I opened my eyes to the by-now familiar environment of the cabin by the lake, lying on my back in the wide bed. I was wearing jeans and a peach-hued buttoned blouse. I felt long curly hair on my shoulders like the ones I had before. Before I lost them in the Former preparations. They were fanned out around me in a cascade of midnight tresses. I smiled at the feeling of having hair again, and I ran my fingers through the tumbling curls. My hair had never been this perfect, like warm silk, but this was my dream world, and right now, it seemed more real than the icy, violent hell that I had just left. I could smell the summer heat in the humid air, the thick scent of warm forest drifting in through the open window over the dresser. The curtains fluttering to the babbling tune of the birds out there, the lapping of the lake on the shore, the incessant creaking melody of the cicadas. I lay there, comfortable in my skin and the light clothing, relaxed in the sounds and scents of a lazy summer afternoon, enjoying the cloud-soft expanse of the mattress beneath me. I didn’t drift off to sleep so much as I lay in a trance of relaxation for once, only stirred to the sound of Barbas coming through the back door of the cottage.

I propped myself up on one elbow as he came around the corner from the hall and appeared in the bedroom door. He was truly a beautiful man, literally a creature of my dreams; wearing a pair of work trousers and a sweaty t-shirt with the logo of some band I didn’t recognize, fading across his chest. He stripped off the leather work gloves head been wearing, and threw them into a laundry basket in the corner. He crossed to the dresser to find a towel with to wipe his sweaty face. The motion spiked up his russet hair, making him look even wilder.

“‘Bas,” I teased. “Did you get yourself all dirtied up just for me?”

Barbas smirked. “Not entirely.” He eyed me where I lay on the bed, with his eyes lingering on the neck of my blouse. I remembered then that not all of the buttons had been done, and I was undoubtedly giving him a pretty decent view. He cleared his throat and gestured toward the laundry basket with a tilt of his head. “I was working in the garden while you rested. I figured you needed some time to yourself. Today was a very long and hard day.”

I frowned, tilting my head to one side, curious. “Isn’t the garden imaginary? Why would you need to work on it at all? Shouldn’t the flowers just grow when you want them too?” I gestured to the sweaty towel in his hand. “And shouldn’t you be able to just decide that the sun doesn’t bother you? You made all this, after all.”

Barbas wiped his face again, threw the towel after the gloves, hitting the wicker laundry basket not-quite squarely, so that part of the sweaty cloth hung over the side. He shrugged. “Sure, I made this place at first, but it’s your dream world. The sun is hot because you know the sun should be hot. Flowers grow the way they grow because that’s what they’re supposed to do. If you punched the wall of the cabin, you’d probably break your hand. The wine in the kitchen is sweet, but not too sweet, and the bed is quite comfortable.” He gestured about him in an arc. “Reality is subjective, Joanna. It’s what you make of it. And this?” He knocked lightly on the walls of the cabin. “This is where I live. It’s as real to me as that frozen shithole out there is to you.”

“So this place exists even when I’m awake?”

“Of course,” Barbas answered, sitting down on the edge of the bed, unlacing his boots. “And how, for that matter, do you know that you’re asleep now, and awake there on Chalice? What if this is real, and that frozen hell is the dream?”

I grinned and threw a pillow at him. He dodged with the barest of movements. “Quit trying to give me a headache, ‘Bas.” He smiled and kicked off the left boot, then started to unlace the other. I cocked my head the other way and asked, “Is it nice here? When I’m awake, I mean? Does it look the same without my needs and desires making it this way?” I gestured to the cabin around me. “After all, this is my relaxing dream, my ‘R and R’. What does your dream look like?”

Barbas gave me a crooked smile. “My dream looks a lot like this. A nice garden, a sunny day, a beautiful woman in my bed.”

“Your bed,” I responded, lifting an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure it’s my bed. After all, I’m the one lying on it right now.”

Barbas kicked off the other boot and then turned, rolling onto his belly and slithering towards me. He moved smooth and predatory, like a prowling cat. “Yes, you are,” he said, his voice low, amused, practically a purr. “But this is my dream, like I said, and that makes this bed mine.”

“And me?” I whispered as he crept forward, ceasing his progress only once he was leaning over me. His arms braced on either side of my head like oaken pillars. “If this is your dream, what does that make me?”

Barbas bent and kissed me softly, on the lips, and I felt my heart skip a beat in my chest. I could feel a gathering cluster of sparks kindling to life somewhere between my legs. Little lines of glowing excitement began to wriggle up along the nerves in my belly. He began to plant a line of kisses on me, first on my lips, then the edge of my jaw, the side of my neck, my throat, downward, ever downward in a line that left my skin tingling. With one hand he casually tore open my blouse, exposing the white lace bra beneath, and he continued the line of kisses, lingering a little at the edges of the lace. My nipples were hard, and each one of his kisses on the slope of my breasts, sent out little ripples of electric sensation. The pulses of pleasure cascading out to meet the growing fire coming to life down before. My breath was coming faster and faster, my chest rising and falling sharply with each gasp, each sigh.

