He's not here. The Black Earl."
"I know."
"So, for the moment, we are safe from that madness."
"I am always safe with you. No matter what happens, no matter what, I am safe with you and not with anyone else."
He inhaled. "How long have you been seeing the Black Earl?"
"A few days now." She bit her lower lip. "You?"
"Since I came to Pennhyll." He walked to the fireplace. She turned sideways on her chair, but all he did was stare at the fire, hands clasped and pressed against the small of his back. The fingers of one hand clenched and unclenched. He turned. "What of me? How long have I been in your head?"
"Before the Black Earl, I think. Only I didn't know they weren't just dreams."
"More and more intimate." His mouth thinned. "I confess to once or twice in my life imagining making love to a woman I admire. God knows you're a pretty woman, but I don't just imagine being with you. When I make love to you, you're not thoughts and images in my head, you're in my arms, real and warm. I can taste you and breathe in the scent of you, feel your skin against mine. We've never made love, but I've been inside you. Jesus, Olivia, you know I have."
She nodded.
"Hell, for all we know it's possible I've made a child in you." His eyes pinned her. "Did anything like that happen between you and Andrew?"
"No."
"You sound certain."
"I am."
"You never saw the Black Earl until I was at Pennhyll?"
"Never."
"Andrew never came to you in—as I have. As we have together?"
"No. I never thought of him that way."
"You do me, though."
She nodded.
— Carolyn Jewel
#olivia #sebastian #the-spare #dreams
