Finding Home

Author's Note: It seems like people are reading this, and I want to thank those who have reviewed (and especially those who have reviewed multiple times). It always makes my day to see what others think of my stories. I hope you continue reading and continue letting me know what you think!

psyche b.

13. The Air She Breathes

Bethany wasn't sure how long she had slept, and when she finally woke up she felt lightheaded. She wasn't in bed either. Red has sitting on the sofa with his feet propped up on the coffee table. She was resting against his side. She had no memory of how she had gotten there. She assumed that Red hadn't wanted to leave her in bed alone, though at that moment she wasn't able to explain why. Whatever the reason, she shifted and found her thigh was throbbing. She groaned.

“You okay?” Red asked quickly. He must have just gotten out of the shower because his hair was down and he didn't usually leave it like that for long.

“Yeah.” Speaking seemed to take a great deal of energy. She sat up slowly. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Fourteen and a half hours.” He brushed sweaty strands of hair out of her face. “You feelin' any better?” Even in the dim room she could see the concern in his eyes.

“I don't know, I guess.” She yawned and got up.

“Where ya goin'?” As out of it as she was, she could still see how worried he was.

“Bathroom.”

She'd only gone a few steps when she started to breathe heavily. The bathroom seemed to be miles away, but she finally got there. When she was raising her nightshirt she felt the swelling on her thigh. She pulled off the bandage and was shocked to see that the swelling was bright red and pus was starting to ooze from what had been a small scratch. She put the bandage back over it again. She knew she had to go get some kind of antibiotic, but even small movements seemed to take an inordinate amount of effort. Since she didn't see her bag in the bathroom, she figured Red had probably dropped it in the other room.

When she opened the door, Red was waiting on the other side of it.

“Where'd you put-” She gasped for breath. “my bag?”

“Why?” He brought her back to the sofa.

“Leg is infected-” Another gasp. “Need to go to...*gasp*...medical.”

“That ain't all that's wrong.” He wrapped the blanket around her shoulders again. She shrugged out of it.

“I know...*gasp*...but whatever I have....*gasp*...they'll fix it.”

He wrapped the blanket around her shoulders again. “Abe's closer.”

“Fine.” She didn't have it in her to argue. Bethany knew she should have gotten up, but curling up and going to sleep again was so tempting. He picked her up carefully and carried her out into the hall. Bethany curled against his shoulder.

“Get Abe, tell him to meet us in the lab.” Red said to someone. Bethany didn't open her eyes to see who.

“What-” Bethany recognized Davis's voice.

“Just tell 'im!” Red was trying not to yell. Bethany could hear Davis hurrying away. She fought to stay awake, Red's brisk pace helped her in that effort. He set her down on a gurney carefully.

“What-” Abe started, but then stopped short. “Good heavens!”

“Leg is...*gasp*...infected, and it's...*gasp*...hard to breathe.” She shrugged out of half the blanket and lifted the hem of the nightshirt enough to expose the wound.

“Don't try to speak out loud, just lower your defenses and think of what you want to tell me.” He grasped her wrist lightly, half to take her pulse, half to establish a connection with her. “Were you hit by one of those darts the wights were throwing?” He put an oxygen mask over her face.

“No, I don't think so. I was hit by something in the very beginning, but I have no idea what it was. Is the infection what's making me so sick?”

He listened to her heart and then her lungs. “Take a deep breath.” Bethany did. “Another.” She complied.

“Can't you just give me some antibiotics for my leg and let me get some sleep?”

“I will, but it's more complicated than that, Bethany. I'm reasonably certain you were hit by one of the darts, but I need to draw some blood to know for sure. Is the oxygen helping at all?” He was moving around the room quickly, gathering bits and pieces and finally rolling a monitor over to her.

“A little I guess, but sitting still might be helping too.”

He attached some sort of sensor to her index finger. Red was pacing.

“What's that?” Red asked.

“It monitors the level of oxygen saturation in her blood.”

“What's that gonna tell ya?” Red asked.

“Red-” Bethany started.

“Maybe you should wait in the library. I'll be out soon to tell you what I know.” Abe said.

“Now just a minute, I'm not-”

“It's okay.” Bethany said. “I'll be fine.” She had no idea whether she would be fine or not, but it's what he needed to hear.

Red looked from Bethany to Abe and back again. He turned and left without another word.

“He's upset with me.” Bethany turned her head away when he wrapped a tourniquet around her upper arm.

