He narrowed his eyes on her cigarette. Oh, he wanted to scold her, and if they were on their way to somewhere normal, he probably would have pulled out his preachology. Instead, he smirked and dictated the rules. Listening to him practice the loathsome words, knowing he was doing it for her, made her want him with a ferocity that burned the backs of her eyes and swallowed her destination.
He repeated the twelve requirements with fewer and fewer errors, until he relayed them perfectly. His body molded to the words, his chin dropping, thighs opening, no hint of resistance in his voice. She knew he wasn’t losing himself. He was acclimating. For her.
Her body heated and tightened. He was the strength and heart of the most dangerous jump. He was the soul of bravery wrapped in chains. He would never fall, no matter how much metal weighted him down. He was a man who loved selflessly and honestly, and she was taking him to a monster who would slice him open and fuck the incision.
She gripped the wheel with two fists, unable to steer off course, unable to save him from herself.
An hour into the drive, flat fields tumbled into the scattered tower blocks of Austin.
“I grew up here.” Her voice sounded distant to her ears. Memories could tear her apart, but they were there, gathering in the clouds that hovered over the metropolis. “Just a few miles that way.”
He turned to face her. “What was your childhood like?”
“Spent a lot of time up there.” She pointed at the blue sky that spanned beyond the reinforced concrete and steel. “When I wasn’t at school, I was jumping with Mom.” She smiled past the burn in her throat. “I used to sing to the first-time jumpers. Mom said it calmed them, but it’s so noisy on the plane—”
“Sing to me.” His gentle tone competed with the hard set of his jaw.
She wanted to, desperately needing the distraction. She began with “Pretty Face” by Sóley, letting the misty notes rise to her lips and carry them out of her hometown.
When she hummed the song to a close, he regarded her as a lover might, affection softening his eyes and lips, his shoulders curling forward as if reaching toward her.
“Gives me chills, Liv. Every damned time. Your beauty isn’t just an experience for the eyes. It breathes through the ears and evokes a reaction so consummating it claims the soul.”
Her boot slipped off the gas pedal. She regained her footing but not her voice. It was flattened somewhere beneath her galloping heart.
“I can feel you.” He leaned back, inhaled deeply. “Inside me. Everywhere. You own me. You will always own me, and I will walk through hell to keep it that way.”
Eyes on the road, her breath shivered from her lungs, cracking her voice. “You own me, too.”
“I know.” He pinned her with those mesmerizing pale eyes. “Sing another one.”
She shuffled through her favorite atmospheric tunes, serenading him, drawing out every minute they were side by side, beyond the prison walls, speeding in the same direction.
An hour south of San Antonio, her phone buzzed in her lap. They both jumped and stared at one another until it buzzed again. She lifted it to her ear.
“Take 85 west toward Asherton.” The buyer’s voice was suave, smooth, and thick with a Latino accent. “There’s an abandoned railway station.” He gave the address and disconnected.
She entered it into the GPS. “One hour away.” And minutes from the Mexican border.
How easy it would be to disappear. She could toss the phone Mr. E tracked her on. Maybe he wouldn’t try to find her. But she couldn’t escape the news coverage. His promise to punish her with national headlines of Mattie’s death made her hands shake. Her fingers turned to ice on the steering wheel.
Josh’s gaze was tangible, pressing into her skin. “You okay?”
“It’s just a meet and greet.” She angled her head to see his sharp expression. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Muscles contracted in his arms as he tried to pull his hands from his chest. “I can’t repeat those words to you, Liv. Not when I can’t use my arms.”
“You don’t need your arms. Focus on the requirements and remember to hate me.”
He reclined in the seat and stared at the roof. “Right.”
An hour later, she stopped a mile outside the GPS destination on a vacant gravel road. “Bathroom break.”
She released her nervous bladder into the dust-covered weeds. Then she pushed down his jeans and held his cock so he could do the same. No words were uttered when he returned to his seat in the van, when she unlaced and removed his boots, or when she stripped his jeans and left him bare.
With a tremble in her hands and an ache in her chest, she covered his trusting eyes with a black hood. “This is for both of us.” An accidental glance between them could be fatal if the buyer was perceptive.
As she stepped back to close the door, she hesitated for one heart-clenching second. She didn’t deserve him, but goddammit, Joshua Carter was hers.
The black shroud of night held still and patient, coaxing her to risk a stolen moment. She climbed onto his naked thighs and lifted the hood just enough to expose his lips.
The first kiss was for him. A brushing of lips, a promise of protection. The second kiss was for her. A deep-reaching dance of her selfish tongue, a curl of love with a man who deserved so much more.
She lowered the hood, slid off his lap, and left him panting.
“Liv?”
“The requirements begin now. Who am I? Say it.”
“Mistress.”
She shut the door on the hiss of his breath through his teeth, wrapped her hair, nose, and mouth in a long scarf, and drove to the red dot on the GPS.
A single story building squatted, tired and alone, beside overgrown railroad tracks. Surrounded by shadowed fields and woods, no one would stumble by this
