(Elara's POV)
I don't remember falling asleep.
One moment I was lying on my bed , staring at my bedroom ceiling, heart still straining from the bookstore — from him — and the next, the walls were breathing.
The dream didn't start with him.It started with silk.
A dark ribbon trailing along my bare thigh. I didn't know where I was — the room had no shape, only shadows and a strange, golden light that pulsed like candlelight behind my eyelids. My body was weightless, wrapped in warmth that wasn't mine. I wasn't wearing anything. I couldn't move.
But I didn't want to.
I felt him before I saw him.
His presence curled into the room like smoke. Thick, slow, inevitable. It was him. I knew it was him. Even though I couldn't see his face, my body responded like it recognized a lover from another life .I keep my head straight but didn't let him out of my sight .He leans into me ,pressing his weight against me .I combat his strength . Rather than being pushed away from him , I'm being absorbed by him .Hot breath warms my skin as his lips traces the outer edge of my ear . All I can smell is him .Warmth ,leather ,that unique scent that belong to only him .My back arched. My lips parted. My thighs pressed together instinctively — futile, really. Warmth pool low to my belly .
"You pretend to be afraid," he whispered into my ear — velvet, deep, honeyed. "But I can feel the way you ache."
I opened my mouth, ready to defend ,but words die on my tongue as he reaches up a hand and wipes his thumb across my bottom lips , tracing the edge of my jaw, down my neck, lingering at the hollow of my throat like he could hear every flutter of my pulse. I should have been terrified. I was. But it was buried under something deeper. Heady. Hot.
Desire, twisted through fear like a vine through wire.
He took his time.
I feel the glide of his lips alongside my jaws .I nearly choke from how dry my throat has become .Those lips descending kissing to the column of my neck and pauses on the spot right below my ear, breath burning where his lips hadn't touched yet. My breasts rose into his hands like they belonged there. I gasped as his tongue glides down to my breast .Moan escapes . He groans , his teeth piercing as his tongue laps at my flesh ,circled around my nipples , tasted every inch , claimed . A silent scream suctioned away just as his mouth does the same ,drawing in deep like he is drinking the essence from my body . Every flick, not very gentle bite, precise. Possessive. And he is pulling back ,dragging his teeth along my skin as he lets go. Leaving the exquisite pain .
"So soft here," he murmured. "You'd let me ruin you, wouldn't you?"
I couldn't answer.
I didn't need to.
My body screamed it for me.
My hands pressed into his chest for stability or to push him away , I am not sure . And then he is biting down again ,pulling an animalistic sound from the depth of my chest. He does it over and over , leaving a trail of bruises down on my neck ,across my shoulder and chest.
I am breathless by the time he pulls away.
"Good girl" he breathes
The dream blurred — his mouth moved lower, placing gentle kisses on my pelvic bone. I arch my back , pushing my body deeper into the mattress. Then soft kiss an inch above my clit and a whimper ripped from me. I feel him pause ,and then smiles against my skin. And then i feel them. A stubborn tear slips as his teeth scrapes against my mound. I gasp when his tongue slides against my clit ,and then the voice mixed of scream and moan left my throat when sucked my clit deeply making me shiver and I shattered under the press of tongue and heat and pressure so devastatingly slow I wanted to scream. He devoured me — not hungrily, but reverently, like this was his sacrament. As though he'd waited years for this moment and wouldn't waste a single second.
I begged.
I writhed.
He didn't stop.
His voice stayed in my ear, coaxing, praising, demanding.
"Give it to me.""No one will ever take you like I do.""You're mine, Elara."
When I woke, my body was shaking.
My sheets were damp. My thighs were trembling. My lips were still parted like I'd been calling for someone in the dark.
I pressed my palms to my cheeks. They were burning. God.
I couldn't breathe.
And the worst part?
The shame didn't come.
Not like it should have.
I felt… ruined.
But not in the way I feared.
In the way I wanted.
"You're mine, Elara."
The echo of that voice still hummed through my spine.
I stumbled to the bathroom, turning the tap on cold, trying to scrub the dream from my skin. But it wouldn't leave. His phantom hands still lingered on my thighs. His breath still curled around my ear.
It wasn't just a dream. I felt it. Like he'd been here.
Watching.
Feeding.
Collecting.
Later, I found a note slid under my door.
Just three words.
Written in clean, elegant script.
"Did you miss me?"