Synthetic Dreams

by Kim Knox

Paul narrowed his gaze. He crawled the width of the bed, his attention focused on her with an intensity that had her heart drumming in her ears. “I never plan for the short term. You and me? Long term.”

  “You’ve decided?” She let the sarcasm line her voice. “What if I had something different in mind?”

  His hand stroked over her calf, tracing the swirls and knots. “Have you?” He dipped fingers behind her knee, his smile dark when she jumped, but his touching didn’t stop there. He teased along her thigh. “Tell me.”

  Her mouth opened. She wanted to say something, but she didn’t want to call his bluff. If it was a bluff. And she didn’t want it to be that. More than anything.

  A squeal escaped her as he pulled her down onto the mattress. He blocked her with his body, his hands planted either side of her shoulders. Leaning in, his mouth brushed hers. “I promised payment. I keep my word.”

  “Only payment?”

  His lips teased hers, warm and firm and setting off sparks. She arched into him involuntarily and he grinned. His breath stirred her skin. “You know it’s more than that.”

  Vyn closed her eyes, the heat of his body wrapping around her. His scent, warm, musky and touched with the hint of lemon and mint, mixed with the smooth hint of jasmine brought in on the breeze. “This isn’t real.”

  Paul pressed light kisses to her jaw, her throat, trailing the lines of her scars to the scooped neck of her top. The quick, impatient noise he made as the flimsy material impeded him broke a smile from her. She wriggled and he pulled the top up, exposing her breasts.

  “Better,” he murmured, and kissed the curl marring her left breast.

  Vyn threaded her fingers through his hair, letting the hot sensation of his mouth skitter joy through her flesh. “Paul…”

  “This is real. We’re real.”

  His voice was a whisper against her damp skin, a caress that caught her, turned her thoughts. He followed the cut of a scar down between her breasts and across her stomach, every touch of his mouth feather-light and tingling. His hair brushed her skin, her aching awareness adding to the wild pulse.

  “I want to taste every line.”

  Vyn bucked as his mouth took him to the curve of her hip. He pulled at her shorts, revealing more skin. “You could be some time.”

  Paul looked up, his eyes dark, his lips moist. Her heart turned over and she wanted to kiss him, hold him, wrap herself around him and lose days. She lifted her hips and he took the invitation, freeing her of her shorts in one swift pull.

  “I have all the time I need.” And with a wicked grin and a squeal from her, he flipped her onto her stomach. Her complaint died as he kissed the curve of her cheek, his teeth sinking a teasing bite. “Did you use every soap in the shower?”

  Vyn smirked into the pillow. “A few.”

  He kissed his way up her spine, tracing a weaving path on her skin. “I wanted this last night.” The heat of his hair-roughened skin brushed hers, tantalising her, sparking joy. “But I had to see Liam settled…and by the time I found you in this warren, you were asleep.”

  “You could have woken me up.”

  He brushed a swathe of her hair away and kissed the curve where her neck met her shoulder. Vyn let out a little sigh, turning her head to expose more of herself to his teasing bite.

  “I got to hold you.” His erection pressed against her backside and she pushed back against him, earning herself a low growl. “I’m being sensitive here, Vyn.”

  A laugh burst from her, unexpected, freeing. “I do like you, Paul, I do.”

  He stilled, eased back from her and she turned onto her back. His gaze held her and she could only hear the fast thud of her heart. Had she pushed too far? They didn’t know each other, not really. Forging the start of a relationship in the heat of chaos, whilst proving what they would do for each other, didn’t really say who they were when someone wasn’t trying to kill them.

  “You like me?”

  She held back a wince. “Yes?”

  His grin was sharp. “It’s a start.” And his mouth covered hers.

  Her arms wound around him, her nails digging into hard muscle, holding him, turning, twisting her hips so she could wrap her legs around him. His moan pushed her against him, against his tantalising erection.

  “I’m supposed to be taking my time.” His hot breath burned her lips.

  Vyn smirked at him, rolling her hips and drawing an answering thrust. “You promised me wicked.”

  His gaze narrowed. “I did, didn’t I?” Quick movements and his shorts and her top were puddles of cloth on the marble floor. “So you want me wicked?”

  Vyn pulled in a heavy breath, enjoying the press of his body against hers, the way her breasts pushed against the hardness of his chest. She let her hand trail over his shoulder, his neck, until she cupped his cheek. “I want you.”

  Paul turned his head to kiss her palm, the frisson making her gasp. “Of course you do.”

  Her smart reply became lost in another of his searing kisses, the luxury of skin against skin driving delicious pleasure through her flesh. She arched into him, his cock teasing across her clit, forcing him to swallow her shallow moans.

  Vyn wanted him now. Slow exploration could happen later. She needed him to take her, to bury himself inside her, fuck her, make her scream for him.

  “Paul…” She moaned his name into his shoulder, grazing her teeth over the salt-sweetness of his skin. Specks of sharp light danced over her eyes, the beat of her blood pushing her pelvis hard against him. Almost. So close to where she ached for him. Her words burst from her, short and demanding. “You have to fuck me now.”

  Paul pushed his hand between their slick bodies, his knuckles teasing her clit as he gripped his cock. He stroked her flesh, teasing, finding…

  There. He sank into her body with a long, slow groan. He eased away from her, his face in shadow, but she caught the edge of a smirk. “Want me to call you sir now?”

