Infinite Ties (All That Remains #3) (9 page)

You would think it would be impossible to
fall asleep in the middle of such a conversation, but I’m exhausted from all
the stress. Yesterday, my biggest fear was Jon running his mouth to my guys.
Now, that takes a backseat to the threat of losing them to violence...again.
Either way, I’m damned. My eyes slip closed, and the next thing I hear is
Airen’s gruff cry.

“Air?” I mumble, still half asleep.

“Get off me!” he snaps, shoving me into
Joseph hard enough to rattle my teeth.

The room fills with soft, dim light as Joseph
turns on the lamp. “What?” he says, before he’s cut off by Airen’s growl.

“Don’t fucking touch me!” His eyes are
squeezed shut and he’s soaked in sweat.

Joseph snatches my hand and pulls me out
of bed. “He’s having a nightmare, Abby. Stay back.” He tugs the cover off of
him before he can get tangled in it, and we both freeze. He’s rock hard, a wet
spot spreading across his shorts. I didn’t know men could climax from a
nightmare. What the fuck is he dreaming about?

“No! It hurts!” His hand clamps over his
ass and he flips to his back. Tears run down his face. “I don’t! I don’t like
it!” he sobs.

“Go wait in the bathroom, Abby,” Joseph
orders, his face pale.

“We should wake him,” I whisper.

“I’m going to, but it’ll kill him if he
knows you saw him like this. Go.”

I nod and quickly retreat to the bathroom,
leaving the door ajar so I can hear. Joseph yells his name three times before
he wakes.

“What the fuck is going on?” Airen snaps.
I can hear the fear in his voice.

“You were having a nightmare. I had to wake
you up.” Joseph’s calm demeanor lessens his panic. Their reflection is visible
in the vanity mirror, and I watch through the crack in the door. Airen looks
around wildly as Joseph lays a tentative hand on his shoulder. When he cringes,
Joseph quickly withdraws.

“Sorry,” Airen mumbles. “I guess I’m still
jumpy.”

“It’s okay. Do you want to tell me what
you were dreaming?”

“No…I don’t remember.” With a trembling
hand, he wipes the tears from his cheeks. Blood rushes to his face when he
looks down at the remnant of his wilting erection, and the wet spot on his
crotch. Silently, Joseph walks to the dresser and retrieves a clean pair of
boxers. “Where’s Abby?” Airen asks, fearfully.

“In the bathroom. I guess the lasagna and
alcohol didn’t agree with her,” Joseph lies.

“Did I scare her? Did she…?”

Joseph sits beside him and this time he
allows him to slip an arm around his middle. “She didn’t see anything. I woke
up when she turned on the bathroom light. Then you started yelling, so I woke
you up.”

“What did I say?” he asks in a horrified
whisper.

“All I could make out was the word ‘No’,”
Joseph lies again. Airen nods, reassured. “Are you okay? Is there something you
want to talk about, Airen? We can keep it between us. You know that.”

“No, I’m fine. It was just a really vivid
nightmare. I’m sorry if I freaked you out. I should check on Abby.”

That’s my cue to flush the toilet. After
refilling the tank, I wash my hands and join them. “What was all the racket?” I
fake a yawn.

“Airen had a nightmare. Everything’s fine.”

“Are you sick, sweetheart?”

“No, I just needed to go to the bathroom
and get a drink of water. What was the nightmare about?” I crawl into bed, and
Joseph turns out the light.

“I don’t remember. Let’s just go back to
sleep.”

“Okay.” We cuddle up together and they’re
both snoring in a matter of minutes. Whatever he was dreaming about was
obviously sexual and disturbing. It’s no wonder he doesn’t want to share. It
was probably all the talk about sex slaves that triggered such a violent
nightmare. Burrowing deeper between them, I fall asleep again.

* * * *

The RV’s are packed and ready to go. Airen
found us a nice roomy one in the next town over. It has a small table with
booth seating, a long soft couch, and a bed large enough for the three of us.
Nic and Troy stick with their pick up truck and pop up camper while Eric, Gary,
and Jon share another large RV.

