Chapter 7
seven
MERRILY
Darius and I ended up falling asleep on opposite sides of his couch with a bunch of empty coffee cups sitting on the floor at our feet.
We'd been out for an hour or two when someone opened his front door and strode right in.
Thanks to my overstimulation, I was an extremely light sleeper, and lifted my head immediately at the sound.
Dare mumbled something in his sleep, but otherwise didn't wake up. He needed the rest, since he was working in the coffee shop early the next morning.
I peered over the edge of the couch, expecting to see Liv and Niall or Callum and Kat come walking in.
It wasn't them.
I blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes when I found Grayson Darke glowering at me from the kitchen.
"What are you doing here?" I mumbled. "You said you'd let me leave."
"I told you I was going to track you down." He stalked across the room. "We're going home."
"I can't. Dare can't be alone. Especially not at night."
"That's an excuse if I've ever fucking heard one."
"It's not. Just... come here." I waved him toward me.
He was already on his way to me, so that wasn't a stretch.
Grayson grunted when I grabbed his wrist and pulled him down to the couch with me, just a little too hard. He caught himself on the cushions, part of his body sprawled over part of mine.
Our eyes locked.
"You can sleep with me here, but I can't leave," I whispered.
"Why not?"
"The price of my magic is overstimulation. The price of Dare's is the opposite. When he doesn't stay busy, depression sets in, and it gets dangerous. The moments before he really starts the day and before it fully ends are the darkest for him."
I saw the gears turning in Grayson's mind as he put it together.
He finally clenched his jaw. "At least you're not asleep in his fucking bed."
"I do sometimes. With a pillow wall between us. We've never had sex, obviously. I'd end up draining him if we tried, but we've never been interested in each other."
"Has he ever used his magic on you?"
"Once, a long time ago."
Grayson's nostrils flared.
"I worked closely with Jazz for eighty-something years, and you didn't tell me that you'd fucked her," I hissed back. "You don't get to be mad about him using his magic on me centuries ago without even touching me."
"Fine." He lifted me off the couch long enough to roll beneath me, and pulled me securely into his arms. My back rested against his chest again, our sides on the couch. His arms banded over my front and middle, and my head was tucked beneath his chin.
Everything was easy again, now that he was touching me.
My heavy eyelids closed.
His breathing was steady against my back, though he was undoubtedly waiting for me to fall asleep.
I could understand why he wanted to feed in the real world. He couldn't get off in the dreams, and he said he struggled to sleep afterward.
We'd seal the bond tomorrow. I'd made up my mind.
Since I'd decided I wasn't going to leave him, or let him mate with someone else, there was no reason not to.
I fell asleep quickly, with Grayson's deliciously hard body cradling mine on that couch. The moment I was out, I slipped into a dream.
My forehead creased as I blinked and looked around, finding myself in the same place I'd just fallen asleep.
Dare's living room was dark. He was sleeping on the couch, snoring just as loudly as he did in reality.
Grayson held my body to his, his arms around my middle, and the sensations felt more real than anything in my dreams ever had before.
Probably because he was genuinely holding me.
"This is new," I murmured. "I've never dreamed of us in the same place I fell asleep."
"I didn't know what your bedroom looked like."
"Good point."
I'd never exactly sent him an invitation to my room.
"Make it quick, Darke. I'm tired."
He chuckled. "Where would be the fun in that?"
His voice was strained, though.
He remembered our conversation that morning, and I hadn't told him what I'd decided. It wouldn't hurt him to wait a little longer to learn the truth, but he was clearly struggling with it.
"Tell me about your insomnia," I said, as he dragged his hand lazily over my lower belly. My loose, long-sleeved shirt hung over my stomach, but that had never stopped him before.
We never talked like this, in the dreams, but I didn't see why we couldn't.
"There's not much to tell. Tell me about you and Scorch."
"Why? Are you jealous?"
"Obviously. My female ran away from me to hide with a fucking sex god."
"If sex gods existed, you'd fit in that category too," I pointed out.
"No. I feed through sex, but Scorch radiates pleasure."
I nodded lightly. "If you tell me about your insomnia, I'll tell you about me and Darius."
"You're stubborn."
"So are you."
Grayson sighed quietly, but gave in. "Incubi and succubi train ourselves to stay awake while most people sleep, so we can slip into someone's dreams. When we get out, we're worked up beyond belief, and getting back to sleep afterward is difficult."
"Do you..." I trailed off, suddenly regretting the question.
"Do I what?"
"Get yourself off afterward?" The words were hesitant.
"I usually jerk off, yeah. It's just not what my body needs, so I'm not satisfied afterward."
"What does your body need?"
"You, Mer." His hand slipped beneath the waistband of my pants, and I sucked in a breath. The sensations weren't nearly as blissful now that I knew what it felt like to have real, good sex, but still felt good. "That's all there is to it. Your turn."
"Darius and I are family, but we're also good friends.
Callum and Liv became ridiculously close, so we were stuck together a lot.
We didn't really like each other at first, but the relationship developed, and we realized we could work as friends.
Now, he keeps me sane and I keep him alive. It's not really complicated."
Grayson slipped his hand into my panties, and I bit back a moan as his fingers trailed toward my clit. "What about me?"
"What about you?"
"What do you feel about me?"
A soft, humorless laugh escaped me. "Intimidated."
"Intimidated? How do you figure that?"
