"Anything," he promised, raw need in his voice. His hand stayed on my throat, squeezing…reminding me of the power games we’d played so often.

“It might be hard.”

"Abby, we are well past hard," he chuckled, voice coarse. "What are you saying?"

"Distraction," I exhaled, nails digging into the muscle of his back, each word heavy with urgency. "Friends waiting in the mess hall…they’ll help start a riot."

"Keep… talking…" His voice was strained. Every thrust brought a gasp from my lips, but I tried to keep focused.

"Whatever it takes," I managed to choke out between moans. "We…we need as much chaos as possible. And when it happens…you follow my lead…okay?"

Nathan paused, gazed at me. “You think this will work?”

"I don't just think," I gasped. "I know it will. It has to…because I’m not leaving you in here."

We stayed like that for a moment, eyes locked, bodies entwined.

Then he was kissing me hard, moving again. The sudden speed sent another orgasm rocketing through me, my toes curling as I clasped my legs around his waist, my fingernails dragging down his spine. It had never felt this good, never felt like we belonged so very, very much. Nathan rode me through it, his body pounding into mine until I was nothing but raw nerve endings and shattered breath.

“I’m going to come inside you,” he wrenched out, voice rough. “I want my cum dripping down your legs when you walk out of here, you understand?”

I nodded, my body still buzzing from the aftershocks of my release. “Yes…yes,” I chanted.

Then I felt it.

He thrust once more and bottomed out inside me, his cock bumping against my walls, my pussy clenching…and he came. He flooded me, filled me, gave me everything he had. His hips twitched as he clutched me to him, pressed kisses to my throat, said my name over and over.

The room fell silent save for our ragged breathing. I knew there was a world outside…that there was a whole ecosystem to this prison.

But the only thing that mattered was us.

We stayed like that, Nathan still inside me, his forehead pressed against mine. His breath was warm on my face and despite everything–the danger, the uncertainty–I couldn't help but feel a sense of calm wash over me.

But reality soon came crashing back as Nathan pulled away from me, a grim look in his eyes.

“When?” he mouthed.

I reached out to touch his face, too, and my lips curled in a knowing smirk. “Now.”

He stared at me for a moment more, like he couldn’t understand what I was telling him…then he laughed, shaking his head. God, I’d missed that laugh–that laugh I’d worked hard to hear for the first time, that laugh I wanted to hear every day for the rest of my life.

He smiled at me. “You’re fucking crazy,” he said. “Okay. I love you.”

"Look who’s talking," I echoed, my own lips curving into a smile. "I love you too."

And maybe this was totally crazy…but it was our only shot.

And I had to make it count.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Nathan

Being taken away from her was like having a limb amputated—but at least I knew it was temporary.

The guards weren’t gentle as they cuffed me again, shackled my legs. Abby probably didn’t know that I was going to have to figure out how to fight off the guards and get into this riot with my wrists and ankles bound.

The good thing was that I’d been raised from a very young age to fight like my life depended on it.

We walked down the hall from intake, away from Abby…and every step hurt. The guards were civil, quiet. After what had happened at the county jail, I knew that the FBI was scrambling to build a case against me. I was a high risk prisoner, dangerous to anyone around me, but Diane Hayes’s brash law-breaking had fucked over the feds.