Julie, Lexi, and Emma know the real reason
for our trip, but the kids think we’re going to help Troy set up his electric
power. It breaks my heart to leave my boys, but I know they’re in good hands.
“Make sure they come back, Abby,” Lexi sobs, hugging me goodbye before
embracing Eric again. Emma doesn’t cry, but she looks royally pissed off. Gary
put his foot down when she insisted on coming along, and since I’m the only
woman going, I’m not her favorite person at the moment. Somehow, I’ll have to
find the strength to carry on.

“We’ll see you in two weeks,” I reassure
Carson, hoping it’ll be far sooner.

“Have fun. We’ve got this.” He grins at
Airen. “I’ll keep these women in line while you’re gone.”

“Let us get down the road before you beat
his ass for that remark, ladies.” Airen laughs.

Finally, we’re on the road, heading to a
small, southern Missouri town called Woodbriar. Airen drives the first day while
Joseph and I goof around, trying to find ways to pass the time. After a short
rest stop, Joseph lounges on the couch while I sit up front with Airen.

It’s hot out, and he’s dressed in a pair
of baggy cargo shorts, his chest bare. My hungry eyes trace the lines of his
hard muscles, just begging to be touched and licked. He’s cut his hair short,
and sweat glistens on the back of his neck.

Those perfectly sculpted lips curl into a
small smile, and he glances at me with amusement. “You’re thinking dirty thoughts,
darlin’. If you keep looking at me that way, I can’t be held responsible for my
actions.”

“It’s your fault. You shouldn’t be so damn
sexy.”

“What were you thinking?” His voice is
husky, and his eyes gleam with lust.

“Just wondering how you feel about highway
head.”

“Hey!” Joseph calls. “I can take care of
that urge without risking our lives.”

Ignoring him, I slide onto the floor
beside Airen and gaze up at him. “Can you keep us on the road, gorgeous?” I
stroke him through the thin khaki material, smiling when he grows solid beneath
my fingers.

“We’re sure as hell going to find out now,”
he growls, unzipping and tugging his shorts down his thighs.

Joseph slips into the passenger seat where
he can watch. “Just here to make sure we don’t end up in a ditch.”

“Likely excuse,” Airen replies.

Before I can begin, Joseph tugs my shirt
and bra off, and plants a quick kiss on each nipple. “Proceed.” I love his
mischievous grin.

“You have an excuse for that?” Airen gibes.

“Nope, our girl has pretty boobies. I want
to watch them jiggle.”

Airen laughs. “No argument here. You made
her blush,” he teases. His laughter is cut short, and he hisses through
clenched teeth as I slide my mouth over him. It’s an encouraging, sexy noise.
Instead of teasing him, I try to get him off as quickly as possible. This
really isn’t the safest of activities. Alternating my actions, sucking,
licking, and taking him deep pushes him to the edge of his endurance quickly. I
love how he feels, so hard but so soft.

“Eyes on the road, beautiful,” Joseph
admonishes gently. I glance up at Airen just in time to see those midnight eyes
fly open before he comes, groaning as I swallow him. Chest rising and falling
as he pants, face pink and sweaty, he’s a sexy sight.

A shaking hand trails down my cheek. “So
good, sweetheart. You just wait until tonight.”

Tucking him back in his shorts, I reply, “Oh,
really?”

“You’ll be whimpering under my tongue
before I fuck you ragged.” My breath catches and a wonderful chill runs through
me. I know he means every word.

“In the meantime, she’s mine,” Joseph
chirps, scooping me up and carrying me to the bed in the rear of the camper.

Soft blond curls separate and bounce back
between my fingers as I run them across his scalp. “Aw, are you feeling left
out?” I tease, slipping off the bed to my knees and unzipping his shorts.

“No, baby,” he whispers, and I’m pulled
back onto the bed. “I want you to come with me.” Stripping off my shorts and
panties, he turns me to my side and presses up behind me, angling my leg back
to drape over his thigh. Hot kisses trail down my neck while his fingers stroke
between my folds. “So wet already.”

He eases all the way into me in one long
firm stroke, making me cry out at the sudden fullness and the pinch of him
pushing past my limit, stretching me. A wave of heat sweeps over me from head
to toe. “You’re so deep,” I gasp.

