Page 53 of Fear No Hell

We cross the street to the white-washed brick building hosting the dinner.

Outside, there’s a chalkboard sign reading, “Congrats to the Graduating Residents!” Inside, we step into a bustling crowd that’s happy, relaxed, and filled with every person I've shared the last three years with. I’m 99% positive I’ve never seen any of these people so much as smile; freedom from the inhuman schedule of residency and free booze will do that to people, I guess.

“Sammy!” Dillon screeches from across the room, their rainbow hair bobbing above the crowd as they bustle their way across the room to me and Lila. “You’re here!”

“I am one of the residents,” I respond drily. “Pretty sure that makes me one of the guests of honor.”

They bat at my arm lazily before turning their attention to Lila.

“Goddamn, LiLi, that dress is stunning on you.” Lila shoots me a confused stare at the unexpected nickname that sounds like Dillon is saying LeeLee; I shrug.

It’s easier to just let them go when they’re in party mode.

“You sure Sam’s the one for you? I know he looks like a nerdy Henry Cavill, but there's a certain awesome nurse who might be willing to settle down with you—”

“How ’bout you stop hitting on Lila in front of me?” I grit out through bared teeth; Dillon simply snickers back at me.

Lila nestles further into me, her hand resting in the center of my chest in a movement that makes me feel ten feet tall. “Dillon, you precious human rainbow, as incredible a life as I’m sure you and I could have together, Sam’s it for me.”

Dillon swings toward me, their hands pressed together in front of their chest. “Wait. Does that mean what I think it means…”

“What do you think it means?” I ask.

“Are the two of you—” They seize Lila’s left hand and drag it towards them. “Oh, I thought you proposed, Sammy. I’m kinda disappointed in you. How could you not lock down this goddess?”

If only they knew. “Only thing missing from the equation is a ring.”

Lila turns her face towards me, a soft smile turning up the corners of her lips, as Dillon flails and screeches over our “almost marriage” before grabbing our hands and dragging us around the room to introduce everyone to Lila as “Sam’s not really fiancée” with all of the enthusiasm people usually reserve for children’s birthday parties or, y'know, actual engagements.

The rest of the night passes in a haze of good food and mostly tolerable conversation with people I already spend too much time with.

Throughout it all, Lila stays by my side, radiant and always in contact with me, even when she’s holding a conversation with someone else.

My attending proves he’s still the same jackass as he has always been by trying to stare down Lila’s dress while he shakes her hand for far longer than necessary.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t let me knock him out and hang him next to Arthur in our basement.

Fortunately, she does let me drag her away from him to the far side of the room.

She proceeds to hold a deep-dive conversation with Dillon and Ethan about the Iliad—which I happen to know she had a hand in inspiring—while I glower at my former attending…

and every other fucker who happens to get too close to her.

By the end of the evening, I’m positive that everyone except Dillon prefers Lila to me, which is very much as it should be. She’s fucking incredible.

It’s about to hit 11:00 when Lila squeezes my hand tightly. The first time she’s done that all night. I pause mid-sentence and wait. And there it is: the second squeeze. I give her a nod to confirm I felt her signal.

“Hey, I think it’s time for us to head out,” I comment.

Dillon doesn’t look surprised, but Ethan and Michael do.

“No way you’re tired.” Ethan shakes his drink at us, the partially melted ice cubes sloshing sadly at the bottom of the glass. “You work the night shift, name twin!”

“I know, but I don’t get to spend a lot of Friday evenings with Lila because of it.” I thread my arm around her waist. “So I want to take advantage.”

The look Lila shoots me is molten, even though she knows I’m trying to get us out of here.

“Well, if I had someone this gorgeous at home, I would want to get out of here too,” Dillon chimes in. “None of you are as cool as Lila.”

It’s a toss up whether I want to hug them or rip their eyes out of their sockets, so they’ll stop looking at her.

Could go either way. My best friend is a chronic flirt, so this is nothing I haven’t seen from them before.

That being said, it doesn’t change the flood of emotions rioting through me as Dillon guides us to the door like a short, colorful bouncer while Ethan and Michael trail behind us.

I’m not this guy. I’ve never been this guy.

