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SHAWN:
TEMPEST CHOSE TO keep her apartment, which was fine by him. He packed his bags and a few personal belongings and gave up his quarters before she could think twice. He had her exactly where he wanted her. In love, in his bed, and in his arms, every night.
Life was wonderful, like fucking perfect. He was sure the birds chirped louder and he couldn’t help but smile more. She was off this morning—visiting Lily and Sunny and a couple of other women. Robyn. Amanda. Heather, the twins’ mom. There was some kind of excitement among them—Leah was showing them how to prepare hors d'oeuvres for upcoming parties. Ever since the dance, the women were sure parties were the latest rage.
But with both Tempest and Leah busy, it was the perfect time to visit with Trance. See how the arrangement with Leah was working out.
He headed straight over to his apartment. Trance opened straight away, inviting him inside. The first place he looked to was the sofa. Unless they put away any bedding Leah might have used, she didn’t seem to be sleeping on the sofa. His quarters still looked like a bachelor pad, even though it had just been a day. Hell, he’d been living with Tempest that long and her place already looked different. It looked like a combination of them.
“How’s Leah doing?” Shawn asked, sitting down.
Trance shrugged. “I thought she would be different now with her husband locked up. But she isn’t. She still flinches. She has nightmares. She’s not at peace. It might even be worse now that she knows for sure about the life insurance policy hanging over her head.”
“She’s been abused for years. It doesn’t go away overnight.”
“But she’s safe.” Trance winced. “Logically I knew that. I guess I just...banked on saving the day by helping to put her husband away. On giving her a place to stay. I thought she’d fall into my arms.”
“You wouldn’t want her that way. You’d want her whole. Healed. Able to make wise choices.” Yeah, he could be all wise himself now that Tempest had made the wisest choice of all.
“The problem is with her husband locked up, there’s no reason for her to stay with me. She can go back to the outside and wait for a spot to open in Xenia.”
“Has she mentioned leaving?”
“No. But it’s only a matter of time.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.” Trance’s eyes darted around the room for a moment. “Shawn, there’s a reason why I’m a loner. As soon as she finds out, she’ll be out of here.”
Shawn thought back. It was true. Trance never stayed with one person too long. Used to be, Shawn thought he was flighty. Flirty. But now he realized there was more to it than that.
“Tell me.”
“The more comfortable I feel with a person, the less likely I am able to control my subconscious.”
“Your dreams?” Shawn asked. “Tempest mentioned something about your power.”
“She knows more than anyone. She was in the cell next to me.”
“So you...yank people into your dreams?”
“That’s putting it mildly. Sometimes...like anyone, I don’t even remember my dreams. Sometimes someone will mention dreaming of me...and I realize what happened. Eventually, I started to come clean. I started to tell people that it wasn’t their dreams. The dreams were mine and I was yanking them in. At first they didn’t believe me, until I started to recite the details word for word. And then...things changed. I saw the wariness in their eyes.”
“A lot of people have come into their powers now. I think they’ll be more understanding of yours.”
“My power is invasive, Shawn. There are things inside our heads that only we are privy to. Our sins, our shame. Our humiliations. Imagine someone else being right there inside your vault of secrets. And you don’t even have a choice. I know everyone’s secrets.”
“I understand it’s hard. But give people a chance, Trance. They might disappoint you. But they might surprise you.”
“It’s already happening, Shawn. And I don’t want to be disappointed by her. And I don’t want to disappoint her.”
“Leah?”
“Yeah. I’ve been yanking her into my dreams—and she thinks they’re hers. She thinks she’s the one who’s dreaming sexual fantasies about me. She feels guilty. She can barely look me in the eye. I want so badly to tell her that it’s not her. It’s me. But will she hate me for that?”
“You’re dreaming about her?”
“Every goddamn night. I can’t stop. The harder I try, the more I dream.”
“Jesus,” Shawn muttered. “You’re killing yourself here. Think of this logically. You’re sharing the same bed?”
Trance nodded.
“Then she’s the last thing on your mind before you fall asleep. So when you dream, it’s of her. There’s nothing more to it than that. Stop beating yourself up.”
