Adley had fallen to his knees, back in the motel. And in his moment of desperation and pain, she witnessed the real him. The one he hid not just from her, but she suspected from the world. Adley's foundations were broken and she planned to see that his walls came crashing down. There’s no going back. Not for him and not for me.
He emerged from the house, scanning the night before making his way back to the car. He motioned her to unlock. Eve lifted the button before opening the door and struggled to stand.
“I've put your bag in the main room. The owners have left the power on, so at least you'll have hot water.”
She struggled into the house and Adley followed, locking the door behind them. The wooden floor groaned underneath her steps. The musty scents of staleness and old people choked her, conjuring memories of her cold and unwelcoming grandparents before they passed. She held her hand over her face and tried to breathe
Adley took her hand, leading her to the right of the hallway. “If you leave on the bathroom light and close the door you’ll be able to find your way around.” He followed her gaze and murmured. “I’ll open the window until you go to sleep and let some fresh air in. I’m sorry Eve. I’ll make this place better tomorrow, I promise.”
She lowered her hand and tried to smile. He was doing all he could to keep her alive, she had no right to make him feel bad. “It’s fine, really. A little fresh air is all it needs.”
He nodded and pointed to the front of the house. “I'll be in the room over there, if you need anything.”
She followed the movement of his hand to the room at the front. The windows looked out onto the street. “Don't you think it’s dangerous, being so close to the road? What if… he gets in?”
His words barely reached, but his stare was as hard as stone when he answered. “Then I'll know about it first, before he has a chance to get to you.”
He strode quickly to the large window, yanking the dirty cord to snap the blinds closed. Her world was reduced to these four walls. She could hear him moving around in the room and fought the urge to follow him so she could keep him in her line of sight. He disappeared into a darkened room to her left and switched on the bathroom light. The yellow glare from the naked ceiling bulb showed her a bedroom. The iron bed frame he expected her to sleep on was rusted, reminding her of the blood on her hands from touching Adley’s shirt drenched with Edric’s blood… no, he’s a vampire now he has no blood… his borrowed blood. Eve shivered. The coverlet was edged with limp tassels, lying on the ground.
“It's late,” he said softly, avoiding her gaze. “You best get some sleep.”
Her body was exhausted and her nerves were frayed, but she didn’t want to sleep. She wanted to finish what they started back in the motel, even if she could only hold him. She moved toward him, but he shuffled back, just out of reach. “Not tonight, okay. We'll talk about everything tomorrow, Eve. You need to get some rest.”
He left her with the sound of his fading footsteps. She wouldn't push him tonight. Both had all they could cope with. He moved quietly around the house, checking the windows and doors before returning to the front room. Eve waddled into the bedroom and placed her bag on the floor, not bothering to unpack. There’d been too many motels and cramped nights in his car for her to care any longer.
The musical sound of Adley's laptop powering up triggered an ache inside her chest. He was so close, yet in this moment, he seemed so far away. The ache spread throughout her body as she pulled down the covers and climbed in between the cotton sheets. Their stale fragrance was sharp and bit at her senses. Eve sneezed and wrapped her arms around herself, settling in the bed. The old house ticked around her and as the time slowly passed, she felt so very small.
Adley’s typing sounded frantic at first, then slowed and eventually stopped. Eve closed her eyes, willing herself to sleep. But, tonight, sleep evaded her. Vampire…. Mother of God, how had her life become a B-grade version of every vampire story ever made? Where was the fairytale version filled with teenage angst? In her life, in the real story, there was only darkness and death while she ran screaming to find the truth. There wasn’t a cruel bitch alive who’d dream this shit up. “Fuck you.” She spat into the darkness as she started to tremble. The words tasted like poison—felt like poison. But they were real, and so were her hate and her terror. She held on to them tight.
She shifted in the bed, moving from the warm outline of her body to the cold sheets and waited while they warmed once again, listening to Adley snore in the next room. He was exhausted and he needed his sleep. If she could just lie next to him, she’d be able to drift off as well. She pulled back the covers and rose from the bed and quietly made her way to the front room.
