Alive (The Crave) (8 page)

She jerked a big dark blue shirt over her head, concealing herself completely. It was so large, it fell past the material of her shorts. The movement of her hands focused on her waist and he sucked in another breath, without choking himself, when her shorts hit the ground followed by black underwear.

“What are you doing?” He forced his jaw to say the words, instead of gaping open like it wanted to.

She bent and picked up the clothes she dropped. “I have to wash my clothes somehow.” She knelt by the shore amongst the barren weeds and began rinsing each article with deliberate care. His gaze followed her every move. Each one more enticing than the last. She washed her shorts first and her bra second. The twisting and wringing of her delicate hands only made his cock throb harder under the water. The fucker still rampant and hard since the moment her breasts bulged from the top of her bra. Every movement she made caused the large shirt she wore to expose more of her tanned thighs.

When she started washing the colored underwear, he made a decision. Every fiber of his being demanding that he swim as fast as he could and snatch her from the shore.

He didn’t.

He took a deep breath and swam slowly, doing a simple doggy paddle toward her, forcing himself to breathe as she ran her fingers over the smooth fabric. Fabric that had been pressed against the hot core of her body. His mouth watered at the thought of it. He realized now that he hadn’t gotten to taste her hot cunt on his lips in the before.

It seemed like it took an hour to reach the shore, though he knew it was only a minute or less. She looked up as he approached. Her round blue-green eyes focused on him.

“Are you—”

Gage jumped onto the shore, wrapped his arms around Eve, and pulled her into the dark water.

Chapter Eight

“Take me back to the shore Gage! Now! Now! Now!” Eve panicked. Pushing against Gage’s shoulders.

“What the hell? Chill, Eve.”

She couldn’t. Wouldn’t. The water was all around her. He was moving farther away from the shore.
How will I get back? Die. I’m going to die!
“Take me back! Take me back!” She flailed in his arms like a wildcat, desperate to break free of his hold.

“Dammit, Eve. Chill the fuck out! You’re gonna attract gurghs!”

Eve shut her mouth, but she didn’t stop her movement.

“Eve. Stop.” Gage gripped her hair and forced her to look into his gray eyes. There were flecks of black throughout the irises, making them look like a storm cloud, framed by long black lashes. His eyes alone were almost enough to calm her.
Almost.
“There aren’t any swimmer gurghs in here. I’ve never seen one that can swim and I always swim when I get the chance. No matter where I go.”

Eve pushed at his shoulders with her hands. “It’s not that.” She spoke through clenched teeth.

“Then what is—Oh!” He said the word like a light bulb went off in his head. “You mean, you don’t know how to swim?” He seemed shocked. Eve would have felt embarrassed if she wasn’t swimming in terror. Literally.

“Take me back to shore. Now.”

“You need to face your fear.”

“Fuck you!” Eve kicked her legs and twisted her body, thrashing about wildly.

“Holy shit, if you keep doing that we are both going to drown, seriously.”

The D-word hit her like a punch to the gut, effectively ending her thrashing and forcing her to cling to his muscular shoulders. “I hate you.” She was on the verge of tears. Could feel them stuck in the back of her throat, ready to spill out onto her cheeks.

“You have to face your fear, it’s the only way you can learn how to swim.”

“Learn
how
?”
Oh heck no.

“Don’t sound so panicked. I’m not going to let go of you.”

“Just take me back to shore please. Please.” She hated how pathetic she sounded. She didn’t want to sound that way in front of him, like some sort of weak baby. She had been like this before. Putty in his hands.

“Trust me, Eve. Please.” In the process of their conversation he had released his death-grip on her hair. She sucked in a deep breath.

Her parents had never let her or Olive learn how to swim. The pastime was forbidden to them, like most things other kids enjoyed, including television and friends.
“No daughter of mine will be caught half-ass naked in front of the world. That is blasphemy! A sin!”
She could still hear his shouting when she was eight years old and had been invited to a pool party by another girl at school.

“I can’t Gage. Just take me back to the fucking shore.”

