He frowned. “Not to me,” he replied. “If you don’t control a situation, it will control you.”
It sounded oddly like a quote. I took a step closer to him. As I met his gaze, I reached out trembling fingertips, this time to his jaw.
He flinched, but held his ground.
I called upon my recent experiences with Caliel. “The true magic happens not when you dictate what another does, but when you don’t.”
His jaw tightened beneath my fingers. “That can get you into big trouble in my world.”
“Or send you to a new one,” I whispered, sliding my hands across his chest. His skin was like silk that sheathed steel, an impression magnified when I once again lowered fingers to touch what quivered between us.
His breath whistled between his teeth. And when I slid them along his shaft, he shuddered. Almost as though it were against his will, his hands drifted along my shoulders, and one dropped to my breast.
I wanted them on me. I wanted more. But I also wanted to drop to my knees, and?—
No. Not on command. Not for Victor. Not for anybody. Not even in a dream.
So, I turned the tables, coming at it from a more subtle request for control. “Say please,” I teased, circling my fingers around the turgid tip.
His lips pulled back from his teeth, but his eyes were incandescent. I could lose myself in those eyes. Instead, I dropped my other hand to the heavy weight of his balls, and squeezed.
He groaned, and pushed into my hand, ever so slightly.
“Say it,” I repeated.
“Never.” The word was so hoarse I could barely decipher it.
I tilted my head, and slid my fingers off him. “Well. That is too bad, then, isn’t it?”
He moved so fast I didn’t see it coming. One long-fingered hand sank into my hair, and he dropped his head to plunder my lips with his own. A hot, questing tongue pushed between them,claiming my mouth while his other arm pulled me tight to his hard body.
Every probe sent electricity zinging through me. I rubbed my midriff against him. Then I pushed back, ever so slightly.
“Say please,” I insisted.
I could feel his pulse beating through what was trapped between us. He growled, and his fingers tightened in my hair. In that moment, he looked both frustrated and dangerous as hell.
“I never beg,” he repeated, and backed away.
He took the entire world with him. Trees, water, rain, clouds, all the birds—they simply vanished.
Then Caliel and I were airborne again, above the mountains, as though the entire thing hadn’t happened.
We were flying rather fast. And suddenly, I had the impression we were being chased.
When I caught a glimpse of red-scaled forms winging behind us, my pulse raced. Wyverns. Pursuing us. Why was I dreaming of this?
Then the sleet rained down on us from the clouds above, and below us, I saw a lake…
The scene changed again. We soared over a forest, and wind riffled gently through our feathers. I relaxed, and we fell deeper, until even the dreams let us go…
I blinked up at the ceiling. The sunlight coursed through the window, the shadows surprisingly long. Afternoon? How long had I been asleep?
My body had the languid heaviness of having slept long and hard. Remnants of my dream drifted back to me. That young man had been so intense. So gorgeous. And sodemanding. A pulse of heat shot through me, and I longed to explore that, to push myself to enjoy the memories. Even the thought made my body ache?—
Dammit. I needed that powder. And Caliel’s magic fingers. But I glanced at the log sitting on the dresser. No way to know if Adilyn was asleep in there, or peering out the curtained window.
And Caliel was oddly silent. Asleep? Did he rest when I did?
