CHAPTER 20:

I think the real rollercoaster of this new world is the aftermath of death by creatures our planet could not have ever survived if we came across it before the making of Graviton. I could barely face the families of those who were massacred by that creature. When we get home after such a day, Lyra never removes her hand from mine, and I watch Charleston lead us to her room. He begins tidying up her bed while I help her with the shower.

Once we finish and step out, he's sitting on her small round couch seat with a panda in hand. I tuck her in and brush a few strands aside. She stares at me, then the man who dips the bed behind me, "Do you want your diffuser on?" I ask her softly.

She sits up, "Why did you go out there? Why didn't you stay in headquarters?" She asks me. Solidly.

I tilt my head at her, "I wanted to help the Alpha team. Graviton Ultimates had more experience, the creature which slipped through the shield under radar is being studied as we speak. We'll soon understand how it got through." I murmur down to her.

Her eyes water, "You could have died." She whispers.

I lean forward, cupping her cheeks, "That is what experience prepares you for, especially outside of earth. I had one year of Graviton training with your father before we had you. I will never leave you, understand me, baby? Yes, it was scary out there, but we are safe. Go to sleep, pumpkin. I love you so much, you hear me." I tell her, she nods and cuddles me before I peck her forehead. Charleston does the same, whispering something down to her before tucking her in. I step out and let him close the door.

I pause when his towering figure pushes me harshly into our room, I whisper, "Hey, I am tender, you brute." I hiss at him, before the door closes, he locks it and I glare at his form.

"Remove your clothes." He orders me.

"I don't feel like sex right now." I tell him, straight up.

"Remove. Your. Fucking. Clothes." He spits at me.

Lethal silver eyes penetrate mine.

Seven years of denied heat and the need for skin on skin. This time feels different, every cell and muscle in him is rippling with condensed pressure and a thrilling need pulsates down my legs when he grabs my cheek and slams his lips against mine. My suit unzips from the back while his pants pull off before he unclips my bra, I shiver against a small breeze flowing through the room. He was a persuasive power figure, always able to relax and tense my muscles with his toned body and now that he was bigger, this new body was something to see. I roll my fingers down his collarbone and pec. The nipple is hard and strong until he squats and pulls down the rest of my pants.

My breath hitches as he kisses my navel first. His tongue glides up to my breast. I bite away my gasp before the bed duvet flattens against my back. He crawls up to my neck in an all familiar move that strolled me down memory lane of when he used to do this before. I hmm in delight. He smiles against me before kissing up my chin before his fingers familiarise themselves with my abdomen, the curve of my waist, my ribcage next. I curve my legs up and around his hips. He groans against my lips and tilts his head before his tongue glides over my bottom lip. Pleasure riddles my insides, the sensation so old and welcoming, "Feel like sex now?" He whispers against me. I could feel him as much as he could feel me.

"Why can't you say romantic things?" I whine.

He lifts up and gives me a look, "I've waited seven years to stop fucking trying to remember what the love of my life felt like to what she is like. The fact that one look from you can set me on fire. The fact your touch can make me do whatever you bloody want and you're the only woman in the galaxy who can make me lose breath. The only one who can make me go insane and yet level me out like no other. The only girl who doesn't notice when a man puts a ring on you after rescuing you from his friend's wife's stalker." He says, before making me look at my ring finger and the sly bastard grins above me when I see a ring of emerald green and silver diamond. New and improved.

"Be nice to my kitty." I murmur up to him.

He widens those eyes, "That's all I get? I had to really think of those lines." He grumbles, but it's mockingly funny because I give him a doubtful look, until the world bounces sideways when fingers slide away the last piece of fabric between us both. He squeezes his eyes closed at just a touch and he's not even inside me yet. I run my fingers over his biceps, then his shoulders.

"Time to get acquainted, Charles." I breathe out, moving once.

"Patience, love. It's..." I see the torture when his glossy eyes open. I lean up and peck those lips first. Devastation and loss of something we didn't have for years took its toll on him more so than me. I aligned us and brought him slowly forward. He grits his teeth harshly and grunts before gasping up air as he tucks his head into my neck. A wetness from his eyes pulsates down my neck. I sink one hand into his hair and groan at the familiar sensation. The other grips the muscle at his back.

