by I. T. Lucas
Dark Dream’s Trap
The Children of the Gods Book 28
I. T. Lucas
Copyright © 2019 by I. T. Lucas
Dark Dream’s Trap
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
Dark Dream’s Trap is a work of fiction!
Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any similarity to actual persons, organizations and/or events is purely coincidental.
Also by I. T. Lucas
THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS ORIGINS
1: Goddess’s Choice
2: Goddess’s Hope
THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS
Dark Stranger
1: Dark Stranger The Dream
2: Dark Stranger Revealed
3: Dark Stranger Immortal
Dark Enemy
4: Dark Enemy Taken
5: Dark Enemy Captive
6: Dark Enemy Redeemed
Kri & Michael’s Story
6.5: My Dark Amazon
Dark Warrior
7: Dark Warrior Mine
8: Dark Warrior’s Promise
9: Dark Warrior’s Destiny
10: Dark Warrior’s Legacy
Dark Guardian
11: Dark Guardian Found
12: Dark Guardian Craved
13: Dark Guardian’s Mate
Dark Angel
14: Dark Angel's Obsession
15: Dark Angel's Seduction
16: Dark Angel's Surrender
Dark Operative
17: Dark Operative: A Shadow of Death
18: Dark Operative: A Glimmer of Hope
19: Dark Operative: The Dawn of Love
Dark Survivor
20: Dark Survivor Awakened
21: Dark Survivor Echoes of Love
22: Dark Survivor Reunited
Dark Widow
23: Dark Widow’s Secret
24: Dark Widow’s Curse
25: Dark Widow’s Blessing
Dark Dream
26: Dark Dream’s Temptation
27: Dark Dream’s Unraveling
28: Dark Dream’s Trap
Dark Prince
29: Dark Prince’s Enigma
PERFECT MATCH
Perfect Match 1: Vampire’s Consort
Perfect Match 2: King’s Chosen
Perfect Match 3: Captain’s Conquest
TRY THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS SERIES ON
AUDIBLE
2 FREE audiobooks with your new Audible subscription!
Contents
1. Julian
2. Ella
3. Bridget
4. Losham
5. Ella
6. Losham
7. Ella
8. Bridget
9. Turner
10. Ella
11. Julian
12. Bridget
13. Ella
14. Julian
15. Ella
16. Ella
17. Kian
18. Julian
19. Ella
20. Vivian
21. Ella
22. Julian
23. Ella
24. Amanda
25. Julian
26. Ella
27. Ella
28. Vivian
29. Ella
30. Julian
31. Ella
32. Kian
33. Julian
34. Ella
35. Julian
36. Ella
37. Vivian
38. Ella
39. Turner
40. Ella
41. Julian
42. Ella
43. Magnus
44. Ella
45. Vivian
46. Ella
47. Magnus
48. Ella
49. Turner
50. Ella
51. Turner
52. Ella
53. Turner
54. Julian
55. Ella
56. Julian
57. Ella
58. Julian
59. Vivian
60. Ella
61. Julian
62. Ella
63. Julian
64. Ella
65. Julian
66. Kian
67. Ella
Series reading order
Excerpt: Perfect Match 2
FOR EXCLUSIVE PEEKS
1
Julian
“Good morning, my love.” Julian walked into the bedroom with a tray.
The breakfast he’d prepared consisted of coffee and chocolates, because as far as food went all he’d found in the kitchen was a half-empty box of cereal and a couple of frozen pizzas. The chocolates were a lifesaver.
Even though Ella had feasted on them last night, he still had plenty left over in the box she’d given him for safekeeping. She loved those little treats, but it was a shame that this was all he could come up with the morning after the most monumental night of their relationship.
Not only had they confessed their love for each other, but Ella had promised to give the therapist a chance, and that was almost as big a deal as the I love you’s.
“What time is it?” Ella mumbled, opening just one eye a crack.
“Around ten.” He put the tray on the nightstand and leaned to kiss her soft lips.
She looked so adorable with her cheeks rosy from sleep, her pink hair sticking out in all directions, and her expression open and trusting and full of love.
For him.
“Would you like me to pour you some coffee?” He lifted the carafe.
“Breakfast in bed?” She stretched her arms over her head and yawned. “You’re spoiling me, Julian. I might come to expect this every morning.”
He dipped his head. “It would be my pleasure to serve.”
“Aren’t you sweet.” Ella reached for his cheek. “I won the lottery with you.” She planted a quick closed-mouthed kiss on his lips and then flung the comforter off. “I need to use the facilities, but in the meantime, I would love it if you poured me some coffee.”
