Dark Flame (Flame 3)

“You know everything, don’t you? The memories have finally merged.”

“They have. You seduced me into this relationship during a dream hijacking.”

She sighed heavily. “I did.”

“Which also means that you lied to me from the time the first memory surfaced in the garage.”

“Only about how the whole thing started with you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” He needed to know her rationale.

“It’s very simple. I loved my time with you, and I didn’t want the dreamgliding to end.”

“So you deliberately misled me.”

She seemed oddly relieved. “Yes. I should never have approached you in the dreamglide and for that I apologize, but not for the rest, not for what followed. Knowing you, being with you despite the questionable beginning, has been one of the finest experiences of my life.”

“You don’t sound remorseful at all. I’d think you’d at least give me that.” He scowled at her, angry by her almost indifferent attitude. He had no idea what she was thinking or how she justified her actions.

~ ~ ~

Juliet’s heart beat so hard in her chest she felt as though it would burst at any moment.

It was difficult to look at Brannick. Though she’d always known this moment would come, she’d hoped oh-so-foolishly that it wouldn’t. Yet here it was, her terrible sin exposed.

Oddly, she remembered that old saying about chickens coming home to roost. And they had, by the thousands and each of them squawking at her for being so stupid and for breaking such a critical law in the first place.

His voice beat at her from across the room. “So you have nothing to say.”

She glanced up at him once more. She could feel her heart tearing at each of its moorings. “Would you have asked me to date you, if you hadn’t felt this kind of connection to me?”

He frowned even harder. “I don’t know. But it’s not the point. Or are you trying to justify your behavior, because this doesn’t fly. The end doesn’t justify the means. Ever.

Juliet reached under the comforter and began pulling the top sheet up around her. Once she was sufficiently covered, she slid her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. She moved toward him, though she kept her distance. She knew she had to fight for him. She could see his anger. But the fae part of her intuition told her he was using her wrongdoing as an excuse to end the relationship.

She had to fight, something she’d never had to do until she’d come to Five Bridges. She was weak in that way, and being fae didn’t help. But she was done with trying to play by the old, human-based rules. She lived in this world, and she’d been lonely as hell until she’d met Brannick at the White Flame.

She reiterated her position. “Again, I’m sorry for what I did, but I don’t regret I broke the law to put all this in motion.”

He compressed his lips into a tight line. “You’re seriously pissing me off. You have to take responsibility for this, so tell me why you did it? Why would you, who I’d come to believe was a woman of honor, break into my dreams like that?”

She released an odd sound from the back of her throat, something like a sigh combined with a grunt. “Because I fell hard for you at that stupid club the night I first met you. I couldn’t get you out of my head. You were extraordinary, and that’s something I don’t think you understand about yourself—how amazing you are.

“But I also knew your tragic history and how hard you’d worked to pull your life together so that no one else would ever get hurt again. And I saw how you looked at me that night. The fae part of me could feel your longing and that your loneliness matched mine.

“I promise you, I didn’t set about to do anything initially. In fact, I kept hoping that you’d reach out to me in your dreams. But after the first week, I knew you wouldn’t. I’d felt your level of commitment, the strength you carry here.” She pressed a hand to her chest.

He stared hard at her. He didn’t even blink.

She continued, “I took a chance. I didn’t even know if I could do it. Agnes had always told me I had above-average fae ability, but I’d never extended myself to become more than I was. It was my way of pretending I was still human.

“So, the night I first came to you, I was trying out my skills. I saw you through the blur of my dreamglide and I sensed you were dreaming about me.”

“The hell I was.”

“You were. And, I don’t know, I lost myself in that moment. I didn’t even think about what I was doing, or whether it was right or wrong. I was responding only to the depth of my need and your loneliness. Breaching your dreams was like stepping through a doorway, nothing more.

“Maybe if there’d been resistance I would have thought twice. Instead, I drew you into my dreamglide, pulled the red comforter back and saw your state of arousal.” Heat flew up her cheeks at what had happened next. She couldn’t speak the words aloud and decided to skip to the result. “You didn’t repel me. I would have left, Brannick, if you’d told me to leave. Instead, you were completely welcoming. You told me you were so glad I’d come to you.”