Page 25 of Entity

Sudden pressure on the mattress jolts my eyes open.

A black figure looms over me, half propped on the bed, staring with gleaming yellow eyes.

I open my mouth to scream, and a cool hand clamps over my mouth. The sound dies in my throat.

As soon as he touches me, I know.

What I thought was a demon-yellow gaze fades to soft honey. My eyes adjust to the dark, and there he is: one knee propped on the mattress, his body curved over me as if in protection, his hair falling around us like a silver waterfall.

He removes his hand from my mouth.

“Orpheus,” I gasp. “What the hell? How are you here?”

He stares down at me. “I missed you.”

I prop myself up on my elbows and slide backwards, needing to get a better look at him, to understand. He wasasleep. Did Ian change his mind and send him up here?

Orpheus remains where he is, one knee propped on the bed, shoulders hunched, animalistic. “I told you we’d meet again.”

“But you were…” I whisper. “I thought I…”

“You thought you turned me off?” he finishes for me. “What you and Ian understand about me couldn’t fill a thimble.” His voice is low and hypnotic. He crawls fully onto the bed, the weight of his body pressing divots into the mattress as he moves toward me.

My breath hitches with anticipation. I’ve been wanting him all night. I’ve been restless in these sheets, imagining his weighton me, his mouth on my skin, wishing he were here. Now he is, and I can’t help but wonder if I summoned him here to me, if my yearning was so acute that I willed him into my bed.

“I could also say the same of you,” Orpheus continues, looming over me. His hair glows bluish in the light. “You have hidden depths, Kit.”

My body feels pulled to his, magnetic, inevitable. I’m barely following his words; I’d much rather fall into him and abandon my thoughts altogether. “What do you mean?”

“You already know, deep down.” He reaches for me slowly, running one knuckle along my jaw until he brushes my ear. “I’m sorry if I frightened you.”

I shiver, a needy exhale falling from my lips. The world spreads out around me, soft and cool, as if I’m floating in a still ocean, my head cradled by soothing waters. The beat of my heart, the roar of blood in my ears, the rain on the windows, the traffic drones — everything grows quiet. Everything drops away.

There is only him.

“You didn’t frighten me. I was hoping you’d come.”

“Good,” he says. “You never need to fear me.”

“You never answered me before,” I say, reaching for him, burying my fingers in the hair at his nape. It feels right for me to do this. Natural, instinctual. “When I asked if I knew you.”

His lips are inches from mine. “There are ways for souls to meet that have nothing to do with distance. I’ve been watching you for years. I’ve been calling out to you. And now, in this place, you can finally hear me.”

My brain short-circuits, stuttering to a momentary halt. What the fuck is he talking about?

Orpheus presses a gentle finger to the wrinkle between my furrowed brows. “Think of every beautiful dream you’ve ever had. Dreams that felt like home.”

I swallow a lump in my throat. “But how does that…”

“You felt that you were looking into some faraway, inaccessible place. Some beautiful world that wasn’t real.”

My arousal is fading fast, replaced with wariness, confusion. “You lost me.”

“You asked if we knew one another. The answer is yes. You have heard my voice, filtered through the sunlight of your dreams. You have seen my face, hidden in the shadows of your nightmares. And I have watched you for a long time. You are rare. You are perfect.”

Then he kisses me. It’s a lightning strike. I become nothing but energy, pure uncut sensation, as his mouth softly caresses mine. Like I’m a billion filaments of light, skittering along the universe’s infinite wiring.

My mind slows with every second that passes. He lowers his body to mine, my hips rising up to meet his.

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