Page 214 of Blue Moon Mistress

He laughs and brushes my hair behind my ear. “I hadn’t realized you were going to be a sleepwalker, but there’s plenty of places to put in tie-down points.”

“We’ll talk about that later.”

A snick behind me draws my attention to the now-closed door. “Looks like someone wants me to thank you right now… unless they’re building a new couch while you distract me.” I watch his face as I start to unbutton his flannel.

“No more surprise furniture. I promise.”

“At the very least, you should wait until I’ve thanked you properly for this.”

“Properly?”

“Or at least until we’ve broken it in.”

Brushing a hand over my cheek, his gaze falls to my lips. “Thanking me isn’t necessary.”

“Isn’t it?”

He shakes his head, but still dips forward to kiss me. “But it is customary toexchangegifts…”

I laugh, unable to stop myself and lean into him. His next kiss swallows that laughter whole. A moment later, I’m falling. We both are.

I land on top of him on the bed and he pulls me up until we’re both positioned, just so.

His hand drags up my leg, pulling my skirt up with it.

“Thomas let you wander around outside with nothing on under this?”

“He didn’t exactly check—” My words die on a sharp gasp as he trails one finger along me.

“Then maybe I need to punish you instead…

In the end, neither of us get our clothes off, but we both get what we want.

Fifteen

The dream isall brightness and dark.

Silence and screaming.

A blinding full moon overhead, wolves glowing wisps of spirits, their essence pulling from them like water toward a drain… toward a darkness I have to look away from to see.

Aphrodite like a black hole at the center of it all.

It’s a fractured reality, spinning around me as I stand like a rock in the flow of an eddy. I catch and hold onto what little I can, but most of it slips through the fingers of my mind.

Too many things, all at once.

But there is one image my mind locks onto as the dream fades.

A clock.

Its hands set to eight twenty-eight.

My eyes snap open but I am so still it takes me a moment to be certain I actually am awake.

That dream wasn’t Aphrodite’s doing.

Whether it was the confluence of days’ reading piled up and sorted out in my conscious mind… or a gift from a goddess or ancestor or both… I don’t know.

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