Timeline - October November 1st | ( 2 weeks later)

Two...Three...Four...Five...Six

Six times, that tiny strap had slipped down, only for her to discreetly push it back up—a narrow strip of black fabric. They were in the bustling heart of Isadora's business district on that crisp winter afternoon, his girlfriend indulging in her shopping spree.

She had managed to convince him that she needed to expand her wardrobe, and the first time he agreed, he quickly realized she had very expensive tastes that nearly maxed out one of his accounts.

Eko, the little minx, then somehow convinced him, if not a week later, that she needed a new dress for the gala. Attending with him was non-negotiable, especially with the publishing houses relentlessly writing stories about them together.

That's how they ended up in a lingerie boutique. If he was going to spend all this money, he damn well was going to get something he appreciated.

Seven.

The tiny strap had just made another appearance, only to once again be discreetly tucked away. That little piece of material seemed determined to tease him, to tempt him, to test if he would take the public chance.

Eko's outfit was carefully curated to present a casual yet professional appearance. The sleeveless button-up green blouse and khaki pencil skirt she wore perfectly fit the bill. After being photographed in his sweatshirt at the start of their relationship, which was a less than flattering view, Eko made sure that whenever she stepped out in public, especially with her boyfriend, she was impeccably dressed.

For Matthew, that tiny strap ruined the effect. It cast every move she made in an exotic new light, each adjustment of the strap looking completely sexual. What made it worse was that she was holding up some very imaginative lingerie pieces that were fueling his already wild imagination.

When they had first stepped into the shop, Eko kindly reminded him that he had ruined all the lingerie she had brought previously, and she had none left in his room to change into. Matthew had never been opposed to lingerie shopping; she could send him broke for all he cared.

Eight.

The mischievous little strap had made its appearance again, and though Matthew was only half aware of what he was doing, he suspected that Eko knew exactly the effect she was having on him. Crossing the few feet to where she had been examining some finer pieces of lingerie, he pulled her into him.

Kissing her, he let his hands travel to her shoulders. His thumb slipped inside her shirt, lightly playing with both straps. When their eyes met, he could see the desire building in her, matching his own.

Nine.

"Eko if you don't contain that strap, it will come off, and I'll add lingerie shops to the long list of places that I have fucked you in."

She responded with a sultry smile, taking an item from the hanger and sauntering off towards the dressing room.

Ten.

"Add it to the list, babe."

***** *****

"It happened just once! Just once! Who ends up pregnant after one time?" A distressed girl's high-pitched voice echoed through the changing room floor of the store, her sobs uncontrollable. Her friends sat on the sofa beside her, trying to console her.

Eko struggled to remain silent, her hand covering her mouth as she attempted to suppress a giggle at the absurdity of the situation. Her eyes were fixed on the semi-naked man before her, the one she had been making out with, trying to add the lingerie room to the long list of places they had fucked in during their relationship. Everything had been going delightfully well until they were interrupted by the commotion caused by the girls in the shop.

Despite the changing cubicle offering privacy and keeping their presence hidden, with the curtain providing a shield from view, their safety depended on the assistant forgetting about them and focusing on dealing with the dramatic girls and other shoppers in the store.

The woman's distressed voice continued, "Two lines! Look at this, I'm pregnant!" The room stirred with commotion, followed by the sound of a bag being emptied and loud gasps from three other girls.

The nervous assistant returned with a slight intake of breath, and Matthew and Eko could hear the clinking of drinks being set down.

"Great, they're drinking," Matthew muttered, realizing they were now stuck there.

"How many have you taken, Connie!?" one of the girls squealed as the assistant departed to help more customer that had entered her shop.

"Connie?" Eko silently mouthed to Matthew, watching him slowly get dressed. "Why are you putting your pants on?" Then she shook her head vigorously.

The changing room was filled with the sound of sobbing and commotion as the group of girls reacted to their friend's pregnancy test results. Matthew, shook his head, gesturing towards the girls signaling to Eko that they were not going to have sex while a group of girls were comforting their friend who was pregnant.

"Babe," he mouthed to her, shaking his head. "No!"

Eko, undeterred, pointed her finger at him, her expression firm, indicating that she was not about to give up on their moment. She slowly moved away from the wall she had been leaning against and wrapped her arms around his naked waist, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Stop it," he mouthed to her as she cupped his briefs, feeling how ready he still was, but it was Connie's distressed voice that continued. 