Y’know, the crazy possessive one who can’t stand anyone looking at or talking to their partner.

That’s never been me. Not like I’ve had a ton of experience; going from being the “crazy kid with one leg”—a brutal, verbatim quote from one of my many high school bullies—to a bookworm through undergrad, med school, and most of my residency, all while being laser focused on the woman in Arthur’s attic, didn’t leave much time for relationships, much less losing my virginity.

I did date, though, and never once did I feel this smoldering rage about anyone touching what’s mine. Lila chose me; everyone else can fuck right on off.

Jesus Christ. Am I turning into a possessive dickhead?

“Dr. Eaton.”

I blink in surprise, only now realizing I’ve lost the vast majority of whatever conversation was happening around me. “Hmm?”

Next to me, Lila claps a hand over her mouth, not really silencing the laugh she’s trying to smother.

“Alissa told me you were planning to take some time off before you start as an attending,” Michael says, referring to the hospital administrator who oversees all of the hospital’s operations.

“Oh, yeah. I’ve had a lot going on the last year, and it felt like the right time to take a break before I dive into full-time.”

In a not-quite whisper, Ethan wraps his hand around my upper arm and murmurs to Lila, “We’ve been worried about him. It seems like he’s holding the weight of the world on those hot-as-sin shoulders.”

“Ethan!” Michael snaps, which fortunately takes attention away from where Lila’s smile has transformed into something not even a blind dog could mistake for anything but the threat it is.

“Sorry, sorry,” Ethan choruses as I tug Lila towards the door.

Nodding away his apologies and shouting our goodbyes while I keep Lila close, my arm still wrapped around her waist as we cross the street and take the elevator to our garage floor.

Her body is practically vibrating when we close in on the car.

“Lila—”

“How dare he?” she spits, the area around us illuminated in scarlet from her irises.

“I’m sorry?” It feels like a question, although I’m sure I have things I could apologize for after tonight.

“What are you sorry for, pet?” The pet name slides silkily past her fangs.

“I’m not entirely sure,” I admit. “Probably for growling at everyone who… breathed the same air as you. Maybe for getting us not-really engaged without asking you first? And definitely for acting like a possessive asshole.”

She clicks her tongue at me in an emphatic tsk.

“Don't be silly. I loved all of that. Want to know why?

" She doesn't wait for me to respond before she says, "Because I belong to you in the same way you belong to me. Fucking eternally. No, what infuriated me was these people thinking they can touch you, flirt with you—” She cuts herself off with a baring of fangs and a hissed, "You're mine. "

“I—” The rest of my sentence is lost to time and space because my girlfriend—a word that feels so inadequate for what we are to each other—closes the space between us and backs me up against the car. Crawls up my body until her legs bracket my waist, my hands holding her up by her ass.

“Open the car, pet.”

One-handed, unable to bring myself to let her ass go fully, I fumble for the keys, nearly drop them, manage to click the lock button twice and the emergency button once.

Finally—fucking finally—I manage to silence the alarm and unlock the car.

Holding my breath, I tug at the back door handles, only inhaling easily once it’s flung open.

“Get in the back seat,” Lila orders in that same dangerous, melodious voice.

I don’t question her. I simply drop onto my ass, Lila's knees straddling mine, and drag myself across the bench seat until my back rests against the far door, my legs extended out in front of me.

“Good boy,” she purrs. “Such a sweet pet.” She’s crawling up my body, her breasts nearly falling out of her dress, her tattoos glowing in the darkness like a beacon. Like a perfectly artistic demand for me to be hard for her, so she can take whatever she needs—whatever she wants—from me.

Her hands pull open my suit pants and rip at my boxers until my cock is bobbing in the air between us.

I’m harder than I’ve ever been in my life; a stiff breeze could set me off at this point.

Instead of air, though, I get Lila, dragging yards of fabric up and settling over my hips, one shapely thigh jutting through the slit in her dress.

“Fuck,” I grit out at the sudden realization that she's warm, soft, and not wearing any goddamn underwear. “Goddammit, sweetness, you’ve been bare under there this whole time?”

“Umhmm.” She grinds down over me, the head of my shaft glancing through her wetness, ripping broken noises out of both of us. “I didn’t want anything separating me from my pet.”

