Once Upon A Dream (Mien/Juumbled)

[Mien]

Valence entertained himself through the landscape of dreams. It was his only escape in a place where he could not possibly escape, and the only way his sanity clung still was through the subconscious of others. With some, it was easy; he made the landscape of their mind his own personal playground. With others, it was just a ride that he sat through until it was done, for better or for worse. It was rare, even then, that he could interact with those minds directly, and so he was a passerby watching the story of someone else’s life and he the only spectator, never a player.

He had lost track of time like this.

He often wondered if she thought of him at all, mocking him in the outside world for being baited, caught, kept in a cage of his own making. Or if she had forgotten or died or why he even cared, now. Time was a fractured thing, here. It was not fluid and there was no timeline for him to follow. He knew that it passed and that the flow was uninterrupted, but in his cage, it was as if it were frozen, though it could have also been that he just would not age.

And in a way, he could see how it moved from the perception of others when he ventured into their minds. It reassured him, in a way, that there were those that still existed, that this was not eternal, that there was still a way for him to claw his way out of his prison and crypt. He just needed to find one soul to let him free.

That was why he marked one. A girl - a young woman - who he had found in the dreamscape. It had been too long since he had found one like her, whom he could interact with on more than a rudimentary, passing level. That he could speak with her had been a moment of elation for him -- enough that the monster inside had almost come out in his excitement. Only he had learned from the last soul that he had spoken to … these things were not something that he could rush, or risk being shut out forever.

So his continued arrival in her dreams, so far, were harmless visitations. He took the form of a man in them; her preference in what a partner would be. Darkly handsome, a square cut jaw, tall enough that he stood over her without being imposing. At first, he also did not try and control the tempo of her dreams; he treated them much like he did others, as a casual character come to visit in the subconscious of her thoughts.

But eventually … Valence was cocky, became sure of himself. This was only the third time he created the scene for them - himself and the woman named Summer. It was a world that he had visited, once. It was a field of light and darkness, but no shadows. The grass swayed by a breeze that did not exist, scattered with night blooming flowers that seemed to glow iridescent under the bloated globe of a moon that hung too low in the sky. The midnight landscape itself was a sea of shooting stars that streaked across its darkling canvas and small lightning bugs flitted through the airs. Beyond the field, there was a forest, of much the same, and a little below the cresting hill that he stood on waiting for her to sleep was a dark pond that reflected the lights streaking across the sky.

He had pulled this from a memory; it was not real. But he hoped to breach some sort of barrier that still remained between them tonight in the fairytale landscape and come one step closer to ending his imprisonment. He just needed to get the woman to trust him, to believe, and then to set him free.

@Juumbled

 

[Jumbled]

Summer sat at her vanity, running her fingers through her chestnut hair, twirling the thick waves into spirals as she stared, not really seeing herself at all. Her attention seemed fixed, though her thoughts were far from her form in the reflection before her. Her mind was bogged down by the most puzzling dreams, not always the same, but with a repeat person always there now— Valence. She felt confused, conflicted. The more she saw him, the more she wanted to remain sleeping— to understand why he was there. It seemed like so much more than a dream with him appearing so often. Was he real? Simply getting up and going into work had become a struggle for her. She’d never been one to waste her life away in bed all day, usually up at 5am sharply without the aid of an alarm. For the past week however— she’d been late to work once and nearly did it again that morning.

Summer’s eyes blinked and began to focus on the mirror, shaking her from her thoughts. She wondered how long she’d been there, unblinking like that. Zoning out wasn’t very typical for her either. She frowned and pulled her hand away from her hair. She looked tired even though she’d been getting so much sleep. Perhaps she was getting sick. She looked at the dark circles that cast shadows under her light blue eyes and sighed. Getting ill would make the most sense, she supposed. She didn’t think she’d been feverish, but at that point she was willing to use the excuse. She found her right hand lingering over her smart phone, considering whether or not to send an email in saying she’d be taking some time away from the office. Perhaps a vacation was in order. If she wasn’t sick, perhaps she was dealing with too much stress.

Stress—

Her mind circled around the thought of her ex-fiance that had left her for a younger girl months prior. She swallowed hard at the lump in her throat. How could a woman closer to the age of 30 than 20 compete with a college freshman? She looked away from the mirror, unhappy with her appearance. She’d started blaming his choice to leave her solely on looks alone by that point. She sighed. It didn’t matter. Summer had been ignoring the red flags from the beginning, her lack of self-confidence convincing herself that she would never manage to do better.

