'So we're slaves to any semblance of touch

Lord we should quit but we love it too much'

"You two are incorrigible!" Spencer sighed, the stern look in his brown eyes making me look down at the gun he was putting back in my hand. "How many times do I have to tell you I'm not taking this gun?"

"It's not me this time."

What a supportive boyfriend! Blade threw his hands up, his typical unaffected smirk playing on his lips and not even wavering at my sideway glare before I focused on Spencer again.

"It's just in case..." Like a curse in the gloomy night, I didn't dare speak the words out loud.

But Spencer did, and although he tried to put them smoothly, the what-if still lingered heavily in the thick fog around. "In case I get caught, it's better if I don't have a gun.

"And I'm alone," he added, his gaze sliding to Blade as I was opening my lips to suggest the second most dangerous weapon here.

I knew we'd already talked about it before, and that it was better, if Billy was still at the newspaper, for Spencer to be alone; that way he could convince him more easily than if he was with a 'wanted murderer'. Besides, they would have never wanted to leave me waiting alone.

However, all of that was before, before I'd messed up once more.

"The plan is simple. I'm fine."

That's not what it looked like when Spencer glanced at the dirt road – or at least, at the few meters we would glimpse through the fog – and his nod leaned more toward a 'no', the black of his clothes only accentuating the dark circles under his eyes and the mess of his curls, just like the Cadillac's headlights were illuminating the shakes of his hand on the handle of the dark Chevy as he opened the car door.

I could feel these wavers until my chest, and as a numbness started to spread there too, I dreaded that his paralyzing fears were already invading him.

So I did the only thing I'd ever known when those happened. My hand reached for his, turning him to me and intertwining our fingers in our unique handshake until the simple movements were replacing the wavers and setting the rhythm of his breathing, and then, I pulled him into a hug, making sure no freezing shiver could get to him.

Though as he breathed out a shallow sigh in my hair, and his strong frame held me like he was about to crumble down, I was the one paralyzed with powerlessness and... regret.

I didn't regret my decision of yesterday. On the contrary, this hug was confirming it because, even if there was a lot of love from the warmth of his arms to the soothing shapes my hands were drawing on his back, there wasn't that irresistible attraction. I loved him as my best friend, and that was all.

For the past 24 hours, I could notice the difference acutely. But the truth was that it hadn't happened overnight.

Those butterflies of desire I'd always felt with his touch when we'd been dating, they had evaporated slowly over the past months, maybe burned down beside the fierce electricity of a shooting star being drawn to her evil genie, or maybe it was just the ephemerality of their nature.

Whatever it was, I'd turned a blind eye on them, on the billion times Blade's lips had crossed my mind, while Spencer's hadn't, and on the evident opposite rhythms of my heart between them, fooling them and myself to believe it was because of how different they were, and not how different my feelings for them were.

Once more, if I had just opened my eyes and faced everything sooner, everything would have been easier, and his tender chocolate eyes wouldn't have been puffy and broken for the moment when they had to stay wide open and on the lookout for any danger.

Yes, that was what I really regretted as Spencer pulled away, and before another regret could anchor itself down my chest forever, I tugged on his hand and asked in a whisper,

"Promise me that in case... you'll say you were forced."

At least, his pale and tired face could support this argument, and that was the only thing that allowed my grip on his hand to loosen and let him go, along with his two words.

"I promise..." He kissed my forehead and finally got in the car, not sparing me another glance until the ignition was on, and his gaze dived into mine through the open window. "... That everything will be alright."

With that, he pushed on the accelerator, and the car disappeared before I could protest. Well, it was Spencer, so he was still driving carefully, but that was how thick the fog was, and not only in the air around, apparently.

"Did he... trick me?" I blinked, my large eyes traveling between the faint lights growing farther and dimmer on the horizon and Blade's lifted eyebrow.

"Looks like it," he replied, his lips dipping down for a shrug and too quickly coming back in his taunting smirk. "I guess our outlaw lessons are paying off. We're slowly corrupting him."

"That's not funny!"

Indeed, there was nothing funny in this situation, though a grin was still tickling my lips, and I swatted him before he could add another sly remark.

"You're an idiot."

"An idiot that loves you."

Dorothea... you should really be more careful about the words you choose.

I couldn't even count how many times Blade had repeated this already in the past 24 hours. He had taken my words literally again, and he was making sure I could hear his 'I love you' every day, several times a day, in fact.

