Beautiful Nightmare (Dark Dream 2)

When I looked up at his face again, he was staring at me with those eyes like sun-bleached jade under furrowed brows. A charge passed through us both and we shivered, but it had nothing to do with cold air streaming in from the open doors.

Unformed emotions crowded the back of my tongue, but I couldn’t find a way to speak them and I sensed the same frustration in Tiernan as he bent closer, almost as if he was searching for the words in my gaze.

A sharp series of knocks cut through the thick silence.

I froze.

“Bianca?” Caroline’s voice was clear through the door. “May I come in?”

Thank God for her sense of propriety.

“One second, I’m just getting changed!” I yelled, trying to keep the panic from my voice as I shoved Tiernan off of me with both hands.

He chuckled softly, rolling off me to lounge on the carpet propped up on one arm. I was aware of his eyes on me as I did a circle while adjusting my dress, my brain short-circuiting.

“Bianca,” he whispered, eyes dancing.

“Get up!” I hissed. “Get out!”

Another soft, almost soundless laugh. He looked so at ease, more so than I’d ever seen him. His smile was crooked, cramped on one side by his scar and it made him look almost dashing. Combined with that humor-filled, tender gaze, even mid-panic, I was arrested by him.

His grin expanded at my reaction. Eyes locked to me, he slowly got to his feet and tucked himself back into his trouser before closing the gap between us. I didn’t know what he was going to do, but I was not expecting him to hug me.

Only a flimsy door was separating us from his enemy, from absolute ruin, and he was hugging me.

It wasn’t a gentle hug, either. He engulfed me in his long, strong arms, hips flush to mine, back curved like a shield as he bent around my shorter frame. Only when I was tucked intimately against him did he breathe deeply and exhale with relish, the air stirring my hair.

“Um, Tiernan?” I whispered, torn because I loved this moment but I could absolutely not ignore Caroline fifteen feet away. “Why are you being so calm? You need to get out, now! Or hide, at the very least.”

“You’re the only thing that makes me feel this way,” he muttered, a little surprised by his own words. His embrace tightened. “At peace.”

“That’s the orgasm talking. You need to get out now. Please, Tiernan,” I begged, pulling away to shove him toward the French doors. “However you got in, get out.”

“Promise to go out with me this weekend,” he demanded, walking over to the doors leisurely before tossing the words back over his shoulder. “I want a Christmas Eve date.”

“Absolutely not.”

He arched a brow and leaned against the doorjamb as if he had all the time in the world.

“This was goodbye,” I whispered. “I don’t forgive you for what you did, especially when you’re keeping Brando from me.”

A fake yawn seized his face. He covered it with one hand then idly checked his watch.

Another knock at the door.

“Bianca, I do not have all night to linger in the hallway,” Caroline called, irritation clear in her tone.

Fuck.

“Okay, fine, asshole. I’ll go out with you tomorrow, now get out.”

“Bianca? I’m coming in,” Caroline called.

“No, wait, I’m coming,” I yelled back, but I could already hear the click of the latch unlocking.

My heart fell into my stomach as I waited for shit to hit the fan.

5

BIANCA

Tiernan’s cum still damp on my chest, I grabbed the robe on the end of my bed and tugged it on, the silk fabric sticking to the dampness. My hair was a mess, even after running my fingers through it, and my mouth was swollen, noticeably red-bitten.

It would be obvious to anyone that I’d just been fucked into the ground.

I just had to hope that Caroline would never suspect I’d sneak a boy in my room when I was a guest in her house. The reality––that Tiernan had broken into the Constantine Compound to hide under my bed and accost me––was far too outlandish for anyone to believe.

Even me, and I’d been there.

I flew to the door, pressing it closed when she tried to open it. Then, I whipped around to check on Tiernan, but he was nowhere in sight. I prayed he’d hidden well or somehow left however he’d once entered.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled open the door.

Surprisingly, Elias was there beside Caroline, his eyebrows cutting into his forehead as he took in my appearance.

Caroline merely frowned. “Bianca, go back inside and make yourself presentable before I allow Elias to enter your room.”

Elias laughed, pushing by his aunt in a way I would never have dared to. He knocked me gently in the shoulder as he moved by and then jumped on my bed, crossing his hands behind his head and his legs at the ankles.