Page 126 of Ex Somnis

God.

“It’s always pulling me to you. When you’re gone, but when you’re around too.”

He strokes his finger down my neck, pressing it over my racing pulse, and the dreamscape shivers.

“Keep going.”

“It’s easier.”

His eyes don’t leave mine. “What is?”

I hate him for making me say it.

“Everything.”

Breathing.

Thinking.

Dreaming.

Being here.

Being me.

His thumb stills, and the look on his face changes enough that my heart hurts.

“When I touch you,” he asks quietly. “Do you feel more real or less?”

I exhale. “More.”

“Grounded?”

I nod quickly. “Yes.”

He shuts his eyes, and when they open again, they’re filled with so much emotion, I forget to breathe.

“You said Tessa is your tether.”

I nod.

“How does that feel?”

“It’s a pull too.”

“Where does it pull from?”

“My heart.”

“And where does mine pull from?”

I know the answer before I’ve finished the thought. I’ve known it for a while, I think, the way you know something you’ve been refusing to look at directly. It’s been there in my peripheral vision this whole time, waiting for someone to make me turn my head.

I look down at my chest, at my citrus nails, splayed over…

“My heart.”

Ridge’s smile is broken, beautiful, and so achingly hopeful it almost undoes me. “Oh, sweetheart.” He presses his forehead to mine and huffs out a laugh. “You thought that was a soul contract.”