Barbas drew the line of kisses down over my ribs and along my abdomen, and knowing where he was going didn’t make the anticipation any less torturous. Each kiss brought me closer to the wet heart of the growing fire in me, making this torture absolutely delightful. He deftly opened the buttons of my jeans with one hand, opening them one at a time, while steadily descending with kisses in a slow agonizing rhythm. His free hand crawled its way lazily up along my side, and I moaned as he slipped his hand inside one cup of my bra and circled my nipple with his gentle fingertip The very edge of his fingernail dragged a little coil of glowing pleasure out of me and sent it rippling away with the sensation he was coaxing from my breast. My jeans began to slip down my hips as he tugged them away with one hand. I wriggled in his grip, as he set me free of the suddenly restrictive pants. He pushed them all the way to my ankles and I kicked them off my bare feet.

I could feel his warm breath on me; I knew what was coming, and still the sudden spike of sensation as his tongue flicked out to taste me, wiped my mind clear like a beach before the slow, steady advance of the rising tide. My lips parted of their own accord, and the next stroke of his tongue dragged a long, low moan out of me. My hips rocked hard against the bed, and each lapping pulse of Barbas’ tongue sent another vibration up along my spine, arching my back up away from the bed. Barbas’ other hand joined his first one teasing my nipples for a moment and then both of them traveled down to grip my hips as he put his tongue ever deeper inside me. I felt the waves of a growing vibration tide coming on ever stronger. I gripped my own breasts, needing to grab something before I was swept away completely by the crashing waves of pleasure rolling over my body.

Barbas was relentless. He didn’t speed up to match the urgent circles I made with my hips, but he didn’t slow down either. He continued his merciless torture on my body with his lustful, expert mouth, and I seemed to hover on the edge for eternity, holding on before the unstoppable rising wave of ecstasy. I came all of a sudden, in an abrupt rush, feeling the orgasm blasting through my whole body and wracking me with uncontrollable spasms of pleasure. I cried out, arching my back and grasping the bed sheets in tight fists. My toes curled and my legs tightened against Barbas’ shoulders, while my heels dag into his back. “More, ‘Bas,” I moaned. “More…”

Barbas lifted his face off me and ran his arm across his wet mouth while he smiled wickedly. “Then take it,” he purred.

I growled, low in my throat, and seized him by his forearms. I pulled him up and over me and then twisted and rolled over so that I came up on top of him. I pushed him down onto the bed and straddled him. I sank down onto the warm hardness of his manhood, gasping and arching again while he slid inside me. I began to rock my hips while I pressed my hands against his chest. Each motion a fresh twist of pleasure, a new flare of sensation, not better, not worse, but completely different from the feeling of his mouth on me. It was amazing, the feeling of him inside me, the feeling of riding the strength of his body. I rocked faster and faster, the fire inside me growing again higher and higher. His hands slid up my back and unhooked my bra, slid it free along my arms, and I threw the lacy thing away from me. It was only getting in the way. We hadn't done this before- the time hadn't been right, until now. Sure, we had spent some time kissing and fooling around, but this was another level entirely. And the wait was absolutely worth it. Now was the right time and my God it was exactly what I needed.

Barbas gripped my back and pulled me forward to lean over him with my breasts just above his face. He stretched his neck and lifted his chin. He closed his lips over my nipple, running his tongue around it in a circle, barely scoring the sensitive skin of my breast with his teeth. Already riding high on the aftershocks of the first orgasm, I climaxed again, abruptly and with little warning. This one even stronger inside me. Unable to control my voice inform the sudden orgasm, I screamed, high and loud, over and over, as each pulse clenched me tighter around him in a frenetic rhythm. In that moment I must have pushed him over the edge, because he groaned and tensed, gripping my waist and throwing back his head, shooting his hot sperm deep inside me. He held the tension for a moment and his body bowed. Then all at once he relaxed, letting out a great sigh of relief. My hips continued their rocking for a few, reflexive thrusts, and then I managed to lift myself off of him, letting out a last moan as he left my body. I couldn’t hold myself up anymore, and I tumbled down to the tangled sheets to curl beside him, my whole body tingling with afterglow.

Barbas snaked one arm out to my back and hips, and dragged me close to curl against him. My head rest in the hollow of his broad shoulder and my hair splayed across him. We lay there for a moment, panting and happy. Barbas turned his head to kiss me on the forehead and said. “To answer your question, my angel, if this is my dream, then that means that you are mine.” I chuckled a little and sighed. I closed my eyes and relaxed against his strength and warmth. Maybe it was alright to be his, even if it was only in my dreams. Maybe this was real, and Chalice was the dream. Maybe that was alright too. I drifted away on tides of lazy pleasure and simply enjoyed feeling good. It had been a very long time since I had been really happy. As the sweet oblivion of true sleep drew ever closer, I thought I heard someone speaking. In a voice unfathomably vast, and deep as thunder. I tried to work out what it was saying, but just as I grasped the edge of those words, I fell asleep.