The next morning I wake up in my bed heavy eyed. My body feels strangely on edge and it takes a while to remember what happened last night. I sit up in my bed in shock.
Did I go back to the party? Was Aeron really there?
But when I look down at myself I am wearing my blue miniskirt and floral top. No skin-tight scarlet dress.
It was just a dream.
I curl into a ball, hugging myself. It had been so incredibly real.
Aeron used to have dreams like that. Ones he thought had actually happened. Except his had mostly been nightmares.
Suddenly I cry out, and raise my shaking fingers to cover my mouth. He had said that he’d seen me with Dane. But he can’t have. Surely it was just a dream…. Wasn’t it?
I find that I am trembling. I remember the scent of him, the anger and agony in his voice as he’d accused me of using him, and the feel of his fingers on me. God, what must sex feel like? No wonder they call it a carnal appetite. My flesh hungers for him like I’ve never known before.
I press my hands over my sore eyes. They feel gritty and swollen, as if I have been weeping all night.
Why dream of Aeron after finally finding another man I wanted after all these years?
“Oh God,” I mumble, as I stumble out of bed and reach for some aspirin.
Fortunately there are a couple left in the bottle in my bedside drawer.
The thought someone might have seen me with Dane mortifies me. Please don’t let them have seen.
At least Sofia didn’t see. She would have mentioned it if she had. I tell myself it is unlikely that anybody else I know would have been at that party.
A look at my alarm clock makes me groan. It is two o’clock in the afternoon. I am supposed to be in a class. I start to get ready, but then slump back down in my bed. There is little point going into college now.
I check my phone and see several missed calls from Sofia. I don’t call her back. I don’t know what to say to her.
My headache throbs dully at the back of my head even as I prepare myself a snack. It makes me want to do nothing more than take another nap, but after eating I force myself to go for a walk around the block to try to get some energy. All I can think about is whether Dane really knows Aeron.
I worry that he will tell Aeron about what happened between us last night. Then I get angry. Why the heck should I feel guilty? I haven’t seen Aeron in years. And maybe Dane doesn’t even know where he is. Maybe it was just his excuse to see me again.
When I get back to my dorm, Sofia is sitting outside of my bedroom door. She springs to her feet when she sees me.
“There you are! I need to talk to you.”
“What happened to you last night?” I demand.
“I told you, I had to go there to meet someone.”
“Who?” I ask suspiciously.
“Someone who knows my mom.”
“Oh, Sofia,” I say softly.
Sofia’s mom abandoned her when she was a baby. Her dad raised her alone. She’d been angry at her mom her whole life.
“Why do you want to find her now?” I ask.
Sofia shrugs. “There are some things I need to ask her about.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
She shakes her head. She’s always been secretive about this. I always assumed it must be too painful a topic.
“It’s just that I’m going away for a few days,” she says. “I was hoping you’d cover for me in case anyone looks for me.”
“Of course I will. But where are you going?”
“I’ll tell you when I get back.”
“I hope you know what you are doing,” I say, worried.
“I’ll be fine. Sometimes you just have to seize a chance when it comes.”
After she leaves I tip out my handbag, looking for more aspirin for my headache. Along with an assortment of makeup and keys, a pendant on a chain falls out.
Frowning, I pick it up. It’s not one of mine. It is a piece of jagged blood-red crystal about half the size of my smallest finger. Ornate metalwork at one end attaches it to a long chain.
Aeron’s pendant.
My heart begins racing. He always wore this. He never took it off. I remember a time when I had lain against his chest, twirling the chain in my fingers. When I reached for the red stone he had taken it away and tossed it over his shoulder.
The only way it could have gotten into my bag is if Dane put it there. He really does know Aeron.
Just like that I know I have to go to see him tonight.
The next few hours pass in a haze. My mind is a whirlwind of thoughts. Before last night all I had wanted was Aeron. But to get to him I have to see Dane again, the stranger who touched me. That was all it was. And his kisses, his hot soul burning kisses, they had only been kisses after all.
That was nothing compared to Aeron. It couldn’t be. The moment I had met Aeron I had known he was my forever. He had been my love. He had given me the first and last truly wonderful time in my life.
I love my friends, and my college life is everything I dreamed of. But it is not enough. Maybe it never will be unless I deal with my past.
I find myself hastily packing an overnight bag, all the while thinking how risky and stupid this is. Packing a bag because a stranger told me to? My friends would think I was mad.
I decide not to message them. If I am going to indulge in insanity, then let it be all the way.
When I get back to the mansion it is almost unrecognizable without the party crowd. The driveway seems even longer than it did yesterday, and the lush gardens are now peaceful, the beautiful floral borders pristine.
I ring the bell, and a woman opens the door within moments. Her clothing tells me she is a servant, an important one.
“Erm, hi. I’m here to see Dane…” I flush, remembering I don’t even know his last name.
“His lordship is expecting you.”
Lordship?
She leads me inside. There is no sign that a party happened here last night. Everything is gleaming dark wood and shiny stone and luxuriant artwork.