For a while, he can't move. I squeeze my arms around him as the pressure builds. He slowly leans up and presses his lips against mine, cupping my cheek before his hips move. My eyes close while he begs for me to look at him. Tired loss and unadulterated fear fades away when he brushes his hands to the arch in my waist and slowly pulls out. I giggle at the familiarity of it and he hisses through the skin of his teeth. He shudders around me and my eyes widen when blinding pleasure and a build up of something so intense and indecipherable has a contented moan parting from my lips when he breathes out my name.

"Damnit, Alexandrine." He grits out, before he pistons into me. His body is a wicked creature held in for over half a decade and his true colours were showing when a fast rhythm and hunched promise curled through me. I can keep up, but the sensation dashed up my spine when his body shook with a roar. A deep, strange sound rips out of his chest as he loses himself in me. I watch in fascination and wonder when it pulls him into a heavenly oblivion. It's all over his face. His hoarse voice. His trembling fingers. His ragged breathing. He slows to a lazy rock, but just keeps going and that throws me. I was one for making love and he knew just the right buttons to push before fireworks sung connected like stars against my vision.

He drops against me, I smile at the perspiration coating over him with a sleek sheet of exhaustion. I flatten my palm over his racing heart once I flip us over with him on his back and show him what I've learned over the years. His silver eyes roll back, "What in the...holy..." He pants and groans before losing it again, in less than thirty seconds of me on top.

I laugh and kiss him hard. He squeezes my behind while I flatten on top of him, his hand sinks into my hair before he kisses me like he's branding me. I guess he's reciprocating now while I clench and his body turns into full damage control mode when he spins up for the next round...whatever. I lost count three hours ago. The hue of a welcoming heated darkness slivers like a snake in my vision once he locks me into his side after catching his breath. A possessive pull against my hip and thigh has me looking back up to meet silver eyes. I stroke his jawline before he turns on his side and flattens my chest against his. I close my eyes against his neck while he brushes a finger down my spine. His muscles heavily crunch around me, "Where'd you learn that?" His deep voice echoes.

"Writers are your most dangerous thinkers." I mumble.

His thumb brushes across my ribcage before his leg slides between mine. I manage to keep my eyes closed for two hours. Two much needed hours before I shot awake when he removes a cloth from below, then curls under before my body jolts when he kisses me down there. I shriek, "Charleston." I writhe when shock and astonishment shivers along my body as he licks, before he crawls up and sinks into me. I groan under him. His predatory look has my eyes widening the second he colours us both in pleasurable thunderstorms. I remember the bristling of sheets, the friction running higher and higher. I know I closed my eyes again and never quite recovered because the next time I woke up was to a soft snore in my ear while Charleston was in a deep sleep.

The shudders of rain against a window jolts me awake, slowly and almost painfully, I pull out from underneath him. He was so dead asleep, he barely moved before I shower thoroughly from the mess we made and ordered an after pill of a specific type. The bottle appears in the advanced shopping system in the lounge. I stare at the familiar contraceptive tablets or injections. Each infection must be taken on the same day of the same month. So I don't think when I sink that into the flesh of my inner arm. The little device clicked green to point where to do it before it lasts one second and the serum is in there.

Lyra steps out of her room with a yawn, I smile at her and curl her in close after breakfast made by the machine next to the fridge, when it pulls out two Nutella and strawberry stacks of pancakes on two plates, with bacon and banana. Our type of systems did not disappoint. I yawn at least eight times before the harsh strutting of footfalls echo.

Lyra's eyes widen when her puffing Neanderthal of a father stands there with a rough, stoic expression. That expression is gone in an instant for the moment he sees us, his relief is powerful and potent, "Good god, I thought I imagined it." He groans out, strutting over to me while Lyra looks confused. I shake my head at her while Charleston sinks into his seat and eyes me with that indecipherable look.

"Good morning." I murmur. He leans in and presses his head against mine, nuzzling me. He cups my cheek and lowers a kiss against my lips. I pull back a little when he begins breathing heavier. I tap his knee as Lyra raises an eyebrow at us both.

"Did something happen?" She asks, folding her arms.

