The moment he accepted the memories, the headache ceased and it was as though a movie began to play in his mind. He could now hear the conversations, all the ones Juliet had told him they’d had.
He saw himself completely relaxed with her and enjoying being her lover. The memories were sequential as well, though he was working through them backward, the most recent first. He also let them move swiftly through his head.
He smiled a lot and at times became so aroused that he almost called for Juliet, then another memory would take him on a different dreamglide. One time, he’d actually gotten into a canal paddle-boat with her, though it hadn’t lasted long. His size had started sinking the small craft.
He’d levitated her out of it before it sank and they’d returned to her home laughing and shortly afterward made love.
Back the memories went. His affection for her grew more and more profound, until he was all the way at the beginning, asleep in his bed.
That’s when he understood exactly what Juliet had done to initiate the affair.
And that’s when he knew he’d never be able to be with her again.
CHAPTER NINE
Brannick stayed on the bathroom floor for a long time, his bare ass on the rug. He stared at the cupboard opposite and barely saw it. He kept running the last few images over and over in his mind of what Juliet had done to him in the dreamglide.
She’d broken a huge Revel Territory law to start the process. He saw everything now, every single memory he had of her, including the fact she’d used her dreamglide to break into his dreams without invitation or permission.
She’d essentially hijacked him in his dreams. In that sense, she was no better than Roche. Even the Tribunal prosecuted any fae caught doing so.
Dream boundaries were most often violated for the purpose of gathering information like security codes and passwords. The sale of the information following a dream hijacking became the evidence used in a trial. The cartels, being vulnerable to this kind of tampering, made sure the Trib took this crime seriously. At least twenty fae were serving time for dream violations.
Though Juliet hadn’t stolen anything from him, she’d broken the law and infringed on his basic alter right.
Yet he was also appalled at how much of a willing partner he’d become right away, without hesitation, as though his unconscious mind didn’t care about the rules. Instead, he should have turned her away and reported her then and there to the Board of Sages. Her own kind would have prosecuted her immediately.
Everything he believed about Juliet became tainted. She’d violated a sacred trust and shattered every reason he had to trust the woman.
He rose from the floor and slowly put on his leathers and tank. He hadn’t meant to get dressed again. He’d planned on staying through the day with Juliet, making love to her, sleeping beside her, then doing it all over again.
He couldn’t now, and given that dawn was close, he needed to get the hell out of Agnes’s compound.
He worked on his socks and boots. When he finally stood up, he met his reflection in the mirror. He drew close, staring at the groove between his brows. Juliet was always trying to smooth it out. But she couldn’t. He lived in Five Bridges. He’d lost his family to dark flame and his parents and sister to the bad choices he’d made.
From that point, when the cartels had taken their revenge, when his sister had been sacrificed by one of the dark covens, he’d promised himself he would take a different approach to his life here.
And he had.
He’d shut down his need for vengeance and had kept his road straight and narrow, no exceptions. He ran his tunnel rescue system in the same way. He’d set up specific guidelines. Because of it, he’d saved over three-hundred women, a few of them as young as thirteen. Without those rules, his organization would have collapsed a long time ago.
He served as a border patrol officer because he was committed to the rule of law. He’d thought Juliet held the same values.
He moved into the bedroom. She sat up in bed, but she’d never appeared more somber.
Yet, seeing her brought the most recent memor
ies rushing forward, of making love to her, of experiencing a combination of real-time and dreamglide sex.
He’d kissed her freckles.
He’d felt something profound for her.
He’d asked to date her.
Now all of it seemed like the worst kind of manipulation. She’d essentially seduced him into a relationship with her.
“Juliet.”