37. Summer
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Summer
“ D id he eat anything?” Alice asks, coming into the room.
I shake my head. “He’s sleeping again.”
Alice settles onto the bed next to him and pulls out her phone. She taps on the screen, and a video starts to play. It’s an instructional cooking video, and she is completely focused as she watches it.
“Whoa. Is that how I look at textbooks?”
“Hm?” Alice asks absently, not looking away from the video. I grin and go back to my reading.
When the video ends, Alice walks to the dresser and starts looking through the neatly stacked pile of books I got from the library.
“ Demonology for Dummies: You’ve Met a Demon, Now What?
” she says, holding up one of the books and looking at me with amusement sparking in her eyes.
That book wouldn’t have been my first choice, but there weren’t enough resources in the library for me to be picky.
Alice flips it open to the first page, and to my surprise, she starts reading.
Alice reads silently for about an hour before breaking the silence. It is the longest I have ever seen her concentrate on something that isn’t on a screen. She snaps the book closed and looks up at me. “Did you find anything on his uncle?”
“In these? No.” I sigh. “But I am going to start training with the headmaster.” I frown. “He said that it’s important because I’m?—”
“Light fae?” Alice asks, and I blink in surprise. I don’t remember mentioning it to her, but I very well may have. I had mentioned it to Rafe. Maybe he said something? “You talk in your sleep. It’s especially bad when you’re having a nightmare,” Alice explains, seeing my confusion.
I nod. “Apparently. I don’t really know what light fae means, though.”
“We’ll work it out. Together,” she says with a smile.
Alice and I spend the day with Rafe. He continues to improve but remains mostly unconscious. When he does wake, we barely manage to get a sip of water into him before he passes out again. As night falls, I wrap a blanket around myself and curl deeper into the chair.
I’m here again. It is the same bedroom, but this time I can feel him in the room with me.
I blink my eyes open, and sure enough, his large form is standing in front of the window.
The same window that I stood at last night, the one that looked out over the forest. Can he see what I saw?
Hear what I heard? Is something beckoning him the same way it did me?
I sit up, and the sheet pools around my hips. When I look down, I realize I’m only wearing lingerie. My bra is black and lacey, and I feel the string of the matching thong against my hip.
I look back at the stranger, who is now looking over his shoulder at me. I can’t see his expression, but I can feel his questioning stare. Did he not plan this? I definitely didn’t. So if neither of us has control of the dream?.?.?.
But then it dawns on me. Perhaps this is a plan formed by my subconscious, a way to play him at his own game and ultimately get rid of him. Maybe this is my opportunity to call his bluff and destroy him.
I glance down at the sheet again before shifting to my knees. I look at him, softening my gaze.
“You like it?” I ask, my voice seductive and dark.
“It’s not for me.” He tilts his head. “Nor is it what I would dress you in.”
I quirk a brow. “So you don’t like it?” I sit back on my heels, widening my knees a little.
He turns to face me and waves his hand, and I feel cool metal wrap around my throat. It’s tight but not uncomfortable, and the chain materializes in front of me, each link forming until it reaches him, leaving a leather strap in his hand. He yanks it hard, and I’m pulled forward onto my hands.
“That’s better,” he growls, his smirk lacing every word.
I look up at him, trying not to imagine what his eyes would look like as they darkened with lust. I wonder what color they are ? —
“So it wasn’t about the outfit? It was about the position? You want me on my hands and knees for you?”
He tugs on the leash, and I can’t hold back my groan as the metal bites into the sensitive skin of my neck. “It is about your surrender. It always has been, little fae.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. I need to get back in control.
If he doesn’t have any control over the dream, then I’ll take it.
The dream quakes as I start to weave a new one.
He doesn’t resist, but he does growl when he is pulled away from me.
The chain connecting us shatters, and he is forced down into a chair.
I move back onto my knees again, still on the bed.
I look directly at him and slide my hands over my waist.
The stranger snarls, and his body tenses, ready to surge to his feet.
I know if he gets his hands on me, even in this dream, I will not be able to resist him.
Thick chains wrap around his wrists and ankles, binding him to the chair.
I don’t move again until I’m sure I have complete control of the dream, and then I brush my fingers over my stomach.
He pulls against his binds. “You should watch what you play with, brat,” he snarls, sending a rush through me.
