“Never forget that,” I whispered into her, slowly calming down as I too was at my limit. “Never forget you belong to me and me alone. I’ve waited for only you, Ivy, dreamed only of you, and now that I have you, I’m going to fuck you like this until…ugh…until I figure what the hell you’ve done to me. UH!” I grunted, gripping her waist as I came deep inside her.
I held myself up on my hands on either side of her.
I closed my eyes, trying to both breathe and calm myself down.
I don’t know how long we both stayed like that, naked, sweaty, pressed together, breathing heavily, and I didn’t care.
It was only when I found the will and the strength to move again did I slowly push myself up and gently pulled out of her, both of us covered in each other. On my feet, the world felt like it was spinning for a moment, before I felt upright. Moving to the open fridge I’d pulled her from, I reached for the milk and drank it from the bottle, bracing myself against the kitchen counter when I was done.
“Ethan.”
Her voice was so soft I thought I’d imagined it.
Turning to face her, she’d rolled over onto her back, her hand over her eyes, and I didn’t realize why until she spoke. “Ummm…fuck…I mean…I…whatever I did…whatever I’ve done…don’t figure it out.”
She was crying.
Not sobbing.
Just tears flowing out of her eyes.
“Why are you covering your face?”
“Because my eyes are leaking and they shouldn’t be!” she shouted in frustration. “I should cry when I’m sad. Now this wasn’t sad…this was the best…I’ve never felt like that before.”
Putting the milk down, I walked back over to her and even when I picked her up into my arms she wouldn’t let me see her face, even though I could feel her tears on my chest.
“Say it,” she whispered.
“What?”
“Say you’ll never try to find out why me?”
“I’ll never question why I fell for you.”
TWENTY-TWO
“Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”
~ J.K. Rowling
SEVEN DAYS LATER
IVY
“Twenty more dead as of this morning. City council members and doctors are warning that many more will die due to the flood of miscellaneous drugs being distributed in heroin. Dr. Rioja, head trauma surgeon of Boston Medical, says that over the last week they’ve seen more deaths due to heroin overdose than in the last eighteen months—”
Switching the station and lowering the volume, Ethan leaned back into his seat, speeding up as the light changed.
“Do you want to get anything to eat on our way?”
“On our way where?”
“Somewhere,” he replied, and I wanted to jump him, but he just put his free hand on top of my thigh.
“You—ugh.” I sighed, crossing my arms and leaning back. I could tell he was amused…no, not just that. He was also content. Content with the state of the city, with the way we’d been living.
For the last week we’d pretty much stayed inside the safe house, falling into our own routine in that short time. Ethan would wake up at some ungodly hour in the morning, kissing my forehead and telling me to go back to sleep before leaving the house to go for a run. Something he did for no other reason than he knew it was dangerous. Because he knew they’d be watching him. And because I felt paranoid when he was gone I’d watch the cameras until I started to see