“I'm sure he isn't. He is worried about you though.” He swabbed the crook of her arm with alcohol. “Why didn't you tell anyone you weren't feeling well?”

Bethany winced when the needle pierced her skin. “I wasn't feeling all that bad. I had a scratch on my leg and I felt kind of like I had a cold coming on, but it had been raining all day and it was freezing in the mine. None of that seemed out of the ordinary. I figured we would get back, I'd get some sleep and sniffle for a few days and I'd be fine.”

“Not an illogical conclusion. Collins and Clay both have colds. You had no other symptoms?” He took the needle out of her arm. She held the gauze pad over it.

“I felt a little feverish and tired, but nothing that made me think anything strange was going on.”

“I'm going to start you on broad spectrum IV antibiotic. You can rest for a bit and I'll analyze your blood sample.”

He started to prepare a location on the back of her hand for the IV. She grasped his wrist.

“Scared.” Her voice croaked slightly.

He gripped her hand softly. She could see the compassion in his large, dark eyes. “You're going to be fine. I'll see to that.”

Bethany nodded and sat still while he got the IV started. As uncomfortable as the gurney she was on was, she curled up on her side and was asleep in minutes.

*~*~*~*~*~*

The professor was in the library when Hellboy arrived, Myers and Davis arrived minutes later. He had no idea how long they sat there in silence, but it felt like days. He kept turning over the nightmare she'd had and how nervous she was before leaving. Maybe she'd dreamed about it. Hell, maybe he had too. She'd said he'd had some kind of a dream. Even if they had both dreamed of it, it's not like he could just tell her she wasn't going to go. That hadn't worked before, he'd had no indication that it would have worked this time either.

“Red, you hungry?” Myers asked softly.

“Nah, maybe after I know she's going to be alright.” He didn't meet the agent's gaze.

“She's-”

“You can't tell me she's gonna to be okay because you don't know that for sure!” He shot back, without giving Myers a chance to finish.

“We do know that she's stronger than she looks.” The professor said.

“And Abe said she was hit by one of those darts. You know as well as I do that wights who been in one place as long as those had are smart enough to poison their darts.” He rubbed the spot between his eyebrows and the stumps of his horns.

“That's true, and Abe hasn't told me much about the composition of the poison yet, except that it's somewhat different from what we've seen in the past. It doesn't make sense that wights would use a slow-acting poison though. They need only a few minutes to consume the soul and make the corpse into one of their own. There has to be more to it.”

“Yeah, it's that 'more' that bothers me.” He said.

An hour passed, then two. Hellboy started to wander through the large room trying to escape from the feeling of guilt that clung to him. On one of his passes close to the agents he heard someone's cell phone vibrating. He watched Davis answer.

“Nothing.” She said softly. “I will.” She ended the call and put the phone back on her belt.

“Lemme guess, Manning?” He sneered.

“He's concerned.” Davis said.

“Yeah, right.”

He walked away from the knot of people again. He didn't know what the hell he was going to do if he lost her. Strong or not, there was nothing to her and she was so sick. Maybe she would get better and decide life at the BPRD was all too much for her. He couldn't exactly blame her if she did.

He sat down in a dark corner, away from everyone else. Two more hours ticked by as he sat there, his mind too unsettled to hold onto any one thought for very long. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Davis approach.

“What?”

“Manning says she's too 'fragile' for this. He wants me to convince her to leave.” She spoke quietly enough that he knew the others wouldn't hear.

His eyes narrowed. “He know that without her he'd've pulled three dead agents outta that hole?”

“I don't think he likes to be confused by facts. He says he's convinced that one of these times she's going to put an agent at risk, or worse. I don't know if that's the whole reason, but I suspect it isn't.”

“He didn't get to that on his own, did he?” He knew the answer to the question before he asked.

“I don't have any way to prove one way or the other, but my guess would be no.” Davis met his gaze.

“Son of a bitch.” He shook his head. “She ain't his agent.”

“He knows that. That's why he was hoping I would talk her 'woman to woman' that she would be happier somewhere else.”

“You gonna?”

“No, but I'd be stupid to think I'm the only one he's enlisted for this.”

“Put it in the grapevine that if she goes, I go with her.” It was the first time he'd said it out loud. It wasn't an idle threat either. He'd figured out a way to put himself back together and go on after Liz because he knew part of why she was leaving was to get away from him. He didn't think he could do it again.

“You'd leave? For good?”

“Don't think the world is ready, huh?” He smirked a little.

“No, I just-”

“Who's that?” He looked toward the door, so did she. A blond woman in scrubs walked through the room and into the lab.