Charleston gives her a wink, "Your mother and I talked." He steps up and ruffles her hair with a prance in his step.

She snorts, "By talk, you mean you and Mom did the dirty."

Charleston stills, and it looks so comical that I cover my laugh with my hand. I gave my daughter a look.

Charleston turns back around slowly, "Baby girl, there are some things that still need to be learned. Your mother and I are...intimate now. Let's use that word slowly. Please, never use the word sex, sweetheart. Something you won't have until you are way, way, way older. I'm talking forty." He clarifies.

"Mom had me at eighteen." She points out.

He looks like a deer caught in headlights, "Don't do what your parents did." He says with a wince while Lyra sniggers and gives her Dad a shrug.

"Dad, I don't need the 'birds and the bees' talk. They ran over that in school. I'm just wondering when I get to be a big sister." She shrugs, giving him a tired smile before her little feet patter out to her room.

Charleston gives me a heated look, "You could have told me she learned something like that way too young in life and woman, why did I wake up without you?" He asks me, in frustration. I ran my eyes down the length of him and smiled with a twitch of the lips, he had red lines dashing on his shoulders and back. He smirks and squats down before picking me up like a monkey. I hook my arms around his neck. He moves and flattens me on the dining table before his lips find the full crevices of mine. His fingers glide up under my shirt and warm lines draw patterns on my back. His body gravitated to mine before a clearing of the throat echoed.

Charleston frowns above me and slowly, our heads turn to Emmett, Chase, Nolan...and an awkward-looking Ana. It looks hilarious. Chase and Nolan smirk, before Emmett and Ana hand them both a wad 'our time' money. Charleston raises his eyebrows at them, "You four are kidding me?" Charleston says roughly.

Chase counts him with a slick smirk, "We knew it would happen within the next week. These two were sure she'd take longer."

"I can't tell if that's an insult or not." I mutter, rolling my eyes while Charleston gives them all narrow-eyed looks before I lean up and curl one leg over the other. Charleston massages my outer thigh, I lean into his heat. Seven years, I hadn't felt something like last night in such a long time that I think about the details so much that I ignore the words and people surrounding me now. Charleston tilts my chin up to look at him, before his whole expression changes like he knows exactly what I'm doing. I blink a few times.

More people step through, "Ballard, do you think you and Eleanor could babysit Lyra?" Charleston asks solidly. Bellamy ignores everyone and simply moves down the hall to see Lyra. Ballard blinks at Charles, and his lips widen in a smirk.

Eleanor gives Charleston a sympathetic look, "I would, Charles, but Ranger wants everyone at Headquarters immediately. A lot has happened. Many of the families wish to speak about how they lost their loved ones and why. Many are angry." She whispers, sighing.

That catches my attention, I look at her, but lean against Charles.

The car ride is quiet, but due to the fact I wasn't even sure what to say and Charleston seems more eager to get back to bed than going anywhere, I watch. I watch Lyra finishing her homework, I watch Charles peak look in my direction every few minutes on the ride over. When we step out of the car, Lyra leaps out with her phone in her face as she shows Kline the building while Charleston moves around the car, cups my cheeks and kisses me right on the lips. I tilt my head, aiming for better access. My eyebrows furrow, I tense.

He nods down to me, "I know, I am too."

He's eager for more. Too.

I sigh in defeat, "We certainly have a thing for timing." I mumble. He groans and aligns his body against mine. I run my fingers along the curve of his hip, feeling that palpable shift. I couldn't help slipping back into my old ways the first time we made love, I was so quiet after that, I only talked once we had been intimate again and he loved it. He absolutely adored it last time, so watching him untangle and want it just as badly as I do has me outlining his abs under his shirt. He somehow manages to consume and devour me all at once.

"Mom! Dad!"

Charleston sighs, "Later, I promise." He whispers against my temple.

I sit down the second we set foot inside, Charleston pecks me on the lips with a spicy look that should be kept in the bedroom before walking over to Ranger. I run my fingers through Lyra's curls. Lyra runs her eyes over the crowd of aggressive and upset faces. Marco and Ranger show each of them what happened, how it isn't any fault of the Graviton team, how this happens now that we have far more enemies to fight in a galaxy that is infinite.

