Nothing about this day made her feel like celebrating. Her best friend since she was a small child was laying unconscious in a hospital bed and only time would tell what if she'd regain any function below the waist or not. She was a fighter, her bad-ass that didn't take shit, but was she strong enough to fight something like this? Ada had heard stories of people who were told they'd never walk again and beat the nearly non-existent odds, but was it possible for Britt to become one of those people, or was Ada just holding onto some empty hope?

Their graduation party tonight was supposed to be for both of them. Two women who came together to remain strong and fight back, losing all the dead weight of phony friendships. But Britt wouldn't be there, and now any family she had was at the hospital. Ada begged her father to cancel the party. She wanted to head back to the hospital as soon as graduation was over and done with and drink her celebratory champagne with her best friend. It didn't even matter if she was awake or not.

But as she expected, her father refused, promising to drive her back to Hennings the following morning.

"That's my favorite dress on you, I think."

Ada turned at the sound of Tom's voice, allowing his beauty to sink in. He looked stunning in his black suit, this one fitting him even better than the one he wore on Friday. With his hair styled and his face free of glasses, he reminded her of a delicious spy in a movie, looking nothing short of debonair.

Then she looked at her own dress, the one she wore the day after they'd first hung out at his place. He'd admitted he struggled to take his eyes off her when he first saw her that day.

"This is the last day you'll force yourself not to stare too long," Ada reminded him, which was just about the only joy she felt about this day. The only reason worth celebrating.

A smile graced Tom's lips as he finished his decent down the stairs and into her bedroom, the sleek fabric of his suit moving against him. "I have no intention of not staring at you today, and I'm done giving a shit about who sees it."

She'd felt nothing but pain and fear for the last thirty hours, yet his words cut through every shitty emotion that had been drowning her. Maybe they would return, but right now she relished the warmth he gave her. "Could you do me a favor?"

"Anything," he replied.

Her voice barely came out above a whisper. "I need a number three," She needed more of this, more of this feeling he gave her. She needed it to make it through the day. "Before I lose my damn mind."

Rather than walk toward her, he went over toward the door that opened to the back yard. The drapes were already pulled, but he reached between them and turned the lock. "They're setting up your party out there right now. I'm guessing that's why the blinds are closed?"

Ada confirmed with a nod. "They want it to be a surprise." All she could think of was that lock he'd just turned, trapping them alone together in the room where no one could just show up like her father was very much known to do. But he'd kept his distance that day, being busy and unsure of what to say to her. Ada only hoped that the distance held up through the kiss she needed at that moment more than she needed to breathe.

Tom made his way over to her in a slow stride as if he was teasing her, his eyes burning into hers. Normally he tried to hide his attractiveness at school. He wanted to be judged by his personality and intellect. But today he reeked of sex appeal, was embracing it as a part of him. And damn if he wasn't even sexier for it. Seeing this side of him turned her on beyond measure.

Ada slid her makeup to the side and propped herself up on the wooden vanity behind her, hoping it was was strong enough to hold her weight. Minus a light creak, it didn't appear like it would give her any grief.

The piece of furniture she'd never thought twice about was a height that aligned their bodies. She could sit there and look straight ahead at his burning gaze as he closed the distance.

There was a darkness deep within him. Ada could feel it as if it were her own heartbeat. Something had angered him today, and the crashing waves of his emotions were only now beginning to settle. That was why he'd come here. He'd told her whenever he felt like putting his fist through a wall, he sought her out to calm him.

The first time she'd seen that darkness, she was almost afraid of it. Tom was so gentle, so kind and carefree. He took life in stride, trying his best not to let things get to him, especially with things he could not control.

But some things made their way under his skin, traveling through his body like a wildfire he couldn't put out, until it appeared to her in his eyes that refused to lie to her. Because he came to her to find peace in the chaos, Ada knew that although the darkness was not innocent, she didn't fear it. No. She tamed it and would do so again and again to give him whatever peace he needed.

