Dreams were the best. In dreams you could lose yourself in what might have been and the possibilities of forever. You could let all your inhibitions go without any remorse or consequences. I was currently losing myself against a solid, delicious bit of a dream that smelled and tasted and felt like my own life-size True. All sweetly musky and slightly woodsy. I rubbed against my dream man and felt his erection thickening against me.
I nuzzled at his neck and he brought his large hand up to caress my breast. I felt my back arch as I pushed farther into his palm.
His other hand reached around, and long assured fingers parted between my legs from behind. Hmm. Dreams like this were rare. I’d savor this one. Make it last as long as possible before real life threatened to—
I slapped at my ear when something buzzed a little too close. Wait, what?
My heart rate sped up, as the solid form under my chest, between my legs, the fingers between my thighs became a lot less fuzzy and got a lot more real.
“Fuck,” I moaned.
“Absolutely!”
“True?” I asked.
“Were you expecting someone else?”
“Ohhh!” I scooted off the top of him and onto my side of the bed, pulling the sheet up. When I slid open one eye, True was looking at me. Not with curiosity or annoyance, but with a smile.
“Don’t smile at me like that. You’re looking way too happy and I don’t think I can take that much happiness this early in the morning.”
True tightened his lips and it brought out his dimples. Against my will, my body shivered with the memory of all the magical things he could do and the way he could make me feel.
Shit. I was completely screwed. Had been completely screwed. In the best and worst way.
I flopped back onto the pillows, wishing my body could sink deeper—through the bed, to the ground, and to the center of the earth would have been perfect. But no such luck. I was stuck with the sun beaming and True staring.
Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry, woman! You brought this shit on yourself. I covered my eyes and still felt True’s smiling stare bearing down on me.
Crying is for babies and something you should have thought about last night before you were all up in this man’s pants. Time to think on your feet and make decisions. Who are you going to be? Come on, Lu, are you going to be your usual mistress of the dark who hates mornings or because you’ve shown one of your oldest friends your orgasm face a few times, are you going to now pretend to be a fucking smiling ray of sunshine and light?
Either way, you can’t fucking cry!
Ugh. It was shit like this, that was the reason I’d resisted for so long. Why I knew we’d never work. Why I didn’t work. Our friendship was worth more than great sex. There was no way I could put on a convincing, happy morning-after persona for True. True knew I wasn’t worth shit in the morning. He’d know I was faking it. I was screwed!
Why did I have to go and ruin it?
I flopped my hands down and shut my eyes tighter. A few seconds later I felt True’s lips at the corners of my lashes, kissing away the tears that had gathered. “Stop it now,” he said, his voice dark and gravelly with morning misuse. “You are going to give yourself a headache with all that overthinking, and you haven’t even had your coffee yet.”
I let out a breath.
“Lu.” He said my name firmly and my body reacted. Wow. That was new.
I forced myself to breathe slower.
“Don’t let your mind take you places it has no business going,” True said. “That is not our road. It’s not our journey.”
I shut my eyes tighter then. As if it would shut out his words. Silly man. What would he know of a journey?
It was better if any journey we had ended here, if we were going to salvage any bit of our friendship.
My eyes shot open, and I gave True a smile. His eyes narrowed as his nostrils flared.
“You’re right. It’s not our road. Our road is this one that leads to the hero convention and finding Keanu. This was fun. The wine was great but it’s not our real life.” I laughed, my voice light. “I mean look at this place. Can you imagine your colleagues at the college seeing you in all these pillows?”
He shrugged. “I imagine I’d have even more students on the waitlist for the next semester.”
I rolled my eyes. “Really, True, I don’t have time for this and neither do you. We’re both busy people with busy lives and careers. This wasn’t a big deal. It’s not a big deal. It was one night, we can blame it on the wine and move on. You never would have acted that way toward me without it.”
He looked at me with deadly seriousness. “Wouldn’t I?” He leaned down and nuzzled at my neck, going up to nip at my earlobe.
I sighed and gently pushed him away, against my body wanting to pull him back. “True, this is not real life,” I started. “This all is a dream. A really beautiful, sweet and sexy dream. But we can’t take it home with us.”
He brought his thigh over mine, then bent down, cupped my breast and lifted my nipple into his mouth. He sucked and I forgot my words and when he went lower still, spreading my thighs and pulling me to the edge of the bed to make room for his legs to dangle over the edge while he feasted between my legs, I damn near lost my breath.
Later, when True came up and looked me in the eye again, I was smiling for real.
“See, that’s better,” he said, grinning before getting more serious than I’d seen him in a long while. He pulled me into his chest once more and talked in almost a low whisper. “This may not be the real world, Lu, but it doesn’t mean you still can’t be real with me. I don’t want you putting less importance on what’s going on here just because we’re not at home. Just relax and stop thinking this is not real life.”
I was quiet. Not knowing how to react. Hating that he’d seen right through me again.
He tapped my thigh. “Did you hear me? Or did you pass out from orgasmic bliss?”
I groaned. “Okay, I heard you. Fine.” I pushed up and looked at him. “Now, Mr. Erickson, can we please get a move on and at least get some coffee in me. Before we have to face the real world today in our fake superhero costumes. My imaginary boyfriend could be out there waiting on me as we speak.”
He laughed. “There is so much wrong with that sentence, and yet you said it without the least bit of irony.”
I stared at him. “I did. Aren’t I fancy?”
We were all dressed up. Well, I was all dressed up—full-on Trinity: latex bodysuit, hair stuffed within an inch of life into a bob wig and me walking in boots that squeaked with every step. I sounded like my great granny’s old couch, but at least I looked hot. True was as minimally dressed as he could be. I’d ordered him a cool purple Morpheus suit, and the damn shop sent it in a size too small. He could hardly get a leg in.