"Two lines! Look at this, I'm pregnant!" The room erupted with gasps and exclamations from her friends.

"There are a lot of tests here," another voice remarked, picking up one of the many littered pregnancy tests on the floor.

"Twenty-three! I have taken twenty-three tests! How did this even happen!?" Connie's voice echoed through the changing room, filled with disbelief and frustration.

Eko couldn't help but comment on the absurdity of the situation, her voice just above a whisper. "Is she actually stupid? She had sex." But Matthew silenced her with a finger to her lips, indicating that now was not the time for their banter.

On the other side of the cubicle, the girls gathered around Connie, trying to console her as she cried hysterically over her predicament. 

Again, Matthew was trying to quieten his girlfriend who had only escalated the situation by slipping her hand into his briefs, taking hold of him, stroking him as she started to push him to the edge of delirium with her actions.

"Come," she murmured enticingly into his ear, causing Matthew to battle to steady his breath as she accelerated her rhythm. Yet, his hand swiftly clamped around her wrist, compelling her to halt suddenly.

Eko gazed directly into the eyes of danger, as Matthew's other hand swiftly encircled her throat and thrust her against the solid wall. He aimed to subdue her, and she reveled in it, feeling his tongue invade her mouth as he started to lose control.

Their tongues danced together, entwined passionately, and soon after, he loosened his hold on her throat, abruptly hoisting her thigh to his waist as she willingly curled it around him.

With her panties already discarded when they had begun making out earlier, Eko experienced the sensual fullness of him inside her when he thrusted inside of her. She struggled to suppress her moans as she heard him exhale in bliss, and then he initiated a slow, silent rhythm, moving in and out of her with a tantalizing slowness, making love to her right there in the moment.

A louder moan involuntarily escaped Eko's lips, muffled by his mouth. She was utterly engrossed in the moment, oblivious to the world around her, including the sobbing girls on the other side of the changing room. While Connie's emotional turmoil persisted, Eko was consumed by the escalating pleasure radiating from between her thighs.

"Do we know who the father is?" Someone inquired. "Have we met him?"

"It's just so terribly wrong. I was only there for an away assignment, and he was utterly charming the entire time," Connie responded, her voice laden with regret.

Connie's sobs intensified. "I didn't think it could happen like this. He wasn't even worth the sex. But Spear didn't want to do it."

"Spear?" the girls echoed in unison, their curiosity piqued. "So, who did you do it with?" asked one of the girls in a high-pitched voice.

"Tom," Connie wailed.

Eko and Matthew's eyes widened in surprise upon hearing the name. Eko covered her mouth and with a slight tilt of her head looked at Matthew confused, "are the girls from Allegiant?'"

Matthew's brows furrowed slightly as he struggled to comprehend the news. Tom was only seventeen now, and Connie was in her mid-twenties. Another perplexing aspect was how she even got pregnant, considering that rods preventing pregnancies were issued upon entry into the academy.

"Spear will absolutely lose it," Eko whispered, her gaze locked on Matthew, who pressed himself into her again, causing her to involuntarily gasp under the pleasure.

"I'm about to lose it with you," he muttered, and Eko grinned, withdrawing her hands from his chest, seizing his throat, watching him teeter on the brink. He was so far gone that she had the freedom to do as she pleased with him.

"Go on, fuck me," she challenged him, "keep fucking me until you come, baby."

Matthew didn't need any further encouragement; he thrust into her with more force, and Eko felt his grip on her tighten as he kept up his relentless pace. Overwhelmed by the intense sensations, she lost all sense of direction, catching his moans in her ear as he neared his climax. Against the backdrop of the girls' cries, her body succumbed to the overwhelming intensity, and she reached her peak, wordlessly surrendering to the pleasure.

Matthew covered her mouth with his own, and as she clung to his chest, she could feel his heart racing violently as he maintained his rhythm, climaxing moments later.

She knew she could never get enough of him, of doing it in places like this. As bizarre and obscene as it might seem to anyone else, she would give him anything he ever asked for. She already knew that about herself.

Breathless and gasping for air, Eko stared at him as he smiled. "Matthew," she whispered.

He rested his forehead against hers, gently caressing her cheek with his free hand.

"You make me love my name so fucking much," he said before kissing her desperately, as if his very soul was ablaze at that moment. Matthew knew that the only way to quench that fire was by immersing himself once more in the only woman he had ever loved.

