THIRTY-FOUR

Lark thrashed, trying to break free of the icy fingers of terror that was his nightmare.

“Lark! Lark!” he heard her voice and was finally able to draw in a shaky breath of the frigid air which surrounded him in the soulless pit he was in. Drawing in another ragged breath, he decided that breathing was good – very good. But he still couldn’t see a way out of the blackness.

“Lark, can you hear me? Come on, my sexy boy-toy, come back to me.”

Boy toy? he thought. The notion was such a stark contrast to the desolate environment he was trapped in that he was able to fight his way back to consciousness. He opened his eyes and sat bolt upright, seeing Ivy watching him with concern. Lifting a shaking hand to his face, he wiped at the cold sweat which had accumulated there.

“Bad dream?” Ivy inquired, mildly.

He barked out a rough laugh, “How’d you guess?”

“I’m observant,” was her droll response.

The very clear joke warmed him as nothing else could and he smiled genuinely at her this time, “Thanks for waking me up.”

She shrugged, “No biggie.”

“Trust me, it is to me,” he assured her. “These dreams … they’re changing. Or staying the same, rather. Repeating the same thing over and over …” He knew he was mumbling and likely not making any sense but he was trying to figure out what about Max’s ongoing nightmares that bothered him – more than usual, that was.

Ivy tucked the sheet around her naked body more firmly and crossed her legs, “What’s staying the same?”

“Max’s dreams, they used to change every night. I mean, there’s always common elements; the blackness, the cold, the helplessness. But they’ve been shifting. A few weeks ago, when I woke up I felt a sense of familiarity – like déjà vu. Now I know why. It’s because the dreams are repeating themselves. She’s dreaming about a particular chade …” he trailed off, trying to align his scattered thoughts.

He knew Max felt the pain of the chades, that she dreamt of them and took the weight of all the pain and the hopelessness and the fear of those lost wardens into herself. But lately, he could swear what she was feeling was coming from just one chade – not them as a collective. And the chade was bad news. It was like all the other chades were Storm Troopers and this one was Darth Vader. There wasn’t just a sense of nothingness or despair about this guy. There was maliciousness, evil – intent. And there was something about a finger …

He shook his head hard as the nightmare fell through his fingers like water. “Dammit!” he muttered, wishing his mind would hold onto it long enough to fit the puzzle pieces together.

“Dreams are fickle,” Ivy offered, stroking his arm.

He really wanted to lean into the touch but he knew she was doing it subconsciously and he didn’t want to alert her to the fact. Instead, he drifted for a while in the comfy quiet of the room. “Wait a minute,” he swung his head toward her, “Did you call me your boy-toy?”

Ivy pursed her lips, “No.”

He grinned at her in the darkness, “You did. I heard you even in the midst of my nightmare. You called me your boy-toy.”

“So what if I did?” she asked now, “You are a boy and I do toy with you …”

He dived on her, making her gasp when the decidedly un-boyish evidence of his desire pressed against her hip, “Hmm,” he nuzzled her neck, “I think I like being your boy-toy.”

She gripped his arse, bring him closer, “That’s a good thing because I like it too. In fact, I love it,” she admitted.

He felt his love for her bloom and he couldn’t resist leaning down to kiss her, slow and deep. After a minute, he pulled back and simply stared at the graceful angles of her face.

“What’s with the look?” she asked him, breaking the spell they were under.

“What look?”

She touched his face, “That look right now. It’s the same look you got when I thought you were stroking out.”

He laughed, “Only a woman who thought niceness was contagious would confuse the look of love with a haemorrhagic brain bleed.”

She snorted, only to choke when his words registered, “Love?”

He had intended to wait to tell her but oh well, “Yes, Ivy. Love. I love you.”

She shook her head, aggressively, “You can’t.”

“I do.”

“Well, stop it.”

“No.”

“I won’t say it back,” she warned.

He shrugged, settling his weight more fully upon her, “That’s fine. Your response is irrelevant.”

“It’s irrelevant?!”

Wow, he hadn’t known her voice could go that high, “Sure. It won’t change anything. I don’t care if you don’t feel the same way. I’m in love you. That’s all there is to it.”

She pushed at his shoulders, “You’re insane.”

He laughed, “Why? Because I love you?”

She shoved at his shoulders again, this time bringing her knee up dangerously close to his goodies. He allowed her to push him back and she immediately sat up. “Well, now you’ve ruined it. We can’t go around doing this anymore,” she waved a hand between them, indicating their naked state.

He lounged on his side, completely unconcerned but thoroughly entertained, “We can’t? Because I was kind of thinking being in love might add a little more spice to the sex.”

“I’m serious, Lark,” her voice held a note of anger. “Things are going to change now. You’re going to expect me to change. Maybe leave the rangers, come play house with you? Keep recharging Dex, maybe be his personal paladin?”

He didn’t so much as flinch at her harsh tone, “Why would I want you to do any of that? I fell in love with you just as you are, Ivy. I wouldn’t even know what to do with the Ivy you just described. I want you – just as you are right now.”

“Will you stop saying that?” she growled at him.

“I don’t know why you’re so upset. I did warn you,” he reminded her, probably not helping the situation.

“Lark …”

“Ivy …” he mimicked.

She huffed at him but then he saw her shoulders hunch, “I have nothing to offer you,” she whispered the words.

That had him sitting up, “That’s not true. Besides, I’m not asking for anything. Those three words are given freely with nothing expected in return. They are a gift, Ivy – not a responsibility or a burden. Just a gift. Hasn’t anyone ever given you a gift before?”

“Not that kind of gift,” she muttered.