Though I would never get tired of the smooth rolling syllables, contrasting with the usual sharp curses escaping his sinful lips, neither of the way his touches always followed to prove it. Like in this instant, where his arms wrapped around my chest, pulling my back against his strong and warm torso while his lips sneaked to the small slit of skin my scarf wasn't covering.

He was a man of action, after all.

"Let's get inside. It's cold here," he rasped, making me shudder, but oh, it wasn't from cold as his voice vibrated like a fuse on my skin, and his hands glided down to my belly, outlining its roundness through my coat and engulfing it in even more heat.

All these sparks... the sparks I hadn't felt in Spencer's embrace...

"We have at least two hours ahead of us."

Another shiver ran through my body, but it was for another reason as I stared in the direction where I'd got the last glimpse of the black car, where now, there was only a white nothingness engulfing the dirt road and even the tall trees around.

Everything was too still, including us, and I didn't like it. Yet I could do nothing to change it, only wait until...

"At least two hours?" I tilted my head back, my gaze searching for a glimmer of light, not in the sky though, as the same white thickness was swallowing the stars.

But I still found twinkles to dazzle me in Blade's blue eyes.

"Yes, at least two hours 'cause it's a one-hour drive to Subrose from here, and I don't think Mr. Goodie-two-shoes will ever be outlaw enough to break the driver's manual, will he?"

No. I shook my head, though still not moving from my comfortable position as I tried to make the calculations, searching for answers in the depths of crystalline.

One hour of drive, plus about 30 minutes if we counted the fog and Spencer's nervousness. It was already one hour and a half to arrive at Subrose. Then, he had to get to the center, park somewhere discreet, sneak into the old building, and put the article on Billie's messy desk, which could easily take up the two hours, and there was more to consider in the equation. Three hours? Four?

I was still counting when Blade started to walk backward, pulling me with him, as he was close enough to do so and close enough to read through my eyes that I wouldn't be moving.

Only my thoughts were racing... Four hours? Five?... 24 hours? What if Spencer still wasn't back by then?

We hadn't set a time limit, but implicitly, it had been agreed – despite my protests – that if at any point, the 'plan didn't work', like at war, we would retreat back to the cabin and possibly get away forever, not looking back at the ones we would leave on the battlefield.

That was why I wasn't ready to turn around as Blade stopped by the Cadillac, and although his gaze wasn't on mine anymore as he pulled away to open the back door, he could still read my mind.

"Baby, don't worry. He'll be back, and probably sooner than I'd like." His sarcastic tone was sharp enough to cut through the possible what-ifs of never seeing Spencer again and finally make me move.

Okay, my gaze still lingered one last time on the empty road, narrowing at the dense fog, but Blade waited patiently, one of his hands grabbing the gun I was still gripping, while the other brushed along my arm to melt away any cold chill.

"He promised it'll be alright, didn't he?" he added, incredibly patient, especially considering that just a few months ago they'd tried to kill each other, and the situation wasn't easy for him either.

Yet he understood. He'd understood last night when we'd walked back inside the cabin, and I'd gone to check on Spencer with a bag of chocolates. He'd understood my sobbing gibberish when I'd come back down the stairs with the untouched packet, and he'd held me through the night, soothing me just by his presence and the branch tattoos he'd let me trace until I'd fallen asleep, and I didn't even have to say it again as we settled in the back seat, and my worried eyes met his piercing ones in the darkness. I'd broken the heart of my best friend, and now, he was taking all those risks because of me.

Blade was still understanding. Though tonight, it was in a more wicked way that he was offering me his hand to distract me as his skilled fingers helped me take off my coat and scarf in the warm and confined space, and the branch inks dawdled on their trail.

"And until then..." His lips brushed above my left ear, letting me feel the Cheshire cat's smile slowly stretching, and with it, the streak of sparking powder arising on my skin. "I have a few ideas to kill the time..."

And make me forget.

The offer was there, along with all the bad intentions, from the tip of his fingers tickling my hips to the corner of his grin as I pulled away to stare at him, and I wasn't sure why I sounded so surprised.

"Now? Here?" I glanced around at the blurry darkness we could glimpse through the windows like to remind him we weren't here on a date.

We were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by what could have resembled the setting of a horror movie, on the border of a deserted road, in a stolen car, waiting for Spencer – technically, my ex-boyfriend – to come back from an illegal break-in. Oh, and we were 'wanted murderers'.

