I kissed him as deeply as I could, hoping to melt the ice that ached inside my chest, and I pulled him back onto the bed with me.
Then his mouth was on mine, hungry and strong. My arms were around him, pressing into the firm muscles of his back, and I wrapped my legs around him. The ice in my chest still ached painfully, but I ignored it and focused solely on the way I felt as Gabe touched me.
His hands were slipping under my clothes. His fingers were bold and hot as they explored my body, running over the tender flesh of my belly before finding my breasts beneath my bra.
It was apparent that clothes were only getting in our way, and we parted long enough to strip them off. I barely took the time to appraise his body because I was so eager to feel him against me.
Then we were together again, and his mouth trailed down from my lips to my neck. His teeth scraped deliciously against my flesh as he moved down, sending pleasurable shivers through me. With his arms around me, I could feel his muscles as they barely held back from crushing me with their strength.
I wanted him—no, I needed him, needed to feel all of him. My body was aching for him.
I pulled away from him, and as I did, he gave me this wonderful helpless puppy look that belied the ferociousness of the hunger in his eyes and, for some reason, that made me like him so much more.
“One second,” I promised him, and I leaned over to fumble through my nightstand drawer until I finally found a condom.
Relief washed over his face, and a few quick seconds later, it was on, and then his mouth was on mine. He kissed me for a moment, holding on to the last few seconds that we were separate, and then he slid inside me. A soft moan escaped his lips, and I closed my eyes.
The heat from him seemed to radiate all through me, and the ice that stabbed through my heart finally went away. It didn’t just melt—it was as if Gabe set me ablaze from within, and all I could feel and think and be was him.
I dug my fingers into his back, and when he finished, he let out a low, guttural sound, reminding me of a soft growl.
He rolled onto his back, then pulled me into his arms. He kissed the top of my head, and I listened to the steady rhythm of his heart in his chest.
“I’m falling in love with you, Mara,” he said softly.
“Me too,” I whispered. In the delirium of the afterglow, I let myself really feel it—how much I cared for Gabe and how I wanted to spend all of forever with him if I could.
And then my mom’s voice was echoing in my mind. “There is a darkness within you, but there is strength, and there is goodness too,” she’d told Gabe with the strange assertion as she’d eyed him up.
Lying in his arms against the firm contours of his body, I felt his undeniable strength. And I thought I could feel the goodness in him—in the gentleness of his touch as he stroked my hair and murmured how much he cared for me.
But soon the iciness in my chest began to take hold again, sending a painful shiver through me. I couldn’t help but wonder about the darkness my mom had seen within him.
I’d known about it too, from the first moment I saw him. Deep down inside, I’d felt like I should be afraid of him, and despite all that, I’d never felt safer anywhere else than in his arms right now.
This couldn’t last forever, no matter how desperately I wanted it to, so I just closed my eyes and tried to savor the feel of his arms around me and the sound of his heart beating.
But it only lasted a few moments before I heard Luka, screaming for dear life.
43. mend
“Mara, what are you doing?” Gabe demanded, his words pinched with fear.
I’d leapt out of bed and grabbed my dress from where it lay rumpled on the floor, and now I struggled to pull it on over my head.
“Something happened to Luka,” I told Gabe, and probably sensing that he wouldn’t be able to stop me, he grabbed his jeans and hurried to get them on. “I have to help.”
“Mara—” Gabe began, but I was already rushing toward the door. “Wait!”
I didn’t want him coming with me—I didn’t want him getting hurt or tangled up with whatever was happening around here. So instead of running out into the night, and possibly getting us both killed in a valiant but stupid attempt to protect Luka, I ran to the front of the Winnebago and looked out the windshield.
Roxie and Hutch were huddled in the doorway of Hutch and Luka’s trailer, and they appeared to have turned on every light, causing the warm yellow light to glow in the humidity around them.
They both stared off to their right, toward the sound of Luka’s screams, so I followed their gaze. For a long second, I saw nothing, and then the outline of two figures appeared in the darkness, coming out from the swamp behind the campsite—one taller and burly, the other smaller and limping. Luka and Gideon.