Katy is a nervous wreck.

She’s pacing around the apartment, and I can tell that the waiting game is doing more to make her uneasy than if she had a job to do, like hacking into a system.

Suddenly our hands are tied. All the authorities have been informed of the location of the bomb and any of the other details that we know. All we can do is sit back and wait. It’s torturous for me, but I think it’s worse for her because she feels responsible or involved in this somehow.

“Katy, you know this isn’t your fault. You had nothing to do with planting the bomb. In fact, as soon as you found out about it, you did the right thing by contacting me and the authorities. Please don’t blame yourself,” I say, but it falls upon deaf ears.

She’s obviously not gonna believe me. She’s too much into her self-loathing.

After finding out she’s been a part of something so sinister, I can only imagine the torment she must feel. I wish I could take it all away from her. I wish I could take her pain because I would.

“What can I do?” I ask.

“Nothing. There’s nothing you can do. I already blame myself. I just want this to all be over. I hope it turns out right, or I’ll be devastated for the rest of my life.”

Now it’s more important to me than ever that they stop this bomb from going off. The thought of Katy being haunted by this situation is too much for me to bear.

I want them to find the bomb so that those people will be safe and Katy will be off the hook. She doesn’t need to feel guilt over this. That’s my hope.

I get up and try to hold her, but she’s wrestling out of my arms.

“I can’t. I just can’t be held right now. I’m too upset,” she says.

I try again to hold her. Maybe the feeling of my arms around her will do something to relax her strained body, but she pushes me off again and again. Finally, I give up.

All we can do now is wait for news. All I can do is watch Katy freak out.

Minutes tick by, but they feel like hours. I know I have my guys on the situation. I’m receiving text message after text message with updates. But nothing concrete yet.

That is, until the FBI agent calls me back.

He says, “We did it, Marcus. Everything is under control. The bomb squad caught two guys in action while trying to plant a bomb in the building that your source provided. We were able to dismantle the bomb and put the two guys in custody. We’ll make sure they give up the other people involved.”

“That’s great.” I breathe a sigh of relief. “I couldn’t have received better news. Thank you so much. Thank you to your team and to everybody who was on the project.”

Katy’s looking at me hopefully, and I don’t wait to tell her the good news.

“They did it. The bomb’s been found, the guys have been found, and everybody else that was a part of it are about to be found. There’s no longer anything for you to worry about, Katy.”

Now I don’t have to try to put my arms around her because she comes over to me with a big hug of celebration. She’s elated, and I can see that the torment of having any part of this is fading away. She’s back to being the old Katy.

She’s crying still, and I ask her why.

“They’re tears of happiness. I was so worried that people were gonna get hurt. I’ve never felt such fear and panic like that before,” she says, hugging me. “And it was all because of you. If you hadn’t been here, I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

I stroke her hair and try to reassure her with my loving arms. Things with Katy have reached a new level, especially since she’s confided in me about her truth.

That was the only thing standing in our way before. I couldn’t deal with the fact that she was lying about her lifestyle.

Granted, it took a bomb scare for her to admit it, but still.

“I told you it would be okay,” I say. “You can always trust me, Katy. I’ll always be there for you.”

This makes her cry more, and I don’t know why. Soft tears roll down her face.

“Baby, don’t cry. It’s all over.” I try to calm her.

“It’s not just that. It’s what you just said, about being there for me. All my life I’ve had no one to depend on besides myself. I’ve always had to take care of everything. And then I found you and everything changed.”

“You really feel that way?” I say, looking into her beautiful eyes.

“Yes.” She sniffles. “You have no idea how lonely it’s been. I’ve never had a single person to rely on, and then suddenly you’re in my life, and you’re so in control and sweet about everything. I just can’t believe my luck.”

I lean down to kiss her, and I pull her into me close. Heat starts to vibrate between us now that the threat of the bomb is gone. Her tears stop as she realizes what’s happening.

“Thank you,” she says before I stop her words with my kiss.

I kiss her long and deeply, trying to let her know without words how much I care about her. To think of this poor girl surviving on her own, without friends or family, makes me wish I met her sooner.

I’ll be her family now. I can be the one person that she can count on in life. It would be my privilege and honor to do so, and it’s also my damn near obsession to make sure that she knows she can trust me.

What is happening to me? I normally don’t care about the women I bed, but here I am.

In fact, part of me gets off on the fact that I’m Katy’s one and only.

I want her to focus on me all the time. I want to focus on her all the time. I want our lives to be so enmeshed that we’re practically one person.

I know she feels this connection as strongly as I do. There’s no denying it now.

What began as a simple fling has ended up being something much deeper. Something I was not prepared for.

While it doesn’t scare me, I can tell she gets anxious around me. Right now, she’s shaking a little bit in my arms.

I determine that I will make this better for her. I will make the world right again.

I lay her down on the bed and begin to trail kisses along her body. It’s time to express my affection for her by fucking her brains out and making her forget that time exists.

It’s just the two of us now, in a world of her own making. And that’s how I like it.