Four of Ink’s soldiers had gathered on the opposite side of the room, closest to the door which was currently barricaded with boxes. From the heavy breathing and occasional snores, they had easily fallen asleep. Nobody else wanted to come down here, fearing the room was contaminated. The three floors above me were so crammed with people I’d decided to take my chances with the toxic air.
A shadow dropping into a crouching figure in front of me made me jump, as I let out a muffled squeal.
“Sorry, I thought you’d be asleep by now,” Ink whispered, his voice sounding like a booming echo in the quiet space.
“You scared the crap out of me,” I whisper hissed.
“Sorry, buttercup… like I said, I thought you’d be asleep.”
“I can’t sleep,” I quietly confessed. Beyond exhaustion, my body was ready and willing to crash. My mind however ticked over with endless ‘what ifs.’
What if Jebediah gained access to the barracks?
What if he decided, to hell with the NIM and set us alight?
What if we starved to death in here?
Ink reached forward and ran a tattooed finger down my cheek.
“How’s your head?” I asked, concerned about the blow to the head he took at Jebediah’s gladiator fight which now seemed like forever ago.
“Ash stitched me up and gave me something for my headache. I’m fine.”
“Seems like you’ve had a concussion since the moment Jebediah arrived.”
Ink snorted. “Feels like I’ve had a concussion since he arrived.”
A shiver stole through my body again, the tremors making me feel sick to the stomach.
“You’re cold.”
“I guess my chattering teeth gave me away.”
The corner of his mouth tilted up and my entire body sighed with how handsome that smirk made him look. How can one simple twitch of the mouth be so appealing? Rather than pulling his hand away from my cheek, he brought it up to my beanie and tugged it off. Then his hand fell to the zipper on my heavy jacket, and he began tugging it downward.
“What part of ‘I’m freezing’ don’t you understand?” The thought of leaving my warm layers made my shivering insides tremble harder, but I didn’t move to stop him as he pulled my jacket off. In fact, I leaned forward to help him.
“What’s the best way to fight the cold?”
Watching Ink unzip his own jacket, my brain stuttered to a halt. The long sleeve thermal he wore beneath it was pulled tight across his chest and before I could truly appreciate the way the fabric hugged his body, he pulled it off. Smooth, warm, inked flesh filled my vision, and my fingers twitched with the need to touch.
“Buttercup, concentrate.”
“What?” I asked, my gaze glued to this impressive pectoral muscles and the hard dips and curves of his abdomen.
“What’s the best way to fight the cold?”
Remembering his question, I answered as I watched him rise to his feet and begin releasing the button on his cargo pants. “Body heat.”
His grin was sublime. “Get out of those clothes, baby.”
Standing with much less grace than Ink had, I tugged off my own tee shirt followed by thermal and finally jeans, standing before him in nothing more than my underwear, my body convulsing with tremors from the cold. Ink pulled aside the two thick blankets that rested on the bed of cardboard I’d made from two boxes. He unfolded another blanket I hadn’t notice him carry in and spread it out on top of our makeshift bed then added his sleeping bag before layering it with the two original blankets.
“Lay down.”
I did as instructed, watching him move around the room with a familiar fluid grace, in nothing but his boxer briefs and inked flesh. Finally, he stretched out beside me, pulling the blankets up over our bodies as he tugged my back against the heated warmth of his chest. The resounding sigh that spilled from my lips made him chuckle.
“You’re like my own personal stove heater.”
Ink’s hand wrapped around my waist and tried to pull me closer. There really wasn’t any way we could be any closer unless our bodies merged and became one. With his breath in my ear, my skin would have broken out in goose pimples if it weren’t already covered in them from the cold.
“Better?” he murmured.
“Oh, yeah,” I confessed, pushing my buttocks back into the quickly hardening length of his manhood.
“Baby,” he groaned, nipping my ear. “You feel too damn good.”
“You feel too damn warm,” I murmured.
His large hand which had been resting on my stomach slid downward, slipping beneath the fabric of my panties, a finger sliding between my folds.
“Ink…” my whisper was part plea and part apprehension. I was nervous he was touching me like this when there were other people in the room, but at the same time, I was ravenous for his touch. Having him with me like this reminded me that we were more than just Grace and Ink. We were more than just two souls drifting in a lost and broken world. We were one in this moment, our hearts beating for each other, our lives meaning nothing without the other. It allowed me to let go of my worries and enjoy the pleasure his touch brought me. As his fingers expertly strummed my clit, his engorged cock thrust gently into the crease of my ass, the only barrier between us being the thin fabric of our underwear. A soft groan reverberated in my chest when one long finger entered me, dragging the wetness from my need for him back up to the tiny bundle of nerves that set my body alight.
“Shhh, baby, I got you.”
Ink continued to play with my body, stroking the ice from my veins and replacing that cold with scorching heat. “I love the feel of you,” he whispered, and those words pushed me a little higher, edging me toward an eruption of sensation only these moments could bring. When his fingers slipped away, I growled in frustration. Ink awkwardly nudged his boxers down his thighs while encouraging me to lose my own underwear with a tug on the fabric. Once divested of the barriers between us, he lifted my leg from his position behind me and began to rub the mushroomed head of his cock through my wet folds.
