Seafra

Ruby goes to her room as I strip and lie down beside Eavan, my chest resting against her back.

I kiss her shoulder. “There was no woman in my life after we’d had sex in that B&B.”

“You don’t have to—“

“No, I want you to know. I want everything to be clear between us. You left, but it was like you were my girlfriend. I was faithful to you.”

She sighs and turns on her other side to face me. “I was faithful to you even though we were apart.” She takes a deep breath. “You don’t know how happy I am that I can be honest with you, that I can trust you. Ruby and I had nobody. Our parents... We were ghosts in our own house. My mother was a sad puppet controlled by my father, condemned to her fate at birth. Like Ruby and me.” Her voice falters. “It doesn’t matter now. Ruby...” Her eye twitches and her jaws clench.

I kiss her forehead. “We have a lot of time for talking.”

“No, no, you need to know this. There was a man, Jack. He was dear to Ruby. Well, we both loved him. He was our friend.” She stops and watches me with her eyes narrowing. “It’s not what you’re thinking about. He was a cop designated to watch over us. Ruby and him... Well, it happened that he died. Ruby buried him in the deepest part of her heart. Never talk to her about him. She may mention him, but you never ask her any questions.”

“I understand, Eavan.”

She exhales as her face softens. “We are not normal, you know. Neither Ruby nor me.”

“That’s good. I don’t want to have a strictly normal life. I’m not a regular guy, either.”

She bursts into laughter and glides her palm over my head. “I hate arguments. My parents fought all the time. Their marriage was a disaster.”

“We’re very much alike. I hate arguments too.” I stroke a path down the side of her chest, then over her ass cheek and stop on her outer thigh, admiring her perfect curves.

I hold my weight up on my elbow and my eyes sweep over her scars. I love each of them. They belong to me as does Eavan.

“We should get to know each other better,” I say. “Your favourite colour. You favourite music. Your favourite food. That kind of stuff.”

“We’re stuck together,” she says with sarcasm and turns her back to me. “Even if I hate you we’ll have to stay together.”

I unhook her bra, releasing her breasts. “Kiss me.”

She removes her bra and turns her face to mine, her lips parted, the tip of her tongue pink against the whiteness of her teeth.

I bend my neck forward and close her mouth with mine, our tongues stroking against one another.

“Ruby likes me,” I say.

“Yes, she does.”

“Do you like me?” I pull her panties down and she wiggles out of them.

“I do.”

“Do you like me enough to spend your life with me?”

“Yes, I like you enough.” The tempting raspiness of her voice makes my heart race and my dick ache.

“You will be my wife. Hope you’re aware of that.”

“Very aware.”

I stroke my cock then run my fingers up and down her wet slit. My arm slides under her neck and I cup her breast. “I love you, Eavan.”

“I know,” she hums and pushes her ass against my groin.

Well, it would be fair if she told me that she loved me too.

I run the head of my cock up and down her slit, circling it around her entrance. Eavan takes a sharp breath and exposes the side of her throat for me.

“Tell me you love me,” I growl.

“You know I love you. I’ve loved you since the moment we met.”

I push my cock into her and her divine wetness sheaths me like hot heaven.

Eavan

He buries his length inside me and stops. The sounds of our ardent breaths fill the evening’s silence around us.

I nuzzle his cheek with my nose and he kisses my neck. A tingle spreads across my skin.

I missed his touch so much.

A moan escapes my mouth as his finger circles my nipple and his lips caress the side of my neck.

He strokes my pregnant belly then moves his hips against my ass. Flutters of pleasure radiate from my pussy.

“Good?” he murmurs into my ear, nibbling on my earlobe.

“Good,” I gasp.

His chest slides against my back as he pumps his cock in and out gently. I bend my knees and raise one, to give him access to my mound as his fingers search for my clitoris.

“You’re so soft,” he murmurs into my ear then lets out a guttural growl.

“You mean I’m big.”

“I mean,” he says, rubbing his finger against my clitoris, “that you’re really pleasant to touch now.”

I gasp, open my mouth, but my brain is unable to form a sensible reply.

