Story Excerpt

Crystaline jackknifed to a sitting position, unable to breathe. With clawed fingers, she raked at her throat.

Breathe—

By sheer force of will, she opened her mouth and threw her head back. Air burst down her throat and into her lungs with a whoosh. She gasped, drawing in another lungful of air, her eyes burning with unshed tears and the vestiges of the blue dream wafting away like so much smoke blown on the wind in her mind.

“It’s okay,” she croaked, forcing herself to breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she was stopped from standing by a hand on each arm.

“I think you should lie right back down, Miss Campbell. You’ve just had a bad dream,” the night nurse on her right said.

“I’m fine. Really, I—”

A male nurse on her left interrupted. “If you were fine, you wouldn’t be here.”

Crystaline blinked, trying to focus. Her vision was dimming. Funny how whenever she awakened from the blue dream, she could see so clearly, even if only the dimmest light were burning. Almost like night vision. But once she came fully awake, her vision would dim. Well, not really dim…it would just return to normal. She hadn’t told them about that yet. She didn’t know if she should. They might think she was crazy. Or something else was wrong with her. Suddenly, she felt very weak. “Okay. All right,” she said tiredly. “I won’t fight you.”

“That’s good ’cause I’d hate to have to manhandle you into bed,” the male nurse said, his voice melodic and soothing.

“Joe Travis, I can’t believe you just said that to this woman,” the night nurse—Crystaline thought her name was Betty—said while she lifted Crystaline’s arm up to make sure the IV tubes weren’t tangled.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” he said. He gently lifted Crystaline’s legs, his hands warm beneath her calves. “Betty always has her mind in the gutter. Don’t pay attention to her.” He winked.

“I think I’m offended,” Crystaline said, stifling a chuckle in spite of her wooziness. She scooted her bottom to a more comfortable position in the hospital bed.

“See, Joe—you’ve offended her now.” Betty patted Crystaline’s arm and switched on the light above the bed. “Don’t mind him, honey. He’s just a big oaf.”

Crystaline winced, narrowing her eyes at the sudden brightness. “Actually, I’m offended that he doesn’t want to manhandle me. Do I look that bad?”

“Are you kidding?” Joe asked, pulling at the edge of her blanket and tucking it in at the foot of the bed. “You are beautiful. Those eyes of yours…” He moved closer, meeting her gaze. “You have the brightest blue eyes I’ve even seen. They look like crystal. Bet that’s how you got your name, isn’t it? Crystal blue eyes.”

But he wasn’t looking at her eyes right now. He was watching her mouth. For some reason, that excited her. An ember of heat kindled inside, flaring up. “My full name is Crystaline,” she said slowly. “And yes, I was named for my eyes. So my mother told me, anyway.”

Joe raised his gaze to meet hers again. Their eyes locked and held. His eyes were hazel, flecked with gold and rimmed with thick chestnut lashes that matched his slightly wavy hair.

“Are you sure that all these scrapes on my face don’t make you want to run away in horror?” she asked.

His nostrils flared slightly. “I’d never run from you.”

Crystaline felt a rumbling in her chest. It was pleasant, a vibration of some sort. She was all warm inside and still heating up. Funny, she had the deepest urge to reach up and pull him—

“You two stop that flirting now,” Betty said, taking Crystaline’s chin and turning her head away from Joe’s heated gaze and toward her concerned one.

Crystaline blinked, coming out of the trancelike state she had been falling toward as she had looked into Joe’s eyes.

“These are healing nicely,” Betty said, eyeing the scrape on Crystaline’s forehead, then the one on her right cheekbone. “I’ll bet they won’t scar at all.” She smiled. “Let’s see your side now.”

Crystaline rolled onto her right side, facing Joe. “It’s still pretty tender,” she said.

Betty lowered the blanket then untied the back of her hospital gown. “I’m sure it is tender. Burns take a while to heal.”

Crystaline watched Joe’s face. Betty’s fingertips probed lightly along her side, just under her ribcage. His eyes followed the nurse’s finger’s progress, concern furrowing his brow. “I still can’t believe you survived a shock of that magnitude,” he said.

Crystaline let out a soft breath. “All I remember is bright blue light then feeling like I’d been thrown into another dimension. One with sizzling electrical snakes and the smell of burnt hair.” And blue…so much blue.

The nurse patted her lightly and tied her gown back shut. “You were lucky. Just one zap from those downed wires threw you clear of the others. It could have been a lot worse.”

“Lucky.” She smiled sadly. “Mischa wasn’t so lucky.”

“Your cat, right?” Joe raised an eyebrow.

