Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 127712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
I think Nova mumbled out, “Thank you,” or something like that. I don’t actually remember. I was so enthralled with her at that point. And I know it was just the beginning of everything, and there would be moments ahead of us that would truly be worth writing down. But that first time was special.
After she went downstairs for her meeting with Mercer I walked across the sidewalk to a little copse of trees. This part was well-manicured and looked after. But the real, wild woods were but a few paces behind me when I leaned up against that tree trunk, folded my arms, and waited for her to be done.
When she came out, she saw me immediately.
So I beckoned her.
I mean, you really could not call a flick of my fingers an invitation.
But that’s what she took it as.
What was I gonna do? Back out?
I don’t think so.
A fresh start and new beginning with a beautiful woman? Fuck yeah, I’m in.
She followed me into those woods. And that was crazy. I mean, it’s the Institute. So, granted, I guess one could assume it’s ‘safe.’ But then again, it’s the fucking Institute. One never assumes it’s ‘safe.’
But she was all brand-new, and shiny, and eager. And… to be quite honest, alarmingly naïve.
But it was also an opportunity. One I was not inclined to pass up once she stepped into the woods.
And then, I dunno. She turned, and looked up at me, and her eyes were so filled with… something I still can’t describe.
The kiss wasn’t planned, but I have to say, I had never kissed a woman like that before. It felt right. And natural. And when I encouraged her to touch me, to feel my hard cock under my shorts—and when she didn’t pull away—well.
It was over at that point.
Nova was mine. I was never giving her back.
I get it. She was confused. I didn’t make things any clearer as the day, then days, then weeks went by.
I took her places. Secret places. Dark places. I took her any chance I got.
And, in my defense, she went along.
No. She more than went along.
It took a few weeks, but by the time she had her first dinner with Olsen, she was driving the whole thing.
But even before then, there was a moment. I had pulled her into one of the empty rooms of Trapp when she was leaving to get some coffee one morning. She and Mercer had been up in the lab all night long and I was jealous.
Not that Nova and I ever had anything exclusive. We didn’t.
Still don’t, obviously.
But I hated Mercer’s role in her life. She spent so much time with him. And I get it. He was important. Hell, it was his project. But that doesn’t mean I had to like it.
Nova wants to think that I hated Mercer back then. She wants to believe that I resent him. She’s told me this. But I don’t hate Mercer. I just hated his role in her life back then. That’s all. It’s very different.
I could never hate Mercer. The dude is as much a part of me as the Institute is.
Besides, he has more reasons to hate me than I do him and clearly, he doesn’t hate me.
Nova is a lot of things to us, but as far as Mercer is concerned—these days, anyway—she is nothing but a past shared experience. One he’s no longer interested in sharing.
Anyway. That morning I took her into the deserted hallway, then an empty room, and her hands were all over me. She was unbuttoning my pants before the door even closed behind us and her fist was around my cock a few seconds later.
But these were things she had done before. What came next was new.
Because she was the one who kissed me that morning. Not the other way around. And it wasn’t just any kiss—not that our kisses ever were. But until that morning, that was my doing, not hers.
She kissed me like she was starving. Like I had been denying her my mouth for ages. Like we didn’t just do this very same thing yesterday afternoon behind a few bushes next to the chemistry building.
She let go of my cock, leaned up on her tiptoes, lifted her chin up, placed both hands on the sides of my face, and kissed me like we were long-lost lovers.
And even though I now know that ‘lovers’ is the word she used for Mercer, that morning it was me she loved. Not him.
I pull the Suburban into the Midnight Ark parking lot. We were both quiet on the drive home and I’m just now realizing that. So it becomes awkward when neither of us makes a move to get out.
I look over at her. She is lit up by some stray beam of moonlight coming through the windshield. This makes the shadows fall across her face unevenly, one side dark, the other almost silver.