My body felt like it had taken a ride in a washing machine, my limbs had the consistency of jelly, and my muscles trembled as if electrocuted. Unbearable heat and stinging cold had surged through me at the same time, probably the aftershock from the first two phases of the Awakening. I didn’t say so to Dylan, but I mentally thanked God above that the torture was over.
First, it had felt as if someone stuffed my intestines with red-hot coals, burning me slowly from the inside until the air seared my lungs. Then, every single nerve had turned to ice—an equally burning sensation only of a different kind—but excruciating all the same.
My mind couldn’t get rid of the thought of what would have happened if Dylan hadn’t found me in time. He’d stayed, keeping a close eye on me, and despite the shame I felt for not being strong enough to go through the Awakening alone, there was no denying how glad I was Dylan hadn’t left my side. His presence and his soothing words had broken through the mind-clouding pain, giving me the mental strength to hold on.
At one point, it had been enough to drop my shields and cling to him as if my life depended on it—well, my life had depended on it, if you put it like that. His soft and hot skin had warmed me in more ways than one. If I hadn’t been occupied with trying very hard not to freeze to death at the time, I’d have said to hell with it before ripping the remaining clothes from his body to take what I craved since I’d first laid eyes upon this god-like man.
A good thing my sexual ache would find soothing in the Revival, but Dylan would only play a small part. Had I made a mistake by allowing him to stay? Despite the fact that the thought of being left alone, now that he’d been at my side the entire time, hurt more than I’d wanted to admit, I risked destroying everything we’d built up so hard over the last few months.
What would he do? Watch me while I came apart, maybe even laugh? This would be the worst disgrace a woman could imagine. Or would he take advantage of it, using my weakness to get me laid? And how would I react? Would I push him away, or would I pull him closer, begging him to fuck me and finish the job? He’d promised not to take advantage of me, but he was still just a man, right?
Dylan didn’t miss the overload of emotions obviously crossing my face and soothed my insecurities with little gestures like stroking my cheek or my hair. He seemed fascinated by it—had even brushed through the strands most of the time the Glaciation had lasted. But when he’d interlaced our fingers, tracing mine with his fingertips, the motion so gentle and precise, it had shocked me to the core.
Dylan wasn’t the touchy type. Was he only acting this way because the circumstances called for it, or did he feel more for me? Was that even possible? After everything we’d been through in the beginning? We’d buried the burdens of the past we shared, yes, but could he forget it all? For me?
Whatever it was, something was happening between us. We were not just trainer and trainee anymore, that was for sure. By now, it ate me alive not knowing where we stood. I’d make sure to have a serious talk with him once this was over, even if the result could break my heart.
When the first wave of arousal washed over me, I did my best to hide it behind closed eyes. We’d agreed that whatever happened wouldn’t change anything, but it didn’t make the situation any less embarrassing. Nevertheless, deep in my heart, I knew that tonight would change everything.
We could pretend, but we could never forget.
Dylan clearly felt just as unsure. Sure, he could turn around and pretend not to notice what was happening to me next to him, but it would limit his options of protecting me should any object fly across the room when my ability became activated again.
The sensation was like nothing I’d ever experienced. The few times I’d had sex, and all the times I’d pleasured myself, were no comparison to what was happening to my body now.
The tingles were not just shooting through my core, but also my chest, my arms, even my fingers and my toes. It took every ounce of control not to moan out loud, so I bit my lip instead and removed my hand from Dylan’s to bury it under the blankets. Otherwise, my hands would have curled around his neck to hold on for dear life.
Dylan still lay next to me, his arm curled around my waist. His breathing became faster, but I didn’t dare open my eyes. Instead, I choked down the licentious moan threatening to erupt when a crash of pleasure consumed me, dampening the lower parts of my body.
When the first wave dulled, I exhaled to calm my rapidly-beating heart. Despite the extreme cold I’d felt only minutes before, I was already warming up to the point I itched to remove the blankets to let the air cool my skin, but I couldn’t lose control in front of Dylan. Or my dignity, for that matter.
“Haylie.” Dylan’s purr broke through my occupied mind. It was astonishing how gentle this man could be if he wanted.
“Y… Yes?” My effort to sound nonchalant failed when a tremble rolled over my vocal chords.
“Are you all right?”
The mattress dipped, and I felt Dylan leaning closer. My eyes were still shut, afraid of what I might see when looking at the man who bore witness to my Revival. Instead of opening my mouth and uttering another stutter, I played it safe and just nodded.
“Haylie,” Dylan repeated in his deep baritone, this time more firmly but just as softly. “Look at me.”
A finger brushed my chin, and a little pressure was used to turn my head. I had no other option but to open my eyes.