“This right here,” he growled low, his gruff voice nothing but a bare whisper. “This feels like heaven.” Ever so slowly, the pace torturous and smooth, he entered me. “This feels like home.” Push and retreat, push and retreat, push and retreat. Ink gradually consumed me, his thick length burying deep inside until I was deliciously full. The walls of my pussy throbbed around him, and it was Ink’s turn to growl softly in my ear. “This is my home.” His arm wrapped around my body, one hand resting over my breast. “This beating heart… ” he began as his hips withdrew and returned with short, sharp thrusts, “… is my home.” When my heavy breathing turned to needy whimpers, Ink moved his hand up to cover my mouth, gently but firmly holding the noise inside of me. “You are mine, Gracie, my home, and I’m not sharing you with anybody. Not even those sweet little moans you’re spilling for me.”
I had no idea if the soldiers on the other side of the room could hear us, but I was beyond the point of caring. When Ink shifted slightly to bury himself deeper, he hit a spot which had my body jolt with pleasure. My eyes rolled back in my head, and I let Ink gently pound into my body, working his magic and making every worry and fear disappear, leaving behind nothing but this moment and every covetous touch and softly murmured word.
Too quickly, I was pushed into that place where sight and sound vanished, and all I could feel was Ink, and his possession of my body as the walls of my pussy throbbed greedily at his cock, trying to draw him deeper.
“Fucking home,” Ink grunted as he stroked himself deep and held himself still, emptying inside of me.
We lay like that together for the longest time, gasping for air and still joined intimately, though Ink did slip his hand away from my mouth. As he softened inside of me, he finally slipped free with a disappointed groan. The warmth of his body left me for a moment as he rolled away, only to come back seconds later with a soft, damp cloth that he slipped between my legs.
“You came prepared,” I noted, embarrassed by his attentiveness while wondering where the rag had come from. God, I hoped it wasn’t one used to clean up toxic NIM messes.
“I was hopeful,” he answered, before gently rubbing the cloth between my legs and tossing it aside. Then he helped locate my panties which were at the bottom of our makeshift bed before settling me against his body once more.
“This is the second time I’ve taken you without protection,” Ink whispered, his fingers dancing across the flesh of my stomach. “Right now, you could be growing our baby inside here.”
The thought tumbled into my mind, blossoming from simple words to images and visions. Having a child with Ink, a family, it was a dream I’d never dared hope for. It had always been something so far removed from my reality that I couldn’t bear to torture myself with wanting for something which would never happen. The possibility now both terrified and thrilled me. Bringing a child into this life that currently had an uncertain future seemed crazy, and yet it unfurled a new need to fight. A need to protect a baby, to protect mine and Ink’s future, to take back what Jebediah had taken from us. Linking my hand on top of Ink’s, I pressed his warm hand harder against my warm flesh.
“It only makes sense that our home be filled with babies,” I whispered. “A beautiful little boy with dark blue eyes and wild dark hair.”
Ink rolled me to my back and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Or a little girl with long dark hair and green eyes, little freckles sprinkled over her nose and cheeks.”
“You really want that?” I dared ask.
“With you, buttercup, I want it all.”
How did I end up here, with this man loving me and wanting babies with me? My life had done a full spin, picking me up from a world of wishes and heartbreak and dropping me back into the sweetest reality.
“Are you still cold?”
I snorted and tangled my legs with Ink’s.
“Do I feel cold to you?”
“You feel soft.” Pressing a kiss to my shoulder, he murmured, “You taste sweet.” He was already beginning to harden against my hip again. “It’s torture knowing you taste so sweet everywhere.”
My legs instinctively squeezed his thigh as his hands petted me, dipping to the damp juncture where he’d been only moments before.
Relaxing beside me, Ink sighed. “I’m going to save that treat for later, though. Because as much as I want to lose myself to your heavenly body, outside this basement is hell, and we need to deal with that sooner rather than later.”
His words were like a bucket of cold water to my burning libido, shaking me back to reality.
Sighing I lifted his hand and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. “Later, then.”
“When all this is over, I’m going to keep you in bed for a solid week,” Ink promised, kissing my neck.
When all this is over—it almost seemed like an impossible dream.
CHAPTER 26 – Ink
“What do you mean, you can’t find her?’
Axel stood before me, his hand swiping the hair falling in his eyes, a movement layered with frustration.
“I mean, I’ve searched everywhere and I can’t find her. I’ve asked around and no one has seen her for hours. And you should know, Skye appears to be missing as well, and it was Douglas’ turn to be manning the emergency escape on the second level, and he’s not there, he doesn’t appear to be anywhere either.”
