AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Was it worth it?”
I take another drink and admit, “Yeah. Totally worth it. It’s amazing.”
And so is he.
In his sweaty, dirty ruggedness, he’s more attractive than I’ve ever seen him. Shirtless, with messy hair. Mud smeared on his skin. An ax is hanging from his belt. He hasn’t shaved since we got here, and the dark hair growing on his face makes him look like a woodsy guy. A hot lumberjack.
The prong marks on his neck are scabbed over and healing, and I lick my lips when I think about reopening the wounds with my own teeth.
“Stop looking at me like that, Hannah,” Ellister says sternly, going over to the sink basin to splash water on his face. With wet drops dripping from his face, he attempts a half-assed sneer as he forms his adorable nose wrinkle. “We need at least ten feet between us.”
“Ten feet?” I parrot with disbelief. His rules are getting more and more ridiculous, and he’s just making them up as we go along.
“That’s right,” he says, stoic. “Back up.”
He does a shooing motion with his hand, and my feelings are actually hurt from his harshness. With his gruff voice and his cold mask of indifference, he mimics the Ellister I met in my almost-memories. So unfeeling.
He’s got a great poker face. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he doesn’t have any affection for me at all.
But I do know better.
I know him, and I can sense his sadness through the bond.
Nostalgia sweeps through me when I think about our first couple days here on the farm. We’d been so happy. For a very short time, we had it all. We were free to touch each other as much as we wanted. We thought our biggest obstacle was fixing a damn chicken coop.
My soul misses Ellister’s, and my heartbeat stutters, giving a few erratic thumps while a pain shoots through my chest.
That’s the mate bond, not the illness. On some instinctual level, I can tell the difference between the various pains I’m having.
Taking two steps back, I lean my hip on the counter. “You’re breaking my heart, you know.”
Ellister huffs, frustrated. “I’m aware.”
“What if we fucked just one more time?” I tempt.
“Can’t risk it.” Putting his back to me, Ellister dries his face and pats his torso with a small towel.
“We could make it a super quickie.”
“No.”
I deflate with disappointment. I realize I’m walking myself right into the rejection, but every single denial from him feels like a physical blow.
I walk forward, breaking the ten-foot standard, and softly ask, “What if one more time is all we have?”
Meaning, what if this Glow thing doesn’t work? This whole project is a gamble based on a blind witch’s sketch that Ellister tried to recreate in the dirt with a stick outside. I don’t have a lot of facts to go on.
Turning around, Ellister glares at me. “Don’t. Don’t you dare give in to the hopelessness already. That’s just part of the illness—it’s supposed to make you feel like you’re doomed, but you’re not.”
“I’m just being realistic. Even if I can make the Glow correctly—and that’s a bigif—it will take days to produce it. I can’t go that long without touching you. Every second I’m away from you is worse than dying. Existing without you… it’s nothing. I have nothing.”
“I’m still here, Hannah.”
“My soul doesn’t care if the difference is ten feet or a thousand miles. All I know is that I’m in pain, and you can make it better. Don’t make me suffer more than I have to.”
Deciding to try nudity again, I tug on the ribbon over my chest. When the knot cinching the neckline of my nightgown comes undone, the cream fabric slides off my shoulders, exposing my breasts.
Ellister’s eye twitches as he gazes at my body with unabashed hunger, and his tongue darts out to wet his lips when his focus pauses on the mark where he bit me on the outer part of my left breast. My own pulse speeds up, syncing with his increasing rhythm.