Yet even if it was all kinds of wrong, my gaze was quickly coming back to his devious smile, where everything felt so right, even romantic... magical.

"Yes, right here. Right now."

Just like that, with a twitch of his magnetizing grin, my evil genie switched the warmth of the car compartment into something out of this world, with no gravity, the flutters in my legs so light, no pressure of the time ticking, only the thumps of our hearts, and no cold shiver. Everything was burning as he left slow, tantalizing kisses along my jaw, murmuring like a magical formula,

"I've been dreaming about you in the back of this car since the moment you chose it, and baby... I have so many plans." He ended his dangerous trail of words and kisses above my parted mouth, one millimeter away, and I knew the second our lips would touch, the spell would be sealed.

Who was I kidding? I was already bewitched before the swell of my smile even grazed his and I whispered, "You're crazy... and I love you."

Then, I just let him turn me into a fusing mess as my hands reached for the back of his neck to pull him fully to me, along with all his bad intentions and plans.

Through intent caresses, hungry nips, and soft flicks, it was like he was exposing each one of them on my lips, and although they were catching my breath, I gladly welcomed them, parting my mouth for more and meeting each stroke of his tongue.

In no time, what had started as a slow kiss grew into something way more sinful, the bad intentions spreading to our fingers taking greedy grips, to our bodies swaying swiftly until he was caging my small arching figure, and to the hoarse sounds mixing between our lips.

And as if it hadn't been spelled out thoroughly on my lips and in every sparking nerve-ending of my body, he added as soon as he pulled away,

"Yes, hearing you moaning 'I love you' while you come again and again is on the list."

Still dazed, I opened my eyes to be met by the hypnotizing crystalline, darker and wilder than ever, yet so serious at the same time. Along with the strands of dark hair I'd just messed and his reddened lips, the contrast pulled me a giggle.

"You're really crazy!"

The laugh didn't last long though, getting lost in a shallow breath as a sparkle of challenge lit up in his ravenous gaze, and he leaned away to take off his jacket.

And he didn't stop there. He swiftly slid off his sweater too until he was left in only his tight white tank top, stretching his neck and rolling his shoulder like every time we were making a bet, and with his 6 feet tall figure in the backseat of this convertible, it was quite a sight.

Yet he didn't appear the least bothered by the lack of room, taking up all the narrow space, every inch of air invaded by his dark aura until even the corner where I was uselessly trying to straighten as his gaze and his wolfish grin were fixed there, on his prize.

That was when I knew I was screwed because I could easily win with a gun, a fishing rod, or even a pool stick, but against his deviously talented fingers and his evil genie powers?

He was already winning when his eyebrows flashed up, heightening the dizzying blue.

"And?"

And I could feel the moans climbing up my throat, like the tingling in all my nerves as he leaned closer again, his fingers feather-likely grazing the top of my knees and slowly inching higher.

The movement was almost innocent – at least, in comparison with his usual wicked ways – and so light through the fabric of my black pants. But the zings of electricity were still passing and gathering between my thighs, and when he finally reached there, not even the barrier of my clothes could prevent the moans from escaping my lips.

He'd barely touched me, not even skin-to-skin, and yet I was already slipping into an exhilarating euphoria, every cell in my body buzzing with the desire that had been brewing for months.

Every sensation was magnified. Every sense was overwhelmed.

I could take in the earthy thickness of wood of his scent and even the faintest nuances of vanilla in every urgent whiff of the heated air I breathed in, and every deep exhale of his resonated on my skin. His gaze felt as heavy as a touch on every inch of my body it crossed. As for the real touch of his fingers, still cupping my heat and pressing vigorously in all the right places, it was electrifying.

I wasn't sure if it was an effect of the pregnancy hormones or the almost touches, the withheld fantasies, the irresistible pull I'd tried to fight, and all the love of the past months. But it had been unleashed the second I'd pronounced my choice, and now, nothing could stop this rush of desire running in my veins. Not even my conscience, my shyness, or my unsure balance as I yanked him to me again and jumped on his lips.

I needed more of him, his inner taste, deeper than the sweet gum flavor and bitter coffee, his velvety skin and taunt muscles underneath the layers of clothes, and that was where my fingers and nails were going for, tugging at the hem of his tank, while my tongue was taking advantage of his surprise to slip through the O of his mouth.

