Dating After the End of the World - 30

I hear my name. It’s faint, coming from somewhere in the distance. “ Casey! ” it says again, louder this time. Then there are footsteps, tapping across pavement. A door clicks nearby, and I realize I’m half-awake, half in a dream. My eyes shoot open, and my surroundings come into view—the partially open cell door, the stainless-steel bars stretched floor to ceiling, and a pair of strong arms wrapped around me. His warm skin is pressed against mine as he spoons me from behind, purring into my ear, still asleep.

The door creaks open. Shit. Shit. Shit. I scramble, attempting to dress, but there’s no time, so I tug the sheet up to cover my breasts and nudge Blake, waking him. He rubs at his eyes and groans.

“Oh my God!” Tessa says, standing outside the open cell, her jaw slack, eyes bugged out.

I feel my cheeks flush, and I wish I could hide—but it’s too late. Blake pulls himself into a seated position, and his pecs push against my bare back, sending a tingle up and down my spine.

“You’re sleeping with the enemy!” Tessa exclaims.

My eyes widen, matching her shocked expression. I have a strong desire to run away, but I can’t because doing so would tug the sheet off either Blake or me.

“You were on monster watch?” She gestures to us, sitting naked with only the thin sheet providing cover. “How the hell did this happen?” Her voice comes out all screechy.

I don’t know what to say or how to answer her question, but I need her to be quiet because I don’t want someone else coming down here and finding Blake and me in this compromising position. I press my pointer finger to my lips and shush her.

“Sorry,” she says, relaxing the muscles in her face. “I’m just . . . wow.” Tessa blinks several times, while I pull the sheet a little tighter around my chest. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

I glance over at Blake. The corner of his lips lifts as he tilts his head, his way of saying he didn’t expect this either. And I’m right there with him. I mean, up until yesterday, I wanted to kill Blake. But somehow my desire to murder him morphed into hot, end-of-the-world, there’s-no-going-back sex. Funny how that happens.

Tessa taps her finger against her chin and stares up at the ceiling. “Actually, maybe I was expecting this,” she says, lowering her chin.

“What?” I ask, bewildered. “How? Why?”

I mean, I know how it appears. It looks like I was expecting this, or perhaps planning for it, because I told everyone to stay away. I told them to wait for either me or both me and Blake to come up after we found out whether he turned. He didn’t want anyone down here if/when he changed, including me, but I couldn’t do that . . . stay away, that is. When he fell asleep, I didn’t leave, and I made myself a little makeshift bed so I’d be down here in the wee hours of the morning to ensure he didn’t have to face the unknown alone. The bed was for sleeping, not sex, but apparently, it had a dual purpose.

“Well, it was obvious you liked Blake,” Tessa says.

“No, it wasn’t, and no, I didn’t.”

“You did a little.” He dances the pads of his fingers across my back.

I jerk my shoulder into him.

“Right?” Tessa says, placing a hand on her hip. “And from the glimpse I got of Blake’s . . . package , I assume you might love him now.”

“Do you?” Blake cheekily smiles. He’s enjoying this far too much.

“Oh my God. Both of you stop.” I lean forward, covering my face with my hands in an attempt to hide from their questions.

Beneath the sheet, Blake’s hand grazes across my thigh, settling and gripping the inside of it. His fingers brush along my most sensitive skin. I bite down on my lip to stop myself from moaning and asking for more. Even more wouldn’t be enough. There’s something about his touch. It reaches every part of my body, even if it’s just a light brush across a sliver of my skin. I’ve never felt that before. I’ve never felt someone touch all of me with a single stroke. My heart starts to beat so fast, it’s like it’s a continuous hum. I let my hands fall to my lap and I sit up straight, looking as nonchalant as I can, despite what’s happening beneath the sheet.

“Why are you smiling like that?” Tessa eyes me suspiciously.

I give a blank stare and elbow Blake in his abdomen. He stifles a laugh and friskily squeezes my side. He knows exactly what he’s doing to me.

“I’m not even smiling,” I lie, trying to keep my mouth in a straight line. “And what are you doing down here?” My head tilts to the left, amplifying my subject-changing question. “No one was supposed to come down here.”

“Oh yeah. I forgot about that.” Tessa shrugs. “Although I realize now why that rule was in place.” She double raises her brow and smirks.

I roll my eyes. “It was not in place for that. This”—I gesture to Blake and me—“just happened. It wasn’t planned.”

“Sure,” she teases, unable to contain her amused smile. “Anyway . . . ummm.” Tessa pauses for a second like she doesn’t want to say what she came down here to tell us.

“What is it?” I ask.

“There’s someone here to see you, and he says he’s your fiancé.”

My eyes grow impossibly wide. It feels like they could split at the corners. Fiancé? How is that possible? There’s an immediate tightness in my chest, constricting my lungs, making it hard to breathe, to process this news.

“Nate’s here?” I ask, barely getting the words out.

My stomach drops as though a trapdoor has suddenly opened up beneath it. I notice Blake’s touch is gone, or maybe I can’t feel him anymore. No, that’s not it. His skin is no longer pressed up against mine, his hand has retreated from my thigh, and his posture’s now rigid.

“Yeah.” Tessa nods. “But he insists we call him Dr. Warner.” Her eyes practically roll.

“You have a fiancé?” Blake asks, the question coming out strained.

I force myself to meet his gaze. Staring at him with my mouth slightly parted, I try to explain, but the words are tangled up in my throat. I don’t know how to answer him. The longer I sit here not explaining, not answering, the more his face changes from a look of disbelief into one of betrayal and hurt.

“I thought you told me you two broke up?” Tessa cuts in, coming to my aid.

My eyes dart back and forth between the two of them.

“I . . . yeah. We did . . . in a way . . . break up,” I say, locking on with Blake again.

I can’t believe it. How could Nate be here? And why? He ditched me back in the city, so why would he ever come looking for me? Why risk coming all the way up here?

Blake’s eyes are unblinking. “What do you mean by that?” The words come out sharp, and he practically clicks his tongue.

I don’t know what to say to him. I can’t tell them Nate ditched me in the city and almost got me killed, because he’s here now—and actually, now that I think about it, he wouldn’t come here if he had intentionally left me behind. Right? Did I misinterpret his actions? I remember back to the moments before Nate fled out of the apartment. I was tied up with one burner, while another was regaining his footing. Nate had scanned his surroundings, and I remember thinking he was coming up with a plan to get us out of there. Maybe he took off because he was trying to draw the burners away from me, but they didn’t go after him. Maybe he ran into more trouble. Maybe he tried to get his Porsche ready for us to flee but it was stolen by other burners. Nate and I were together for years and were planning to get married. You don’t just run away from that at the first sign of trouble.

“We got separated back in the city,” I say. “And I thought he was long gone or dead.”

Underneath the sheet, Blake shuffles on his boxer briefs and then stands, pulling on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt. I glance up at him, waiting for a reaction, but he doesn’t give me one. He leaves the cell and starts off toward the door. Tessa awkwardly steps aside, letting him pass by.

“Where are you going?” I call out.

Blake pauses and briefly glances back at me, his mouth half grimacing and half smirking.

“To meet your stupid fiancé.”