Hands that worked at a keyboard all day pushed herself up from the seat in front of the vanity. She stood with a light pink, satin robe draping along her form. She hadn’t bothered to pull it tightly enough to look becoming— it hung limply around her curved and voluptuous frame. With only a few paces to her bed, she pulled the corner of the comforter down, climbing inside of the delightfully cool sheets that hid beneath. Regardless of the confusion her dreams had managed to cast upon her mind, she did tire and long to rest her eyes.

It may have been minutes, or perhaps several hours, that had passed before Summer was aware of herself inside of a dream. That was just another strange thing that she’d noticed, too. She’d never felt so much like she was still awake when she wasn’t. She looked at herself. She wore a gown that hugged her every curve, jewelry that accentuated her neck line, ears and fingers. Her feet were bare and there was even a chain around her ankle. She wondered why it seemed as though her dream-state was trying to make her feel pretty. Surely she could never look as good as all that.

Her vision was filled with a peculiar world as she turned her head slowly to take in the landscape. There was no airflow, yet the grass upon the field in which she stood tickled at her feet as it swayed rhythmically to and fro. There were flowers scattered along the soft hills that rolled along into the horizon that housed a moon so large she thought she might be standing on a star instead. The sky was glittering with trails of shooting stars that streaked across the darkness while the offset beats of glowing bugs flickered along like smooth waves were taking them home. For a place what was so clearly night, it wasn’t exactly dark.

Summer could feel it in her chest. This wasn’t a normal place; this was a dream he had to exist in. She spun, hair rushing along after her in a fan of motion, looking around with eager eyes to spot the man she’d been visited by so many times that week; Looking for Valence. There was a large tree behind her and she walked toward it, her hand touching against the bark as she looked down, seeing a forest thick with trees where some of the lightning bugs had gathered together in their serene bobbing. She could only find herself wondering where he was. She wanted to see him again— if only to just better understand it all.

 

[Mien]

There she was. He saw her before she saw him, but he also blended into the scenery tonight, but it was really that he blended into his own memory. His will was the only reason that he could present there in the first place, instead of the reality that was his existence. The ember burn in his eyes faded to cool charcoal as he stepped forward as if cresting one of the hills in the valley.

Shades of black and white undulating with iridescent gray mottled his skin and hugged his frame in the form of an old fashioned waistcoat and breeches, though the disheveled hair, black as jet, remained waving in the winds that were not really there. In other dreams, he had not looked so old fashioned, but with the landscape as it was and with what she had appeared in herself, something more out of a fairy tale seemed to fit the mood more than anything else.

The beard was trimmed on his face, shaved close to his jaw and following its outline as well as accentuated the sharp curve of his mouth and sculpted cheekbones that only added to the devilish appearance that he had claimed as his visage. Perhaps he would keep it, once he was free.

Perhaps he would keep her as well, though for the time being the woman was simply a means to an end. Fragile, as he had already learned, she lacked self-confidence, and thus he had shifted his angle to be the charmer.

“Summer,” the sound of her name was more like an embrace than a spoken word, as it could be in dreams. And especially here where everything was uncertain, near colorless. Though somehow she had created color where there was otherwise none. That feat alone piqued his interest, but so did the low dip in her neckline that his eyes strayed to once his sights had left the look on her face. Like a gentleman, he bowed at the waist and procured a gloved hand out to her with a smile. “You look lovely tonight,” he admired, straightening as he shortened the distance between them even further until he had to look down to see her eyes.

“I am glad that you found me again,” he admitted. Something in his accent, not quite British. Maybe a little old English, formal, punctuated but warm. It felt like warm bourbon if one could hear a liquid. “It has been a little while, this time. Did something happen? You look upset tonight,” he noticed, eyes searching. He almost reached up to touch her, but resisted. “Or stressed. Tell me.”

 

[Jumbled]

Summer spun in her dress, her hand leaving the large, lone standing tree with a push to better propel herself in the other direction. The fabric of her gown, still flowing in the momentum, twisted further around her legs before spiraling back in the other direction, also the way things did in dreams. She looked both startled and relieved to see him standing there before her. She could still conjure forth that form of a handsome man in her dreams, somehow, and she couldn’t help but feel a small wave of control over— at least— something wash over her. Even if she couldn’t keep her life together while awake, she could still summon the man that seemed to grow more and more attractive to her each night they’d met.

“Valence,” Summer nearly spoke his name through a sigh that flowed out into the monochromatically painted world in which they stood. Though as she stood there, she could see the glowing flowers breathe with new hues of light blues, as if a cool light had filled them from the inside and then poured back out onto the fields of grass. All around them, more colors, though muted, began to breathe life into the place.

Their eyes locked for a moment and her lips parted as she saw his attire. It was different from the last time, she was certain. She supposed the dream had some sort of elegant theme to it. She found herself thinking of a royal ball with her in the gown and him looking so— dignified. Yes, that was the word. There were other words rolling around in her thoughts, too, but that one seemed the safest.