“I know this is embarrassing for you, and I’m sorry I’m the one to make you feel uncomfortable, but you don’t need to be ashamed of anything, okay? This is a natural part of our lives, and it only happens once in a lifetime. You’ve been through the worst already, and now you have the opportunity to experience the good side of the Awakening,” he explained, his voice strained. “Enjoy it,” Dylan whispered huskily, his hot breath tickling my cheek.
Seriously? If I enjoyed it like Dylan wanted me to, I’d probably take matters into my own hands and finish the job myself. Although, as far as I recalled what Sarah had told me, it wouldn’t do me any good before the Awakening was over. If my phases lasted forty-three minutes, then it would take that long to reach my high, no matter how hard I’d try to release the pressure earlier.
“Easier said than done,” I muttered, my cheeks blushing to the point I was sure Dylan could feel the waves of heat on his face. I wasn’t a prude woman by any means, but what we were doing here definitely overstepped my level of self-confidence.
Before Dylan could reply, the next wave hit me so hard I had to press my thighs together. Quickly whipping my head to the side, I buried my face in the pillow, for the first time glad that the shorter hair strands fell over my eyes.
My hands clawed at the mattress as a pulsating sensation ratcheted my bundle of nerves. I was only half aware of distinct clattering noises next to Dylan’s now harsher breathing and figured that my ability was playing its toll on gravity, but it barely registered as I drowned in a moment of desire.
A hand stroked my hair away from my face, and I wanted to utter a complaint but instead, a feeble moan escaped me, one I’d desperately wanted to keep in. My heart beat loud enough to drown out most of my surroundings, so I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard something similar to a moan coming from Dylan.
“Haylie,” he pressed again, his voice strained as if in great pain. “Don’t hold back.” I frantically shook my head, my lips clamped shut in case another breathy noise got loose. “Let it out, Haylie,” he drawled into my ear.
Dylan was nearly lying on top of me. Was he insane? How could he do this now? I’d warned him about what could happen if he stayed. If he came any closer, every effort to tame my lewdness would be futile.
“Let go,” he urged me on, his hand gliding down my neck until coming to rest on my shoulder. Every single contact with my skin left a burning hot trail multiplying the immense sensations.
And then it happened.
I groaned from deep within as I felt my control snap like a guitar string stretched too tight. I’d suffered enough.
My hands shot out from under the blankets, and they grabbed Dylan’s shoulders desperate to feel more of his skin. He gasped in surprise, but before he could complain, or whatever it was he was going to say, I yanked him down on top of me. Dylan could have easily kept his stance, but something was making him weaker—my arousal or my ability?—because he quickly stemmed one hand into the mattress next to my head to support most of his weight.
“Haylie…”
A thousand emotions rattled through me as my name rolled over his tongue—desperation, frustration, desire, lust, affection, insecurity, pain—but it was too late to go back. He’d asked for this, and I wouldn’t let go, not until I got what my body craved to the point it was insufferable.
The coldness that had frozen me during the Glaciation was gone. My body was hot under the blankets, and I feebly tugged at the fabric to get it off me which was difficult with Dylan lying on top of it. He knew what I was up to as he lifted his body and snapped the blankets away in such a swift movement, it sounded like a whip slashing through the air. And, oh God, nothing sounded more erotic in that moment of pure bliss.
Cool air blasted over my sweat-dampened skin, but the sensation was soon replaced by Dylan’s warmth sinking back down on me.
Our contact boosted my nerves into overdrive. An electric shock of sexual arousal sped from my core over my belly and right up to my breasts, hardening my nipples to the point it became painful. Dylan would feel it through the thin fabric of my top, but instead of feeling ashamed, I was close to ripping my clothes off to let him see what was underneath.
My body arched, bowing my back as far as it would go with Dylan’s massive frame in my way, and this time, I didn’t even try to reign in the wail building from deep within. Dylan growled, and he dropped his head next to mine in defeat before his body followed suit, face buried in the pillow. I couldn’t hold still despite Dylan’s weight on top of me, my body too restless and pumped with endorphins, my feet digging into the mattress. I clawed frantically at Dylan’s back, desperate to feel the muscles now steel hard with tension.
Why, oh why, had he refused to put his shirt back on?
When I thought I couldn’t take anymore, my breathing too loud in my ears, the second wave finally died down, and my limbs relaxed. Dylan, on the other hand, was as tense as a stretched ribbon, his head still hidden in the pillow, his breathing irregular. I couldn’t blame him. I was giving him a live porn show, after all.
Dylan shifted his hips in an attempt to hide the bulge in his jeans. I slowly but unwillingly slid my hands from Dylan’s back, wanting to give him space, but Dylan’s hands shot out and grabbed my elbows to keep my arms in place. His head finally lifted, and I wished for more light to see his features.
He studied me intently, and I was close to asking what he was thinking, but then he put his forefinger on my temple, stroking a path down my jawline and over my cheek until resting on my lower lip. His piercing gaze followed and locked on my lips as if struggling with himself. Was he contemplating kissing me? The longing in his eyes told me yes, but something seemed to hold him back.
