Chapter Twenty-Eight

Nina

How much longer could we possibly run? My feet were already sore before we started running and the jogging shoes didn’t help all that much. “How far have we gotten?” I panted, not wanting to let on that I was starting to break down a little bit. I wasn’t even cold, we were running so fast. My cheeks and my fingers stung with a strange heat. We rushed toward the back of a narrow alley, some place I’d never been before. I didn’t even know if there were legitimate businesses this deep into Darkmont anymore. “How much longer, Eli?”

“We’re still in Montclair,” he told me. He was breathing hard and steady, each breath a plume of mist from his mouth. He pulled me to the end of the alley, where a tall chain fence loomed overhead. Eli gazed up at the tall fence, then twisted to face me. “We’re climbing this fence.”

“Climbing?” I shrilled. I was already shaking. I couldn’t climb! My legs burned. My lungs burned. We had to stop. My cheeks were pink, and my hair was wet. I couldn’t take it anymore. “And—and how are we still in Montclair?” I couldn’t think straight. I was so tired, and the darkness was so complete. I asked distantly if my ankles were bleeding. “How much longer?”

“Baby,” Eli murmured, going still and wrapping his arms around me. I didn’t know where we were, wherever we were, but I was grounded by his embrace. I could sleep right here. “It’s going to be another twenty or thirty minutes. Do you need to stop and rest?”

I sank my teeth into my lower lip. I needed a rest so badly. “Yes,” I breathed. I couldn’t help it. I needed a break. “I can’t keep going. I’m sorry, Eli. I’m so exhausted.”

“Don’t be sorry.” Eli scooped me up, splitting my legs and hugging them around his back. “Cling to my neck. I’m going to carry you.”

“Can you carry me?” I breathed against his ear. I sagged and melted like a pad of butter across his powerful shoulders. God, I loved him. It snuck up on me. Looking back, I couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment that it had happened. “Can you carry me? Aren’t you tired, too?”

“I’ll be fine,” Eli assured me, gripping the chains and heaving himself ever upward. I still had to grip him hard with my arms and thighs as gravity pulled at me. I buried my face against his neck, closed my eyes, and breathed deeply. I tried hard not to think about the fall. I tried hard not to think about any of this, really. It was too much. Gravity lessened while he crossed the top of the ladder, and then it tugged at me again as he carried me down. “I could carry you all night,” he said.

“I don’t know how much longer I can do this.” My arms shook as I hugged his back. I thought I might let him go and fall.

“You’ll find the strength,” Eli promised me. The gravity fell away as we reached the bottom of the other side of the fence, and he deposited me back onto the cement. My feet gave out a silent scream as I landed, and I whimpered, staggering to the side. Eli caught me. “Are you okay?” he asked. His breath stirred the hair beside my ear, and I wished that we were in bed right now. I didn’t want to be out here running through Darkmont, shrouded in snow and shadows. I was so cold and sore, and I didn’t want anything to happen to him. Everything was upside-down.

Eli wrapped his arms around me and said, “We can rest for a minute. We’ve been moving pretty quickly.”

I melted into Eli a little bit, but tension stiffened his body and I pulled away. I glanced down the alley, but I didn’t see anything. “What is it?” I glanced back up at Eli. “Eli?” I whimpered, hugging myself closer to his body. “What is it?”

“I thought I saw something,” he whispered. “But nothing is there.”

“Eli.” He looked down at me, and I drew strength from his fiery eyes. “Eli, I’m scared.” Even though he said that Dad and his goons would never hurt me, I was still scared. I didn’t want them to hurt Eli, either. I didn’t want them to hurt anybody.

“Don’t be scared, Nina. That’s the most important thing. Come here.” He gestured for me to step into his arms, and when I did, he scooped me up and ran down the alley holding me. I curled tight against him, grateful for his solidity and warmth. Snow pelted against us, but I was grateful for it. Anything to reduce visibility would be good.

As I pressed my face to Eli’s chest, the rhythmic thud of his heart calmed me. Thump, thump, thump, thump. The falling snow made it harder to be afraid, even though I could’ve sworn there were shadows lurking. Were they coming outside to check the power lines, coming outside to watch the snow fall? Or were they going to report to my father?