My lips pull into a smile as the next part of my plan comes into play. The bed dips behind me, and Max’s hands slide down my arms, covering my hand where it rests against my stomach. His body presses against my back, and I tilt my head as he presses kisses along my shoulder.
The stranger snarls again, and Max pulls me back against him.
He slides his lips up my neck, but my eyes remain on the shadowy figure bound to the chair.
His body is practically vibrating with rage, and a primal part of me revels in it.
Max kisses my jaw, and I part my lips in anticipation of his kiss.
The stranger releases a deafening snarl, and everything shatters, plunging the dream into absolute darkness.
I pant, not moving, the thrill of fear percolating through me.
“Careful now.” The stranger’s voice is right at my ear, sending a chill down my spine.
“No, you be careful,” I say, though my voice is much weaker now.
His chuckle is low and wicked, vibrating against my other ear. “You have learned a little, but you have much further to go if you want to challenge me.”
I don’t move, barely breathing, not even trying to deny it, because I know it is the truth. That doesn’t mean I won’t keep defying and pushing back at him.
His hand slides down my side, caressing gently along the dip of my waist until his fingers dig into the curve of my hip and he yanks me against the hard planes of his big body.
“Was this to make me jealous?” he asks in a mocking tone, though I know my taunting has been effective.
“It was to get you to leave me alone,” I say, my voice barely a whisper, my nipples aching where they are crushed against his chest.
“Little fae is a little liar. Hm.”
I clear my throat. “It was to show you who I actually fantasize about,” I say, managing to make my voice a little stronger this time.
He laughs that delicious, sinful laugh, and his hands move to cup the backs of my thighs. With little to no effort, he picks me up, wrapping my legs around him. The room is still swathed in darkness, but at the far end, a door begins to glow softly.
“You know, this isn’t the first time you have dreamed of this room,” he says. “I wonder what is behind that door?”
“My way to escape you,” I quip back, and the glow on the door -brightens.
He laughs again. “Wrong door. This one is locked down tight by your subconscious,” he says, walking us toward the door, my back to it. I have no idea what is behind it, but I do know it’s nothing I want to see, and it’s nothing I want him to see.
“Put me down.”
He ignores me, and with every step, the glow from the door gets brighter, illuminating the room more and lining the stranger’s form. He digs his fingers into my ass, and I slap him hard across the face, so hard that his head snaps to the side.
“I said. Put. Me. Down.”
He snarls softly. “You hit me, I will retaliate.”
I growl a challenge, slapping him again, harder this time. “Put me down. Now.”
He retaliates, but not by putting me down and pushing me away as I was hoping. Instead, he smacks my ass so hard that the cheek stings, and to my horror, I moan in pleasure, my core heating.
He spanks me again, and I shiver, heat pooling low and deep in my core. But as he shifts me in his grip and reaches for the knob on the glowing door, all I know is that I do not want him in that room. I don’t want to be in that room. I don’t want to be in that room with him.
I snarl, feeling my power build inside me.
It surges out of me, and I rip control of the dream from him.
With barely a thought, I banish him from it.
I fall, hitting the floor hard with a soft gasp.
I sit there, despite the ache in my ass that displaces the warm pleasure his hand left behind, staring at the door.
The instinctual fear I felt dissipates as the glow from the door dims, until I’m left in complete darkness again.
The blackness of the void. This isn’t like before. What have I ? —
I surge awake. Fighting the blanket wrapped around me, I sit straight up in the armchair. Sweat is trickling down my forehead, and I am panting, my whole body quaking.
My phone pings, and I grab it, looking for any anchor, unsure how to center myself.
Unknown
Do not do that again. You almost got trapped there.
I swallow and close my eyes, gulping down air. That’s why I feel so awful. The obsidian void almost swallowed me. After a few moments and numerous deep breaths, I’m calm enough to reply.
Summer
Then stay out of my dreams.
His reply is immediate, and I can feel his anger through the phone.
Unknown
You try my patience.
I groan when that delicious sting in my ass cheeks starts up again. I shift and lift my skirt. Pulling my panties to the side, I can see his handprint emblazoned on my skin, looking almost as if it has been branded there.
Summer
Leave me alone.
Unknown
Never. Brat.
The anger surges inside me, and I throw my phone against the wall.