by L. J. Wilson
“I think I do.” She drew his hands to her mouth, kissing them. “I want to know.”
A deep breath pulled into him, as if weighing how he wanted to go about this. Urge won out, and Sebastian steered them toward the table at the center of the room. “Put your hands on it.” She followed the instruction. His mouth met with her spine, a silky touch compared to the brashness of his voice. Sebastian nudged her legs apart, and Evie had to brace her arms firmly into the table. It was what she wanted, the power of Sebastian taking her completely as he thrust into her. She’d never envisioned such a provocative pose. It was a wildly heated moment, unfathomable desire and curious small talk.
“Jesus, Evie… I never… Never thought this could be…”
“About anything but us.”
“Yes… exactly. Us.” A sound vibrated from her throat. The force with which he moved inside her was delicious and a little dangerous. “Sorry,” he said, “we can slow it down.”
“No!” she said, reaching back with one arm, making contact with his warm skin. But she had to let go, hold firm to the table. It was all so dominant—Evie couldn’t imagine a more defining act. Small talk dissipated, leaving momentous breaths that conveyed Sebastian’s desire until all of it spilled into her.
In the hours afterward, neither spoke about time. Evie didn’t want this to feel like the life of a butterfly—beautiful and fleeting. Neither talked of what was outside the cabin door—which he’d locked by jamming a chair under the knob. Instead, Evie and Sebastian took refuge in the cabin’s amenities. Now that Evie had him so close, she was willing to wash the rest of the day away. Sebastian said he had the perfect cure. In fact, he claimed to have worked out that exact scenario countless times in his head. He smiled at her confusion, and Evie watched as he filled the giant cast iron tub. She climbed into it, Sebastian joining her. Sinking into him and the warm soapy water, Evie thought she’d never been anywhere more enticing. “Do you think it’s possible,” she said, resting in his arms, “to make love in a bathtub?”
“Do I…?” Avoiding the bruise on her arm, Sebastian’s body wrapped tighter around hers. “Isn’t that what bathtubs are for?”
Evie laughed.
Sebastian didn’t, telling her to turn around. “Just about what I thought,” he said, gently guiding her until she straddled him.
It was a snug fit but an appealing one as Evie found she rather liked the in-charge angle. His erection throbbed between them, Evie’s soapy hand stroking the hard shaft. He let her take the lead, kissing him deeply, longingly, moving herself over him. As she did, Sebastian took over, guiding himself into her. Evie gripped his shoulders, their foreheads bumping as the tight confines made the motion more teasing—rather subdued compared to the scene at the kitchen table. But with the subtler movement came another delectable sensation, and Evie wanted to ask if there was a handbook for all the things she didn’t know. All she could do was kiss him, amazed to discover that even in water, a fire could light.
With his hands wrapped around her back, Sebastian’s eyes fluttered open. “Definitely exceeding my imagination.”
She arched her back and a look of surrender fell over him, demonstrating to Evie that even subtle sex was an awe-inspiring thing.
“Do you have any idea how often I’ve thought of this?” he said.
She shook her head, kissing his cheek, his mouth.
“Then you probably don’t know this is the moment I tell you how much I love you.”
This time, as dawn approached, they lay in the bed together. Sebastian was wide awake, a thousand thoughts keeping him on guard. Evie had slept for a few hours. But looking at her, he was able to push the problems away. She’d never belong anywhere but with him. He caressed her arm, narrowing his eyes at the bruise. It surprised him when Evie opened hers, staring, as if maybe she’d been thinking too. But her words didn’t match the thoughts that filled his head.
“If I could have a wish,” Evie said sleepily, “it’d be for a son with exactly your eyes.”
He blinked, the motion of his hand halting. “What did you say?”
She sat up and righted her words as if they’d spilled accidently like a glass of milk. “I’m sorry,” she said, pulling the sheet past her breasts. “I shouldn’t have said such a thing. Of course you wouldn’t think of…” She glanced over her shoulder. “Our worlds, they’re very different. Aren’t they?”
