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Chapter 23

Dolly’s Naughty Little Fever Dream

~DOLLY~

I stand at the wide opening to the treehouse balcony, velvety-soft flowers brushing against the back of my hand as I part them for a breathtaking sight of the pastel planets and fantasyland constellations in the Célesteen night sky.

“Your boyfriend smells like laundry and soap?” a voice ripples around me.

This isn’t real. I’ve been inside this dream before.

“I said , your boyfriend smells like laundry and soap ?” The voice persists, sarcastic and dry, like a panther waking from a nap. I spin to find the source, only to realize I’m no longer on the treehouse balcony. I’m back in our motel room, in the shallows of the lagoon, still wearing those baggy-ass overalls from earlier.

“Arrik?” My voice echoes unnaturally against a rocky enclave illuminated by vibrant blue streaks of water running down the wall behind me. The space is buried in clusters of flowers, vibrant reds and oranges, where there used to be coral.

It’s like fire and ice.

Suddenly, Arrik is before me, his dark blue hair dripping with water, just like mine, as if we were both recently submerged. For a split second, he appears panicked, his expression pained beneath a drape of water, but a blink later, he stands confidently in front of me, chin high and a patriotic-looking popsicle in his mouth. He crunches off a hard bite, speaking as he chews. “Alright, love, let’s just get this over with. I’m going to tell you a secret, make you a promise, and grant you a wish. Which one do you want first?”

I swallow. “What?”

“Answer the question, DJ,” he says with his usual teasing flair, my eyes drawn to the subtle shifts in his smirk I’ve come to know so well.

“The . . . secret?”

“Nah. Let’s start with the promise.”

My forehead wrinkles, and I’m caught in his shadow as his hand suddenly comes flush with the wall over my shoulder. Arrik, the tatted djinn, suffocates me with the scent of expensive cologne mixed with expensive tobacco.

“I promise you, Master. I promise I’ll never let them have you.”

I look up at him, feeling a little like a fawn that just wandered into a fox’s den. “Your mother’s family?”

“Who else?” he scoffs. “The nymphs?”

“How should I know? We have a lot of enemies.”

“Touché.”

The popsicle is gone, replaced with a toothpick, as water from the cavern walls sprays around us, sparkling in the air. But when I search in my peripherals, all I capture is the blank, uninhabited dark.

“I’m right here, Master.”

My attention snaps back to Arrik, whose ink-stamped fingers have taken my chin to show the dominance he thinks he has over me.

“I don’t think I have any dominance over you, actually.” His shadow darkens. “That’s one of the things that makes you interesting.”

It feels like we’ve had this conversation before. “You... like me, Arrik. As a person.”

“Like is a strong word. And we’re getting off track.”

“Okay, how about the secret, then?” I ask.

“What secret?” he says.

“I thought you said there was a secret?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My chin still propped by his knuckle, he takes a step closer. “It’s not really a secret, is it, Dolly Jones? Maybe an open secret.”

He’s not making any sense.

“Even in dreams, DJ. Even in dreams,” he sighs. One of his hands finds my waist in a spot not meant for him. “Maybe it’s only a secret to you. Maybe it’s your most carefully guarded secret.”

My stomach drops. I have no secrets. These genies know everything about me.

His hand on my waist forces me closer, though we’re already so close, and his eyes fall to my lips. “Say it, Dolly. I dare you.”

“Say what?” I cry, and my voice reverberates in the surrounding cavern.

But somehow, my arms have become wrapped around his neck, his hand cushioning my back, encouraging me closer as I release my emotions into his neck. I don’t know why I’m crying. I don’t know what’s going on in the world beyond this phantom.

But this. The way he’s holding me.

Being held by Arrik Reilhander is like being a bar of gold stolen from a rival pirate’s chest. “Fuck, you had me worried this time, sweetheart,” he breathes against me.

“I thought I heard you say I was dying,” I whisper into him. “Am I dying?”

He bear-hugs me, leans against the wall with me, holds me like he’ll never let me go. “It’s okay. I’m here, kitten. I’ll take care of everything.” He strokes my hair, whispers to me, treats me in this perfect, tender way so few will ever get to experience with him. My chest flutters; my stomach feels it too. He smells like yesterday’s cologne and temptation. My mouth grazes where his hot pulse races against his tattooed jugular.

His voice rumbles against my lips on his throat. “Dolly?”

I pull myself off of his neck and gaze up at him. “Sorry. I’m... I’ve just wanted to kiss you for so long.”

“I know.”

“I can’t.”

His whisper is all around me. It’s in my blood, my bones. “It has to be you, DJ. Remember? You must initiate.”

I don’t mean to.

But somehow, my arms are slowly, unsurely, pulling him down to my level until there’s nowhere else to go. I let my lips press against the soft padding of his.