“Did you know that sixty-four percent of the American population is afraid of deep open water? You’re not alone in your fear.”

“Deep. Open. Water.” Eve swallowed a lump in her throat. “Take me back to shore. Fucking now.” She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, trying to calm her rioting emotions.

“No. Tell me something.”

“What?” She opened her eyes. A wave of nausea hit her as she took in the dark water surrounding her.

“Don’t look at the water. Look at me. Tell me something about yourself.”

“Like what?” She realized that she was breathing hard, like she’d run a marathon.

“Anything. Tell me what makes Eve Mercy Wicker tick.”

She locked in her gaze with his, trying to follow his advice for once and not throw up everywhere. “I don’t even know.” She dug her nails into his shoulder.

“Tell me about your name. Your middle name. Why did they name you Mercy?”

“So God would have mercy on my soul.”

“What?”

“Yes, they—” her gaze wandered over his shoulder.

“Look at me. Only me.”

She did. She focused on his slightly crooked nose and full lips. “My mom got pregnant with me before they got married. I was conceived in sin, they said. A damned soul.” They hated her. They made it no secret that she was the bane of their existence.
“A child of Satan.”
Her dad always said. “It’s why they named me Eve.” She took a deep breath, staring into his gray eyes. “A reminder of the fall of mankind and the woman who committed the original sin.”

“You’re serious.”

“I am.”

His dark brows furrowed.

“Swimming was a sin too. To wear a bathing suit. To wear anything and be dipped in water where our bodies would be exposed by wet material.”

As if on cue Gage’s gaze dipped. Staring at the wet material of her shirt. The movement of his eyes was like a physical caress against her skin. Her nipples pebbled hard underneath her shirt. His gaze narrowed, as if he could see her body’s reaction to him.

She became suddenly aware of his hand clasping her around her hip, his fingers splayed across her back. She was pressed against him so that her head was slightly above his and her breasts were right in front of his face. She was vaguely aware of the swish of water against her thigh as his free hand paddled to keep them afloat.
I should be terrified.
But she wasn’t. Her fear had dissipated like a bad dream does over the course of a day.

There was nothing left but him, holding her body against his in the water. She released her hands from the death grip on his shoulders and moved them back and forth over his smooth dark skin. Had anyone’s skin ever felt so right? She couldn’t remember, couldn’t recall. Of course there hadn’t been any others besides him when it came to touching, but she couldn’t remember exactly what his skin had been like beneath her hands.

She let her eyes follow her fingertips as they made their way up the slope of his neck and over his ear. She trailed them across his short hair. “How do you cut it? It looks just like I remember it.”

“I shave it with a razor. It’s pretty grown out now.” His voice was deeper than moments before, sending a tremor of pleasure rocketing through her body. She wriggled against Gage, wanting to prolong the blissful feeling. Her movement caused her thigh to rub against a thick protrusion between their bodies.

She sucked in a breath at the feel of his bare cock against her skin. She’d seen him undress even if she hadn’t wanted to watch. Or at least, that’s what she told herself. She didn’t want to see his bare body on display before her. But she had been helpless to look away. They’d gather the items she needed from the massive kitchen and she’d followed him out into the yard and walked over to the huge pond. She’d watched the muscles in his back flex as he walked. It was a sin to look that good. It really was. He hadn’t tried for any modesty at all as he’d stripped down to nothing. His tight bare ass flexed in the afternoon sun like a sculpture of some sort of perfect Greek god. His caramel skin stretched tight over thick muscles.

Her body reacted instantly to the previous memory and the brush of his erection sending hot heat pooling between her thighs. A feeling only intensified by the cool water surrounding them.

She looked into his eyes to see that his pupils had dilated and his breathing was coming out in hard jaunty breaths. She kept her eyes on his and moved again. Letting his cock rub against her thigh in a slow deliberate sweep.

“Again.” The word came out of his mouth in a deliberate burst, as if involuntarily spoken. Without saying anything, she obeyed, wanting to feel the hard sensation of him against her, over and over. “With your hand,” he grated out after she had moved against him several times.

