Page 171 of Feed Your Fiends

“You said you’d do anything for me.” I bite my lip to stop it from trembling uncontrollably again. “I didn’t believe you.”

“Anything. Everything. I told you, if I can just have you, if you can just love me, I can bear everything else.”

Guilt racks me so hard that I keel over, slumping against his chest, unable to hold myself up any more. Before I can scramble to get off of him, he grips the back of my neck, holding me tight against him. Like a puppet master, he turns my head, forcing me to look at him. We’re so close, his eyelashes can practically graze mine, and I free-fall into those endless tunnels.

“This is our new beginning, Dove. No one will ever keep you away from me again because I’ve won. The game was never against you but against whoever opposed us. You were wrong when you said I needed Bart for my future. I just needed his apex position, and now that I’ve ascended into his place, who on earth can oppose me? I’ve burst this bubble that’s consumed you since we met. I told you I won’t have any barriers between us.” He draws me closer for a kiss, my lips are parted, unable to kiss him back, so he sucks on my tongue instead, sucking me back to reality. “And I meant it.”

“No barriers?You fuck without condoms?” Hale asks dreamily, worming his way closer to Gant’s head as he snuggles into the pillows, and I freeze, my spine ramrod straight.

“I’ve never been in love enough to trust the other person,” Zedd says, nestled at the other side of Gant’s head. His and Hale’s fingers are laced over Gant’s heart, checking that it’s beating.

I’d forgotten all about them. I’d only had eyes for Gant, but they seem to need their underworld leader as much as I do.

“That seems so intimate. So special,” Hale says contemplatively.

“It is,” Gant says, tracing my lips with his thumb. “And I trust Elle with my life. It’s at her pretty little fingertips.”

I shake my head furiously and lean into his touch. “Don’t you ever put your life in my palms like that ever again.”

“Too late,” he pulls me down for another kiss, and this time I can actually kiss him back. “I’m at your disposal.”

Kiss.

“And at your Mercy.”

Kiss.

“Forever.”

Elle

I peel my tits away from Gant’s bare chest. We’re both sweaty despite the chill of the room.

I’d given in to his skin-to-skin contact beneath the blankets for the past six hours. He swore my nipples tickling his would reinvigorate him as my energy transferred into him nip to nip. More like comforted him enough to ease back into a peaceful slumber. The first hour, he’d had a gridlock on me, but after I drifted into that peaceful realm with him, his muscles had relaxed as if sensing I’d relaxed and wouldn’t leave him.

I don’t ever want to leave him, but I woke up ten minutes ago to my stomach clenching painfully. Gant’s still not on solids yet, and the doctors and Zedd don’t want him tempted, so I’m going down to the cafeteria instead. But just for seven minutes tops. Three minutes to get down, one minute to grab what I need. Three minutes to cram it into my mouth before I reach his room again.

I don’t want those little black eyes cracking open to see me missing. I promised I wouldn’t leave.

Guilt wracks me as I don Hale’s jacket. There’s no way I’ll waste fifteen minutes shoving myself back into Libellule’s corset only to have Gant rip it off. Unlike my cheap original, this uniform was pure satin and silk. But I don’t know which one will infuriate Gant more, the corset or seeing me wrapped in his brother’s jacket. I’ll throw it off the second I get back in the room. I can’t bear to put on the stilettos either, so I slip on Gant’s hospital slippers before bending over the bed to kiss him. I shouldn’t in case it wakes him up, but I can’t help it as I get close enough to inhale the air he’s exhaling. It’s intoxicating as I taste his lips and stroke his hair back from his face before begrudgingly heading for the door.

The second I step out of the hospital room, I nearly run into a blonde carrying two lattes.

“Stas,” I breathe, grabbing her wrists to steady her and her drinks. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“Sorry, I just came. Zedd told me Gant was still out until about an hour ago. He told me to come for lunch. I think he’s bullying the kitchen staff.”

“Sounds on brand,” I say with a chuckle. I didn’t think I’d laugh so soon, and as if realising my split second of joy, my subconscious clouds it again like a dark cloud, and we fall into a solemn silence. “He’s already asleep again,” I say finally.

Stassi lets out a shaky breath, her eyes suddenly brimming as she juts out one of the lattes to me. “I figured he would be in and out. It’s like that when it’s a close call… The important thing is that he’s recovering.”

I accept the latte that’s still steaming, and as I watch the smoke waft out from the cracks in the mouthpiece, a memory comes to me.

“When I found you crying in the girl’s bathroom in the library, you said you’d seen an overdose before.”

She nods slowly.

“Who?”

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