Chapter 6 #3
“But no sex,” she said without breaking her stride down the hallway. “I sleep with a knife somewhere near my reach at all times. If I feel so much as a poke, you’d better hope there’s a world-class surgeon specializing in penile attachment nearby.”
There’s the Ever Loche knows.
“Capeesh?”
I held both of my hands up in response, following her into her bedroom.
Ever flipped on the light, revealing a modest room with simple furniture.
Her twin bed sat against the far wall, unmade.
A small white dresser was situated at an angle near the corner of the room, next to the closet.
Next to the bed, a nightstand in the same shade of white as the dresser had been placed with a small lamp resting on top of it.
It looked like the room of someone who wasn’t planning on sticking around too long.
Easy to pack up and leave at a moment’s notice.
You need to give her a reason to stay.
Shut up, penis. The closest large hospital is a good hour away. I don’t—
My thoughts trailed away, becoming nothing more than garbled garbage the moment Ever unzipped her hoodie the rest of the way down and then tugged the tank top she wore under it off and threw them both into the hamper near the dresser, revealing the tattoo of the bird that had captivated my attention in the car.
A lone specimen in black ink in the middle of taking flight, I couldn’t tell what kind of bird it was.
Ornithology was not my strong suit and probably wouldn’t be for at least another five decades or so.
Ever glanced down when I pointed to it right as she was also unfastening and slipping her bra off.
Fuck my life. I was definitely not getting out of here with my penis intact.
With Ever looking down at her tattoo, I took the opportunity to adjust myself. Of all the days to wear gray sweatpants.
“This? It’s a swallow. I got it about six months ago.”
Well, that seals it. Rest in peace, penis. It’s been real fun getting to know you. But there’s no way in fuck we’re ever going to recover from a topless Ever saying the word ‘swallow’ in our presence with her perfect, full tits staring me in the face.
“Now show me yours.” Ever commanded me as she opened a drawer to her dresser and pulled out a t-shirt, slipping it on.
I beg your pardon? My grandfather had a favorite saying he used in the stories he would tell me as a child, describing someone who was in a state of frozen, panicked confusion when facing any one of a number of choices laid out in front of them.
He would say, “Loche, he didn’t know whether to shit or wind his watch. ”
In this moment, I, Loche Greene, didn’t know whether to shit or wind my watch.
“What?” Ever asked. “Are you too embarrassed to show me your tattoos? Will they give away your secret identity or something?”
My tattoos? Thank Christ I didn’t take off my pants.
I shook my head and gripped the hem of my t-shirt, pulling it over my head, careful not to take my mask with it, so that I was standing in front of Ever topless.
Her eyes roamed the length of my body, taking in the extensive amount of ink I had beginning at chest level and wrapping around to my back.
All of my ink was primarily on the left side of my body, slowly encroaching into my right side.
“Trees?” Ever asked, taking a few steps forward, her eyes transfixed on my body in fascination, instead of the sexual way I enjoyed.
A variety of pine trees, of various sizes, created a forest that traveled across my body; it was a work of art on flesh instead of canvas, all courtesy of Nix’s steady hand. “Beauty from pain,” he calls it. It’s why he’s known as Pain on the mat.
Ever’s eyes looked up at me, a question hovering on her lips that I answered with a simple nod.
Goosebumps shot through my body in direct response to the brush of her fingertips against my skin, tracing the scene etched on me with precision.
If ever there was a moment I didn’t want to end, it was this one.
My breath caught in my throat when she reached my waistband, and she tugged my sweatpants down until the base of the lowest tree trunk was exposed.
A tug or two more, and she may have released something else.
Normally, I didn’t like to be touched, but the sensation of Ever’s skin against my body was like a salve to my soul, sparking life in the places where I’d been numb before.
I’d never wanted to feel anything again, hadn’t thought I would or that I would want to.
Yet, here I was, wanting to feel all the feels.
“You’re so beautiful.” Ever’s raspy voice did nothing to quell the erection I was trying so hard—no pun intended—to keep under wraps.
Fuck, I was in trouble.
“Say something.” Her eyes pleaded with me, and goddamnit, I wanted to comply until she begged me to stop. The things I wanted to say to her while her legs were slung over my shoulders were downright criminal, and I shared in her desperation with my silence.
I propped her head up with my hand, pushing her chin up to force her eyes to look into my hidden ones, and shook my head.
