Page 205 of If You Give an Artist a Killer Muse

You’re going to kill him.

Fuck that little demon voice in my head. Not again. Not while my friends are here.

I swallow hard.

If you give an artist a killer muse—

No, fuck off.

The muse will end up killing the artist.

“Briar?”

I open my eyes.

What the fuck? Since when did I fall asleep?

I turn to see both Oscar and Nat staring at me with concerned looks on their faces.

“Are you okay?” Nat asks, placing a hand on my forehead. “You started zoning out while we were brainstorming about Oscar’s new gallery event, and you just…”

“You passed out.” Oscar finished for her.

I blink. “What? When?”

“Like an hour ago.”

Fuck.

An evening without Rurik, and already I’m losing it.

*-*-*-*

The feeling of the softest pair of lips brushing against my forehead and soothing fingers running through my hair enters my dream.

“Briar.”

God, even Dream-Rurik is so damn sexy.

“Baby.”

I love his voice. If I can turn his voice into a real person, I’d marry the fuck out of him. Can I do that? I feel those lips pressing against my lips this time. Oh, even in my dreams, he tastes so good.

Good grief, I’m so in love with him.

“Briar?”

I slowly open my eyes, blinking the fogginess away from my vision. As soon as my vision clears, I shield my eyes from the bright lights — yes, I kept the lights on because I didn’t want to be consumed by the dark.

But Real-Rurik is here!

I grin sleepily as I sit up, “Angel? What are you doing here?” I look at the clock, and it’s 8:30 PM.

Oh right. Nat and Oscar left after waking me up. They thought I was falling asleep and insisted they leave early. I didn’t stop them. I wanted to secretly indulge in my little hobby of self-sabotaging to keep the darkness and demons at bay.

Rurik grins back, “I was hoping to let you sleep some more, but you started mumbling.”

My face grew hot. “What was I saying?”

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