by Leia Stone
The moment I’d pulled his shirt off, I let my hands roam over his tight muscles, relishing in the warmth from his skin. Stepping out of my dress, I stood before him in nothing but boots and a black thong. Damien hooked one finger into my underwear and slid them off me. My breath was coming out in short rasps; who knew undressing each other could be so sexy? Reaching forward, I unhooked his belt as I pressed my lips to his hungry mouth, his pants dropping to the floor.
When he laid me down on the bed and pressed his naked weight on top of me, I nearly lost it. Damien Striker was an Adonis, and he was all mine.
By the time we left the hotel, it was a little after midnight. It was quite literally the best date I’d ever had. Every uptight, tense feeling I’d had before was now smoothed out and mellow.
I should definitely have sex more often. I should have sex with Damien Striker all the time.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked, as our limo pulled up to the loft.
“That chocolate soufflé,” I lied.
He winked. “Me too.”
As we walked up to the loft hand in hand, I was high on amazing date magic and first-time sex with not a care in the world. I was sure that nothing could bring me down from that high—until I turned the corner and saw Brisk walking into the apartment with a blonde on his arm.
Oh frick.
Brisk brought a girl home. He never brought girls home. Neither did Nox. It was like a code. Maxine was really the only one who paraded her conquests around the place.
“Hey, everyone! This is Stacy,” Brisk slurred as I stepped in behind him.
Ronnie was sitting on the couch with her reading glasses on, her eyes puffy and red like she’d been crying, and she was clenching the remote control in an iron grip. Maxine and Nox were gone, probably swimming or something, and Jeremy must’ve been in his office with Mr. Hansen, because only Josephine sat on the couch with Ronnie.
She was the first to recover and act natural. “Hello, Stacy,” Josephine welcomed the newcomer.
Stacy didn’t look as drunk as Brisk, but her hands were all over him. “Hi,” she purred in a sultry voice to rival Maxine’s.
“Did you guys get a few drinks?” I asked, leaning in to sniff Brisk. He knew better than to get hammered; it would totally make him sleep, and once he got to the Dream Wars he’d be somewhat drunk. Not the same level, but you didn’t feel right. It was like anesthesia, some of it making it across to your system. He’d get killed.
Brisk glared at me. “Yes we did, Mom.”
I rolled my eyes. “That was stupid, Brisk. Drink some coffee and let’s go for a walk.”
He gave me a sly grin. “No, thanks, Kit. I’m going to give Stacy here a tour of my bedroom.”
Stacy giggled and started to pull him to the stairs.
Ronnie’s eyes went wide and I stood there frozen, unsure of what to do. He was a damn adult; if he wanted to take a girl to his room, he could. Besides, Ronnie had passed on that, and it wasn’t fair to keep him single if she didn’t want him.
“Fine, pass out and get eaten by a giant. See if we care!” Ronnie snapped at him from her place on the couch.
He just waved her off as he slipped up the stairs with blonde Barbie.
Holy shit. That just happened.
I looked at Ronnie, who was staring at the ceiling.
Josephine stood. “I think I’ll let you two girls talk.”
She made a face at Damien, and he cleared his throat. “Right. Me too.”
They left together, slipping out onto the expansive balcony where there was a hot tub and mini bar.
I kicked off my boots and fell onto my knees before my best friend. “Ronnie. I know you. I know you better than you know yourself. You love that beefcake up there, and the way I see it, you have two choices.”
She pinned me with a vulnerable gaze, tears threatening to spill over. Unless a cat was dying, Ronnie didn’t cry. This shit is serious.
“One, you continue to live life as you have been, scared of loving him, and continue to push him away. We leave right now, get a hotel room, and you move on. Let him go.”
The tears fell then, silent rivers down her cheeks.
“And two?” she said in a hollow voice.
I stood. “We rip that bitch off him and you tell him how you feel.”
She sighed. “I’m scared.”
“I’m scared too. I’m scared of falling in love with Damien, but I’d rather be happy for a short time than miserable my whole life,” I confessed.
