CHAPTER FIVE
Hours later, I slip into the maintenance tunnel of my apartment and quietly follow the path I've walked a dozen or more times to our rendezvous spot. A spot only the two of us know about and even dare to enter. It should be perfectly safe, and far from the prying eyes of the Enforcers. I doubt that even they dare to enter the complete darkness of this spot.
Even still, I listen as carefully as I can to ensure it's safe and no one is hiding, then settle myself into a corner to wait.
This time she doesn't keep me long, and soon I feel her hand on my arm. Immediately, her touch causes goose bumps to pop up all over my skin. I'll never get over how quiet she is.
“Hi!” she whispers. The grin is clear as day in her voice, even if I can't see it. Just hearing her makes my insides jump all over the place.
“Hi back.” My heart beats an unsteady rhythm and I can't deny it any longer. Evangeline was right—at least about this one thing. That I’ve gone completely mad. This wasn't supposed to happen. I was just supposed to get her to choose me for her Suitor, so we would Couple, which would get me into the Palace Wing and—better yet—into Mother's trust. Then the Underground would do the rest.
It was supposed to be simple, but I’ve complicated it by falling helplessly and hopelessly in love with the enemy.
She settles herself beside me, her thigh pressing against mine. My fingers have the sudden itch to run over it, knowing I'd be able to touch the skin her skirt has left bare.
“I love this part of the day,” she says with a sigh.
I love you, I think, but only say, “Me, too.”
She leans her head on my shoulder and her fingers find mine, interlacing them together. A jolt of the same electricity from yesterday shoots throughout my body and I have to take a deep breath to relax myself.
We don't say anything. Tension is thick in the air, different from yesterday, but there still the same.
I need to ask her. I'm supposed to wait until she chooses me. There's protocol to follow, but I need her in my life. The whole of it. Not just during these stolen moments together. And hang Eli and his cold, unfeeling heart. He wouldn’t know love if it bit him.
“Evie?”
“Hmm?”
My heart trips in my chest. Relax, Timothy, I tell myself, and then square my shoulders and blurt out, “What would you say if I asked you to Couple with me?”
Her body tenses against mine and her hand trembles, but she doesn't say anything. I wish I could see her face. See the reaction. But I only sit, waiting for her answer.
Finally, she answers calmly, as if I’d asked her about the weather in the Agriculture Sector, “Well, I would probably say yes. That is, if you asked me correctly.”
The corners of my mouth creep up into a smile as relief pours through me.
I nudge her head with my shoulder so she sits up, and I turn so that I'm facing her.
“Miss Evelyn Winters, will you Couple with me?”
This time there is no hesitancy in her answer. “Yes. Absolutely.”
Even though I can just barely make out her outline, I push her hair over her shoulder, letting my fingers drag through the silky strands. Then, savoring the feel of her skin against mine, I trail my knuckles up her throat, over her chin and lips, before cupping her cheek in my palm.
Wonder fills me when she tilts her head, so that it fits nicely into my hand. I trace my thumb over her cheekbone. Mine, I think. She'll be mine and I'll be hers.
My clothing rustles as I lean forward. She shivers when my breath tickles her neck as I whisper, “I love you, Evie.”
“Timothy…” She starts to say, and I know she's going to say it back, but I'm filled with so much joy and want that I don't let her finish before I press my lips to hers. Her breath catches and her heart stutters under my palm.
My body is at odds with itself, and I know hers is, too. The part screaming at us to stop. To be more cautious, because an Enforcer could be hidden nearby and if we're caught, we're both dead. But there's a louder part of me that's making my blood boil with need and want. A part that says hang the consequences.
Unfortunately, the saner part of me prevails, and I pull back, moving my mouth to kiss just below her ear.
“You'll ask Mother?” I ask her. This part worries me, but she has to be the one to initiate this. It has to seem like it was her idea.
“Of course,” she says, her voice breathless. “The minute I get back.”
My lips curve against the skin of her neck. “Excellent.” I trace more kisses across her skin before, finally, sighing. “We'd better get back before anyone misses us.” We're so close; it would be devastating to get caught now.
She shivers delicately, but doesn't stop me from pulling away. She does keep my hand in hers. I squeeze it tightly. My clothes whisper as I stand, pulling her with me. She leads the way back toward the light, but I tug on her hand, pulling her into me. She falls into my chest, and I find her lips with mine again, my stomach twisting deliciously before I finally release her.
She wobbles, and I chuckle, but say, “Come on. We'd better go before your feminine charms become my undoing.”
When she laughs, the sound echoes throughout the space, and I want to stop time in this moment. I want to savor it forever. Because whatever happens after this, it will change everything. Nothing will be the same again.
She’s the first to go back into the light, looking to verify the Enforcers aren't around and watching. My heart pounds a little faster, but this time it has nothing to do with Evie—and everything to do with worry that Enforcers will grab her.
Normally I’d breathe easier when she hurries off the way she came, without even a glance back at me, hurrying without seeming to hurry toward the Palace Wing. Toward safety. But dread pours over me like a cold shower. The certainty that I’ll never see her again weighs heavy in my gut. I want to chase after her, drag her back to me so we can find a way to escape here. I don't care what the teachings say about the Surface. Evie was probably right when she said they were nothing close to the truth and even if she were wrong, I’d put up with all of the Surface terrors if that meant Evie was safe and with me.
But I don't.
Because I’m a coward.
And I only watch as she disappears around the corner.
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