And then I pull away, expecting the cavern to come crumbling down around us.

It doesn’t, and afterward, Arrik looks at me with a mix of surprise and intrigue, like he’s seeing something unexpected.

Before taking my face in both hands and kissing me again.

Electricity shoots through my body as we dive into a cloud of desire that has enshrouded us since the first moment we locked eyes beneath that galaxy illusion. My wet clothes become wetter, my hair misted with the spray of neon blue water streaming down the walls as he pushes me against the rocky surface. I peel his wet shirt up his perfect body, running my hands up his ink.

He’s quite pretty. Quite, quite pretty.

He slips down my overall strap so that he can take hold of my lucky right breast with his dominant left hand as his realm and my realm and all the realms beyond spin around us.

It feels like the darkest, evilest, most forbidden thing.

And I can’t help my nipples from pricking in response. He pins me to the wall, taking more with every inch I give him, spinning me around and guiding my hands up against the rock as my overall straps completely fall. He lifts my shirt partway, trailing the moisture from his mouth down my spine, his hands sliding over my thighs, as we surrender control to our desires. All around me, the darkness in my peripherals begins to close in, getting closer, closer, as his jeans drop.

I’m afraid of this.

I’m afraid of acknowledging this.

“Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Stop.” Arrik pulls away sharply, his tone completely different from the last few minutes of build-up. “What are we doing? What about Velis?”

One of his hands still over mine against the wall, I gaze over my shoulder at him, lost to the perfect features of his face, craving the feeling of his breath on my neck and his hand in places it’s never been. “Who?”

“ME, Master.” Suddenly, Velis’s arm is wrapped around my shoulder, his warmth familiar, comforting, like the deepest sleep, spinning me away from the wall.

But Arrik’s essence is also coiled around me like a serpent, those pale wizard eyes locked on my lips. His cheekbones as sharp as ever, he scans my face, confirming I’m still into it. Then, slowly, he leans in like he’s going to kiss me again.

In our motel lagoon.

With Velis right there, Vel’s mouth buried in my neck and his fingers wetting themselves between my thighs.

He’s seriously okay with this?! How?

“Come on, sweetheart, you know you’ve wanted two of us all along,” Arrik murmurs, voice silky and teasing. “I felt your heart racing on my dick back in your human apartment.”

That did not happen. Well, the heartbeat part did, but it wasn’t because of his dick specifically...

“Sure, it wasn’t,” Arrik says.

He’s infuriating.

“Liar. The fact that I’m intelligent enough to get under your skin is your fourth favorite thing about me.” His warm hand palms my breast beneath the lifted fabric of my shirt.

This is a dream.

This is just another one of those residual reveries that drench me in sweat during the night.

Velis isn’t usually in them.

“Why not?” dream Velis boos.

“You know I wouldn’t mind it,” dream Arrik adds, like we’re all discussing the terms and conditions of our relationship, “if he had to be part of it. So long as I got you in the deal. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve shared with a brother.”

Those dirty, dirty manor maids.

“Hold still, Master,” Arrik warns, his fingers trailing along where my hipbone would be if I were thin enough to show it as he presses against me from behind so that I can feel his forming excitement. So that my curvy body can take him the rest of the way there.

“Dolly, are you getting wet because of what he’s doing to you back there?” Velis slides his fingers out of me slowly, wiping the evidence along my thigh.

To be fair, so is he. My hand down the front of his sweatpants is slippery.

“That’s not because of him,” Velis mutters, positioning my knee for better access. “That’s because of the noises you’re making. They’re cute. Don’t you think they’re cute, Arrik?”

“I thought we agreed not to acknowledge one another if we ever did this,” Arrik replies, his tone judgmental.

They’ve TALKED about this before?

“Would you quit distracting her?” Velis growls, annoyed that all his overtime efforts have gone unnoticed due to Arrik’s incessant flirting in my ear.

“Quit distracting yourself with me, Dolly. Velis is trying to do something to you that apparently needs your full attention to feel. Doesn’t sound promising, but what do I know?”

“You have an insufferable need to fill the space with your own wit, Arrik.”

“Actually, you two have an insufferable need to fill it with your bickering,” I interject, exasperated.

“I fill the space with something,” Arrik coos, guiding my hand around my back and down to where he... dangles, rivaling his brother. “It’s called a cock, DJ. I don’t understand why you’re fine dropping a minefield of F-bombs yet have such a hard time saying that.”

“Her ex discouraged bedroom communication,” Velis explains, lifting my leg over his forearm for better access as he slides into me.

I’ve never been in a two- holes-at-once situation before, but it feels like we’re heading that way, and I’m not sure how to prepare other than to let the two of them take the lead and trust that I’m in good hands. “Oh, right,” Arrik says. “The ex. Has anyone killed him yet?”

