Page 92 of The Sound in Silence

No.I feel it in my gut. It was too similar.

Erico downshifts, breaks, and swivels the car onto the sidewalk, the wet cement gliding against the car’s thin, sports tires. It takes us to the grassy stretch lining the road. For a moment, we’re tilted, and then flat, parked in the centre of the grass.

Between heavy breaths, both of us trying to make sense of what just occurred, Erico lurches from the car, coming around to my side and yanks me from it. I’m in his arms, perched on the hot hood of the car, his head buried in my neck. We’re soaked instantly, the water washing away our near-deaths. It gives energy, drenching us withlife.

“Holy fuck,” I breathe. “I think he tried to…”

I’m talking.

I laugh. A bit maniacal, disbelieving. I’mlaughing.Oh, my god, I’ve spoken to him. I did what I’ve been dreaming of for days. The walls around my heart crumbled enough to allow him inside, the trust I’ve been feeling for a while now becoming obvious.

The fear of losing him.

Everything came to a full circle. Yelling my mother’s name was the last word I spoke when I was “normal.” Yelling Erico’s name is what allowed me to open up to him.

Both in similar circumstances.

He cups my face in both hands, his eyes searching my face, like he’s seeing me for the first time. Maybe he is. Maybe he’s uncovered a piece of the old me. The rain dousing us changes nothing; he doesn’t blink as water drips from his lashes.

“Ariella, your voice…You saved us, baby.”

“I-I spoke.” It’s getting easier now. “He tried to—I spoke. I didn’t think, Erico, I just reacted. All I could think about was him crashing into us. I had to warn you.”

“You warned me,” he repeats, disbelief making his voice a half pitch higher.

I stare over his shoulder, in the direction his opponent disappeared to. Whatever happened hadn’t ended the same way my first accident did. I’m alive.

We’realive.

I shouted and no one died. I warned him andsavedus.

I didn’t lose him.

I didn’t lose myself to the darkness.

Ifoundmyself.

My giggles shift into tears and the next thing I know is I’m pulling his face to mine. Or he’s pulling me to him. Not sure which, but our lips meet like the storm above us. Desperate and hungry, full of control and drive, each of us fighting for dominance.

I’ll never admit it to him, but that was scary. Not in the way he believes though. Ididhave a flashback, but the speed had nothing to do with it.

My hands push up his soaked shirt, hands petting over the wet, smooth skin beneath. I want him like this. I want himnow. Maybe it’s a shock response. Maybe it’s lust. Maybe it’s my body reacting to the storm overhead.

All I know is he feels the same way.

“Ariella, I gotta feel you.”

“Take me.” My voice sounds strange, unused. Even to me. Even when alone, I stopped talking to myself. Stopped singing. Became a shadow because it was easier that way.

Perhaps I’ve discovered another piece of my husband, or maybe it was what happened, but Erico’s demeanor switches. He yanks me off the car’s hood, spins me around, and with his palm to the back of my neck, shoves me down. My panties are shoved to my knees with his free hand, and a finger swipes through my core.

Moaning, I spread my legs as wide as my panties allow for. The heavy rain feels heated, though it might be the warm car beneath me. It soaks my back and makes my ass cold and wet the second Erico flips my dress up.

He undoes his jeans, lines his hard cock up, and plunges inside with a single thrust. Filled to the brim, the pleasure immediately robbing me of breath, my nails scrape uselessly against the wet metal of his car. The storm above, the thunder crashes, matched to my breaths and his thrusts.

“Fuck, that was close. Never again.”Thrust.“After today, I’m locking you inside our bedroom. I refuse to lose you.”

In his statement, I hear,I love you.

---