Treyan's Promise | The Empire Saga Novella #2

Chapter Nine

"What is this place?"

Treyan awoke to see Alex sitting next to him on their bed of pillows within a room filled with soft light. Her auburn hair fell loose down her slender back as she tried to piece together their sudden whereabouts. But Treyan knew where they were the as soon as he opened his eyes.

They were dreaming.

He sat up and noticed that the pain in his back faded to almost nothing- the benefits of the dream magic, he surmised. Alex must have sensed his movements, for she turned to face him, and he discovered she wore a nearly transparent negligee with a low-cut bodice and thin straps that seemed to fall from her shoulders any time she moved.

He smiled to himself, and she glared at him, assuming it was at her misfortune.

"Relax, Empress, we're only in a dream. You don't remember?"

She arched a brow. "What are you talking about?"

He adjusted himself against a few pillows, only then realizing there was nothing covering him beneath the sheets. Shrugging slightly, he returned his attention to Alex.

"This is how we first met."

"Here? In a dream?" she asked incredulously.

Treyan nodded. "That's how I first knew who you were, your name, and eventually how to find you."

Alex seemed skeptical. "What did I do, just show up and tell you my name?"

"Among other things." Treyan smirked. "Have I told you how beautiful you are?" he asked her as he brought a hand lightly up one of her arms, intending to replace the fallen strap on her shoulder.

She blushed, and her skin felt bumpy to his touch, though their surroundings were relatively warm.

"Why are we here?" she asked, as though trying to change the subject.

"Apparently our psyches believed we needed some time alone."

Alex chuckled. "Alone time is the least of our concerns." She moved next to him, snuggling against his naked chest in such a way he couldn't help but wrap his arms around her and hold her tight. It had been so long since he touched her, felt her, held her close—his body quickly betrayed him from underneath the thin sheet and he grew uncharacteristically flush.

She could sense his unease and smiled against his chest. "At least one of our psyches is ready."

He couldn't help but snicker at himself. "It has been a while..."

"Mm," she agreed, her own arms wrapping around his waist. "Life does have a way of getting in the way of things."

Her presence was intoxicating, like a pheromone invading his senses. Dream or not, he knew it would inevitably end, and he wanted to take advantage of the painless seclusion while he could.

Sadly, his Empress had other intentions.

"We need to figure out what we're going to do," she muttered against his chest. "It's been almost a month since we've been back, and you're still immobile..."

"Not for the moment, I'm not," he assured her with a suggestive smile, and to prove his point he held her tight while he flipped her over, laying her on the bed as he leaned above her. She couldn't help but smile as he looked down upon her, and his lips were upon hers without another hesitation.

Alex returned the kiss but pulled away as she continued with her thought process.

"Treyan, please. I don't know how much longer we should stay here. Crystal is asking a lot of questions and I'm not sure how much I should tell her. And soon the lease is going to be up and we'll need to figure out what to do next. I don't know if we should stay here, especially if the others already know where I live. We need to figure out a way to return. Obviously, we can't stay here forever- we must get Sarayna back to her home. And Lexan..."

"Lexan." Treyan frowned.

"We need to get back to him, Treyan. We need to get him back."

"I know," he sighed, leaning his brow against hers and closing his eyes. "But without the ability to get back, I don't know how we can."

"There has to be a way. There has to be something. Some way to find out that he's okay, to let him know we're coming back for him. Maybe the Councillor can create a Key and somehow get into the Borderlands-"

"Is this really what you think about while I'm dreaming?" he asked his wife, blinking in disbelief.

She looked up at him, apparently lost in her own thoughts, and smiled shyly. "Other than trying to get you to feel better, it's all I've been able to think about lately. I guess it's harder for me to turn my brain off these days. Especially when you haven't been coherent enough to have an actual conversation."

"Well, I am more than coherent now."

His lips returned to hers and this time he was not going to allow her to break away. Instead, he lowered himself upon her, allowing her body to support his weight while he wrapped an arm around her, allowing his hand to tangle in her hair while his other hand gently caressed her face. Their mouths melded together in perfect unison while she held onto him tight, her hips shifting slightly underneath him, reminding him very quickly that only her extremely thin gown separated their yearning bodies.

Yes, it had felt like an eternity since he last touched his wife, but he would be damned if he would have it end as soon as it started.

"Alex," he whispered heatedly against her lips.

"Mm?" she questioned as her mouth ventured to his neck, not allowing anything to delay their momentum.

He let out a moan as she kept her attention on his body, forgetting what he was going to ask her in the first place. The sensation of her lips warm against his skin was too much for him to bear any longer, and soon his mouth found its way to her exposed breast, taking the nipple between his lips while his hand reached down lower between them to remove the material barrier annoyingly separating him from his wife

Treyan hiked Alex's gown above her hips, and without word or warning, entered her with a single thrust. The sigh of ecstasy that she breathed against his neck almost echoed his own as he felt her around him. Her nails dug into his back as he moved, as though afraid letting go would cause her to slip away.

Leaving her would be the last thing he'd ever do.