“It shall be done, my lady.”
Chuckling, she rushed into the bathroom.
The sunlight from the open window made the plain white T-shirt he’d given her nearly see-through, outlining the contours of her curvy tight body as if she were wearing a sheer nightgown.
Sexy and adorable. What a killer combination.
As his shaft rose to attention, pressing painfully against his fly and accusing him of self-inflicted torture, Julian had no defense to offer his suffering member. He would be lying if he claimed that giving Ella his most worn-out T-shirt hadn’t been a calculated move.
Shaking his head at his teenage antics, Julian was reminded of what his mother said about men. They were forever boys at heart, and that included immortals as old as Kian. There were exceptions, of course, like her mate.
Turner must have been born with an ancient brain. Julian could imagine him as a boy, somber and serious, dedicated to learning as much as possible and as quickly as his huge brain could absorb it. He probably had never taken part in the shenanigans ordinary boys amused themselves with.
Was that why Bridget had chosen him?
Every couple was different, and so was every relationship. There was something magical about that connection, though, something Julian hadn’t expected.
Surprisingly, the incredible closeness and the feeling of being a unit had little to do with
physical intimacy. It was more about the mental fusing, about the breaking down of barriers, and about laying one’s soul bare for the other person and trusting that they wouldn’t stomp all over it.
After Ella’s meltdown last night, Julian felt closer than ever to her, and her confession about the attraction to Lokan hadn’t diminished the effect in the least.
Her misguided feelings toward the Doomer mattered much less to him than the cleansing of her guilt over it and the obliteration of the wedge it had put between them.
There was a perfectly logical explanation for why Ella had reacted like that to Lokan. The affinity that Dormants and immortals felt toward each other had made her feel close to the Doomer, and because she had no way of knowing that he was an immortal and she was a Dormant, and what that meant, Ella had interpreted it as sexual attraction.
Or at least that had been the initial impetus.
Later, when he’d started intruding on her dreams, Navuh’s son had used his good looks, his intelligence, and his charm to reinforce those feelings, and possibly compulsion as well.
As Julian had suspected from the moment he’d learned about Ella’s dream visitor, Lokan was playing Ella and not the other way around. Despite all that had happened to her, she was still a naive eighteen-year-old, while the Doomer was an immortal with centuries of experience plotting and manipulating. She was no match for him.
Damn, she was so young and had gone through so much already.
It wasn’t fair.
He wanted to hold Ella in the safety of his arms and shield her from the world twenty-four seven, but he would settle for the nights.
Having her curled against his body, his arms wrapped securely around her, had felt so right. It hadn’t mattered to Julian that that was as far as it had gone. Well, the primitive side of him didn’t like it one bit, but, fortunately, the savage occupied a very small part of his psyche and he’d beaten it into submission.
For now, he was satisfied with just being close. The rest would come later, after Ella had several sessions with Vanessa.
How did the saying go, “All good things come to those who wait”? It was a simple way to state a well-known fact. Those who were adept at delaying gratification got ahead of the crowd, and Julian was a master of that.
When Ella came out of the bathroom, he had the two cups of coffee ready, hers with cream and sugar and his with just sugar.
“I’m hopping right back.” She crawled into the bed, stacked four pillows up against the headboard, got comfortable sitting up, and pulled the duvet up to her chest, covering everything up.
What a shame.
He handed her the mug. “Just as you like it. Cream and two sugars.”
“Thank you.” Cupping it between her hands, she took a sip and smacked her lips. “Perfect.”
“Yes, you are.” He bent and kissed the very tip of her nose. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” She shook her head. “Why does it feel so awkward to hear you say that?”
Because Ella still didn’t believe that she deserved love, but that was going to change. Firstly, because she would be hearing him say it fifty times a day, and secondly, because Vanessa was going to clean up the trash that Ella had allowed to accumulate in her head.
All that nonsense about being tainted and about having some darkness inside her had to be disposed of as soon as possible. The longer it lingered, the more it festered, diminishing the brightness of Ella’s incredible spirit.
“I’m going to say it a lot, so you’d better get used to it.”
“Ditto.”
“Nah-ah, young lady, ditto isn’t going to cut it. I want to hear the words, preferably accompanied by a hot kiss.” He was hoping for more than that, but for now it would do.
For some reason, Ella’s smile turned into a grimace. “About that. I don’t think we should hang out together until the mission is over.”
Talk about driving a dagger into his unsuspecting heart. “What are you talking about?” Things were going so well, and now she was throwing this at him?
