He didn’t say he missed me back. He didn’t say any of the things I would want from him. He told me, “Drink, Bliss. We’ll talk when you are well.”
I did as he asked because I was too tired to fight, too tired to make myself face the unreality. Slowly, I sipped, tipping my head back and letting the liquid slide down my throat so I didn’t have to work so hard to swallow. Halfway through the cup, I could take no more. I pushed it away and he let me.
“Now you can sleep. Sleep, love.”
I fell back against the pillows, but I was seized by something else, by fear. I feared losing this… this dream space between worlds where I hadn’t ruined anything. Maybe Cade would arrive next, and Kelsey. And for a little while, my life could be simple again.
Dream Garrick brushed a hand across my forehead. “I think your fever is almost gone. That’s good. You should feel much better in the morning.”
I frowned. “That means I’ll have to call you soon.”
“Call me?”
“To tell you that you might get sick, too.”
His head tilted sideways. Why didn’t he understand?
“You don’t think I already know?”
“Not you. You’re not real.”
“I’m not?”
“Real Garrick wouldn’t be here.” I curled into my pillow, wishing this dream would stop.
It wasn’t nice anymore. It wasn’t real. We weren’t anything to each other… not anymore.
But Dream Garrick, stayed there, his hand on my hair, and I let myself believe it, for a little while longer.
Chapter Twenty-Four
At around four in the morning, I woke in a pool of sweat, my body stuck to the sheets and my face glued to the bed.
I guess the fever was definitely broken.
I placed my hands on the bed to push myself up, but my equilibrium must have been off. My bed felt uneven. I reached back, fumbling for the lamp and flicked the light on. Then because I thought maybe I was seeing things, I flipped it off and on again. I pinched myself. I pinched really hard. But nothing changed.
Garrick was definitely asleep in my bed.
Shit.
Shit.
How much of my fever-induced dream was real? I felt safe assuming that my time as a bee was fiction, as well as a few mythological animals that I swear I’d seen. Then I’d lived on the sun with aliens.
But Garrick was in my bed. He’d definitely been in my dreams, but it couldn’t all be real. Sometimes he flew, much of the time he was naked. And there were a dozen more moments, some fuzzy, some very clear. Where was the line? What had really happened? Hell, was this even real? Maybe I was just dreaming that my fever broke. I was freaking out, and before I had the sense of mind to formulate a plan, I was already shaking him awake.
He was bleary-eyed and beautiful as he came to. I was struck for a moment by the fact that he was sleeping on my pillow.
He was in my bed. With me.
Sleeping.
We were sleeping together!
“You’re awake.” God, since when did groggy and gorgeous go so well together? Wide-eyed, I nodded, not having thought of what I’d say when I actually had him awake.
“How do you feel?”
That I could answer.
“Like shit. Everything hurts. My throat the worst.”
He reached out and set a hand on my thigh. Like that was normal. Like we just set our hands on each other’s thighs all the time.
“That’s normal, I think,” He said. The thigh thing? No, no… my throat. He continued, “Do you need anything?”
I shook my head. What the hell had happened while I was so out of it?
He sat up, and the sheet fell around his waist, revealing all of his upper body to my eyes. The sheet drooped around his hips, drawing my eyes to the muscles that disappeared down into his shorts. God. His hand went to my hair, my hair that fell lank, and oily against my face, a stark contrast to how good he looked right now. He didn’t seem to care.
Again, what the hell was happening?
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said.
I nodded. Nodding was all I knew how to do, all I understood. Nodding, at least, still made sense.
“You should go back to sleep. You still need to rest. Unless you’re hungry?”
I shook my head.
“Then sleep.”
He nudged me slightly, and I lowered my body slowly, certain that the minute my head hit the pillow this alternate universe would cease to exist.
It didn’t.
He pushed back the covers, and then slipped out of the bed.
“You’re leaving?” I asked.
He stopped, and in quick succession I saw him realize where we were and how little he was wearing. He hesitated, unsure. It was such a strange emotion, one I’d rarely seen him wear. “Do you want me to?” I wanted to pause the moment, study it, break down the second where this bold boy had been filled with doubt. Of course I didn’t want him to leave! I never wanted him to leave!
I shook my head. Glad that fatigue kept me calm, somewhat.