Page 16 of Reanimated Ruin (Hearts In Horror #1)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Cat

JULES WAS DOING better when Dom and I returned from our conversation in the upstairs bedroom. Mostly now he just felt horrible for freezing up and almost getting his best friend bitten, so he offered to stay up for the first watch. I was relieved because after waking from a fitful nightmare filled sleep to an actual real life one, I was crashing hard. Before retreating into our separate rooms to sleep, Dom and I shared one last meaningful look from our respective doorways. His eyes were deep pools of emerald green that were set on such a devastatingly beautiful face that I hated to see look so dejected. Especially knowing I was the cause.

“There’s a master bathroom attached to your guy’s bedroom if you wanna shower before bed,” he said as his eyes scanned down my body. I looked down at myself, noticing the blood and grime covering my lower half for the first time. “I also planned on making use of the washer and dryer while we’re here cause I desperately need some fresh clothes. If you or Sadie want anything washed, feel free to leave it outside your door and I’ll grab it and throw it in with mine.”

“That would actually be amazing, thank you so much,” I replied.

“Yeah, no problem,” he said, then turned around, disappearing into his room, calling over his shoulder. “Nighty night, trouble.”

“Goodnight, Dom,” I squeaked out before entering mine and shutting the door behind me.

After Sadie and I had both showered and changed into our last clean pair of clothes, we put the others we needed washed in a laundry basket we found in the closet outside our door. Since we weren’t changing anymore, I decided to leave it open. I’d feel more comfortable being able to hear every creak and bump in the night than being ignorant to danger about to bust right through. I saw Dom creep by and grab the basket in nothing but a pair of loose fitting gym shorts, tattooed flesh proudly on display.

While he’d always been tall, I couldn’t help but appreciate the way his frame had filled out. I had to remind myself it’s probably not the best idea to get caught ogling my former best friend, who also happens to be the best friend of my other best friend who confessed his love for me and then kissed me. Was it that wrong of me to simply acknowledge the fact that he was super attractive? I mean, clearly I wasn’t alone in the thought. He always had plenty of girls fawning over him since the very first day he moved to Efferville.

Jules didn’t own me, though. We had one night where we crossed the line of friendship into the territory of possibly something more. Then he never made any moves after that, almost pretended like it didn’t happen if it weren’t for the long glances I’d catch him taking at me out of the corner of my eye.

He’d made it clear he was interested but I didn’t understand what he was waiting for. If I’d had it my way, I would have let him deflower me right then and there that night. I have wished a million times over that it was him that did it instead. He said he’d wanted it to be special and no matter what, it would have been with him.

Dom passed by again and peeked into the now dark room since we had gotten into bed, then turned off the lamp beside it. Sadie was already softly snoring next to me, him and I locked eyes when he saw I was still awake.

“Jules said he’ll switch the laundry over during his watch, so it should be ready whenever you wake up,” he whispered to me. “I’m going to bed for real now.”

I gave him a small little wave, not wanting to make any noise and wake my bed mate. He returned it, and I let my eyes travel from his face down to his broad, inked chest. When they ventured further down, I couldn’t help but notice that his shorts did nothing to hide the outline of his dick and it was fucking huge.

My mouth fell open the slightest bit in shock, and my eyes widened. Before I could school my expression, I looked back up at his face and found his gaze had never left mine. He had a knowing shit-eating grin, then just chuckled before winking at me and backing away towards his room.

It had been a long time since I felt a true, legitimate desire for someone and now it was coursing through me like molten metal. I clamped my thighs together to try to dispel the heated tingling that I was now experiencing. Thoroughly turned on by the wrong childhood best friend. Not that I wasn’t still extremely attracted to Jules too, which was a problem in of itself. I told myself it’s just cause he’s prancing around in those thin as shit gym shorts, not him confessing how much he missed and cared for me earlier. It didn’t mean anything.

I could not handle a situation that messy right now, as much as my lady bits were trying to convince me that it was a spectacular idea.

When it came down to it, I really couldn’t see myself committing to monogamy right now, anyway. I decided a while ago that it just wasn’t something I was interested in currently. I’d had my heart broken from a friendship. It wasn’t hard to imagine what damage giving one person that kind of power over you could do.

Sure, I was curious about sex. I knew it had to be enjoyable when it was consensual and with the right person. I’d just basically been under house arrest by my dad after we moved, then once I turned eighteen and he lost interest in trying to control me, all I’d been able to focus on was working hard and making enough money to escape.

As my eyelids started getting heavy and sleep finally started to take me, I was flooded with fantasies of being between them both. Two pairs of hands roaming over my skin, pausing to spend extra time on the spots that elicited sinful moans. One of them rising to kiss me, swallowing the sounds of pleasure straight from the source while dragging more from my entire being all the way down from my curling toes.

The other tugging on a fistful of hair to expose my throat so they can kiss and nip their way down to my breast. This was a welcome change from the usual visions of the past that haunted my mind as sleep lingered near. A delusional part of me hoped I was glimpsing a piece of the future.

I woke abruptly out of an exceptionally dirty dream where I was being made into the contents of a Cat sandwich. The two pieces of bread: the two men that I was currently sharing a roof with. I was contemplating the logistics of this sleepily when I realized what must have awoken me.

I could hear a soft whining noise and then what sounded like the bed across the hall bumping into the wall. It was quiet enough to apparently not stir Sadie, but I’d tended to be a light sleeper if I wasn’t trapped in the throes of a nightmare. I got out of bed and whisper yelled to Dom across the hall, but he didn’t respond.