He is waiting in the lounge, sitting stone-still on a sofa and gazing out of a window. He stands up when he sees me. Last night’s demi-mask is gone. I stare at him. His resemblance to Aeron is striking.
But where Aeron had an easy smile and a boyish charm, this man has a stillness and reserve that makes my stomach tight. He eyes me like a wolf hunting its prey. I remember that yesterday his hands were between my legs. My face blushes bright red.
“Leave us,” he says quietly.
The servant leaves immediately.
My throat is dry. I have to clear it before I am able to speak.
“You… You had Aeron’s pendant.”
I hold it out to him, but when he reaches to take it I snatch it away, suddenly possessive of it.
His eyes rise from the pendant to my face, examining it so intently that I find it difficult to hold his gaze. A tiny smile twitches at the corner of his mouth, then disappears so fast that I cannot be sure it was there.
“Straight down to business, I see,” he says.
“How did you get it?” I swallow hard. “How do you know Aeron?”
He looks at me from the tips of my shiny shoes to my hastily combed hair, which I’ve pulled back in a ponytail. He raises one gorgeous eyebrow.
I bite my lip. I thought my sensible clothes would protect me, but his deep blue eyes seem to see right through me. He makes me feel naked.
He steps closer, until he is within touching distance. Inside I quake, but I stand my ground. His hand grazes my waist almost experimentally to see if I will let him. My breath catches in my throat. I stare at him, determined not to be the first to break eye contact. My lips are trembling ever so slightly, and I know he can see.
His hand trails slowly from my waist and up my rib cage. It comes to rest beneath my breast. He brushes his thumb over my nipple, as if he knows exactly where it is beneath my bra. A shot of sensation rushes through me.
“Oh God,” I whisper.
He smiles as if he knows I cannot resist, and pulls me up against his strong chest. He dips his head, and his lips brush over mine.
It is me who wraps my arms around his powerful neck. It is me who rises up on tiptoes to press my lips desperately against his, and opens my mouth, yearning to taste his tongue.
He obliges me almost lazily, the tip of his tongue merely whispering over the inside of my bottom lip, setting my flesh aflame, making me moan out loud for more.
Something is possessing me. A pull I cannot resist.
I cling to his shoulders and press myself against him, thrusting my breasts against his chest. I feel the hardness of his erection pressing against my stomach. I want his hands on me like they were last night, exploring inside my panties. I want him to guide me to the couch and lay me down and climb on top of me.
Instead his hands drop to my waist and he gently pushes us apart.
It takes me a moment to come back to my senses, and then I am mortified enough to push his hands away from me.
“It’s not me you want really, is it?” he says, almost mockingly.
Isn’t it? My head is still cloudy enough to not be sure.
“You said you’d take me to Aeron,” I say hoarsely.
“I will, but I need something from you first.”
“I won’t sleep with you,” I say quickly. And then I flush bright red, remembering how a moment ago I would have let him do whatever he wanted to me.
He smirks, but doesn’t remind me of it. I am grateful.
The pendant is still dangling from my fingers. He touches it. I tighten my hold on the chain so that he can’t take it away.
“I want this,” he says.
I frown, confused. Didn’t he give it to me? I open my mouth to speak, but he interrupts.
“Not this one,” he says. “The real one. The one Aeron wears.”
“This isn’t his?”
“It’s a copy. I want you to swap it for his.”
“Why? They’re exactly the same.”
“They are not,” he says shortly. “And don’t ask questions to which you don’t want to know the answers.”
“And you want me to get it from him? That’s why you’ll take me to him?”
“Yes. You promise to get me his amulet and I will take you.”
My heart sinks. “I can’t steal from Aeron.” My voice is soft and almost pleading. “Isn’t there something else I could do?”
“You get Aeron, I get the amulet. That’s the deal.”
“Why do you need it?” I gesture around the opulent room we are in. “You’re already rich.”
“There you go with the questions again.”
“I can’t do it. I won’t.”
I should throw his pendant in his face and stalk out. And yet I stay there, unable to leave.
“What if I told you that the one he wears is hurting him?” he says. “That he would be better off without it? But you already know that, don’t you?”
I stare into Dane’s eyes. He is manipulating me somehow. I feel it. And yet how many times had I lain with Aeron at night and felt his body stiffen during his nightmares and seen his fist clench that pendant so tightly that his knuckles had turned white? I had thought the pendant helped him. Could I have been wrong?
“Why would he wear it if it hurts him?”
Dane shrugs. “That is not for me to tell you.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“So go there and seek out the truth for yourself. If the amulet is harmless you don’t have to give me anything. But if it is harmful then you have to promise to give it to me. You’ll replace it with mine, and he’ll never know you did it.”
“How am I supposed to get close enough? Why do you even think I can do that?”
He laughs abruptly. “Because fate brought to you to me. You’re the only one who can.”
“He never wanted to see me again. He hates me.”
“There is no hate without love.” He strokes my cheek gently. “I guess we will find out if he still loves you.”
Against my better judgement I find myself nodding. I want to believe fate did bring me here. I need to see Aeron again no matter what the cost.
