Once An Eve Novel

bright in the lantern light, as if he knew something I didn’t.
    I took off the headset. “What is it?” I asked, trying to meet his gaze.
    “Moss granted me leave from the City,” he said. “As soon as the first tunnel is completed, he told me I can go. He thinks it’s too dangerous to stay, to be leading the digs. They’re narrowing their search. I’ll return if he needs me.”
    My hands trembled. “So you’re going to leave?” I asked, my voice thin with nerves.
    “ We’re going to leave.” He stroked the side of my cheek. “If you’ll come with me. I want to go east, away from the City. It’ll be a risk, but it’s a risk everywhere. We’d be on the run again, which isn’t what either of us want, but please, at least consider it.”
    I didn’t hesitate. “Of course.” I brought my hands to his face, watching the lantern light on his skin. “It’s not even a question.”
    He pressed our bodies into one, his hands moving over my back, my shoulders, my waist, pulling me closer and closer to him. “I promise you we’ll figure it out—we’ll figure out some way to live.” He breathed into my neck. “This feels right to me. It’s everything else that’s screwed up.”
    “So things begin now,” I said. “I’m here. I’m with you. And in a week we’ll leave. It’s as simple as that.”
    Caleb lifted me up, letting my back rest against the metal wall. I wrapped my legs around his waist. He pressed his mouth to mine, his hands in my hair. My lips touched his, then found their way to the soft skin of his neck. His hands slipped down my sides, ran over my vest, and settled on my bottom ribs.
    He carried me into the cabin. Every inch of me was awake, my cheeks flushed, my pulse alive in my fingers and toes. I couldn’t stop touching him. My fingers ran down the knots of his spine, lingering on each one, a tiny knot below the surface of his skin. The plane was silent and still, his hands cradling my neck as we lay down on the makeshift bed, just big enough to fit us both. He pulled off his shirt and threw it on the floor. I ran my fingertips over his chest, watching goose bumps appear under my touch. He let out a small laugh. I circled over his ribs, then down to the square muscles of his stomach, watching his lips twist as my fingers moved.
    “My turn,” he finally whispered, reaching for the buttons on my vest. He popped them open one by one. Then his hands moved quickly, pulling it from my shoulders and starting in on the crisp white uniform shirt. He didn’t stop until each button had been undone, the fabric pulled back, exposing the black bra I’d found in my closet the first day I’d arrived. The folded map was still inside.
    He kissed me, unable to stop smiling. My head rested in the crook of his arm, his cheek next to mine as I watched his hand move over my body. His fingertips touched down on my skin, the heat spreading out beneath them as they ran along my stomach, circling my belly button. He traced a line up the center of my ribs to the hard, flat space between my breasts. Then he brushed his hand over each one. He curled his fingers, his knuckles dragging across the soft flesh that spilled over my bra.
    That was all it took. Our mouths pressed together, his breath hot in my ear, his whispered words barely audible. I love you, I love you, I love you . He kissed me again, his lips hard against mine as I clung to him. His hands were all over me, his body shifting on top of mine. Then the air went out of my lungs, and the world fell away.
    The walls went first, then the seats. The floor dropped out from under us, the lanterns disappeared. The voices from School were silenced. I couldn’t smell the musty cushions. We were suspended in time, his hands holding my sides, my legs wrapped around his, pulling him into me as we kissed.

twenty-seven
     
    THE POUNDING WOKE US. THE PLANE WAS SO DARK THAT I couldn’t see Caleb beside me. I could only hear him and feel his hands searching around my feet for his crumpled shirt. We’d only been asleep for a few minutes. We’d only just drifted off. “Who is it?” I asked, panic rising in my chest.
    “I don’t know,” Caleb whispered. “Quick—we can go out the back exit.” He reached around until he found my hand. The warmth of it comforted me.
    We felt for our clothing on the floor. The pounding continued, each knock jolting my entire body. “Come on, man!” I heard Harper yell. He was jimmying the emergency door, trying