A/N: So sorry this took me so long to get up, guys. Insurgent left me all emotional and then work got crazy again. And to add to it all, I managed to get a tooth infection that destroyed me for three days. But I'm getting through it all and hopefully things continue to mellow out so I can keep pumping out more Eric and Ronnie moments for everyone.

So for all my lovely fans as a special gift for your patience, there's way more Eric in this chapter! Hooray!

Also, I have to say that Insurgent was absolutely incredible. Jai was brilliant and gorgeous like always, and Eric was as intimidating and badass as ever. I have to say, though, that the amount of cheering in the theater when Eric died was appalling. There was certainly not enough Eric love in that room! (And yes, I cried a little. It's Eric, for crying out loud! Of course, I would have cried more had I not been forced to sit in the second row, but I gotta say being that close made seeing his butt on that giant screen such a delight. I swooned so hard it annoyed the living daylights out of my sister. XD)

And as always, please R&R because your support keeps me going! :D

I decided to go ahead and drink my med pouch on my way back to the kitchen so I could be done and have my hands free for the prep work. I didn't see as many people this time. Maybe a couple here and there, but otherwise it was just me going down the hallways, the soft echoes of my footsteps the only sounds I heard most of the way.

Once again, I was caught off-guard when a pair of strong hands grabbed me and spun me around into the dimness of a niche in the wall. How Eric could always do that to me would probably remain a mystery for as long as I lived. But by now I was used to the abruptness that I didn't even gasp in surprise anymore. Instead, my arms immediately went around his neck, my legs using the absence of my feet on the floor to wrap themselves around his waist, my back tensing to anticipate the feel of being pressed against the wall just a second after I was picked up.

"I missed you," he murmured breathlessly against my lips between feverish kisses, his hands sliding down to grip my ass. "I hate sleeping without you with me."

"Me, too," I told him, the fingers of the hand that wasn't holding the med pouch going up the back of his head and into his hair. "It's driving me crazy."

He brought one of his large hands up my side, running it over my breast to tug down the edge of my tank top so he could trail kisses and licks across my shoulder and collar bone. I bit my lip to hold back the moan that tried to force itself from my throat. I grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled, rewarded for it with a growl and a bite on my neck. He liked when I did that. And I loved the chills I got when he bit me in return. The last time we were together had clued me in that Eric really enjoyed playing rough. It brought the passion to a whole new level, the fire he lit inside me exploding into a raging inferno.

"I need you, Ronnie. Right now."

I bit my lip again at the lust dripping from his already-husky baritone. He pushed his hips forward further, deeper into me, and I could feel how badly he wanted to take me right here in the hallway. I wanted to move against him, to feel that friction that made me see stars behind my eyes. But the rational part of my mind told me that we'd make too much noise. Someone would hear us. They'd hear me scream his name the moment I lost myself in the heat of his touch. They'd know who it was. They'd find us.

"We can't. Not here."

He groaned in my ear, sending shivers down my spine again. "Tonight, then. After dinner. Come to my place. I'll leave the door open for you. Please, Ronnie."

Hearing Eric beg for me to come to his apartment was enough to make me melt. Eric didn't beg for anything. Eric was tough and demanding. He never asked for things. He took them. But with me, he asked. He begged. He'd begged for me to accept him as mine and be his. And now he was begging me to come to him tonight.

"You're the only one who gets this part of me."

His words from our first night together flowed through my head again. I was the only one to get the part Eric hid away from the rest of Dauntless. The only one to see his tenderness and his vulnerability. To know the love he held deep inside. Me. I had that power.

"Alright," I murmured in his hear. "Everyone will probably be going to the Pit. I can sneak off when they're not looking. I'll knock twice so you know it's me."

He nodded against my neck before kissing where it met with my shoulder, letting my shirt go to slide his hand down to my hip. Slowly, he let me slip down to the floor, his muscles tensing as I slid down his front and creating friction across his pants. He exhaled hard by my ear. Another shiver raced up my spine, heat pooling higher in my belly knowing what me moving against him was doing to him. To both of us.

"Tonight," I whispered, kissing his clenched jaw before slipping out of his hold and hurrying down the hallway before someone happened to walk up on us.

My body still felt the heat of Eric's all through the rest of the time I was back in the kitchen helping to prep for dinner tonight. Fresh thoughts of his naked chest rising and falling with panting breaths, his arms hardening around my body, his fingers pressing so hard into my skin they left bruises in their wake, hard and powerful thrusts shooting fire through every inch of my being all kept me company and working quickly. I wanted dinner to come around faster. For everyone to head off to the Pit like they did nearly every night. For me to be able to sneak off to Eric's apartment and satisfy my craving for him.