I closed the gap between our rooms in a few hurried steps, concerned that he didn’t answer. When I got there, he was in the bed, the sheets were bunched down around his legs like he’d been thrashing wildly about. The whimpering sound was coming from him, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he panicked in his sleep. His arms and legs looked like they were trying to move but were paralyzed with sleep, leaving him to sort of just twitch as if being held down by invisible restraints.

I called out to him again to try to wake him, but his bad dream had him firmly in its grasp. I leaned over the side of the bed and gently placed a hand on his chest to attempt again, but before I could even utter his name, he shot awake. His hand came up, grabbing my throat with one of his large hands and flipped me over him so that I was now laying flat on my back on the bed with him hovering above me. His other hand dove under his pillow, coming back with a knife that he then held under my chin.

“It’s me, Cat! Fuck, Dom, get that knife the hell away from me,” I wheezed out as I wriggled to get my face further from the blade.

He blinked a few times, clearing his mind from whatever imagery he had woken up with still filling his vision. Horror filled his face, and he released his hold on my neck as he tossed the knife onto the floor with a thud. One of his hands then came back up to cup the side of my cheek while his eyes grew damp.

“I almost fucking stabbed you. I’m so sorry,” he started blubbering. “I was having a dream. I was alone when that lady came out of the bathroom, she tackled me and was crawling up my body about to bite me. I couldn’t stop her. I couldn’t move. She was right about to fucking bite me. I’m so fucking sorry.”

His other hand came up to the other side of my face. Now holding himself up by his elbows, he placed his forehead to mine. With the weight of his body pressing down on mine, I was suddenly hyper aware of his thick muscular thigh between both of mine. I was still slick down there from the lust filled dream I was having before I woke up myself, I shifted the slightest bit and electricity shot up my body from where his made contact with my swollen clit.

“It’s-it’s o-okay,” I stuttered out. “Y-you were having a nightmare, I get it. I have lots of those myself.”

His eyes searched mine, trying to bore in and mine through to all the secrets he knew were hidden within. I could see doubt there as well, not with me, but with himself. I could tell he was not as quick to let go of the fact that he had held a weapon to my flesh less than a minute earlier. After what happened to him today though I couldn’t blame him for being on edge, heavens knew I’ve gotten a little stabby myself since the last time we saw each other, but this was new to all of us. Not knowing what was going to happen in the night when you dared close your eyes for a few hours.

“Look at you, though. You’re terrified of me now. You can barely get your words out,” he shifted his weight again, sending another shock of pleasure through me.

This time I couldn’t hold back the soft moan or my eyes fighting to roll to the back of my skull.

“Oh,” he squeaked and looked down.

Down to where his leg pressed firmly to my center, causing delicious friction every time one of us moved. When his eyes came back up to my face, there was heat blazing uncontrollably within them. He stared disbelievingly for just a second before his lips were on mine. Immobilized with shock for a second but then springing to life, I threw my arms around his neck and lost myself in the frantic kiss. It’d been so long since I felt any kind of wanted physical intimacy and my body was singing at the feeling of all his bare skin pressed against mine.

He moved one hand to my hair and laced it through the strands. The other started to make its way down my waist, then to my thigh to grab it tight and wrench it to the side. He shifted, then both of his legs were between mine as he spread them even wider. His body pressed to mine and I could feel his hardened bulge slide up against my core, now only separated by two flimsy layers of fabric, and we both shuddered. He gently bit my lip, then started kissing his way down my neck, moving the strap of my tank top aside to free his path. He nipped my collarbone and I let out another light moan.

He lifted up off me slightly to look into my eyes once again, mirrored expressions of bewilderment on both our faces at what just happened so spontaneously. I reached up and lightly brushed my fingers to my lips and questioned if perhaps I was still dreaming. He took it and pinned it next to my head, kissing me fiercely again as if to prove this was real and there was no taking it back now. His clothed cock brushed against the spot where my aching need was emanating from again and I involuntarily bucked my hips, desperate for all the friction.

His hand crept up my thigh, over my lower stomach, and grazed lightly over my waistband as he began toying with it. We both held our breaths in anticipation, him waiting for me to reject him and me silently pleading with him to not stop. I took control of the kiss, parting my lips in request he do the same, then meeting in the middle in a tangle of tongues. This time, when my hips ground against his, I was in control, hoping to convey just how needy I was for his touch right now. His hand then dove beneath my shorts and he ran his fingers through my slick, wet heat.

“Oh fuck,” he groaned against my lips. “You’re so goddamn wet. What the hell am I going to do with you?”

“Dom, touch me please,” I begged breathily, almost unrecognizable to myself with how overtaken by lust I was at the moment.

His finger came up to circle my clit, and I had to bite my lip to suppress the moan that was trying to bubble out. His hand moved from pinning mine to cover my mouth. After softly pecking the back of his own hand, he then gave me a dark smile. He dipped his head, taking the top of my shirt into his teeth now that both hands were occupied, and pulled it down to expose my chest. He looked up into my gaze as I painstakingly watched his every move, then circled his tongue around my nipple, never once breaking eye contact.

The second he took it into his mouth and bit down on it gently, he also thrust two fingers inside of me, massaging them in and out, all the while still pressing his thumb to my clit. It was a good thing he was attempting to suppress the sounds coming out of me because now that he was making me see stars, I was hardly in control of them.

He kissed across my chest to my other breast, licking and sucking on that one too, assuring it didn’t feel left out. Holy shit, I had been missing out. Yeah, I’d touched myself before, but it had never felt anything close to the full body experience I was currently getting. I could feel the pleasure he was giving me in every single cell of my body. My eyes began to roll into the back of my head, approaching an orgasm quicker than I ever had in my entire life.

“Well isn’t that just fucking perfect,” a voice said from the doorway.