Nico's Cruse

by Jennifer Kacey

She decided to try getting the password from him so she had access. “Let me connect to you this time. How do I do it?”

  His icon lit up on the dating site and he must have pushed connect because the screen changed and the new password appeared.

  “Password?” appeared on the chat screen.

  She made a face in frustration, then gave him the new code.

  His face filled her screen when the call connected and she tried to smile but he looked so sad.

  “Did you really think I was going to give you the password, Rose?”

  “I’d hoped you would. I want to help you.”

  “I know you do but I’m not willing to destroy your life just to save mine.”

  An idea popped into Rose’s mind. “Have you ever tried going through while we talked? Like right now. Could you get through?”

  Without any hesitation he laid his hand on the screen, flat so she could see every line and fingerprint up close and personal.

  “Many times. It only works if you fall asleep.”

  “Have any of the other women tried?” Her eyes bounced up to his, then back to his palm.

  “Well, no. None of them even knew the dreams were real. They didn’t know I traveled through it to visit them, much less anything about the curse.”

  “So maybe I could get through, maybe it’s how the curse is supposed to be broken. Maybe I could even come to you right now.”

  She reached forward to touch the screen, heart pounding away in her chest. Her fingers slid across the surface, lining up with his on the other end of the connection but it wasn’t anything other than just touching a computer screen. Disappointment settled in her stomach. She shouldn’t have been frustrated but she couldn’t help it. It couldn’t have been so easy, but she sure wanted it to be.

  She kept her palm on the screen trying to feel something, willing whoever would listen to let her through. They finally both moved away.

  “And before you even think about it, no I’m not going to fall asleep while I’m on with you. So you can forget about trying that again. I’ve already told you I can’t get the witch what she wants to break the curse. This is my mistake and I’m going to deal with it.”

  “Well, I’m hoping you will. You can deal with it by accepting my help.”

  “No.”

  “Why won’t you even hear me out? How do you even contact the witch? Is she on your speed dial?”

  He considered it and then shook his head. “I don’t have a clue how to get in touch with her. I thought she’d just appear when I needed her. Doesn’t matter though. I don’t need to see her.”

  “But I could free you. You could have your life back.”

  “At what price? Cursing you in the process? Fuck that. This isn’t some fairytale, Rose, where everything’s going to work out in the end. There isn’t a happy ending in our future just because it’s what we want. She said a trade, a life for a life, and I know I told you in my sleep last night. I can’t believe I fell for that.”

  Frustration bled off of him, but she snapped back. “This isn’t your choice to make, it’s mine. And I’ve already made it. I’ll do this with or without your help. Make it easy on me, help me, and fall asleep so I can see if I can get through. We don’t have that many hours left if your time is up at midnight.”

  “I’m not helping you ruin your life. This is not your battle to fight.”

  “I still believe in fairytales. Maybe we could have one, too.”

  “That’s not how it works for me.”

  “Have a little faith,” she persisted. “At the very least choose my profile next year. Tell me the date your week starts and I’ll be the first profile you see. I’ll wait for you. A week with you each year would be better than a lifetime with someone else.”

  Indecision radiated from him, then resignation marred his features. “No, Rose. Don’t wait for me. Don’t try to come here. I won’t choose your profile next year. I can’t have a taste of you and then have to let you go again and again. It’s too cruel to both of us.”

  “Then let me fall asleep tonight, right now. I’ll lie here and you can come to me one last time.” Tears fell unbidden down her cheeks and she brushed them away angrily. She didn’t have time for being a weepy girl.

  Regret laced his words. “I can’t come to you tonight. I can’t say goodbye again. I can’t. My heart’s already broken after seeing you cry when I left this morning. Please forgive me but I just can’t. I have to go.”

  He reached for his mouse to disconnect, but she yelled, “Answer me one question, Nico. You owe me at least that much.”

  He clenched his hand into a fist and nodded once.

  “Do you love me?”

  He narrowed his eyes at her, and she couldn’t read him at all. “You already know the answer to your question.”

  “No I don’t, or I wouldn’t be asking you. If I already know it then it won’t hurt to say it out loud. Do you love me?”

  “Hopefully this will answer it.” And he was gone, the video screen announcing his departure. For a few seconds she sat paralyzed, staring at the empty screen, then she panicked, hitting keys, typing messages to him, but nothing happened. Nothing changed.

  He wouldn’t answer her again, no matter how hard she tried or what she told him. His mind was made up.

  Didn’t he realize love could move mountains?

  Didn’t he see he gave up his life for hers? It was no different than what she was willing to do for his. “Stubborn man,” she cursed.

  She hit the button to connect to him, the phone dialing seemed shrill in the quiet apartment. The password screen with six boxes appeared, the edges blinking, taunting her since he wouldn’t respond to her chat messages.

  The connection timed out and then his icon went dark. He’d logged off and her heart sank. If he wasn’t even on the other end she had no hope of convincing him to give her the password.

  She picked up her phone and texted him, “Please, Sir, please.”

  Miss Priss jumped up on the table, meowing to be fed. She petted her and put her down, not needing the distraction. “I’ll feed you in just a few minutes, pretty kitty. I can’t let him do this.”

