He sighed and pulled her back over to him.
Did he want to kiss her? Did he think she wanted to kiss him? The idea was tempting, but she wasn’t going to. She wouldn’t prove his point so easily.
Besides, she’d already given Enzo too much of her heart. She wouldn’t give him anything else if he planned to leave her the first chance he got. And he most likely would do just that. Over the two weeks, he hadn’t given her any indication that he had second thoughts about his loyalty to the government.
He didn’t move nearer to her, just watched her like she was a puzzle he was trying to figure out.
She rested her hand on his shoulder. “Even if the visions say you should die, I’ll protect you. I’ll tell my father he’ll have to kill me along with you.”
Enzo ran his fingers across her cheek, then kissed her forehead. “You’re so adorable and incredibly foolish.” His lips found hers, kissed them softly, gently.
She was beginning to have second thoughts about her resolve. She wanted to convince Enzo that staying married to her had its benefits.
She ran her hand across his T-shirt, feeling the soft material underneath her fingertips. It had ridden up at his stomach, and her fingers touched the skin there.
He broke the embrace, let out a low breath, and edged away from her. “I still can only think of one reason why your father would put us together for two weeks. He also believes in your chosen one theory. That means the only insurance I have that he won’t kill me is if I don’t consummate our marriage. Then he’ll have a reason to keep me around after tomorrow.”
That idea hadn’t occurred to her, but apparently, Enzo had given it a lot of consideration. Which meant it didn’t matter how nice or friendly her parents treated Enzo tomorrow. He would never trust them. He would never want to stay with her.
“I don’t think…” she started, but she couldn’t say what she thought her father’s plans were. “They’ll probably just let you go.” She tried not to sound like the possibility made her miserable.
Enzo rolled over on his back. “We should try to get some sleep. We have no idea what tomorrow will bring.”
She was about to go when he took hold of her hand again. “You can stay if you want.”
He seemed to want her close by, a security blanket, nothing else. Perhaps she needed some security too. She stayed there holding his hand and listening as his breaths became steady and deep.
It took her much longer to fall asleep.
25
Enzo woke first. The solar panels had begun working again, humming heat through the vents. Lighted outlets along the floor glowed, announcing daybreak was upon them.
At some point during the night, either Charity had snuggled up next to him or he had to her. They lay in the center of the bed, and she was curled against his side. She looked beautiful while she slept, her hair messy and haloing around her shoulders.
Over the last two weeks, he’d tried not to stare too much at her, but now he watched her, attempting to memorize her features. Things would change between them today.
Whatever her family had in store for him, they wouldn’t give him the freedom or easy access to Charity that he’d had during the last two weeks. They would have to do something to keep him from escaping.
He remembered a story of a long-ago explorer who’d come among a group of primitive people. They liked him so much that they didn’t want him to leave and so had cut off his feet to ensure he didn’t.
Hopefully, her family didn’t have anything so gruesome planned for him. Charity might even be right, and they’d let him go. They might whisk her away and leave him here to find his way back to the city.
It would take him so long to trek to civilization that they could be far away by the time he made any sort of report. No doubt they had been building new identities during the last two weeks.
The possibility of freedom should have propelled him out of bed and set him packing his things. Instead, he stayed where he was, watching Charity and fighting the urge to wrap his arms around her.
After about an hour, her eyes finally flickered open. She blinked in confusion, looked around the room, and then remembered. “What time is it?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I just woke up.”
She sat up and noticed her phone on the edge of the mattress. The screen was dark. “Ugh. I’ll need to charge this.” She threw back the covers, and her long legs slipped from the bed. “We better get ready. We don’t know what time my parents are coming.”
It shouldn’t have bothered him that she sounded excited about that reunion.
Enzo had used a sewing kit to repair the hole in his backpack. The black thread against the green material looked vaguely like Frankenstein stitching, but it held well enough. He packed up the clothes he’d come with and made a pancake breakfast with the last of the flour.
Then, because her family hadn’t shown up, they did their morning workout with the weights and treadmill, showered, and got re-dressed.