But it felt like the hours slowed down to days, and I was getting frustrated with it all. At least I had my friends around to keep me from losing my mind while we made bread and burger patties for the hungry members of Dauntless while others worked on the vegetables. They kept conversations going, and I eagerly joined them in hopes that they would help calm my fraying nerves. Confirming my suspicions, they made plans to party down in the Pit after dinner. Good. I could go there with them, then slip out when they weren't looking. They'd be busy with the music and the alcohol and wouldn't even notice.

"Okay, guys," an older woman said as she walked over to us. "That should do it for tonight. Wash up and you can head on out of here."

Finally. We were done. We filed over to the large sink to wash our hands and hang up our aprons, glad to be released from our duties. I was still wound up from earlier, not to mention how good the med packs always made me feel, and just hanging around the Pit or the dormitories wasn't going to do anything for me.

"I'm gonna run some laps in the training room," I told Gabe when he'd asked what I wanted to do. "Those med packs give me extra energy, so I need to burn some of it off."

"That actually sounds like a good idea," he replied, drying his hands off on the towel I handed him. "I'll go with you."

"Me, too," Jake chimed in.

My mind stayed busy all through my run, then through my shower afterward and even going to dinner. All I could think about was Eric and getting to see him again. I tried my best to be social with my friends, to keep them from thinking something was off, and I think it worked fairly well for the most part. But if they suspected anything, they sure didn't say so. Not even when I slipped away from the crowd in the Pit later on.

Of course, I did need to go pick up my last med pouch of the day right about then, so that should have been an automatic assumption by anyone who'd seen me leave. Which I really did go and get from the medical ward of the compound before anything else. I was going to need the little boost of energy those things gave me, and it would also keep anyone from trying to look for me and then freaking out because I was nowhere to be found.

So, with my pouch in hand and the straw in my mouth, I quickly made my way down a couple different hallways, always checking to assure myself I wasn't being followed or anything. This added a few extra minutes to my walk to Eric's apartment, but better safe than to be talked about behind my back in the morning. I wasn't about to let myself become the subject of nasty gossip and dirty glares and even dirtier comments from people. No way. When Eric and I decided to become public, it would be on our terms.

Finally, I reached the plain white, solid metal door that marked Eric's apartment. I double checked the hallway again, finishing the last of my med pouch at last. I was hit with a bundle of nerves as my hand rose to knock on his door. My breath caught in my throught when I did it again. I don't know why I was suddenly so frazzled. Anticipation? Excitement? Maybe a little fear? I had no idea what I could possibly be afraid of. This was Eric. My Eric. I had no reason to fear him.

I quickly lost any notion of fear the instant the door flew open and I saw Eric standing in front of me. The only piece of clothing he had on was his pants, the same tight black ones he always wore, and was looking a little frazzled himself. His cool blue eyes looked wild in the glow from the lights of the hallway. His bare chest heaved with a hard breath the instant before he reached out and grabbed my shoulders to pull me inside. He spun me around, backing me against the wall by the door as he quickly shut it again and pressed his body against mine to capture my lips with his in a hard and fiery kiss all at the same time. I felt myself being lifted off my feet, his hands under my arms at the very top of my rib cage. I tossed my empty med pouch to the floor and wrapped my legs around his hips.

"I thought you'd never get here," he huffed, his mouth moving down my neck to my collar bone.

"I had to make sure no one saw me," I murmured back. My fingers threaded up into his hair, grabbing a handful. He pulled us away from the wall and crossed the room to the bed. I managed to kick off my sneakers on the way, letting them fall to the floor with hollow thuds. His fingers drug roughly down my back as we moved, and I loved the shivers that crawled over my skin in their wake.

"I missed you so much." His arms tightened around me, his lips finding mine again with his breathless confession. "I'm going crazy without you here."

"Trust me," I replied between kisses. "I hate it just as much as you do."

He crawled onto the bed, with me still attached to him, going all the way up to the pillows before letting any space come between us. He grabbed the bottom hem of my t-shirt and tugged it up my body until I took over and finished removing it. I tossed it to the floor while he unbuttoned my pants and yanked them and my underwear off my hips and down my legs. As he pulled them off along with my socks, I unhooked my bra and quickly got rid of it, too. He shed his pants and boxer-briefs before crawling back onto the bed, hovering over me on his knees while his eyes traveled over my naked body.

He leaned down just enough to brush his fingers over the ribs Tucker had cracked, the bruise that marked them now completely faded away, and frowned. A brief flash of anger washed over his face. He still wasn't over what had happened. A line had been crossed in Eric's eyes, regardless of the fact that no one knew of our relationship, and that was something he'd probably never let go of. Tucker was going to have to watch his back for a very long time.

