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“This is my favorite kind of dream.”

Dream Theo chuckled. I heardandfelt it.

“Open your eyes, gattina,” he ordered softly in my ear.

“No. The real world sucks. I wanna live in this dream world.”

He chuckled again before licking my neck. “So I should stop?”

My eyes shot open. “Don’t you dare.” I tried to look to the side, but Theo’s arms blocked my view. His forearms flat to the bed and his body lowered to mine,Theoblocked my view of everythingbuthim. “What time is it?”

“Midnight.” He pulled my shirt, which was bunched up over my breasts, completely off. “Sorry, I got stuck on the phone.”

I would’ve brushed off his unneeded apology had I had the ability to speak. But his tongue and lips on my throat stole my words. His thrusts changed from leisurely to intense and forceful, but his pace stayed slow.

The rough hair on his pelvis ground against my oversensitive clit with each movement. He shifted his knee up the bed, pushing mine with it. I tried to wrap my other leg around him, but he held it down with a hand on my inner thigh. I was spread open for him, the angle letting his cock go deeper. The pressure on my clit increased, Theo’s grip on my thigh tightened, and his mouth worked my throat and shoulder. His thrusts were slow, his touch both intense and tender.

It was the closest I’d felt to anyone. Ever. There was a connection beyond our bodies. The way he touched me, the way he moved inside me…

It wasmore.

When he bit down on my neck and my orgasm was just about to drag me under, he slowed further, nearly stopping.

“Are you going to say it again?” he whispered in my ear.

“Say what?” I gasped as he shifted his hips to the side.

“You love me.”

I did. I just didn’t remember ever saying it out loud.

“What?” I asked.

“When you said goodnight a couple nights ago, you said you loved me. I’ve been waiting for you to say it again, but I’m not feeling patient.”

I’d never loved anyone before. Not my mom, nor my grandma. I was fond of some of the foster parents I’d had, but it wasn’t love. It wasn’t even attachment.

I loved Theo, though. It’d taken me a while to figure that out, and once I had, I’d been too scared to say anything. Because I wasn’t just in love with him. I was wrapped up in him. Attached with a bond so strong, I worried I’d never be able to sever it if we didn’t work out.

And that scared me beyond anything else.

So, I’d ignored my feelings. After my initial freak-out about losing him and the family he was giving me, I’d never tried to put space between us. But I’d still refused to acknowledge how deeply I felt about him.

The awake me was doing well with it. It was the filter-less sleeping me that’d messed it up.

Theo pushed up so he could look at me. “I love you, Dahlia. Could’ve told you months ago, but I didn’t want to scare you. I’ve never been in love before, never knew anything like this existed.”

I inhaled deeply. “I love you, too.”

“Say it again.”

“I love you, Theo.” I ignored my panic at the profoundness of that moment. Pulling him down, I pressed my lips to his and rocked my hips.

Slowly, Theo made brutally beautiful love to me.

And it was better than any dream.

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