Against the soft blue light of the computer screen, Adley looked peaceful. He lay on a makeshift mattress made of cushions from the lounge. He slept on the floor while she had the bed. His legs were curled up into his stomach. His body was barely covered by a rug that wouldn't warm him.
Caught between loneliness and fear, she stood watching and shuddering, mesmerized by the rhythmic sound of his breathing. This moment was so precious, this stolen moment was all she had. She sighed. Adley sat up with a start and looked around, finding her in the dim room. “Eve?”
“I'm sorry, go back to sleep.” She mumbled, but made no attempt to move.
“What's wrong?”
She felt like a child. “I... can't sleep. I'm terrified.” He sat up and the thin blanket slid to his waist. Her face burned with her carnal thoughts. But, God he looked so good. “Can I sleep with you?”
“No, Eve. I'm not going to let you sleep on the ground.”
Warm tears sprang her eyes and the familiar feeling of rejection filled her once more. She managed to stumble in a half-turn without tripping over her swollen feet before his voice stopped her.
“But if you promise no more wandering, I’ll lie beside you.”
Her heart caught on a beat and she answered a little louder than she’d intended. “Okay, I promise.”
Adley closed the laptop with one swift movement. Her heart raced with every heavy step he took behind her, each one bringing her closer to her piece of the dream… to be loved, held… to be normal. She pulled back the blankets and slipped into the sheets, her heart pounding and her ears straining. The bed dipped beside her. The springs groaned and pinged. She waited for a second, and then reached out her hand until she feared to go any further. She could feel the warmth from his body, one slight movement and she was sure they would touch. In the darkness, while she lay beside Adley, something happened she never thought possible she finally lay beside the man she loved.
Each breath, each sound became a slow, sweet torture. She was careful not to move until his breathing deepened. With some effort, Eve slid toward him until his hand met her stomach. His breathing stilled. She froze.
“Please, don’t go.” Eve whispered.
He moved, but not away from her. She thought her heart might kick him harder than her son kicked her when she felt his hand slide beneath her head. His arm was a welcome weight across her tummy when he pulled her close curling around her like snuggling up to her was the most natural thing in the world. .
Eve leaned into his strong frame, craving his warmth and scent. She wanted to be skin-to-skin, and putting her head on his chest and her arm across his waist barely made her feel close enough. Her soul sighed, leaving her floating. All the tension, all the fear left her. There was nothing but truth here, truth that for this night, she belonged to Adley and he belonged to her.
She watched him in the darkness. His parted lips became her focus. She remembered the way he kissed her, how he tasted, how his tongue felt against hers. She wanted that feeling again. She dug her elbow into the mattress and with every muscle straining, she rose and brushed his lips with hers. She closed her eyes, drawing in his breath. She kissed him again, moving against his lips softly. Then she pulled back and opened her eyes.
He stared at her with his lips still pa
rted slightly. Her heart beat harder. Warmth spread throughout her body, lighting fires where none had burned before.
“Later,” he murmured, lifting his head before dipping back down, his lips eager before pulling away. “We need to sleep.”
Eve settled against him and closed her eyes. Before, she’d been too angry to sleep. Now, she buzzed with desire. She pressed her lips together, the feel of his lips still lingered.
Eve woke first. Her eyes fluttered open, chasing the end of a dream where she was kissing Adley and he was kissing her back. A snore beside her jolted her fully awake. Adley lay next to her, his body curved around hers, his hand splayed across her stomach protectively. Had the kiss been a dream? Something inside her chest fluttered.
Her gaze left Adley’s sleeping form and she stared around the room. The house looked different in the light of the day. The nicotine-stained walls outlined furniture that was no longer there. She could see the place was fairly clean, although bare. Whoever lived here had either died, or was now somewhere else, permanently. Silence lingered like the dust that danced in the air. Eve relaxed before it dawned on her—the reason for the silence. She jerked her head to the right. Adley’s brown eyes held hers.
