Page 10 of Precipitous Nightmare's Valentine Dream

Had he harmed her during their previous encounter? She’d urged him on — in ways and to a degree he’d not expected — but perhaps it had been too much. Perhaps she wished for gentleness, tender care. “I can be… less violent.”

The DayDream faced him now, hands on her hips, breasts jutting against the diaphanous fabric of her short white dress. Precipitous recalled the feel of those soft breasts brushing against his chest as he’d pumped into her.Desire shot sharp and hot through him, but the annoyed look in her eyes precluded any attempts he might have made toward that end.

“I would have told you if I wanted it gentle,“ she said with a roll of her eyes before turning away to grab a small rainbow-sequined backpack from a corner of the room. Streaks of pink and purple glowed in the pre-dawn sky out the window as she faced him once more. “Anyway, I’m angry because of what you did to Melanie.”

Her gaze settled on his face, then briefly flicked up to his horns before she let out a puff of breath. The horns had been a good idea. She was definitely into the horns.

“I merely did what Nightmare required,” he told her. “Had I known you claimed the woman’s evenings, I might have avoided this call until another time.”

The DayDream glanced at the woman in the bed and bit her lip.

“You left horror in my dreamer’s heart,” she whispered. “With the whole growl-growl-big-teeth scary Night Terror thing. It’s going to set me back. I don’t have much time.”

Precipitous leaned against Melanie’s white-painted wooden dresser, aiming for a casual pose. Folding his arms, he contemplated this strange DayDream.

“What, precisely, are you trying to do here?”

She blushed, and her sudden chagrin was oddly alluring.

“I’m… you’ll think I’m ridiculous.”

“No,” Precipitous reassured her, though it occurred to him that he might never have reassured anyone before in his long, indefinable existence. “I think you are clever and inventive.”

He did not mention that he also thought she was gorgeous and the most mind-bending fuck he’d ever experienced.He could probably mention those things another time.

“Were you sent here to thwart me?” Her tone abruptly went sharp.

“Thwart?” Precipitous didn’t have a clue what she meant.

“Are you trying to mess up my plans?” She stomped up to him, and Precipitous straightened against the dresser. The impulse to unfold into his Nightmare form warred with a desire to soothe the angry little DayDream who now shoved a finger in his chest and demanded, “Don’t you try to screw with Melanie and Gary. I’m warning you.”

He recognized the name of the woman in the bed, but everything else about his Dream girl’s statements made no sense.

“Gary? Who in the Dual Realms is Gary?”

She stepped back, as if realizing suddenly that she’d overreacted.

“Melanie’s dream guy.” She paused, assessing his confusion, then continued. “I bring her dreams of him. I bring him dreams of her. Nudge them into chance meetings until voila, they fall madly in love.”

“You’re matchmaking.” Precipitous raised an eyebrow at her, caught between amusement and horror. “Manipulating the lives of mortals.”

Even a Night Terror knew how off-limits screwing with mortals’ waking lives was. Those laws transcended even the schism between their realms.

The DayDream shuffled her feet and gave a slight shrug.

“They were already dreaming of each other. I only wanted to try to make their dreams real.” Her eyes darted up to meet his, and Precipitous saw the worry there.

She thought he might report her. To his king and hers. Expose her plans and effectively end her own dreams forever. Possibly end her forever.

“I won’t rat you out, little Dream,” he said, and relief washed over her expression. “But…”

He heard her breath catch, let the moment drag out to give her time to consider what she might exchange for his silence.

“You want to bed me again.” She spoke in a breathy whisper. “Or bang me up against a wall. I suppose there was no bed involved.”

Thrown off guard, Precipitous scrambled to explain.

“No! I wasn’t trying to bargain a fuck for silence.”

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