“Evie…” He sat up too and kissed her shoulder. “I can’t argue that. But it’s not even about… Look, it’s not something I’ve ever thought about—not in a good way.”
She twisted her body, looking at him. “How else would you think of it?”
“Well, for one, not at all—except how to keep it from…” Sebastian puffed air into his cheeks, letting it escape. He’d been so cavalier about sex between them. “We should have talked about… I’m sorry. My fault. I didn’t think…” He dragged a hand around the back of his neck. “Of course you’re not doing anything to prevent…”
“I told you, I can’t… Well, I knew nothing could happen the first time, but obviously there’s been sufficient chance since—”
“Wait. What couldn’t happen the first time?”
She didn’t look at him, staring at the fistful of sheets she’d gathered. “Getting pregnant. It can’t happen the first time you have sex.”
He widened his eyes. “Uh, Evie, yeah it can.”
“But Ezra said…”
“And he took his sex education class where? Listen to me…”
Her mood turned antsy, Evie tucking a length of hair behind her ear and pulling her knees tight to her body. He considered the gentlest way to pursue a necessary conversation. Sebastian doubted she had a clue about how not to get pregnant. The fact that she hadn’t gotten pregnant, he guessed she might be right. Maybe she couldn’t have children. “It’s fine. I’ll take care of any precautions.” He brushed his shoulder against hers. “Seems when it’s just us, most everything slips into place, but we will have some hurdles. We can talk about kids and eye color another time. Does that work?”
“Of course… you’re completely right,” she said, though her gaze looked everywhere but at him. “Speaking about children…It was a foolish thought for a million reasons, never mind saying it aloud.”
He shrugged. “Since you mention it… And just so you know,” he said, trying to get the blush to fade from her face. “With eye color come all the Christos traits. We’re not a walk in the park. You might want to think about that.”
Evie hugged her knees tighter and turned her head, peering hard at him. “So far I seem to be doing all right with that walk.”
Sebastian pulled her to him, their bodies easing into the pillows. “You do have a flair for untamed. But how about we focus on first things first? What happens when that sun comes up hauling reality along with it?” Snuggling into the feather mattress, they both looked toward the fireplace’s spent ashes.
“My blouse,” she said. “I suppose we could begin with you loaning me a shirt. I’d think wearing it down the main street of Good Hope should make a statement.”
“Is that what you want, a grandstand show?”
“No,” she said, her blonde hair brushing against him. “But it’s what the Reverend deserves. Of course, how we’d convince anyone else…That I have no idea about.”
“I might. Let me ask you this,” he said, broaching a new subject. “I have to go back to South America, at least a few more trips. I explained to you about Sam, my contact there. I made a deal—I have to keep my end of it. But how would you feel about leaving here with me?”
Evie reasoned it out. “I won’t be able to convince anyone of what you’ve told me. Strange as it will be, I don’t believe I can remain with the Fathers of the Right or in Good Hope.” Her hands squeezed over his. “Wherever you are, it seems like I should be there too.”
He sat up, Evie following. That wasn’t exactly his plan. “Evie, you can’t come with me to South America. But I have frien
d in Philly. His name is Bim, he’s a doctor. He’d do anything I ask, you could stay with him until—”
“Leave here and leave you?”
“I know it sounds daring… complicated. But I know Bim. He’d take good care of you.”
Her head shook harder with every word.
“It’s the best way out. Maybe the only way.”
“You’d want me to stay with strangers? No. I won’t do it. I can’t.”
He studied her anxious face. He got it. She’d never been beyond the library in North Good Hope or bought a dress in a store. She’d never lived among people that weren’t exactly like her. From every angle she faced a huge learning curve. “Okay, but you can’t stay here. Not after what happened with the Reverend. How long until you wake up one night and find him standing over your bed? You don’t think keeping his son at bay has been part of his plan—at least subconsciously? Frankly, I’m surprised it’s taken this long for him to…”
“You give me little credit, Sebastian Christos. Do you find me so frail and weak? You don’t believe I could outwit him, fend him off?”
