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“If you touch me,” he explained, “then I’ll lose control.” A swirl of darkness blackened the outer rims of his eyes. “Can’t take that chance.”
He pressed a quick kiss to my lips then shot off the bed, gaze raking my half-naked body as he gripped his big dick over his pants. Then he turned abruptly for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To take a shower. And take care of this.” He gave his cock a squeeze.
“Oh.” I pushed my dress back down to my thighs, inching toward the edge of the bed. “I should probably shower too.”
“Don’t you fucking dare.” He pointed a finger at me, serious Jude scowl in place. “You stay in this room till I’m done.”
I fell back onto the bed, smiling while basking in my orgasm endorphins. But also, I was feeling a little guilty about not being able to help Jude get his own.
One thing that I knew for sure about this new world that I hadn’t known existed—demons sucked.
24
The sun. An orb of fire shrinking in dark water. Plunk, stipple, swipe. My mother brushed midnight blue into churning waves. Facing away from me in bare feet, jeans, and paint-stained T-shirt, she painted a vast gray wall rising upward into nothing. The sunset shimmered, then faded and was gone. I was dreaming.
“Mother?”
She didn’t answer or seem to know I was even there, beginning a new painting on the slate-gray wall. Her brush widened of its own accord as she stroked four stark lines extending out of a black rectangle. She dipped her brush again, a smear of white and splatter of gold.
Dropping the brush and palette to the stone floor with a clack, she reached up to two of the black lines, her fingers curling into the wall around the painted posts. With a hard jerk, she pulled out a three-dimensional bed, dragging it from the flat canvas.
A rhythmic pulse pounded in my head—my heartbeat—as I recognized the form. Decorative gold pillows sat atop a pile of white silk sheets.
“No.”
My whisper echoed and died. She stared at me with eyes of crimson, devoid of any emotion, any love or care. Her slender arm lifted, pointing a long finger to the bed. I shook my head.
“No.”
Without moving, I was under the covers, sliding under silk, brushing against naked skin. He was here in a sea of white, a shark in glossy waters. Folds of fabric wrapped me in place. I clawed in panic, drowning. He caught me, laughing in my ear, whispering with a satin-smooth lilt, “I knew you’d come back to me, my sweet. Now, we have eternity together.”
Smothering in snow-white silk and cold hands, I screamed.
“No!”
Sticky with sweat, I jerked awake in Jude’s bed with him lying behind me. It was still dark out the window, so it was the middle of the night or very early before dawn.
“Shh,” he whispered. “It was a dream.”
Yes. Just a dream. Not soul-sifted. A dream.
A strong hand slid up my arm, squeezing gently, bringing me back to the here and now. After a shower last night, I’d slept in one of his T-shirts and boxer briefs. The heady scent of Jude all around me settled my spirit back into a safe place.
He spooned behind me from behind, having put on pajama pants last night before he climbed in with me. Now that it was quite clear my life depended on keeping my body “untainted,” Jude was keeping tight control over himself.
My wrists were a little sore from being bound and my jerking on them to get free last night, but I totally understood his reasoning.
“Do you want to talk about it?” murmured a sleep-husky Jude. “Did you dream of him?”
I cleared my throat. “He can’t soul-sift me and can’t take me unless I’m tainted, right?”
“No, he can’t. Unless you’re planning on an escapade of murder that I don’t know about, then you’re completely safe.”
I sighed with relief, but that wasn’t the only thing on my mind.
