Dream Five, Chapter Twenty-Three

(Anything in asterisks is meant to be italicized.)

Most assumed we were going to the beach for our honeymoon because that's what we had told them. We were actually going to the basement where I was *Pri-ya.* We hadn't been there since my dead sister had appeared in Dublin and I had needed somewhere safe to interrogate her. But before that, we hadn't been there since I'd been *Pri-ya*.

There had been a purity in that basement, and there were still times I thought about it and smiled. We both agreed it was the best fucking cave ever. It was exactly as we'd left it. Both of us had left our phones at the bookstore and only Lor and Christian knew where to find us in case of emergencies.

"I have a wedding present for you," I told him the next morning.

"Last night wasn't my present?" Barrons growled in my ear as he moved behind me.

He had me bent over the foot of the bed, my hands bracing me by gripping the footboard. I would have worried about slipping and falling if not for his preternatural instincts; I knew he'd catch me.

I snorted in laughter and looked at him over my shoulder with a coy smile. His hands held me by the shoulders as he pounded into me and I dragged my tongue across his fingers before I sweetly purred, "You thought last night was for you?"

"Christ, Mac."

Then one of his hands was grabbing my hair and he pulled back on it hard, nearly breaking my neck and arching my back as far as it would go while I maintained my grip on the footboard. Then I was roaring as he rocked into my climax, sending me straight into another one as he released inside me.

My legs began to shake a little as they grew weak and before I could even open my mouth to say his name, he pulled back on my hair again while he wrapped the other arm around my shoulders and held me back against him, keeping me upright as my hands gripped his arm. I turned my head up and his mouth was immediately on mine. Fangs rubbed against my lip, cutting it a little, and then he was sucking the blood from it, a low growl coming from him.

Once I could stand on my own, he pulled out and I immediately wanted him back in me. Then he was picking me up and reclining against the headboard on the bed, pulling me on top of him face-to-face. Having him back in me was an unquenchable relief.

He couldn't grip my waist anymore so his large hands gripped my ass and hips as my arms went around his neck and I slammed him home. My French-tipped fingernails dug into his back as my tongue wrestled with his.

As much as I wanted to give him his present, there was nothing I wanted more in that moment than him inside me. His tongue in my mouth, his hands in my hair, his dick inside me, all of it.

Even though I sometimes lament not being able to be as bottomless as him when it comes to sex, seeing as I require food more often than he does (as well as sleep, which he doesn't require), I've realized it's probably a good thing he never turned me into whatever he is.

He'd almost turned me into whatever he is after the vampire wannabe Mallucé had abducted me. I didn't think Barrons would be able to find me and when Mallucé had told me his plans for how he was slowly going to kill me, I provoked him into nearly beating me to death. What I hadn't known was that Barrons had branded me without my permission.

When he first threatened to tattoo me, I specifically told him if he tattooed me, he and I were done. He'd already done it. It's what had allowed him to find me. I relish having his brand now.

Barrons had arrived to find me dying from my injuries, telling me that what he was going to do wasn't something he had ever wanted to do. Luckily, Mallucé had revealed that eating Unseelie could heal. At my insistence, Barrons had fed it to me instead of changing me.

It was definitely for the best. If I was as bottomless as him and still as insatiable as I already am when it comes to sex with this man, if I was still *Pri-ya* for him, we'd never get anything done.

"No, we wouldn't," he said against my mouth, intuiting my thoughts. "I prefer you this way," his voice changed and I heard the beast say, "my little monster."

I lost it then.

It sent me straight over the edge, trembling uncontrollably in his arms as my eyes nearly rolled into the back of my head. I heard him laughing inhumanly as my monster and I roared.

&&&

"Can I give you your present now?" I said later after he insisted I take a break.

I'd almost passed out from the pleasure a few times. He had stocked the basement this room was in before we'd arrived with everything we'd need. I was due back at court soon, but we'd felt two weeks was long enough. It was possible we'd stay for longer. Kat had dispatched a few sidhe-seers to help Korrie with the bookstore while I was gone. I might have them continue working for longer if they were agreeable.

"Sure," he said as he put a glass of water in my hand. "After you drink this." He took the glass back once I had downed all of it, not realizing how dehydrated I'd felt. I got what I had brought hidden in my packed bag as he left the room and waited eagerly for him to come back in. "Mac, you didn't need to get me anything," he said once he did.

"Yes, I know," I told him as I took his hand and pulled him down onto the bed, sitting down beside him. "That's exactly why I didn't *get* you anything. I made it. And a lot of effort went into it so please don't throw it or anything, okay?"

He arched an eyebrow at me, the corners of his lips twitching as I put the box wrapped in crimson paper and tied with a black bow in his hands. As I rested my crossed arms on his shoulder and laid my head down on them, he pulled the bow apart, tore off the paper and opened the white box. Inside was a black, leather-bound photo album with a silver border made of small interlocking Celtic knots on the cover.

I'd created it myself shortly before creating my wedding dress. It was bulky as I'd made it to be quite large since there were so many photos, but I was fairly certain I'd need to make a second one, possibly even a third, to fit all of them.

What I was most proud of was what was featured on the cover. I'd had to stare at a picture of it for about half an hour before I attempted it, but I'd managed to duplicate the brand on the back of my neck in the center of the cover. It was laid in a silver oval so the black detailing wasn't lost.