“I don't know, maybe someone from medical.” Davis said. Both of them got up and walked back to the others.

“Who was that?” Davis asked.

“She was wearing a med unit ID card.” Myers said.

Red felt panic beginning to set in. “You don't think-”

“No.” The professor said firmly. “Abe would have handled an emergency on his own, you know that.”

An uneasy silence settled over them. After twenty minutes, Abe came into the room.

“Well?” Red demanded.

“Bethany is stable and resting.” Abe said calmly.

“So who was that?” He asked.

“A nurse from the medical wing. I asked her to come down here so that I could come out here without leaving Bethany alone. I also wanted her to put Bethany on a heart monitor and I thought Bethany might be more comfortable if a nurse did that.”

“Is there something wrong with her heart?” He asked.

“No, it's a precaution.”

“So she wasn't poisoned?” The professor asked.

“Yes and no.” Abe answered.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Red was starting to lose his temper.

“If you give me a moment, I'll tell you what I know.” Abe's voice was as calm as ever. He waited until Red sat down before going on. “The darts the wights threw at you were tipped with poison and she was hit with one of them, but the wound was so minor the little poison that entered her system just caused a localized infection.”

“In her leg?” Red asked.

“Yes. Each group of wights uses a unique poison because they all have different things available. This group used a thick coating of poison that would liquefy on contact with the blood, but in each of the samples was a dormant bacteria I'd never seen before. I thought it was simply a contaminant of some kind, but the bacteria is what's making her ill.”

“How?” The professor asked.

“It's a mechanism I've not see before, and as intelligent as these wights were I doubt they planned it. The organism attacked Bethany's red blood cells. At first, it attaches itself to the cell, making it impossible for it to transport oxygen or carbon dioxide, eventually it digests the cell and reproduces itself. Very few of the bacteria entered her system, so between her immune response and her body producing more new red blood cells she managed to stay ahead of the organism for quite some time. On the way back she felt feverish and exhausted and she attributed that to a cold. At that point, if she would have come to me, I would have agreed with her. Later, the organism had reproduced to such a degree that her tissues were starving for oxygen. That's why her lips and fingernails were blue when you brought her in.”

“So is she gonna get better?” Red asked.

“I'm looking for a specifically targeted antibiotic that will destroy the bacteria, but even with what she's on I see no reason why she won't make a full recovery.”

“How long will that take?” The professor asked.

“And does she have that long?” Red added.

“She does. What she's on hasn't killed the bacteria, but it has interrupted its reproductive cycle, which admittedly is not what I was expecting, but this bacteria is unique as well. I've given her a transfusion, and that raised her oxygen saturation levels, but she's still deeply asleep. That might be due to the fever, a substance secreted by the bacteria that's having a sedative effect, or a combination of the two.”

“That's why she couldn't breathe?” Davis asked.

“Actually, she was breathing perfectly well, her body simply couldn't use the oxygen to the degree that was needed.” Abe explained.

“How long will it take to find the right antibiotic?” The professor asked.

“I'm conducting the tests now. Her second blood sample shows her immune system attacking the bacteria quite effectively though. She may not need further intervention to make a full recovery, but I want to have an alternate plan just in case she can't eradicate the organism on her own.”

“I wanna see her.” Red said.

“Of course.” Abe said. He got up and started back down the hall to the lab. Red followed. “I must warn you, still still looks quite ill. When I left, she was sleeping, but if she wakes she's likely to be rather disoriented.”

The lab was mostly dark when they entered, except for dim lights behind a curtain where he assumed Bethany was, and a more brightly lit work area. The nurse was sitting there making some notes.

“Did she wake up?” Abe asked.

“Not really,” The woman answered. “Her eyes opened a couple of times, but she didn't say anything.”

“Thank you.” Abe said.

“She does have a nasty-looking bruise on her shoulder.” The nurse said. She handed the chart back to Abe.

“Yes, I'm aware of that. I'll call again if I need further assistance.”

Red walked away from Abe and the nurse, and stepped behind the curtain. Bethany was curled up on her side with her back to him, her knees were drawn up. Someone, he assumed it was the nurse, had put her in a hospital gown and covered her with a light blanket. Even in the dim light he could see her lips and fingernails still had a bluish cast to them, though it wasn't as pronounced as before. He moved a lock of sweaty hair out of her face. Her skin still felt too warm. She didn't stir. Abe stepped up behind him.

“She is stable.” Abe whispered.

