She slid down the steps and into the water, peeking down to ascertain the state of his stubborn, long-suffering erection. Then she ran her hand down his body, and gripped him. “So have I broken down your objections to making love again?” Her voice was husky and low. “Or do I have to bring out the big guns?”
He shook with silent laughter. “I am disarmed,” he said. “Take anything you want from me. It’s all yours.”
Elisa stroked and squeezed his cock with a tight, swiveling stroke that made his shudder and gasp, and then draped her arms around his waist, and wound her legs around his thighs. “Well, then,” she murmured. “Give it to me.”
Nate gripped his cock, to guide it, sliding the tip of his dick into the slick, tight well of her pussy. Keeping it slow, so they could savor every instant of that snug, delicious glide. “Oh fuck.” He couldn’t keep his voice from shaking. “Elisa.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Oh, yes. That’s perfect.” Elisa’s nails dug into his shoulders as he thrust inside her, undulating against him as her beautiful body slowly took him in. A long, hot, welcoming kiss. Every stroke a tender, suckling pull.
Then they were kissing again, frantically as their bodies moved, pumping together, water sloshing rhythmically. Writhing and straining to get closer.
And the whole world dissolved. Nothing but pleasure. Huge and hot. Thundering through them, rolling over them, washing them away.
After they floated there, boneless. Weightless. Still joined, her head resting on his shoulder. Beyond words, beyond thought.
Only the cooling water finally moved him to stir, or he could never have broken the spell.
“Want to get back to bed?” he asked. “We have a couple of hours till dawn. The electronics store opens at nine AM, so we should leave here a half hour before. So, a nap, then some breakfast, and we go at it.”
Her smile blinded him. “Sounds like a plan. And it’s so great to finally have one.”
Nate helped her out of the tub and dried her off himself, never one to miss the opportunity to stroke every inch of her perfect body.
They slid back into the bed naked, and their bodies fit together perfectly. Her head rested just under his chin, his arm around her neck. Her slight, warm weight was like a long, and constantly renewing kiss against his whole body.
Elisa kissed his chest and then drifted off to sleep, her breath slow and even.
He felt so good, it scared him.
It was too soon to feel this way. He hadn’t earned it. He’d borrowed it. Snatched it from the jaws of death. But those jaws were still out there, still snapping, still hungry for her. He had no business letting himself feel happy about this. Not yet.
Not for one single goddamn second.
14
The smell of coffee and bacon woke Elisa. She rolled over in bed, as the memory of the night she’d just passed rushed through her mind, along with a flush of intense emotion. Excitement, terror, hope. A strange and heady mix.
She felt so different. Her body was more relaxed, and her mind was clearer. And she had a sense of purpose. An actual plan for the day. Oh God, yes.
It felt so good. Even if it led nowhere, it was something to do. Her daily to-do list since fleeing Gil had one single, solitary item on it: Don’t get killed.
Limiting, to say the least.
Nate looked into the bedroom. He saw her awake, and his sexy smile made her heart quicken. “We should get moving,” he said. “Come get breakfast while it’s hot.”
“On my way.” She slid out of bed, intensely aware of his focused gaze on her naked body, and headed into the bathroom to retrieve her washed-out underwear, now thankfully dry. She gathered up her clothes, giving him a teasing sidelong look from under her eyelashes as she pulled up her jeans.
She turned to face him as she put on her bra, brazenly plumping her boobs up for maximum lift and cleavage while he watched her. Hot-eyed. Keenly interested.
“Whoa,” he muttered. “That really sharpens the appetite. Some sexual torment, to start the day off right?”
“You’re inflicting it on yourself,” she told him. “Gawking at me. Bad boy.”
The quantity of food he’d ordered for breakfast astonished her when she came out into the dining room. She stared at the table, openmouthed. “Holy God, Nate! This is enough food for an army!”
“I didn’t want to wake you, and I wasn’t sure what you’d like,” he explained. “Pick out your favorites, and I’ll eat the rest. I like everything.”
She hadn’t had much of an appetite for breakfast or any other meal since her troubles began, but this morning, she was ravenous. The Eggs Benedict were spectacular. So were the cheesy home-fried potatoes and a fluffy buttermilk pancake from the top of the towering stack, drenched with maple syrup and dotted with juicy blueberries. A pitcher of fresh orange juice. Strong coffee. Heavy cream.
She put on her hat and her glasses, and they got on the road in good time. They were at the strip mall five minutes before the store’s opening time, but had to wait an extra fifteen minutes because whoever opened was late that day.
Then the Closed sign finally flipped to Open, and the search was on.
It didn’t take long to find a few copies of Shards of Ruin. Elisa’s insides fluttered with nervous excitement as she studied the cover, a fantasy scene with mythical beasts in a desert landscape. “I’ve seen these graphics. Josh plays this.”
“Let’s see what the clerks can tell us about the game,” Nate said.
The young man at the counter had long black hair and heavy, black-framed glasses that magnified his eyes and made him look like an insect.
“Lemme go get Craig,” he responded to Nate’s question. “He’s in back doing inventory. He’s the Shards freak. I think he got into the Celestial Realm in just a few weeks of playing, which is epic. Almost nobody does that. Hang on, I’ll go get him.”
Craig appeared moments later, a lanky twenty-something with the pallid skin of a basement dweller. He wore an oversized flannel shirt that flapped loosely over his black Angel Ascending T-shirt, and he proved to be more than willing to talk about Shards of Ruin. In fact, he issued an unbroken torrent of words.
“I’m telling you, man, it’s, like, groundbreaking,” he said, as if they were disposed to argue with him. “It’s a huge game world. It goes on for-freaking-ever, and there are a bunch of different adventures you can do. And you can play at any level and enjoy yourself. Beginners can have a good time, but if you really go deep, you find some super crazy secret stuff.”
“Yeah?” Elisa said. “Such as?”
Craig leaned over the counter, eyes alight. “Well, Shards is supposed to be single player, but there’s a hidden secret place you can get to, if you do the work and pay the points, and it has a communication point with other players. But the Shards designers never told anyone. They don’t advertise it. It’s not in the literature. It’s, like, a secret little gift, just for the true Shards freaks.”
“How did you find out about it?” Nate asked.
“The buzz on the gaming forums,” Craig admitted. “And there were, like, six YouTube channels dedicated to it for a while last year. A bunch of the big YouTubers have done deep dives.”