“No. But that doesn’t mean it’s not on the agenda.”

“Ah, well. Save your energy. I sent Beckham to do it. Thought it would be a good distraction for him, to vent some of his pent-up energy.” Arrik squeezes and pinches one of my nipples from behind. “Mmm. There’s one of those cute noises again, Velis. Did you hear it?”

“Of course I heard it,” dream Velis scoffs, a little bratty. “I caused it.”

“Let’s see if I can cause a louder one, then,” Arrik grunts.

This time, my head falls forward against Velis because the second entry is far more intense than Vel’s. I don’t have as much experience in that area.

Neither does Velis.

“Don’t hurt her, you fucking animal!”

“I’m pretty sure I’ve done this many, many more times than you, Velis. It feels good, doesn’t it, Master?”

I nod between the two of them, focusing on the way they each feel inside me and acknowledging this can never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever happen in real life.

But.

I also can’t help acknowledging how good it feels. The lack of guilt. The pure indulgence. Feeling this much love pumping into my body.

Even if this is clearly a dream, if I’m having conscious thoughts, then this counts as will. I need to end it and wake myself up.

“Is she serious?” Arrik shoots at Velis, his voice unimpressed and dry, his teeth grazing my skin and sending shivers all through me that hit him and Velis, making them both snigger. “She even feels guilty while we’re both actively participating. I told you this would never work, brother.”

“If you believe that,” dream Velis responds, sounding like he’s at the end of his sexual rope, “then why don’t you leave and let me finish.”

Wait. In this dream fantasy, a threesome was Vel’s idea?

“Why do you say it like that? My greatest desire is to give you what you desire most,” he says. “If this is what you truly want, who am I to stop it?”

Yeah, okay. That would be laughable even IF this were remotely what I wanted. But who would willingly take on something as complicated as dating two brothers at once? Think of the jealousy between them and the constant fear that you’d be the one booted out.

“You don’t have to worry about that, kitten,” Arrik soothes, easing himself deeper into me from behind. I cry into Vel’s chest. It feels like magic has made every inch of me slick, as if it seeped into my skin the moment we started. “The thing is,” he continues, “I don’t trust myself not to pop in to wreck your marriage in a year or two, and Velis has already seen your unwanted feelings for me. He knows there’s a chance he could lose you to me one day, and I know there’s a chance he could steal you back.”

“Lest we forget,” Velis interrupts, “that she’s a person who could also decide at any time she wants to be alone or with anyone else—”

“Who would want to be alone or with someone else if they could be with a djinn?” Arrik scoffs, not giving Vel a chance to respond. “The point is, DJ, we know the risks, and we’re the ones taking them. We realize we make a better package deal than we do as obstacles in each other’s relationships. Forget each other, we could both end up losing you to enemies if we don’t partner on this. And Velis is willing to share you rather than risk losing you.” Arrik’s hand slides around the front of my neck, holding me in place as he uses my body to pleasure himself while Velis does the same in front. “And I’m also willing to share you. Because I have nothing to lose but you. Because I’m in love with you, sweetheart, and you can be his wife as long as you remain my master.”

“Come on, Arrik. Let her finish before you start all that.”

“Can’t you feel she’s almost there? ”

“Of course I can. I am the one fucking her.”

“This counts too.” Arrik kisses my neck from behind. He slides his hand further beneath my chin to pull my head back into him. “Tell him it counts, Master.”

Every inch of my body feels like it’s being worshiped by both brothers, who, within this dream-state delusion, are pleasuring me with telepathic expertise. It’s my first time with two guys at once, and it’s strange to experience movement in two parts of me. I’m not sure which sensation to focus on.

“Kiss her, Velis. Don’t let her think of anything but what we’re doing to her.”

“I don’t need sexual coaching, Arrik .”

“If that were true, she would be coming by now.”

I wish they’d stop bickering and get back to the worshiping part.

As if they’re both compelled, two sets of eyes flash, and suddenly they’re on me, rabidly intensifying like fire devouring my body. They’re both grunting, their sweat mixing with mine, their hands gripping the softest parts of my body like they’re each trying to claim me from the other. It feels so good—to be loved this much, to be at the center of their affections.

Maybe they’re right. Maybe this is my heart’s greatest desire.

It hits them at the same time, and both press against me, trembling as they release into me, my body pulsing around them, our bodies slippery, my chest heaving in their collective grip.

There are muscles all around me. There is panting all around me.

That was the best sex of my entire life.

Velis kisses my forehead as Arrik kisses my temple and slaps my ass before rolling away from us, like he’s intentionally letting us have the last moments alone, as exhaustion overtakes me and I sink deeper into the water.

My eyes roll backward, and the darkness all around me explodes into light.