Page 72 of Repossess My Heart

“Is he going to make it?” The words were so quiet they were somehow less than a whisper, but it heard me just the same.

“This location is not ideal for a surgical procedure. Odds are not in his favor; a more sterile location could increase the chance of survival.”

“O-okay, we’ll move him.”

“If we move him, he will die.”

“Okay.” I sob. My head goes light as I scoot closer, keeping my eyes on his face as my trembling hands find his. I don’t look away, not even when the warm sand bleeds red. Not for the cries for help, gunfire or screams.

Not even for the sun.

22

A Way to Live

Slow Down by Chase Atlantic

ReverieSixWeeksLater

I roll my eyes at the onslaught of profanity coming from one of the bedrooms of our house. It’s hard to tell if it’s directed at Six or me for being outside unprotected. Ten’s- Michael’s drone is never far from me though, not since it paired with Nathan during what was one of the worst four hours of my life.

And that’s saying something.

Four hours is how long it took to bring him back to me. I was so close so many times to running down that beach into the line of enforcers. Or plunging myself back into the water. Neither seemed as good as him killing me himself, but I knew once he died, I had to follow him as quickly as possible. When he’d coded for the fifth time, it was only Six’s arms that stopped me. I wasn’t grateful for it at first. His touch was wrong and felt like a betrayal laying so close to the man I loved as he died… for me. All because I had to save people, most of them were too scared to board the tubes, anyway. So many died that day. I can’t help but brace myself every morning wondering when the other shoe will drop.

When the survivors of what some call the collapse, others the liberation, find out it was their makeshift leader that killed everyone they loved. The sounds of fighting were more common than the crash of waves. If it wasn’t for Michael’s drone and Six-who still won’t use his real name,I would’ve been killed many times over. Weather from citizens of Above or their enforcers… others from below wanting the large house we’d inadvertently claimed when Nathan was stable enough to be moved from the waterfront without crashing. The majority of the population is gone… sank beneath the sea. The island that held most of the Above officials and infrastructure was placed directly on top of those that kept it all running.

Not anymore.

I don’t need to look behind me, away from the waves to know he’s there, but I do anyway. The sight of his sculpted bare chest now mottled with scars does something to me, just the way it always has. When I face the water again, his arms band around me from behind. My breath leaves me in a small gasp. “You’re outside alone…again.” His arms flex around me. I can feel him scanning everything near us.

“Not alone. The drone is here.” Obeying its newfound master and his specific order to keep me safe. At all times, lingering like a damn shadow.

“You know what I mean, sweetling.” His lips brush my neck, his voice laced with warning, “You’re mine, and are not allowed to leave the house without yourscary dogat your side.”

I fight back my smile at the scary dog joke. Soon after he woke up and was well enough to move, he drug me down to the water hellbent on fucking me there on the sand. He’d scared me half to death. I’d fallen asleep on the giant bed beside him, only to be woken up by being hulked out of bed by a large figure whose mouth was clasped on my nipple. The fear was quickly traded for concern, then everything wiped away by pleasure. That edge he offers me. The edge that took me to my limit, hurled me over it and built me back piece by piece. It was his insanity that brought me back from mine.

After he fucked me thoroughly, I refused to redress, making my way into the water on wobbly legs. Of course, he made all manner of thigh slicking threats, each one driving me further into the water.

“Will you feel guilty when I kill the people you let see you?”

I shook my head as he followed me in. Even with my newfound emotions I knew it was the truth.

“And if some knight in shining armor comes to sweep you away?”

That made me laugh. The sound was so weird, it wasn’t jaded but filled with… hope and something so much deeper, “I’ll use my scary dog privileges to scare him away.”

His arms banded around me pulling me against him, I wasted no time wrapping my legs around his waist and grinding myself on his hard length, “I suppose that makes me the scary dog?”

I’d laughed again and when his eyes met mine, they were filled with so much adoration that laughter turned to tears, but not the sad kind. Far from the sad kind.

His hand slipping past the hem of my pants takes me from my thoughts. When his fingers seek out my arousal coated core, I whimper. Only for his hand to slip up to my clit, pinching it hard. The heady mixture of pleasure and pain caused what would’ve been a shocked yelp to catch in my throat.

“It’s the middle of the day sweetling, best you keep quiet. Those pretty little sounds are for me.”

“Take me inside.” I gasp, my nails digging into the banister of the porch in an attempt to keep still. My hips now and then rocking forward into his hand, begging desperately for more friction only to earn myself another pinch.

“But you wanted to be outside so badly you went all alone. I’d hate to deny you anything baby.”

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