“It doesn’t help that she’s always on my mind.”
“Okay, here’s what you do. Get her off your mind. Focus on something else right before you fall asleep. Like our sparring—the last episode between you and me. Focus on the pain, on the moves. What you could have done differently. Replay the scene back in your head, over and over, until you fall asleep. The fighting should wear you out too much to think about sex, that’s for sure.”
“That’s a great idea,” Trance said slowly. For the first time, he looked relieved. “I’ll try it tonight.”
Shawn’s wrist-comm beeped. Tempest appeared on the screen. “Where are you?” she asked.
“I’m at Trance’s place.”
“I’ll be there in two seconds. I’m headed down the hallway.”
Shawn got up and went to the door, holding it open.
“And here’s my pretty,” Shawn said, his eyes on Tempest as she approached.
“Hi, baby.” She kissed him, then turned to the man beyond him. “Trance.”
“Hey, Temp,” Trance said. “Leah still out there?”
Tempest nodded. “She’s helping Lily with the clean up. I would have stayed, but I figured they made the mess.”
Shawn laughed. “Did you have fun, though?”
Her eyes gleamed. “Oh, yes. I had so much fun, even though the rest of them ate like pigs. I am not sure when we will have a party, but Leah taught us to make these amazing little tubular bits of meat drenched in barbecue sauce. They are all the same size and remind me of severed fingers. You spear them with a toothpick and invite friends over to watch a game. We shall have to do that.”
“Anything you want,” he agreed. And he meant it. If Tempest wanted to have a party to impress her friends, he’d give her the fucking party of the year. “Mate with me today,” he said. “And we’ll throw a celebration party tomorrow. You can invite all your friends.”
“Me?” Tempest asked coquettishly. “You wish to mate with me?”
“No one else, my pretty. You’re my life.”
“In that case, I accept. But only because I love you.”
“Trance, let me know if you need anything,” Shawn said, taking her by the hand. “Come, my pretty.”
“You still call me that,” she said as they walked away.
“You are my pretty. Why wouldn’t I?”
“I assumed once we agreed to be mated it would stop.”
“And why would it?” he asked, bringing her hand up to his to kiss. “And you were planning on us mating?”
“Now that I know what a catch you are.”
SLEEP CAME EASILY WITH a nude Tempest wrapped in his arms. He’d made love to her for hours, worshipping her body until the glitter of her purple skin shined brightly. As he sunk into the depths of his slumber, everything fell away.
For a while. Eventually he came to realize he watched a vision of Trance staring through bars of a cage.
What the hell?
He’d just had the love of his life in his arms and now he was staring at the back of Trance’s head. In captivity, no less.
“Dude. You pulled me into your dream,” Shawn said, but Trance wasn’t paying attention.
Shawn heard a familiar woman’s sob. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he followed Trance’s gaze.
Fuck. Tempest lay shackled to a raised platform. He’d never seen her like this—weak. Feminine. Trails of tears running down her beautiful face. And linked to Trance the way he was, he could feel the impotent rage running through Trance. The disgust. Then, horror.
“No, Trance,” he said. “Fucking wake up. Let me out. I don’t want to be here.” He banged on the bars of the cage, but Trance wasn’t paying attention. No, in his dream, he was focused on Tempest.
Damn it. Shawn hoped this was a dream. A made-up dream. But he knew chances were, it wasn’t. It was a surfacing memory and God only knew if Trance would recall it when awake.
He fought against watching as Tempest screamed. The sound tore his heart in two, but his feet were rooted in place, like he stood in quicksand.
His fists clenched, helpless.
Two men stood on either side of her. One reached out and placed his hand on her bare thigh.
“Come on, pretty girl. You like this. Duane and me won you, fair and square.”
She sobbed harder.
This wasn’t anything like his prickly, impatient girl. What the hell had she gone through to give her personality such a make-over?
“Aww, fuck, knock it off!” The first man slapped her face, making her head twist.
Shawn tried to yell, to move, but he was frozen in one spot.
