Dark Dream’s Trap Read online

  Dark Dream’s Trap

  The Children of the Gods Book 28

  I. T. Lucas

  Copyright © 2019 by I. T. Lucas

  Dark Dream’s Trap

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

  Dark Dream’s Trap is a work of fiction!

  Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any similarity to actual persons, organizations and/or events is purely coincidental.

  Also by I. T. Lucas

  THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS ORIGINS

  1: Goddess’s Choice

  2: Goddess’s Hope

  THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS

  Dark Stranger

  1: Dark Stranger The Dream

  2: Dark Stranger Revealed

  3: Dark Stranger Immortal

  Dark Enemy

  4: Dark Enemy Taken

  5: Dark Enemy Captive

  6: Dark Enemy Redeemed

  Kri & Michael’s Story

  6.5: My Dark Amazon

  Dark Warrior

  7: Dark Warrior Mine

  8: Dark Warrior’s Promise

  9: Dark Warrior’s Destiny

  10: Dark Warrior’s Legacy

  Dark Guardian

  11: Dark Guardian Found

  12: Dark Guardian Craved

  13: Dark Guardian’s Mate

  Dark Angel

  14: Dark Angel's Obsession

  15: Dark Angel's Seduction

  16: Dark Angel's Surrender

  Dark Operative

  17: Dark Operative: A Shadow of Death

  18: Dark Operative: A Glimmer of Hope

  19: Dark Operative: The Dawn of Love

  Dark Survivor

  20: Dark Survivor Awakened

  21: Dark Survivor Echoes of Love

  22: Dark Survivor Reunited

  Dark Widow

  23: Dark Widow’s Secret

  24: Dark Widow’s Curse

  25: Dark Widow’s Blessing

  Dark Dream

  26: Dark Dream’s Temptation

  27: Dark Dream’s Unraveling

  28: Dark Dream’s Trap

  Dark Prince

  29: Dark Prince’s Enigma

  PERFECT MATCH

  Perfect Match 1: Vampire’s Consort

  Perfect Match 2: King’s Chosen

  Perfect Match 3: Captain’s Conquest

  TRY THE CHILDREN OF THE GODS SERIES ON

  AUDIBLE

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  Contents

  1. Julian

  2. Ella

  3. Bridget

  4. Losham

  5. Ella

  6. Losham

  7. Ella

  8. Bridget

  9. Turner

  10. Ella

  11. Julian

  12. Bridget

  13. Ella

  14. Julian

  15. Ella

  16. Ella

  17. Kian

  18. Julian

  19. Ella

  20. Vivian

  21. Ella

  22. Julian

  23. Ella

  24. Amanda

  25. Julian

  26. Ella

  27. Ella

  28. Vivian

  29. Ella

  30. Julian

  31. Ella

  32. Kian

  33. Julian

  34. Ella

  35. Julian

  36. Ella

  37. Vivian

  38. Ella

  39. Turner

  40. Ella

  41. Julian

  42. Ella

  43. Magnus

  44. Ella

  45. Vivian

  46. Ella

  47. Magnus

  48. Ella

  49. Turner

  50. Ella

  51. Turner

  52. Ella

  53. Turner

  54. Julian

  55. Ella

  56. Julian

  57. Ella

  58. Julian

  59. Vivian

  60. Ella

  61. Julian

  62. Ella

  63. Julian

  64. Ella

  65. Julian

  66. Kian

  67. Ella

  Series reading order

  Excerpt: Perfect Match 2

  FOR EXCLUSIVE PEEKS

  1

  Julian

  “Good morning, my love.” Julian walked into the bedroom with a tray.

  The breakfast he’d prepared consisted of coffee and chocolates, because as far as food went all he’d found in the kitchen was a half-empty box of cereal and a couple of frozen pizzas. The chocolates were a lifesaver.

  Even though Ella had feasted on them last night, he still had plenty left over in the box she’d given him for safekeeping. She loved those little treats, but it was a shame that this was all he could come up with the morning after the most monumental night of their relationship.

  Not only had they confessed their love for each other, but Ella had promised to give the therapist a chance, and that was almost as big a deal as the I love you’s.

  “What time is it?” Ella mumbled, opening just one eye a crack.

  “Around ten.” He put the tray on the nightstand and leaned to kiss her soft lips.

  She looked so adorable with her cheeks rosy from sleep, her pink hair sticking out in all directions, and her expression open and trusting and full of love.

  For him.

  “Would you like me to pour you some coffee?” He lifted the carafe.

  “Breakfast in bed?” She stretched her arms over her head and yawned. “You’re spoiling me, Julian. I might come to expect this every morning.”

  He dipped his head. “It would be my pleasure to serve.”

