She cocked her head. “Why are they here?”
Closing the distance between us, I placed my carved cane against the bed and took the box from her hands. “I told you once that I dreamed about you. That I saw you well before you were brought to my shores.”
She bit her lip, her gorgeous wedding gown straining around her chest. The shadows of her nipples were darker, hinting, despite her apprehension, she was intrigued and turned on. “What’s that got to do with Euphoria?”
“I want to show you. I want to take you into that dream. I want you to see just how much I loved you when you were a figment of my imagination and understand how fucking grateful I am that you’re real.”
She picked up another box, this one holding the earbud sensors. They weren’t needed for tonight. In fact, no other sensors were needed apart from the eye lenses. I had everything I could ever want with her and had no desire to distort any of it. I wanted to smell her skin and taste her lips. I wanted to feel her when I touched her, and I wanted her voice in my ears as she moaned.
“What about the inability to escape when we’re done? I know falling asleep frees the mind, but...what if something happens, and we need to end sooner?”
“Wise.” I nodded. “I’ve always loved how quick thinking you are, but I’ve taken care of it.”
“You’re saying you’ve done something to the coding?”
Pulling my phone free from my linen trousers, I pulled up the Euphoria app and showed her the new cypher. Lines of text, symbols, and numbers. It wouldn’t make sense to someone who didn’t know programming, but to me it was a back door that would always be permanently ajar.
“Give me your arm.” I held out my hand.
Hesitantly, she obeyed.
My fingers enclosed around her wrist, once again tingling with awareness and heat. Would that ever go away? Could I ever touch this woman and not feel her magic?
Gritting my teeth from my rapidly hardening cock, I drew a small circle around her barcode tattoo.
She shivered, her lips parting for a feathery breath.
“Touch here if you want to exit the illusion. It works like a safe word. A blind spot within the program where if you pinch your inner wrist for three seconds, Euphoria will shut down, and you’ll be freed from the fantasy.”
She swayed into me as I pulled her closer, cupping her nape and tipping her head back.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Her gaze turned silver with lust.
I ran my lips over her mouth, tasting the sweetness of her and the sin. “I’ve tested it. Last night. Three second pinch and you’re free.”
Pika and Skittles suddenly darted into the room, their antics bringing life and colour while Eleanor and I drowned within darker and darker desires. They fluttered through Eleanor’s hair and nibbled at my ears.
“Go away,” I groaned, wafting at the fiends.
Eleanor laughed quietly. “I think they want to visit Euphoria.”
“Another time perhaps.” I ran my nose over hers. “I’m finding it harder and harder to share you tonight.”
“They’ll be jealous.”
“They’ll survive.”
Pika chirped and Skittles darted to perch in the mosquito net.
They brought meaning and affection to our life. They were more like family than just pets. But right now, they were a nuisance, and I was done waiting to consummate my marriage.
Gathering Eleanor close, I shivered with sexual thirst. “Fuck, I want you.”
“Then take me. Right now.”
I kissed her.
Hard.
She melted into me, allowing me to dictate the speed and depth of my taking. She was submissive yet wild. Responsive but untamed. I wanted to take my time with her. But violence bled through my veins, blending with our new marriage and the weeks of begging my body to heal so I could take her the way she deserved to be taken.
I adored this woman, but I wanted to slander her too.
I wanted to strip her, punish her, splinter her apart, and then fuck her until she screamed.
I wanted to remind her that I was both man and monster in my heart.
Bending my legs, I continued kissing her as we sat on the bed. Breaking the kiss, I grabbed the eye lenses and unscrewed the container. I caught her heated stare. “Do you consent?”
She ran her hands through her hair, making me wait for her answer. Slowly, she stood and grabbed the neckline of her sleeveless dress. Keeping eye contact with me, she tore the fragile linen, slicing at the tightness and stepping out of the full skirt, naked and fucking beautiful. Her diamond anklet sparkled around her leg, golden sand clung to her toes, and the willowy power of her body scattered my heart with warning that this woman was still my ultimate curse.
A curse that I would forever crave and have no antidote for.
Running her hand down the flat of her stomach, she teased her clit. “Does that answer your question?”
“Fuck, yes.” I swallowed hard. My cock bumped against my zipper, and a different kind of pain attacked me. “Yes, it does.”
“In that case, you are overdressed, husband.” Reaching for me, she slid off my blazer, unbuttoned my shirt, and spread both down my arms to toss them on the floor. Giving me her hand, she pulled me from the bed and without looking away, unbuckled my belt, unzipped my trousers, fisted my cock in her tight delicious fingers, then slipped both pants and boxer-briefs to my ankles.
Pika and Skittles huffed and vanished into the living room.
Eleanor laughed as she held out her hands for the eye sensors. “Prudes.”
I drank her in as she tipped her head back and placed one, then two lenses over her gorgeous grey pupils.
“Goddammit, I’m about to come just looking at you.”
She smirked. “Guess you better load whatever it is you’ve programmed, so you can have your wicked way with me then.” She cocked her hip, revealing the trickle of wetness dampening the manicured curls between her legs.
She’d
