"You and I. It was never ordinary. And it was scary." he said, showing the most honest expression I had ever seen in his eyes.

"It was scary for me too." I admitted, as I took the joint from his hand again, aching to feel relaxed. "I've always longed to have control over... everything. Death was the only thing that definitely escaped my plan. And then it didn't anymore. And that has turned to be even scarier than being its slave. Now that I can control it, I am responsible for it. And I can't take it."

"Yes, you can, Tess. You're the bravest person I have ever known."

"That's not true..." I said, shaking my head. Tears started to fall down my cheeks again.

He abruptly moved much closer to me, and he took my face between his hands. I gasped. Our mouths were only a few inches apart. His breath of marihuana brushed my skin. He softly dried my tears with his fingers.

"It is true. So, tell me, Tessa: What should we do now?"

I wanted to answer to what we should do right then, but I didn't want to fall back into his arms too easily, so I took his hands in my hands to move them away from my face, and slightly pulled back.

"Nothing ordinary." I answered, and he smiled. "We've already tried that. Demonstrations and trials aren't going to get us anywhere."

"And what do you suggest then, my crazy boss?" he joked, and I smiled.

"This evening I stole plenty of material from the lab." I reminded him.

His eyes opened wide when he realized I was serious about going illegal. I almost added that I had done it with Camille's help, but I decided I didn't want to bring her up. Not when it felt like we were making up.

"See? You are the bravest person I know. So... you really want to go illegal, to start doing it secretly?"

"Yes. I know you don't think it's a good idea, and David said I shouldn't, but..."

"Sh." he hushed me, and he put his hand over my mouth. I gasped again. "I don't want you to mention that asshole ever again. We are going to take him down. I promise."

"I don't know if I want to take him down." I said, and I instantly wondered why I had said that.

Luke backed off and looked away from me.

"What do you want, Tessa?" he asked in an angry tone, clenching his teeth. "Do you want him?"

Did I?

"No." I answered, and I tried to collect that bravery he affirmed I had in me from all the corners of my body. "I want what we had. I want you to be with me through all this. I want to feel like I felt..." I tried to think of the moment I had missed most during his absence, and memories of my lonely sunset walks by the Thames crept in. "... at the London Eye"

He looked at me again, but his expression was serious and unreadable and contained. I didn't know if he was going to yell at me or kiss me. But I did know what I wanted, so I moved forward and climbed on his lap.

"Tess..."

I kissed his forehead, and started a trail of kisses along his face, through his cheekbone, down to his jaw... His breathing started to get faster, and he wrapped his arms around my waist, and pressed me towards him. I opened my knees, so that I was sat on top of him. I started to feel him grow and harden through his jeans, and I kissed him.

He kissed me back furiously, bit my lip angrily, and started to undo the buttons of my blouse. Before he even took it off, he kissed and bit my cleavage, impatient, anxious. I put my hands under his t-shirt and caressed his back and pulled him in, closer to me. I ached to feel his skin against mine. He pushed me so that I lay on the bed, without stopping to bite my cleavage and my neck. I took his t-shirt off, revealing his perfect, muscular body, eager.

He undid the zipper of my jeans, and managed to pull them down while keeping me laid. I wondered whether we were going too fast, but he kept kissing me and pushed those thoughts off my mind. I moved my hand to the bulge in his jeans, and pressed it.

"Oh, Tessa, I can't help it..."

He undid his zipper, and, moving my panties aside, crushed into me before I knew it. I groaned.

"Oh, yes, I missed those sounds... I missed how you enjoy me fucking you hard..."

His dirty words almost made me come. He moved in and out of me fast. I bent my knees and wrapped them around his legs to help him penetrate me further. He moved my bra down without taking it off, revealing my breasts and pushing them up.

"Oh... Tess..."

His movements sped up even more as he squeezed my boobs. I couldn't stop moaning and looking at his face. It was the definition of ecstasy. Madness. He started to lick my nipples and I lost control.

"Oh Luke! Please! Keep doing that!"

"You enjoy this, babe?" he asked.

He slowed down and penetrated me with deep, strong thrusts for a few seconds. Then, he groaned and sped up again, even faster than before. I pressed him harder with my legs and he started to bite my neck, hankering, hard, hungry... and I exploded. He groaned loud, and I moved my hands to his back, pulling him further into me...

"Stop!" I suddenly screamed. "We are not using protection!"

Images of how disastrous my getting pregnant at that point could be flooded my mind, and I panicked. He must have noted the fear in my eyes, because he instantly pulled out of me, and a splash of creamy white liquid landed on my breasts. He stared at me until his breathing normalized, and then kissed me softly.

"I am going to clean myself up." I said, and I made my way to the bathroom.

It surprised me that I didn't feel as happy as I had thought I would. I felt confused, uncertain of how things were going to be, not sure of how I wanted them to be. I didn't feel safe with Luke anymore. I slightly felt as if I was betraying myself for going back to him.

"Tessa?" he called, startling me.

"Yes?" I answered from the bathroom. I could see his reflection in the mirror. He was smiling.

"I had almost forgotten how beautiful you are."

My doubts vanished, and I walked back to the bed to lie beside him.

"I don't know if this is a good idea." he said abruptly, just when I was about to doze off.

"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling disorientated.

"You staying here for the night. So many things have happened... I reckon we both need to think."

I looked at him in disbelief. He had just fucked me and worshiped my beauty and now he was kicking me out. He really had to work on his bipolarity. And I had to work on not needing him anymore.

I automatically pushed my emotions away as soon as I remembered my urgencies.

