Page 59 of Reckoning

“Fuck, Meyer,” she gasped, eyes flying wide, but I grabbed her wrist to keep her from wiping it away, scooping it up with my fingers and pushing it inside her. “You’re a maniac.” Her wide eyes stared at me, but she didn’t fight my grip.

“I’ll get you the pill,” I muttered, twisting my fingers to spread my cum along her inner walls. She jerked, gasping. “I just want to know I was inside you.”

“Christ, what are we doing?”

“Not fighting anymore.” After completing my task by marking her in the most feral way I knew, I released her and leaned down to kiss her stomach before falling onto the mattress beside her, tucking myself away and pulling her against my side. “I told you, you belong to me.”

One hand pressed against me, holding herself away; the other fisted my shirt and tugged me closer. “Then end this. Stand up for yourself. For both of us.”

So much for pillow talk.

I huffed out a long breath. “You don’t understand the dynamics at play.”

She tried to sit up, but I rolled on top of her, wrapping my arms around her shoulders as she pushed ineffectually at my chest. She drew back one wrist as if to slap me, but at the last second, her fingers just tapped against my chest. “He’s going to kill you in order to get to me. He’s not interested in letting you play out whatever plan you came up with to humiliate me.”

I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead against hers. “He will. I’ll show him. I’ll show you both.”

Her body twisted, and I had no choice but to let her roll away from me, but I kept her back pressed against my chest. “Get me that pill,” she muttered. “I’m not going to end up like my mom.”

My nose twitched, tickled by her hair. “What do you mean?”

“Seriously?” She twisted to look at me, the hatred back in her eyes. “You’re going to keep playing dumb?”

I didn’t want to talk about Eva. I kissed her, but she jerked away, finally extricating herself from my grip and snatching her clothes off the floor. “Go get me that pill. Now.” I barely got my phone out before she snapped, “Don’t text Joshua.”

I sighed and slid my phone back into my pocket, leaving the text message unwritten. “I’ll have to leave.” What if Conrad came back, and I wasn’t around? Clearly, I couldn’t trust Joshua anymore. Fuck, just another thing I needed to deal with.

“Fine. I’ll put a chair under the door.” She slammed the door to the bathroom, cutting us off. I glared at the door until I heard the running water in the sink, then jumped off the bed and burst in. She jumped, spraying water across the vanity. “What the fuck?”

“Come on. We’ll go together.” I grabbed her hand, still damp and slightly soapy, and pulled her along with me to the garage. “Put these on.” I grabbed a pair of sandals for her, then stopped. It was too cold outside; her toes would freeze. “Hang on.” Ducking back inside, I grabbed a pair of socks and an old pair of sneakers and handed them to her. “Here.”

She looked back and forth between me and the socks for a moment before sitting to pull them on her feet. “Thank you.”

“I don’t like the surprise in your voice.”

“You’re so cold-blooded; I wouldn’t expect you to consider that it’s too cold for me out there.” She shoved her feet into the shoes, and even though they were a couple of sizes too big for her, she got back to her feet. The shoes were comically large.

“Can you stop doing that?” Reaching for her arm, I pulled her against me only to walk her backward again, pushing her into the counter as I crushed our lips together.

“Stop what?” She spoke in a high whine, fingers tugging at my shirt so she could touch my bare stomach. I shivered.

“Looking so fucking cute all the damn time.”

We made out for a few minutes, losing all sense of urgency in the taste of each other. I could kiss her forever. When we kissed, I managed to forget about our situation. When she met my tongue, invaded me as much as I did her, clutched at my clothes like she wanted to rip them from my body, then it was easy to lose sight of the danger we lived in every day. She didn’t know the half of it, what Conrad would do if he saw us like this or if he’d walked in on me delivering pleasure, instead of taking it from her like he demanded. He’d always found joy in hurting people, bending them to his will, but for me, the reward was seeing another person’s delight. Not that there was much room in my life for helping others.

We broke apart when her stomach gurgled, angry at the late dinner. I glanced at the clock. “Let’s go. I’ll get you some food while we’re out.”

“Sure.” She looked a little dazed as I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the car. I handed her some sunglasses as she settled in.

“It’s already getting dark,” she said.

“If someone we know sees you, it’s better if you look a little battered.” There was no hiding the shame in my voice. I didn’t want her to hide. I wanted her to be able to stick her head out the window and take in the city she’d been hidden away from for the past few weeks. But if it somehow got back to Conrad that I’d taken her out for a joyride, we’d never hear the end of it.

She was quiet while I drove, eyes out the window the entire time. She pulled off the sunglasses when we got on the highway but dutifully put them back on when we exited. I pulled up to a pharmacy and put the car in park but didn’t get out.

“I’ll be okay.” I turned toward her as she sank into the chair, head disappearing below the level of the window. “You’ll lock the doors. It’ll only take a minute.”

“What if you run?” I gripped the steering wheel harder, skin twisting against the leather. What were my choices? Leave her vulnerable at home? Bring her inside with me at the risk of being caught on camera? Or give her the opportunity to take off while I was inside?

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