These dreams were always so different; they felt so real. She often woke feeling far more tired than well rested. But, regardless of that, there was something about him in particular that made her take pause. She would always wonder why they hadn’t been intimate. She’d had plenty of sex dreams throughout her life, but, those dreams seemed scattered, silly and out of her control. It wasn’t the same when she was with Valence. Not only that, but she only ever seemed to be in control of herself, seeing only through her own eyes, and that wasn’t normal for dream behavior either. So— she hesitated to attempt anything with him, feeling too unsure of herself. Still—

“I did want to find you,” she began to explain. Her jaw clenched as she thought of the words. It should have been easy enough to tell a phantom that lived in her dreams. “I’ve just been very tired. Maybe getting sick. It’s not—” her thoughts came full circle as she recalled the other stresses of her ex fiance. Perhaps it was because their anniversary had just passed that the image of him freshly poisoned her mind. “I’m just alone— Tired of feeling that way.” she said quietly. “And I suppose when those things crossed my mind, I realized that I’d missed seeing you here— that’s so silly sounding. Agh—” Summer bit her lip and turned away from him. Why was she speaking so openly to this dream-man?

 

[Mien]

From what little he knew of the woman named Summer, he did not take her to be the type of woman who enjoyed clubbing or partying. When he did select their dreamscape, he had been careful to pick places that were tame, or that had something of a fairy tale appeal to it. The last had been a hybrid between a library and a garden, an idea he had plucked out of a French woman’s mind some time ago. Now that he had connected more with her, however, perhaps he could begin discovering some of the things that she truly desired, deep down.

He had already gotten the impression of insecurities held barely under the surface. A sense of self-doubt in herself that he picked at even with his mild questioning. It was his way, after all, to burrow down under the surface to bring it all out into the open, and one of the reasons why he had long since been buried.

Watching her now, his black eyes flared gold in an otherwise colorless world that he released just a little more control over to her, and did not bother fighting off the smile that curled his lips as he watched from the edges of his mind as more color bloomed into the fields and forests that surrounded them.

And then as she spoke…. He felt a thrill lance through him as she fought with herself to form the words that she needed to, while he stood stock still, anticipating, even feeling that tingle of uncertainty emanate from her subconsciousness. Then he caught it like capturing a fluttering butterfly -- desire, nearly tangible, and a delicious stab of it angled right at him from her.

She might not have even realized it yet.

Only he waited, like a lion shifting among the grass, until she had turned away. That was when he was there, took that last step in her direction, his hand sliding along her elbow down to her hand. He took it up in his and gave it a squeeze, his a surprising warm despite that he was wearing a glove. He could remove it with a thought, but they were taking it slow -- even here.

Valance stepped up alongside her, then to her back, his hand steering her around so that she could look out over the fantasy landscape and its new flickers of color. Leaning down, his breath rasped against her cheek, teased the shell of her ear.

“What if I told you that you control what happens here? And that you don’t even have to say what you want, if you don’t wish, and you can have whatever it is that you want? Here, you aren’t alone. Here -- you also aren’t sick, or tired, or anything that you don’t wish to be. So … what is it that you wish? A bed to sleep on, so that you can sleep? A warm meal, to slay sickness? Something… else?”

He tugged her back, just subtly enough so that he could press forward until his chest pressed against her back. Despite that they existed in a dream state, his presence would still feel very real. Tangible. His other arm looped around, hand lifting so that his knuckles brushed across her cheek. His thumb caught the edge of her jaw, the rest of his hand urging her head up so that he could look her in the eye.

 

[Jumbled]

So often when Summer found herself lost in her mind with the delightful Valance beside her, they were always surrounded by the most pleasing places to look at. It was as if the settings were hand picked for her to laze about in and relax, or perhaps to wander around aimlessly inside of until the dream ended and she had to return to her mediocre life without him there beside her. Perhaps it was pathetic how badly she preferred to sleep and find her way back to him, but she couldn’t help the way she felt. Pathetic or not, this is what she wanted to do.

It felt as though he understood her, though maybe not fully. They had been learning about each other, which was only another reason why he felt so real to her. Coming back to a dreamscape where she was the main focus of this man was more than just a little appealing while her mind was in such a weakened state. She didn’t have to think about her ex, her job, her life. None of it mattered.