Grabbing another pillow from his side of the bed, she hugged it to her. “I don’t want us to be apart either. But catching Mr. D is more important than us. We can wait a little longer, but every dream encounter I have with him, I’m running the risk of letting something slip, getting him suspicious, and sabotaging this opportunity for the clan.”
“We’ve been hanging out together every day, and you did just fine.”
She brought her knees up, curling her arms around the pillow as if it was a shield. “That was before we deciphered the combination to unlocking my passion. Now it will be so much harder to refrain from doing more. And I know it’s going to rock my world, and then I won’t be able to continue pretending with Mr. D.”
Ella thought that making love to him was going to rock her world? At least he could take solace in that.
Julian let out a breath. “Do you trust me?”
Ella rolled her eyes. “Of course, I trust you. I don’t trust myself.”
“Until the mission of entrapping the Doomer is over, we will keep our relationship strictly platonic, and I’m going to be in charge of that, so you have nothing to worry about.” He took her hand. “I might not look it, but I’m a stubborn guy. When I decide on something, it’s very difficult to sway me away from that decision. I won’t let you seduce me even if you try.”
Smiling, she lifted a brow. “Are you sure about that? I’m stubborn too. You said so yourself.”
“That you are. But remember, you made me a promise, and I expect you to keep it. I want you to make an appointment with Vanessa for Monday.”
“I can’t do it on Monday. I’m filming.”
“So?”
“I can’t get myself all worked up before it, and I scheduled the taping for after dinner.”
“Fine. Then Tuesday.”
Letting out a resigned breath, she nodded. “Okay, but just so we are clear on that. I’m going to have one session with her, and if I don’t like it, I will not have another.”
“Three. You can’t decide if she’s helpful or not based on one meeting.” Remembering how Ella visualized everything, he added, “You can’t clean all of your kitchen cabinets in one go, let alone your brain. All kinds of nasty things are lurking in there, and they need to get trashed. And after that is done, the interior needs a good scrubbing with soap. You can’t start filling those cabinets with beautiful new china until all of this is done and they are sparkling clean.”
2
Ella
It was really clever of Julian to come up with something Ella could visualize. It worked. Those cabinets up in her brain definitely needed spring cleaning. She just wasn’t sure that Vanessa was the right tool for the job. Talking to a shrink was like using a cloth to clean up caked-on grime. It just smeared it around but didn’t get rid of it.
“I hope that Mr. D can expedite my interview. I want this over and done with, so I can focus on us and our relationship.”
“You don’t have to wait.” When she opened her mouth to argue, Julian lifted his hand. “I’m not talking about sex. We can get closer in other ways.”
“What do you mean?”
“We can be together, just not alone with each other. We can hang out with family and friends.”
It was much better than not seeing him at all, which Ella wasn’t sure she could actually do. Maybe with plenty of phone calls, but even those had the potential of sliding into sexual territory. For now, complete abstinence was best.
Hanging out with her mother, Magnus and Parker could actually be fun and bring the entire family closer. “You’re always welcome in my house.”
“I know. And I like your mother and brother, and Magnus too. When I come over, instead of going to your room or out for a walk, we can spend time with your family. And the same goes for you. So far, you’ve only gotten to know my mother and Turner in their professional capacity. I think it would be nice to meet for dinner as a family. My mom doe
sn’t cook much, but Turner can bring takeout on his way back from the office, or we can all go out to a restaurant.”
That sounded wonderful. Growing up in a tiny family, Ella had envied her friends who had uncles and aunts and cousins and grandparents. Their birthdays had seemed so much happier than hers. Secretly, she’d hoped to one day marry a guy with a large family or a clan.
“I love it, and not only because of the obvious. Hanging around a lot of people will fill my head with more than just you, which is good for the dream encounters.”
He arched a brow. “What do you mean by obvious?”
“You know, we are kind of engaged, right? So, it makes sense for us to get close to each other's families and friends.”
Embarrassed, Ella put her mug on the nightstand and popped a chocolate into her big mouth. She should’ve done that five seconds ago instead of blurting nonsense about a nonexistent engagement.
When Julian sighed, her gut clenched. Now he was going to give her a speech about rushing to conclusions and tell her that they were not getting married anytime soon.
Not that she wanted to, not yet anyway. She was too young, for one, and then there was the issue of her education. Ella hadn’t given up on that. Couldn't even if she wanted to. Since she was a little girl, her mother had been drilling the importance of college education into her head. She couldn’t disappoint Vivian like that.