“Dylan?” I tested, hoping he understood the underlying question.
He didn’t seem to hear me and gritted out his next statement with the words, “You’re my undoing, do you know that?”
I didn’t know if I should be offended, but the way the words left his mouth indicated that they were meant in a flattering way, which sent my heart into overdrive. Dylan seemed to feel its frantic beating, his chest pressed tightly against mine, and a slight smile curled his lips.
A strange noise next to the bed startled me, and we both whipped our heads to the source. The lamp from the nightstand lay broken on the ground, and the mangled light bulb sizzled with electricity before giving out once and for all.
But the lamp was not the only thing that had suffered from gravity’s pull because it lay in a pile amongst other things, including Scott’s textbook for Physics, my wrist bandages, my jewelry box, mascara, and various text markers.
In my frenzied state, I hadn’t even noticed I’d turned my whole interior to ammunition shooting through the room like bullets. My eyes fell on the nightstand, but it was empty—everything had cluttered to the floor. Dylan must have followed my gaze and seemed to know what I was looking for.
He stretched out his arm, his pectoral muscles straining against my chest, and opened the drawer of my nightstand, pulling out my treasured hair clip. “I figured you wanted this to stay intact,” he said as he lifted it for me to see it was undamaged.
“Thank you,” I muttered, awed by his thoughtfulness.
Dylan peered at me for a second longer, spinning the clip in a three-sixty before making a fist around it, then putting it back into the drawer. It seemed he’d wanted to say something but decided against it. I didn’t push him.
“How long do I have left?” I asked hesitantly, feeling the next wave approaching.
“Uhm…” Dylan muttered, bewildered. “I don’t know, I forgot to keep track,” he confessed, and I couldn’t hold back a little smile. All the time he’d thrown frantic looks at his watch, but I’d clearly distracted him with my Revival. “But I guess it won’t be long until… it’s over,” Dylan added with a harrumph in between. I scrutinized him. The last part was not what he’d intended to say. I could easily guess how he’d wanted to finish the sentence.
Something wet stuck on Dylan’s shoulder blades where my hands now rested loosely, and I lifted them to see the cause. My fingertips were red with smears of blood.
“Jesus…”
Dylan was quickly on high alert at hearing me panicking. “What’s wrong?”
Trailing both hands over Dylan’s shoulder blades, I clearly felt four hollow cuts on either side. I peeked over Dylan’s massive frame to have a closer look and stared in horror.
“I scratched you,” I muttered. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know—”
“I didn’t even feel it,” Dylan interrupted me, stopping my hands from running over his back in a feeble attempt to help him somehow.
I gawked. I’d clawed at him hard enough to cut through the skin, leaving bloody scratches that more than likely seemed to have been caused by a wild animal, and he was brushing it off like it was nothing? Had he not felt it, or was he just downplaying in my favor? How far gone had I been?
“You know what they say about women, right?” Dylan broke through my thoughts with a mischievous smile forming. He waited to get my full attention, and I slowly shook my head, clueless about what Dylan wanted to tell me. “Women with style leave scratches, not love bites,” he enlightened me, no doubt to take my mind off things. It worked.
I let loose a pathetic whine, covering my face with my hands to hide my embarrassment. “This is awful.” Dylan laughed, and I felt it vibrate in my upper body while he gently peeled my hands away. “At least, let me tend to them when this is over.”
“Sure,” Dylan muttered with a wink that told me he’d just said it to end the discussion. Not that I would have the strength to continue arguing as the next wave of desire hit me with the force of a lightning bolt.
Before a sound escaped me, Dylan’s eyes flashed, and he stemmed my wrists onto the mattress, nailing them down. He must have seen something in my eyes telling him what was happening.
I growled through gritted teeth as the sensation grew in intensity. My stomach muscles cramped to the point my lungs constricted, and I fisted my hands to hold it together. Again, my mind clouded with the ecstasy surging through my most sensitive parts, and I lifted one leg to wrap it around Dylan’s thigh, anchoring him to me.
This time, the growl echoing through the space came from Dylan, a carnal sound that only added to my delirium. His grip on my wrists increased for a short moment until suddenly all the weight lifted from my body. Cool air hit my bare legs, and I nearly cried at the loss.
I couldn’t blame him for wanting to escape. I was clearly testing his boundaries.
But then, two hands made a vice around my ankles, yanking me swiftly down the mattress, my knees coming to a stop on either side of strong hips. I cried out, both from shock and lust. The motion slid my top up, leaving my stomach bare. The air brushed over my skin like a lover’s touch, making me squirm harder.
