Chapter 10: Hollis

"That burn," I said. "It's the same as mine."

"Not now," said Hollis.

"It wasn't there two days ago."

"Greta." His voice was rough, and his hands had not left my hair. "Please. Not now."

I should have pushed.

I wanted the answer more than I had wanted anything since I woke up on my ceiling.

But I wanted something else more, and it was standing in front of me with its heart going hard under my fist.

"Then tell me one true thing," I said.

"I've wanted to kiss you since before you ever said my name."

It was a plain answer, and it was true.

I could hear that it was true.

I took his hand and led him up the metal stairs to the loft over the shop, where the linemen kept a cot and a space heater.

Abel was asleep below by Ward's table.

Emmett had taken the first watch at the gate.

I shut the loft door behind us.

The room was small and warm, with one window and the smell of old coffee.

I turned around.

He stood at the foot of the cot with his hands open at his sides.

"Your rule," he said. "No one touches your hands when the light's up."

"It's down."

"I know."

"Then touch them."

He took my hands in his, and turned them over, and kissed each palm.

His mouth was warm.

I felt it all the way up my arms.

Then I pulled him down, and he came, and the cot groaned under us.

He kissed me slowly this time.

He kissed me until my head went light, with his hand spread flat on the small of my back.

His mouth moved along my jaw and down to the place under my ear.

I heard myself make a sound I had never made.

"Jacket," I said, and tugged at it.

He shrugged it off.

I got his shirt over his head and put my hands on his chest, on the heat of him, and found the pale burn across his ribs.

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