This lake is far from anyone’s field of vision, which means that no one inside has any view of us, hence why the fence opening has yet to be discovered; it is too remote and hidden. With a kind of calmness I’ve never seen in her, she sits beside me, pulls up her knees, and rests her chin on them. I lean back, propping myself up with my arms, and taking in the beautiful sight of the lake as the wild harmony of the waves created by the incoming wind ripples across the surface.
“What is this place?” She asks me in wonder, her tone tinged with disbelief, which only prompts me to look at her.
“It’s a lake I found once. No one comes here, and I like to use it as an escape.”
She seems to think about the matter before looking out at the forest surrounding the rest of the institute outside its fence. It’s a forest so deep and wild that you cannot escape it even if you try. If you survived out in the wild here, frostbite would claim you before you could reach the nearest road to hitchhike.
“It’s beautiful.”
It sounds more like she’s talking to herself, so I choose not to answer her.
We sit there for minutes, but it feels like hours, as we watch the clouds slowly move forward, and the darkness gradually overtake the sunlight. Never before have I felt this peaceful, and it causes something to take root in my lower belly, a type of fear that comes with being vulnerable and caring.
“How long have you been here?”
Her voice is the only thing that can break through nature’s silence, and when she speaks to me in her captivating voice, it’s as if time stands still and all other sounds cease to exist, a voice so powerful it can make any man sink to his knees.
“About eight months. It never gets easier.”
“Gee, thanks,” she mutters under a breath, and I laugh teasingly.
With her hair splayed out, she lies back, feeling the soft grass blades beneath her. The lake’s color echoes her blue hair tips–both so stunning it weakens me.
“Are you okay?” I ask her again.
“You seem to ask that a lot,” she laughs before continuing. “Yeah, I guess I am. I feel so stupid for thinking he would want to eat with me.”
“Hey. Alex is an asshole. Don’t mind him. If it makes you feel better, he probably has a broken nose by now.” I smirk at her.
“What?”
Still lying on the ground, she’s closed her eyes, but I don’t say anything else, and she doesn’t push. The shirt is tight against her upper body, and it’s then that I notice that she’s not wearing a bra; her nipples harden in the cool breeze, making something shift within me. My longing for her has been growing in intensity since the moment I first saw her. My mouth salivates, my body starving for a single taste of her. Fuck me, she’s hot. Hotter than the first time I caught my eyes on her, and even more sexy now when she is so peaceful.
“I can feel your eyes on me, you know?” Although her voice sounds annoyed, her attempt not to smile suggests she enjoys my attention.
Her chest falls and rises as she breathes in, her breasts moving with them and looking too delicious under the shirt. She opens her beautifully mismatched eyes, and I know I’m about to do something impulsive, something I will absolutely regret later. Her minty breath fans against my mouth as she breathes, and I straddle her, my mouth mere inches from her. The intensity and heat in her eyes are so clear, it’s as if she offers something on a silver platter, waiting for me to make the first move.
I’m playing a dangerous game with her, where neither of us can win. There is something about the way she observes me, her eyes hooded with desire, and wets her lips, never breaking eye contact with me. It is even more lethal to touch her, but I find myself incapable of stopping as I brush a curled, navy blue strand behind her ear, taking in the beauty that she is. Her freckles spark, and a beautiful mole is right above her lip, teasing me and calling me to kiss it, but I know I can’t. Kissing is too personal, and this is not.
Her shivering only reinforces the hunger coursing through my veins, speeding up the rate at which my blood pumps. It doesn’t take much for me to feel butterflies in my stomach when I see a smile like hers, but they’re not beautiful butterflies, they’re ones that encircle my stomach, designed to bleed me dry from the inside out. Perhaps there is where my decision comes from. After all, I have never been good at controlling my impulses.
“I don’t even know your name,” she whispers, fanning my mouth until I can’t fight the craving anymore.
A laugh slips from deep within me as I stare at her, slowly gliding my hand under her shirt toward her bare breasts. “I’m Grey.”
She nods in confirmation as she tastes my name on her lips, and fuck me if it isn’t the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard. “I’m Naya.”
Her lips smile without showing her teeth, but the yearning in her eyes is clear, and her cheeks flush in response. Her yearning for me is just as intense as my craving for her.
“If you’re going to lie upon me, you might as well fuck me,” she says tantalizingly.
“It’s nothing personal,” I state, and she nods in agreement.
“One taste, that’s all it is. One taste, and we won’t ever speak about this again,” she whispers into the air, the wind gripping her words and transferring them to somewhere else.
She is like a sickening desire, a drug I need to take to feel the ecstasy before it slowly withers away and I’ve had enough for the day. Yes, one taste is all it takes to erase her from my mind. I see it in her empty gaze, too. This is just a quick fix, like taking that goddamn drug because you crave it at first but regret it afterwards. Certainly, I was not expecting this when I walked after her through the double doors of the cafeteria or when I silenced her screams of pain.
I move us so we face the pond, her head almost toward the edge that slopes like a downhill before the water meets land. She is surrounded by lush grass, blades rustling in the breeze, and some strands of grass stuck in her hair, but she remains unfazed.