***** *****

Nearly twenty minutes had passed before the girls finally left, their continuous wailing finally subsiding. Matthew then turned his attention back to Eko. Leaning against the wall, his hand across his chest, he drummed his fingers slowly, lost in thought. He couldn't help but admire the temptress seated patiently on the ottoman in the small changing room, playfully twirling the lingerie they had brought in to try on.

Eko's attention shifted to the man staring at her. She leaned back seductively, her eyes tracing the contours of his muscles that bulged through his shirt. The way his shirt stretched across his broad shoulders and defined chest sent a shiver down her spine. He stood casually against the wall, his hand resting on his chest, fingers tapping rhythmically as if deep in thought. His gaze, however, was fixed on her with an intensity that made her heart race. The flicker of a smile played at the corners of his lips, a smile she knew well—one that promised everything and asked for nothing. Her libido did somersaults just looking at him, the air between them charged with unspoken desire.

Then, he moved away from the wall and took a few steps before kneeling before her. The fluidity of his movements, the grace and power he exuded, made her breath catch in her throat.

"What..." she chuckled at his puzzled expression, playfully waving the lingerie she intended to purchase—the entire reason behind their visit to the shop.

"I've never really had to bring this up, considering, you know, the precautions Allegiant takes," Matthew began, gesturing towards the implant in his arm.

Eko knew that Allegiant had access to advanced implantation technology from Mecotec, the same company that produced the soldiers' suits. The Allegiant board had introduced the use of contraceptives at their top academies years ago as part of their strategy to control breeding among soldiers during the war. It was an absolute requirement for those who wanted to maintain their status within the elite ranks.

With Matthew now at the pinnacle of the ranks, Eko raised a suspicious eyebrow, sensing there was more to his statement, she just wasn't quite sure where he was going with it.

"Babe," Eko drawled, her gaze narrowing, "if this is about the earlier incident with the girls, trust me, kids are not even on the agenda," she reassured him with a laugh. "Not in this war, Matthew. Are you worried I'm going to show up one day with all the fucking we do and be like 'oh hey, I'm pregnant'?"

"Well, that won't happen, not with these rods," he said with a grin. "But yeah, if something goes wrong, I mean, we have a lot of sex, Eko. Way more than the average person, which isn't exactly normal." He chuckled as he placed his hands on her thighs, gently stroking them. "I just want to be extra cautious. I don't want to find myself in a situation where you're telling me you're pregnant. I don't want that. I don't want this life for any child. I've seen what it does to them when they come to Allegiant."

Eko leaned in, cupping his cheeks with her palms. "We're good," she reassured him before giving him a brief kiss. "We're on the same page. We're practically still kids, and honestly, I haven't even thought about it much. If we do, it'll be a conversation for later, maybe when we're in our thirties. Or even our fifties. For now, let's just adopt a dog. Babe, we can call her Toastie, and get another one named Marshmallow! Super cute!"

"There will be kids," Matthew laughed, giving her a brief kiss on the lips. "But, like you said, ten years... maybe more." He took a deep breath. "My focus is on ending this war. Keeping you safe."

Eko grinned like a love-sick fool, contentedly watching him relax after another deep breath.

"How about this," she leaned forward, kissing him once, twice, thrice. "Let's just survive our first year together," she mused, biting her lip, her eyes darting between his. "See if we kill each other or not, then go from there. And maybe we can test our parental skills with a dog or something. A mini dog called Toastie."

Matthew chuckled, then kissed her with all the love and passion he felt for the woman in his arms. "Come on, didn't you say Madison was waiting for you at Grind and Co on the corner of Seventh? I need to head that way anyway for my back-to-back meetings. I should be at those, but instead, I'm here with you."

"Here you are with me, baby," she winked, grinning up at him. "Besides, what's five more minutes with your favorite person in the world, huh? We're already late anyway." Eko laughed, her heart light and full as she lost herself in a flurry of kisses from the man she loved more than anyone else in her world. In that moment, surrounded by his warmth and love, she felt a profound happiness she hadn't known was possible. 

And maybe, just maybe, a few dogs and some imaginary children weren't so far out of reach these days. The future felt bright and boundless, filled with endless possibilities and the promise of a lifetime together. So what would it hurt to imagine a life where they got to grow old together with a family of their own?