I pushed her in the direction of where I’d parked my car. “No time like the present to learn.”
We ran off away from the tree, almost immediately drawing attention with the leaves and sticks breaking under our feet. Flashlights shifted in our direction and I could hear voices in the distance saying that they’d spotted us. Part of me wanted to turn and fight, but it was just me and Avion. I’d only be able to do so much on my own and if I wanted to protect her and get us both out of there alive, I needed to be smart, not hasty.
Bullets started to pierce the air, and the fact that I could hear them making contact not far from us meant that they were close. I turned around, tried to get a beat on one of our pursuers, and fired. One of the flashlight streams flew up towards the sky and I knew I’d hit my mark. Avion gasped, but I just continued to push against her back, coaxing her forward.
“Don’t turn around. Just keep running!”
She listened to me, running forward until I could see my black Lamborghini in the distance, a car designed for speed and stealth. A risk I had to take, I lifted the keyless start and unlocked and turned on the car. It rumbled to life and the lights flashed on and Avion yelped.
“They’re going to see!”
“It’s fine as long as we’re faster,” I shouted. “Get in!” She yanked open the door and threw herself in just as I ran around the other side and did the same. I looked over just in time to see Vincent Narzand lift his gun and point it directly at Avion. “Duck!”
I grabbed the back of her head and shoved it forward, ducking myself so that the bullet just barely missed. I threw the car into drive and just pressed the gas, my car fishtailing a little bit, but I eventually caught it and got it on a straight path back out of the woods. Bullets were ricocheting off the back of my car as we drove off.
“Avion, tilt your head forward,” I ordered.
But she did the exact opposite.
She pressed the button and rolled down her window and lifted up out of the seat. “What the fuck are you doing?!” I barked.
Craning more than half her body out the window as we flew along, I heard bullets start to pop out from the gun she had. I was so terrified of what she was doing that I could have puked, but eventually, those bullets flying at the car stopped. She came back into the car and sunk down into her seat with a look of fury on her face.
I looked over at her with my jaw dropped. “That was stupid.”
She nodded. “Yeah. It was.”
What had happened with her brothers since she was taken from me?
Eventually, I made my way out onto the interstate and was quick to merge into traffic in case anyone was trying to follow us. Avion just sat in silence, looking down at the gun in her hand, shaking and struggling to breathe. She seemed scared, angry, and sad all at the same time. I reached over and grabbed the gun and took it from her, and then, though it scared me to do so, I grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
“You’re okay,” I said. She looked over at me and then her eyes filled with tears. It was like my voice had snapped her back to reality and she just started sobbing, quickly devolving into hyperventilating. She was sucking in air like she couldn’t catch her breath and shaking violently. “Avion? Are you okay? Avion!”
Even though there was a risk we were being chased, I couldn’t keep going with her freaking out the way she was. I pulled the car over to the side of the road, pulling off into the woods where the car was relatively hidden and parked. I jumped out of the driver’s seat and ran over to her side and opened the door, thinking the fresh air would help. I crouched down in front of her and took her hand.
“Avion, it’s okay. Look at me,” I said. Her eyes drifted up and met mine. “It’s okay. You’re safe now.”
Her breathing started to even out, she threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around me. It took me by surprise, not quite understanding exactly when she’d come to be so important to me, but I was so happy that she was close to me again.
“They want to kill me,” she said. “My brothers want to kill me. They tried to kill me. And they want to kill my dad. They said they were going to blame it on you and have you killed behind bars and—”
“Shhh,” I said, pulling back and cupping my hands on either side of her face. “It’s okay. I’m not gonna let any of that happen.”
She pulled back against me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and holding on for dear life. Her heart was slamming in her chest and she was shaking, but the longer I held her, the calmer she seemed to get. For some reason, I was overwhelmed with the need to pick up where we’d left off before she was ripped from me.
I leaned back from her again, setting my hand on her cheek. “Hey… I’m sorry for before. I won’t try and control you outside of the bedroom, okay? So… please don’t back out.”
One of her hands wrapped around the back of my neck and pulled me to her. She only said, “Okay,” before she pressed her lips to mine.
It had never really happened that way for me before. I’d always been the one to initiate a kiss when there was one but letting Avion take the initiative in that situation didn’t bother me. Her arms clung around me and dragged me as close as she could get me. In spite of the circumstances, I was relatively helpless. My hands slid up her legs and around her back, and before I could stop it, I was leaning into the car over her.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought about comfort and reached down to recline the seat. We fell back as the seat went flat, but Avion just hung on to me, keeping me fastened to her. There was this desperation between us like we were both so needy of one another all of a sudden; after being ripped apart, it wasn’t all that surprising.
All of a sudden, though, we were headed in a direction that terrified me to my core. Avion moved around so that I was lying flat in the seat and she was straddling me. I was having an out-of-body experience, smoothing my hands up her legs to push her dress up while she fiddled with the buttons on my shirt trying to get it undone. Every few minutes we’d stop working on undressing and kiss again. There were no commands, no actions, no rules, just wanton need.
Since losing my virginity, I’d never done such a thing.
Avion slipped her arms out from under the spaghetti straps of her dress, allowing it to drop down her torso and reveal her breasts. I sat up on impulse and suckled my mouth around one of them, sending her head back and bringing a moan out of her. Her hands continued to work my shirt until she was able to work it over my arms and off, then she clawed at my undershirt, dragging it up.
