Chapter 16

16

CAROLINA

T he dream feels like it’s moving in reverse. I can hear warped sounds and voices, and the world wooshes around me like a rollercoaster that only moves backward until I’m suddenly living a memory.

The air around me is hot, and my back is pressed against something…a wall, maybe. The surface is hard and uneven.

My hands are in his hair, and his mouth moves against mine like he’s going to devour me. I haven’t opened my eyes yet, but I’m sure it’s a him based on the growing hardness against my thigh.

I want him. I want him so badly that my magic feels like it’s prowling under my skin, waiting to explode. I need to control it, so I squeeze my eyes shut more tightly and focus on not unleashing my power on whatever unsuspecting room we’re in.

Working against me, the emotions I’m feeling are so strong that I know this is a past life and not just an errant memory that’s invaded my dreams. I feel wanted, cherished…loved. The feeling is unmistakable in my throat, in my mind, and in my body.

It’s also foreign to me .

Being worshipped by someone isn’t something I’ve ever experienced, but I’d imagine it feels like this.

Whoever this is belongs to me just as much as I belong to him.

One of his hands leaves my face and drops low on my body. Even through my clothes, it’s like he’s touching my skin when he presses on the most sensitive part of me.

My lips part, and I sigh when his mouth moves to my neck. His teeth scrape against my pulse, and his other hand tugs at my hair, tilting my head away to give him more access to my skin.

More . I want more from him. I need it.

Abruptly, he turns me around, and my eyes fly open as my hands come up to steady myself against the wooden wall. His fingers are quick to unlace the corseted back of my dress. His lips are at my neck again, and his fingertips drift along my spine before pulling the bodice down my body.

I feel, more than notice, my eyes closing again, trying to savor the feeling of him against me. His hands are at my breasts, and when they pinch my nipples, I suck in a sharp breath.

“Scream for me,” he demands, his breath leaving goosebumps in its wake.

When he tugs my nipples again, I let out a gasp, and that seems to appease him because he diverts his attention to other parts of me. His hands are firm on my skin, and I almost moan for him to be rougher with me.

“Grady Asher said you used your magic to get him into bed with you,” his voice is low, threatening, but I don’t need to tell him that Grady Asher is a liar. He already knows.

“And how did you take that?” I ask as my dress pools on the floor at my feet. My voice is breathy, and I grow impossibly wetter with the feeling of his gaze on my body .

There’s a sharp sting against my rear as his hand makes contact. A moan slips through my lips as he kneads the flesh there.

“I told him even if you had magic, you’d never use it on him.” I smile to myself when I hear the sound of his clothes hitting the floor. The anticipation of what’s to come tightens the knot in my core, and I pull my bottom lip into my mouth. “That you’re too busy sucking me off, and I don’t share.”

I feel my cheeks flame at his words. There’s no possibility he said that to Grady Asher, but I’m tightening at the thought of him in my mouth.

It’s then that I dare a look over my shoulder at him.

Mentally, I freeze, but physically, I’m already on my knees in front of Declan.

I peer at him from beneath my lashes and run my fingers up his thighs, my nails digging into his skin. Taking him in my hand, I squeeze his length, and he bucks forward in my grip.

His hand laces in my hair and pulls my head forward. I smile against his head as he lets out a frustrated murmur of my name. My lips wrap around his tip, and my tongue flexes against him while I create a seal with my mouth.

I feel like I’m going crazy. Everything about this makes me want him even more than before, but I’m still reeling from seeing him.

Another life. Another version of us was together. Another version of him loved me irrevocably.

His head tips back as I draw him further into my mouth and dig my nails into his thighs even more like I’m desperate to mark him as my own.

I can tell he likes it because he sucks in a breath, and his fingers press into my scalp, working me further down his shaft. He hits the back of my throat, and my eyes water, but I don’t pull back .

If he wanted to devour me, I’d return the favor.

At least, I try to before he pulls back and sets me on top of what looks to be a desk.

I still have no idea where we are. I can’t even be sure when we are, but it’s inconsequential.

There’s a sense of urgency to his movements that I write off as desire, but I should have looked closer.

His hands force my thighs open so he can step between them. He notches himself inside me an inch at a time, and my body accepts him readily. I wish he’d move faster. I wish he’d slam against me so hard that I feel it in every part of me.

I want him to ruin me.

He must sense it because his hips are suddenly moving at an unforgiving pace. It feels like he’s using me for release rather than something more, and I love it.

Maybe because I know that after this, he’ll return to himself. That we drive each other so wild that we forget there’s more than just this moment in time.

His fingers dig into my waist, and I groan, tipping my head back. I’m so close. I know he can feel it, with how tightly I’m clenching around him.

His hand skims up my body and rests against my neck. It’s just a light squeeze, but I explode around him, and he grunts at the sensation and grinds himself further against me.

It’s starlight and shadows behind my eyelids, and it feels endless. I’m suspended in this moment in time and so lost in the experience that I can’t remember when it started or how long it’s been.

When I come down, his pace picks up, and it’s only a moment before he stills and pulses inside me.

My magic flickers, and I’m made aware of its presence for the first time in this dream. Usually, I can feel it throughout a memory, but not this one .

Our breathing is rough. We’re both trying to control it, but he kisses me anyway. His mouth moves against mine urgently, biting down when he pulls my lip between his. It makes me warm and wanton all over again.

When he pulls away this time, he rests his forehead on mine, and I feel my magic pulse again at the connection it senses between us.

His eyes lighten even more like he can feel it too, but that’s impossible. Dream me doesn’t feel concerned, and so neither do I. Instead, we’re locked in this silent exchange that is somehow more erotic than what we just did.

The sound of people approaching from the outside snaps us out of the heady silence, and he quickly slips out of me, a look of panicked acceptance flashing across his features.

“It’s us in every lifetime,” he whispers, pressing my hand to his lips. “We’ll find each other again, my love. I swear it.”

“By the old Gods and the new,” I hear myself tell him.

The banging on the door begins, and the smell of smoke finds its way into my nose. It’s only then does the weight of what’s about to happen press against me.

We’re about to die.