Shatter

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Chapter Fifteen

Human skin is composed of three primary layers; the epidermis, the dermis, and the hypodermis.  Skin performs nine basic functions.  It protects, it senses, regulates heat, controls evaporation, helps communicate, stores lipids and water, it excretes and absorbs, and acts as a water resistance.  The skin is the largest organ.  A piece of skin the size of a quarter contains more than 3 million cells, 100 to 340 sweat glands, 50 nerve endings and 3 feet of blood vessels.

I kept telling myself that it’s the skin’s job to protect.  That’s what it does, it protects the blood, and the muscles, and the other layers of skin from outside forces.  I told myself that I was an outside force and that Jaison’s skin would do its job and protect him from me, like it would for the wind, and the water, dirt and whatever else would threaten his health.

Jaison’s hand slid into mine and I swear, my heart was going to explode.

I closed my eyes, waiting to hear the shattering sound, but after four very loud and very hard beats of my heart, it hadn’t come.

I opened my eyes to Jaison standing there, his breathing ragged and deep.  His eyes were wide with shock and a smile stretched across his face.

“Take them back,” the boss demanded.

Guards tore forward and pulled our hands apart.  They pulled me ahead of Jaison and pushed us down the narrow hallway at a rapid pace.  That was fine with me, I was practically running down the hallway on my own.  The guard threw me into the cell first, Jaison following just seconds behind.

“Suits,” one of the guards demanded.

Jaison and I turned away and changed quickly, neither of us saying anything about the guard’s rudeness.  When both suits were stuffed through the rectangular window and the guards had fully retreated, Jaison pulled me into a hug.

I placed my shaking hands on the sides of his face.  He pushed away strands of my black hair and ran his thumb across my cheek.  He lowered his lips to mine, my stomach exploding at the sensation he gave.

I could barely breathe and the only thing I could think was that this wasn’t real and that at any moment, I would wake up and Jaison would be on his side of the room waiting to be called for his experiment.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me, rejecting the idea.  This was real, Jaison could touch me.  I could touch Jaison.

His heart was pounding against my chest, his warmth wrapped around me, his arms held me against him.  After a while, he pulled away and rested his forehead against mine.

“So much better than freedom,” he whispered.  I smiled and nuzzled my head against his chest.

I took his hand in mine, no longer fearing that he would be taken from me forever.  He lowered himself onto the bed and I followed a moment later.  We lied there with our hands interlaced and our legs entwined together.

I pushed his dirty blonde hair back and ran my fingers over his eyebrows.  I traced his jawline and brushed my thumb over his bottom lip.  He ducked his head and caught my lips with his again.

“You’re so beautiful, Mel,” he murmured as he pulled away.  I blushed and forced my eyes away.

“You’re just saying that,” I said thinking about the bruises and cuts from the beating.

“No, you’ve got gorgeous blue eyes,” he protested, lightly kissing each of my eyelids.  “And adorable freckles,” he continued planting kisses on random parts of my cheeks and nose.  “And lips,” he kissed me once again, sending a shot of chills into my spine and making my toes curl.

“This is real, right?”  I asked feeling my pain subside and the cuts on my back sink away.  He pulled me tighter against him.

“Yeah, princess, it’s real.”  I smirked at the nickname that I once loathed.  “And there’s only one thing left for us to do.”

I pulled away to examine his face.  His grey green eyes were glowing with excitement.

“Oh?  And what’s that?”  I asked, confusion seeping into my tone.  He smirked, sending my heart into a frenzy and my stomach into a churning fit.

“We’re going to get out of here.”

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