She looked off, embarrassed, of all things, but soon jumped at the feeling of a warm touch grazing her elbow. She turned, finding Valance the closest he’d ever come to her, with his gloved hand sliding slowly down her arm, finding her hand in his own. Her face flushed brightly as he squeezed her hand. He’d shifted so easily from her side to standing behind her, and he spun her by the grip of his hand on hers to better direct her where he wanted her to go. Perhaps they were dancing after all. A soft giggle left her as she stared out, watching as new colors took life before her eyes. She could hardly pay attention to such things, though. She was far too distracted.

Valance leaned into her. He was so warm. She slowly allowed herself to lean back more against him. Surely he wouldn’t mind since he was already standing so near. They were flirting, weren’t they? He leaned down, as if to answer her thoughts with his breath tickling her ear, sending chills and shivers down her spine into her core.

He spoke and the heat along her face only surged into raging fires that made her wonder if she actually was feverish. She brushed her hair back with her free hand, shifting nervously as he spoke. What was he suggesting, exactly? She didn’t want to get it wrong. She’d been wrong with other men, thinking they’d wanted her only to find herself looking like a complete fool within minutes.

With a gentle pull, he’d guided her back against him more, her back touching his chest. She could feel the strength that hid beneath his princely costume and her breath hitched from the excitement of their proximity as his other hand found her jaw. She was practically putty in his hands, and shifted so easily from his direction, gazing up at him with big, timid eyes. But. There was more there than just timidness. Indeed, there was desire, unspoken, that she felt rising to the surface. Did he mean that? Could she truly think about what she wanted and it would happen? Was it all so easy in a place such as this?

Summer gazed up at him for a long while. Time felt frozen in place there in his embrace. She could feel those thoughts forming more clearly as she stared into his eyes. There was something in them, something that she should have paid closer attention to, perhaps, but she didn’t want to worry about what darkness he might have been hiding beneath the surface.

“I want you…” the thought surfaced and she wasn’t sure if she’d even said it aloud or not. The ground below felt as though it was spinning and he was there, anchoring her from flying away into some void.

 

[Mien]

Valence had to remind himself that she was a means to an end, nothing more. That this was all just a fleeting amusement until he had a more candid conversation with the woman -- though he could feel that the time for that conversation was approaching fast, and would perhaps be this night. He could sense from the woman that she was growing to trust him, oblivious in her sweet naivete.

It made him smile, a cruel thing just above her head where she could not see him fully. His smile only broadened when she leaned back into his chest. They had thought to lock him away and yet here he was still, coiled like the serpent around this woman who would look at him with such desire. He could feel it running from her as if it were a truly tangible thing, the heat and electric coils that sung through his being and created a burning hunger that was his nature.

He could suck her dry without too much thought, he knew.

But no, not yet. He still needed her. His eyes had turned molten as she turned hers up to look into his face, amber shot through with gold, burning with a preternatural intensity that seemed to shed away the barrier that hid her thoughts and laid her more bare than if she had been naked in front of him.

I want you.

A song sung sweetly and she didn’t even have to speak it. Acknowledgement fell over his face with the admittance and his hand shifted, allowing for his thumb to stroke her bottom lip, then rise so that his knuckles grazed the soft skin of her cheek before leaving her completely. He released her only so that he could pull the gloves from his hand, tuck them into the pocket of his doublet. Then they fell again, heavy yet gentle on her shoulders to turn her back around to face him fully. One hand wound around the back of her neck so that he cradled the base of her skull and the other settled on her chin, tilting her face up.

She was nervous, so he was sweet with the way he dipped his head, stroking his mouth against hers in a heady kiss. Gentle at first, a savoring taste of the softness that was her mouth. Then with a growl that rumbled low in his throat, he pushed forward like a hungry predator, his lips capturing hers fully in a fervent kiss.

The hand that had tipped her chin dove down, encircling her waist and pulling her against him, settling her hips against his and holding her there so that she could feel the evidence of his own desire straining against the front of his breeches.

He dragged his mouth away from hers with a teasing strike of his tongue across the line of her lips, probing gently with a promise to return and delve deeper, before he dragged his lips across the line of her jaw and settled them against the shell of her ear. His hot breath teased as he whispered, “What else?”

His head dipped lower, his arm tightening around her waist to firm his grasp. His lips found the pulse in her throat and kissed there, his tongue teasing against her skin to taste her sweetness.

 

[Jumbled]

Motionless she stood, feeling Valence leave her as his hands lifted away from her face. She felt a jolt of panic strike at her chest, spreading into her limbs as her fingers trembled. She’d spooked him— even in dreams she was nothing more than a screw-up. She closed her eyes, letting her head drop back as she cursed internally at herself, going to war with her very own, delicate mental state and self esteem. She always did these things. Why did she always manage to go too far? To say the wrong things? To offer too much with the twinkle in her eyes? In the moments it had taken Valence to remove his gloves, Summer had managed to belittle herself down to the smallest person she possibly could. She was worthless. No man was ever going to want her, not even the ones invented in her own mind.

