Page 112 of Kept

My breath hitches. The rest of our lives.

My thoughts snap off as Enzo twists his hips, the motion making him rotate inside me and bringing me right back to the here and now.

“Oh,” I gasp. He pushes me back into the bars, his fingers rubbing over my slit as my back arches. The fire builds again, slow molten lava in my abdomen growing as he holds me in place and thrusts his hips against mine.

He keeps his movements slow and rhythmic, and I lose myself in the feeling of him pushing inside me, over and over again.

His hand finds my throat, the loose collar a comfort as he strokes the skin in time with his thrusts. “Tell me what you feel, little prey.”

My eyes feel lazy and languid as I blink at him. “I feel… you inside me.”

He half smiles. “As you should.” He encompasses his words with a push that brings a moan to my lips, and he kisses it away. “What else?”

My head lolls to the side, and my lips part.

A river rushes next to us, turbulent liquid glass that glitters with the bright light of the morning sunshine. Above us is a huge gray metal structure, twisting in columns up into the air and reaching across the river, bringing the faint sound of cars to my ears. On the other side of the riverbank, the city stretches out, thousands of people going about their lives with certainty. They know what their life looks like. They have a routine, a family, aplan.

Enzo twists my chin back to face him, slowing his movements. “Tell me.”

“I feel like I’m on the edge of something.” The words are almost soundless, a confession pulled straight from my chest. “Like everything is going to be different now. A whole life stretches out in front of me and I don’t know what it’s going to look like.”

He shifts. “None of us know what our lives will look like, little prey,” he says, almost gently. “All we can do is adapt to the changes that come. And they come for everyone.”

I nod, slowly. “I don’t want to lose this,” I tell him pleadingly. “Whatever happens, Enzo.”

“I won’t let that happen,” he whispers back to me. “I promise, prey. I told you that you’re ours, and I meant it. For all our days, from now until hell takes us.”

He moves inside me, and it’s so gentle it brings tears to my eyes.

“It would take Lucifer himself to tear me away from you.”

My release is a slow, smoldering pleasure that tips me over the edge of a waterfall, sweeping me out to sea. My hands grip Enzo, holding his shoulders tightly.

“You won’t leave me.”

A belief.

“Never, prey. Never.”

A vow.

When the small aftershocks have drained from my body, Enzo lifts my lethargic body off the bike, ignoring my protests, and carries me over to a bench overlooking the river. Tugging my sweater down to cover me, he settles down with me in his lap.

His hands run over my arms, the tops of my legs, slow and reassuring as I stare out over the water. The slight tang of the river fills my nose, and I wrinkle it.

When I mention it to Enzo, he snorts. “Nothing in this world does as much damage as humanity, prey. Every one of us is toxic to the ground we walk on.”

I poke his arm. “There’s good out there too, you know.”

“I know,” he says. He’s not looking at me. “I’m holding it.”

Oh. A warmth infuses my chest, and I lean back against him. “Enzo?”

“Mmm?”

“The man from the gallery. Emerson. I think… I don’t think his daughter died in a fire.”

“No,” he says, and his voice is gentle. “Are you ready to go back?”

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