Eli slipped around the back of a parking garage and it loomed in front of us, its sign glowing neon red with a flickering L: MOTEL. Its light spilled brightly over the sidewalk and the road, the first establishment with power that I could remember seeing. Were we out of Darkmont? And did that even mean anything was over?

Eli wrenched open the glass door into the lobby of the motel and settled me onto a shabby couch. Not shabby chic. Just shabby. I rubbed my hands together and shivered as Eli crossed the motel lobby in a few strides and held a conversation with the man behind the counter. I didn’t even try to stand up. My feet throbbed, but I didn’t whine, even though I was in enough pain. I wrapped my arms tight around myself and waited for Eli.

My eyes tipped toward that glass front door. Snow fell thickly on the other side. Were Freaks out there? Had they followed us?

A silhouette lingered on the sidewalk outside, smoking a cigarette. I leaned a little closer and squinted, trying to see their face.

“Do you need me to carry you again?” Eli’s voice pierced my thoughts. I tore my eyes away from the door. “Or are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” I lied, coming to a slow stand and then limping to our hotel room with him.

“Enjoy your stay, Mr. Gilligan,” the desk clerk murmured, watching us with disapproval. “Ms. Ginger.”

I almost giggled in spite of the situation.

Eli pushed the door open and shielded me from the snow and any eyes with his chest and his coat. We strode together to our room, which was around the back, and an electronic key let us in. The drapes were already drawn tight. Eli flipped the latch on the lock, and I hobbled to the first lamp I saw, flicking it on.

Warm yellow light filled the room, and I sighed with relief. Heat pumped into the room, and my icy fingers stung, and I collapsed at the foot of our motel room bed, prying off my trainers and flinging them across the room. Both my feet were riddled in bright pink blisters.

I flopped backward onto the bed and moaned softly to myself. Laying down had never felt so luxurious and sensual before. My every tense, tired muscle relaxed. My eyelashes fluttered closed. It was a standard motel room, but it felt more decadent than Masters Heights right now. I stretched until my toes pointed and flexed in the air, moaning again. It felt so good to be on a bed, relaxed and warm and semi-safe.

“You’d better stop that,” Eli warned me, his voice husky and suggestive. “I’m only human.”

“Stop what?” I asked, even though I knew. His tone told me everything, and when my eyes fluttered open again, they fixed on his. I offered him a coy little smile. He held a towel, drying off his hands after just washing them in the bathroom. “I’m trying to stretch over here.”

A grin split Eli’s beard in half, and his eyes gleamed. “You know what you’re doing.”

I propped myself up on my elbows and drew my legs up, allowing them to loll open slightly. “How can you think of sex at a time like this?” I asked, even though my eyes were focused directly on the bulge in his jeans.

“You mean, while my girlfriend is sprawled on a bed, moaning?” Eli said, creeping up the foot of the bed and leaning over me on his hands and knees.

A sweet, soft smile played at the edges of my lips. It felt like we were together, but a little piece of me still couldn’t believe it. Maybe that’s how you felt when you fell in love with someone. “Am I your girlfriend?”

“You are mine,” he promised me. His lips came down and traveled roughly over mine, sending me reeling up toward his mouth. My response was so desperate and hungry, it completely dashed whatever flirting game I was trying to play. We crawled backward, connected at the mouth, until I was pressed against the headboard and Eli’s hand worked under my waistband. “Do you want this, Nina?” he whispered into my ear, and I spread my legs for him. His cock was a hard outline inside his jeans, and he ground it between my legs, tempting me.

“Yes,” I swore, ragged but ready.

Eli’s fingers were cold as they crept into my panties. My back stiffened as they circled the nub of my clitoris. Electricity shot through me, down into my fingers and toes. I humped my pussy against his hand. “You know how I like it, too.” His free hand wrapped around my panties and pulled them down my legs. He pitched them over his shoulder and they disappeared. “You’ve got to be mine, baby. No matter what happens.”

“I am yours,” I swore in a whimper. I was already soaking wet. I wanted this moment to last forever. “You can take me any way you want me.”