She let her hand trail between their bodies, over his wet skin and down to where his cock protruded from between his thighs. She looked down, but could barely see in the dark water.
Dark. Water.
She stared down to where her hand should be. Where she should be able to see it moving, reaching for Gage’s rock hard dick. She could see nothing. He was holding her up in a pond that could be bottomless. It would take nothing for him to just let go and less than minutes before she would be dead, her lungs filled with water to be nothing more.

She sucked in a deep breath and realized how close her head was to the water. She flexed her hand on Gage’s shoulder. “Gage, take me—” Her words died in her throat at the sound of rustling grass near the shore where they came from. With a jerk of her head she saw a jenk approaching the water.

Chapter Nine

The Before

“What the hell are you wearing?”

Eve froze at the sound of her dad’s voice as she entered the kitchen. He should have already left for work.

“Nothing.” She looked down at her feet and moved across the room to the small coat rack where her and Olive hung their backpacks.

“You ain’t just wearin’ nothin’. Come here dammit.” His voice raised an octave and she knew better than to ignore him. She heard footsteps behind her and knew that her sister had come into the room to get her backpack as well. The bus would be there in less than ten minutes.

Eve walked to her dad, who stood up when she approached. She didn’t have to look up at him to know what he looked like. She saw a face so much like his in the mirror each day. He had hair a few shades darker than hers, but their faces could have been identical save for the beard he sported and the lines of age that had come about over the years.

He grabbed her chin and jerked her face up to his. “Are you wearing make-up?” The words were a vicious growl from his throat. She wanted to lie. To tell him that she wasn’t, but it was plain to see that she was. “Where the hell did you get this blasphemous shit?” She’d had it for a long time. She’d found it in the trash when her mom threw the stuff away more than a year ago, when her dad told mom that she looked like a whore with the stuff on.

Eve shrugged her shoulders. She’d only wanted to look pretty for Gage. Ever since he’d smiled at her and told her his name, a month ago, everything had changed. For the first time in her life she looked forward to getting up and going to school. To being alive. Even after she had fallen on her face into a plate of spaghetti, Gage had continued to sit by her.

He seemed to be more talkative that ever before. He would lean over and whisper something funny about Mrs. Smithers’ dress she was wearing or something about the homework and how he didn’t want to do it. Some days he didn’t say anything, but he would smile at her. And that was enough. He was beautiful, perfect, and that day she chose to wear make-up because she decided she wanted him. She wanted him to look at her and see more than the weird girl who lived in a trailer with her occult-like parents.

“I told you not to wear none o’ that stuff, you little whore! If it wasn’t a sin, I would have had your mother abort you!”

The words would seem harsh to anyone else. Not to Eve. She was used to them. He and her mother both told her what an abomination she was on a daily basis.

“You looking for someone to fuck you? Is that what you want? Is that why you have this whore make-up on?”

“Daddy I—” The back of his hand smacked hard across her cheek, killing the words in her mouth and sending her reeling in the opposite direction. Tears sprung to her eyes.

“I don’t wanna hear no excuses from your lying mouth. Take that shit off your face. Now!”

She ran to the bathroom to wash it off. He stood in the doorway while she rubbed her face, trying not to cry. He watched her the whole time, muttering bible verses at her, as if they could save her from the pit of hell he seemed to think she had fallen into.

“He that believeth not shall be damned. Damned!” Was the last thing she heard before boarding the bus. The right side of her face was already starting to swell. She could tell without having to touch it. Olive said nothing to her on the ride to school and Eve offered nothing to her sister.

When she got into her first class, she made sure to pull her hair on each side of her shoulders, especially her left side, to shroud her face from Gage. A glance in the bathroom mirror before first period had proved what she already knew. The right side of her face was swollen and had an ugly purple tint to it.

“All right class, since today is Friday, I’ve decided that we are going to work in partners on a worksheet. If you finish in class, then no homework for the weekend!” Mrs. Smithers’ voice was like a sweet balm. Eve wouldn’t have a problem with this. No one ever wanted to be her partner, so she could work alone quietly and not have to worry about anyone, especially Gage, seeing her face.