Alive (The Crave)

by Martin, Megan D.

  He was leaving her, she realized. Giving up on her. Did I really push him to this? She had. There was no doubt about it. She’d done it from the moment she laid eyes on him in that field. She’d pushed and pushed until it broke. She’d broken him.

  The tears that sprung to her eyes felt unnatural, it had been so long since she cried. “I got that money for you.” She took a step in his direction, the words pouring from her mouth as involuntarily as the beat of her heart. “You had everything.”

  Gage stopped retreating, but resignation remained painted on his face.

  “You were perfect. Rich, gorgeous, and popular. You had the coolest car, the coolest friends, the coolest life.” The tears that leaked from her eyes were so hot they scalded her skin. “I wanted that.”

  Gage frowned, but said nothing.

  “All I’d want my whole life was to fit in. To be a part. And after the Crave hit, I got my chance. I knew I would never be gorgeous and there weren’t enough people around to be popular…but I could be rich. Looting money became a huge reason for my existence. I began to crave it like jenks crave flesh.”

  “That doesn’t even make sense.” Gage’s retort wasn’t sharp, but rather sounded like he was at a loss of what to say.

  “How can you not get it?” Here she was pouring her heart out to him, and he claimed to not understand? She moved and didn’t stop until she was standing only inches away from him. “I wasn’t good enough for you back then, but the money…it made me good enough, at least partially.” She wanted to yell the words, but they came out as a whisper. “Even if I never fucking saw you again, Gage, I was going to spend the rest of my life trying to make myself good enough. For. You.” She spit the last words at him. Words she’d been dying to tell him all along.

  She expected him to laugh at her, tell her that all the money in the world would never make her good enough, but he didn’t. He kissed her instead.

  His lips pressed hard against hers, hot and demanding. She stumbled backward. His lips never broke contact. He followed her bumbling form back and down as she landed in a heap on the muddy ground. His tongue thrust into her mouth, probing her. She didn’t hesitate in kissing him back. This was what she had wanted, him against her, his mouth on hers.

  He forced her into a laying position, his massive physique caging her like an animal with his bulging arms. She dug her fingers into his thick shoulders and his hands clamped down on her waist, biting into her skin with stinging pressure. She bit down on his lip in response and he grunted and thrust his body against hers, mashing her into the pliant earth and pressing his thick cock into her belly.

  His hands released her hips and started tearing at the button of her shorts. She let go of his lip and jerked her sport bra over her head, freeing her breasts. He let out a growl and yanked her shorts down her legs, leaving her totally bare.

  He fumbled awkwardly with his own pants in his haste to tear them down his legs, revealing his hard cock in the gold and pink hues that surrounded them. Eve had thought about the only time she’d had sex, so many times over the last four years. Her emotions about it running to opposite ends of the spectrum every time. She’d imagined what her next time would be like, who it would be with, what it would feel like. She never imagined she would be lying in mud in the middle of a barn with Gage’s hot body looming over hers, his chest bloody from recent wounds, and his cock bigger than before. But that’s how it happened.

  Gage pushed himself in between her legs and the tip of his fat cock pressed against the wet folds of her throbbing clit. His gray gaze met hers, the intensity there reminding her of that day in class when he passed her the note that changed everything. She nodded her head, desperate for him after all these years.

  In one swift thrust, his long length was buried inside of her, making her cry out and dig her nails into his skin. He didn’t stop and ask her if she was okay, but started pumping his hips like a piston powering a ship, barreling his body into her with no restraint…and she loved it. The pain melted into erotic pleasure and she begged for more.

  He gave it to her, like a genie with unlimited wishes, he gave her just what she asked for, plowing into her, harder and faster, their skin slapping together. Sweat trickled down his face, dripping onto Eve’s mouth and she licked the salty droplet away, savoring Gage’s taste that was all male.

  When the orgasm hit her, it came as shock, sneaking up from behind and shattering across her skin like she was made of glass. She’d had orgasms before, but nothing like this. She equivocated it with what dying would be like. Free and uninhibited. Just letting go of everything and falling into nothing. She stared at Gage who continued to pump into her body, prolonging the blissful pleasure spasming through her, until his cock seemed to thicken even more inside of her weeping pussy. She expected him to jerk out of her, but he didn’t. His dick pulsed inside of her, his thrusts becoming jerky and losing their previous pace as his face twisted in pleasure. The heat of his orgasm engulfed her from the inside out. The tremors that wracked his body seemed to go on forever, with his cock jerking inside of her. He collapsed on top of her with their bodies still entwined in the most intimate way.

  Eve didn’t believe that sex could make a person love someone, like people claimed, but as he lay there on top of her, his big body still quaking in bliss, Eve wanted to tell how him she felt. She realized now that she had never stopped loving him. A part of her had known all along, but she’d hidden it in a box with the pieces of her still broken heart.

  She didn’t tell him, though. And when he pulled back moments later she looked into his black-flecked gray eyes and loved him…silently.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The Before

  I want to see you tonight.