"Well, I reckon we have work to do before we go to sleep." I said, and I looked in the direction of the material I had stolen.

He immediately understood what I meant and sighed.

"We can do that tomorrow, Tessa."

But I couldn't wait anymore.

"You could die tonight, Luke, for God's sake."

He chuckled and rolled his eyes.

"No, I couldn't. And neither could you. And I don't think it is a good idea to use that when we are so tired. We should get a good night's sleep, in order to be fully alert."

His laziness made me desperate. I just laughed, because I didn't want to cry anymore. Or maybe I just laughed because I was stoned.

"If I had told anyone a year ago that someone would be postponing being immortal, they would laugh at me."

"I am not postponing anything, Tessa, I just prefer to do it in the morning, that's all. You're so impatient and insistent." he said, shaking his arms.

My heart broke.

"And you take everything for granted." I affirmed.

He took me for granted, he took life for granted... I had thought those could be the consequences of becoming immortal. Being in no hurry at all. But Luke was mortal and already acted that way, like so many other people. Maybe eternal life wouldn't change us that much in the end. Maybe whether we lived every second to the most or wasted time didn't depend at all on how much time we had.

I didn't want to spend my time with someone who just wanted to spend his. I got dressed, packed my things, and made my way to the door. I looked back at him. He was staring at the ceiling. I waited for him to say something. He didn't. My heart fluttered and broke some more as I opened the door and he stayed silent.

As I walked through the empty corridor of the hotel, I presumed marihuana was preventing me from feeling heartbroken at high definition. I couldn't cry. I dreaded the moment when the effect of the joint would be over.

I found myself alone in the dark, London night and realized I didn't have anywhere to go. David was the only option, and he wasn't an option anymore.

"Great." I muttered to myself.

I needed Nora. I realized that I hadn't thought of her in a long time, and yet she was the reason I was stoned and alone and heartbroken at dawn in London.

I turned my phone on. I had thirty four texts. Eighteen were Lindsay's, asking where the hell I was. Seven were David's. Without allowing myself time to rethink it, I called him. He picked up instantly.

"Tessa! Are you alright?"

And I finally broke into tears.

"Where are you? I'll go pick you up. Anywhere. Just tell me, Tessa."

I kept crying, and tears streamed down my face like waterfalls. It hurt so much to hear his voice. The way he spoke to me, completely leaving his ego aside. The way it sounded like he really cared about me.

"Why..." I tried to ask.

"Why, what? What happened, Tess?" he nervously said, concern growing in his voice.

"Why... did you..."

"Okay, hold on. My phone tracked your location. Don't move, Tessa, I'll be there before you know it."

I couldn't move if I wanted to. I sat on the pavement and thanked God nobody walked by. I didn't want to run away from him. He had been my salvation. I was stuck with the David I had known. He must exist, even if he was only a tiny part of the man that was coming to get me. I remembered Luke's eyes when he talked about him. He was so sure of David being guilty, that it astounded me how obsessed I was with him being wrong.

He appeared in his black BMW before I could think of anything else. He run out of the car and dropped himself by me. He was gorgeous and surprisingly calm. I had expected him to break out, tell me off, and repeat and repeat how reckless I had been in the last twenty four hours. But he didn't. He just sat by me, and I was the first one to open my mouth.

"Luke came back. And I'm not crazy or hallucinating. Well, I am drugged, but that's... not interfering. He came back. He's staying here." I said, and pointed at the hotel.

"Okay." he answered, and put his hand on my shoulder. "I believe you."

I was comforted and puzzled at the same time. That was all he had to say?

"Don't you want to know why he disappeared?"

"Yeah. But not just know. I want you to be fine first. Or if you'd rather talk now..."

I pushed him away.

"As a matter of fact, I do prefer to talk now, David. Why did you sign a four million agreement with Fleming&Florey?"

His eyes opened wide and analyzed my opinions.

"Did Luke tell you that?"

"He did. He found the agreement. That's why he run away, to investigate you. But that's not the point here."

"Oh, please... Wait... Do you think I have something to do with this?" he asked, and he pointed to me and then to him again.

"With robbing my idea, you mean? I don't know, you tell me, lawyer."

He stood up and started to pace nervously. Seeing him on his feet made me remember I was sitting on the pavement at four in the morning.

"We can't talk about this here." he said, looking around nervously, and then stopped to glance directly at me. "Look, Tessa, you have to trust me. Get into my car, and I'll tell you everything at home."

He must have seen the answer in my eyes, because he added:

"Please."

I had never heard him plea. He was too used to getting everything he wanted without having to insist.

My usually unwise but ineludible intuition advised me to agree and get into his car. Deep down, I was aware that I didn't believe he was the one that had betrayed me. Luke had left me for three months, so it was hard to bring myself around trusting him. However, my lack of trust in him didn't interfere with my love for him.

David and I spent the whole ride without saying a word.

Kensington looked more majestic than ever. As we approached David's house, the white columns at the door and the millenary trees in the gardens made me feel like a small, scared child. Nausea and vertigo started to threaten me, so when David opened the door and we walked into the living room, I let myself fall on his elegant red suede couch uninvited. Politeness had definitely abandoned me that night.

"Do you want a cup of tea?" he offered. "You look like you could use one."

I looked at him. I really looked at him, for the first time that night. His eyebrows were drawing a beautiful frown on his tan forehead. His perfect lips were pressed together.

"No. What I could really use is an explanation."

What did you think of this chapter? Do you think that Luke and Tessa should be together again? What do you think will happen next? Let me know in the comments! I am entering the Wattys 2016, so, if you enjoyed it, please don't forget to vote :)

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