Firm hands grasped my naked waist, and my upper body was hoisted up until I was nestled in Dylan’s lap, my hair cascading forward. I was close to asking if he’d lost his mind, but instead, a chorus of lustful whimpers came out as my girly parts drenched with slick desire blocking out all coherent thoughts. Dylan wrapped my arms around his neck, apparently not caring in the slightest about risking more bloody scratches.
I could only stare at Dylan in bewilderment. He held my gaze, all the awkwardness from before gone and instead replaced by pure, hungry resolve. What was he up to? Did he want me to have sex with him? For God’s sake, if it weren’t for the danger I was putting him in, I wouldn’t hesitate for one more second, desperate to feel him inside me and release the building pressure.
But a small part of my brain which was miraculously still functioning held me back for fear of hurting him, so I did the only reasonable thing and pushed away in an attempt to gain distance.
Dylan must have known what I was up to and did something that stopped me fighting him—curling his fingers under my knees, he gave them a hard yank, so I ended up flattened against him straddling his hips and sitting directly on his crotch.
The feeling of his hard length stimulating my bundle of nerves was enough to forget everything about potential risks, my hands clawing at his shoulders, holding on for the ride of my life.
“That’s it, Haylie. Let it out,” Dylan whispered over my husky, little breaths, our noses almost touching. My answer was to rock forward, feeling his steel-hard length from top to bottom, and this time, we both let out a simultaneous moan.
I didn’t know if I was Dylan’s slave to do with as he pleased, or if it was the other way around, but either way, I prayed for it never to end.
Dylan’s hand shot out grabbing all my hair at once, twisting it around his fist and pulling until my head followed, exposing my bare neck. At some point, the strap of my top and bra glided down my shoulder, and Dylan’s lips were so close, I swear I felt them on my skin.
“Dylan,” I complained, desperate for his mouth on my body, but he wouldn’t grant me the wish, just continued teasing me while I enjoyed the ride, and hell, did it feel good.
“I’m here,” he whispered against my shoulder, and it sent a massive shiver straight down my spine.
This was it. This was the last wave of the Revival—the phase that would hopefully bring me the release I was chasing before the Awakening was over.
My hands raked up into Dylan’s hair, and I tilted my head to rest my cheek against his as I inhaled his wonderful, masculine scent that only added to my arousal. Dylan’s hands circled my back, one hand trailing down my spine while the other caressed my shoulder, my elbow, my hip, and going further still, trailing a path over my bare thighs until they rode back up to my behind. Once there, he kneaded my flesh, urging on my grinding hips and forcing me to whimper over and over.
My head whipped back as the sensations grew, blooming into something I knew would be nothing short of mind-blowing, something that would shatter me to the point of breaking. I arched my back until Dylan’s hot breath wafted over my collarbone, his breathing as frantic as mine.
And then I felt it building up from deep within me as if something had jumped on the train that was my nerves to travel along an organic highway with impossible speed, and I ground faster against Dylan’s length. A deep, frustrated growl escaped him in between a curse I didn’t catch. His fingers dug into my hips, all of a sudden pushing me away.
“Dammit, Haylie, I can’t… I will…” he grunted through gritted teeth, showing me his tormented restraint, but I wouldn’t let go. Couldn’t. Not now.
“No,” I whimpered, clawing at his neck as if my last breath depended on it. I knew what he wanted to tell me—he couldn’t hold back any longer. “Let go with me,” I begged, leaning my forehead against his.
He’d done so much for me, not once leaving my side, supporting me with everything he had. I couldn’t give him anything in return but this.
Through the haze of lust, I managed to open my eyes, and for a second, his eyes raked over mine as if to make sure this was what I wanted. I could tell exactly when he made his decision as his jaw clenched, and his hands tightened again.
I bit my lip as every part of my body started to tremble, my muscles contracting from the upcoming invasion. Dylan moved one hand to my throat using a little pressure to bend me backward while continuing with grinding his hips against me, increasing in ferocity.
His name left my lips one last time before I exploded.
The sensation was so intense, there was no air available for screaming, so my mouth dropped open in a silent cry as searing hot desire ignited my veins. It felt as if someone had injected me with a mixture of morphine, adrenaline, and aphrodisiac.
The only thing I saw besides the reddish haze of lust was a crack zig-zagging through the ceiling as Dylan bent me lower still, arching me back until my head touched the mattress. He pumped one last time against me, a carnal sound rumbling through his chest as his release overcame him. The rumbling increased, only it came from another source, I realized.
The ceiling was going to collapse.
Bits of concrete started to rain down, and Dylan seemed to sense what was happening.
Just as I rode the last wave of maddening pleasure, he rolled us to the side until we were tumbling to the floor, chunks of concrete falling onto the mattress we’d occupied only seconds before.
My brain still tried to catch up with what was happening, my mind overloaded with a hundred emotions, and the only thing that registered before I blacked out was Dylan’s protective frame around me.