I pushed back my chair and stood too.“Meeting over?”
No one answered.
Fine.
I stormed out.
The common room went quiet the second I entered.Every head turned.
“Ender?”Clove said.
That was it.
I crossed the room and grabbed her hand.She came with me without hesitation.I stalked out the door with all the ol’ ladies and cousins staring at us, but I didn’t care.
“Is everything okay?”she asked softly when we stopped in front of my bike.
I didn’t answer.I kissed her.It was the only thing I wanted.
Deep.Hard.Claiming.
I didn’t care who saw.Hell, I had blown this secret out of the water ten seconds ago, so I was all in on taking Clove as mine.
When I pulled back, my forehead rested against hers.“Want to go for a ride?”I asked.
She nodded.
We roared out of the lot.
All I wanted was the road.
And Clove on my back.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Clove
The night wrapped around us like a secret.
The hum of the engine vibrated through my bones, steady and sure, and the road stretched out ahead of us in darkness, broken only by the glow of the headlight cutting through it.I had my arms wrapped tight around Ender’s waist, my cheek resting between his shoulder blades, and for the first time since everything had gone to hell, I wasn’t thinking about what might be waiting for me around the corner.
I was just… here.
With him.
We’d been riding for at least two hours.I knew that because the tension I’d felt when we first pulled out of the clubhouse had slowly bled away, mile by mile.At the start, Ender’s body had been tight beneath my hands.His shoulders rigid.His jaw clenched.I could feel it even through the leather and denim, the way his mind was racing faster than the bike.
But as the road opened up, something changed.
I felt it in the way his breathing evened out.In the way his grip on the handlebars loosened just a fraction.In the way his left hand slid back to rest on my thigh.
It felt like we were outrunning everything for just a little while.
Out here, it was just Ender and me.
I tightened my arms around him, pressing closer, and he responded instantly, his hand giving my leg a reassuring squeeze.I rested my forehead against his back and let myself smile into the darkness.
This right here was freedom.