The Strings That Hold Us Together

by Kendra Mase

  “I am no king.”

  Then they must not have been talking about the same person. Tapping her foot, Katherine stood.

  “Don’t walk away,” Jack said.

  Throwing her arms out to either side, water dripped from her coat. She must’ve forgotten to take it off.

  She looked at him, ripping an arm out of either sleeve before dropping it back to the floor. “Don’t you get it yet, Jack? I have nowhere to go.”

  The realization settled into Katherine’s bones all over again. This shop. The apartment above it with buckling hardwood stained and battered from the moment it was installed in the nineteenth century. All of it was hers, from the thousand dollars’ worth of silk she always admired to the tiny pieces of costume jewelry her aunt collected.

  She had a life here. Emilie did. She lived and raged and danced through the streets of Ash since the moment she stepped across the river. What she had brought back in physical objects and she hoarded were memories.

  Now it was all Katherine’s, and she had nowhere to go.

  She was here.

  “Well then.” Jack nodded slowly. “It is a good thing that I will always be right next to you.”

  Katherine could have sobbed. Instead, she let him move toward her when she faltered on her feet, cupping the side of her face with his hand as she made out another question. “Why would you want this?”

  “Want what? You? Who wouldn’t want you, Kitten?” The thought seemed as if it was completely incredulous to him. “It’s stupid, really. I’ve been asking myself the same question since the minute I met you that night on the kitchen floor. I asked you, ‘What did you think of me?’”

  “Magnificent,” Katherine quoted herself.

  Jack nodded, a tear in the corner of his eye. “I love you. Can you ever forgive me?”

  The words settled themselves into the very marrow of her bones. The taut string of fate settled between the two of them, wound and tugged tight until both bodies were held against each other, gasping for the warm air passed between them, around the sorrow and pain they had been both given and had caused.

  Katherine had caused just as much as she had given, she was sure. Maybe more.

  Her hand reached up to run through Jack’s hair, beginning to get shaggy around the sides. Near the back, she gripped tight. “I forgive you.”

  His shoulders slumped in relief.

  “I love you too.”

  “You don’t have to just say it,” Jack teased her with a sniff.

  She closed her eyes and laughed into his skin. “Do you want me to take it back?”

  He laughed with her, hugging her tight to his chest. She felt his warm skin, his heart beating strong and fast. “Never. I won’t let you.”

  She could feel his head shake at the top of her slick, sweat-caked hair. Neither of them seemed to care. She only cared how relieved his eyes looked when he lifted her chin to look at him in the eyes. “But you can say it again, if you’d like.”

  He was pushing his luck. She’d let him. She was too tired to notice anything but the way his lips were moving ever so slowly over each word.

  “I’ve loved you since I first walked into DuCain on a delivery and saw you up on that stage. Eyeliner and everything,” Katherine tried to joke. “I always thought you looked kind of hot in that eyeliner.”

  “Kind of?”

  “Undeniably.”

  “That sounds more correct.”

  Their words murmured between chapped lips and the pull of their mouths before they finally ended the torture and crashed in on one another.

  Neither of them was quite sure who had kissed the other first. Such things didn’t matter. Not in the slightest. There was no fighting. They were done fighting for the night. There was only the immediate and luscious movement of kisses as they mixed with the drying saltwater still coating their cheeks. Katherine’s glasses were pushed up toward her forehead before Jack carefully took them off her face, setting them on the table next to the antique sewing machine.

  Katherine reached back up around his neck and pulled his mouth back to hers. They met again, and Katherine felt the thrill of energy coursing from Jack’s lips all the way down to the bottom of her stomach. The softest, most intimate kiss she ever experienced, though few.

  She opened her mouth, and his expert tongue pressed gently against hers. Fingers dug into the back of her neck as they guided one another back down the hallway toward the bedroom. One step at a time, they tumbled toward the bed.

  Hitting the edge of the mattress, unlike the first time they had ever been together, Katherine was not nervous. She shook from the thrill and brewing joy alone. Jack bent his head as he leaned over her and kissed her long and deep. He slid his hands under her skirt. The new pressure caused her to moan softly in the back of her throat.

  She was on fire, and the first thing to go was anything separating her skin from his.

  Katherine let Jack hold her up as she reached out, tugging his shirt over his head. She ran her hands over his chest and stomach, remembering the small scars and the way he felt while he undressed her.

  When they both were equally bare, he pulled her close and bit and kissed the sensitive skin of her neck and shoulders.

  She squirmed backward, Jack gripping her waist and pulling her back toward him. She stretched out beneath him and his mouth was on hers, a gleeful laugh breaking between each kiss, an onslaught of his attack. Nothing was really funny. It was as if they couldn’t stop the sensation passing between them, not that they wanted to.

  Each kiss and languid movement were warm and wet and more intense than Katherine had ever experienced with him or anyone. Her heart pounded wildly against his chest.

  They kissed and touched, too sore and exhausted to tease.

  No, she needed him right now, and the feeling appeared to be mutual. Words were done, they’d spoken too many already, so now their hands told the other what they needed to know.

  I love you. This matters. You matter.