My skin prickled with unease. To lose one person in this maze of a building, crowded as it was, was a possibility. Two, maybe, three was unlikely. My head was throbbing again, a combination of the concussion I suffered a few days ago, and the fatigue and stress. Linking my hands behind my neck, I squeezed and let out a long breath of frustration
“Ink,” Charlie called out from over my shoulder. “Henry and a few helpers are trying to distribute dinner rations, and they’ve got a group of men and women on the second floor who are making it difficult for them.” Charlie appeared at my side, his clothes heavily creased from sleeping in them, his hair sticking up every which way. His tired eyes were narrowed, lips surrounded by a thick, dark beard, were pressed flat together with suppressed anger. His exhaustion and frustration were clearly evident. It was comforting to know I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. “Lottie and Gregory are up there, they say they want answers and they won’t let the food be passed beyond the corridor they’ve barricaded themselves in until they get them.”
Fucking answers. I didn’t have answers.
All I knew at this point was that Jebediah was outside, while we were safe inside.
We were two days into this tense standoff, and while I could appreciate the discontent, I didn’t have the time or patience for it. Right now, I had three missing people, including the only person I truly cared about.
If ever there was a rumble of restlessness within Liberty, the noise would always come from Lottie and her husband, Gregory. They were the voice of disquiet, warranted or otherwise, so it didn’t surprise me to hear their names associated with this small act of rebellion. The place was overflowing with despair. Not to mention the stench. We were without electricity and the water had been turned off. The little we had in the way of bottled water ran out this morning. My men were doing their best to catch sleet, snow, and rain in buckets and containers on the roof, but Jebediah’s men were enjoying making their task deadly with the promise of bullets each time they snuck out. The toilets had backed up, and buckets had been set up at the far end of the basement, behind a wall of boxes. They needed to be emptied every few hours, which was an arduous and filthy task.
Moral was low, I got it. Fuck! I was breathing that same rancid desperation myself. Something needed to happen, and it needed to happen soon.
“I’ll go talk to them,” Ashlynn offered as she strolled up to join my men and me.
“Thank you,” I answered gruffly.
I didn’t have a diplomatic bone in my body—that had been Viviane’s job. She was the voice of reason, filled with endless patience, and always the right words. I was hot-headed in comparison, not willing to ‘baby’ the citizens, far better suited to my role in security. Mind you, Jebediah had managed to sneak around my defenses, so perhaps I lacked in that department too.
Watching Ashlynn move away with Charlie to go and settle the disturbance on the floor above, my attention returned to Axel and the problem at hand. Douglas was young, but he was only a matter of months away from finishing his training to become a fully-fledged guard and soldier. He was tenacious and loyal, working long hours and doing as he was told without question. Disappearing from his post was out of character.
“They can’t just fucking disappear,” I snapped, a prickling sensation on my skin getting worse by the minute. My gut was telling me something was off. Energy without an outlet coursed through my veins making me feel fidgety, my muscles twitching erratically with the need to blow off some of this pent-up steam. “I’ll take the ground floor and basement, you take the second floor and have Isaac search the third. They have to be here somewhere.”
Axel was already turning on his heel as I began to snake my way through the people littering the corridors, taking the wide stairs to the basement two at a time. As my heavy feet landed on the concrete floor, a few people who had finally braved the ‘tainted’ air jumped with unease, but immediately calmed upon finding me standing there glancing around the shadowed room. It stunk, the makeshift bathroom at the furthest wall taking the slight chemical smell and drowning it with the stench of human waste.
“Gracie down here?” I asked, my voice echoing off the deep, wide space.
“Not since she left this morning,” answered Claire, a thin, middle-aged woman sitting on her home-made bed of boxes and blankets, her ten-year-old daughter curled up in her lap. They both looked tired and disheveled, but Claire still managed to gift me a soft smile. My eyes drifted to her daughter, whose face was brightened by a battery powered lamp sitting on a box. Meg looked tired, but lifted her head fr
om her mother’s lap and gave me a beautiful smile and tentative wave.
“How are you doing, button? You need anything?”
“I’m hungry,” Meg complained.
“She’s fine, we’re just waiting for dinner rations,” Claire was quick to say.
“Henry’s making his way down now, they got held up on the second floor, but they shouldn’t be too much longer.”
This was the reason I was so pissed off at Lottie and Gregory’s standoff. Their willful blockade affected others. There were people who were starving while waiting for the food my men were trying to distribute. The muscles in my shoulders tightened and my hands curled into fists.
“If I see Grace, I’ll tell her you’re looking for her.”
With a nod of thanks, I climbed the stairs and began searching every room, closet, and corner. I’d only reached the second, heavily occupied room when Fury’s quiet yet intense presence caught my attention. He was standing in the doorway to the room I was searching, his dark eyes filled with his typical rage. There was something else though, something I didn’t normally see in his stony expression. Pity? Regret? As I approached, my stomach knotted.
“We found Douglas,” he murmured, turning to head for the stairwell that led to the second floor, and I followed, my jaw clenched shut so tightly I couldn’t speak even if I wanted to. “He’s lying at the bottom of the emergency exit from the second level, the layer of snow covering him would suggest he’s been out there a few hours, at least.”
My pulse raced, pushing the blood through my veins so quickly that black spots danced in front my vision. Shaking away the sudden flood of adrenaline, I chased Fury up the stairs, two at a time the entire way to the third floor.
Liberty Page 21
