Page 70 of Rebel Rising: A Dystopian Romance

"It's just such a big world, now that I've seen it I can't wait to see more and more. In the city there is nothing aside from bricks and mortar. I hadn't even seen a tree before. Not a live one anyway, or a bush or even grass. I hadn't seen animals or a lake or flowers or anything."

Coal didn't reply and I noticed that his breathing had become heavy and slow.

"Coal?"

His head was tipped back and his lips parted slightly. A soft laugh escaped me and I eased the whisky glass out of his hand.

His weight shifted and more of his weight pressed against me, trapping me in my corner unless I wanted to wake him.

He was clearly exhausted after spending days out in the forest and skipping sleep to keep watch in the cave. I didn’t want to risk waking him so I wriggled a little to get more comfortable, finished the last of my drink and dropped my head back on the couch.

My head was still spinning with everything that had happened and I wasn’t sure I could sleep anyway so I just sat there, enjoying the silence.

I’d head back upstairs when he shifted away from me again, but for now, I was pretty comfortable right where I was.

"What have we got here then?" Alicia sounded like she was calling to me from far away and I groaned as her voice made my head pound.

Somehow we’d gone from sitting up to laying down on the sofa during the night. Coal's arms were wrapped tightly around me and my face was pressed against his chest. I couldn’t say it was the worst place a girl could find herself but embarrassment clawed at me as I realised just how tightly we were coiled together.

A light flicked on somewhere above me and I shrank down, burying my face against Coal to block it out. It felt similar to the way I’d been curling up with Taylor at night during the Lawless Trials training but completely different at the same time. My cheeks flushed scarlet and my heart pounded unevenly and I tried not to focus on the way it felt to have his weight pressing down on my body. Another pounding joined my hammering pulse as my head began to throb and I tried harder to recoil from the light.

“Rise and shine," Alicia called again and I flinched away from the sound of her voice.

I tried to sit up but Coal's grip tightened around me and his hand twisted into my hair. I inched away from him again and looked at his face which was peaceful in sleep.

“What time is it?" I asked Alicia who was standing next to the sofa looking strangely smug.

"Nearly midday. I slept in. It looks like you did too." She put a hand on her hip.

I looked back at Coal and found his dark eyes open as he looked at me strangely, like he couldn’t figure out where he was. He had one hand still wrapped around my waist and our legs were tangled together.

“Have you been having fun?" Alicia looked at Coal and raised her eyebrows.

"I'm not entirely sure," he said, running his free hand across the stubble that had thickened on his jaw over night.

"It sure looks like you have," she said, stooping to pick up the empty whiskey bottle and brandishing it at us.

"Did we sleep here all night?" Coal asked me and I nodded my head shyly. The movement made little stars appear at the edge of my vision and I closed my eyes again for a moment until they cleared.

"All night?" Alicia asked, looking surprised.

"We must have been tired," I supplied.

“Coal hasn't slept for longer than four hours a night since-"

"Yeah it must have been all the running and probably

the whiskey." He smiled tightly, cutting Alicia off and sitting up. He released me from his hold but my skin still tingled where his hand had been resting against my hip. "What's for breakfast?"

“You're asking me?" she said, raising her eyebrows.

"I'm asking what's in the cupboard, not requesting that you burn me anything,” he teased as he stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders back and forth.

“Look for yourself," she said, tossing the empty whiskey bottle into a chair across the room. It bounced back out and thunked loudly against a small wooden table, the noise setting my teeth on edge.

“I will." He stood up and left to go in search of food. Alicia crossed her arms over her chest and looked at me expectantly.

"What was that about?" she asked eventually.