“Not my point. And I prefer not to test the odds. If you think for one second I’m leaving you here to…” He shook his head. “Do you find me that frail and weak?” he said, overcome by protective instincts. “It’s not happening, Evie. You’re done with this place.”
To his surprise, she agreed. “Maybe so. But I also won’t stay with your friend. If you’re going to South American, I’m going with you.”
“You’re going… Don’t you think taking on the outside world should start on a smaller scale, like maybe the mall?”
“Not if South America is your destination. Besides, you’re not the only reason I need to go—”
“Evie, stop. You’re not coming with me, not for a thousand reasons. If you think I’m taking you from Good Hope and delivering you to the jungle… There’s no way.” She tried to object, but he wouldn’t let her get a word in. “You’d be blown away by my neighborhood back in South Philly, never mind a radical foreign country. You’ll stay with Bim.”
She was silent, though it didn’t strike him as obedience—not like the women of Good Hope. She folded her arms across bare breasts, her face stoic. “Are you quite through?”
“With this decision… yes.” Sebastian folded his arms behind his head, elbows splayed wide as he sunk into the pillows.
“Good. Then you’ll be quiet so you can hear how it will work.” His wide blink met with her brown-eyed stare. How had she ever managed for so long in this oppressive life? “Since I don’t know the difference between what’s in a mall or South Philadelphia or the jungle, I suspect that part won’t matter. And it’s not even about what I want, Bash. I have to go with you.”
“Because...”
“You haven’t considered every part to this problem.”
He knotted his brow.
“If I wore a wedding ring, I suspect I would have twisted it raw on my finger by now. With all that’s happened, have you forgotten? I am married to another man.”
It wasn’t that he had. But right or wrong, he saw Ezra Kane as nothing more than an unfortunate nuisance. Evie’s burning glare said she wasn’t seeing quite the same thing.
“For whatever Ezra’s father has done, Ezra deserves none of it. You know where he is. I want you to take me to him. I have to tell him face to face—about us, about what his father has done. If I can’t honor my marriage, I will honor the bond we’ve shared since childhood. I owe him that.” Sebastian tore his hands through his hair as her determination came clear. “I won’t leave here any other way, under any other agreement. Think about it, Bash. I can get out of this bed and go back to my life here. Don’t doubt me.”
“I’ve already said my piece,” he said, refusing to move from his prone position. “You’re not staying here at the mercy of that bastard.”
“Then I’d say you have little choice.”
“Be realistic.” He sat back up. “I don’t doubt you’d do anything—including outright murder to avoid the Reverend. But look at your arm… your mouth. Dumb it down to physical size and will, eventually he’d…”
“I’m sorry if this feels like blackmail. I should think it’s going to feel worse for me if I have to go through with it. But unless you agree to take me to Ezra, I don’t see how else I leave here. That’s the way of it.”
He sighed, weighty and unsure. “You picked a fine time to assert your independence, Evie.”
“I suspect you might want to get used to it.”
Getting them out of Good Hope was easier than Evie envisioned. So many men returned from Colombia the rental vehicle had been a necessity, the keys left in it. Racing against dawn, Evie slipped back inside the cottage and packed a few things. On her way out, she stopped, righting Ezra’s painting and the easel, which lay on the floor. Reverend Kane was nowhere in sight, the Kane house dark. But passing by her father’s house there was a jab of ambivalence. If her mother were alive, would she be doing this? Evie looked toward Sebastian, who waited by the van. The outline of his frame was unmistakable, even in shadowy darkness. Uncertainty faded. Not even her mother could change her mind or how she felt. As for Gideon Neal, since Evie married Ezra her father had become more like a distant relative. Chances were he’d see nothing wrong with her father-in-law’s perverse means of extending the Kane bloodline. “Go Evie… if the Reverend deems it God’s will…” She shuddered and she did go, passing by her father’s house. In her mother’s death and Evie’s life, Gideon Neal had been no more than a complacent bystander.
“Are you ready?” Sebastian asked.