  Jack’s lip scraped along Katherine’s jaw as he pressed himself against her, and her hips rose to meet him even as his hand slipped between the two. He made a sound, a quiet hiss when he felt how slick she was.

  Pressing her lips together, Katherine held back a pained whimper when he pulled back to look down at her. “I can’t wait any longer.”

  Shaking her head, neither could she, squirming beneath him for more. She let him spread her legs and positioned himself at her entrance before gently pushing the head of him inside of her. Both of them made a sort of noise, mingling between their mouths which widened as if trying to catch it. With each plunge, Jack seated himself farther and farther. Moving the final inch inside of her, Jack looked down at her in wonder.

  She placed her hand over his heart and looked up to stare at him as he began to move, not long after he began, however, Jack peered down and grinned.

  Katherine’s eyes widened as he tucked his arm around her back and pulled her on top of him. Knees on either side of his hips, Katherine braced her hands where only one remained.

  “How much did you miss me, again?”

  So much.

  At the question, Katherine shifted her hips in answer. She lifted herself before rolling her hips back into his pelvis on the way down.

  He choked on whatever else he was going to say, his hands finding a new position on her hips as he lifted his chest to take the tip of her breast into his mouth. She shuddered, trying to keep moving, feeling their muscles flex against each other as she rode him.

  Glancing over his shoulder, Katherine caught their reflection in the vanity mirror. She made a high-pitched sound as she watched the people, that couldn’t be her. At her slowing pace, Jack wrapped his arms around her back, meeting her halfway as they moved in and out, slow and steady, until both of them were misted with a fine sheen of sweat, eyes shimmering.

  She caught Jack staring back in the mirror. “You like the way we look, Kitten?”

  Katherine leaned down, pulli
ng up a sheet to fist in her hand.

  “Hold on to me,” Jack directed. “I got you.”

  Immediately, her other hand looped around his neck while her breasts rubbed against the stubble of his chest. With his thumb, Jack circled the apex of where they met as he began to thrust inside of her faster now, moving with each of her breaths as she begged and pleaded into his hair. They made no effort anymore to silence their cries and pleas.

  The sensations were too much as they coursed through her body, twisting her against him until she came with a gasp, legs squeezing around him.

  Jack still held on to her, pushing into her with ease twice before he made a low sound and shuddered as he pulsed inside of her. Still, he did not let her go.

  There was silence echoing in Katherine’s ears that sounded like him breathing, and she didn’t want to let him go either, letting the aching seconds go on, letting the heat surface back up to her cheeks as she felt them joined so completely.

  Seeming to sense her thought, Jack placed gentle kisses down the side of her neck until they lifted their heads to look at each other. He was flushed, hair pressed down on the one side where she’d gripped it. So utterly beautiful.

  He let his lips skim over hers, shivering, before lifting her off of him with a heavy sigh. They simply lay there, side by side on the mattress, staring and listening to each other’s breathing calm, comforted by cushioned pillows.

  Katherine curled into the crook of his neck. “I’m so tired.”

  “Me too,” Jack said, laughter coating his words. Both of them held each other close, though melted farther into the mattress.

  “We have a lot to do, huh?”

  Jack nodded so their foreheads touched. “I think we should start with sleep.”

  “Then showers.”

  “Definitely showers.” He nestled right below her ear and jaw, giving her a sniff.

  “I wouldn’t be talking.” Katherine pulled back to see him better, pulling the thin comforter that smelled like homemade rosewater perfume over the two of them. Jack tangled his leg around both of hers. He shut his eyes for a second before opening them again. There was contentment there she had not seen since they were on the farm together. Tangled in different sheets.

  A whole other time and a knot in their string.

  She traced his cheekbones. “You still have glitter and a healthy amount of eyeliner coating your face.”

  “You just said you liked it.” He wagged his eyebrows.

  Leaning in, she wiped a line off his cheekbones and smoothed it onto her own. They both laid in the impending darkness of the messy room, staring at each other as sirens rumbled outside, half asleep and covered in glitter. That, Katherine figured at this point, was exactly what Ashton was made of.

  Eyeliner, glitter, and sweat.

  “I do.”

  “Then,” Jack whispered, nuzzling into her. “I’ll have to tell you something else. Yesterday was my last night working at DuCain.”

  Katherine’s lips parted, not expecting that.

  “So, I have a few more things I hope you’ll say yes to. First of all, once more, being with me.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  They only left the apartment for food. He filled her in on his plans while she finished up the orders. Katherine still had plenty to do. They cleaned up the apartment. They laughed, finding another quilt in the oven when they went to turn it on. They smiled while eating macaroni and cheese, curled up on the couch that was, for the first time, for Katherine, a couch—however lumpy.

  Otherwise, they spent most of their time in bed, pretending for at least a few hours when they needed to that the world didn’t exist. It was just them, one of them who found their ankle tied to the bottom bedpost after waking up from a nap.

  When they finally came up for air, the city felt like a dream coursing around them. The river held steady, its dark waters gently flowing beneath them as they made their way across it in the Jeep. The door to the townhouse was unlocked, but clicked when they shut it behind them.