"I don't know. I'm death, and you're... life. It's intimidating."
He finally brushed his fingers over my clit, and my body arched harder against his.
"Don't be intimidated, Love."
"I wish it was that simple."
"Since I met you, you’re all I've wanted.
I didn't think there was anything to our connection other than obsession, because I couldn't even convince myself to want to slip into someone else's dream.
My mind was always on you." He worked my clit slowly as he spoke, dragging me quickly to the edge of a climax.
I came with a cry, and Grayson drank my pleasure in.
The dream ended as quickly as it started, and I opened bleary eyes to look up at Dare's ceiling again.
I was still horny, after the dreams.
Always.
So was Grayson, if the throbbing erection against my ass told me anything.
I glanced over at Darius. He was snoring loudly, out cold. The man was an intensely deep sleeper. That had been true as long as I'd known him.
"You didn't take enough," I whispered, my voice barely above a breath.
"I'm fine."
"Not if you're fighting all day every day."
"You can't worry about me until we've sealed a mate bond."
"I can worry about you as much as I want to."
Grayson made a noise of disagreement. "Go to sleep."
"Fuck me first."
He chuckled, but there was no humor behind the sound. "I'm not fucking you while you hate me. I haven't forgotten that you chose not to tell me you were a virgin yesterday."
"I don't hate you, and it was none of your business."
"Everything about you is my business."
"Until you mate with a dragon shifter," I tossed back.
He growled. "Go to sleep, Death."
"I'm way too worked up to sleep right now."
One of his hands released my hip, and slid over my abdomen the way it had in my dreams. My eyes widened as he found the waistband of my pants and slipped beneath the fabric.
In the real world, the touch was so much better.
"This is how I would've started, if you'd told me." His breath brushed my ear, so quiet I barely heard it.
A soft, desperate sound escaped me as his fingers finally slid over my clit. His free hand lifted to my mouth, covering it lightly to keep me quiet.
Dare's snoring was loud enough to remind me that despite the blanket covering us, we weren't alone.
Grayson's hand quieted every sound I made as he dragged me to the edge of a climax on his hand, taking me over that ledge so easily. The world spun around me with the soft orgasm.
"You slept well last night," I breathed against his palm, as he continued lazily teasing my clit.
"Hard not to, when I was buried inside you." His murmur sent goosebumps down my arms.
"Then we'll sleep like that again."
"I'm not fucking you while you hate me," he repeated.
"I've never hated you. I just think we're really different." I reached between us, slipping my hand into his shorts. "You don't have to fuck me. I can fuck you, unless you're going to turn me down."
"You don't do dominance, Merrily."
"I can be dominant. And shh. You're going to wake Darius up."
I knew mentioning another man would piss Grayson off.
Dare was still snoring like a freight train. He wasn't going to budge. And if he did, he'd be proud of me for embracing my sexuality.
He gave me a low growl, abandoning my clit long enough to push my pants down my thighs. "Prove it."
I freed his cock, dragging my palm lightly down the smooth length of it. He tilted my hips as I lined his tip up with my center, and he gripped me tightly as I pushed myself down until I'd taken his entire, thick length inside me.
My lips parted in a loud moan, and his hand was over my mouth again to muffle the sound immediately. We both froze as Dare's snore stalled.
We waited, Grayson's cock throbbing inside me for one second.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Darius started snoring again, and Grayson pulled my leg higher on his thigh, opening me wider and lowering his hand back to my clit.
"Alright, Love. Show me your dominance. Fuck me. Make me lose control for you."
His words, whispered into my ear, made my lower stomach clench fiercely.
I moved my hips lightly.
Slowly.
Grayson dragged his finger over my clit, and I moaned again. The sound was muffled almost completely by his hand as he pulled it tighter to my face.
I moved my hips again, a little rougher, sliding off his erection for a moment before taking him harder. His cock hit some sensitive spot inside me in a way that made me see stars.
"Fuck," he gritted out. "Just like that."
My motions were far from smooth and anything but practiced as I fucked him.
I came again in what felt like a heartbeat, and he swore against my ear as he throbbed inside me without losing control.
I moved harder and more naturally when I kept going, and the third time I climaxed, his cock swelled and throbbed violently inside of me.
The base thickened slightly, and his curses grew vicious and more colorful. When I looked down at his hands, I noticed them shifting a little, his nails sharpening with the claws of his other form.
He was losing control of the side of himself that I'd never seen.
I was curious about it. So, insanely curious. But I knew he wouldn't want that shift to happen without talking to me first, so I didn't try to push him.
He worked my clit slowly as our pleasure faded.
"What are you doing?" I breathed.
"Reminding you that I fucking own this body, Love." He nipped at my throat lightly.
I rocked and bucked and moved on his erection until I'd come again, my body tensing around his throbbing cock. "Could you go again already?"
"Yeah." There was a beat of hesitation after the words, like he was going to say something else. I had a feeling it had to do with the side of himself that he was suppressing.
"Then let's do it."
"I'd need to be in control."
"Then be in control."
It took a moment, but he managed to roll me to my stomach on the couch, and he fucked me from behind.
It was surreal.
I came again, and again, and again, until he lost control inside me once more.
When we settled down beside each other on the couch the same way we had before, with him spooning me, Grayson's arms locked around my middle.
He murmured against my ear, "I'm not going to let you go. You're mine, Mer."
"You're mine too," I whispered back.
It was the truest thing I'd ever said.