Magic Trials (Half-Blood Academy #1)(32)

He laughed sensually. “Come here, lamb. Last time we didn’t get to talk.” His laugh dropped, and his voice turned into dark silk. “Some force pulled you out of my dream too fast, and I wasn’t pleased.”

What he said didn’t make sense. But then this was a dream, as he’d announced.

My body urged me to go to him, but I stood my ground and narrowed my eyes, still surreptitiously ogling him. “I’m not a lamb. You need to correct your mistake.”

He sighed. “Fine, Marigold.”

I sucked in a breath, happy that I wasn’t the wrong girl who crashed this party.

The beautiful man rose from his chair as if impatient that I didn’t move to him as fast as he’d demanded. Before I made another step, he’d reached my side. His arm lashed out and snuck around my waist.

The next moment, we were on the balcony with me in his lap and my shirt nowhere to be found.

This relationship had developed super fast. Before I even knew his name, I was already cuddled with him, topless.

“I can’t wait to touch you again,” he said, snuggling his nose against my neck as he inhaled my scent.

He smelled of clean male and dirty sex mixed with cinder and night. His scent caressed me, arousing me out of my mind.

I traced my fingers along the ridge of his defined muscles before I pressed my breasts against his hard chest.

I wanted to know how it felt to be skin on skin with him.

He chuckled in lustful amusement, his massive erection throbbing against my butt through his trousers. The near uncontrollable desire to tear his pants off and have his large, hard cock inside my heat assaulted me so hard I almost reached for his pants.

Wait a second!

I blinked, trying to regain some control. I didn’t want to be perceived as a savage by this lovely man. Maybe I should slow down. But what if the dream ended abruptly before I could enjoy this man?

Yet I shouldn’t be so willing and eager to get it on with a stranger like this, even in a dream, right?

“What’s the matter, lamb?” he asked, genuine concern in his eyes. “You get this pouty look when you’re worried. What’s bothering you? You know you can talk to me.”

My chest warmed. He wanted to talk instead of having his way with me right away, and he wanted to know my problems.

“I got into this new school by accident,” I said, twirling his silky hair around my finger. “Everyone there knows their place and which house they belong to, except me. No one knows what I am or what kind of power I have. Everyone got their powers upgraded but I just got burned. I’m the freak.”

I thought of all the runes dancing across my body, then disappearing under my skin, never to surface again, like golden coins falling to the bottom of the deep sea.

“Nonsense,” he said, his sapphire eyes warm and loving. “You aren’t any sort of freak. You’re the woman of my dreams.”

I gave him a bright smile with a genuine ease I never felt with anyone else.

“You have the best smile in the universe,” he said, his thumb tracing my lower lip indulgently.

“I know,” I said. “It’s only for you.”

He was the nicest dream man, and it was so easy to talk to him. If everyone in reality was even a little like him, the world would have more peace and less violence and death.

“I won’t share you,” he said. “You’re mine.”

Aha, my dream man was possessive, which wasn’t going to work well since he couldn’t have me outside of this dream. However, I didn’t want to say anything that might upset him and spoil our beautiful moment.

“I don’t even know if I have magic or not,” I said. “Maybe I do, but it doesn’t seem like it wants to be discovered. I don’t blame it. I don’t trust those people in the school either. They only want to turn me into a killer. That’s all we are to them—killing machines.” I untangled my finger from his hair and pressed my palm against his face.

He leaned into my touch, cherishing it.

His skin felt so warm, and his stubble pricked against the heel of my palm. This dream was amazingly realistic with all its scents and textures.

“The three big assholes who rule the school and half of the world can’t figure out me or my powers,” I babbled, grateful that he was still listening attentively. “I love how it frustrates them. They don’t like mystery. They don’t like the unknown. Yet I’ll remain one, and that’s my poetic justice.”

“However,” my grin waned, “I’m a bit concerned that if my power doesn’t manifest soon, or if I’m really a dud, they’ll have no use for me. They’ll get tired of me and my attitude, and then they’ll snap their thick, rude fingers and dispose of me. I bet one of them has already imagined erasing me from the face of Earth. I irked him pretty hardcore.”

“No one will touch you,” he snarled. “You’re mine. I won’t allow anyone to hurt you, even in a dream. I’ll slay them all.”

His wings whooshed out aggressively.

“Uh, thank you,” I said. It felt nice that he was so protective of me, even it was in a dream. When it ended, he would disappear.

But then how come we both realized that this was a dream?

Wasn’t that a bit bizarre?

Or maybe it wasn’t a dream after all, but we’d met in an alternative universe?