  “Aren’t you sweet.” Ella reached for his cheek. “I won the lottery with you.” She planted a quick closed-mouthed kiss on his lips and then flung the comforter off. “I need to use the facilities, but in the meantime, I would love it if you poured me some coffee.”

  “It shall be done, my lady.”

  Chuckling, she rushed into the bathroom.

  The sunlight from the open window made the plain white T-shirt he’d given her nearly see-through, outlining the contours of her curvy tight body as if she were wearing a sheer nightgown.

  Sexy and adorable. What a killer combination.

  As his shaft rose to attention, pressing painfully against his fly and accusing him of self-inflicted torture, Julian had no defense to offer his suffering member. He would be lying if he claimed that giving Ella his most worn-out T-shirt hadn’t been a calculated move.

  Shaking his head at his teenage antics, Julian was reminded of what his mother said about men. They were forever boys at heart, and that included immortals as old as Kian. There were exceptions, of course, like her mate.

  Turner must have been born with an ancient brain. Julian could imagine him as a boy, somber and serious, dedicated to learning as much as possible and as quickly as his huge brain could absorb it. He probably had never taken part in the shenanigans ordinary boys amused themselves with.

  Was that why Bridget had chosen him?

  Every couple was different, and so was every relationship. There was something magical about that connection, though, something Julian hadn’t expected.

  Surprisingly, the incredible closeness and the feeling of being a unit had little to do with
physical intimacy. It was more about the mental fusing, about the breaking down of barriers, and about laying one’s soul bare for the other person and trusting that they wouldn’t stomp all over it.

  After Ella’s meltdown last night, Julian felt closer than ever to her, and her confession about the attraction to Lokan hadn’t diminished the effect in the least.

  Her misguided feelings toward the Doomer mattered much less to him than the cleansing of her guilt over it and the obliteration of the wedge it had put between them.

  There was a perfectly logical explanation for why Ella had reacted like that to Lokan. The affinity that Dormants and immortals felt toward each other had made her feel close to the Doomer, and because she had no way of knowing that he was an immortal and she was a Dormant, and what that meant, Ella had interpreted it as sexual attraction.

  Or at least that had been the initial impetus.

  Later, when he’d started intruding on her dreams, Navuh’s son had used his good looks, his intelligence, and his charm to reinforce those feelings, and possibly compulsion as well.

  As Julian had suspected from the moment he’d learned about Ella’s dream visitor, Lokan was playing Ella and not the other way around. Despite all that had happened to her, she was still a naive eighteen-year-old, while the Doomer was an immortal with centuries of experience plotting and manipulating. She was no match for him.

  Damn, she was so young and had gone through so much already.

  It wasn’t fair.

  He wanted to hold Ella in the safety of his arms and shield her from the world twenty-four seven, but he would settle for the nights.

  Having her curled against his body, his arms wrapped securely around her, had felt so right. It hadn’t mattered to Julian that that was as far as it had gone. Well, the primitive side of him didn’t like it one bit, but, fortunately, the savage occupied a very small part of his psyche and he’d beaten it into submission.

  For now, he was satisfied with just being close. The rest would come later, after Ella had several sessions with Vanessa.

  How did the saying go, “All good things come to those who wait”? It was a simple way to state a well-known fact. Those who were adept at delaying gratification got ahead of the crowd, and Julian was a master of that.

  When Ella came out of the bathroom, he had the two cups of coffee ready, hers with cream and sugar and his with just sugar.

  “I’m hopping right back.” She crawled into the bed, stacked four pillows up against the headboard, got comfortable sitting up, and pulled the duvet up to her chest, covering everything up.

  What a shame.

  He handed her the mug. “Just as you like it. Cream and two sugars.”

  “Thank you.” Cupping it between her hands, she took a sip and smacked her lips. “Perfect.”

  “Yes, you are.” He bent and kissed the very tip of her nose. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” She shook her head. “Why does it feel so awkward to hear you say that?”

  Because Ella still didn’t believe that she deserved love, but that was going to change. Firstly, because she would be hearing him say it fifty times a day, and secondly, because Vanessa was going to clean up the trash that Ella had allowed to accumulate in her head.

  All that nonsense about being tainted and about having some darkness inside her had to be disposed of as soon as possible. The longer it lingered, the more it festered, diminishing the brightness of Ella’s incredible spirit.

  “I’m going to say it a lot, so you’d better get used to it.”

  “Ditto.”

  “Nah-ah, young lady, ditto isn’t going to cut it. I want to hear the words, preferably accompanied by a hot kiss.” He was hoping for more than that, but for now it would do.

  For some reason, Ella’s smile turned into a grimace. “About that. I don’t think we should hang out together until the mission is over.”

