Her body had never felt so alive.
He remained at her side through the daunting hours that followed, standing up, and taunting, taking the questions the guards roared throughout the entire process. Taking all the attention from the other prisoners as best he could, she knew it wasn’t for them. He was doing it for her.
She cried out when they beat him. Couldn’t breathe when they shocked him with their electrical prods. And he took it all with a pained smirk, sneaking glances in her direction, with dark eyes demanding her to stop reacting.
Elodie couldn’t help it. The sight tore her heart out, and it only got worse as his shirt was torn, seared, and burned off his body. As his skin welted over and bruised. As his face swelled up and his skin trickled rivulets of bright blood. But he egged them on until the pirates were called elsewhere, and his body was slumped in an unmoving pile.
A half-dozen armed androids filtered into the space after that and took up shop, standing sentinel and watching them through their metal and plastic eyes. They were given food, but she couldn’t eat.
She glared at them but they didn’t glare back.
“Ely...” Gunner’s voice rasped out.
“Shhh,” she said, moving up against the bars they shared. “Don’t speak.”
“They can’t hear us, not now, at least.” He shifted into a sitting position and slumped over into her bubble.
“It doesn’t matter. You’re hurt.”
“I’m pretending. You know I am.” His eyes glinted for the first time in a cycle.
Elodie frowned and caressed his cheek. His lips twitched and she pulled her hand back.
“Your touch feels real...”
Real?She looked at him hard, confused, her finger twitching to touch him again. After an internal battle, she did, sliding her hand through to comb his tousled locks. “Because it is,” she whispered.
Time seemed to slow to a pause as she brushed his hair with her fingers, pulling it softly away from his face. His ghoulishly dead-looking eyes watched her, but she couldn’t read them. Neither one of them wanted the moment to end.
Strangely, as she continued to pet him, comfort him, needing the contact just as much if not more than he did, Gunner began to heal before her eyes. It started with the bruises clearing his face and chest. The swelling went next, until all that was left was the deep welts of his electrical burns until they were gone altogether too.
When it was all over he caught her hand and brought it to his mouth.
The whole universe could be looking at them at that moment and she wouldn’t care.
His lips touched her palm, kissing it, sucking on it, his hold tightening as he moved her hand up to bury his nose at its center as his tongue licked her wrist.
An electrifying jolt shot straight from her red-hot cheeks and down between her legs. Her insides knotted and her core clenched as she stared at him sucking on her wrist. His eyes never left hers. The ache grew with each passing second, making her feel emptier and emptier. The only thing that could fill her back up was him, his power, and the steady unrelenting assurance he exuded. Whether it was with words or with his body, she didn’t care.
Her fingers twitched as she pressed her legs together, his gaze holding hers captive. It would be a lie if she didn’t imagine him staring at her as he spread her legs, as she imagined his rippled arms caging her in. Despite everything, the fantasy was something she no longer wanted to fight. The flat of his tongue settled hotly over her wrist.
Slowly, Gunner sat up, pulled his mouth from her skin, released her, and leaned his back on the wall. Elodie hugged her hand to her chest, her heart strumming beneath it.
They continued to watch each other in measure. The rest came and went.
Elodie could feel his power break open and crumble her many shells, laying her out naked and vulnerable and there was nothing she could do to stop it, because in turn, she was doing the same to him. He offered all his secrets willing while hers had to be pried out.
It wasn’t until one of the androids flitted by, dropping a new set of rations in their cells, that their enchantment broke.
She and Gunner shared their food in silence and as the light water gel was rushing down her throat, she decided to make the first move.
“Will you...” she started. His eyes hardened and she swallowed, beginning again. “Will you save us?”
Gunner turned his face from hers and looked slowly around the brig. More time went by and she couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, waiting for him to answer.
“My price is high,” he said at last.
Elodie nodded, knowing it would be. “I’ll pay it.”