  Texting him several more times got her exactly zero response. She left her laptop up and paced around the apartment trying to think of some way to fix everything.

  She wandered into the kitchen and fed the cat, which continued to meow and wasn’t interested in the food at all. “I’m not certain what you need then.” She picked her up and carried her around with her to pace, scratching her ears and beneath her chin.

  She set her on the floor in the bathroom and decided to brush her teeth with the cat making figure eights around her legs, which she’d never done before.

  Absentmindedly, she slipped on a silk nightie, wishing Nico would come over to see it. She hauled her laptop with her to bed and crawled under the covers. His icon still showed offline but she tried to connect to him one more time.

  The password screen blinked empty boxes at her again, blinking, blinking. The clock ticked closer and closer to midnight and she became frantic, having no idea what to do. She texted several more times but those went unanswered too.

  The cat jumped on the bed, meowing in Rose’s face, rubbing on the edge of the laptop screen.

  “What do you need? I’ve fed you, loved you, petted you. I just don’t know what you need tonight.” Rose moved to brush her off the bed but the cat ducked behind the laptop screen.

  She peeked her head over the top of the monitor, sitting on her haunches so she could drape her front paws over the screen along with the key on her collar. Her meow sounded like a plea as she seemed to beseech Rose for something.

  Light from Rose’s lamp on the nightstand lit up the key as it danced in front of the laptop screen.

  The code on the key was six digits, just like she needed for the password to access his laptop. “But… That couldn’t work.”

  She stared at the cat that held her gaze. She didn’t move, d
idn’t make a sound, imploring her, Rose thought, to believe in miracles.

  With a shaky hand she steadied the key so she could read the numbers and she typed them in, one digit at a time.

  The connection opened immediately and Rose gasped, covering her mouth.

  She held her breath, her heart pounding away at her ribs and she tried to make out what was in the dark. Nico shifted in bed and she could tell he was already asleep in bed.

  “How did you…” she started to ask the cat, but she padded over to the corner of the bed and circled up to go to sleep.

  Surprise, fear, and hope swirled inside her as she stared at Nico in bed.

  It didn’t matter how it worked, she decided. She grabbed her cell and USB stick off of the nightstand, looking around the apartment one more time.

  “Thank you,” she breathed out in a soft voice to the cat, so she didn’t wake Nico.

  She reached toward the screen and her fingers passed right through. It didn’t feel strange or cold or anything. It was no different than crawling through a window.

  Standing beside his dresser, she looked back at her bedroom, seeing for the first time what he had seen. Pics of her parents were pinned on picture boards behind the bed. The pretty pillows she bought the year before leaned against the headboard. She ordered them wanting to spice up her bedroom and libido and it led her to Nico. He was what she needed to find herself and she wanted to return the favor.

  That’s what you did for people you loved.

  She set her phone and stick next to the keyboard on the dresser and closed the laptop, breaking the connection. One deep breath and a couple seconds of feeling sad was all she allowed herself, then the scent of Nico, rich and all delicious male reached her nose. She slipped off her nightie and crawled into bed with him, determined to wake him up in a way he’d never forget.

  Chapter Nine

  Dreaming of her made his heart hurt but he didn’t want to wake up to his empty bed so he squeezed his eyes shut, even in sleep, so he didn’t lose her.

  He dreamed of her often but this dream was just different. It wasn’t through the laptop, he already knew he wasn’t in her room, she was in his. In his bed.

  He’d always wanted to fuck her in his bed, then make love to her and seduce every inch of her again and again. Sleeping naked was something he always did so he reached for her but she batted him away. Her giggle lightened his heart but then it stuttered to a halt as she moved down his chest, beneath the covers and her wet mouth slid over the head of his cock.

  Her cool fingers clasped the shaft of his dick, squeezing him just like he’d taught her.

  He palmed the back of her head, trying hard to let her set the pace, but in his dream he always took over. Partially because it was just what he did and partly because he knew that’s what she needed to get off. His control, his ownership. His love.

  His hips moved on their own, fucking her pretty mouth as she sucked on him. Nothing made him harder than feeling her throat working against the head of his dick. She breathed around his cock when he pulled away, and then he worked it in farther.

  Each time giving her more, knowing she loved it, knowing she loved him.

  His balls sucked up tight to his body, signaling his need to come but he wasn’t done with her yet—not ever.

  He threw off the covers, dragging her up to him by the hair. His cock popped out of her mouth with an audible pop and in the next instant he had her body trapped beneath him, his hips spreading her thighs wide and he worked himself inside the tight clasp of her body.

  He clutched at one of her breasts, gliding over her smooth skin, and he licked her nipple, sucking it into his mouth as he plumped it with his hand. He kissed and nipped across her chest, over to her other nipple which stood proud and hard, waiting for it. He loved it, suckling her flesh, leaving scruff burns on her creamy skin, wanting them to stay forever. He breathed in the scent of her, licking up her throat, working his shaft into her wet cunt.

  No condom.

  He’d never had sex without a condom, except in his dreams but somehow it was different. The sensations floored him, sinking inside him, pushing him toward an orgasm the likes he’d never had before.