Tom's palms rested on her legs as he kept his truthful gray eyes on hers. After infinite moments of just staring, the palms moved upwards, sliding the skirt of her dress until the fabric lay bunched above her thighs, exposing a red thong she'd bought on her trip. Any other underwear would have shown right through the silky fabric of her dress and she hated them, finding thongs to be uncomfortable and overpriced flimsy pieces of fabric. But when his look changed, going from subsiding anger to something resembling animalistic desire, she was ready to go out and buy dozens more if it got that response every time.

His hands traveled back to her knees, causing instant disappointment until they went along the inside and pushed her legs apart so he could move his body between them. Fingertips grazed the soft fabric, his touch like a feather as it trailed across her dress to her stomach, then up to her breasts.

Ada felt her nipples get hard as his fingers moved over them, never stopping before moving to her sides, then down and back up before settling into her hair with just enough pressure to move her forward so he could press his lips against hers.

Her entire body flushed and Ada could feel her heart slamming feverishly against her rib cage. He nibbled at her lower lip before coaxing her mouth open with his tongue. Ada didn't hesitate to oblige him and when her lips parted, he took the invitation, dancing against hers during every kiss.

His mouth became firmer, more needy and urgent as the seconds ticked passed. These kisses weren't gentle. They weren't ones of love, but ones of merciless arousal. Ones that wouldn't leave her mouth with sweet tingles, but would leave her lips plumped and feeling bruised. This was a different side of Tom.

The more she felt his desire, the more everything else drifted away, everything she feared fading into the background.

It didn't leave her with a calm, but rather of a satisfaction and blissful haze only he could provide. But Ada needed more to erase the rest of the pain, even if only for a few minutes until reality kicked in and left her feeling helpless yet again. So she nudged closer, needing to feel him against her. Ada could feel his erection pressing against his slacks and her body felt alive, her hands feeling as if they had a mind of their own.

She worked the buckle of his belt, thinking for a moment that he would stop her since they were in her parent's house. But he didn't. Instead, his mouth began moving fiercely against hers before going down to her neck, then to her shoulder before finding his way back to her mouth. She kept the belt looped through his pants, but worked the button, then the zipper, then tugged the fabric down until it fell down his legs. "Number five," she whispered against his lips between savage kisses.

Without looking, Ada opened the left drawer of her vanity until it was about to fall out, then felt around until she felt the fabric of her winter mittens. That was the only place she could think to hide the condoms she'd just bought. Pulling one out, she handed it to him.

"This isn't what I came here for," Tom whispered against her shoulder as he took the condom from her hand.

Ada nodded, her blonde hair falling into her as she placed a kiss atop Tom's head. "You came here because you were angry about something and needed me to bring you back."

Tom's hair rubbed up against her face as he raised his head to look her in the eye. "How'd you-"

"You don't fool me, Tom Bennet," Ada spoke as she dragged her fingernails down the front of his shirt. His anger seemed gone now, and all she could feel was his tenderness and unconditional love for her. "Now I need you to do the same for me."

His lips were silent, but his eyes understood her and his fingers working the wrapper between them was his unspoken agreement.

She looked down and watched him slide the condom on before shoving the wrapper into the inside pocket of his blazer. His right hand dropped to her knee before inching its way upward toward her thigh, then tugged her thong to the side and pushed himself forward inside her.

They both knew there was no time for foreplay and she didn't need it. All she needed was this, the love in his eyes, his defenses down and him inside her, filling her. With his free hand he held her head against his, their foreheads pressed against one another and his fiery breaths against her face as she inhaled them as her own. Her eyes remained between the two of them, watching as he slid in and out of her, his thumb rubbing her sensitive flesh as the others kept her thong at bay. Each time he did that, it brought her closer to where she needed to go, a utopia she could only find with him.

It was so close she could almost reach out and touch it. "Harder," she breathed out, hoping he heard her.

Tom's hand moved from her head down to her waist, while the one grasping her underwear did the same. She wrapped her legs around him and he picked her body up with ease, moving her until she felt her back hit the wall. It was there that he unleashed everything he had to give her, moving in and out of her with determined, unrelenting thrusts that filled the room with the sound of her loud moans she hoped didn't travel upstairs.