I close my eyes against Lyra's hair before standing up with her in my arms. I leave the room and walk slowly to Marco's ship. Ritter could have answers. When we find him, he's facing away from Lyra and me. The pool is very similar to Charleston's old one, "Ritter." Lyra whispers.

I squat down and watch as he turns slowly around and in record time, he's close to us both and the device switches on, "You are both okay. I felt them too close to you, I thought something happened." He says through it, looking taut and upset all at once.

"One got in, it killed a few of our kind." I whisper in his direction.

His head ducks, the spikes move down with his emotions, "I am sorry. I am very sorry." His hoarse voice croaks.

Lyra reaches for him, "Why do they want you? Is it because you are the last of your kind?" She asks him, eyes penetrating his fish eyes.

He looks behind us, before a warm body curls around mine. I lean back and pause at the beard I feel. Slowly, I turn to face the caller of my old phone and flinch when a dagger protrudes out of my chest, "For my son." That dark voice.

Pain. Lyra screams in horror before Ritter pulls her immediately underwater, a bubble formed when I heard an ear-piercing roar. The man behind me, the rough brown eyes slant with...Emmett's arrow protruding out of his head. My eyes blur when Emmett yells for Charleston, "CHARLESTON!"

Footfalls push into my vision as water pools around me, along with the smell of blood. Charleston's whole body falls around me, and in the wake of what I see, it's excruciating pain, utter agony. Like the taste of it is poison itself. I didn't think it would be like this. That I was so off-guard. I shiver, Charleston's reddened, horror-filled face is in my blurry vision. His huge, powerful body removes the distance between us.

Shakily, I reach for my necklace, "Protect...her." I choke out.

Chase rips off his jacket, choking on his own tears as he pulls it under my head, Charleston cups my cheeks. Nolan and Emmett at my sides, Ana screaming for a medic, "You can't fucking do this! Not now. I haven't spent my whole life only for you to leave me again. You cannot fucking do this! You made me a promise, Alexandrine Caesar. You're going to marry me. You're going to finally, finally be mine. I cannot feel like that again, please, JUST LOOK AT ME! ALEXANDRINE!" He screams when hands pull him aside and medics run their arms over me. My daughter had to see that.

"NO! GET OFF OF ME! ALEXANDRINE! SHE'S MY WIFE, GODDAMNIT! LET ME GO!"

"Mommy!" My poor baby, Lyra.

An electric charge swirled over me, "There's no pulse, she's bleeding too fast. We move her and she..." The doctor's voice is levelled out and consumed by the ever-lasting beep of a button.

"NOOO! MOMMA!" The dagger dejected and no doctor could do much more than try to stop it. The dangers of being a gangster is one of power and bloodshed, the more people know you, the bigger the target you are. And I was too big of a target to let up. The edges of my vision crease at the image of Charleston crying with Lyra. With our daughter.

The more movement done, the worse the world around me felt.

Until Aria sprinted in with ornaments that were illegally made. Ranger and Marco fly in before Aria removes my top and slams the robotic reconstruction of a quick advanced surgery right over my chest. The tube deep into my throat where the world blackened for five minutes.

Five minutes is all it takes.

Aria removes the tool before she scans the healing puncture. She removes the tube before placing the electrical spider on my chest and she shoots the volts through it. Like an adrenaline boost across every nerve. I combust and tilt the gasp out of me. My head rolls.

Aria drops behind me as I cough out. Pain sizzles against my chest. Aria presses a suit against my heart. It clicks and unfolds around me, "Welcome back to the living." She breathes out. I inhale the oxygen through the mask as the doctors around her widen their eyes and their stance. The mask collects the last of my blood cells roaming around. Exhaustion and pain signals through me. I feel the corners of my vision cease the darkness I felt before, "What did death look like, old friend?" Aria asks me slowly when everyone else looks horrified.

I groan and grunt out, "Shut...up."

"MOMMY!" Lyra springs for me and almost trips. Aria helps her and slowly, calmly pulls her to me. I sit on four floors, ducking my head into hers. I squeeze my baby girl close. The mask collects the last of the guck used to heal bone, organ tissue and my immune systems along with it.

Ranger helps Aria into a stand, "How?" He breathes out.

She closes her