“If you don’t fucken stop your shit, FB-88, I’m gonna beat your buddy over there.” He angled his head toward Trance. “Looks like he’s out of it, again. Lost in that defective brain of his. You know what that means, don’t you?” He leaned in toward her. “He can’t fight back.”
To his surprise, Tempest’s sobs stopped, though she continued to sniffle. The tears ran unchecked down her beautiful face. And then it dawned on him. She didn’t want Trance hurt. She protected Trance.
“That’s it, pretty girl,” the second one crooned. “You’re gonna like it. I promise.”
The unmistakable sound of a belt buckle dropped.
And then Shawn wasn’t staring straight ahead anymore. He was back, angled slightly behind Trance, where he saw Trance’s knuckles whiten on the bars of the cage. Shawn couldn’t take anymore.
“Jesus Fucking Christ!” Shawn yelled, waking himself up. He sat up in bed.
“Shawn? What is it? What happened?” Tempest asked, sitting up with him. Her face was harder now than it had been on the girl in his dream. No fucking wonder.
He yanked her to him, clinging to her for dear life. “Tempest. Tempest,” he murmured against her hair.
“It’s all right,” she soothed, her hand rubbing circles on his back. “It was a nightmare. It’s over.”
He pulled away from her sweet touch, but he didn’t deserve it. “Why didn’t you tell me how demoralizing it was to call you pretty? How a bunch of pricks referred to you as that? Fuck, I’m no better than them. I’m a prick, too.”
She stared hard at him. “No, you’re not.”
“I am. Just a fucking moron, a sexist asshole. I’ve never referred to the guys that way.”
“Shawn, you’re being too hard on yourself.”
“No, I’m not. And I’d like to apologize, especially now that I know you remember those times in captivity.”
Her voice was quiet. “How did you know what they used to call me?”
“Trance yanked me into one of his dreams. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He buried his face in her hair, refusing to look at her.
“Shawn? Shawn, look at me.”
Ashamed, he lifted his head to meet her eyes. Her soft hand came up to cup his jaw.
“I realized long ago why it never bothered me when you called me my pretty,” she said.
“God, Tempest, if I’d known what they’d did to you—”
“You couldn’t know. But it was fine. You calling me that never bothered me. Know why?”
“Why?” His voice was ragged.
“They called me pretty. I was a prize to be won. You called me my pretty. The word my made all the difference. I was yours, even when I didn’t know it. Even when I fought against it. I was still yours.”
“Baby.” His voice was thick when he settled his mouth over hers. She kissed him back hungrily before she pulled away.
“I will always be yours. And it makes me feel completely yours when you call me that. I know you’re not with me for my looks.”
“No,” he agreed. “I love you as a whole. Your brain. Your weird habits, like forcing people to be friends with you.” He grinned, though it felt shaky.
She continued speaking as if he hadn’t interrupted. “I know you’re also with me for my magnificent body as well.”
“Stunning,” he agreed.
“So let’s forget this dream and go back to you calling me my pretty,” she said. “And perhaps you should stop giving Trance advice. You are no good at it.”
“How did you know—”
She rolled her eyes. “On the way to Lily’s house, Leah confessed she’s been having sex dreams about Trance and it’s embarrassing her. Since you were at Trance’s when I returned, I figured he told you.”
“Yeah,” Shawn said sheepishly. “I told him not to think about her as he drifted to sleep. To think about us sparring instead.”
“Great job,” Tempest said wryly. “Focusing on you did wonders. So today you might want to tell him to go ahead and stop fighting. Just enjoy those sexual dreams with Leah and perhaps they’ll stop?”
“Are you going to tell her they’re real?”
“No, I think that’s up to Trance. If she wants to talk about it with me afterward, that is fine.”
“How’d you get so wise?”
“I’ve always been rather warm and nurturing—”
“And modest,” he teased, yanking her down under the covers with him.
Before his mouth closed on hers, he whispered, “I love you so much, my pretty.”
“I love you, too, baby,” she said. “Even when you were weak.”
“My love for you isn’t weak.” His voice was final.
She agreed.