  She had to come with him. This time was just for them and it had to be perfect.

  He moved his hips in a rhythm she couldn’t ignore. Her dream-like voice taunted him as she whispered next to his ear, telling him things he’d never even wished for.

  “You’re not alone.”

  “I’m never leaving.”

  “I love you.”

  She clawed at his back, his ass, pulling him into her body faster, harder.

  Her need ramped his up even higher and the Dom inside him roared to the forefront.

  He grabbed her wrists, trapping them above her head, then got up on his knees, using his free hand to yank her ass up onto his thighs.

  She crossed her ankles behind him, squeezing him, and he growled at her.

  He opened his eyes and there she was. His Rose, beneath him, taking him, loving him, the entire time she stared up at him with nothing but acceptance in her gaze.

  His orgasm shot out the tip of his cock before he could stop it. He clenched his teeth, fucking her hard and fast, trapping her clit between his fingers. “Come with me,” he ordered, rubbing her clit with the pad of his thumb. “One last time, come with me.”

  He buried his cock inside her as she started to come.

  She shook beneath him, her pussy trapping his cock inside her body as she yelled, “Don’t stop, Sir. I feel you coming inside me. It’s— Oh, God.”

  Pumping his shaft inside her, sliding in their mingled wetness was more than he could handle. He shot his load inside her, leaning over, tapping his fingertip on her clit so he could kiss her.

  She sucked his tongue into her mouth, kissing him with a passion he’d wanted his whole life.

  Her pussy milked every last drop out of his junk as they kissed.

  A dream had never been so real before, he was glad it was her he felt it with. He’d already decided he wasn’t going to use the Crossroads site anymore. He’d almost deleted his profile as soon as he disconnected from Rose the night before. Especially after she begged him to get on again and her texts nearly broke his resolve. He heard them in her voice. She was heartbroken, just like him.

  But he couldn’t delete it. Not yet.

  He kissed his dream Rose one last time and rolled over with her so he could fall back asleep with her slight weight on his chest.

  He held her close and she kissed his shoulder and his neck, peppering his lips with attention.

  She moved to disappear and he wanted to wrap his arms around her tight and beg her to stay, but he knew that would just make it harder for him in the end.

  A saying he’d heard his parents say all of his life echoed in his head. “If you love something you have to let it go.” He’d never understood it before that moment.

  But as she knelt above him, sliding away from him, he understood. A tear slid from the corner of his eye when he squeezed them shut. He sat up on the edge of the bed, glancing around the room like a total fool. It had felt so real he almost expected her to be there, on her knees, waiting for him to command her pleasure again.

  He shook his head as he stood on shaky legs. His still half-hard cock seemed to glisten in the light coming from the bathroom.

  The bathroom?

  He hadn’t left the light on. He’d crawled in bed right after shutting the lid on the laptop and turning his phone off.

  The laptop lid was definitely closed as he glanced over at it.

  What’s that sound?

  It almost sounded like water…cutting off? He took the last few steps to the bathroom in about half a nano-second, wrenching open the door.

  “Holy shit,” came from someone who looked and sounded just like Rose. “You scared me.”

  She stood there naked, beautiful in the archway of the bathroom, holding a wet washcloth.

  “I cle
aned myself off but I didn’t think I could carry you to the bathroom.”

  He couldn’t move, didn’t speak, his brain waves took a nose dive as he stared at her from head to toe.

  “I, uhh, got a warm washcloth and was going to clean you up in bed.” She held it up, smiling shyly, reminding him of a pixie or an angel.

  His angel.

  “We didn’t use anything so we got a bit wet when I surprised you.”

  He took a menacing step forward and she retreated. He stalked her until her back smacked the bathroom wall, and the wet cloth hit the floor with a fleshy flop by her foot.

  “You’re here?” He traced the tip of a finger along her jaw, down her throat and along her chest. His hand shook.

  Her skin flushed like it always did when he touched her and he cupped her breast. Her hand came up and held his palm to her, and her heart beat against his palm.

  “Yes.”

  With no warning he picked her up under her ass and she automatically latched on with her arms behind his neck and her legs around his waist.

  He shoved his cock, which had gotten rock hard the moment he saw her, inside her slick sheath. She gasped, arching away from him as he plowed into what had to be her sore pussy.

  “How?” he growled as he pumped away inside her.

  “My. Cat. Had. The. Key,” she answered back in between each stroke.

  He fucked her, riding her body hard but he couldn’t help himself. It couldn’t have been too bad for her because she begged as she brought his mouth to hers. “Can I come, Sir? Please…”

  Her words whispered across his lips as another orgasm streaked down his spine and out the head of his sensitive cock. “Come,” he ordered, then kissed her breathless.

  Licking across her lips he tasted her as she came on his cock for the second time in less than a half an hour.

  Her sighs of pleasure entered his body, and he groaned as her pussy tightened around his shaft. She held him tight when he finally released her mouth, and her head fell against the wall of the bathroom he still had her pinned against.

  Her dreamlike smile was like a slap across the face. He wanted to punch the wall, he wanted to scream at her, and at the witch, and beg them both for Rose’s safe return to her apartment.