Ada was on the edge and she bit down on his shoulder, hoping the fabric would prevent leaving a mark and would muffle the sounds escaping her. When she did this, it only seemed to fill him with more intensity and he hammered into her in a way that brought her over the edge.

Her body shook against his as the pleasure peaked and her orgasm shot through every inch of her. When she tightened against Tom, he found his own release, pumping into her a final time before his body rested against hers as she remained in his grasp against the wall. He made no move to leave her body, and Ada didn't want him to. If it were up to her, she'd stay like this forever.

"I wasn't too rough with you, was I?"

Too rough?

Ada had seen enough porn to know that what'd they'd just done was a far cry from rough sex, not that she'd sought that type of video out. It made her smile when she saw how worried he was about it. But that was Tom, ever the romantic. She gave him the ease he needed with a shake of her head, the movement covering her face with the now messed up blonde hair that he tried to tame by running his fingers through it.

"I should get out of you before the condom falls off in there." His words caused her face to blush, and he slid out of her and set her down before taking the condom off with one hand and did his best to pull up his pants with the other while looking around the room. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this thing?"

Ada pointed toward her private bathroom. "Flush it?"

"Like hell I'm going to back up your parents sewer system with a used condom. Just because your dad knows we're having sex does not mean he'd be okay with finding out we had sex under his roof. He might have a high tolerance for my bullshit, but-"

"What?" Ada didn't hear him correctly. She couldn't have. Her father was supposed to believe she was a virgin, forever if need be. "Why would he know that?"

Tom took a step back, looking casual about the words that had just come out of his mouth. "Because he asked me."

Ada shook her head and corrected her dress, trying to look as if she just hadn't had sex with a guy in her childhood bedroom. "You could have lied."

Tom laughed, seeming to find this whole thing amusing. "Yeah... I'm not gonna do that with your dad."

"Why the hell not?" Ada would have lied her ass off if her dad has asked her. There was little need to lie to them about much, but something like that qualified.

Tom took his hands in hers and led her away from the wall they'd just had sex against. "Ada, your dad knows I love you and there is nothing wrong with making love with the person you love. The way he asked me... he already knew the answer and would have seen right through my bullshit if I lied. Now, please tell me where I can put this condom, because I don't feel like caring it around with me."

Ada took a long breath and counted until three before releasing it. Since he father hadn't given off any signs of knowing about their sex lives, there was little reason to worry about it now. "Just put it somewhere in the bottom of the trash basket in the bathroom. I'll just keep my bedroom door open for guests tonight to use it. If my parents see it, I can just blame it on someone at the party."

Though she'd never come across people having sex during any of her parents' rowdy parties, she didn't doubt it happened occasionally. When Tom returned from the bathroom, his pants now fastened, minus the belt, she realized there was something they hadn't discussed yet. "Speaking of the party, how are we supposed to act? I mean, are we going to come out as a couple right away or let some time pass first?"

Tom buckled his belt and fixed his clothing in the mirror. "That's up to you. I know that I want to sit by you at the party and dance with you, but beyond that I don't want to push you into going public with this thing until you're ready."

Ada walked over to her bed and sat on the corner. She knew that she wanted to be with Tom and didn't want to hide it, but she also didn't want to risk the wrong person seeing. while she going to graduate in less than two hours, them appearing as a couple immediately afterwards could still get Tom into trouble as he was still employed with the school for another week. "We'll play it by ear."

Tom nodded his agreement before taking a small wrapped box out of his inside pocket, causing the condom wrapper to fall out. He grabbed that and shoved it back in his pocket before placing the box next to Ada on the bed.

She picked it up and inspected it, noticing he couldn't have been the one to wrap it. She also knew that only so many things could fit in such a small box. "Please tell me you aren't proposing right now."

Her words caused Tom to chuckle. "Hell no. I may be intense, but I'm not a fucking psycho. That's your graduation present, though I'll admit it lost the significance I meant it to have."