“I need every inch of you, my girl. You
were so hot, bent over Airen with those beautiful breasts waving in front of
me.” As he moves slowly in and out, awakening every nerve ending, his fingers
travel down my belly to slip between my legs, rubbing both of my sensitive
spots at once, bombarding me with pleasure.

“Joseph,” I moan, reaching to slow his
hand, desperate to manage the sudden overwhelming stimulation.

His other hand catches mine. “Go with it,
baby. Feel me. Don’t fight it.”

“I’m going to come,” I whimper.

“More than once,” he whispers in my ear.
My moan grows louder and louder as the overpowering sensation builds, stealing
all cognitive thought and self control. His body doesn’t slow when I spasm
around him, heat and raw pleasure rocketing through my core before branching
out to roll through every inch of my body. I hear a cry that I can’t believe
came from me. He continues thrusting slow and deep, and when his fingers return
to rub and pinch, I climax again, right on the heels of the first.

“Yes…Abby…God, you’re squeezing me,” he
gasps. With a loud sound somewhere between a grunt and a groan, he lets go and
stills against me, squeezing my hip. Sweaty arms wrap around me, and without
pulling out, we lie together in a blissful stupor until Airen’s voice permeates
the bubble.

“How am I supposed to concentrate on the
road while listening to those sounds?”

“You got yours, buddy,” Joseph calls, and
we grin at each other.

“Yeah, but now I’m hard again. I believe
it’s your turn.” Joseph laughs and we dress quickly when the camper begins to
slow. “Hold that thought. It looks like we’re stopping for the night. I’ll have
to take a rain check.” Airen grins at me when we join him up front. “You may
want to fix your hair if you don’t want the others to know Joseph defiled you.”

“He’s an animal.” I giggle, glancing at
him. “I didn’t even get a kiss.” My remark has the desired effect and Joseph’s
lips meet mine for a slow, affectionate kiss.

Airen smirks as I pull my hair into a
ponytail. “Your pink cheeks and glazed eyes will give it away, anyway,” he
teases. “Plus, they probably heard you scream.”

“Shut up, I didn’t scream.”

Airen scoffs. “My ears are still ringing. Joseph’s
lucky he isn’t deaf.”

“What?” Joseph cups a hand around his ear,
and I slap him on the ass before sprawling on the couch. Shit. I really do have
to face everyone looking like I’ve been fucked half to death. My neck and chest
are red and blotchy from Joseph’s stubble. Oh, well, we’re all adults. I’m sure
no one will mention it.

Troy and Nic lead our little caravan into
a park, and Airen guides the camper into a parking space. It’s funny how some
things are so ingrained that we just can’t ignore them. We still drive on the
right side of the road, still use turn signals and park between the yellow
lines.

“It’s kind of early to stop for the day,
isn’t it?” Eric asks as we congregate in the lot.

“We have a couple hours of daylight left,”
Nic agrees, “but we found this place on the way to your house, and it’s a good
spot to camp. If we keep going we’ll end up in a grungy parking lot.”

It does turn out to be a lovely place to
spend the night. A brick shelter house filled with picnic tables sits at the
edge of an overgrown field. I’m pleasantly surprised to find a huge fireplace
smack in the middle, still full of the ashes of long dead fires. A trail leads down
to a gurgling creek that narrows before it meanders into the woods. It’s only
around four feet deep, but it shimmers with an abundance of rainbow trout.
Airen will be thrilled. Opposite the shelter, a dusty baseball diamond bakes in
the sun, the backstop fluttering with bleached out scraps of paper and debris.

Two portable toilets stand side by side
like stuffy blue soldiers. They must have been installed just before the
sickness took hold of the area. Other than a few spider webs, they’re
remarkably clean. A sudden pang of homesickness strikes me at the sight of the
playground. Walker and Lane would be in heaven. Swings, see saws, a spiral
slide, and a jungle gym, all brightly colored, wait patiently for a child to
bring them back to life.

My melancholy thoughts are interrupted by
Jon’s smug voice. “Well, we know what you guys did to pass the boring miles.”
He smirks, eyeing my mussed hair and flushed face with disdain.