It’s different now. Every nerve of my body seems to be hypersensitive. Every stroke of his cock, every circle of his finger around my clitoris sends me into shivers, gives me bliss, and makes me rise higher and higher.

I arch against his chest, our bodies moving in a feverish dance, rubbing, slapping against one another. My sweat blends with his; the smell of my arousal is intense, heavy around us.

“You’re pregnant, woman,” he says like he’s gritting his teeth. “Slowly.”

His words bounce off the cloudy wall of my desire. I’m pure wild sensation.

I push his hand away and massage my swollen clitoris with my middle finger as Seafra thrusts into me faster, harder. His breath puffs into my neck, scorching, enslaving. His mouth grazes the angle of my jaw as he cups my breast and pushes into me deep. A husky moan leaves his mouth as his cock twitches inside me, and he fills me up with his come. I rise into my white forgetfulness, shake, and moan his name.

Seafra

She’s asleep.

Coldness stabs me like an icy dagger at the thought that I could lose her again.

No fucking way.

It will work.

Fuck concerts, fuck my career, and fuck my old life.

I’m an outcast like Ruby and Eavan, a fugitive like them. A ghost for the society.

It’s a bit unnerving, but I’m more focused on my new role. I’m responsible for Eavan and our baby, responsible for Ruby.

I pull Eavan into my arms and she shudders in her dream.

“I’m here, baby,” I say and she turns her face to mine, her sleepy eyes locked on mine.

“Stay with me forever,” she whispers.

“I will. Forever.”

We have a nap, get up as the day is about to dawn and walk out of the house. I dispose of my bike on the outskirts of the town, then we catch a taxi and travel to the train station. Ruby looks very excited, but her eyes cloud with sadness from time to time and she seems to drift away to somewhere far from here.

As we settle ourselves into our seats and the train pulls forward, Eavan watches the beach stretching along the railway tracks. Boats sway on the greyness of the seawater.

“Everything fine, Ruby?” I ask.

“Sort of,” she says.

“You can talk to me,” I say.

“There are things I want to have buried inside me and don’t want to share them with anybody,” she says. “They need to be buried otherwise, I won’t be able to be happy again. And I want to be happy. I want to be happy for the baby, for you and for my sister.”

I raise myself, sit down beside Ruby and throw my arm around her back. “I will be for you in whatever way you need me.”

“Can you marry my sister?” Ruby says. “I want to attend a wedding.”

“Sure,” I say. “This won’t be a problem.”

Eavan looks at me, stroking her belly and biting her lower lip. She nods at me, flashes me a mysterious smile then sinks into her own thoughts.

“You two look very much alike,” Ruby says. “Almost like siblings, but I guess soul mates look like this.”

We fall silent and I watch Eavan. She has a wig on, a platinum-blonde bob. It makes her look sexy as hell. Ruby looks like a teenage boy with her oversized tracksuit bottoms to cover her prosthetic legs and a baseball cap and I’m hiding behind sunglasses and a bandana.

Eavan

It’s been three days since we escaped Natalie’s supervision.

We’re standing in front of a devastated barn, the smell of rotten straw and animal droppings all-pervasive, mixing with the smell of fish and seaweed carried by the gusts of the wind. The droplets of rain are pricking my face like needles.

“There are holes in the roof,” Ruby says.

“Well,” Seafra says, scratching his head as his feet sink into the mud around us.

I’m actually very excited.

It’s the middle of nowhere, the queen of all the holes we’ve lived in so far. Three old fishermen and their wives occupy the village nearby and there is a small devastated pub at the further end, run by a woman who looks two hundred years old.

“Perfect,” I say.

“You like it?” Seafra looks at me with relief.

“Needs work, but we can do it,” I say.

Ruby holds Seafra’s hand as her feet squelch in the mud. “We will live like cavemen.”

“Well,” Seafra says.

“It’s perfect,” I repeat.

Seafra sinks his fingers into his drenched hair. “It’s worse than I thought it would be, but there is no going back now.”

“No, there is no going back,” I say.