“Why? Why keep your voice a secret you can’t share with me? I’ve seen literally all of you. Would I be able to identify you? Do—do I know who you are?”
Shit.
Ever took a step back, appraising me. She was mentally ticking through every man she’d encountered here.
I could tell by the concentration in her eyes I routinely saw when she was behind her desk, trying to problem-solve an issue in a client file.
Eventually, she would land on me. Whether she would connect the dots, I didn’t know, but I couldn’t let her—not now.
I needed more time with her before I told her the truth.
So, I did something I never wanted to do.
I shook my head, blatantly lying to her.
“Then please say something, anything. V, please. I’d like to continue whatever the hell this is between us, but I need a little give from you, too.”
If only she could hear the scream I was letting out internally. I wasn’t getting out of this without giving her something that I, frankly, did actually owe to her. The question was how.
You know how.
Dear God, no. Not that.
“V?” I sighed, taking in Ever’s confused face. Her patience was only going to last for so long, and I was on borrowed time already.
Well, here goes nothing.
“This is me saying something.”
Ever’s eyes widened. Speechless, she stood motionless, and I was just about to see myself out when she erupted in laughter.
“What. The. Actual. Fuck?” Tears were already streaming down her face, and she struggled to speak between fits of laughter. “Was—was that Kermit the Frog? Tell me that was a Kermit the Frog impression.”
I stood in front of her, unmoving, with my hands on my hips.
“Seriously, V. I’m really needing that to be a Kermit imitation and not your real voice. Because I don’t know whether my vagina is ever going to be able to recover again if it’s not.”
In a fake huff, I threw my hands up in the air, snatched my shirt from the floor, and prepared to storm out of the room, when I was stopped by Ever grabbing my arm.
“I’m sorry,” she said, still laughing but also a touch concerned she’d offended me.
“Please. Don’t go. If that’s your voice, we’ll work around it. Can you learn sign language?”
Through my mask, I attempted to give her the most stern look I could, failing miserably.
“Was that your real voice?” Ever grew serious, her face falling even more when I failed to respond to her.
“Oh, fuck. V, I’m so sorry. I swear, I—” A slight laugh, disguised with a cough, was enough to tell her I’d been joking.
“Touché,” she said, her shoulders relaxing as she crossed her arms in front of her. “I may have deserved that.”
I nodded, tugging my shirt back on while noticing Ever’s face falling slightly as the fabric covered my body.
“You’re off the hook tonight. But if you expect anything more out of me, you’re going to have to actually speak to me from time to time.”
I shrugged my shoulders, tacitly agreeing with her terms while also mentally calculating how to carry them out.
I’d hit her with the best impression I had in my repertoire.
Sure, I could do a passable Porky Pig, but I knew if I ever wanted to have sex with Ever again, I couldn’t whip that one out on her.
Porky had a lot of things going for him, but rizz wasn’t one of them.
From out of the corner of my eye, I caught Ever removing her pants and placing them in a hamper. The plain t-shirt she wore was long enough to barely cover her ass, and I let out a shaky breath, silently praying for visions of my grandmother in a thong to keep my dick at bay.
“Just because you can do a spot-on impression of the Muppet who is arguably the most sexually desirable of them all doesn’t mean I’ve changed my mind. After I fall asleep, you see yourself out. Got it?”
I gave her a thumbs up and motioned to the light when Ever slipped into her bed.
“Yes, you can turn the light off.”
After flipping the switch, I fumbled over to the bed, lying down behind Ever and cautiously fitting my arm around her waist, holding her close to my body.
If I were being honest, I was exhausted and could have easily fallen asleep if I closed my eyes, which meant that I absolutely had to keep them open.
“V?”
“Mmhmm…”
“Thank you. Even though everything you’ve done so far has been one huge red flag, and I probably should be on the phone with 911 reporting my stalker in my home instead of curled up in bed with him, I really do appreciate what you’re doing for me right now.
Assuming you don’t kill me, of course. If you murder me in my sleep, consider this expression of gratitude rescinded. ”
I squeezed Ever’s arm as I lay in bed, listening to her breaths oscillate between barely audible and the heavier sound of sleep, until they eventually favored the latter.
To avoid waking her, I waited a few minutes longer before I slowly withdrew my arm from around her body.
Carefully, I sat up and lifted my mask just enough to expose the lower half of my face, leaning down to kiss her shoulder before I slipped out of her bed, locking her front door behind me when I left her house.