Page 86 of Anchor

And I planned to do exactly that with all my strength. But I was getting too fucking emotional again, and if I spoke, I was going to burst into tears. Happy tears that pooled in my eyes, but tears nonetheless. So, I rested my head on his shoulder and I blinked them away as fast as I could, and I got my shit together because I didn’t want to ruin this for anything in the world.

I was here now, and it didn’t matter what had happened before—Taland was right. Somehow he knew. Somehow he’d seen.

I knew, too, and it was okay.

Taland hummed a melody I adored, a song we used to listen to in his dorm back in the day—Let Her Go.A song I’d never dared to listen to in the past two years, and now there it was again, in my head and in my ears, wrapped all around me, just like Taland.

“Look. There it is,” he said after a couple of minutes, and there were no more trees to our sides, only the open sky above us. Ahead, there was this two-story house, narrow, made out of wood as dark as the trees that surrounded it, wrapped around it, like the branches meant to hug the dark green rooftop. No lightson anywhere, only what the moonlight showed us, but I did notice that the air was thick with magic. Now that I was focused on my surroundings, I did notice that I could almostseeit in the air all around us.

“What are those?” I wondered, looking at the rectangular rocks that stood upright in a wide circle around what should have been the front yard of that strange skinny and tall house.

“The wards are engraved in them. It’s just rocks,” said Taland, taking us up the four stairs and to the front door of the house. There he put me down but didn’t let go.

When wards were engraved on rocks that were magically transformed into thesedishes,if you will, for magic to exist, the spells became twice as powerful, and they lasted as long as these dishes were intact. It could be the reason why the IDD had never found this place, or others like this, but I still didn’t feel as safe as I’d have liked. We were still very close to Baltimore and Headquarters was just a few hours away.

“Hey, look at me,” Taland said as he put his hand on the door, palm flat against the wood painted black. His energy charged the air for a moment. “They can’t find us here.”

He was always a mind reader when it came to me.

“I know,” I said, and I did trust him, but this was the IDD. And who knew how seriouslythey’d taken me running away with Taland or Taland trying to steal that script from the Vault?

And my grandmother…

Goddess, I didn’t even want to think about her at all.

“Then cheer up. Welcome to this safe house, sweetness.” He pushed the door open, and it gave without a sound.

I walked into the dark corridor, and I just now realized that it was a bit cold outside, but it was warm in here. Dark, so dark I hardly saw the other end of the short corridor, but warm.

Then Taland was behind me, arms wrapped around me, his lips on the side of my neck, and the door swung closed.

More darkness.

I wouldn’t have cared if the sun had been shining right over our heads.

For a moment, we just stayed there like that, him with his arms around me, my hand in his hair, the other over his. We just stayed there, and we got used to being so close, to beingoneagain.

Then he planted kisses down my neck and to my shoulder, and I held onto his head, and I melted into his arms, and the world faded away completely. The moment that door closed and Taland wrapped me up inhim,nothing else existed but us.

He moved us soon, turned me around to face him, then slammed his lips to mine with a new urgency, like he might die if he didn’t kiss me this very second, and so would I. His hands were on my waist, squeezing me tightly, and my back was against the wall, and I had no idea if he’d carried us into a room or if we were still in that corridor, but I didn’t really care. His lips were my lifeline and I’d gone so long without living, much too long. The Iris Roe didn’t even count—I’d had him for barely hours in total.

I kissed him with my everything—my love and my apologies and all mysorrys. He kissed me with all his promises and his need, and we cleansed ourselves of all that was bad between us. With that kiss we showed each other that nothing had changed, no matter what the world had made us, or where we’d been, or what we’d done since that dreadful night. We were stillusand our fire was still there. The embers were sparking to life with every new kiss and touch, and it was more beautiful than the stars in the sky.

No need for words because our bodies were doing the talking, and we were happy to let them. Taland’s hands were under my shirt, and mine were under his, and the warmth of our skinsturned up by the second. I sucked on his tongue and he bit my lips violently, and I moaned into his mouth just like he liked.

He pressed me hard against the wall until I felt every inch of him—his chest, and his cock, ready for me, pulsating with need same as I was.

I needed him—goddess, I needed himnow.I didn’t care about finding a bed or making sure we couldn’t be seen—I just undid his belt and the zipper of his pants, and I slipped my hand underneath until his cock was in my hands.

He growled and moaned and moved his hips up, eyes squeezed shut and my lip between his teeth. Blood on my tongue but I didn’t feel the pain, and then his hands moved, too—one under my bra, squeezing my breast, the other on the zipper of my jeans, pushing it down.

Yes, yes, YES, I wanted to scream, but the best I could do was moan and whisper his name.Don’t stop, don’t stop, please, don’t slow down,I begged in my mind, and Taland must have heard me, or maybe he was just as desperate for me as I was for him.

Neither of us slowed down, and when his fingers slid under my panties and down my soaking wet folds, the house came alive with our moans and whispers and screams.

I pushed his pants down as far as I could. “I need you,” I said, or maybe I just thought it. Either way, he heard.

That’s why he pushed down my jeans the next second, and I was shaking, my knees weak, but I still somehow managed to turn around. There was no way I could wait for him to get all our clothes off—no way. I wasn’t kidding when I told him I needed himnow.

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