Lost Highway(32)

Her nipples instantly harden when I stroke them between my still trembling thumbs and index fingers. I smile when Odessa sighs with pleasure. Cupping her breasts, I cover her lips with mine. I swallow Odessa’s moans as my fingers pluck at her hard pink flesh.

“Quill,” she gasps, leaning back as I nibble at her earlobe.

Her moans reassure me. I’ve felt her taste my flesh, sucking and nipping at my body. She knows me, and I want to know her. I’m frightened, though. Odessa is everything for me now, and I can’t bear the thought of harming her.

Gently, I suck at her hard nipples, enjoying their reaction to my touch. Odessa squirms on the bed, and her legs part. She wants my cock inside her. I hear Odessa beg for me to f*ck her, but I need to take my time so I won’t lose control and become violent.

Odessa grips my face and lifts me level with her. “I need you inside me.”

“I’m afraid,” I whisper.

“Why? I’ve been yours since the moment we first existed. You’re only making it official. Take what’s yours.”

Despite her arousal and words of encouragement, Odessa is filled with fear. A part of her remains terrified in the dark night, trapped in a tree with monsters lurking below.

Soon, my body covers Odessa’s, warming her with the heat of my arousal. Though I fear I’m too heavy, her arms possessively wrap around my neck. All of her stress evaporates, and I feel her completely present with me.

My cock probes her *, unable to find her wet entrance. Odessa reaches down and guides me into her waiting body. I stare into her eyes and find no fear in them. Even when I thrust into her roughly, she only watches me in wonder.

“I don’t understand love,” I whisper into her ear as our hips frantically move together. “I know I love you, even if I can’t promise my love is worth anything.”

“It’s everything,” she murmurs. “I love you too.”

Studying her face, I know I won’t hurt her. My fear of losing control is gone. Odessa is mine. Rather than make me weak, love provides a new focus beyond my killer instinct.

Together, we’ll survive the Lost Highway.





Chapter Thirty-Three


Odessa




After returning to me in the woods, Quill is a beast in a different way. He wants me unconditionally. His body f*cks the same, rough and hungry. When his dark gaze focuses on me, he’s never been so open. Quill wraps me in his arms and stares at me as if afraid to look away.

I know how he feels.

Though I believed in my heart he would return to me, holding onto positive thoughts proves tricky in this place. By the time I heard his voice, I had wondered if I was fooling myself. I even considered how to end my life if he didn’t return. Suicide was preferable to life without him.

But Quill did return, and now he won’t leave my side.

We spend long hours in bed. When we aren’t making love, he nearly crushes me in his embrace. Quill craves me closer than I can manage. If I’m quiet for too long while we rest in bed, he lifts my chin so he can see my face. I never imagined him demanding so much reassurance, but there’s no way I’ll complain. Quill’s neediness is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.

“My turn,” he says one day and wraps a metal cuff around my wrist. “You trusted John to tie you up. Do you trust me?”

“More than I trust myself.”

Quill saved me from the Death Dealers, from the Lost Highway, and even from himself. He’s earned my trust, but this is the first time he’s cared enough to ask for it.

Exploring every inch of my body displayed for him, Quill even touches and kisses the back of my knees. He wants to know what I like and how my body works. He spends long hours between my legs, teasing my * in excruciatingly brilliant ways. I almost feel invisible when the two of them get together to play.

I teach Quill everything I know, and he’s a model student. In those first days after our night apart in the woods, I wait for him to lose control of his inner rage.

Except that part of Quill died the night he believed I was gone forever. After feeling as if I’d stolen his power, he’s regained it by facing a pain and fear he hadn’t experienced before.

While I can’t imagine spending a lifetime knowing only death, I do understand how it feels to be under someone’s thumb. I gave my power to John to avoid feeling or thinking. I wanted to remain weak because the fog of that life allowed me to stay the sixteen-year-old distracted by lust long enough to lose her sister. As long as I didn’t change, I would never forgive myself.

Now I have my power back. For good or bad, I’m responsible for me. The pain of bad choices and the consequences of weakness are all on me.

Quill is free too. He traded his masters back in the old world for the hunt here in the Lost Highway. He was still trapped in his former way of thinking. Kill, wait, and kill again were all he knew.

We’re different now, and I can’t help wondering why we were gifted our happiness while so many Death Dealers know only madness and butchery. Why had we gotten so lucky?

“Have a Skittle,” I tell him after night arrives.

Quill doesn’t object. He normally hates eating and says wanting food is a crutch. Now he opens his mouth, so I can drop the candy on his extended tongue. I eat one too and then place the mini bag into the cabinet with the rest of our treats.