Sole Survivors: Crux Survivors, Book 2 (18 page)

“Just jump over them.” She held up one side of the covers.

His knee hit the mattress, he scooted under the blanket, then lowered his body until it barely brushed hers. She gasped, knees opening to make room for him.

Chase had to close his eyes, grind his teeth because he was so close to losing it. She felt so soft against him, so warm. He wanted to kick the covers off, to see all of her bathed in moonlight, but it was nice cradled on top of her with her legs clenched against his outer thighs.

He wanted more, so he pulled back and put his mouth on her neck, kissed down her collarbone, tasting the sweetness of her skin, breathing in her warm, female-scented air under the covers. When his lips closed over her nipple, she gasped and opened her legs more. He groaned, sucked her into his mouth while running his hand down her waist. Her smooth skin felt so good against his palm, he couldn’t stop stroking that curve of her hip.

She moved against him, making small gasping noises that flushed his skin with heat.

“Please,” she whispered, clutching his shoulders. “I want you.”

She slid her legs around him so tightly he couldn’t stop himself from sliding into the wet heat of her body. It was easier this time. She was wetter. The slow glide of perfection made him clench his jaw tighter.

Keera let out a long, low moan, tightened her legs again.

He sucked her lower lip into his mouth, ran his tongue over it, then groaned when she pushed her tongue into his mouth and dug her fingernails into his back. She moved against him, with him, her breaths mimicking the harsh effort of his.

He’d never felt more connected to anyone in his life.

She opened her mouth wider for more, rubbed her body hard against him and it was her turn to lose it. He felt her orgasm in the spasms of her body around his cock, in the hard clutch of her fingers…in the way she tilted her head back and groaned. He couldn’t resist her exposed neck and he latched onto her as his own release fought free.

 
He held her tight to him, spilled into her body and hoped this wouldn’t be the last time.

“Well,” she finally said as she pushed hair out of her eyes, then re-wrapped her arms around his neck. Her breath was warm on his throat. “You may have only spent a few weeks with a girlfriend eighteen years ago, but you built enough experience in that short time to rock my world.”

He found himself tongue-tied…wanted to do more than rock her world. He wanted to be a permanent part of it. Chase kept his eyes closed, loving the feel of her soft body underneath him, loving the way her thighs still cradled him close. He lifted off her so he could roll to his side. She followed, draping over him, her breasts soft against his ribs.

“Have you thought about moving to New Mexico?” he asked softly.

She didn’t answer right away, but she didn’t tighten up or move from him. Instead, she ran her fingers through the hair on his chest.
 

When she stayed silent, he tightened his arm around her. “I know it would be hard to leave your home.”

“You and Tripp left yours.”

He thought of the small house with his sister’s grave in the back. “It wasn’t the safe haven you and your father built, but it was hard to leave. I was down for some time after being shot. Tripp had to dig his sister’s grave. He’d wanted to put her by our mother in the cemetery—she’d died in the first wave of the Crux, so she ended up there.”

“Why didn’t he?” She flattened her palm on his chest.

“He was too scared to leave me that long. Though I recently found out he’d gone out one night hoping for revenge against the raiders who’d shot at us. At least he was smart enough to realize he was outnumbered. But digging a grave alone takes time.”

“He probably wanted her close too.” She shuddered, then shuffled even closer to him, raising her thigh over his legs. “I can’t imagine what he must have felt doing that. It nearly killed me to bury my father, but to bury a twin...”

Chase closed his eyes at the grief that seemed to never ease, then forced himself to focus on how nice it felt to have her naked skin all along his side, how her breath felt brushing over his chest. Every now and then, she ran her fingers over his chest. He sucked in a breath when she brushed his nipple.
 

“Chase?”

“Yeah,” he breathed, turning to rest his lips against her forehead. Her hair still smelled of that honeysuckle shampoo he’d spent an embarrassing amount of time smelling in her shower.
 

“What do
you
think about New Mexico?”

It took everything he had not to clench his muscles with her question. But he held still and waited a few heartbeats before answering. He gave her the truth. “I think it sounds a little like utopia. Tripp is already attached to Cadmar and I like the others quite a bit. I like the safety in numbers, the remoteness of it. Then, there’s electricity, gardens, Dorian’s medical knowledge.”

“People,” she whispered. Keera took a deep breath and pulled her head back so she could look up at him. It was too dark to see more than a faint reflection of moonlight off his face. “What do you think is happening between us? Do you think it’s just sex?”

“You mean two lonely people just using each other for comfort?”

She nodded.

He tightened his fingers on her side. “It’s more than that for me.”

“But we haven’t known each other that long.”

“I’m not sure that makes a difference. Not in how I feel at this moment. How I’ve felt since we first talked.”

“But we’ve just sort of jumped into bed together.” She rolled onto her back.

He slid his arm up until it was under her neck, but he wasn’t sure what to say. They had. The attraction, which seemed to hit her as hard as it had him, made him feel blind with need. But maybe it wasn’t as strong for her. Not like he’d thought.

