Page 11

It’s two in the morning, and I can’t sleep.

I spent the rest of the evening in my bed, staring at a blank Word document and nibbling on a stale protein bar I found at the bottom of my suitcase. I should have eaten a real dinner — my stomach churns in the dark — but that’s not what’s keeping me awake.

Over and over, the memory of Orpheus plays in my mind: His elegant movements, the vibration of his voice in the deepest, most unknown part of me. The thought of him envelops me. I close my eyes, and it’s like he’s there , waiting for me, beckoning me to him.

I toss and turn, even the sound of the rain doing nothing to soothe me.

The night weighs heavy and presses on my lungs, threatening to suffocate.

I roll onto my side, resting my hot cheek on my outstretched arm, the pillows long since flung from the bed.

It’s so windy the rain angles across the window, blown in solid sheets.

Condensation blurs the glass, turning the city into a million spots of color.

I can almost feel the building sway in the wind.

What would happen if I fell from this height? Would my body fall apart from the seams as I plummeted? I have the insane urge to leap from the bed, fling open the window, and toss myself out. Like the abyss is calling to me. Like it could wash me clean and make me anew.

“Go to sleep ,” I plead with myself, squeezing my eyes shut. “Go to sleep, Katherine.”

But Orpheus’s voice rumbles back at me from the darkness.

I’ll see you again soon .

Sudden pressure on the mattress jolts my eyes open.

A black figure looms over me, half propped on the bed, staring with gleaming yellow eyes.

I open my mouth to scream, and a cool hand clamps over my mouth. The sound dies in my throat.

As soon as he touches me, I know.

What I thought was a demon-yellow gaze fades to soft honey. My eyes adjust to the dark, and there he is: one knee propped on the mattress, his body curved over me as if in protection, his hair falling around us like a silver waterfall.

He removes his hand from my mouth.

“Orpheus,” I gasp. “What the hell? How are you here?”

He stares down at me. “I missed you.”

I prop myself up on my elbows and slide backwards, needing to get a better look at him, to understand. He was asleep . Did Ian change his mind and send him up here?

Orpheus remains where he is, one knee propped on the bed, shoulders hunched, animalistic. “I told you we’d meet again.”

“But you were…” I whisper. “I thought I…”

“You thought you turned me off?” he finishes for me. “What you and Ian understand about me couldn’t fill a thimble.” His voice is low and hypnotic. He crawls fully onto the bed, the weight of his body pressing divots into the mattress as he moves toward me.

My breath hitches with anticipation. I’ve been wanting him all night.

I’ve been restless in these sheets, imagining his weight on me, his mouth on my skin, wishing he were here.

Now he is, and I can’t help but wonder if I summoned him here to me, if my yearning was so acute that I willed him into my bed.

“I could also say the same of you,” Orpheus continues, looming over me. His hair glows bluish in the light. “You have hidden depths, Kit.”

My body feels pulled to his, magnetic, inevitable. I’m barely following his words; I’d much rather fall into him and abandon my thoughts altogether. “What do you mean?”

“You already know, deep down.” He reaches for me slowly, running one knuckle along my jaw until he brushes my ear. “I’m sorry if I frightened you.”

I shiver, a needy exhale falling from my lips.

The world spreads out around me, soft and cool, as if I’m floating in a still ocean, my head cradled by soothing waters.

The beat of my heart, the roar of blood in my ears, the rain on the windows, the traffic drones — everything grows quiet. Everything drops away.

There is only him.

“You didn’t frighten me. I was hoping you’d come.”

“Good,” he says. “You never need to fear me.”

“You never answered me before,” I say, reaching for him, burying my fingers in the hair at his nape. It feels right for me to do this. Natural, instinctual. “When I asked if I knew you.”

His lips are inches from mine. “There are ways for souls to meet that have nothing to do with distance. I’ve been watching you for years. I’ve been calling out to you. And now, in this place, you can finally hear me.”

My brain short-circuits, stuttering to a momentary halt. What the fuck is he talking about?