He picked up her hand and kissed each finger, “Well, this one has a no returns policy. Sorry, not sorry,” he sang.

He felt rather than saw the small smile on her lips as she laid her cheek against his. Coaxing her back down, he drew her in tight. “Talk to me,” he urged.

She poked a finger into his ribs, “All I do is talk to you. I swear, you make me feel positively chatty.”

Lark smiled, feeling happy and satisfied, “I like listening to your voice. Tell me something I don’t know. Um …” he thought about it for a second and then asked, “Why did you so readily agree to work for Max? How did you get your brand?”

*****

Ivy felt herself stiffen once more and she hesitated, prevaricating; “She showed me something.”

“Showed you?” he asked, voice lazy.

She nodded, “In my head. After that debacle at Caspian’s, Beyden was forced to tell me about Max. I didn’t believe him at first despite what I had seen her do. I mean, come on – a Custodian? So I confronted Max, figured she was manipulating my brother somehow.”

A laugh rumbled in his chest beneath her ear, “Really? I would have loved to have seen that. What did she show you?”

Her first reaction to the unwanted question was to tell him to mind his own business. But because it was Lark and because she was trying to react like a normal person rather than one always in combat, she answered steadily, “I don’t want to say. It’s not that I don’t trust you or anything, it’s just –”

“Hey, hey …” he interrupted, rolling her beneath him once again and propping himself up on his forearms, “It’s fine. No pressure. You don’t have to tell me. I was just curious and making conversation. You’re allowed to have things that are just for you,” he assured her.

She nodded but she still felt guilty. He had given her so much; fun, laughter … love. And what had she given him in return? Maybe some world-altering orgasms but that was about it. She knew why she was holding back on the whole Max thing. It was because of what Max had shown her. Ivy was worried that if she thought about it too hard or spoke about it out loud that she would somehow jinx herself and the possible future Max had shown her would not come to pass.

When Ivy had demanded answers after the fiasco at Caspian’s house, Max had explained who and what she was patiently. Ivy had scoffed and been her typical rude self. Max hadn’t blinked an eye, just asked her if she would be willing to work for her as a spy. At first, Ivy thought she was joking – no way would the woman be stupid enough to admit to sedition in front of a ranger. But Max’s turquoise eyes had remained steady and guileless on hers and Ivy had been quick to disabuse her of her notion;

“I know you’re new and all but offers like that will get you killed.”

Max didn’t even blink, “No they won’t. You are going to work with me. In fact, we’re going to become good friends – sisters even.”

“Is that right?” she scoffed.

Max nodded, sending her thick, wild hair soaring, “Indeed. Do you want to see?”

Ivy shook her head, utterly confused, “See what?”

“Possibilities. Possibilities you can help make happen.”

Thinking the woman was getting crazier by the second, Ivy had foolishly agreed. And it had been foolish, she admitted. For what Max had shown her was all her secret hopes and wants and dreams. They had seemed so real, so tangible, that she’d felt like she could reach out and touch them and she had known that Max was the real-deal. But what was it that Max had shown her?

A room full of chades who were once again men. Men who were wardens and once more warriors and guardians for nature. The room had been filled with light and laughter. There had been no sickles in sight and no thieving of vitality. Just for that one possibility alone, Ivy would have jumped at the chance to serve Max. But right at the end of the vision, Ivy had felt something else; a rough hand holding her own.

She had been too afraid to look up to see if the warm hand had a face but the feeling that came from the hand engulfing hers had been enough to have her going down on one knee and swearing fealty to the custodian on the spot. A gentle smile from Max and thirty seconds later, Ivy had been sporting a circle of black symbols on her upper arm.

“Ivy?”

The deep voice startled her from her reverie and she saw Lark watching her with concern.

“Where were you?” he asked, tucking an errant hair behind her ear.

Unable to help herself, she leant into the touch, “I was in the future,” she answered, honestly.

His eyebrows raised, “Oh? And what did you see?”

Pushing him to his back, she straddled his trim waist, “How about I show you?”

He groaned, his hips bucking up and his hardness already seeking entrance into her body. She didn’t disappoint him and she didn’t make him wait. The trip down memory lane coupled with Lark’s words of love, had her feeling a little desperate. Gripping his shaft in one hand she held it steady as she slid down effortlessly. She gasped, her head falling back on her shoulders as he filled her to capacity. Her internal muscles clenched of their own accord and this time it was his turn to gasp.

She felt a surge of womanly triumph at the sound and she planted her hands on his pecs, leaning forward. Her hair created a dark curtain of intimacy as she touched her lips to his. The kiss started out slow and sensual but quickly turned fast and hungry as raw desire swept throughout her body. Pushing up again, she ran her hands over his perfectly proportioned and deliciously limber body as she began to pump her hips.

He let her set the pace for all of five minutes before her deliberate movements proved too much for his control. He gripped her hips and began to thrust into with enough force to have her grabbing his wrists just so she could remain in place. As she had come to expect, his cock somehow managed to hit every sweet spot she never knew she had and she felt her skin flush hot with her impending release. Aware of every nuance of her moods, her man chose that moment to reach between them and run a thumb over her sensitive mound.

“Yes!” she gasped out, her body losing all finesse and coordination as her orgasm rushed through her. His harsh curse quickly sounded in the dim confines of the room and she felt his body clench tight with his own release.

Moaning, she allowed him to roll her to her side and cuddled into his front. Soft lips touched the top of her head and she closed her eyes tightly. She didn’t need Lark’s photographic memory to retain the sights and sensations of the night. She knew the pleasure and the words were forever seared into her brain.

And her heart.