G.G. nudged her knees apart, and moved forward to fill the space he’d created. He didn’t stop until he was pressing against her core, and then his kiss turned deep and voracious. His hands moved to the buttons of her blouse and suddenly it was undone, allowing him to tug it open to reveal a lacy black bra beneath that Ildaria had never seen before. Obviously, it was his input to the dream, which she didn’t mind at all. It looked much nicer than the white cotton bra and panty sets she always wore in reality. At least, that’s what she’d always worn up to now. Though, she had gone out and used some of her tip money from her waitressing job to buy a black lace set similar to the one he’d dreamed up. It was pretty and sexy and she only had one set, so couldn’t wear it every day in the hopes that something would happen. So, she hadn’t put it on at all yet. She was saving it for a “special” occasion.
“Oh my, sex in the office,” Sofia breathed, drawing her from the memory. “That is steamy. The whole secretary-boss thing, love on the desk, the risk of one of us entering unexpectedly and catching you. My, my, my.”
“Accountant-boss,” Ildaria muttered, feeling her face burn with embarrassment at Sofia’s reading her thoughts.
“Yeah. That might be a problem.”
Ildaria glanced up in question. “What?”
“His being the boss,” Sofia explained with a frown. “G.G. might look like a rebel, but he has a lot of honor. I suspect he would never hit on an employee. It would be too much like taking advantage of his position.”
Ildaria was frowning now too, sure G.G. had said something about her being his employee in the dream and sexual harassment or something. But until now, it hadn’t occurred to her that her working for him might be a problem.
“Which means you’ll have to do the hitting,” Sofia concluded with satisfaction. “He wouldn’t feel he was taking advantage if you jumped him. And it can’t be sexual harassment either, since you’re the underling.”
“Right.” Ildaria sighed the word unhappily, rather doubting she could do that. She didn’t have a lot of experience in such things . . . unless you counted the dreams she’d been sharing with G.G.
“Never say you’re a virgin?” Sofia whispered with amazement, obviously having caught her thoughts about her lack of experience.
Ildaria shook her head stiffly. “No. I’m not a virgin.”
Recognizing the way Sofia’s eyes were concentrating on her forehead, Ildaria began to recite a nursery rhyme, but either she wasn’t quick enough or it just didn’t work now that she’d met a possible life mate. She realized that when Sofia’s expression turned sympathetic.
Ildaria stiffened. If she showed her the least bit of pity—
“Right,” Sofia said firmly. “Well, maybe we could work on it.”
Ildaria blinked, her grim expression turning to bewilderment. “Work on what exactly?”
“On your lack of experience. We could have you practice.”
“Practice?” Ildaria roared, outraged at the very thought. What was she thinking? That Ildaria should go pick up some man and—
“Not the sex,” Sofia said with exasperation, obviously picking up her thoughts. “The showing that you’re interested part, flirting and how to hit on him and make your interest known. Or maybe we can come up with ways for you to show your interest in other ways. Like wearing a sexy negligee when G.G. arrives to pick up H.D. one morning after the club closes.”
She paused and pursed her lips briefly, and then said, “Although, you’d probably still have to make a move on him. I suspect other than your ripping his clothes off and tackling him to the floor, nothing short of a Fuck me sign hanging from around your neck when you answer the door is going to move him past his honorable disposition. If that even worked. It might make him worry there’s something wrong with you. Mentally.”
“The very fact that I’m sitting here listening to this nonsense proves there is something wrong with me mentally,” Ildaria said dryly.
“That and many other things,” Sofia agreed easily, but then softened the words by adding, “But then most of us have our issues. You can’t live life without gaining an issue or two along the way.”
Ildaria nodded at those words of wisdom, believing them wholeheartedly. She’d met a lot of people in her life, especially while sailing with Vasco. They’d lured a lot of people onto the ship, and almost all of them had had something in their minds that was distressing when she read them. Body issues, anger issues, memories of childhood abuse haunting their thoughts and actions. The few that had seemed well balanced and pretty much okay had been through some kind of counseling, easily read in their thoughts.
“Have you considered counseling?” Sofia asked softly.
Ildaria’s gaze shot to her and then away, but she just shook her head. She’d never been in a position to be able to afford counseling. Besides which, who could she go to? She couldn’t tell a mortal counselor or psychologist about being immortal.
