Chapter 13: You Smell Like Me

It’s been hours— maybe a full night already— since he got here, and she still wants him.

Beth has no idea how to express how grateful she is. Everything she says comes out nearly hysterical, heat-driven. It’s not enough. Sean takes it all in stride, and showers her with so much praise, her brain melts. Honestly, that’s probably just as heat driven as her own crazed babbling. At any rate, words don’t matter, so long as he keeps the fever at bay. And he does, both of them up through the entire night.

After the seventh or eighth time, when the sun is well up over the horizon, she cools off enough for Sean to carry her, wrapped in a sheet, out to the living room, depositing her on her couch and then proceeding to watch her as he cooks for her. When she reaches out to take the plate of food from him, his face tenses, and he ends up pulling her into his lap to hold her while she eats.

“Don’t you want—” he growls when she offers the fork to him, and she retreats, startled.