The Dream Wars did this to us. Made us afraid to love because we were terrified of loss, what it could do to us.
Stacy laughed then, a shrill ‘I’m being tickled in the neck by Brisk’s stubble’ laugh, and Ronnie shot off the couch, nearly smacking into me.
“I’m gonna kill her,” she seethed and started for the stairs.
Oh hell yeah. I grinned, running after her.
Ronnie took the stairs two at a time, and I prepared myself to pull her off Stacy. It wasn’t the blonde’s fault she’d walked into this drama. I’d make sure she got out of here without a broken nose.
When we reached the door to Brisk’s room, I could hear laughing and moaning. I cringed. This shit was about to get awkward.
Without a knock, Ronnie threw open the door. “Get the fuck off my man!” she shouted. I ran inside after her but stopped short. Instead of Stacy on top of Brisk half-naked, they were sitting a few feet apart fully clothed, and Brisk was grinning ear to ear.
“What’s going on?” I asked, utterly confused.
Brisk stood, still smiling, and pulled a couple hundred-dollar bills from his pocket, handing them to Stacy. “Thanks for your help.” All trace of drunkenness in his voice was gone.
She took the money, shoving it into her bra, and grabbed her purse, sneaking past Ronnie warily.
“What the hell just happened?” Ronnie asked, gesturing at the bed as if it had done something wrong.
Brisk took a step closer to her. “Ronnie, I’ve been in love with you for four years now. I know how you work. You’re the stubbornest woman I’ve ever met, and you need to be coerced into showing any feelings.”
She crossed her arms, looking offended. “So that was all fake?”
He shrugged, opening his arms. “Does it matter? Come to papa.”
Typical Ronnie would’ve stormed out of the room, pissed off, but instead she grinned. “You jackass. I almost rearranged her face,” she said as she stepped into his embrace.
When she tilted her chin up to kiss him, it looked so natural, like they’d done it a thousand times. He wrapped his hands behind her neck and took what was his. Man, I almost wanted to clap. That shit had been a long time coming.
After kissing him, she pulled back. “So, you didn’t mean what you said about me being the messed-up one, not Maxine?”
Now that I knew they were fine, I started to make my way out of the room to give them privacy.
“Oh no, that shit’s true, sweetie,” Brisk replied, and I heard a loud smack before both of them fell onto the bed.
As I shut the door, I couldn’t help but smile. Somehow, in some weird way, everyone had come together. Life was good when you were surrounded by love.
Eight
The night passed quickly while we played cards, swam, and worked out. Jeremy had come out twice to measure my head, which had me a little scared, but I wasn’t sure what to say about it. Damien shrugged it off, so I wasn’t too worried.
We were all sitting around playing poker when Maxine pointed at Ronnie and Brisk.
“Bronnie,” she said, then laughed.
Brisk frowned. “What?”
“That’s your celebrity couple name!” Maxine informed him. Nox had a hand on her thigh and was getting her water and anything else she needed to recover. As long as she kept her arm in a sling for a few weeks, she would be okay. Even the slice in her leg would heal because Ronnie didn’t hit anything major. Perks of having a trauma surgeon stab you.
Ronnie looke
d at Maxine and Nox. “Mox is yours,” she countered.
Maxine chuckled, and then looked at Damien and me. “Hmm. Kamien? Dit?”
We all busted out laughing, and Maxine shook her head. “I’m sorry, you can’t be a celebrity couple. Your names are too awful together.”
Damien chuckled as he dealt a fresh hand of cards. I was just picking up my stack when Ronnie’s phone rang.
She froze, looking at the screen. “It’s the cat guy. The guy whose cat had the kittens.”
Ronnie had saved a pregnant cat in the Dream Wars, and had written her number on its belly in sharpie marker. The guy had called her a few weeks ago, said he lived in Seattle and would call her when the kittens could be separated from their mother, if any of them made it. He’d also told her she could have one.
“Answer it!” I shouted. The prospect of a kitten seemed to have Ronnie in shock.
“Hello?” she said into the phone.