“Marguerite’s son-in-law, Greg, is an immortal and some kind of psychologist or psychiatrist,” Sofia announced, obviously still picking up her thoughts. “Maybe he’d be willing to work out some kind of payment plan you could handle,” she suggested, and then added, “Failing that, Elijah says the university offers free counseling services to students. He’s taking medicine at the uni. Plans to be a doctor.”
“Si, he mentioned that,” Ildaria said. “But I can’t talk to a mortal counselor, Sofia.”
“Not about being an immortal, no,” she agreed, but then pointed out, “But a lot of your issues around sex seem to come from your childhood, when you were mortal. So if you stuck to that, the free counseling at university could work. Just avoid mentioning that your childhood was nearly two hundred years ago and you should be fine.”
Ildaria frowned at the suggestion, not at all comfortable with the thought of getting counseling.
“It’s up to you, of course,” Sofia said lightly, and then asked, “But would you really rather continue to carry around the trauma of your childhood for the hundreds or even thousands of years you might live?”
She let Ildaria think about that for a minute, and then said, “Hurry up and eat. Then get dressed. We’re going shopping.”
“Shopping?” Ildaria jerked her gaze back to the woman.
“For a nice little negligee or something. And romance novels.”
“Romance novels?” Ildaria asked with disbelief.
“They have lots of sex in them,” she said, as if that should explain the matter. It didn’t, and when Ildaria’s expression showed as much, she patiently explained, “For pointers. Maybe ideas on how to seduce him, or at least what to do with him. We need to move this train along before it goes off the tracks.”
Ildaria started to shake her head. “I can’t afford—”
“It’ll be my housewarming gift to you. I haven’t given you one yet.”
“No. You—”
“Ildaria, you’re running out of time,” Sofia said, her tone serious. “G.G. has been avoiding you as much as possible since the dreams started.”
Ildaria dropped her eyes, a frown tugging at her lips. She had noticed that she saw less and less of G.G. during their waking hours. It was only in dreams that they spent time together and while they did some talking and sharing, most of the dreams were taken up with sex. Constant, heart-stopping, wake up sweaty and exhausted sex.
“He’s really struggling with his attraction for you, I mean seriously struggling. He’s starting to fantasize about kidnapping you and having his way with you and it’s scaring the crap out of him. He’s afraid he’s becoming an obsessive stalker type guy. Which he kind of is. I mean, all life mates go through it, but he doesn’t understand that’s what’s happening, and just thinks he’s turning into a freak,” Sofia told her unhappily, just reaffirming what Ildaria had picked up on in the latest dream. “You need to get him into bed soon, or he’ll fly off to England to avoid you, or to save you from him. I’m not sure which it is. He’s pretty messed up right now.”
Ildaria bit her lip and admitted, “He mentioned something about England in the dream, but—” But her memories from the dream were already getting fuzzy. They always did. The only thing that remained long was the memory of the sex. What they talked about before or after, always faded quickly.
“He’s thinking about heading back home to London, England,” Sofia said quietly. “The original plan was for him to stay through the summer and spend the winter in England at the other club, before returning for the summer here again. But he’s started making noises about flying back early and leaving me fully in charge all the time now that everything seems to be working smoothly here.”
“Oh no,” Ildaria breathed. “You don’t think he’ll really do that, do you?” That would certainly make it hard for her to convince him to be her life mate.
“Yes, I do. He was putting out feelers last night, mentioning to everyone who entered the club that he has a nice apartment and good pay for anyone who wishes to take over his job as doorman,” she told her sadly. “It’s why I came to see you today.”
“Damn,” Ildaria breathed, dropping back in her seat.
“Yeah.” Sofia eyed her sympathetically. “You need to step up your game, Ildaria, or you might lose the chance. I suspect he’s uncomfortable enough with his feelings for you that he might not return at all. He’ll just leave me to run the place and stay in England.”
Ildaria sat still for a moment, her mind racing. The last two weeks had been wonderful in a way. She had her own place, and she loved her job. It was true she and G.G. hadn’t spent a lot of time together when not dreaming, but the truth was she’d been too tired to really worry about it too much. And it wasn’t just the shared dreams that had been making her tired. Aside from her double duty at the Night Club, Ildaria had been working at the restaurant as well. She’d given her notice two weeks ago and had rearranged her shifts so they wouldn’t interfere with her work hours here, but that still meant she had been missing a lot of sleep, and what sleep she had got was not very restful thanks to the shared dreams. Dreams G.G. didn’t even realize he was sharing with her.