Credit to him for going low-key on the I-told-you-so’s.
So instead of Trinity and Morpheus, we were now more like Trinity and old Neo or Mr. Anderson before he turned. True looked like some guy in jeans and a tee with a jacket going to a thing. I couldn’t be nearly as disappointed about that as I was behind the fact that when we arrived at the venue we were met with the news of having missed out on Keanu. Again.
“Gone?” I asked another kick-ass Trinity.
“Yeah, about fifteen minutes ago.”
“But he wasn’t supposed to be here for an hour,” I said. “The schedule says so.”
“Oh, we really go by our own times out here,” she said with an easygoing, un-Trinity-like smile. The least the woman could have done was stay in character. “Besides, it’s Keanu. You know how he is. He just goes with the flow.”
I looked at her. Go with the flow? She might as well have done one of those Trinity, Matrixy suspend-in-air-a-moment things and then flicked her foot out and kicked me in the chin.
“The flow, huh?” I wanted to hurl.
Seeing my expression, the woman leaned in and hugged me.
True separated us and looked at the other Trinity with an awkward smile. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” she said. “You watch out for her.”
“Don’t worry, I will.”
He led me toward the exit, and I let him, shuffling much like a person in shock, squeaking with each step. “You and your multiple orgasms,” I seethed.
“You gonna sue me?”
“I just might,” I growled. “Or Martina might.” I felt my cheeks heat. At one point I thought the little camper was going to tip over backward and we’d end up in the hot spring.
True leaned in and whispered close to my ear, “Don’t worry. I read the contracts carefully on the stay. They have plenty of liability insurance.”
Heat ran down my neck to my breasts to my thighs. I shook my head. Only he could make liability insurance sound sexy.
“I picked a fine time to wear latex.”
“True, Lu!” There was a loud voice from our right. We turned and there was Martina, walking our way dressed as a female Mandalorian. There was a woman with her who came up to her shoulders, cosplaying as The Child, aka Baby Yoda, complete with a little broth cup.
She introduced her friend as Mindy, and like The Child, Mindy did little more than give us wide eyes.
“Well, you two look great,” Martina said.
“Thank you,” I responded, trying to regain my composure. “And thanks for the food and wine. It was all wonderful.”
“Well, we just like to do our best for our guests, make you all feel comfortable enough to unwind and just let go.” She looked closely at True and me then, and for a moment it felt like she was summoning her witchy powers to see into our heads. “And did you enjoy the springs?”
“We did, thanks,” I said quickly. This little minx. This whole setup was a sex trap. It wasn’t right, and yet I was all ready to rebook for the same time next year.
“Well, Mindy and I have to be off. There is a light saber seminar coming up in the east hall. But I hope you got to meet Keanu before he left,” she said casually.
I felt like I’d been sliced with a saber and this was the added salt.
“So he really is gone?” I asked. “Do you think he’s still somewhere in the hall or maybe still in town?”
She sighed. “I don’t know, he might be, but I doubt it. Usually with these things a lot of the stars are in and out unless they’re vacationing.” She leaned forward. “But it’s Keanu, so you never know. I did hear about a place in the mountains where he likes to go either skydiving or paragliding. I don’t know which one. He’s such a thrill seeker, and when he’s on that bike…Well, who knows?”
I let out a breath. The disappointment was painful but at this point not surprising. “Well, thank you. You don’t want to be late for your class.”
I started down the exhibition hall again.
True was quiet as we passed character after character. Finally, at a Lord of the Rings and Black Panther junction, there was a bottleneck and we got stuck behind a team of elves who appeared to be jockeying for fan space with the people of Wakanda. True spoke up. “I’m really sorry we missed him again.”
I let out a breath and whirled on True. “Did we really have to have that third round of sex?” I yelled.
He looked at me. “Um, I believe that was your request.”
I turned away from him, only to see two elves and three hobbits looking at me rather leeringly. I jutted my chin their way and gave them my best “you got somethin’ to say to me? I didn’t think so” look before going past.
I just wanted out.
My costume was tight as hell and my wig was hot and itchy and these stupid shoes were announcing me with every step I took. I felt like an idiot. And oww! Someone had stepped on my damn toe. Even from the back I could tell this someone was from Wakanda. Going for total Killmonger realness: tight pants, chestplate, tapered fade and dreads. But still, my toe was throbbing. I was just about to say something when True’s voice rang out from behind me. “Yo, you think you can say excuse me. You stepped on her toe.”
“Oh, damn. Are you all right, sis?” The guy turned toward me. “I’m sorry. That was my bad. It’s a real crush in here.”
He smiled and Kill-mothereffing-monger indeed. Mother of all that was gorgeous, it was Michael B. Jordan. And if True hadn’t come up behind me I would have been dead on the floor at Michael B’s feet.
As it was, I wasn’t dead on the floor, but I felt more like a Walking Dead on my feet—zombielike and without words.
“Is your foot okay? I wouldn’t want your boyfriend to get all up in arms.” He grinned, and I thought I may have been looking at a TV screen it was so perfect.
“Huh? Wha?” Great. Language, where art thou? I looked down, then back at Michael B. “It’s fine. Thank you.” Then it registered what he said, and I felt True at my back, his breath coming out in an angry whoosh. What was True so mad about? I was the one who should have been mad. I straightened and brought my hand up to smooth my messy wig. “Thanks, I’m good.” I smiled. “Both my friend and my foot are fine. No worries.”
Michael B. nodded, then was whisked through the crowd of fans and behind a screened area. I turned to True. “First Captain America and now you’re yelling at Killmonger? You’re making quite a name for yourself, Mr. Erickson.”
He let out a long breath, as if he couldn’t quite believe it either. “So it would seem, Lu. So it would seem.”