Brisk’s hand came out to rub her lower back, and I was completely taken with how normal they acted as a couple. Not all awkward like Damien and I, who hadn’t touched each other publicly since our time at the hotel. We were in that new and weird phase, where you weren’t sure what was okay or not, and it surprised me that ‘Bronnie’ was already well past it.
Ronnie’s face lit up. “Umm yes, I would be so honored! I’ll pay you whatever you want for her.” My best friend’s voice was shaking with excitement.
When she hung up the phone, she squealed so loudly that we collectively jumped startled.
“I’m going to be a mommy to a little kitten,” she announced with pride.
I couldn’t help but smile. “That’s great, Ronnie. When do you get her?”
She stood. “I’m going right now. It’s only like a four-hour drive from here, so I’ll be back before we go to sleep tonight. He’s been putting coffee in her milk to keep her awake as much as possible.” It was 5:00 a.m. She had more than enough time to make the trip.
Brisk stood. “I’ll go with you. I love kittens.”
We all grinned, even Ronnie. Brisk loved cats about as much as I did, but kittens were a whole different story. They were cuter and less psychotic than their full-grown selves.
“Would you like me to make a dream band for her? So she can go in with us?” Jeremy’s voice called from the hallway.
My head snapped up to him standing in the darkened hallway, holding a baseball cap covered in wires.
“You can do that?” Ronnie shrieked.
He shrugged. “Should be easy.”
Damien frowned. “How come you never mentioned that idea before, buddy? If people could take their pets in with them, it could be a big deal.”
Dream bands for pets would’ve sold like crazy, not to mention that the cats, dogs, and other animals wouldn’t be endangered.
Jeremy shrugged. “I never thought about it. We don’t have a pet.”
Ronnie looked like she wanted to hug him but thought better of it. “Thank you, Jeremy. That would mean the world to me.”
He looked nonplussed. “Okay.”
Ronnie and Brisk took off, and Damien looked at his brother again. “How long were you standing there?” Damien asked him.
Jeremy made a face. “Long enough to hear about your celebrity couple names, and wonder if you and Kit are having sex with each other.”
I nearly choked on my spit.
Damien shot up into a standing position, red-faced. “Okay, bud, that’s private. What’s in your hands?”
I was trying to hide my smile. Jeremy was so blunt that it was actually hilarious at times. Maxine was grinning too, not even trying to hide it.
Jeremy walked over and held a black baseball cap out to me. Inspecting the cap, I could see it was definitely one of his prototypes, with several wires and electrodes coming from it in all directions.
“It’s for Kit to wear. It needs about an hour of readings while she’s awake, and then the rest I need in the Dream Wars,” he stated to the group, staring at the floor.
Umm what?
Damien looked stressed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Buddy, she told you she doesn’t want you to do tests on her.”
I didn’t know what to say. I felt bad pushing away one of his inventions, but I didn’t want to be some guinea pig.
Jeremy didn’t put his hand down, continuing to hold the hat out to me. “She needs to though. It could make the ghouls leave. Forever,” he said, as he stared at my feet.
That was a bold statement.
I stood and he met my eyes for the briefest second, and I was taken back with how beautiful they were. Blue like Damien’s.
“What do you mean? Can you explain it so I can understand?” I asked him.
He lowered his hand, looking frustrated. “No. It makes sense in my mind, but I can’t explain it. Just do what Damien does and trust me.”
“Trust me.” Those two words, coming from him, made my heart go mushy.
“Okay, Jeremy. I trust you.”
He visibly perked up. “Does that mean I can study you?”
I chuckled. “Yeah, sure.”
Damien met my gaze. “Thank you,” he mouthed, from behind his brother, and I nodded. This kid had gotten us this far, and he was making a kitten dream band for my best friend, so the least I could do was wear a hat for him.
He put the baseball cap on me, pressing down on each electrode as it stuck to my head with some type of built-in gel pad. I noticed there was a little black box clipped to the end of the bill, almost like a pager.
Once the hat was on, Jeremy ran out of the room without saying a word.