“She ain't comfortable.” He murmured.

“You're right.” Abe said. He indicated a hospital bed near a bank of monitors. “I thought that if she woke while you were moving her, that she would be less distressed.”

“I won't mess anything up, will I?” He was almost afraid to touch her.

“No. The monitors are disconnected at the moment. The only thing you could disturb is the IV, and I'll keep that out of your way.”

Red looked uncertainly at the merman and then started to turn Bethany onto her back. He lifted the back of her head with his left hand so that he could get his right arm under her back. When she was resting against his shoulder, he reached under her knees. She moaned softly when he lifted her. Abe followed behind him with the IV bags. He set her down carefully and her eyes fluttered open.

“Red? What's goin' on?” He could hear the upset in her voice.

“Just makin' you more comfortable, Lil Bit.” He managed a half smile. Bethany looked around, as if seeing the lab for the first time.

“Don't wanna stay here.” Her eyebrows drew together, she looked down at the leads from the heart monitor and the IV in the back of her hand. Her eyebrows knitted together and she reached for the flexible IV tubing. Abe stopped her and held her hands in place gently.

“I know Bethany, but you're still feverish and I can't treat you if you aren't here.” Abe explained gently.

“I'm not leavin' you alone here.” Red said. That seemed to be what Bethany needed to hear. She relaxed again.

“Sorry.” She murmured. Red let her lay back while Abe connected the various wires to the monitors.

“Nothin' to be sorry about kiddo, get some sleep.” Once Abe was finished he covered her with a blanket. She was sleeping against in minutes. Hellboy walked a few feet away with Abe.

“I meant it, I ain't leavin'.”

“I didn't think you would.” Abe hesitated. “You know, you're not responsible for this.”

“Blue...” There was a clear note of warning in his voice.

“I didn't read you that way, it's all over your face. I was the one studying the poison and I had no idea what that bacteria would do. How could you have known it even existed?”

“I should've protected her.” He looked away from the merman.

“I'm certain you did.” Abe said firmly. “If you'll excuse me, I'm going to have let Agent Myers know you're staying here. I'm sure he'll make you more comfortable.”

“But-”

Abe held up an hand-held monitoring device. “If anything happens, this will sound the alarm.”

*~*~*~*~*~*

That first night was the worst. He paced and listened to the soft beeps emitted by the monitors. He watched her breathe. He listened to the little mewling sounds she made in her sleep. Every time Abe came in he said she was doing fine, but 'fine' looked damn sick to him.

Finally, at around four in the morning, the fever began to relent and she opened her eyes.

“What time is it?”

“After four.” He took her hand.

“In the morning?” She hadn't moved, but her eyes didn't have that glassy look they'd had only a few hours before.

“Yeah. You been asleep since I brought you here just about.” She gripped his hand lightly. He noticed the bluish tint was gone from her nails and lips.

“I don't really remember much about that. Have you gotten any sleep?” She asked.

“I'm okay.” He said.

“No you're not.” She smiled a little.

“Okay, so I'm not.” He stroked her hand softly.

“You should go get some sleep.”

“Nope. I told you last night that I wasn't gonna leave.”

“You did?” The animation had returned to her eyes and he could clearly see the curiosity there.

“You don't remember?” He asked.

“I don't remember much past you bringing me in here. I told Abe about the infection in my leg and that I though I had a bad cold. He told me I would be alright and started the IV, but that's about all I remember. I must have been sicker than I thought if I can't remember anything.”

Hellboy considered trying to repeat Abe's explanation from the night before, and then rejected the idea. “I'm gonna let him explain it.”

“Okay.” Bethany sighed and closed her eyes again. This time, he leaned back in the chair and did the same.

*~*~*~*~*~*

The next time she woke up, Bethany felt much better, but she was shocked to learn just how sick she had been the night before. Abe did take her off all of the monitors when her temperature was normal for four hours. She got rid of the oxygen four hours later, but she still felt weak and she napped frequently.

As the days passed though, she regained her strength. Her bloodwork continued to show a steady decline in the bacteria. It became increasingly difficult for Bethany to just sit there in the lab. Red was there the whole time, and other people stopped in, but she had never been one to just be still and recover.

On the second day she woke from a nap to hear Manning talking with Abe. Red was standing next to the curtain, and whatever he'd heard had clearly upset him.

“But you can't be sure.” Manning said.

“On the contrary, I'm quite sure.” Abe countered.