"Fuck... Shooting star," he grunted, the syllables rumbling from the depths of his chest to even farther in my core, passing by where I was sucking on his upper lip, as my fierce gestures were driving him wilder, which spurred me more.

We were like two flames dancing together. We couldn't know who was fueling and driving the other; we were just fusing together until we were a tangling mess.

Though in our frenzy of feverish kisses and rushed movements, he was still so careful towards my baby bump, his fingers switching to an extreme gentleness as they undid the zipper by my hips and worked under my belly button, and his head dipping down to make sure he wasn't resting any weight there as he placed his knees on either side of me.

That made everything even fiercer in me: the thumps of my heart, the desire melting in my core, and my lips as it was the perfect angle to trail languorous kisses along his tattoos, from the slender snake to the handle of the gun, and I would have continued my descent if he hadn't grasped my chin, crashing his lips on mine again.

It seemed we couldn't get enough of each other's lips, tongue, and taste, and although messily, our mouths kept finding each other, breaking apart only to collide harder.

He pulled away to roll down my stretch pants. We kissed hungrily. I gasped out as his fingers found my heat with nothing in the way. We kissed desperately. He muttered a 'so wet and warm for me' at the corner of my lips. We kissed fervently. I leaned away to take off the sweater suffocating me...

We kissed, again and again and again until I was left with only my bra, not even oxygen in my lungs, and he... well, he was still wearing that smug smile, just more swollen and that sparkle of challenge as he opened his drunk eyes and dragged his mouth lower down my neck.

He hadn't forgotten his bad intention, and he wouldn't have wanted anything to muffle the sound of my moans. He was even coaxing them out, tracing every sensitive spot on my neck and shoulders with his lips, his breaths, his tongue, and his teeth.

"Blade!" I arched, my head tilting back as everything was dizzying: the moans rushing up, the desire surging down, and in between, all my nerves whirling with sparks.

The only thing unwavering was his gaze, pinning mine from the edge of my cleavage and silently daring me to look him in the eyes while I came and pronounced the three words. He knew how close they were on the tip of my tongue. He could feel how tight the clenches of my core were as his fingers dipped there, curling deep inside me.

"Blade... I..."

His smile was already widening victoriously, teasing me with more tingles, literally, as his light one-day stubble grazed the soft flesh overspilling from my too-tight bra, and my hands flew to his messy strands, trying to hold on to something. Though maybe I was just bringing forward my downfall, as it pulled him closer to my sensitive breasts; his grin, his tongue, and his teeth, which he used to tug down the satiny fabric there.

All of this, while he still kept his gaze on mine, unblinking, and the rhythm of his fingers, unrelenting, waiting.

"Blade I... love..."

I was right there, one word away, one stroke of that deep, swollen spot away, the anticipation building to an unbearable point as everything tightened, from my fists in his hair to the thrumming pressure outside and inside, and I panted, bracing myself for the explosion, and just to have any oxygen to form the words.

Yet the air didn't get to reach my lungs when his fingers slammed deep inside my core, and his thumb joined on my pulsating clit, and his other hand groped my breast, and his lips wrapped around my right peak. It wasn't just one trigger; it was four – five, if we counted the wild look in his eyes – and an infinity of bangs in my body, annihilating any coherent thought and blowing out my breath.

I had no idea how the words even made it out of my open and dry lips in a loud moan, but like the jerks of my hips against his fingers, I had no control over them.

"Blade, I love you! Oh yes, yes... I love you..."

He was the one pulling them out with every brush of his fingers and every swirl of his tongue until the 'I love yous' tumbled one after the other, and in between, he was just above to hear the echo in my heart.

In fact, my whole body was throbbing with those words, each of my cells humming them, and from the low curses he muttered on my swollen breast and the hardness I felt rubbing against my thigh, I guessed he was enjoying his triumph, savoring each breathless 'I love you' I was still chanting like a prayer, while he was making sure I was basking in each burst of ecstasy like the grande final of a firework.

Actually, he kept going even after each little explosion of colors, when the sparks were slowly floating back down and sinking into my bones, and I could feel the burn from the back of my dry throat to the sensitive points he was still titillating, his movements never stopping.

He slowed down, but never stopped, and when his teeth tugged at my swollen peak before releasing it and biting down the bottom of his devious smile, I understood why.

