The Dream Thief by Kari Kilgore (books for 10th graders txt) 📕

Karl lowered his hands, then held one out.

"Take the night off? I could use some company. Your company, to be painfully honest."

"The night?" she said. "This doesn't mean..."

"No, nothing like that. All this means is I don't want to be alone tonight. I need you, Loretta."

Her traitorous heart pushed her forward, and Loretta took Karl's hand. He pulled her into a trembling embrace. All she could do was hold tight. Wanting to make him feel better, wanting the awful shaking to stop, was unknown territory.

She was afraid to make a wrong move and blow everything apart.

He pulled back and kissed her, bringing demands from her body firmly into the whirling mess in her head.

"I'll help you pack up. I promise, I won't break anything this time."

A soft laugh escaped Loretta before she could stop herself. She let the one thing she could make sense of, her body, take over, and kissed him long and hard.

"That's fine, you clumsy oaf," she whispered against his lips. "I know where you keep the spares."

The walk back to her house was silent, with Karl carrying her pack and holding her hand. Loretta hoped it would stay that way. She didn't have words for the way she was feeling, an uneasy mix of desire, fear, and a sadness she couldn't define. At least she wouldn't have to explain any of this to a disapproving Bess.

Karl hugged her as soon as she locked the door, groaning with his face against her neck. That ache was back in her heart, so deep it brought tears to her eyes.

"Come to bed," she whispered.

He nodded and followed her. Loretta unbuttoned his shirt, kissing him as she pushed it off of his shoulders. She moved down his jaw to his throat, his chest, his delightfully sensitive nipples, using her lips, tongue, and teeth while her hands were busy with his belt and pants.

He stood naked before her, the odd distance in his eyes evident nowhere else in his body. His wasn’t so thick as Rhysto's, but more than satisfying. She was never sore after making love with Karl.

He took his turn with her more challenging skinsuit, undoing the buckles and catches as expertly as she ever did but taking his sweet time. He lowered her to the bed, his mouth following his hands, leaving Loretta with a deeper ache to match the one in her heart.

When Karl lay down beside her at last, Loretta pushed him onto his back. She thought she saw tears in his lovely hazel eyes for just a second before he pulled her down into a kiss.

Loretta gasped when he raised his hips and slipped inside her. He moved underneath her, his hands on her hips, rising and falling according to his rhythm that somehow matched her own.

Days away from him and her interrupted anticipation for Building brought Loretta to the brink of climax sooner than she would have liked, but stopping wasn't a possibility. She leaned forward with her hands on Karl's shoulders, and he stopped moving.

She rocked her own hips, grinding against him, fingers digging into his flesh. She couldn't look away from him or close her eyes, not even at the end. Karl put his hands into her hair and watched, breath quickening with hers, his mouth opening when hers did. Even when she cried out, he watched her through half-closed eyes.

None of her partners, consensual or not, had ever left Loretta feeling so exposed.

Karl grabbed her hips again, moving her less gently than before. He raised her body with his when he came, his deep moan and tight grip nearly enough to send Loretta over the edge once more. He finally drew in a sharp breath and relaxed, closing his eyes and smiling when she moved beside him.

She could feel his heart pounding under her cheek. He shifted enough to pull the blankets over both of them. When his breathing, and hers, calmed, Loretta raised up on one elbow. She pushed damp curls off his forehead, noticing for the first time that his hair was getting longer. She started to say so, but he leaned up to kiss her.

"We'll talk in the morning," he said. "Right now I just want to go to sleep with you in my arms and forget about everything."

That empty ache broke through, and Loretta hoped he'd forget whatever was making his eyes so sad while they slept. She didn't want to face one more painful or confusing thing, not for a long, long time.

Chapter 53

Karl got off the trolley in the main Mercantile District the next morning, only a few feet away from the clothiers he needed to visit later. Several other shops were close by, all of them full of a variety of fabrics and colors and stylish new designs that made his head hurt. Those Ministry of Decorum-approved shops had a steady stream of men and women passing through their doors.

This one was far more traditional and quiet, even predictable. Karl had never gone to any other, not even for events as formal as weddings. He didn't want to get comfortable with someone new and have to make too many decisions for such a difficult day as his nephew's funeral.

He started to walk past and peer into the other windows anyway in case anyone was watching before he realized what he was doing.

He'd gotten off several stops early to avoid the unlikely event of someone seeing him, and the even more unlikely event of that person caring. The habit of sneaking around, living this strange double life, was deeper than he'd imagined. He stopped so abruptly that an older woman bumped into him.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "Wasn't paying attention."

"I'll say you weren't! If you want to stare into space, at least move out of the way."

Karl drew back at her angry response. He watched her walk away, brown-hatted head held high. He shrugged and turned toward the shaw camps several blocks away. Karl couldn't fit