“Morning,” Eve murmured, smiling. The smile didn’t last, though. Hope died away when she saw something was wrong. His brow dug deep and his gaze hardened. He looked angry, ready to lash out. She flinched away. His hand fell away from her stomach. She wanted to tell him it’d all been a mistake, to say it was okay if he didn’t feel the same about her. Even if those words were a lie. She opened her mouth, but no words came, nothing but the hiss of air.
“I can’t… I mean… I won’t....” He growled, glaring, until her fear sprouted wings. “Oh, fuck.”
Adley pushed her back into the mattress, his lips smashing against hers. He stroked her face, leaving her lips to kiss the skin of her neck. His lips were so sensitive there it made her shudder, he dipped lower to the groove of her throat and then he kissed his way back to her lips. The stubble on his chin left a fiery path, a pain she reveled in because the discomfort meant his touch lingered. His lips trailed a line of warmth across to her ear. His heated breaths were captured by the shell of her ear, sending this warmth spiraling into her ear, and provoking a shiver that seemed to encircle her nipples. Her body melted, moving against him as he curled around to kiss her.
“I'm sorry,” he said. His brown eyes were no longer angry, but searching and scared.
She wouldn’t let this chance go by. She grasped his shirt, pulling him back against her. “I’m not sorry at all. I want this Adley… I want you.”
He shook his head and refused to meet her eyes. “God, you’re so sweet and so beautiful. I can’t do this to you. You deserve better than I could give you, you deserve better than me. I just wanted you to know… I feel… ah, shit.” In a voice so fragile and torn he whispered. “I’ve fallen in love with you.”
“I’d do it all again.” Eve whispered the words summing up how she felt.
Adley frowned. “I don’t understand what you mean?”
“I’d suffer all the heartache, all the loss. All the fear and the hurt. I’d go through it all again to find you and hear those words. I’d do it all again, for you.”
The bed dipped as he moved to the side, and when he reached out to touch her, his hands shook. “I want...” he started, gently turning her toward him, “I promise to be gentle. God Eve, I promise to be so gentle.”
“Yes,” She trembled as she moved against him. Her thoughts were a blur, her baby, her heart. A whirl-wind of confusion which centered around one constant need and that need was Adley. She licked her lips, her teeth chattered. “I want this too. Just take it slow, okay?”
He took it slow, kissing her softly, holding her as though she were made of glass. She could feel him trembling. He’s scared, just like I am. She wanted to comfort him, to hold him and protect him. She’d never in her life felt emotions so pure and powerful. There was no going back now, even if she’d wanted.
In this moment, she lived. In this moment, she loved.
She pulled at their shirts, exposing her stomach and the scars of her pregnancy. Adley lips stilled as he touched her swollen stomach. “My God you are beautiful.”
No one had called her beautiful before. When Adley spoke the words, she believed them. She wanted to be beautiful for him. He lifted his hand from her thigh, reaching behind to yank his shirt of in one quick movement. Her breath caught as her gaze swept over him, from his chest to his stomach. Thick scars marred his body. The jagged line swept up the center of his stomach and over his chest, like the life line of his palm. Like her, he was damaged in more ways than one. They were a perfect match.
He waited for her to finish her inspection, panic surrounding the edges of those honey brown eyes. She knew that look. He was waiting for her to pull away, waiting for rejection. He would find none with her.
“What's going to happen after this Adley? With us, I mean.”
His face softened as he looked at her. “Well, first we're going to get through this thing together. Then, I'm going to find this murdering fuck and kill him. After that, well, it's up to you. I won't pressure you Eve, but I can't think of my future without you or, our son—or daughter—in it.”
Tears blurred her vision and slid freely down her cheeks at the sound of those words and the hope that sparkled in his eyes. For the first time in her life, loneliness withdrew its claws from around her heart. She could see them so clearly now, together, the three of them. With Adley she would find her home… with Adley, she had finally found where she belonged.