There was a second part to his bad intention, and the fierce sting traveling down to my core was there to remind me, almost as much as his teasing dimple heading down the same way.

He wanted to hear me moan 'I love you' while I came again and again, and the grande finale he'd just made me experience, it wasn't fireworks, where the sparks fell back down aimlessly in the sky before disappearing. No, he was an evil genie, doing magic.

"Yeah, baby, I'm crazy," he replied to my gasp and the shock probably written all over my flushed face as I realized the soft burn of his caresses was him fusing all those sparks of ecstasy into thicker desire, and he was slowly gathering it under his lips as they traced open-mouthed kisses down my belly.

I was already getting swept under when he reached his destination and added, "For you."

The two words vibrated on my pulsing nerves, shooting straight to my heart to then, rush back to my core when he flattened his tongue against my clit, his whole mouth quickly replacing the skilled work of his fingers, which he used to hold my hips as I writhed at the back and forths of desire and pleasure going through my body.

I couldn't even tell up from down anymore, the tingles teeming from my tiptoes to my core, from my chest to even the roots of my hair, while the need was spinning faster in between.

My only point of reference was still the piercing blue of his gaze, though it was becoming harder and harder to keep my eyes from rolling back under the maddening circles of his tongue. When his teeth swirled in the middle of it all, not even my tight grip on his hair could hold me back, my whole body starting to shake with the intensity.

This time, there was no warning, no countdown, just a 'that's it, Shooting star', and the pleasure crashed through me. Everything was faster, stronger, and more intense: the ripples of sparking euphoria in my veins and the words as I cried out,

"Oh my– Blade, I love you!"

I just got time to catch a glimpse of his dazed eyes widening through the flutters of my eyelids before they pinched closed in pleasure. Though behind my closed lids, I could still see these darkening crystalline shades as I was getting lost in a whirlwind of blue bliss, my whole being dissolving into it until I was a mess of trembling limbs, curled in a messy position.

Still, I couldn't care less about the strain in my neck and whatever was digging into my lower back as I was floating, each of my cells still wrapped in deep blue clouds of euphoria, and all I could focus on were his softening lips and the brushes of his thumbs around my hips.

I could have stayed in this high forever, and I wasn't completely back on earth when his slow kisses climbed up the opposite way they'd deviously descended, shooting fluttering aftershocks in my still trembling limbs.

"Fuck, it's the hottest thing I've ever heard!" he breathed out, sounding as dazed as I was – almost, because he still had enough oxygen to form words and mischievous innuendos. "Your love tastes so sweet."

I wasn't sure how, when, and why I slowly opened one heavy eyelid, but I regretted it instantly when the first thing I caught was his sly grin glistening with my arousal, and his tongue swirling around his long fingers. This sight alone – without even taking into account his purring hum – was more sinful than everything I'd just felt, and I was swept away in an even more blissful blue as my eyes met his for a second, before he made me taste my love. Our love.

Mingled with the contrasting savor of his lips and the languid caresses of his smile, it was becoming ours, an intoxicating mix that pulled me a faint moan.

"You're crazy," I muttered between his kisses, trying to catch up with him and just catch my breath.

Though I quickly gave up both, sighing and melting into a lazy smile, which he kept pecking and nibbling, as even after all the tricks they'd done, his swollen lips didn't seem tired, and they still held so many bad intentions...

"And?" It wasn't even a question at this point. He'd already conquered this challenge, my shaky and spent body standing as a proof and a prize.

However, it had only been the first 'plan' on his list, and his deepening dimple announced nothing but trouble. I surely should have been scared, instead of finding the dark twinkles in his eyes promising. I surely should have run, instead of pulling his strong body closer.

Yet I was crazy too, and...

"Make love to me, please."

CLIFFHANGER!! 😱🙈 It's not a surprise at this point, but Dorothy already came twice, we need a small break before next chapter 😏😅

Also, yes, they've jumped on each other as soon as the poor Spencer was away. Did you expect something else? They're crazy and incorrigible as Spencer said, and that's why we love them 😉!

Blade is the best to make us forget! 😈😍

I hope you liked this chapter, and if so, don't forget to vote ⭐ and comment all your thoughts in the comments!

PS: Sorry for the wait, but I'm a little slow these days to write, and I guess it's because I'm not ready to let my babies go, knowing there are less than 5 chapters left 😭