He looked at the cover for a while, and I was pleased to see a small smile slowly softening his features. Then he opened it and saw the note I had thought long and hard about before finally writing it.

"'Presented to JZB on our wedding night,'" Barrons read before looking at me, his eyebrow lifting.

"I meant to give it to you last night, but you just looked so sexy in your tux that everything else got pushed from my mind except for getting you out of it," I purred in his ear. He snorted a laugh before returning to the note.

"'My sun, moon, and stars. Ice to my fever, frost to my flame. My whole world, forever and always.' Signed, 'Your Rainbow Girl.'" He smiled a little again and ran his finger over the signature before he turned the page and exhaled slowly.

"You broke into my desk again."

"Wrong. Dani did." At my request because I knew he'd bring this up. "Be pissed at her."

"Does Dani not understand the rules about what's mine?"

"She does, she just doesn't care. She's never really been one for rules, anyway. Besides, as amazing as the pictures you took of me are, they don't capture my wit or charm or humor because pictures that aren't paintings in Hogwarts just can't do that.

"Jericho, I *hated* being away from you for so long when I was in that room. And even though I was technically away from you for longer than you were away from me because I was in there for centuries, I at least had something that kept me occupied the entire time so I couldn't think about how much I missed you. Not constantly, anyway. And I hated thinking about you all alone in my bookstore while I was so close and so far away, with only the pictures and lemurs to keep you company."

I reached past him and turned the page. "I did my best to caption all of them so that if I ever went missing again and it was taking forever to find me or if I have to go back into one of those rooms or if we ever have to be apart for whatever reason, you'll have even more of me with you now." Nicely and neatly organized in a clear protective folder. Once I finished putting all of them in, anyway. I didn't have much time before giving it to him.

He was silent for a moment before he said, "And you put my brand on the front—"

"Because they're photos of me, and I'm not me without you, Jericho Barrons." I paused as I ran my fingers through his hair. "And because I know that if I ever did get lost, you'd find me. You always do."

He turned and looked at me, his expression unfathomable, before he leaned forward and kissed me, slowly and tenderly. One arm wrapped around me as he set the photo album down on the floor with care before he gently laid me back on the bed. Not a man for words, this was his way of thanking me for my gift, for understanding how difficult those two years without me were after not even having me in his bed for a full year before then. Not to mention all the times I've almost died since setting foot in Dublin.

Instead of fucking me senseless and then fucking me back to my senses again, he tenderly and passionately made love to me. I truly felt him then. I felt his pain as he waited for me to come back out of that room from the White Mansion and back into his arms. He told me then how much he had missed me, no matter how crazy I sometimes drove him. This was how he poured out his feelings.

He was the lone wolf of the Nine who could spend his life in solitude and be fine. That is until I came along and he didn't want to be alone anymore. All he wanted was me. We hadn't had a choice when he put me in that room and there'd probably be times in the future when we'd have no choice but to separate again.

But we had right now. And right now, he was mine and I was his and I did my best to take his pain. This man who had gone to every possible length to bring me back when I completely lost myself, who had kept me safe and warm and fed and happy in this room. Now it was my turn. Neither of us spoke as I told him just how deeply I loved him in every way I could, to assure him that I would always come back to him, that there was nothing I wasn't willing to do for him because he was my whole world.

That room, more than anything, showed me the depths and lengths of his love for me, of what he'd done for me as he had constantly fought himself. He was willing to sacrifice winning my heart just to have me back the way I should be, even if it meant I'd hate him for it. And I had. He'd seen me at my worst without showing any vulnerabilities of his own.

He had been my whole world in this room. I'd heard it in his memory, that he'd just wanted to be my man one time when I remembered everything again. For me to choose to have him, even if it was just once. When I told him without speaking that I was choosing to have him be my whole world again in this room, I felt his exultation as he made love to me. It's what he had wanted that whole time.

Then he fucked me senseless for a few hours.

&&&

He got up and left the room during our next break. I was starting to get tired but I didn't want to quit. Did I mention I'm utterly insatiable when it comes to him?

When he came back, he had two gifts wrapped in pink with yellow ribbons. He set them down next to me before leaning against one of the posters at the foot of the bed.

"What are these?" I asked as I picked one up.

"Open them," was all I got, along with a hint of a smile. I looked at him before I pulled on the ribbon and undid the paper.

I stared down in disbelief.

Then I smiled, and that smile turned into a laugh. He was memorizing the moment as I laughed.

Somehow, he had managed to find a complete DVD set of *Bewitched*. Barrons had once tried to deny having watched it. After learning that he had, I'd had the desire to spend a few rainy days in bed with him and watch old TV shows and just laugh with him. Then have mind-blowing sex later. I hadn't realized he had picked up on that, but I should have guessed.

"I will watch no more than two episodes per month of that with you," he told me as he climbed onto the bed next to me. Then he handed me the second gift and I opened it to find a complete set of *M*A*S*H*. "That we can watch whenever you like." I laughed. Of course he'd prefer this show.

"What if I want to watch something right now?" I asked after I kissed him.

"Then it's a good thing I brought my laptop with me just in case," he growled in my ear.