Page 79 of The Perfect Stranger

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Nina was sound asleep when I returned. She’d showered, a thin mist of steam still looming in the bathroom. Claiming the single chair in the corner of the room, I watched, studying the girl whose life I was about to ruin. Her long dark hair splayed across the pillow, the hem of her oversized nightshirt revealing the curve of her ass.

She slept fitfully. It began with some quiet murmurs, her limbs twitching. But after a few minutes, she was calling out for ‘Jair.’

She needed me.

But it wasn’t me.

Her pleas were of desperation, tears slipping over her temples. When the twitching turned to thrashing, I crawled over the bed and straddled her, reigning in the movement.

“Nina!” I called. “Cariña, wake up.”

With a sudden jolt, her eyes opened, a confused face meeting mine. She was flushed, panicked. Whatever happened in the nightmare had spooked her so much she couldn’t make sense of the present, and why I had been on top of her. Perhaps she wasn’t calling for me. Perhaps I was the enemy she was running from. She pushed hard against my chest, and sensing her urgency I moved to the end of the bed. Scrambling to the top, Nina hugged her knees while trying to pace her breathing.

“Cariña, what happened?” I asked gently.

She watched me with caution and an element of guilt. “You… you were chasing me through a brick maze. There was something different about you.”

Because I’m not the man you think I am.

She was crying, and I moved to wipe the tears away.

“Don’t!” She recoiled.

“It was just a dream, cariña. It wasn’t real,” I lied.

It was very much her reality.

“Then why does it feel so real?”

“You’ve been through a lot the last few days, I’m not surprised.”

“But, it wasn’t just you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were the one chasing and taunting me, but when you leaned in to kiss me you became him.”

“Him?”

“The man from the convenience store. He was laughing and had me trapped.”

I stilled. Her subconscious had, in a way, revealed the truth. And this was her reaction. I needed to deal with the fact that when this was all over, I would never see her again. She would distance herself from me like I was a leper.

“Cariña, it was just a dream,” I soothed, crawling up the bed toward her. Nina accepted my comfort allowing me to cup her sodden cheeks. I kissed her. It was soft, gentle, loaded with a passionate longing.

Nina groaned gently against my mouth, and I pulled her underneath me, her legs wrapping around my waist.

That night, before life changed forever, we made love. I took my time savoring Nina’s body, tasting, touching, and having her beg for more. She gave herself to me completely without question, without restraint. I took what she gave and returned as much. This was us, raw, in need of each other and complete.

Nina Cross brought light to my blackened soul.

I could never let Los Santos, or myself for that matter, destroy it.

My finger trailed a line from her neck, between her breasts and down to her navel. “Your body, it responds to every touch, even if it’s just a whisper. It blushes, shudders, silently screams for more.” Lowering my lips to Nina’s, I graze them. “And nothing gets me off more than controlling your body like that.”

“You do seem that way inclined,” she teased.

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