  The uneven scrawl of the note seemed to be tattooed across Eve’s brain. She’d read the words in class that morning and felt disbelieving that they were actually real. Even now, as she sat in the leather seat in the front of his mustang, she couldn’t really believe that she was there. The green digital numbers on the dash read 2:05AM. She’d actually pulled it off and got out of her house without anyone knowing.

  Gage looked handsome as ever in a white v-neck t-shirt that clung to his muscles. His hand was on the wheel, lazy as always, though his expression was anything but.

  “What happened with you and Sally?” She couldn’t help but ask. The question had been tugging at her mind all day. Along with many others.

  He glanced at her before looking back at the road. “We broke up.” He shrugged his shoulders.

  Obviously. But she didn’t ask him to elaborate. Even though she wished he would say it was because of her…because he couldn’t get Eve out of his head. He didn’t say any of those things though. Just kept driving.

  “Where are we going?” In light of the whole situation, she hadn’t thought about asking, though she knew he wasn’t going to take her on a traditional date. After all, it was after two in the morning. Is this even a date? She didn’t know what to think. But knew her lips were still tingling from his kiss on Thursday. She wanted him to do that again.

  “Tim Pistol.” He put on his blinker and the Tim Pistol bridge came into view. The road went under the railroad tracks and the old bridge was covered in graffiti of all different colors, from names to lewd gestures. Going out to the old road only meant one thing. Sex. It’s where everyone in town went to get it on. There were very few people who lived off the road, and there were a lot of gas wells that provided perfect parking spots hidden away from the rest of the world.

  Eve bit down on her lip. In the back of her mind, she knew there was a possibility that he would want sex, but she hadn’t exactly planned on it. He’d only just kissed her not even two days ago… sex was quite a jump.

  “Why are you stopping?” He pulled up to the arched bridge and stopped before driving through.

  “Look.” He pointed to the bricked wall on her right. Nervousness shot through her. What’s going on? But then she saw what he was pointing at. On th
e side of the bridge illuminated in the glow of his headlights was her name. It was splattered on the wall in red spray paint and looked freshly done. The things around it had significantly faded, making her name seem to glow above all the others. The fact that her name was on the bridge in red spray paint wasn’t even the best part. The uneven way the letters were sprawled was the handwriting that matched the letter she’d received from Gage that morning.

  “And look up there.” He pointed. She glanced up above her name and saw his name just above hers in the same red spray paint. Her heart thudded hard in her chest.

  “You did this for me?” She tore her eyes away and looked at Gage.

  “I did.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re beautiful.”

  Eve’s jaw would have hit the smooth leather of her seat if it could have.

  “Don’t act so surprised.” He gave her that half-smile she adored and started driving again.

  She wanted to say something, anything, but she couldn’t find the words. Her heart was swimming in an ocean of happiness. To the point, where she wasn’t at all perturbed when he pulled off the road and parked at a gas well. She’d always wondered about sex, and she decided right then and there that she wanted to have it with Gage, especially after the bridge. He likes me! He really likes me!

  It didn’t take long before he was kissing her, his hands roaming in places no one else had ever touched, leaving her breathless with awe. And then they were in the backseat, at some point her skirt had been taken off and his pants were gone. He fumbled with a foil packet and put a condom over the hardness between his legs.

  “Are you sure?” The words were strained coming from his lips as his big body loomed over her.

  Everything had moved so fast, but there wasn’t a chance in the world she would tell him no. She was hot all over, her body quaking with a need she was unfamiliar with. “I’m sure.”

  And then he was moving inside of her a sharp pain bringing her back to the present and what was really happening. “You okay?” His voice was deeper and thicker, with a look of wonder in his eyes. She wanted him to stop, but she couldn’t tell him that, not when he was looking at her like that. So she nodded her head and let him go. The pain eased up as he continued to move, but she had lost the good feeling that had swam through her only moments before.

  “You’re mine, Eve. Mine!” He shouted the words a little later, before jerking out of her. She watched as he fisted himself between her legs a few times before moaning, his whole body convulsing.

  His assertion confused her, but made butterflies swim in her stomach. He still wants me? She was afraid she’d made the sex bad for him since she didn’t really enjoy it, at least not in the way that he had. She’d liked being able to touch him freely, having his body close, hers for the taking.

  They didn’t say anything while they righted their clothes, though as each second passed she felt more and more lost. As if she’d truly lost a part of herself. He still didn’t say anything, even as they got back into the front seat of the car. The dash clock read 2:50AM. She couldn’t believe that she’d been with Gage less than an hour.

  He started the car and plugged in his phone. The song that they’d listened to the first day he’d given her a ride home started playing. She didn’t know much about music, but she would recognize that song anywhere.

  It’s written all over your face

  Such a painful thing to waste

  Tell me now where do we go?

  The tears started falling, the true meaning of the lyrics sinking in like they hadn’t the time before. Gage was driving back in the direction of her house. He’d brought her out there to have sex with her and that was it. He hadn’t talked to her, he hadn’t confessed his undying love. He’d used her.

  “Eve, what’s the matter?”

  They were at the end of her street pulled over on the shoulder.

  Where’s the world that doesn’t care?

  How quickly they had reached her house. As if it only took seconds to whisk her back home and out of his sight.

