Delirium by Erin Kellison Read Free Book Online Page B

felt.
    “He not only attacked you but sought to incapacitate you with a jump. It wasn’t even a fair fight.” Harlen had mentioned the jump when she told him how Peter had seemed to have a special power. Apparently, it was one of the ways to disable a reveler Darkside for capture. Harlen had said Chimera used something like that when subduing criminals. “Now, you’ve got to be in a world of hurt.”
    She shrugged. “Better now. Could barely move at first. I hate being sick.”
    “Let’s get you to bed then.” He quickly divested himself of his suit jacket, laid it over the back of a chair.
    “I don’t want to go to sleep,” she said, though she didn’t want him to think she was scared. That she couldn’t help him Darkside again. Because she could. Just at the moment…she really didn’t want to sleep.
    “But you will, and I’ll be there with you,” Harlen said. “You were under only a little more than an hour and it’s going on four a.m. now.”
    “Well, I don’t want to dream. Can I just float?” Floating wasn’t as restoring as being fully submerged, but it was better than not resting at all. It was like dozing—little sense of time or place. Just darkness and Harlen.
    “Deal. Give me a minute to change and we’ll snuggle up,” he said, though snuggle was her kind of word. He must’ve really been worried.
    She waited in bed for him, contemplating the subtle ripples of paint on the ceiling the way she used to before they’d gotten back together, every night tired from work but too keyed up to sleep. Lonely. She wasn’t lonely anymore.
    Harlen came out of the bathroom and rounded to his side of the bed—she liked that he had a side—and then his arm suddenly snagged her waist and he hauled her back against his chest into a spoon position. Warmth seeped through her skin from her nape to her toes. Almost too hot, but not quite.
    “You need to call your mom,” she said, remembering.
    “Now?” he grumbled against her hair.
    She smiled. “Later. Just passing on the message.”
    The weight of his arm and his heat at her back were magic. Just his being near subdued the worry and stress that had been rankling inside her. The tightness in her shoulders released and she took her first, real deep breath. Her heart settled. Her mind went quiet; nothing bad, not even memories, could reach her. She could stay like this forever.
    He was getting hard, the telltale signal at the small of her back, and she arched a little, saying yes. Even now, after this bad day. Especially now.
    “Sleep,” he commanded. “You need to rest after being jumped.”
    “ You could jump me.”
    “Cute,” he said. “I will. Later.”
    “Now,” she said, but with a couple more breaths and the knots in her muscles easing, she was adrift. The waves beneath her were from the rise and fall of his chest. If time passed, she couldn’t measure it and didn’t care to. Her mind felt as if it were stretching long like taffy, and her limbs dissolved.
    When his hand finally slid under her shirt to cup a breast, she arched again. His stubbly face burrowed into her neck and the tickle of it made her body reflexively curl.
    “I have to go to work soon,” he said.
    She cracked her eyes to find a morning glow lighting the room like fire. Closed her eyes again and groaned. “Ten more minutes.”
    His hand left her breast, and she would’ve complained, but he slid low, down her belly, beneath the waistband of her pj’s to take absolute possession of her.
    She didn’t have the energy to open her eyes, but the fuzz in her brain dissipated somewhat. A languid smile pulled at her mouth as she rolled over onto her back. Yeah, okay. His idea was better.
    She expected a kiss, and it came at her belly, hot air, scratchy face, and his mouth. He simultaneously tugged at her pants, and she lifted her hips to oblige him. She could be cooperative, something she’d point out to him…later. When he settled his attention between her legs, the