I met Damien’s eyes and he shrugged. Then Jeremy was back, carrying a laptop and looking excited. “Okay, I’m getting some readings!” he said.
I gave him a thumbs-up.
“Okay, now do your thing on my brother. Send him a mental message,” he instructed.
My eyes widened.
“What?” I wasn’t prepared to do that. I hadn’t sent anything to Damien before in the real world, only when I was in the Dream Wars. It felt more intimate this way, and I didn’t want to freak him out.
Damien looked worried.
“Yes, just a small thought or whatever. I need a baseline,” Jeremy said.
“Damien?” I asked him.
“It’s fine,” he replied, although his face told a different story.
I settled my nerves and dropped my head, closing my eyes. Letting my awareness filter out, I brushed against Damien’s strong signature and pushed a simple, random thought.
‘I like chocolate.’
“Holy shit!” Damien shouted, and my eyelids snapped open to see him leap backward.
Maxine laughed in the corner where she sat with Nox. “Freaky-ass shit, huh?”
He just stared wide-eyed at me and nodded.
Jeremy was typing feverishly into his laptop. “Got it! Now just wear it the rest of the day and night. No getting it wet,” he said, then took off back up the stairs.
I sighed, rolling my eyes. “Okay.”
Damien walked over, appearing a little less shaken. “Thanks for humoring him.”
I nodded. “You’re welcome. You owe me.”
He smiled, slipping a hand around my waist. “All the chocolate in Vancouver.”
I grinned. “I was thinking we could do some hacking.”
Damien appraised me. “What did you have in mind?”
“The green stuff. The alien oil. I want to know how they’re getting it over, what they’re planning to use it in, and who’s involved.”
Damien huffed out a sigh. “Okay.”
It was one of those things that I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to, but that at the end of the day, I had to know. If the government had sold the population for a renewable energy, then I was going to stop that shit and bring it all down in flames. That was not what my America stood for.
So we got to work. Jeremy up in his lab doing God knew what to my brain, Ronnie and Brisk off on a kitty cap
ture adventure, and Damien, Nox and I searching for anything that had to do with the green stuff. Maxine was lazing on the couch, watching Friends reruns, and nursing her shoulder and leg.
By the time the sun had set, we’d found a ton of random info to look through. It looked like there was a huge green lake on a government site in Nevada, but the satellite Damien had hacked to get that info had dropped a firewall down on him and booted him out.
He rubbed his temples. “I’m tired.”
I was too. It’d been almost two days without sleep, making it hard to concentrate on these kinds of things. We’d all get some sleep tonight and hopefully be fresh for research in the morning. Maxine was able to run and hold a gun, so she was going in.
We’d stocked up at the local military supply store, and now we all carried two RPG launchers each. Our new enemy was a big-ass giant that tucked away over a hundred humans a day. We wanted to be prepared.
The front door opened and Ronnie walked in, beaming like a newborn’s mother. In her hands was a tiny white kitten with cream spots.
Aw. Little fucker’s kind of cute.
Maybe I did like cats.
I stood and approached them. “She’s so tiny,” I observed.
Ronnie nodded. “I just gave her a bottle, need to fatten her up.”
I reached out to touch the kitty, and she jerked her head to the side and batted at my hand, leaving a red mark.
“Ow.”
Asshole.
Ronnie pulled her back, as if I’d been the one to do something wrong. “She’s had some coffee. It makes her jumpy. You scared her.”
Right…. It was decided then: all cats were crazy assholes.
“What did you name her?” She wouldn’t really name her Kitty, I hoped.
“Lucy, after that girl whose dad… ya know. She seemed to like cats, and it was a cute name.” Ronnie was a mushy, emotional soul, hidden in a rigid surgeon’s OCD body.
“It’s perfect. Please keep her away from me,” I said with a smile.
She kicked me and I laughed, backing up.
The sounds of footsteps on the stairs drew my attention, and I looked up to see Jeremy shuffling sleepily toward us, a small black collar in his hand. When he reached Ronnie, he thrust the collar out. “I’m tired. Can we go to bed now?”