She looked up at him. There was so much concern and sincerity in his face it made her heart roll for a second, and then it settled. “Yes. Mischa, my cat. The voltage blew her right out of my arms. I think it did, anyway. It killed her.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“If she wouldn’t have been out messing around, I wouldn’t have been out looking for her during the storm in the first place. She was such a hussy. Even after I had her spayed.” She shook her head. “I guess it doesn’t matter now.”

Joe took her hand in his. “I’ll buy you a kitten. As soon as you’re ready for one.”

Heat radiated from his hand into hers, traveling up her arm and across her chest. “Sometimes…I feel her,” she said. “Inside me.”

ADULT EXCERPT

When Jack took her hand, Crystaline felt warmth slide from her hand up her arm and straight to her center. Shakily she raised the glass of water to her lips and gulped the cool liquid. She had a feeling she was going to need it. She placed the empty glass on the end table and glanced over her shoulder at Joe. With a jerk of her head, she signaled him to follow then led both men down the hall toward the bedroom.

Once inside the bedroom, she let go of Jack’s hand and climbed onto the bed. Moving to the middle, she rose up on her knees and faced the two men who now stood at the side of her bed. Grabbing the hem of her T-shirt, she slowly lifted it, pulling it over her head and tossing it to the other side of the room. Electricity surged through her, pulsing in time with her heartbeat. Unable to take it slow, she hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her sweatpants and shimmied out of them. She wore nothing beneath. Naked and exposed before these two men, Crystaline had never felt so hot, so sexy. Back on her knees, she raised her hands and crooked a finger at both of them. “Come here,” she purred.

It took only seconds for both of them to shed their clothes and move toward the bed.

Crystaline swiped her tongue over her upper lip, getting a good look at two rock-hard cocks standing at attention. She moved toward the edge of the bed. They moved closer. On her knees at the edge, she raised her arms again and wriggled her fingers, urging them to come closer.

Placing one hand on the back of each of their heads, she drew Jack down to her mouth for a wet kiss while guiding Joe to her exposed breast. Jack’s mouth was warm and inviting. She wanted to devour him whole. She tasted a slight tang of peppermint, as if he’d recently brushed his teeth. It made her tongue tingle. The tingle shot to her left breast when Joe’s lips captured her nipple in his mouth and he began to suck. She moaned, Joe’s tongue flicking the hard little nub while Jack took her head in his hands and pistoned his tongue into her hungry mouth. She closed her eyes, her breathing becoming deep and steady.

Blue swirls of light floated behind her closed eyelids, her body coming alive with sensation.

Joe’s hands, hot and greedy, moved over her body, deftly avoiding her healing burns. Jack’s fingers tangled in her hair, grabbing a handful, pulling her head backward and breaking the kiss. Jack moved to her right breast and took the nipple into his mouth, nipping with his teeth. She gasped, a sharp shock shooting up her spine, causing her back to arch. She cradled their heads with her hands, holding them to her breasts, each of them sucking, flicking, nibbling, and driving her to the edge of completion without either of them touching the sweet, wet spot between her legs.

She threw her head back, reveling in the wickedness of the scene.

Blue, deep, deep blue swirled in her mind.

She needed more. She needed them inside her. She needed them to penetrate her soul and ward off the lightning that would soon come crashing out of the blue. “Please…” she choked out, opening her eyes.

Joe released her breast from his lips and looked up at her. His eyes were sultry, understanding what she needed. He placed a hand on Jack’s shoulder, easing him away from her breast. “She needs more,” he said.

The three of them moved together onto the bed, hands stroking, positioning Crystaline’s trembling body.

She felt drugged with urgent need. She blinked, her world tinged with hazy blue light. “Hurry,” she said, as the two men positioned her on her hands and knees in the middle of the bed.

Jack moved in front of her, at the head of the bed, his cock brushing her lips. She opened her mouth, feeling Joe spread her legs and move in between them behind her, his fingers playing in the cleft of her bottom. Joe dipped his fingers lower, delving into her sweet spot, sliding one finger over her swollen clit. She gasped and surged forward, taking Jack’s shaft into her mouth and closing her lips around him. Joe entered her pussy from behind, slowly, going deeper.

She shuddered and closed her eyes. Yes. Better.

Her men began to move.

Crystaline braced herself with her hands. Jack dove into her mouth, and she took almost all of him, her tongue putting pressure on the underside of his cock. He tasted slightly salty. It just made her want to suck every little taste from his hot skin. Joe thrust in behind her, his fingers digging into her hips, holding her in place. He filled her, and her juices flowed. They began a rhythm, penetrating her on both ends, shoving the blue back, dimming it.

Crystaline felt the low tickle in her throat, down deep and rumbling. Jack in her mouth, Joe in her pussy, both of them moving, stroking in and out.