  Talk about driving a dagger into his unsuspecting heart. “What are you talking about?” Things were going so well, and now she was throwing this at him?

  Grabbing another pillow from his side of the bed, she hugged it to her. “I don’t want us to be apart either. But catching Mr. D is more important than us. We can wait a little longer, but every dream encounter I have with him, I’m running the risk of letting something slip, getting him suspicious, and sabotaging this opportunity for the clan.”

  “We’ve been hanging out together every day, and you did just fine.”

  She brought her knees up, curling her arms around the pillow as if it was a shield. “That was before we deciphered the combination to unlocking my passion. Now it will be so much harder to refrain from doing more. And I know it’s going to rock my world, and then I won’t be able to continue pretending with Mr. D.”

  Ella thought that making love to him was going to rock her world? At least he could take solace in that.

  Julian let out a breath. “Do you trust me?”

  Ella rolled her eyes. “Of course, I trust you. I don’t trust myself.”

  “Until the mission of entrapping the Doomer is over, we will keep our relationship strictly platonic, and I’m going to be in charge of that, so you have nothing to worry about.” He took her hand. “I might not look it, but I’m a stubborn guy. When I decide on something, it’s very difficult to sway me away from that decision. I won’t let you seduce me even if you try.”

  Smiling, she lifted a brow. “Are you sure about that? I’m stubborn too. You said so yourself.”

  “That you are. But remember, you made me a promise, and I expect you to keep it. I want you to make an appointment with Vanessa for Monday.”

  “I can’t do it on Monday. I’m filming.”

  “So?”

  “I can’t get myself all worked up before it, and I scheduled the taping for after dinner.”

  “Fine. Then Tuesday.”

  Letting out a resigned breath, she nodded. “Okay, but just so we are clear on that. I’m going to have one session with her, and if I don’t like it, I will not have another.”

  “Three. You can’t decide if she’s helpful or not based on one meeting.” Remembering how Ella visualized everything, he added, “You can’t clean all of your kitchen cabinets in one go, let alone your brain. All kinds of nasty things are lurking in there, and they need to get trashed. And after that is done, the interior needs a good scrubbing with soap. You can’t start filling those cabinets with beautiful new china until all of this is done and they are sparkling clean.”

  2

  Ella

  It was really clever of Julian to come up with something Ella could visualize. It worked. Those cabinets up in her brain definitely needed spring cleaning. She just wasn’t sure that Vanessa was the right tool for the job. Talking to a shrink was like using a cloth to clean up caked-on grime. It just smeared it around but didn’t get rid of it.

  “I hope that Mr. D can expedite my interview. I want this over and done with, so I can focus on us and our relationship.”

  “You don’t have to wait.” When she opened her mouth to argue, Julian lifted his hand. “I’m not talking about sex. We can get closer in other ways.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We can be together, just not alone with each other. We can hang out with family and friends.”

  It was much better than not seeing him at all, which Ella wasn’t sure she could actually do. Maybe with plenty of phone calls, but even those had the potential of sliding into sexual territory. For now, complete abstinence was best.

  Hanging out with her mother, Magnus and Parker could actually be fun and bring the entire family closer. “You’re always welcome in my house.”

  “I know. And I like your mother and brother, and Magnus too. When I come over, instead of going to your room or out for a walk, we can spend time with your family. And the same goes for you. So far, you’ve only gotten to know my mother and Turner in their professional capacity. I think it would be nice to meet for dinner as a family. My mom doe
sn’t cook much, but Turner can bring takeout on his way back from the office, or we can all go out to a restaurant.”

  That sounded wonderful. Growing up in a tiny family, Ella had envied her friends who had uncles and aunts and cousins and grandparents. Their birthdays had seemed so much happier than hers. Secretly, she’d hoped to one day marry a guy with a large family or a clan.

  “I love it, and not only because of the obvious. Hanging around a lot of people will fill my head with more than just you, which is good for the dream encounters.”

  He arched a brow. “What do you mean by obvious?”

  “You know, we are kind of engaged, right? So, it makes sense for us to get close to each other's families and friends.”

  Embarrassed, Ella put her mug on the nightstand and popped a chocolate into her big mouth. She should’ve done that five seconds ago instead of blurting nonsense about a nonexistent engagement.

  When Julian sighed, her gut clenched. Now he was going to give her a speech about rushing to conclusions and tell her that they were not getting married anytime soon.

  Not that she wanted to, not yet anyway. She was too young, for one, and then there was the issue of her education. Ella hadn’t given up on that. Couldn't even if she wanted to. Since she was a little girl, her mother had been drilling the importance of college education into her head. She couldn’t disappoint Vivian like that.