Then, she jumped with quite a start, like a wounded animal expecting to be struck like it had been many times before. Steady hands stretched warm fingers across her shoulders, and with such a touch, the panic that consumed her transformed into a chill of cold sweat. What was he going to do? She was so embarrassed. Her mind spiraled. He spun her slowly, perhaps oblivious of how much had happened in her own mind with such little time in between his touches. With a timid glance, her gaze reached his. He didn’t seem disgusted with her— had she been wrong?

As his hand reached forward to cradle the back of her neck and push forward into her hair, she inhaled slowly, shakily, her body then growing so hot she wished for the chills to come back. Her cheeks grew a deep, rose color as his careful fingers tilted her chin slowly upward, causing her to look at him more directly. His eyes were so alive, like embers that danced and burned brightly only to dim into a warm glow, nestled among the darkness that wished to consume them. The icy blue cold that shone back at him only wished to melt against that heat and be consumed instead.

It felt much like a moment she’d been waiting to happen all of her life; the romantic dream atmosphere of flowers blooming with magic that overflowed and painted the land, the giant moon up above and a man there that wanted to do nothing more than draw her near for their first kiss. She held her breath, though not on purpose but from anticipation as she saw his sharp features drawing nearer. She wanted to touch him, but would he mind? Summer couldn’t deter her own hand from reaching forward, running affectionately along his facial hair and up into the loosened strands of his hair as he dipped down, connecting their two bodies with the kiss she’d been craving for nights.

Summer held onto him, not wishing to leave that moment, but, the moment passed quickly, marked by the sound of an almost predatory growl that rumbled somewhere deep within Valence. With far more need than the first, their second kiss— if it could be considered as such— became lust-driven. His body could overpower her at any moment, Summer was not a very strong girl, not even in her dreams. But that didn’t matter. He could take her, she wanted him to. His hands, eager to touch her, left the safe, fairy tale zones of a cute romance and entered into the realms of a harlequin romance instead. Summer moaned into his kiss as he grabbed her hip, pulling her frame close enough to feel the warm bulge of a man that clearly wanted a woman.

Their lips parted and Summer gasped for a breath. It was unclear how air worked in such a mind-space, but it felt as though she’d just come up from the depths of the ocean, oxygen meeting her lungs just before she might have sunk below the depths forever; lost to the seas in the shipwreck of her feelings that spun into whirlpools begging to drag her back down once more. She whined as his mouth left her, but it was a soft noise, barely audible compared to the loud thumping of her heart that pumped each strong beat of its excited passion in her ears. His voice broke through everything as his question pushed into her mind, demanding she tell him her desires with so very little actually being said.

What could she possibly ask of him? He was so beautifully giving her exactly what she wanted— his attention. As he shifted to her throat, her hand remained in his hair, further back than it had been. He was soft where he should be and incredibly rugged and hardened in all of the right ways. Her head tilted to the side, granting him all the more access to her neck as her other hand found his arm, running delicate fingers along the fabric that kept her skin from his. The fingers tightened around his hair as he tickled her flesh and sent chills and shivers running from where he kissed all the way to her core where things were awakening and wanted attention. She gripped just as hard against his arm then, trying to redirect the feelings of desire from her center back out to him.

What else? His question still rang out in her mind, repeating his sensual words over and over as she searched for the words. What was the right answer? Did it matter what she said? Did she need to be a lady in such a scenario? The real world had so many rules to follow, but what really applied to them there?

“Devour me.”

 

[Mien]

He could smell her fear and self-deprecation like a fine perfume underneath the hot flame of anticipation, of desire. It quickened his own infernal blood blow, threatening to bring out the predator that lurked just underneath the fairy tale fluff facade. In another life, what he had been building up with the girl would never have been something that he would entertain before, this sweet seduction of a person.

Valence had always been one to cast his net and simply take what he wanted. And lust was one of the driving factors that fueled him the most.

With Summer, her own tasted like sweet line and honey on the tip of his tongue, with that faint, over ripe after taste of low self-esteem that emanated from her like a beacon. A troubled home life; she sought him out for the fantasy of being desired -- and that was not something that she even had to say out loud. The girl was a wounded thing, and that was bringing the wolf out to play.

He couldn’t contain the smile as she looked up at him, moon-struck, his teeth glinting in his face for a moment before his features altered into something more amorous in nature, until that too faded into their shared kiss.

