TwentyTwo - Kyle

I laughed. The first real laugh I had in days. That Ella frowned, little wrinkles forming on her forehead because she hadn't expected that reaction. And it made me laugh more.

"I'm being serious, Ky." She was totally offended and I would have felt bad laughing if idea weren't so damn ridiculous.

"I know you are," I said, managing to sober enough to speak. "That's what's so hilarious."

"I can make it." She said with enough resolve in her voice that I stopped laughing. "I know the way. I can get there and back tonight and I don't have to put anyone else in danger to do it."

"There are zombies out there." Pointing out the obvious should have been enough to sway her. Instead of looking scared or admitting maybe she shouldn't go alone, Ella just straightened her shoulders and nodded as if she completely understood the risks.

"I can handle a couple zombies."

My lips twitch, but I don't smile because no matter how cute this confident, I-can-do-this-on-my-own thing she's got going on is, I don't like it. Any of it.

"You can't stop us from going with you, Ella."

She thought on that for a moment and I thought she'd give in, but she didn't. Instead Ella smiled like she had a secret.

"Actually, I can," she said, the challenge in her eyes and sexy as hell.

"Really?"

She didn't even blink at the doubt in my voice. "Yes."

Well, shit. I believe her.

"How?"

She opened her mouth but then snapped her lips shut and shook her head.

"So you can stop me?"

"Hell, yes so I can stop you. This is stupid. You aren't a stupid girl, Ella, but this," I threw up my hands up, "This is a stupid idea." I closed the distance between us, leaning down to her level. "You can't handle the zombies. You can't handle any of this by yourself." She drew back, hurt by the truth, but I didn't stop. She needed to get this. She needed to understand. "Hell, a couple days of walking gave you blisters so bad we had to stop for a week! You have frozen in fear more than once and nearly gotten yourself killed. If you'd been alone, you would have. Fuck," Stepping back, I ran a hand through my hair. "You wander off for ten minutes and are kidnapped by people stringing you up to a cross." Again, she flinched, but this time instead of looking hurt, she looked pissed. "Keeping you alive is goddamned full time job!"

"Then you're relieved," she said crossing her hands under her breasts. Her lips pursed and her eyes narrowed, she looked as mad as I had ever seen her and she was... firing me. Or damn well trying to. Looking up at the ceiling, I dragged my hands over my face praying for some semblance of patience because I was about to snap. I wanted to strangle her. I wanted to pull her into my arms and hold her close. I wanted to kiss the damn sour look off her face. Her eyes burned with fire as she stared me down, thinking she'd won. As if I would have just walked away because she thinks she fired me.

I did what I had been aching to do. Well, what half of me was aching to do anyway, and I reached out and cupped her cheek with one hand. Fighting didn't work with her. Arguing go me nowhere because if I'd learned anything it was that she wasn't reasonable when she was pissed. It would take a different approach. She didn't soften in her resolve, but I would get her to understand.

"That's not what I want," I said, keeping my voice quiet, gentle. Her scrunched up expression broke, just the barest amount. Enough that I knew she was listening and I needed to make her get it. That I wouldn't let her go off on her own. Not because I was bound by some business agreement, because I cared about her. I needed her to not die. I needed to not see her on another cross. "I need to keep you safe," I told her slowly. Her eyes softened just enough that I knew I'd gotten through, at least a little. And then because there was an opening and because I really fucking wanted to, I lowered my lips to hers.

I had intended just to taste her. Feel her again. I had intended to pull away. I didn't want to take advantage of the shitty situation, I just couldn't resist it. Because I'd wanted to kiss her every moment since I'd last felt her lips on mine. And I'd craved to hold her, to take away her pain since I cut her down from the damn cross.

My intentions flew out the window about the time a breathy little sound of pleasure left her lips. Then, instead of pushing her away like I meant to, my free hand snaked around her waist - careful of the tender injuries I'd re-bandaged - and pulled her closer. It was probably messed up that arguing with her made me want her that much more, that the fire in her eyes turned me on, but it was too late to care. I slid my tongue across the seam of her lips and they parted without hesitation, urging me to deepen the kiss. I swallowed her moan as my tongue massaged hers.