It sounded more like, “Are you sure?”
Daylight was a rooster’s crow away. Lights turned on in the Blyth and Pruitt houses. Evie knew their day before they lived it—a repetition of actions, blind devotion, and conformity. She didn’t want the same. Too overwhelmed to speak, she nodded at Sebastian. As they left the confines of Good Hope, roads quickly turned unfamiliar. Excitement, expectation, and a dollop of fear drove the pounding in Evie’s heart.
Sebastian explained that they would sail to South America aboard a ship. It was scheduled to leave later that day. On the outskirts of Philadelphia, seabirds circled, squawking from above. “The harbor,” he said, “it’s not far from here.” He smiled and reached over, squeezing her hand. “I need to make a few stops first, including returning this van.” He parked and the two got out, the swell of traffic and people unnerving Evie. She held tight to Sebastian’s hand as they went into several places of business.
The first was a bank, and Evie didn’t ask as Sebastian came away with a large sum of cash. From there, he suggested her clothing was ill-suited for traveling by land or by boat. They walked down another busy block, Evie glancing from stranger to stranger, people who came in a myriad of colors, all looking so different from one another. Sebastian stopped at the entrance to a storefront. One woman came out, then another. Each looked like a fancier version of the women she’d seen in North Good Hope. They carried several shopping bags. “Uh, this should work,” he said. A revolving door took them into a ladies’ clothing shop, its whirling spin indicative of Evie’s new life.
Inside, she perused rack after rack of readymade clothing, the choices of fabric and fashion dizzying. After a few turns around the shop, Evie was overwhelmed and confused. Everything was such an unknown. Panic flickered. If shopping for clothing is a mistake… Just as her breath bordered on hyperventilating, a woman with sky-high hair, the color of angels’ wings, came to Evie’s aid. “What a beautiful young lady you are. Pastels would be perfect on you.”
Evie said nothing, and a few moments later it was likely the saleswoman thought she was a beautiful deaf mute. She didn’t say a word, only accepting outfit after outfit as the woman led her into a room where the purpose was to try on the clothes.
A short time later, Evie peered into a long mirror. The most full-length reflection she’d ever seen was her glassy image in the window of a har
dware store in North Good Hope. The saleswoman looked decidedly pleased as she and Evie absorbed the astonishing result. She’d never worn trousers, let alone blue jeans. She didn’t know how to respond when the saleswoman insisted that hiding her figure was a sin.
“Sweetheart, I don’t know who convinced you high-buttoned collars and bulky skirts were in this spring, but trust me, they were just jealous.”
Evie reached toward the reflection, unsure if it was her own—the way her breasts filled out the tight-fitted material, a pale-pink T-shirt and denim hugging her backside and legs. Sebastian was leaning against a wall when she came out of the dressing room. He stood ramrod straight, the awed look on his face matching hers.
“A transformation, I should think,” she said softly.
“Only on the outside.” His gaze met hers as Evie looked in yet another mirror. “Don’t hate me for saying it, but I’m a fan.”
Several purchases later, they left the store and made their way to the dock. He asked Evie to wait in the van while he talked to the ship’s captain, described as “a guy he knew.” Evie suspected there would be pieces of Sebastian that would not be explained, questions she shouldn’t ask. She looked around streets she’d never walked on, volumes of people taking up the sidewalks—more than she’d ever seen in one place. The men carried square cases and many of the women hurried along in high-heeled shoes and tightly tailored suits. Other types of people caught Evie’s eye—a man who appeared to be sleeping in a cardboard box and a few feet away another one with a metal cart selling food. Between them was a police officer, none seemed interested in what the other was doing. In Good Hope, it was difficult to find a moment in the day where one’s life went unnoticed.
Evie looked in the direction Sebastian had gone. As he reappeared through the thick of strangers, the breath she’d been holding eased. Not long after they’d settled their business and the van was returned, they boarded the ship. Sebastian whisked her below deck and through a maze of narrow corridors, finally unlocking one of the many doors they passed.