Ada's curiosity piqued, and she ripped the wrapping off and opened the small box. A gold heart pendant lay against the soft cotton, and she picked it up by the chain. As it dangled from her grasp, Ada saw the words 'I Love You' etched on the other side.

"That was how I was going to tell you how I felt, but then you asked me on Friday, so... I know it's corny as shit and not all that original, and your sister would question my masculinity over it."

It was so corny, but she still loved it and noticed the chain could go over her head, so she slipped it on right away. It fell at her heart, increasing its corniness to an epic scale. A bright smile pulled at her lips as she looked down at it. She knew the real magic were the words rather than the item itself.

Even if they decided not to go public for a while, Ada had proof that she had the love of the sexiest and sweetest man she'd ever met. "I love it. I promise. This would have been such a sweet way of saying it, but I wouldn't take back the way you told me for anything, considering it helped get you into bed."

Tom let out a belly laugh, not quite allowing it to escape his lips.

"What time is it?"

Tom checked lifted the fabric by his wrist and checked his leather banded watch. "You have to be there in about forty-five minutes."

"And what time do you have to be there?"

He just shrugged. "I mean, I already quit my job, so I can show up whenever the fuck I feel like. But I don't have to be there until like half an hour before it starts."

She was already more or less ready to leave, minus her shoes, so she scooted further up to bed until she reached the end. "Lay next to me, just for a little while."

A smile played across Tom's lips, and he took off his blazer, hanging it on a coat tree that held all her robes, then went and laid by her side. Ada turned to mold her body against his, resting her head on his chest and her hand on his stomach, which he covered with his own hand while the other grazed against her bare shoulder.

"We should start working on the other things on your list," Tom spoke, breaking the silence, "instead of just doing the same two over and over again."

"Or I can just rewrite the list," Ada suggested with a smile he couldn't see from above her. "I'll just write 'have sex with Tom' five times. If you're feeling up to it, we could have that list finished by the end of the night."

Tom chuckled above her.

This may have been her favorite thing in the world, just laying in his arms and allowing a blissful trance to take over. She felt loved and safe with him.

"There's something I want to ask you about," Tom spoke above her. "And if you don't want to talk about it right now or at all, I'm okay with that."

A thousand possibilities passed through her mind. His tone was soft and calm, making her wonder whether it had something to do with their relationship, but he didn't give her anything to go on. "What?"

"Did you try to kill yourself when you were younger?"

That was not a possibility on her very long list.

Ada bit her lip, unsure of how to respond or who'd told him that. The only people who knew about that were Britt, Crystal and her family and she couldn't imagine how that would have come up in conversation with any of those options. She went to the school psychologist afterwards, so it may have been in her file.

"I know that kind of came out of left field."

That it did.

"I'll admit there was a time not long before I met you it felt like the only way out of a life I hated living, surrounded by all these incredible people. My mother was always the most beautiful woman in the room that just lit up the world. My sister looked so much like her and had all this talent. And there I was, always in the background of my own life." She wasn't ashamed. It was a long time ago, and she was a very different person back then.

"But I was young and felt worthless and invisible. I couldn't imagine either of those feelings ever going away. I thought it would only get worse once I entered high school until I met this guy who helped me to see I was worth something. He helped me find the person I was meant to be and made me smile and laugh without faking it. And he showed me how to love myself. He helped me to learn that every side character in all the books he loved had their own spirit and their own story and made me realize I was the one who made myself a side character and forced myself in the background because I was too afraid of being seen. He cared about me without needing to. There was no obligation and no strings. He showed me I was so much stronger than I thought I was."

She felt Tom's lips press against her head and his hands gave her a light squeeze. "I take it that guy was me?"

"He was." Ada hadn't spoken about this in a long time and remembered how difficult it used to be compared to now. She didn't feel any judgement from him. No anger or disappointment. Only his love and acceptance.

It didn't matter how he knew or why he asked about it. She was safe with Tom. He was her haven and the light in the darkest room.

"You're my wonderwall too, you know," he spoke above her. Ada looked up at him, unsure of what the hell that meant. "When the fire in your heart was out, I saved you. And when the fire in my heart went out, you saved me right back."