Her hands slid up my arms, under the sleeves of my tee shirt until she reached my back and scratched lightly across my shoulder blades.I was manly enough to admit - to myself - that the act sent shivers down my spine. Shivers could be manly and if they weren't, well, fuck it, I didn't give two shits because she was driving me crazy in the best way.

Ella's hips rolled into mine, pressing into my cock as my hand slid down to her ass and gripped, lifting her feet off the ground. Her hands quickly moved around my neck holding and her legs hitched around my hips. Ella pulled back, her brown eyes narrowed. I leaned forward, attempting to reconnect our lips but she stopped me.

"You can't just sex me in submission, you know."

I smiled at that and she had to bite back her own smile to keep up the serious facade.

"You sure about that?"

I kissed her jaw that had dropped in offense that was I sure she didn't feel and a little growl left her lips. She started to loosen her legs, get down from me, but I wasn't having that. I hitched my hands under her thighs, holding her in place, and the frustrated wiggle that followed did nothing to make me want to release her. I slid my lips along her collarbone, loving the gasp of breath she couldn't contain.

"Ky." My name was a moan on her lips as she tried to protest even as she rolled her head to one side, giving me better access. "I'm serious."

"I know, baby," I whispered in her ear and she smiled because she liked when I called her that. She smiled every time. We both knew it and I wanted to call her out on it, but nipped at her earlobe instead. "That's not my intention."

"Then what is?" She was trying very hard to keep her head clear enough to have this conversation. It was a battle that she was loosing because even if she was trying pretend otherwise, she wanted this too.

"My intention?" I whispered against her neck.

"Mhmm." Her agreement was half-moan.

I whispered low, my lips brushing the shell of her ear eliciting a moan and causing her body shivering from either my touch or the words or both, as I told her everything I wanted to do to her - had wanted to do to her since the last time we were together. Her breath caught as I spoke, and I didn't even think she was aware of the way her legs tightened around my waist as she grinded against me. Sweet girls liked dirty talk and Ella wasn't an exception. I didn't think she breathed the entire time I spoke, to mind to focused on anticipation to remember to breathe.

"Well," she said on a soft exhale. Her cheeks were pink, but the slight embarrassment didn't stop her from meeting my eyes. "As long as we're on the same page then."

When our lips met again, Ella didn't hold back. I could feel exactly how much she wanted me in the way her lips moved, almost desperately, against mine. Like she - like we both - thought we might not get his again and wanted to remember every second of it. My hands slipped up the back of her shirt, sliding over the soft skin, ignoring the bandage around her waist (if I let myself think too much about it, I'd kill something) and to the back strap of her bra. She broke away from me long enough to slip her shirt off and then pulled at mine until it was tossed over my head somewhere in the room. I leaned in to take her lips but she pulled back, her lips pulling into a smile. And then her hands were back on me, fingers trailing down my chest and over my abs as her eyes followed. I don't think she was even aware that her tongue darted out, wetting her lips like she wanted to awful, wonderful things to me.

"You're killing me."

Ella looked up through her lashes, completely unaware of what she was doing to me. She looked innocent, I knew she'd done this before, hell, we had done this before, but she had that mix of shy and curious with enough experience that she wasn't fumbling and nervous, just sexy as hell.

After she seemed satisfied with her tour of my body, she slid her hands back up my chest, hooked them around neck and pulled me back to her. Ella brushed her lips against mine but the moment I started to return the kiss, she pulled back. Not completely, just enough that I got the hint. She wanted to be in control of this and well. Hell. That's a turn on. When it's clear I'm letting her take the lead, Ella presses her lips to mine.

It not the same fast, needy, half-desperate kissing. She wasn't quick to slip her tongue into my mouth or bite at my lip. It was slow, methodical. Exploratory. Almost painfully so. Every time I started to take over, press for more, she pulled back. Teasing. I wanted her teasing to end and I never wanted her to stop.

