Page 44 of Save Me Enemy

I have to laugh, the rest she got seems to have done wonders for her appetite. I rinse and dry the dishes quickly and then serve the soup on a quaint round kitchen table set before a picturesque window. Cricket smiles as she eats, savoring every bite with enthusiasm and closed eyes.

“Where did you learn to cook like this?” she asks.

I frown. “Catherine taught me,” I admit, and we both go silent, retreating back to our own thoughts. For whatever reason, Catherine betrayed us, and it hurts to dwell on the good times now.

“Well, at least some good came out of it…” Cricket says, trying to lighten the moment, and I nod.

Scraps is pacing the floor, rubbing our legs, and meowing loudly. Finally I consent and get her own small bowl of food and set it on the ground. Scraps looks at me like I’ve insulted her, and Cricket laughs out loud. It’s the first time I’ve heard her fully laugh without reservation or underlying sadness, and the wondrous sound has me staring at her and smiling dumbly.

“She wants to eat with us, I think!” Cricket says, picking up the bowl and setting it on the table near hers.

Scraps licks her paw and glares at me before she rubs on Cricket’s ankles and hops on the table to sit and eat with us. She never takes her feline eyes off of me as she eats, as if she’s got some sort of bone to pick with me, and the whole thing is rather unnerving.

Cricket scrapes her bowl clean and leans back in her chair with a contented sigh. She looks out the window, a small happy smile on her face, and watches the sun go down as I get a second bowl for myself.

“Would you like more?” I ask as I come back to the table, and she shakes her head no.

The pink and orange glow of the sunset lights up her face like a masterpiece painting. It takes everything in me to focus on eating and not to spill every spoonful of the rich soup down my chin. She looks so beautiful in the fading light, like she's glowing, like she isn’t sick at all.

“You’re so beautiful,” I say as I finish my second bowl. I fold my arms over my chest and watch her blush and look away shyly. “I mean it, Cricket, you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Scraps meows in agreement and yawns before she jumps off the table and curls up on a cat bed in the corner of the room. It strikes me as odd there would be a cat bed out here in the safehouse, but for appearances I guess it could be normal. I scoot my chair back, the legs of the chair screeching on the floor, and walk over to my woman. I cup her chin, and turn her face so she’s looking up at me, then I lean down and kiss her so softly that it’s barely a touch at all.

Cricket sighs, her lips parting so sweetly. The tip of her tongue meets mine and I’m instantly hard and ready for her. I groan, stepping closer to her, and her hands find my arms and snake up around my neck so I can pull her against my chest.

“You have two options…” I tell her with a grin, feeling naughty. “I can let you shower, or you can let me clean you with my tongue…” I growl, liking the second option better. I fill her mouth with my tongue and drag her hand between us so she can feel how badly I want her.

“Let’s wash ourselves with soap first, and then you can make sure I didn’t miss a spot,” she says, her voice low and husky.

She need say no more. I turn quickly, walking straight towards the bathroom and turning the water on. I sit Cricket on the sink and she spreads her legs so I can step between them. Her mouth tastes like rabbit stew and everything that is Cricket. I’m lost in lust as I begin to strip her clothes off.

I’m an animal, blood doesn’t bother me, but she wants to be clean before I taste her. Fine then, she’ll be clean before that, but not before our desperate need is at least a little bit soothed. When she’s naked before me, sitting on the sink like my desert, I unbuckle my belt and drop my pants with a speed like I’ve never known. She’s ready for me, panting hard, and when she sees how ready I am, she whimpers with need.

My beautiful mate leans back, tilting her hips to meet mine, and I slowly slip inside her. Every moment is like heaven, every inch of her body more than I ever could have hoped for. When I’m seated fully inside her she gasps with her eyes closed, and I kiss her neck lovingly as we begin to grind slowly together.

“Moon’s sake, Cricket…” I moan, worshiping her body with my mouth and hands as she moans so sweetly to the feel of my cock inside her.

I’m so lost in her that I don’t feel the room getting colder until she shivers. My brows knit together and I look around. The room should be filling with steam not getting colder. Without taking my cock from inside her I reach back and feel the spray from the shower. It’s ice cold, even with the dial turned all the way to hot. I turn the water off and turn back to Cricket with a sigh.

“Looks like the hot water is out…” I mumble, refocusing on her body and the need to fill her with my seed over and over.

“Oh…oh but I need to get this blood off me…” She gasps as I shift my hips, angling my cock to hit her g-spot every time I push back in.

“We still have option two…” I growl, raising her wrist to my mouth and kissing it before I nip it with my teeth possessively.

“Ew, gosh no…” She sighs, her walls spasming around me.

She’s getting close, thank the gods, I don’t know how much longer I can last. When her legs lock around my waist and she throws her head back to scream with pleasure, and I let myself go. I tangle one hand in her hair and use the other to grip her hip, thrusting into her hard two more times before my own release comes and I watch my seed drip out between our hips and coat our skin.

“Jackson…” Cricket whispers, her heart beating so rapidly I can feel it as I lay my hand on her chest. “You just keep getting better and better…”

“With you, every time is better than the last, every time more sweet. I don’t care that you’re dirty, you’re mine. My mate. Nothing on your skin could ever deter me from taking you with my body…”

“Well, it’s stopping me from fully enjoying it. Every time I see the blood on my skin I see that woman dying again…” She shudders, sadness returning to her eyes.

I’m filled with loathing for the man who blew off that woman’s head right in front of my mate. I wrack my mind, trying to figure out any way I could help her get clean when it hits me.

“Further up the mountain there's a hot spring…” I say, not quite sure I want to leave the safety of this house, but when her eyes light up I know I have no other choice.

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