Page 9 of Splintered Security
She looks stunned. “I don’t need all that.”
“You deserve all that, Annika. And I won’t take no for an answer. Will you make a list of everything we need to do tomorrow? Add phones to that list. Mine didn’t survive tonight. I’m going to go shower and get the grime off. Can I trust that you won’t pull a runner while I’m in there and bolt?”
When did I get so verbose? I haven’t said this many words in the last week.
“I won’t leave.”
She climbs off my lap and extends a palm to me. She’s slight, but I accept anyway. It’s a gesture, and one I’ve been sorely missing.
She drops her eyes when I stand over her. “Thanks, Ren. I… I was scared.”
I lift her chin as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. “No need to thank me, Anni.” I lean down and kiss her forehead.
We’ll have to figure this out. Day after tomorrow, the witnesses at the courthouse will expect more.
5
water droplets
Ren
I head for the shower, dreading what comes next. My suit jacket is destroyed. The decimated dress shirt below goes in the trash right behind it. It’s the undershirt that concerns me. And I wasn’t wrong to worry about it.
It’s caked to my body in dried blood and rips new scabs open as I remove it.
Since I’m a glutton for punishment, I check the mirror before flipping on the shower. My back may as well be ground zero. It looks like it’s been the site of more than one battle.
That’s because it has.
New day, new scars. They’re hidden at least.
I step under the spray and wince. When the color of the water switches from red to pink to clear, I soap up and rinse off, spending an extra minute or two in the steam and solitude.
My mind is reeling. I’ve never been through any kind of explosives detonating. Tonight was the first, and it still wasn’tthe biggest bombshell of the night. How do I even think about being engaged to Anni? Marrying her?
It’s not her… she’s perfect, even if she is a little melodramatic. I pause at that thought. I don’t know this Anni. The Anni I grew up with was perfect, even when she was annoying, pesky, and inconvenient.
This Anni is the same person, just as smart, far more beautiful and alluring, but with… secrets. Secrets I want to puzzle out.
It crashes down on me. Everything will change. Everything changes now, actually. My home, my future, any and all plans. My whole focus requires me to think like aweand not just about me. This is going to fuck everything up.
I fist my cock. Just the thought of Anni in my home makes me want things I shouldn’t. But her moving around my house in a T-shirt and my boxers. It’s as sexy as lingerie when it comes down to it.
Something possessive rises from deep in my gut as I grip my hot flesh, tugging and yanking. I’m brutal in my grip and merciless in my strokes.
This is necessity.
This is punishment.
This is efficiency.
Not that there isn’t pleasure here, but I know her hands will never slide over me like this, her body will never choke me in its grip.
I signed up for who the hell knows what when it comes to sex. I’m not celibate, but I’m sure as fuck not an adulterer. Well, fuck.
I slam my hand against the shower surround and, in three more tugs, groan my release.
Anni
