. My back arching, moans and squeals pouring out of my mouth, and I’m looking up at Quaid as he comes too. His low grunts and growls even more a turn on than his cock.
Then he falls on top of me, spent and happy as he kisses my neck and breasts.
The door to the room flies open and Aric comes rushing in. “What the hell is going on in here!”
Declan is right behind him, chuckling. “We thought you were killing her!”
“Well,” I say. “If I died, then I’d do it all over again. Because we just went to paradise.”