Page 37 of Creatures Like Us
The drugs are gone from my system, but thanks to Noah, my skewed sense of reality is just tilted in a different way from before. A worse way? I’m not sure. They’re certainly disturbing, these thoughts I have. These desires.
When I’m alone, they feel even more intrusive and strange. The only time I feel even remotely all right is when Noah is here with me. Where the hell is he? He’s been out so long. Daylight is fading.
Fuck, am Imissinghim now too? Isn’t wanting him torment enough? He’s got me in his mercy, locked up, holding my freedom in his grasp. If something happens to him, I’m dead. I’ll be stuck here; I’ll rot, I’ll starve to death, and it’ll be his fault. He wanted to save me, huh? Well, what’s going to happen if he never comes back? What then? So much for saving my life. So much for taking care of me.
Fuck him!I slam my fist into the wall, sending a stinging ache through my knuckles. At the same time, the house shakes as the front door slams shut.
He’s home again. Finally.
As I wait for him to come down into the basement, I hear him rumbling with something upstairs. I wonder what the rest of his house looks like. Considering the size of the basement, it has to be quite big. I imagine his aunt furnished it. Maybe some dark wood and old, stuffy furniture?…?Not exactly my style, but I’d do anything to see it regardless.
I look longingly out the little window by the ceiling. The snow is a couple of inches lower now than on New Year’s Eve. I’d do anything to feel fresh air on my face again, yet I haven’t fought hard enough to get out of here, all things considered, and that’s wrong too.
Everything is wrong—even my relief when I hear Noah’s footsteps plod downstairs.
I hate the way he never smiles. I hate how careful his touch is when he uncuffs my wrist. I hate everything about him, yet I can’t help the unbidden warmth coursing through my frozen body when I see his face.
“What took you so long?” I snap, refusing to let my real emotions show.
Noah stops for a second, frowning. “Was I out that long?”
“Yeah, thanks for leaving me down here all day,” I say sullenly, knees drawn up to my chin. “I’m starving.”
“I’m sorry.” His boots thud against the floor as he approaches. I shiver, longing to feel his skin against mine, his heat. Something about the air in this basement drags the cold into your bones. “I caught a rabbit. I’ll make us a stew for dinner.”
“Fine,” I mutter. Right now, I’m hungry enough to eat just about anything.
Noah empties my buckets and refills my water bottle when I ask, and after that, he goes back up the stairs to make our dinner. Fuck, I don’t want him to leave. I wrap my arms tighter around my legs and look up at the ceiling until he comes back, silently rocking back and forth.
He returns with two bowls of rabbit stew made with carrots and cabbage, along with a piece of sourdough bread. I devour the meal in minutes, while Noah sits on the chair opposite the bed and picks the bread apart carefully with his long pale fingers.
“Are you full?” he asks.
“Full enough.”
“There’s more. I’ll bring you some.”
“No.” I pat the side of the bed. “Come here.”
He hasn’t finished his food, but I’m feeling impatient, and he’s taking too long. He dips a small piece of bread into his bowl and scoops up the last of the stew. He chews slowly, watching me with tense hesitation in his shoulders.
“Come on.” I pat the bed again and lie down on my side, unable to hide a smirk. It’s pretty damn adorable—his hesitation.
“I should check on the—”
“Please, Noah? I’m cold.”
Finally, he approaches the bed and lies down, facing me. Something stirs deep in my gut at the sight of the flush creeping up his neck, and desire strikes me hard and fast. He’ll let me do this. I’m sure of it.
I lift a hand to stroke a strand of hair out of his face. “Tell me.”
“T-Tell you what?”
“Tell me where you want me to touch you.”
His flush deepens. “Maybe?…?my neck?”
I smile at his lack of hesitation and place two fingers behind his ear—the softest touch. Then lower, to the tendon at the side of his neck. Three fingers now, four, and Noah swallows thickly.