“Jesus.” My hips jerk up. My length skates through her wetness again, and, for a moment, one brief, heated second, I feel myself sink into her and almost lose my goddamn mind. “Fuck.”

Then it’s gone, the warm clutch of her cunt fucking gone, and I’m whimpering, sad, pleading sounds that have her smiling.

“You think I’m going to take your virginity in the back of a car?”

“Please.” It’s pathetic, the way I’m begging, not that I can be fucked with caring. “Fuck, Lila, please, sweetness, I need you.”

“Oh, I know you do.” Her hand wraps around my cock, presses me forward until my shaft is flush with her clit.

“But when I take your virginity—and trust me, my sweet pet, I will take your fucking virginity, it's only a matter of time—it’s not going to be in a parking garage 300 feet away from everyone you work with. All of those people who looked at you like they wanted a piece of you.” She rocks her hips back and forth. “They wanted my pet. My fucking pet.”

The car interior is lit in scarlet and white lights, her irises and tattoos luminous in the darkness as she rides me. I can’t take my eyes off of her, so gorgeous I can't imagine that anyone could mistake her as anything other than the goddess she is.

My goddess.

“I should take you back inside and fuck you in front of all of them, so they know who you belong to.” Her clit is rigid against my swollen dick as she rocks over me, each pump dragging her over my length.

“Jesus fuck, Lila.” My voice doesn’t sound like my own, but neither does hers.

My nails are black claws, digging hard into her tattooed hips, forcing her shifting motion faster and harder until she’s ordering me to come right before she flings her head back and screams, drenching me as she comes, her tremors vibrating along my shaft.

“Jesus Christ, yes, fuck, keep moving, please.” I can’t breathe as the muscles in my back go taut, pleasure racing down the nerves of my spinal cord until they center where I’m pressed against my girl. “Lila, god-fucking-dammit, sweetness, I’m gonna come, baby, yes!”

And then I’m exploding all over her pussy, my cock pulsing centimeters away from where I should be, where I need to be, as I go momentarily blind, white lights filling my vision as I coat Lila in my cum.

When I can finally see again, Lila is kissing me, pressing her lips all over my face, her breath warm and uneven against my skin.

“Does that answer your question, my darling?”

“I had-wait, did I have a question?” I blink up at her owlishly.

“Not so much a question as a fear. You were scared I might think you were treating me like a possession.”

“Oh, yeah, right.” The conversation from before is coming back to me. Now if only the ringing in my ears would stop.

“Do I seem scared?” One eyebrow goes up as she dips a hand in between her thighs.

“No.”

Her fingers slide over my softening cock, forcing a moan from me, before they start moving. Rubbing.

“Are you—”

“Making good use of what you gave me?” She tugs me forward into a filthy kiss: sloppy, desperate, and filled with teeth and tongues. Through it all, she circles her clit until she sobs out another orgasm into my mouth, soaking me in a combination of her own slick and my cum.

After one final sweet peck against my lips, she draws away. Her eyes are soft and dreamy, her red irises glowing less ferociously now. “That was—”

“Hey, is everything okay up here?” someone calls from the elevator bay. “Somebody said they heard screaming.”

“Oh fuck,” I breathe as Lila bursts into slightly hysterical giggles.

The sound of footsteps echo in the space, but they’re walking away from us. “Hello? Is anyone up here?”

Lila is still shaking with laughter.

“Sweetness, you’re gonna get me arrested,” I snark. “Now get in the front seat, so I don’t end up going to jail tonight.”

Giggles barely contained, Lila tumbles through the space in between the seats and get situated in the time it takes me to admit my boxer briefs are a lost cause, thanks to Lila’s claws, and buckle my pants back up.

As I get out of the back seat, I glance at my own nails.

I could have sworn they were tipped with claws of their own before.

In my mind, I can practically see the blackness of their sharp points pressed into Lila’s hips.

It must be a hallucination brought on by a mind-shattering orgasm because now they’re short and rounded. No sign of claws to be found.

Shrugging, I shut the back door and open the driver’s side, sliding in next to Lila with the person outside still calling for the mystery screamer. “Time to go home?”

She smiles at me. “Yeah. Time to go home.”