He reveled in how pliant she was in his grasp as the heat of his hands traversed lower, skimming over her lower back and grasping lower, taking two handfuls of her soft bottom and squeezing, lifting her up and pulling her closer. His cock throbbed along with the excitement he inhaled her skin, tasted it on her with his lips. He drank it in but wanted more, and with her next words, he took more.

His lips parted, firm but soft against her skin. The edge of his teeth found the column of her throat and his tongue darted to trail across her soft skin. With her hands clinging into his dark hair, his mouth moved lower, fluttering across her collarbone to the dip between her breasts that peeked up at him from the bodice of the dress she wore. Her mouth lingered there on the milky swells, his dark eyes flickering up to her face, before a wicked smile curved his mouth.

He kept one hand fitted underneath one plump cheek of her ass with his other. His grasp was rough as he took the fabrication of her dream dress and yanked it down at the bodice and freeing her breasts. His mouth lifted up from her skin, capturing her mouth again while his hand wandered, cupping one soft mound in his palm and lifting it while his thumb splayed up, teasing her nipple with its rough pad.

“Oh, I intend to,” he responded, voice gruff, as he teased his lips away, only to press in harder, his tongue more forceful than before as it pushed past the part of her lips to explore her mouth.

 

[Jumbled]

Finally, Valence was touching her, taking her, desiring her in the way she needed him to. Summer had come back to him so many times, meeting with him in their slow dance of what felt like a Victorian courtship. It all seemed so old fashioned to her— just like out of a book. As much as those slow build-ups made the finalization of the main characters coming together in the end all the more worthwhile, Summer wanted to write a different story that night.

His hands began to familiarize themselves with her form in a deliberate journey starting from the arch of her lower back, sending waves of tiny tremors up her spine and somehow into her chest. His hands only continued to trail down, gripping at her ass as he lifted her into him with a pull. She could feel his excitement against her thighs and she thoroughly enjoyed his show of how he desired her. She didn’t have to guess what he wanted. She didn’t need to think about anything. It didn’t matter if he cared about her anymore. He wasn’t real. She would attempt to come back to him another time if she was yearning for his conversation. But— the time for talking was over.

The kisses along her neck turned into hungry biting with teasing flicks of his tongue. Summer kept her grip as he moved lower, just above the cleavage that poked out from the dress that wrapped around her. She watched Valence, her teeth pressing against her bottom lip with anticipation. His eyes drew their fiery attention to her cool blue staring and he smiled in a way she’d never seen him do before. It wasn’t unbecoming at all but made her wonder if this made-up man was shifting into something more akin to a “bad boy.”

Her questions were answered quickly as he withdrew a hand from her behind. She couldn’t peel her eyes away from the bold and precise movements he took to rip her dress down, freeing her breasts with a jiggling bounce as they were released from the soft confinements that previously held them. Her lips parted and she exhaled from her mouth. A sudden fear struck her as she began to question if he’d even like the way she looked without clothes. Her eyes shifted away, gazing out at the glowing flowers instead. She felt him pull away from her chest and she turned back to see his reaction— she had to see his expression. It would tell her everything she needed to know. Her mind was quickly thrown off its rails as his lips pressed against hers firmly. His hand was exploring her further and all she could do was moan and nearly go limp in his embrace. Being vulnerable around another man— even a fantasy one— was exhausting. She easily leaned her weight against him, moaning blissfully into his kiss as his thumb brushed against her nipple. Sharp jolts struck her core at each stroke he made.

She asked him to devour her and he assured her he would do nothing less. Relief washed over her for that time, and she sank deeper into the heat of their kisses, her hands leaving his hair only to blindly find his shirt. She tugged at it, untucking any neat appearance it once had so that she could snake her hands beneath the cloth, her delicate palms finding his toned chest. Her tongue circled around his and her arms inched around his torso to hug him closer.

 

[Mien]

Containment, control. These were two things that Valence had learned during his time and they were the two things that he wished to discard now in this moment. How sweetly, how eagerly the woman in his arms caved to her carnal desires -- and how much he wanted to devour it up, leave her drained while her lust rejuvenated him. He could feel it radiating off her like a temptation ripe for the taking.

Clinging to his thread of control, he instead drank from the sweetness of her mouth instead. His tongue was a flicker of flame that danced with her own, driving her with the skill of centuries. The sleek muscle pushed deep enough that his mouth slanted against her own, crushing the soft petals of her lips while his mouth moved as if to devour her. His moan hummed through her mouth as he lost himself and the hand that cradled her ass squeezed once then trailed back up to cradle the back of her head.

As drawn out as his kiss was, he did drag his mouth back reluctantly, his teeth plucking her lower lip as he did so. His breath was hot as he dragged in a ragged breath and his voice dropped down to a growl in the back of his throat when he spoke, “Relax, enjoy this.” It was a command or a compellation that was strung in his voice, teasing her like his thumb that flicked back and forth over her peaking nipple.

