He stopped her there, though not with his tone. He spoke so quietly she could hardly hear him, but hardly was enough. If anything, hardly made it more devastating—as if he didn’t need any extra emphasis. The point was clear and obvious all on its own.
“It isn’t the people who died who need something, honey,” he said, while inside her the music reached some terrible crescendo. “It’s the one who survived.”
She didn’t know what she was saying, after that. The words just tumbled out in a way they never had for her first shrink or her second shrink or the man from the airline who’d tried to counsel her right out of the millions of dollars they’d eventually handed over. She’d never been able to say it—not even to herself.
But it came out now.
It came out like someone screaming at the sky.
“I just wish I’d held on tighter to her hand.”
“Like you’re holding on to me now?”
“Yes, yes. God, yes just like this,” she said, because there was something about it that seemed the same, even though they were safe. There was always a chance after all, that everything could fall apart. That she might lose her grip again.
And she knew he could see that too.
“Can you feel the fire raging?” he asked, and when she closed her eyes she could. She could see the flames rolling along the ceiling, as though a dragon had breathed down the body of the plane.
“You know I can.”
“And you’re falling, and everything is going so fast, everything is so loud, everyone is screaming,” he said, as though he’d been there with her.
He was there with her.
“Oh God, they are.”
“And what are you doing, Enid? Tell me what you’re doing.”
“I’m holding on,” she said, and somehow it was true. His hand was in hers and she was squeezing so tightly, so tightly as the plane inside her went down. The fire roared and the metal screeched and the people fluttered away like pieces of paper into the vast blue beyond, but she hung on. She saw his face, and knew she could hang on. “I won’t let go. I swear I won’t let go,” she said.
And he told her the only thing she’d ever needed to hear.
Want more Deeper Than Desire novels?
Try Sheltered, a standalone novel about a girl who’s being violently abused by her father, and the punk who gives her everything she never thought she could have.
Evie has lived her entire life under her abusive father’s thumb. He controls everything. Where she goes to college, who she sees, what she does. But when she meets Van—a punk who shows her how different life could be—she realizes how much she’s been missing.
Van offers her excitement, protection, love...and most of all, sex—even if he’s at first reluctant to give her all the things she’s been craving. She wants to explore this new world of arousal and desire, but Van is only too aware of how fragile she is, how innocent...
And how much is at stake, when their love is forbidden.
About The Author
Charlotte Stein is the RT and DABWAHA nominated author of over fifty short stories, novellas and novels. When not writing deeply emotional and intensely sexy books, she can be found eating jelly turtles, watching terrible sitcoms and occasionally lusting after hunks. For more information, visit www.charlottestein.net
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Other Books By Charlotte
Never Better
Never Sweeter
Control
Addicted
Deep Desires
Intrusion
Forbidden
Taken
Restraint
Curveball
Sweet Agony
The Professor
Telling Tales
Run To You
Doubled
You Already Know
All Other Things
Raw Heat
Make Me
Closer
Giving
Reawakening
Ever Unknown
Lust Dazed
Guarded
The Horizon
Past Pleasures
Power Play
Waiting In Vain
The Things That Make Me Give In