Forbidden Cravings-Chapter 285: The Dull Morning

The room was still mostly dark, just that thin grey-blue light that sneaks in before sunrise. The air smelled faintly of perfume, sweat, and the warm cotton of sheets. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears, a wild drum that wouldn’t slow down. I sat naked in the middle of the big bed, knees pulled to my chest, arms wrapped tight around them like I could hold myself together. My skin was cold and clammy even though the room wasn’t.

Elizabeth was curled on my left, breathing slow and deep. Clara was on my right, one arm flung across the pillow, lips slightly parted, sleeping like the world couldn’t touch her. Both of them looked peaceful, beautiful, safe.

I wasn’t.

"Huff... huff..." The air felt too thick to breathe. My whole body shook in tiny waves.

What was that? What just happened?

The question kept looping in my head, loud and panicked.

"Aeri... Aeri... no..." The name slipped out under my breath, cracked and raw. I swallowed hard, but the memory wouldn’t leave: her head in my lap, blood everywhere, her eyes staring at nothing. My hands still felt wet. I looked down at them, half expecting red, but they were clean. Empty.

"It felt way too real... oh God..." I whispered to the ceiling, tears sliding hot down my cheeks. I pressed my palms into my eyes until sparks danced. "It was just a dream... just a dream... just a dream..." I repeated it like a prayer, rocking a tiny bit.

I could almost hear her voice soft, warm, a little sleepy from years ago when I’d wake up crying from nightmares as a kid. Aeri would crawl into my bed, wrap me up, rub slow circles on my back and whisper-sing, "It’s just a dream... just a dream... we’re living and healthy... dreams are nothing but imagination... shh... just a dream..."

A tear rolled off my chin and landed on my knee.

Then gentle, warm a hand touched the middle of my bare back.

"Hmm!?" I jumped, twisting around fast, heart slamming all over again.

Elizabeth was sitting up, sheet pooled around her waist, blonde hair messy and falling over one shoulder. The early light caught the curve of her soft big tits, but her eyes were soft and worried.

"You okay?" she asked quietly, voice husky from sleep.

I tried to answer right away, but my throat was tight. "Umm... y-yeah," I finally managed, keeping my voice low so Clara wouldn’t stir. "Sorry... I woke you up."

The room was still dim, just that soft pre-dawn grey that makes everything look a little unreal. The sheets were tangled around our legs, warm from sleep. Elizabeth sat behind me, her bare chest pressed gently against my back, arms looped loosely around my waist. Clara stayed curled on her side, one arm still draped over my thigh, breathing slow and steady like nothing in the world could wake her.

"It’s okay," Elizabeth whispered, voice thick with sleep. She let out a tiny, drowsy laugh. "I just felt all the warmth leave my side, so I woke up. Hehe."

I swallowed hard and managed a shaky smile, staring down at my hands in my lap. They were clean, no blood, no sticky warmth, but they still felt wrong. "I see..."

"Hey... come here, sweetie," she murmured, tightening her arms and pulling me back against her. Her boobs pressed soft and warm against my spine, and the simple, familiar comfort of it made my eyes burn again. "You look way too distressed for five in the morning."

"I’m fine," I lied, exhaling like I could push the ache out with the air.

"You sure aren’t," she said gently, no judgment, just fact. One hand came up and started brushing through my messy hair, slow and steady. "Come on... lie down on mama’s sexy body," she teased, voice playful even half-asleep.

"Oh, come on..." I laughed, but it came out cracked and watery.

She kept stroking my hair. "So..it was a nightmare, I guess?"

"Yeah... kind of," I mumbled.

"Kind of?" She tilted her head so her cheek rested against my shoulder. "What’s a ’kind of’ nightmare?"

I tried to joke back. "The kind that’s worse than a regular nightmare," I said, forcing a tiny sarcastic grin.

Elizabeth hummed, understanding right away. "Ah... the type where the worst thing you could never imagine actually happens."

And just like that, the teasing fell away. The memory flashed again (blood on the pavement, Aeri’s blank eyes, the silence after the thud). My throat closed up. No words. My chest felt like someone had parked a car on it.

I couldn’t answer. I just leaned forward, pressing my forehead into the warm curve of Elizabeth’s chest, hiding there like a kid. She didn’t say anything else. She just wrapped her arms tighter, one hand still stroking my hair, the other rubbing slow circles between my shoulder blades.

Her heartbeat was steady under my ear real, alive, here.

Minutes passed, maybe five, maybe ten. The room got a tiny bit brighter. My shaking slowed. The tears stopped falling, even if the ache didn’t leave.

"I’ve got you," she whispered finally, lips brushing the top of my head. "Whatever it was, it’s over now. You’re safe."

Elizabeth gently brushed my hair as she held me against her naked boobs. Her nipples pressed around my cheeks but it didn’t bothered her neither to me. The bed was soft, but the warmth of her smooth naked thick body was what truly kept me still. I didn’t want to move. Every time those flashes of the nightmare came back to me, it became harder to close my eyes, harder to sleep. But being in her arms, and on her tits made it a little easier to breathe.

I nodded against her skin, not trusting my voice, and let her hold me until the first real sunrise crept through the curtains and painted soft pink across the walls.