Where Winter Finds You (Black Dagger Brotherhood #18)- J.R Ward Page 0,32

sensations, refilling his empty spaces with them, his aching loneliness erased, the cold he’d been meat-lockered into falling away in the rush of warmth. With every crest of pleasure, and each pumping thrust, he was made whole… and when the desperation finally began to ebb, his first thought was that he just wanted to keep going. He wanted them both to get fully naked. He wanted her skin on his. He wanted to put his mouth all over her.

Except then he realized where they were. Their pants down. Still joined.

Trez stared up at the face above his. His female was almost too beautiful to look at, her dark hair loose and curling up, its binding lost, her lips red from his kisses, her face flushed and glowing. She was the most resplendent thing he had ever seen.

“You’re back,” he whispered.

“I haven’t left.” She lowered herself down and kissed him softly. “I’m here.”

“Yes, you are.” He took one of her hands and placed it on his heart. “You’ve always been here.”

Therese seemed briefly confused, but the expression didn’t last. “I must be crazy. How do I feel like I know you? Like we’ve done this before—”

“Because we have.”

“In my dreams, right?” She smiled slowly. “In my dreams.”

“Do I come to you?” he said, his heart starting to pound. “Did you see me when you were sleeping?”

As he waited for her to reply, he had the sense that he was on the precipice of a great revelation, something that would explain everything—the way she looked, the way she felt, the fact that he felt no guilt at all for what they had just done.

Because he did not feel as if he had been disloyal at all.

Because it had been his queen.

Her eyes searched his face. “It was absolutely you. In my dreams. You are the one who has come to me as a shadow.”

“Yes, it was me. That was me.” He didn’t know what he was saying, but this made sense… even as it made no sense. “Tell me about the dream.”

“It always starts the same. I am lying in a bed in a room I’ve never been in before. I don’t recognize anything around me, and every time I have the dream, I don’t remember where I am. There is a single candle on the nightstand, and a soft, warm breeze blows it out. The door opens, and a figure is there. I am not afraid, however, even though I can’t see the face.” With fingertips that trembled, she traced his brows, his cheeks, his jaw. “It is you, though. You come to me… and we make love. It is only when we are together that the room becomes familiar. It’s rustic and antique, and I am safe… with you.”

“You will always be safe with me.”

“I believe you—”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Trez wrenched his head to the side. “Xhex! I told you—”

“Oh, that you, boss?”

Shit. “Hey, Big Rob.” He put his forefinger to his lips and shhh’d. “What’s going on?”

“This door won’t open.”

No, shit. “What do you need?”

Blah, blah, blah. Something about liquor boxes.

“Listen, Big Rob,” he said, “I’ll be out in a minute. I’m helping someone. Are the police still there?”

“Yup.”

“Just hang with Alex, okay?” Alex being the name Xhex used in the human world.

“Okay, boss.”

Okay. Okay. Right. Right.

Meanwhile, Therese was dismounting him, his still-erect cock slapping down on his lower belly, the change in temperature along its shaft and on its head a really frickin’ unpleasant shock. To make matters worse, his female was efficient in her re-dressing, which was good considering someone might be able to get in the other way, but also a disappointment because duh.

Still, they couldn’t stay here forever, could they.

Sure, they could, a voice suggested in his head as she stood up and rezipped her slacks. They absolutely could. Forever—

Therese looked around. And cursed.

“Later, Big Rob,” he said as he got to his feet and put his pants in place. Turning to Therese, he asked, “What’s wrong?”

“My purse.” She moved in a circle, as if the thing might be on the floor. “I think I—yup, I lost my purse when I was trying to get away from the fight.”

“We’ll find it.” As she looked at the door they entered, he shook his head. “No, let’s go the other way.”

He was not about to come out of the back into a crowd of his security personnel, the human police, and whatever arrestees were cuffed—with her. She was glowing in the way of a female who had just