“I love you, Adley. Once this nightmare is over, I want us to be together. The three of us. I want us to be a family.”
“Family... a real family,” he whispered.
The words resounded through her very soul, those words sounded so right.
“Our family,” she finished, sliding her hands along his chest as though the mere touch was making it real. This was her moment and she felt different, bolder than ever as though his love… his promise to her had somehow unbound her from the chains that had crippled her all her life.
“God, we make a perfect couple, don't we?” Eve muttered. The thick hair on his chest was cross-hatched with scars. She tried to touch each dark hair, caress each hard ridge of scar tissue, awed by the things he’d survived to earn those flaws She wanted to be always touching him. “Both of us broken and damaged.”
He barked, his laughter filling the room. Eve brushed his hair back from his face. “Before you came, I didn’t think I could be saved. I didn’t only leave the force, I left myself back there. Jesus, I’m ashamed to say this now, but I was prepared to end it all, to kill this guy and then myself. There was nothing else to live for… until now.”
She knew this was what he needed, something not just to live for, but to fight for.
“I tried not to love you, Eve. I tried so fucking hard, knowing I’m not the kind of man you need. But I can’t keep lying to myself, or to you. My heart is scarred more than my damn body. But if you want it, it’s yours.”
“Yes I want your heart. I want everything.” She answered with a growl. Her movements were awkward, yanking his pants down, but mostly tearing at her own clothes, knowing he would be slow and careful. She didn’t want slow and careful. She wanted him now.
Desperation thundered like a stampede inside her, but she willed herself to slow. Pulling his head down, she kissed his eyes, the scar on his cheek and hard line of his jaw. This feels so right. They were the same, her and Adley. The same fears, the same hopes and dreams. Like his heart, hers was scarred too, torn and now reassembled. The jagged edges of her heart were now fused together with gold, becoming stronger, and her scars spelled a name—his name.
He slid from the bed and tugged at the opening of his jeans. Letting them fall where he stood, he shoved down his briefs. Her body stiffened and her breath caught at the sight of him. His body was hard and beautiful, his ar
ms were strong, shoulders were rounded and thick and she ached to have them around her. His abdomen was muscular and the trail of hair down the center of his body led her gaze to something she’d experienced, but never seen.
She was torn between wanting to look at his body and her embarrassment. Her face burned. “It's okay. You can look at me, Eve.”
Her gaze lifted before her head followed. Dear God, he is gorgeous… Eve let her eyes linger on his face, his lips, remembering how they tasted. She dropped her gaze to his chest, skimmed past his abdomen before faltering at the juncture of his thighs. His length lay against his leg, hard, demanding. Her body hummed with an underlying current at the sight of him. She’d never wanted something like she did him. Is this what if felt like to be loved? To be wanted... God if so, how had she ever lived before?
“I'll be gentle,” he whispered, climbing onto the bed. The muscles in his shoulders and arms rippled as he made his way next to her. She hadn’t gotten very far with the buttons on her shirt. The top gaped, exposing the swell of a pale breast. Adley slid his hand along the row of buttons, until his fingers met her flesh.
“God, I’ve never felt skin so soft.” His body pressed against her, curving around her hips so he could lower his head to her breast.
Eve froze, not out of fear, but sensory overload. Adley’s fingers worked at the remaining buttons on her blouse and spread the fabric aside. He carefully pulled at her shorts and her panties until they came away, leaving her naked. The current inside her buzzed like an overworked power line as his fingers traced the swell of her breast to hover over her nipple. Her breath caught. He lifted his head. His fingers stilled.
“Is this okay?”
She nodded and reached for his neck, feeling the hard corded muscles, pulling him harder against her. This feeling was unlike any she’d felt before. She felt desperate, yet scared time would slip by and this moment would be over. As much as she wanted him to take her, she yearned to be in the moment.
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