crave | 16+

XLII

JOSIE

I STARE DUMBFOUNDED AT the positive pregnancy test. Then I rip the other one open, and pee on it. I can't be pregnant, there's just no way. A few minutes pass by, and I stare at the other positive stick. Fuck me. I start pacing the bathroom. My boyfriend's bathroom, may I add. In nothing but a thong and his t-shirt, if we're really digging into details.

In my panicky haze, I hear the front door to Elijah's penthouse smack. I hold my breath, and listen. I wait. Fear bubbles beneath my sticky skin; it's quite literally impossible for anyone but Elijah and I to come up here. It requires a face-scan, one Elijah had installed for me, when it was clear that I wasn't going anywhere, and when he stopped letting me sleep in my own apartment.

I stare out toward the bedroom, while I stay in the en suite bathroom. Then the bedroom door opens, smacking against the wall. I stare, as he comes into frame. Elijah. He's covered in blood. I can't tell if it's his own, or someone else's, and frankly I don't care. All I care for is that he is here. He came back.

I don't waste a second; "You know as well as I do, that I'd never willingly kiss him."

He shuts his eyelids, and inhales a deep breath. I gawk, as he peels them open. And in a span of a second, he's standing before me, his hands entangled in my hair, his mouth ravaging my lips and neck. I melt into him, letting him do whatever it is he pleases. My body succumbs to his will, because my body knows as well as my mind, that we belong to him in unison. He's mine as much as I am his.

A whimper escapes my lips, as his hand moves between my legs, pushing my thong to the side. I step out of my underwear, and squeal when Elijah picks me up and places me on the vanity-counter. Plastic crumbles beneath me, and my eyes bulge open. The tests. Scrambling for them, behind my back, I push them into the sink so that he can't see them. And then I spread my legs, so that he can fit between them.

As Malik said, Elijah drops to his knees, and looks up at me. His face looks almost pain-ridden. He seems to be in agony. He leans his head against my inner-thigh, and I place a palm on his cheek, stroking my finger back and forth. He exhales a breath, inching closer to my core. I look down at him, his hot breath causing heavy exhales to leave my lips.

"You own me," he whispers. I close my eyes, at the sound of his voice. Such a foreign yet familiar sound. My heart weeps. Finally, I feel somewhat whole. "My entire body is yours to command. I am at your mercy, forever. Until the end of time, until there is no more of me left."

"Do you trust me?" I ask him. He tenses before me.

"Do you love him?" he shoots back.

"No." I don't miss a beat.

"Do you pity him?"

The truth spills out of me. "Yes," I answer.

"Because of me," Elijah assumes. He stands on his legs, and I panic at the sudden abandon of his touch. A touch I've been craving for days now.

"Because he's ruined every chance of ever redeeming himself," I hurriedly correct, trapping him close to me, with my legs. The bulge in his pants presses right up against my naked self, and I sigh in content. "Because I have no space in my heart to ever forgive him. Not for that."

He shakes his head, and closes his eyes again. Something that sounds like a half-cry leaves his lips. When he opens them again, they're brimming with tears. Oh, my poor heart. It breaks clean in half, at the sight of him so distressed. I cup his cheeks in my hands, forcing his eyes back on mine.