“I'm only thinking of her.” Manning said. Even though she was just waking up she recognized the wheedling tone. “She isn't equipped to go into the field without her psychic abilities. It might be kinder to allow her to recover and then-”

“It's a good thing those kinds of decisions aren't yours to make. Her abilities are intact.” Abe asserted.

“She had a lack of oxygen-”

“Yes, she did. However, the human body is very protective of the brain and other vital organs. What oxygen she was getting was rerouted to keep her vital functions going for as long as possible. It isn't as though she had none at all.”

There was a long moment of silence. “I'll need proof.”

“You'll get it when she's full recovered, if she chooses to give you a demonstration. She isn't a performing seal.” Bethany thought she heard contempt in the merman's voice.

“You don't understand-”

“I understand perfectly. This isn't about her, and we both know that.”

Manning must have taken the hint, because the next thing she heard was retreating footsteps. Bethany had been too groggy to really discern what it was about. She didn't think it was Manning's decision to make anyway.

Bethany looked up at Red. “What-?”

“Just Manning bein' an asshole, like usual.” He kissed her forehead. “Feelin' better?”

“If I say yes, will you get me out of here?” She smiled a little and decided to ask more about what Abe meant when she was feeling better.

On the third day Abe told her she could leave as long as she came back to have her blood drawn and the dressing on her leg wound changed. At that point she would have made any promise to get out of there. One of the nurses from medical brought her a collection of antibiotics as well as list of activity restrictions.

Davis brought her some clothes, but all Bethany could think about was taking a real shower. It was the first thing she did. The second thing she did was curl up in Red's arms. She knew she'd spent their first night back with him, and he'd been with her in the lab, but it wasn't the same as snuggling close and listening to his heartbeat. He was still treating her like she might break, but by the end of that first evening, she could feel him starting to relax a little. The fact that they were wrapped up together in a quilt and she was wearing a nightshirt and little else contributed to that.

Bethany wasn't sure what they were watching, but his eyes were intent on one of the screens. His left hand carefully avoided the wound dressing as it drifted over her thigh to the edge of her panties and back to her knee again. For awhile, she was content to just enjoy the closeness, but when she looked up at him she could see a familiar tension around his jaw, and his tail was wrapped around her waist more tightly than usual. She had a pretty good idea of what was worrying him, too.

When the movie ended, she looked up at him. “I'm not going anywhere.”

He looked down at her from under heavy brows. “You know, one of these days I'm gonna stop believin' you when you say you're not that kinda psychic.”

“You have the same look on your face you did when we were coming back from France.” She stroked his cheek. “Do you really think I could just leave so easily?”

“You coulda died, Lil Bit. That would scare the crap outta anybody.”

“It did, but I keep telling myself that one of these days I'm going to get them before they get me.” She smirked, and he chuckled. “Besides, the most important thing in the world to me is right here.” She kissed the corner of his mouth and relaxed into him when he turned his head and deepened the kiss. Her tongue twined with his, his fingers dug hungrily into her thigh. When their lips parted she was trying to catch her breath.

“Kiddo?” The worry in his voice was clear.

“It's a good kind of breathless.” She smiled and kissed him again.

His mouth grew hungrier. Without thinking, she surrendered to it, letting him shift her body so that she was laying on her back, the blanket discarded on the floor. He settled between her legs. Bethany arched up against him. The familiar feeling of being overwhelmed made her moan against his mouth. His left hand moved under the shirt. Warm as his touch was, it made her shiver.

“If you can't-”

She kissed him softly, not wanting to hear the rest of his statement. “I can.” She murmured. Her hands started to wander over his chest and back. He pressed his hips forward, leaving her no doubt that he was pleased with her answer.

His hand continued its journey up under her shirt. Bethany arched when his fingers started to tease the underside of her right breast. Her nipples reacted instantly. His hand moved up further, between her breasts. Bethany lifted her arms when he tried to take the shirt off over her head. He succeeded in halfway choking her with the neckline. She put her hand in the middle of his chest, pushing him back.

“Wait, let me.”

“Don't know why all your clothes have to be so damn complicated.” He grumbled and moved back.

Bethany smirked. “Because you like a challenge.” She pulled the shirt off over her head.

He grinned and pinched one of her peaked nipples. “There's somethin' I like better than a challenge.”

“Hey!” She giggled and squirmed.

“Hey what?” He pinched harder, and twisted, sending shockwaves of pleasure deep between her legs.

