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I sigh into her neck. She’s so small compared to me I have to bend around her. I’d forgotten how small she is. When we’re in bed together, she doesn’t seem so small. When she’s beneath me, her pussy squeezing me tight, she’s the perfect size for me.
God. I missed her.
“Come on,” she says, and she takes my hand. She leads me toward the stairs.
Carefully, holding onto the railing and her, I pad down to the main level of the house. “Where are we going?”
“The game room,” she says. “There shouldn’t be anyone in there. We can curl up together and talk.”
“Sounds perfect.” Sometimes, I’m convinced this woman can read my mind. Since the very beginning, she’s surprised me with an uncanny ability to understand me. Like that time the others returned from the scavenge to find a woman in our midst. She could have chosen any of them to take to her bed. But she chose me. Even though I’d been a royal jerk. I don’t even understand myself, sometimes. But Cora does. Up until now, I’ve taken that miracle for granted. No more.
A sense of hearing is an incredible thing. It picks up more than just audible sounds. It picks up what I can only describe as pressure changes. I can tell when we move through a doorway. The air shifts, and I instinctively know we’ve gone from one open space through a narrow passage and into a different open space.
Cora leads me to a leather couch, and she tugs me down to sit beside her. Then I’m covered with a thickly woven blanket. Cora lifts the blanket and snuggles into my side, and I gather her close, both arms going around her.
My chest relaxes for what seems the first time since back in that bomb shelter deep in the bowels of our mountain. That time I made sweet love to her all afternoon long.
I help her arrange the blanket to cover us both, and I kiss the top of her head. “Thank you,” I tell her.
“For what?” Her voice is small and sleepy, but she sounds happy to be with me.
“For not telling me to get lost.”
She tips her face up to me. “You were lost for over a week. I never want to lose you again.” Her voice hitches at the end, and I hold her tighter. She’s holding me, too, clinging to me.
“I never want to lose you, either,” I admit.
She sniffles.
“Anyway,” I say. “I’m sorry to wake you.”
“It’s okay. I’ll always pick you over sleep.”
I can’t even describe how good it feels to hear her say that. This woman has so much love to give, even after all she’s been through. Even after all my bullshit.
For a while, I just hold her and feel gratitude. My body relaxes in stages, and I think I could fall asleep finally, if Cora stays with me.
“How’s Hope?” I ask. I should probably feel guilty for stealing Cora away from the girl. I’ve been paying attention. The two of them have been practically inseparable since our return from New Orleans.
“She’s good. I don’t think we woke her up.”
“Will she be all right without you?” I don’t know Hope’s story other than overhearing that she was hiding among those zombie things and that her sister was one of them. Must have been a shitty existence. I bet the girl has demons that make her grateful to have a friend to sleep beside.
“She’s strong,” Cora says. “Like, really strong. She’ll be fine without me. I probably need her more than she needs me. I’ve gotten so used to sleeping beside someone.”
“Seven someones,” I say, remembering my talk with Ghost earlier today. I still can’t help feeling guilty for pushing Cora into closeness with all of us. Her brother claimed it provided structure for Cora, safety. She needed rules to follow and a place to belong, and I gave her that. That’s all well and good, but I was heavy-handed about it.
“I shouldn’t have been so hard on you when you came to us,” I say. “Throwing seven men at you was shitty of me, and I’m sorry. I’m sorry I did that to you Cora. At least, I’m sorry about the way I did it.”
“I’m not,” she says, and she does something that melts my heart. She reaches up and strokes my face with a gentle hand. “You were firm and commanding and a little scary, and I needed that. If you’d treated me with kid gloves, I don’t think you would have been able to get through to me. I was in a dark place. I needed someone stronger than the darkness to pull me out.”
Wow. Fucking, wow. This woman.
Just when I think she can’t possibly surprise me any more, she comes up with something like that.
“I just wish I could be as strong as you need right now.” Her voice is small and uncertain. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been through, Jud. If you feel anything like I did when I was Leon’s prisoner—just—” She breaks off with a sniffle. “I mean, they took your eyes! Who does that? That’s sick and twisted and it must have been so painful. I know I’m not strong enough to bring you back from that. I know I’m not. But maybe the others are. Maybe if we all show you how much we love you—”
I cup her face and bring my mouth down on hers. I steal her words with a kiss. I mean to be gentle, but as soon as my closed lips meet hers and taste tears, I’m a goner. My body remembers this. Cora’s taste. Her smell. Her small body melting trustingly against mine. I open to her, and she accepts my tongue. More than accepts it. She tangles with me, and she moans as if I’m her favorite food and she hasn’t gotten any since before Week Zero.