The thing about dreams was how easily they were manipulated. What should have given him more resistance tended to be pulled away with ease. Such was the case with her gown as he pushed it further down, revealing more of her soft skin. His eyes moved away from her face to drink in her upper torso, embers sparking in his otherwise dark gaze at the sight she made. He couldn’t resist dipping his head down and capturing the nipple in his mouth that his thumb had previously torturing, his hand that cupped the breast pushing it up into his mouth. The thumb returned when his lips turned to the neglected breast, tongue trailing her nipple, then suckling it between his lips.

Then he drunk from her. Just a taste. He just wanted to know if she was as sweet as he thought she was. The supernatural force that he was drew on her essence made that much more potent by her lust. It would give her a natural high, euphoric in nature, and invigorate him all the more.

“I want you,” he groaned, popping her nipple from his mouth and nuzzling his face against the swells of her chest. Both his hands left her to grasp the edges of her gown that he had pushed down her torso and gave it one last push so that it slid - too easily - over her hips - while his burning stare watched the expression on her face. “Let me have you.”

 

[Jumbled]

Summer allowed herself to relax, something that she could rarely do in the real world. But, there— lost in her dreams— she didn’t need to worry as she might have otherwise. She closed her eyes, feeling as Valence ran his strong hands along her smooth skin, caressing every curve with care. She didn’t think of what imperfections he might find along her form, or wonder if she was good enough for him. Even without the aid of her sight she felt as though she could see everything that he was doing and she bit at her own lip, allowing her body to sway freely against his hands, moving in their seductive dance. He was her conductor and as his hands moved, her body obeyed and followed his song, meeting him with a longing lean or stroke of her own hands in contrast to his movements.

His essence pulled at her like she was in a vortex. She was in no mood to fight such feelings. The ripples and waves sucked her in, and her lips pressed against his kiss as their tongues greedily tasted one another. His hand on her ass pulled her body forward into him. She grinded hungrily against him as her hands wrapped around his frame, hasty fingers curling around his shoulder blades with the aching desire to bring him even closer. His hand traveled up the length of her back, stopping as it reached the base of her head with fingers feeding into her hair.

As his face withdrew and their kiss ended with the slow dragging of teeth against her lip and heavy breaths that desired more. Summer’s eyes slowly opened to look at the man that held her. He told her to relax, though he hardly needed to demand such a thing from her. She blinked with heavy lids and a deep stare as his other hand reminded her of its place, sending chills through her chest and down her center. Summer’s fingers trailed along his beard while her thumb found his lips, pressing against his bottom one to test his reactions.

With an effortless tug, her dress fell further down, revealing more of her torso to the man before her. Her body dipped in at her waist, curving back out, down to her hips that held the dress just barely against her body as it hung limply around her. She gazed down at her own body, curious to see if she looked any different than normal, but as far as she could see, her dream-self was an accurate depiction of what she looked like. With a glance toward Valence, she could see he was drinking in her form all the same. Her lips curled up into a smile, finding herself even more drawn to him from the way he stared. She could tell he wanted her. It was easy enough for her to see as the sparks lit up his eyes with that yearning to have her fully. He lowered himself to satisfy his need to have her nipple against his lips and she nuzzled her face against his hair as her fingers twisted around the long strands along the back of his head.

Her reactions to his touching were easy to notice. She gasped sharply with an inhale each time he touched a place he hadn’t been before, exhaling with shaky breaths and a tightening grip of her fingers in his hair. She hugged his head as he played with her nipples. As her knees threatened to go weak on her, she also leaned more of her weight against him to keep from falling.

Something different happened within that time of Valence kissing and toying with her breasts. She couldn’t quite place the feeling or even understand what he was doing. She began to feel light headed, like the world was suddenly spinning far faster than it should have been. Her body began to tingle and flush inside with a warmth that settled into one’s core after that first tumbler of bourbon. The hairs along her arms prickled upward as goosebumps rushed along their length. She shivered from the contrasting feelings that caused her heart to pump harder in her chest and her blood to rush.

Summer moaned as though she’d just tasted something delicious and shut her eyes as the spinning continued. She could have been floating and she wouldn’t have questioned it. His lips parted from her sensitive nipples and his head leaned against the center of her chest. She slowly tilted her chin down, looking at the man that gripped her gown with both hands, saying exactly the words she’d been wanting to hear for days.

Her hands found his and pulled them up along her sides, helping him to stand back to his normal height. She reached forward to the sides of his face, pulling him into small, passionate kisses, one after another as she arched her frame forward against his build. As she pulled free from the lips that seemed to draw something more out from within her, she exhaled slowly, staring at him as her chest heaved up and down— she was nearly panting. “And how would you have me?” she asked him, her voice hushed and low as she spoke.

