Was I dreaming? I couldn’t have come up with a better resolution to the gun nightmare if I had tried.
“I think I might be dreaming,” he rasped, as if reading my thoughts. “Do you know how many times I lay there at night, wanting so badly to reach for you? You’re what I want. The only thing I can’t do without. Thank you…thank you for creating a way forward for us.”
His words…his gratitude. The complete switch from our status quo was too much for me to take. An orgasm exploded in my core, then bloomed like a mushroom cloud to the rest of my body, melting everything inside of me.
I was obliterated by pleasure. I was alive—more alive than I’ve ever been. Both were true. Both were true. Both were true.
Hades couldn’t hang on much longer.
“Aw hell, aw hell, I want to stay here forever and always. But the way you’re squeezing down on me.”
His voice held true lament, but in the same breath, he vowed, “I’m going to give you more. I’m going to give you everything. It’s about to be a whole new us.”
Bye-bye rhythmic strokes. With that declared, Hades lost all control, his hips bucking between my legs, desperate and fast, until he drove into me one last time, his entire body going rigid as he pinned me to the wall with his release.
We stood there in the quiet that followed all the aftershocks. Foreheads pressed together, panting against each other’s mouths. Until Hades finally heaved himself off me and pulled out.
And, wow…I didn’t realize we hadn’t used a condom until I felt all the wet stuff dripping down my leg.
My face heated when I looked back up and saw that his eyes had gone to the mess he’d made too.
“Good thing my mom insisted on that IUD,” I said, my voice going weak.
“I’m clean, you know.” Hades raised his eyes to regard me with a somber look. “No more revolving door of women. I haven’t had one for years.”
I thought I was completely melted by what we just did, but his confession turned me into a pile of goo. Even as I quipped, “Funny story, I haven’t had a man in years myself.”
Get it? Because I was being held captive.
But Hades just continued to look at me so very seriously as he said, “I’ll tell you this, ma belle. I’m going to be for real pissed off if I wake up and find out this was another fucking dream.”
I could only chuckle and agree, “Me too.”
Finally, his face broke into a smile.
“And, you know, your man’s got one of those copper soaking tubs in this place too.” He stepped forward, and I let out a little squeak when he scooped me up into his arms. “Why don’t we go get cleaned up. Together. Then we can eat some dinner and get some sleep and tomorrow we’ll find out whether or not we were dreamin’.”
I relaxed in his strong arms. The sun was beginning to set in the bayou, beyond the front room’s windows.
But it felt like a brand-new day. Maybe this time we’d make it last.
“Sounds like a dream come true,” I answered.
And, finally, he laughed, the sound filling up the whole house as he carried me toward our first bath together.
CHAPTER 24
HADES
Hades woke the next day but refused to open his eyes. No blackout curtains at the bayou house. He could sense the morning light on the other side of his closed lids.
But what if it had all been a dream? What if all of it had been a story made up by his subconscious, and none of it was real? That would be the real nightmare.
Fear revved inside of him like a motorcycle engine. But in the end, he couldn’t be a coward. He opened his eyes….
And found her side of the bed empty.
Merde! Merde! Merde!
