The Fae King's Dream (Between Dawn and Dusk #2) - Jamie Schlosser Page 0,28

I’d normally react, and that’s a problem.

Much to my irritation, I’m realizing my body likes Damon’s games. I’m worked up, my cheeks flushed, my nipples tight. There’s a violent flutter in my stomach and heat pulses between my thighs.

As irritating as Damon can be, dodging my questions feels flirtatious. It’s foreplay at its finest. I almost want him to keep goading me, just so I have a reason to strike back.

“I just want to know who I am,” I say softly, fighting against the urge to crawl onto his lap and kiss the answers out of him. “I’m not asking for much. We can save the conversations about dream walking, witches, and mates for another time. You might be a little bit right about not dumping all that information on me right now, but I can’t walk around like an empty shell. Because that’s how I feel—hollow on the inside.”

Thoughtful, Damon swipes a thumb over his bottom lip as he stands. “I have something that might help.”

To keep myself from staring at his butt in those leather pants as he strides across the room, I look at everything else. The bedroom is puzzling because it’s so bare. There are no pictures on the walls. No vases or other decorations. I guess it wouldn’t make sense for a room to be visually appealing when Damon can’t see it, but still. He’s a king. He must have interior decorators or something.

And the bed. It looks like it got mauled by a bear. The four posts are broken. Jagged edges stick up, some of them pointy and sharp. A safety hazard if you ask me.

“What happened to the bed?” I wonder out loud as Damon digs around in a pink dresser that doesn’t match the rest of the furniture.

He pulls an envelope from the top drawer. “I sort of attacked it.”

“Why?”

“Because I thought I lost you.” Turning toward me, he explains how he came to me in my dream. How scared he was when he realized my memory was fading. The black shadows, and how he got booted out of my head. “If I can’t have you, everything around me is worthless. If we got separated now, I’d die. Literally. Since we haven’t completed the bond it would take a while—maybe twenty years. It would be a slow agonizing death caused by the worst heartbreak you can imagine. Being without you would be like having my soul ripped from me. I would go insane from it. So would you.”

The intensity of his answer has my heart pounding so hard I’m sure he can hear the thumps. It’s interesting how articulate he is when it comes to how he feels about me.

I’m into it.

“This is yours.” He drops the envelope in front of me before taking his seat again.

When I pick it up, something falls out onto the table with a metallic clink. A whistle. I rub my finger over the shiny surface. I wait for a memory to surface, but nothing comes.

Bringing it to my mouth, I blow. Hard.

Damon winces at the loud sound, and I laugh a little when he sticks his fingers in his ears, wiggling them as if he can rid his mind of the noise.

“Wow.” I lower the whistle. “This thing is really shrill. Sorry.”

“I’m glad it’s obnoxious. Wear it always, and if you should ever need me when I’m not around, just blow it and I’ll hear you.” Leaning forward, he takes it from me and slips it over my head. “I replaced the string with a silver chain, so it looks more like a necklace.”

“Thank you.” I touch the cool metal resting on my upper chest.

Propping his elbows on the table, Damon nods toward the envelope. “There’s something else inside. I obviously can’t read it, but I didn’t want to show it to anyone else either. Would you tell me what it says?”

“Sure.” Nodding, I pull a paper out, not knowing what it is I’m agreeing to.

My eyes widen when I unfold it.

“It’s an application, and my name is on it. The heading has a logo—Dream Escape Resort and Spa. Below that, it says ‘Win a free weekend at the dark sky park.’” I study the lettering for a second, hoping it will look familiar, but it doesn’t. “I guess I filled this out at some point. My full name is Whitley Marie Duvall. Age twenty-one. Birthday April seventeenth. My address is thirty-one Sycamore Trail in a city called Streator. The college I attend is Vermont State