hair while he stared at the ceiling or wall and I was fighting my eyes closing.
It was hard, those nights. I wanted to stay awake forever, to not fall into the oblivion only he could lure me to. I didn’t want to miss a moment, probably because I knew it wouldn’t last.
You can’t hold on to a shadow. They exist in places where light can’t touch. In their world, nothing good exists, just the failures of modern society. Greed, lust, money, power.
I’m not sure they can ever truly love.
“What is it like? Do you open your eyes? Do you see the room? The person who’s in it? What do you see?”
Oddly, I do see those things. I’m aware of them. But my mind, it’s hazy. Like a dream you remember when you wake up that’s missing parts, fuzzy around the edges.
Sometimes I see myself lying down on my bed or wherever I happen to be sleeping. I stand above myself looking down. I know I’m asleep. Know that my mind is conjuring images, but it feels real. Like I’ve stepped out of my skin and exist in a parallel universe.
Like now.
“You were doing so well for a while there.”
I spin at the familiar voice, a slow turn that brings my bedroom into sharper focus. There, in the corner near the window, a shadow lingers.
“What do you mean?”
Ari steps out, his grey eyes looking me over before lifting to mine. My heart can’t take it. I can smell him, that dark, forbidden scent that I’ve always loved.
He doesn’t approach me, just stands there with his hands tucked in his pockets. It’s a stance I’ve seen him take a thousand times.
His broad shoulders roll back, and he fills the space around him. It’s hard to breathe when he’s around because you feel so small in comparison.
All male, this man. Strong. Controlled. Proud. A million times larger than most people can ever hope to be.
I know I love him. And that’s what makes him dangerous. The hold he has on my heart, the pain I feel from losing him. It’s worse than anything I’ve gone through before.
He’s the worst danger of all. Not the type that threatens to take my life, but the kind that snuck up behind me, made me feel, made me live again, all while seducing me to know only him.
How will any other person ever compare?
“You’re paying attention to your surroundings for once. You finally learned to do that.”
It feels so real, this moment. But it’s only a dreamscape, I know that. Clocks don’t work right and sounds echo, movement is slow and disjointed, and I feel weightless. The room isn’t quite clear, as if fog clings to the ceiling, the floors, the walls.
His lips tug at the corners.
“You almost caught me once or twice.”
His expression softens a second later. “But you weren’t paying attention this time.”
“I was thinking about you,” I admit while lifting my hand to touch the back of my head. It’s pounding from where I was struck, and Ari’s eyes flash with heated anger.
“It’ll hurt when you wake up.”
“Not as much as it’s hurt for the past six months. Nothing can hurt like that.”
Another step toward me, his eyes hesitant, but still laser focused. I close the distance for him, throw my arms around him and melt against the heat of his skin, the steel of his strong frame.
Slowly, his arms wrap around me in return, his cheek pressed against the top of my head.
“You should have moved on.”
My eyes close, heart hammering like a drum. It feels so real, like he’s here holding me.
“I tried.”
God, it hurts.
“You left me alone.”
“I had to. You needed to rebuild yourself, baby bird, find your own wings without clinging on to someone else. I told you it would happen, you just never listen.”
Actually, I do listen. Regardless of what he thinks. I just didn’t want to believe he would go.
“You said you would protect me. But Grant got me anyway.”
Ari’s arms move, his hands gripping my shoulders. Lifting my head, I lock my eyes with his, see a flame of cold rage behind them.
“He won’t get the chance to do it again.”
Ice coats my spine at the lethal edge to his deep voice.
“Lie down and go back to sleep, Adeline.”
Tears well in my eyes. “I’m sleeping now. I don’t want to let go. I don’t want to wake up.”
Directing me to the bed, Ari picks me up and lays me down, his hand brushing over my hair as