“Okay.” I shook my head at him, then turned to Steph. “Hey, would you go to the car for a second? I need to talk to Ty about some upcoming appointments, but you can search for a place to eat while I finish up.”

“Sure thing. Don’t be long, though, or I might not be waiting.” She chuckled, but it seemed humorless. “Later, Ty. I’ll see you at the party on Saturday.”

Ty offered a finger wave. “Yep, sister from another mister, I’ll be there.”

Well, at least she still planned on coming with me. So that seemed promising.

As she trotted off to the car, Ty turned to me with laser eyes. “What’s going on? You were transported during… in the middle of…” He started gagging, and I thought he would make himself puke. “Sex,” he finally whispered, and I rolled my eyes.

“Unfortunately, yes, but I have no clue how it happened. What did Steph say? Was she super pissed?” I figured she was, but I’d like to hear his perspective.

“Let’s say she was… skeptical. But I tried to fill her in about the time I saw it happen, and I told her there was no way you were faking it. I’m not sure why she thought you would be anyway.” He seemed as confused as me.

“Exactly. What would I gain from that? Especially when it happened. I mean, if we were in the middle of a fight, that would be a better time to dissociate. Not during?—”

“Don’t finish that. I’m still trying to scrub that image from my brain.”

“Calm down. But did she seem to trust you?”

He shrugged. “Not sure. It almost seems like she hopes it’s something medical, but I didn’t get into the pseudoscience because there was no way she’d believe that.”

I had no idea what those theories were, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear them, either.

“The answers don’t matter right now. The good thing is Steph still wants to go to the party with me. So that’s what I’m going to focus on.”

“There is that, I guess. But I need to know if this dream was like the one from lunch or like the first time it happened or something different.” He crossed his legs like a beauty queen and waited for my response.

“I can’t take too long, but it was like the first dream on the dance floor, but this time I did see some things. She had a sleeve of tattoos, but I don’t remember any specifics. I was still drawn to her, and I touched her.” I shivered as the memory swept through me. “Ty, it was so real and… electric. I don’t understand what is happening, but I have to make it stop. There is no way Steph would forgive me again if this woman keeps dragging me away.”

“Is she aware it’s a woman, and does she know this connection you seem to have?”

“No, she doesn’t know it was another woman. I said it was a person who was calling to me. But that still set her off. And, honestly, none of that means anything because it’s probably not real. But I need to nip these dreams in the bud so they don’t become another cliterference in the future. Steph isn’t going to let me forget it anytime soon, and we were finally getting things on the right track. I don’t want to derail our progress.”

“Maybe I need to dig somewhere deeper than Google? I’ll hit the library after work. There has to be a reason this started happening, and if we can find that, I’m sure we can stop it.”

“Thanks, Ty. Even though I give you a lot of shit, I appreciate you. Oh, one more thing. I want to get Steph and me one of those sexy photoshoot sessions for her birthday next month. Could you look something up and get it scheduled? I’d owe you big time!” I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and gave him a side hug.

“All right, all right. Enough lovey-dovey stuff. I don’t like sentimental and appreciative Blake. It makes me think you’re dying. I’ll take care of the pictures for you. Is there anything else you need from me today? I might knock off early to get a jumpstart on the search.”

“Nope. You’re good. Take off whenever you want. You can have the calls transferred to your cell in case something comes up. Love ya,” I professed as I headed toward the exit.

“Right back at ya.”

I smiled as I walked out the door and said a silent prayer that all this nonsense would end soon and Steph and I could forge a path forward.

Chapter Fourteen

Leia - Wednesday

We ended the day with a thruple acting-out elaborate S&M role play. The pictures were so sexy I almost needed to take five during the shoot to cool off. When I finished putting away the whips and chains from the last session, I found Haley taking down the backdrops.

“Hales, you can head out and continue to make nice with Adam.” It wasn’t that I didn’t want her to stay, but my brain was too cloudy, and I had promised Shanny I would try to meet her tonight.

“Oh, I’m going to more than make nice. I have a different kind of surprise for him. But I’ll finish my job first.” She winked, and I wasn’t sure when she crossed to this level of sauciness. Maybe the last shoot did something to her, too.

“On that note, let’s wrap this up quickly.” I wanted her to leave here while she was rearing and ready.

It only took thirty minutes to have the studio presentable, and that was fine with me. Tomorrow was an editing day, and I didn’t have clients scheduled. So, hopefully, I could enjoy tonight and clear my head.