She squirmed and arched. His mouth found the side of her neck, his tongue swirled over the soft skin, then he nipped at her moist flesh. Bethany moaned and lay back again, his fingers keeping up a constant teasing pressure on her throbbing nipple. The contrast of the sharp nips and light teasing made her head spin. She moaned next to his ear, her fingernails raked lightly over his shoulders. He growled and pressed his hips against her again.

His mouth continued its journey down the side of her neck and over her chest. His tongue tickled and teased around her areola on one nipple while his fingers did the same to the other breast. Bethany squirmed and started to make needy mewling sounds. Without warning, he bit down, suckling hungrily at the sensitive bud. She whimpered digging her nails into the thick muscles of his shoulders. He didn't back off, and she wasn't sure if that was what she wanted anyway. The way he alternated between hungry aggression and tender teasing was pushing her quickly toward the edge.

Bethany barely noticed when his hand left her breast. His mouth replaced it. His fingers traced her navel and then lower where only damp cotton stood between him and her most intimate places. She moaned and opened her legs a little wider. His mouth moved up the side of her neck while his fingers teased her through the fabric of her panties. Her nails traveled lightly down his chest and over his stomach so that she could stroke him through his sweats. He growled next to her ear and pressed against her hand. She licked around the outside of his ear and lightly nipped at the lobe. A tremor ran through his body and he sat up quickly.

“What-?”

He started to tug her panties down. Bethany lifted her hips, but yelped when they caught on the dressing on her thigh.

“Sorry.” He murmured.

She reached down and moved them past the tape. “Not your fault.”

He pulled them the rest of the way off and tossed them somewhere. His left hand caressed her leg as he stared at her in the shifting light from the TVs. Bethany found she was still too self conscious to hold his eyes for very long. She looked away, a little tremor chased down her spine.

He turned her face toward his again. This time, when his lips found hers they were as gentle as the first time he kissed her.

“Bed?” He whispered against her mouth.

“Bed.” She answered, her lips teasing his as she spoke.

He seemed to have as hard a time getting up as she did letting him go. He walked behind her to the shadowed corner where his bed was, and somewhere in that walk he shed the rest of his clothing. As soon as she lay down he was over her. The nervous little whimper was out before Bethany had a chance to stop it. As soon as his mouth found hers again, the nervous tension left her body.

He lay at her side and let his left hand travel down her body. To Bethany, it seemed like it took ages for his fingers to reach their destination, but when they did she opened herself wider to them. His mouth found her breast again while his fingers teased and rubbed the center of her pleasure. In a very short time, she was whimpering, needing more.

One finger slipped inside her, then a second, his thumb finding the small nub in the wet folds of flesh and giving it the attention it craved. Bethany didn't know how long it took, nor did she care. Her back arched, her nails dug into his shoulder, his thumb pressed just a little harder and the full force of her pleasure hit her. She cried out, twisting under him. He stroked her teasingly, inside and outside, extending her pleasure and closing out the rest of the world.

When the wave ebbed, Bethany came back into herself slowly. His mouth was on hers, she could feel his arousal against her side. She turned a little, stroking his whole length with one hand. His mouth left hers, his head rested against her shoulder. She could feel the low growls as much as she heard them.

When his mouth found hers again, the aggression was back. He pinned her hand next to her head and he moved over her. This time, Bethany simply yielded. His firm grip on her wrist eased, so did his mouth. She opened herself wider to him, he groaned and pressed forward slowly. She wrapped her legs around his waist and tried not to whimper as he worked himself inside her. The way her nails bit into back betrayed her discomfort. It wasn't nearly as bad as the first time, but it was more than she expected. He continued, and Bethany let herself fall into the intense connection.

She hadn't realized that she had tears on her cheeks until he lightly kissed at them. “Stop?” He murmured.

“No.” She breathed.

He started moving slowly, carefully. His mouth found hers, Bethany lifted her hips, moving under him. He took that as the encouragement it was meant to be. The aggression was returning to his movements, but this Bethany was ready for the unexpected perfection of painful battery and deep pleasure. He growled, his lips and teeth attacking her neck and shoulder. Her hips met his, though not with the same force. The the tense pleasure in her lower tummy began to grow again.

Each time her body was rocked by an intense thrust, she felt herself move closer to the edge again. She had no idea how long her sharp pleasure cries were mixed with his deep growls, it was as if the world and time had ceased to exist.

When her release came it consumed her like a fast-moving fire. Her legs tightened around his waist, her nails bit into his back, a whimpering cry erupted as she clung to him. Vaguely, she felt his back arch and she heard him roar as his release took over. The union between them was the only thing in the world that mattered.