  Jack’s hands smoothly caught the neck of her coat and Katherine easily slid out. The heavy wool no longer stuck to her skin after showering again this morning, only her hair as she swept it over her shoulder. The oriental rugs, even the walls, lacked the saturated energy that had assaulted Katherine the first time she had come into the riverside house. It hummed as if abandoned.

  In the kitchen archway, Reed leaned against the dark gray wall. He tilted his mop of hair to their left toward the living room. The television above the fireplace was on, but the volume buzzed so low it was unlikely that anyone could hear what the characters drinking cappuccinos on a lime green couch were saying.

  Not that Avril was watching. A book sat splayed in her lap, her planner, but she stared only at the stone mantelpiece. Her eyes flickered when Katherine walked in, Jack close behind. His hand was positioned gently on her lower back.

  “’Morning,” Katherine said softly, letting her lips turn up.

  She looked better.

  A lot better than she did before.

  Avril’s purple-rimmed eyes had positioned themselves on Jack’s hand, locking on the two of them. A smug, unfeeling smile broke through her chapped lips.

  “Oh, I see.” Avril cleared her throat as she lifted a hand toward the two of them. “You two are in love now. Fabulous. Didn’t see that one coming.”

  Though sarcastic, her voice held very little care.

  “How are you doin’, Queen?” Jack asked. Leaving Katherine, he perched on the arm of the couch.

  Avril didn’t even glance at him.

  “Well?” Avril simply asked, eyeing Kit. “Any other news besides you suddenly being fun?”

  “Avril.”

  “What?” she asked. “What are you going to say to me?”

  Katherine stood in front of her. Nothing. She honestly could not find the right words to say anything. Still, she was there. That was what mattered right now, she was certain.

  “That’s right. I’m fine, sweet little Kit. Go. I don’t need your pity.” For the first time, there was no hostility in Avril’s voice. Only emptiness.

  Katherine was pretty sure she preferred it the other way around.

  “I don’t pity you.” Katherine formed each word as they sounded. There was a long pause that now Katherine couldn’t help but fill. Moving over to her other side, Katherine kneeled down on the carpet, stretching her legs to the side. “I opened the shop back up finally, you know. I’m going to fix it up. Paint the walls that are peeling from the hideous wallpaper underneath. Rainbow stripes just don’t go with ivory lace, you know?”

  Avril didn’t answer.

  “You should come by sometime,” Katherine went on. “Try on and model a few of my new pieces that have been selling online. You would look gorgeous in them. I finished the corset, by the way. It’s all yours.”

  “I don’t need it.”

  “A deal is a deal,” Katherine said with a nod. “And the green I picked will make your eyes—”

  “I don’t give a fuck about your shop or your corset, Kit.”

  Jack stood and took a step around the glass coffee table toward Katherine. She lifted her hand up out of her lap, trusting him to catch her meaning. She was fine.

  This was not fine, but she was fine.

  Glancing back at Jack, however, she wasn’t so sure that he was. It appeared he couldn’t stand what they were looking at. Couldn’t stand how the room felt like it was slowly dancing inward, like in a strange game of torture. He looked like he might very well be sick.

  Avril sat there as if she was taken ill, legs tucked under a thick puff of blankets. A cup of water sat next to her on the coffee table, untouched and unmarred by lipstick she no longer had even slightly staining her grimace.

  “Go.” Avril waved a limp, unmanicured hand toward the door without emotion. “Have your happily fucking ever after.”

  Jack turned away. The palm of his hand that was on the back of her neck gently tugged her
shoulder before he went alone toward the front door. He’d wait for her.

  With a nod of understanding, Katherine pushed herself up to standing. Reaching down, she began to lift her thick, itchy skirt away from her tights.

  “What? Do I get a show now?” Avril chided. It looked like she was about to go on, but her chapped lips paused mid-purse once she saw what Katherine unclipped and held in her hand.

  Without pausing, Katherine walked closer to Avril, who sat frozen. She dropped the three brooches that had been given to her months ago in their rightful Queen’s lap. Katherine promised that she would keep them safe. And she did.

  Avril picked up the one pin decorated with what looked like tiny rubies, glittering in the shape of a rose. She turned it until it winked, a personality captured in the jewels.

  Katherine left Avril with the brooch still glinting up at her.

  She shook her head, breaking out of the thought the moment Jack came up behind her. He looped his arm over her shoulders, directing her back into the Jeep.

  They’d try again, he said. She was going to be fine.

  Katherine nodded and let him go on as she looked down into her hand at the single item she decided to keep, just for now. Someone would have to come for it eventually after all, even if it took months or years. She’d have to.

  “Ready to go?”

  Katherine hummed as she tilted the deep purple amethyst brooch between her thumb and forefinger. Just like the ruby one did toward Avril, it winked.

  Epilogue

  Jack crushed her closer to him, and she could feel his heat even better than the four layers she wore each day, plus an extra sweatshirt he got her before they boarded the plane for their extended work and relaxation trip. They made their way through the Netherlands, Germany, and now for the relaxation pit stop portion since Jack sold off most of his photos to the company contract he was hired for not long after the new year, France. Paris, specifically.