Orpheus presses a gentle finger to the wrinkle between my furrowed brows. “Think of every beautiful dream you’ve ever had. Dreams that felt like home.”

I swallow a lump in my throat. “But how does that…”

“You felt that you were looking into some faraway, inaccessible place. Some beautiful world that wasn’t real.”

My arousal is fading fast, replaced with wariness, confusion. “You lost me.”

“You asked if we knew one another. The answer is yes. You have heard my voice, filtered through the sunlight of your dreams. You have seen my face, hidden in the shadows of your nightmares. And I have watched you for a long time. You are rare. You are perfect.”

Then he kisses me. It’s a lightning strike. I become nothing but energy, pure uncut sensation, as his mouth softly caresses mine. Like I’m a billion filaments of light, skittering along the universe’s infinite wiring.

My mind slows with every second that passes. He lowers his body to mine, my hips rising up to meet his.

Fuck it .

I’ll ask questions later. Right now, I need Orpheus. In every possible way.

I curl my hands around his neck, pulling him down.

He finally settles his full weight on me, letting out a breath as he slides an arm under me, gathering me against him.

Sparks of need flicker along my body everywhere we touch — his hand at my back, my breasts against his chest, his erection grinding down against me where I’m hot and wet.

Every sound, every movement, feels so good I want to die. His lips against mine are a revelation of ecstasy. His hands on my hot skin plot the course to a pleasure I’ve never accessed before. His tongue opens up worlds of desire.

Orpheus feels so incredibly human. But the sensation rising in me, the pleasure expanding in my chest and down to my core, is more than that.

It’s more than anything I’ve felt before.

I’ve never been so consumed like this. Eros was perfect like fireflies on a summer night.

But Orpheus… Orpheus is perfect like a ferocious storm, cleansing and terrifying and unavoidable.

Orpheus doesn’t just understand what I want — he gives me what I never thought I needed.

Rain drums on the window. The neon night pulses around us, muddled through foggy glass and raindrops, softly lighting the bed.

His hands roam over me, feather-light. He caresses my breasts with a transcendental mouth. He murmurs unintelligible words into my skin until I shiver, goosebumps forming where his lips graze me.

“Do you want to fuck me?” I ask, breathless. It feels like such a silly question. Fucking is the least of what I want from Orpheus. But right now, I’ll take whatever he wants to give me.

“I don’t want to fuck you, Kit.”

A knife lodges in my chest. “You don’t?”

“You don’t want something as simple as to be fucked,” he says. “You want more. You deserve more. And I can give it to you.”

I arch my back as he kisses my breasts, my head angling back into the mattress, my eyes fluttering closed. “But do you want…” the breathless words catch in my throat. A fleeting, faraway thought comes to me: He’s a Pleasurebot. Wanting isn’t part of his design.

But the thought flashes and dissipates like a blown fuse. Orpheus is nothing like Eros. Eros is a melody, but Orpheus is a symphony. A sublimely sonic dream.

“I want to make you come,” he says, propping himself up on both elbows.

His soft gold eyes hold me, his hair reflecting a cascade of city light.

He’s painted in color, ethereal but solid.

He feels infinitely safe. “I can make you come in ways you’ve never imagined.

You thought you knew pleasure before you met me.

You were wrong. I’ll show you what ecstasy truly means. ”

Electric desire crackles down to my core. I need his mouth on every sensitive part of me, his hands all over me, his cock inside me. “Show me. Do whatever you want with me.”

He smiles, a slow, almost melancholic curve of the mouth. “With you, what I want is simple. I want to give you everything .”

He lowers his hand to my belly, softly caressing his way down, down to where I need him most. And with one curve of his fingers, he’s inside me, and I’m nearly undone.

His breath tickles my ear. “Say my name.”

“Orpheus,” I gasp, arching under him.

“Again.”

“ Orpheus .”

The night surrounds us, fading into slow pleasure until the rapture of his touch is all there is. He is all there is.

He is everything. And he gives himself willingly.