 

[Mien]

How did he want her?

He wanted to devour her. Valence had not realized how starved he was to taste the essence of another until he had a willing presence in his arms again. It again made him wonder just how long he had been trapped, and whether sating himself on this woman would relieve him of the hunger that he felt. And yet still he had to refrain from drinking her essence here, for to do so may very well mean she would not wake again in her mortal world.

So he satisfied himself with sips. Intoxicating draws of her lust to invigorate him more. It strengthened him, emboldened him. It made him not want to be the gentleman that he painted himself to be but the monster that he really was.

He kept his head dipped once she had lured him back to her generous lips, his tongue plying back into her mouth to plunder the sweet taste of her as his hands slid up her thighs, feeling bare skin like silk underneath his fingertips until he felt the swell of her ass. He cupped the heart shaped derriere in his palms, squeezing as he lifted slightly to hold her against him to keep her weakened knees from dropping her before him.

Not that he would have minded the woman on her knees before him.

The thought made his cock twitch in the breeches he wore in the dream realm. With one hand squeezed around one globe of her ass cheek, the other lifted, gliding over the skin of her back to cup the back of her neck and deepen his kiss before he dragged away with a pull of his teeth against her lower lip.

The red slitted eyes, like a goat’s, he shrouded with the lowering of his lids as he glanced into her face, his mouth curling into a wicked smile. His voice was a deep rumble when he responded to just how he would have her. “What is your deepest fantasy? As you know, this is a dream, so you can create … your desires inside here.”

His hand went wandering again before she could give her reply, tracing between the apex of her thighs and away from her ass cheek, stroking temptingly along the tender edges of her inner thigh. His mouth moved to hover near her ear. “You see how I imagined you with nothing between us? You’re not wearing any panties,” he teased, eyes flashing. “I wonder how wet you are,” he mused, fingers tracing again. Closer to the center of her, where he could feel the heat coming off her. His finger traced, ever so tantalizing, around her outer lips, then right over her mons, so close to her center and yet not touching.

 

[Jumbled]

There was a heavy passion growing between the two. As far as dreams went, this one was going to be in her top three— or at least, that’s what she hoped. It was always in the best of times that she tended to wake up, but for her own sake, Summer hoped to stay there with Valence for a good while longer. She felt him pulling at her, tugging at her essence and dragging it into himself. She thought, for a mere moment, she could see the faintest wisps of color spreading out from herself and into him, but one didn’t really question such visuals when everything was a warped reality spinning from the depths of her wildest desires and unexplored thoughts.

His hands were bold as he explored her flesh, trailing from her thighs to her backside, his hand cupping the plump roundness of her ass. He pulled her forward as her lips remained locked against his, her tongue circling around in a delicious dance as she sucked against it, gasping little huffs of air against it as she rubbed against the bulge that had formed behind the confines of his attire. Summer shifted her hips to grind against him. Why shouldn’t she be so bold? It felt good— he felt good.

Valence reacted favorably to her. Thank goodness the dream hadn’t managed to shift in another direction. She wrapped her fingers into his hair, pulling at it almost aggressively as he tugged at her lip with his teeth. Her eyes were nearly closed— she could only see enough to know that he was looking at her. Summer began to open them more, finding him much the same way with lowered eyelids and heaving breaths. She thought about what he’d asked. That wasn’t a question she was familiar with— not something she’d had time to rehearse or think about before. “My deepest—?” she began, lost as to how she might even begin to answer him. Had she ever really explored her mind in that way? That was— embarrassing.

Wasn’t it?

Her body twitched and as his voice tickled against her ear softly, she shivered in his grasp as a chill took hold of her. It was agonizing how close he was to her! She wanted him desperately by that point, her body ached for him. Eager hands grabbed at his arms clenching against the muscular form in their grips. She whined quietly as he teased her the way he did.

She still considered his words. Summer looked down to her wrists as dark leather cuffs formed around her wrists. She wasn’t entirely sure about herself, or what she was doing, but as the leather felt tight against her skin, she glanced down to find the light colored fabric of her gown turning to black as well. The gentle material warped to a delicate lace that allowed her skin to peek through— not that much of her gown remained on her at all. “Well, I—” she whispered. She still couldn’t find the right words. What was it she wanted? A metal-link chain appeared as it connected the two cuffs on her wrists together, though there was still a good deal of slack.

“Sorry— I don’t know what I’m doing—” she admitted quietly as she looked at the man before her. “But it doesn’t have to be so— romantic?”