Prey

Chapter 94

Xander's POV:

This night so far has been a sleepless one.

Doe hadn't fallen asleep yet, and because of that, neither have I.

Even if she was asleep, I wasn't certain that I'd be able to let it take me.

My thoughts were too far give and I couldn't pull them back.

I kept my eyes closed, focusing on the faint feeling of her heartbeat that still lingered before it would disappear as a background for all of these thoughts and emotions I was trying to pull together and keep in check.

While I recapped every single second of that moment for what could have been the 50th time since.

Picking it apart piece by piece now that my head was somewhat clear.

The high from her blood was mostly gone, but the presence of how badly I now knew that I needed her hadn't diminished whatsoever.

I wondered if she was having the same issue that I was.

Not with all these feelings I was sorting out, but just the racing thoughts.

It was the only explanation I could come up with as to why she hadn't fallen asleep yet.

After she openly voiced her confusion, knowing her, it was all she was thinking about.

Her confusion over the feelings she's never had the opportunity to have.

The same heartbeat could be felt from where my chest touched hers in how we laid, both just holding each other.

The quiet in the room right now felt.... different, but it wasn't the awkward or tension-filled kind.

It filled with our even breathing, the rhythmic background noise making it that much easier for my brain to delve on into it for the 51st time.

The flame that roared to life the second our lips touched, searing through me like nothing I've ever thought to experience before.

How hard she was holding on to me, those shy yet assured movements of hers.

The want, the need I was so sure I could feel from her with each second that passed.

The disappointment in her eyes as we parted...

I knew what I wanted to think. That she experienced that in the same way that I did.

That she felt everything with that undeniable, almost painful pull that we had to each other.

Or that I had to her...

I denied myself the deep sigh that wanted to enter my lungs, not wanting to throw off the rhythm of my breathing for her.

The awareness of her fingers pinching and rubbing my shirt did stray me from my thoughts.

Then how one of her breaths broke the rhythm.

"Hey, Xander?" her voice was the quietest whisper I've ever heard from her.

"Mhm?" I hummed back in the same volume.

A short pause.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep until I figure this out." She sounded on the verge of being completely stressed, "These feelings... It's like they're folding my brain and the fact that I cant put a name on them is frustrating."

She was being completely open about this to me, and that became something that I appreciated.

That she was admitting her problems to me and trusted me to help.