  “If you like.” Vyn wrapped her legs around him, loving the smooth feel of her bare thighs and calves against his hips and back. She urged him to stroke into her and his smirk broke into a moan.

  His mouth dipped to hers and caught in a melting kiss, holding her, easing into her in a slow, torturous rhythm that had her shaking, had her soul on fire. He was going to kill her.

  She arched. She had to have more of him. Her flesh was tight, aching, and she needed him hard and fast, fucking her. “More.” The word was a growl against his lips. She felt his grin, and his next hard thrust broke a gasp against his mouth.

  “Good?”

  “God, yes.”

  His pace changed, the deep, fierce strokes into her body making her heart hammer. The tightness and with it the first teasing threads of her orgasm ran hot through her veins. She met every hard thrust. Drove her body against his, wanting, needing to find wild joy and let it consume her.

  He moaned her name, desperate, needy. Her orgasm broke free, firing light and heat and absolute pleasure in sheer golden waves up through her body. She clung to him, riding out her release on his hard flesh, wanting him to join her, to lose himself in her completely.

  Vyn dug her nails into his back as he came, still pushing against him until his soft laughter and the light kiss on her shoulder eased her away. She flopped onto the bed, sated and indescribably happy. The light of the late afternoon mixed with the glow of ecstasy in her flesh and she let out a long, slow sigh. “Naked sex is good.”

  Paul frowned at her as he rolled onto his side and drew her damp, sweating body close to his. His fingers trailed down her spine, teasing the aftershocks of her orgasm. “Naked sex?”

  “I covered up. It made me feel better, more secure…and stopped the comments about my skin.”

  Paul paused, his playful fingers still against her skin. “I want you the way you are, Vyn. You know that. These are a part of you. Like your courage, loyalty, your sense of humour.” He pressed his mouth to her forehead and she felt the curve of his smile. “Or yo
ur obsession with soap.” He traced the sharp lines curving over her backside, and the freedom he gave her, of knowing a man would look at her and not be horrified, brought new warmth to her belly. “I asked. If you want it, the procedure to reduce them, to clear the scars from your skin, that can be done here.”

  Her heart stopped and she froze. She couldn’t think, her mind caught in a whirl of possibilities. The Corporation doctors had said the nature of her scarring meant it was impossible to remove without severe tissue damage, but they’d been working for the Goodmans. They’d refined her scars into organic technology. She knew that now. She closed her eyes and let her forehead fall against his collarbone, her fingers curling to a fist at his hip.

  “Vyn?”

  “We’re shadows. This is not real. I’m some phantom, a ghost lost in the machine. We didn’t escape and we created this free-form reality within the Mind.” She drew in a cleansing breath and found her throat tight. Panic edged her thoughts. Her eyes burned and she couldn’t stop the tremors. “Fuck.”

  Paul held her hard against him and she let the solid, even beat of his heart calm her. He lifted her chin and pressed a soft kiss against her mouth. “Let reality take care of itself. I’m here. You’re here. Liam is recovering. Whether I’m a ghost or not doesn’t worry me.”

  He stroked her bed-tangled hair. “We’re safe here, Vyn. I opened a feed to the Corporation late last night.” He paused. “Lucas is alive.”

  She stiffened against him. How did that make them safe?

  “A Lucas that tugs at his sleeves just that little bit too much.”

  Vyn looked up at him. “Ossian?” He would cover their escape, fabricate some plausible lie to hide the fact that Paul had killed the Tydeus CEO. Lying was what a Goodman did best, after all. Her former friend was crazy, but he did keep his promises. “He’s using the simulacrum already?”

  “So it would seem. He spun interesting lies. Very…creative. So, we’re free, we’re rich and I have a secure position here on Curaçao.” He teased a strand of hair back from her temple. “Believe we’re real. That’s really all that matters.”

  The ending light of the day touched his features and she let her fingertip trace the beauty of his face. He was right. He felt real. She felt real. And her life with him would be sweet. She clung to that belief. “All right.”

  Paul kissed her again and his eyes shone. “Are you always this malleable?”

  Her mouth twitched. She could love this man. He accepted her for who she was, wanted that woman. Add to it his smart mouth, his bravery and fierce family loyalty and she doubted she’d meet anyone quite like him ever again. Real or imagined. She pushed him onto his back and straddled his hips. A slow roll of hers caused his eyes to glaze and the familiar hunger she found in him tightened her chest. Yes, she could love him quite easily.

  “Call me sir and find out.”

  About the Author

  Kim lives on an ancient boundary line once marked by a Neolithic burial tomb. The tomb’s now a standing stone circle—thank the Georgians for that one—and it stirs her mind with thoughts of history and ancient myths. She mixes the essence of the past into fantasy, along with the essential mix of magic and sex. She also writes science fiction romance, pushing out into the far future with effortlessly sexy men and the women who can’t resist them.

  Kim is also with Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing, Loose Id and Liquid Silver Books. You can contact her on her website or come and chat at her blog: www.darknessandromance.com.

  Email: kim@kim-knox.co.uk

  Website: www.kim-knox.co.uk

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  ISBN: 978-1-4268-9330-8

  Copyright © 2012 by Kim Knox

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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