Page 32 of Of Flesh & Bone

"Not anymore."

I get out of the car, slamming my door and storming up to my apartment.I can feel Adam walking leisurely behind me, keeping up without effort.Inside my room, I grab my overnight bag from the closet only for Adam to tear it out of my hands.He goes into my bathroom, and I hear him rifling through the drawers and cabinets.He comes back out to pack things from my dresser before going into my closet and grabbing more clothes and shoes.

"How long will we be gone?"

"You need to have plenty of things at the house.I don't want to have to come pack things every time we stay there."

This guy is talking like we will be staying together going forward.I want to stay together.I don't like being apart, but won't this make it harder if or when things fall apart, as things have a tendency to do?No one ends up with their first love.Do they?Am I calling him my first love now?Am I his?Oh hell.Is he on the rebound?Is that what I am to him?A rebound?

"Have you ever been in love before?"

Adam freezes in his tracks.He's no longer packing, but he's also not responding.Shit.I'm right.He's on the rebound.

Finally, without turning to look at me, he asks, "Do you love me, Eve?"

Quickly.Too quickly, I respond."No.Of course not.I'm just curious if you're maybe on the rebound or something."

He laughs."The rebound?"

"Yeah.I thought maybe you could be heartbroken and trying to make yourself feel better with me."

He turns toward me and leans himself onto the dresser."I have never been in love before you.I have never pursued anyone before you.There will be no after you."

He's never been in love before me?What does that mean?Does that mean he loves me?He can't, right?We're on day four.He can't love me except, can he?Because I'm pretty sure that I lied.I'm pretty sure that I something more than like him.I'm infatuated, at the very least.

"Are you sure about that?"He asks, bringing me out of my thought bubble.

"Sure, about what?"

"Are you sure that you don't love me?"

"We met four days ago."

"You keep saying that, but I'm not asking when we met.I'm asking if you love me."

"I...I don't know.I something you.Something more than like."

"Something more than like."He says the words, considering them as they leave his lips.

"Do you love me?"

Oh shit.Don't answer that.Wait....go ahead.No...shit.

He gives me another searching look before answering and his response comes slowly.It's as though he's saying each word for the first time."I need you.I'm going to keep you.You...drive me insane.It's obsession and lust and...fascination and adoration.Is that love?"He shrugs."I suppose it could be."

I can't help myself.My smile reaches foolish proportions, and I launch myself at him.He lifts me, allowing me to wrap my legs around his waist as he carries me to the bed, settling himself between my thighs.We're frantic, pulling at each other's clothes and putting our lips everywhere.He grabs my hands and pulls them off of him, pinning them above my head."Wait."He's winded and his chest is heaving."Not yet."

"What?Why?"I ask a lot more breathless than I intended to sound.

"I have a plan.We're sticking to the plan."

"Are you serious?You made those rules before...just before."

He laughs."Not that plan.We will still do that, but I want to be at the house when I fuck you for the first time.Okay?Besides, you seem awfully impatient, Wildcat.Is there a reason for that?"

"I'm not impatient, I just don't understand."

"You will.Let's go."

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