Page 86 of Wild Child
I locked her in my arms with the feeling that I couldn’t breathe. Relief left me weak, and the past three years of questions, fear, and dreams evaporated into mist. Everything had come together.
And Ellie was mine.
23
Ellie
“Here.”
Hernandez draped a blanket around my shoulders and gazed at me with concern. I had a sip from a thermos filled with coffee that he’d conjured from the depths of his vehicle, and my ravenous stomach did a little jolt. Despite the warmth of the fading afternoon, the straight black coffee drove comfort all the way to my bones.
“Thanks.”
Devin bumped my arm, a hand held out. With a little smile, I passed the thermos over to him. He had a sip, then a long, long draught. I watched his throat move as he swallowed, unable to tear my eyes off of him.
“Slow down, stallion,” I murmured with an adoring smile.
He laughed and passed it back. “That,” Devin declared, “is the best coffee I’ve ever had.”
“That new girl, Dahlia, knows what she’s doing. Funny, too.” Hernandez motioned to me with a nod. “Have some more. We’re going to ask a lot of questions soon. You'll need some caffeine. I have some protein bars, too. Let me grab them for you.”
Despite missing meals and days of dreaming of what I’d eat first, I couldn't fathom eating right now. A general queasiness lived in my body. Devin had shielded me from the grisly parts of what we left behind, for which I was grateful. But my mind quickly substituted all the things I didn’t see. The boxes I had tucked away for so long kept flopping down, defeated. I stopped fighting them and let the shocked feelings flow with a powerful sense of relief.
Devin loves me,spiraled the thought. It buoyed me up amid all this horror.He has loved me this whole time.
Aside from the general shock of his confession, I couldn’t help but feel a giddy relief. A disbelieving awareness that we’d danced around the same feelings for years. If one of us had just gotten up the gumption tosaysomething, maybe all of this could have been avoided.
Except, that may not have been the right path either.
After all I’d learned about myself without him, and the path that life set both of us on, I couldn’t imagine any other circumstances that would have served us better. Now, we knew our path.
And we were on it together. Totally. Entirely. Completely. No questions asked, no dreams held back.
“Ellie?”
Blinking out of my thoughts, I glanced up to see Hernandez staring at me expectantly. Too late, I realized they had been talking to me and I’d missed it.
“Sorry.”
Devin’s arm lay heavy on my shoulders. “Give us a sec?” he asked Hernandez. He nodded and stepped back, calling for someone else with a quick whistle. Devin curled me closer into him. I leaned into his side.
“I don’t want to talk about it with him,” I whispered. Tears filled my eyes again. “I just want to go home.”
“Me too.”
Panic seized me when I realized thathomemeant away from Devin, and I couldn’t fathom the thought of being away from him. Not now. Not after all that—
“You won’t leave me?" I asked without attempting to hide my panic. "You’ll stay? Come to—”
“I’m not leaving.” He put a hand under my chin and tilted my head back. The tips of his fingers caressed a gentle line down my cheekbone and my throat, then he gripped my neck in his hand. “After we're done with this, we'll go to Mav and Bethany's. You get first dibs on a super-hot shower. I'll be in the other room, trying not to picture you in that shower and all the things I want to do to you."
A roguish gleam in his eyes sent heat through me, sending away the darkness of the past few days.
"While we're getting cleaned up," he continued, "Mav will fix us a massive meal. I'll call my parents, they can come over. I'll tell them everything so you don't have to, and we just get it done. Then, you and I will go into your old bedroom and fall asleep for the next three days together. You will be in my arms the entire time. Got it? There are no other alternatives."
Relief swam through me. "Got it," I whispered and sagged against him in relief.
“We have to talk to them first,” he said, “but we can do it together. Okay? I’ve got your back.”