She wiggled until I released her legs and she dropped to the ground. Biting down on her swollen lip, Ella laced her fingers through my and dragged me through the lab. She pushed through a door but instead of going up the stairs, she lead me down a hall.

"Where are we going?"

She didn't answer, but it wasn't long before I found out. An office, I assumed her dads. There was a desk and other stupid crap that normally fills offices, and against one wall was a nice couch. Ella pushed me down on the couch and quickly settled on my lap, grinding against me. That was it. I wrapped my arms around her and shifted until she was laying underneath me, giggling in surprise at the sudden movement. I kissed the corner of her lips, still tipped up in a smile.

"I love your laugh."

I wasn't sure if that was too honest when she stopped laughing, her eyes meeting mine. Heated blush spread across her cheeks but she didn't look away or stop smiling, so I was pretty sure she liked it. I was also pretty sure that this wasn't just sex. The way she was looking at me - the way I was pretty sure I was looking at her - wasn't the way you looked at someone that was just sex. I slid down her body wrapping my fingers around the waist of her pants and dragged them over her hips without looking away. Something about the action, her watching me undress her, was intimate. More intimate than anything I'd experienced in a long time.

She kicked her feet out of her pants as I settled over her and Ella's hands went to my waist, pulling at the button of my pants and then shoved her hands inside, fingers curling around my cock. I groaned, pushing myself against her moving hand. She smiled and then released me, wrapping her fingers around the waist of my pants. Her hands pushed at my pants as my lips works their way down her throat. I didn't hesitate. The moment I was free, Ella's legs curled around my hips and I sunk into her. Ella arched into me, my name coming off her lips in a breath.

Her body moved against mine, giving and taking.

Her soft moans filled the room. She reached up, weaving her fingers into my hair and urged me down until our lips met.Her lips vibrated against mine with each moan as our bodies moved together more slowly, mimicking our mouths. Ella's body trembled, her lips pressed against mine, but no longer moving as if she couldn't concentrate on anything but what she was feeling. Her fingers slid from my hair to my shoulder blades, nails digging into my skin as her breath came in short gasps.

Her muscles twitched and stiffened as she came, moaning against my mouth and pulling me over the edge with her and I didn't think it was possible to go back. I didn't think I wanted to.

We stayed tangled for a long moment and Ella let out a sated sigh.

"You're really good at that, you know."

Looking down at her, I grinned.

"What?" she asked worrying her lip. "Is it weird to compliment you? I thought, give credit where it's due, you know? Because that was... wow—It's weird though, right? You're looking at me like I'm being weird."

I was pretty sure I was not looking at her like she was weird. That wasn't what I had been thinking at all.

Chuckling I rolled off of her and squished to one side of the couch, trapping her in my arms - not that she was anxious to go anywhere. Ella settled into me, completely content, her back against my chest and my arm slung around her waist while her fingers absently played with my own.

"I still think you should let me go alone," she whispered.

"And I still won't let that happen." I pressed my lips against the back of her neck.

"You," she says, thick voice and then clears her throat. "You care about me."

I wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a question or a statement.

"I care about you." I just wasn't sure that meant.

"Me too," she admitted finally, a smile in her vioce. "But you're still you and I'm still me, right?"

She sighed a little as she said it and I knew exactly what she meant. I was still me and she was still Ella. I still planned on staying away from the base more often than not. I would still put myself in danger for others. I would still be a runner. And that wasn't Ella. She wouldn't ask me to say and I wouldn't ask her to go. The circumstances that brought us together would be over soon and we would move on. We'd have to.

I didn't answer the question because we both already knew it and Ella stayed quiet, lost in thought. I was almost sure she was asleep when spoke again. "You make me unafraid."

Funny, because she made me terrified.

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AN - Well, I officially have over 3,000 followers which is AMAZING!! Also, Guilt (as of today anyway) is ranked for the first time!  #421 in Teen Fiction. Not too shabby!! So thank you all for that because it has truly made my day!! Anyway, I decided to share an extra chapter this week in my excitement! :]] Hope you all enjoyed it. I'll update again tomorrow as usual.