Page 105 of Vengeful Rotten Casualties

“Yes,me,” he replies. “I’m yours, Micki. You keep my heart beating. If you die, so do I.”

An orgasm approaches, hard and fast. I hold onto him, wrapping my limbs around him as an earthquake like nothing I’ve ever felt overwhelms me. Everything seizes. My muscles. My bones. My mind. A bright, blinding white light fills my head as I squeeze my eyes shut. I’m swept into the storm of pleasure and pain with nothing to grasp but him.

Luc’s lips find me in the middle of it and I open my mouth under his. His tongue fills me, sweeps inside and steals the last bit of my thought. Just like that, the two of us fall over the edge of a steep cliff. Nothing left to lose. Nothing left to be greedy for. Just him. Just me.

We were too young for the shit we dealt with, but it happened. There’s no changing it.

I believe him when he says if I die, so does he, and that’s one thing I can’t let happen. I clamp my lips shut as he rips his mouth away and dives down against my shoulder, his teeth sinking into my flesh.It fucking hurts.

Luc’s bite tears flesh and fresh liquid spills over my shoulder towards my chest and down the other side, against my back. It’s okay. My nostrils flare as I try to suck in more air, but if I part my lips again, I know I’ll start screaming. There’s too much inside of me and it needs a release.

Luc doesn’t let up, though. It’s as if he knows exactly what I’m trying to do. His teeth bite down harder, and finally, he drags the scream up from the inner depths of my body. My mouth opens. Oxygen invades and then I release it.

I scream as my inner muscles contract around him again, rippling along his length. It’s a scream filled with pain, with loss, and with so much love I’m afraid it’ll rend me apart from the inside out and steal all of the words I have left inside of me and send them into the universe. Everything I couldn’t say before—all the times I couldn’t cry, all the times I couldn’t speak up—it all releases in my screams and Luc takes it all for himself.

When I come down from the high, there’s a distinct soreness in my shoulder and in my throat. I’ve screamed so loud and so much my voice is practically nonexistent as I sob against Luc’s chest. Still, he cups me against him, holding me as I shudder in his arms.

Strength isn’t being untouchable. I thought it was. I thought if I simply hid all of my emotions and refused to let anyone inside my innermost thoughts I’d be safe. That was never true. Strength is saving. It’s healing and it’s Luc.

He gives me all of his strength as he eases out of my body and lifts me into his arms like he didn’t just dive over the side of a bridge after me and drag my ass out of a ravine. He stumbles once and I have to chuckle internally.Okay, maybe he is human,I think as I wrap my arms around him.My human.

“It’s going to be okay, Micki,” he whispers against my ear. “I’m going to make you okay. I promise.”

I can’t speak, so all I do is push myself against him, wanting to get closer, to get warmer now that the sex is over and the reality of where we’re at is rushing back in. My skin is like frost, and I shiver against him.

“Luc!” Familiar voices call from somewhere nearby. “Micki!”

When I go to lift my head, Luc presses me back down. “Rest,” he orders. “I’ll take care of everything.”

I’m so tired. Tired of trying, of struggling, of fighting. My head falls back against his chest and I close my eyes. His breaths fill my ears and his heartbeat, pounding with regularity. It’s safe. I count the beats. One after the other even when the voices get closer and someone places something warm around me. A blanket. I’m drifting, falling away from the darkness and right back into life.

Luc’s lips brush my forehead. I want to turn my head back and beg for a kiss on my lips, but the energy is completely sapped from me. “Trust me, Micki,” I hear Luc say. “You did so well, pretty girl. It’s my turn now. Let me be in charge. Let me take care of you.”

Despite the chill and my ravaged throat, as I feel unconsciousness invading, I lift away from him. I have to say it. He has to know. My lips part and I arch against him. I know the wind will take it all away if I don’t get as close as I can. As if he senses my desire, Luc leans down until his ear is right next to my mouth.

“…love you…” I say. The second the last syllable is out, oblivion encroaches.

Luc leans away and his chest rumbles. I don’t hear it myself, but I know what he said.

I love you, too, pretty girl.

EPILOGUE PART 1

MICKI

One year later…

“Forgive me,Daddy. I’ve been a naughty girl.”

Dr. Grainer stiffens at my words. His lips twist into a scowl. Any other man, I wouldn’t even bother, but with him—it’s fun. “First of all,” he says, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at me. I’ve caught him doing it so many times that now it’s almost second nature to me to pick out when he’s trying to remain professional. “It’s ‘forgive me father for I have sinned’. Secondly,” he pauses and points his pen at me. “I know you’re not Catholic.”

“I know,” I agree with a shrug. “But I like how it makes you feel, perv.”

Dr. Grainer gives me a bland stare over the square glasses perched on his nose. “Do I need to remind you, Micki?” He lifts his hand and turns his ring my way. “I’m married.”

I bat my eyelashes at him. “So?”

He purses his lips in disgust. “Toa man.”

---