Just as quickly as he'd stopped, Eric then moved again, descending down on me and covering my body with his. He wasted no time in setting my skin on fire with his lips and tongue, and I rewarded him with nails down his back and hard tugs of his hair. Of course, this encouraged him to become rougher, mixing pain with the pleasure. But I wanted it that way. I wanted Eric to lose control. I wanted his fingers to bruise my skin, marking me as his and his alone.

And it's what I got. Free from the burdens of having to be careful with a battered body, Eric unleashed the animal I knew he could be, moving me into the positions he wanted and at the pace he wanted. I never complained, though. I liked it. Twinges of pain blending with waves of pleasure, sharp and sweet at the same time. It was utterly thrilling to be brought to such mind-melting highs over and over again. It seemed to both go on forever and end far too soon.

Exhausted and breathless, I settled comfortably into Eric's arms as he lay behind me and held me to him, his sheets draped loosely over our bodies. He pressed his lips against my shoulder several times, his breath dancing across my skin. I finally wiggled myself around to face him and was delighted to see a loving softness on his face and in his eyes. My heart skipped beats knowing that I had done this to him. That I was the one to get to see it. It made me smile.

"What?"

His voice was soft in the now quiet room, lit only by the light of the moon. I bit my lip, still smiling and watching his face.

"Just... You. The way you are when we're alone. It's so different. You're softer. More relaxed."

"You do this to me." He shifted and pulled me closer so that my head was nestled under his chin. "You're the only one who's been able to make me feel this way. I never thought I would ever let someone get close to me like this. I didn't want anyone to get close to me. And then you came along and fucked all that up."

I smirked and kissed one of his neck tattoos. "Should I be apologizing?"

He huffed, the sound sounding strangely close to a laugh. "It's not bad, really. Just... Not what I had planned for myself."

"You don't regret this..." I pulled back and lifted my head so I could look him in the eyes, biting my lip as insecurity began to set in again.. "Do you?"

He frowned and his eyebrows pulled together in a pained expression. His hand moved from my back to my face, covering my cheek as his thumb stroked my temple. His voice was firm, but there was a tinge of something else in it. Worry? Fear? Hurt? I wasn't really sure. I still had a lot to learn when it came to reading Eric since he so often separated himself from his emotions.

"No, Ronnie. No. Okay? I admit I didn't like the way I couldn't stop watching you at first. Hell, I fought it as hard as I could. I didn't want to let myself even think that this could happen... But that morning on the mats, when I had you under me and you responded the way you did... It woke something up in me I didn't even realize existed. And when I followed you up to the roof and had you in my arms again... Then you kissed me, and... It was the nail in the coffin for me, Ronnie. I was yours in that very second. The only regret I have is the way I lashed out at you when you pulled away from me. It hurt to see that kind of fear in your eyes, knowing that I caused it."

I bit my lip as he bared his heart to me. I could feel the tears trying to push to the surface, but I fought them back as best I could. I saw him struggle to let the words out, felt his chest heaving with the effort to make his feelings known. Eric wasn't a man of many words, especially ones that involved emotion. I had been slightly aware of this before. But now it brought my understanding of it to a new level.

The mention of the day at target practice had me frowning and my eyes dropping from his. I had been so afraid of him then, so sure that he was just a split second away from doing something horrific. Like throwing me down the stairs after he'd drug me away from the rest of the group.

"I'm really sorry about that, Ronnie," he murmured, this thumb once again stroking my temple. "Every time I saw the bruises I left on your neck, I wanted to throw myself into the chasm. I never should have touched you like that."

"It's okay." I looked back up at him, leaning into his palm. "I understand now why you did it. So it's okay."

"But it's not. I shouldn't have let it happen. I was hurt and angry and I lost it. I could have hurt you worse than that. I came way too close to it. That's why I told you to leave. Because if I hadn't... I don't even want to think about what I could have done to you. I never, ever want to see you be that scared of me again."

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that anymore," I told him, leaning in to press my lips against his. "I know you now, Eric. And I'm not afraid of you."

"Good."

I felt his body relax then, and I settled back into his arms, my head against his chest. The arm he had under my head moved to wrap around my shoulders while his other hand slid down from my face to my back, lightly trailing up and down my spine. Even our legs intertwined together in a cozy little bundle of warmth and closeness. I felt complete laying there like that. So much so that I never wanted to move.

"Stay with me again tonight."

His voice was once again soft and breathy, barely above a whisper in the quiet that surrounded us.

"Of course," I told him, planting a kiss on his collar bone. "No where else I'd rather be."