  Maybe I can meet you there.

  Only unlike the words of the song, she knew that there would be no meeting Gage anywhere. They had nowhere to go. There wasn’t a different world out there waiting for them to find each other. A place like that didn’t exist. She would always be trailer trash and he would always be the popular guy.

  “Nothing.” She grabbed the door handle. A hot hand touched her thigh, stilling her movement.

  “Things are going to change, Eve. I promise.” Gage intertwined his fingers with hers. The look on his face told her that he meant it. His handsome features seemed to shout all the words he wasn’t saying. Eve’s pulse surged to a new height when he reached up and brushed a strand of her long blond hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind one of her ears. “I promise, Eve. I promise.” Her body melted under his touch and tingles of pleasure scattered across her skin. She wanted to say something, but didn’t. Frozen in place like an icicle.

  “I’ll see you on Monday, okay Eve?” Gage flashed her his million-dollar smile, as if he knew just the effect he had on her. Her heart was still swimming when he drove away, though the shore seemed much too far away.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Olive should have been used to running for her life. It was what she had been doing for the last four years. She wasn’t though, not without someone to protect her. Rose limped at her side, moaning desperately with each step in the rising sunlight.

  They’d had a close call. A nauseous feeling yanked at her insides just thinking about how the legless jenk had almost made a meal out of her, snapping its black decaying teeth at her feet with ravenous hunger. Rose was the only reason she’d survived. At the last second, she had managed to untie her hands before stomping on each of the jenk’s heads, and by that time, Reno was long gone. Now they were staggering through vaguely familiar wilderness, with Rose’s moans becoming even louder.

  “Why did you save me?” This question had puzzled Olive the entire time they’d been on the move. Rose didn’t say anything, or even look her way. Just kept walking with pain plastered across her exotic features.

  “I don’t get it. I wouldn’t have saved you.” Olive glanced at the woman, hoping the jab would make her talk. It didn’t. And Olive wondered if anything would. She’d been around Rose for nearly a year and she never volunteered any information.

  As if on cue, Rose let out a bark of pain and fell to her knees in the dirt. Annoyance gouged at Olive like a lance. Why does Rose have to complicate my life so much?

  “Get up, Rose. We can’t stop here. We need to get farther away from Reno.” They’d headed out on a different path than him, but she wanted to make sure they were well ahead of him, in case he discovered that they had escaped and tried to come after them.

  “Come on!” Olive tried to hoist Rose off the ground, but she wouldn’t budge.

  “Baby coming.” The woman uttered in her heavily accented voice.

  “Great, just great!” Olive bent down and grabbed both of Rose’s arms.

  “No. Just leave me.” Rose jerked her arms away and let out another moan. The sky painted her body in hues of pink and yellow, making her look majestic lying there on the ground.

  “Leave you? Why would you even suggest that?” Though Olive found herself asking why she was even bothering to stay with Rose at all. Why hadn’t she just abandoned the woman a few hours ago, instead of sticking around?

  Rose shook her head and closed her eyes, her breathing labored.

  “You’re really going to have your baby?”

  Rose didn’t answer and a wave of panic slammed into Olive. Rose was about to give birth. I can’t stay around for this. Olive jerked the pack off of her back. She felt a fraction lucky that Reno had left the pack with all of the blankets behind, granted it didn’t have any food in it. Blankets were still something.

  “Here.” She sat the pack next Rose’s body. She would leave, but she would let
Rose keep the blankets, for herself and the baby. Olive didn’t wait for a reaction, just turned on her heel and started walking away, which was easier than she thought it would be. The dirt beneath her old tennis shoes felt like any other dirt she’d ever walked on, carrying her toward the rest of her life.

  “He was my husband, Olive.” Olive stopped walking at the sound of Rose’s voice. “Is my husband, I guess you could say.”

  “What?” Olive turned around. “You mean—”

  “Reno? Yes. Ohhhh!” She let out another wail.

  Olive found her feet moving back to her side. “But that can’t be.”

  “It is,” Rose said through clenched teeth.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Olive couldn’t keep the disbelief out of her voice.

  “You didn’t need to know. Joder!” Rose took several fast paced deep breaths. “The baby is coming now. Help get me up and get a blanket.”

  “What?”

  “Just do it, Olive! Por favor!”

  Olive helped Rose into a squatting position after taking the woman’s skirt off.

  “How could you not tell me that he was your husband?” Olive didn’t get it. Why would she keep that a secret? “Did Laney know about this?” How could Reno not tell her?

  “Si!” she grunted and clung Olive’s shoulders.

  “So, everyone knew except me.” The pain that clenched her felt like a thousand knives ramming into her all at once. How could Reno do this? Another of Rose’s screams rent the air and Olive’s gaze was drawn to the rush of blood that splattered on the blanket she’d positioned beneath her.

  “Is that normal?” The blood was so red, even against the dirty old blanket, it stood out, stark against the fabric. Olive hadn’t seen human blood in a long time. She stared at the red puddle in a daze.

  “No!” Rose called out, followed by a stream of Spanish words that Olive didn’t understand.