Chapter 106: Calling Me Home
- RAYA -
Dex turns to see me walking toward him in just my underwear, having already discarded the rest of my clothes. There are beads of water dripping off of his eyelashes and beard, sluicing down his perfect chest and arms as he brings a hand up to clear the water from his face with his eyes smoldering, watching me approach.
I expect him to tell me no—to be cautioning me again with that overprotective nature he’s demonstrated before when he tells me that I need to heal. That we need to be careful. That we need to wait. But he doesn’t. Instead he silently watches me open the door and step inside, and I stop there, standing before him just outside the stream of water that’s like rainfall.
We have been in this very spot before, and we’re both thinking about it, seeing that scene from the dream replay. For me, it was the moment I realized that he was actually in the dream with me—that it was the real Dex, and it wasn’t a fantasy.
I think I always knew it was him, even from the first moment I met him and began trying to deny it. I always knew it was the actual Dex. It wasn’t just a coincidence. Instead, it was some kind of strangely entangled fate that we share.
"Aren’t you going to tell me that we shouldn’t do this?" I ask quietly, the peaceful sound of the water in the background, and the drops splashing on my toes.
Instead of answering, he reaches for my hand and pulls me under, capturing my mouth and kissing me hungrily. There is something hurried and desperate about his hands and his mouth that are eagerly taking me, undoing my bra, sliding it off my arms, growling into the gasp that escapes when I feel his erection against my stomach and the wave of desire clawing at my belly as a result. I want him now—I want to take him in, gobble him up, have him steal all my breath and fill me with promises.
Dex must be able to sense it—the wave of all these beautiful, expectant emotions that spiral up through the center of my being, seeking an entry and an explosion that will send them scattering once again—because he doesn’t waste any time. Something about tonight is different. It’s like he’s shrugged off any restraints that would try to tie him down and keep him back from doing this with some excuse like I have to heal first. But we both need each other—there is something healing in this very thing between us, and giving in to it is what we need. It’s empowering.
My hands run over the exterior of him—Dex’s muscles under skin, the beautifully defined shapes that make up his body—but I feel his soul more than anything. It is overpowering the physical. They are entangled—the physical and spiritual—but his soul is what I recognize like a partner that escapes time, that supersedes it. He has been mine eternally. He will always be mine.
"I love you," I whisper desperately against him, feeling the truth of it—of the home within him that is mine. "I missed you."
He whimpers, kissing me again with desperate need and taking the words into himself. The vulnerability in that sound of his radiates through every part of me.
"Not in here," he finally says, pulling a towel from the door and tugging me toward the bed.
I’m not sure what the towel is for, because he doesn’t use it. Instead, we end up on the bed wet and slippery—Dex’s mouth warming the parts that peak with cold and goosebumps—and then, when he’s hovering over me, poised at the entrance to this union between us and the honey of his eyes locking with mine, he pauses.
"Raya," he says softly, a hand smoothing my hair back. "You weren’t supposed to say it first."
"What? What did I say?" My brows furrow, studying his eyes and his lips and every little detail of him that separately are beautiful, but together—together they make the incredibly breathtaking face of the man I was always meant to meet.
Dex smiles, amused at my ignorance, and slowly kisses me this time—a delicate, meaningful gesture that cherishes and savors—giving more than it takes. When he pulls away, there is a moment that crystallizes between us, and it’s a moment that feels like it has happened thousands of times before.
"I love you, Auraya. My heart is yours. Somehow I think it has always been yours." His voice is deep—hitting a vibration of sound that I feel and hear at the very same time. "What took you so long to dream me into your life?"
"I dreamed you into my life?" I chuckle softly. "Perhaps I did."
"You did. Your soul was calling me home," he says seriously, caressing my face.
"That’s right," I whisper, wrapping my legs around his waist and tugging him toward me. "Come home."
Dex takes my mouth again and slides into me, making me gasp again and then clench tightly around him—our bodies recognizing each other, fitting perfectly, finding the angles and rhythms and motions that make us whole.
"Yes," I whimper, grasping the ladder of muscles at his sides and feeling them flex so deliciously as he thrusts harder, faster, dipping and circling—feeling every part of me from the inside and sending ecstatic sparks of sensation through me that I’ve never felt before.
Dex watches me, my eyebrows tenting to the intensity building in the depths between us, and I see him chasing it... a feral, wild part of him chasing the final climax that sends me spilling over the edge, trembling uncontrollably. And then he keeps going, milking every little wild part that’s left within me until he growls—coming to his own peak and offering it to me—the height of this union, the divine, beautiful ecstasy that exists in the center of his being and spills into the center of mine. And then we’re both spent, breathless and panting and entangled in each other’s arms.
"Oh my god," I say on an exhale. "Wow."
"Yeah, wow is right," he says in return, his breath warm against my neck where his head has collapsed on the pillow next to me. "Wow is right," he repeats and then he kisses my neck, causing another violent tremor to rake me all the way to my toes.
"Are you o—"
"Don’t say it," I chuckle, lifting a finger to his lips. "Yes, I am. I am so much better than okay. I think you’ve healed me. I don’t feel any pain at all—I only feel you."
A soft growl putters in his throat again, and he kisses my neck again, making me whimper.
"God, don’t whimper," he says, taking a bit of my skin between his teeth and tugging. "Don’t whimper. I think a part of me wants to eat you when you whimper."
"I think a part of me wants you to eat me," I say softly, smiling into the air—the divine, beautiful, incredible air that we both share. "How do we just... behave like normal after this? I feel like I could just stay in bed with you for all time."
"Let’s do it. Let’s just stay here," he smiles against me. But in the next moment, he is reaching for the towel, gently drying my face, working it through the ends of my hair, gliding the material over my skin and removing every last bit of water from the surface of this flesh I am wrapped in. Then he pulls up the blanket and curls behind me, kissing my shoulder.
"I didn’t even get clean," he mumbles.
"My bad," I giggle, and his arm tightens around me, pulling me back against him as if I could get any closer.
"I love you, Raya."
I sigh happily, wiggling against him. "I love you, Dex."
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The morning comes quickly, but sleep was more restful than I remember it ever being. Dex and I wake up at the same time, and I turn over to face him—resting my forehead against his.
"It’s another day," I say, voice raspy—indicating how little sleep I actually got.
"Another beautiful day with you," Dex adds, kissing my nose. "And I’m running late."
He slides out of bed, giving me a look at that perfect ass of his as he walks to the bathroom to actually shower this time. Another morning in bed while Dex gets ready, and I’m already used to this—prepared to do it forever. It’s almost like one nightmare after another didn’t happen this weekend, because he was here with me. He chased the monsters away.
Maybe hero sex isn’t so bad after all. Not when it’s like this—not when it’s his soul entwined, entangled with mine. Not when I know that I would just as readily be the one saving him, comforting him, chasing his monsters away. If those monsters appear, I will be here to do it. Somehow I feel like I’ve done it before.