She sat up, turned to face him, placing her palm on his chest again. “I like you, Chase. A lot.” She let her hair slide forward until he couldn’t see her face. “Oh hell. Social skills be damned. I think I’m falling for you pretty damned hard. The thought of watching you drive off with the others rips me to shreds.”

His heartbeat picked up and the joy that flooded and swept through him threatened to steal his breath. It was such an unfamiliar, overwhelming feeling—he wasn’t sure how to contain it.

She curled her fingers in his chest hair, tugged a little. “I’m scared about so many things. I don’t know whether to ask you to come live with me or if I should gather up all my things and move to New Mexico. Louisiana is all I’ve ever known.” She sucked in a deep breath. “I just…I don’t think I can let you go.”

“I know I don’t want to let you go.” He reached up to grab her hand because she was pulling his hair kind of hard. He threaded his fingers with hers. “It’ll be new for me, too. Whichever choice we make.”

She tucked her hair behind her ear. “So you’re thinking about it? Staying together?”

“I’m thinking of little else.”

“Oh.” She squeezed his fingers. “What if you get to know me and you hate me? I can be annoying. I’m used to being alone. Like, really, really alone. I talk to myself and I have no idea how I’d be around that many people. Even when I was a kid, my father and I didn’t hang out with a lot of other people. We went to doomsday-prepper meetings—that was about it.”

“What about your mother?”

“She took off when I was really little.” Keera shivered and he reached down to grope for the blanket, handed it to her. “Thanks,” she said, tucking it around her shoulders and his legs. She had to scoot closer to do so.

Chase stared up at her, wondering if he’d said too much, but not regretting it. Life was too damned short to not reach out for a chance at what he thought they could have. He placed his hand on her thigh, her bare skin so soft and silky under his palm, he had to stroke. “Keera, you might get to know me and not like me either.”

Her teeth showed in the moonlight as she grinned. “Doubt that.”

“I can be a moody son of a bitch. There are times the scars hurt. A lot. I don’t have all the strength back in my shoulder and might not ever get it back.”

“I saw you work a gun. Don’t think that’s really a problem.” She leaned close and kissed his lips. “But I’m sorry about the pain.”

He reached up and threaded his fingers in her hair, held her face to him so he could kiss her again.

She stretched back out against him and pulled the covers over them both. When she nuzzled her nose into his side, heat curled low and blood rushed to his groin. She must have felt him hardening against the thigh she’d slid over him because she chuckled. “Well, we know we’re compatible here. In bed.”

“We seem to be well-matched in more ways than that.” He groaned when she rubbed her thigh over his now hard cock. “But this is incredible.” He stroked his hand over her cheek, lifted her chin and stared hard into her face. “Keera, I want more. More time with you. I want the chance to explore our…compatibility.”

She slid all the way on top of him, straddled him, gasping when the tip of his dick nudged between her legs.

He held his breath, dizzy with the pleasure of her wet, feminine folds sliding over his skin. He clutched her waist with his hands, moved her back and forth over him. “This conversation is important. Really important, but I can’t think with you spread open like that on me.”

“Yeah?” She leaned down, licked his lower lip. “Suddenly, I’m not so interested in talking anymore. We’ll figure it out.” She nipped him, then lowered her head to open her mouth on his throat. “Later,” she whispered against his skin.

“Later,” he agreed on a moan as she rocked her hips until he slid inside her.
 

Someone slammed into the RV, waking Chase instantly. He scrambled for his gun, then ran into the living room. It wasn’t until the light flipped on and he saw Jenna’s eyes go wide that he remembered he didn’t have any clothes on. Instead of hiding, he just stood and braved it out. “Don’t you know better than to scare us awake like that?”

“I, um.” She jerked around when Dorian ran into the RV.

He halted, looked Chase up and down and blushed. “Damn. I totally understand why you’re standing there stunned, but we have to hustle.” He looked beyond Chase as Keera came up behind him.

“What’s going on?” Keera asked as she put her arms around Chase and held his flannel shirt over his crotch.

Jenna made a disappointed grunt.

“Don’t be greedy,” Keera said. “You got two. This one’s mine.”

Chase glanced back to see if she was naked because Dorian hadn’t stopped staring. She’d put on one of Chase’s T-shirts that reached down to her thighs. It had a big hole in it that left part of a breast bare.
 

Dorian cleared his throat, stepped toward the door. “MacKenzie snuck out to the farm tonight. She came back to say that a bunch took off in the middle of the night and they loaded up a good amount of supplies first so she thinks they’ll be gone awhile. There are only ten or so left and two of them are her friends, so we can hit the place now and get his family out before the others come back.”

Chase sprang into action. He turned and squeezed around Keera to get to his clothes. He noticed a faint light coming in through the curtains. “It’s morning. Ross didn’t wake me for my watch.”

“Your backside is just as nice, by the way,” Jenna called out. “I took the second watch with Dorian. So glad too or I would have missed the show.” She was laughing as she left the RV.

“Mine,” Keera growled.

Chase stopped as he was pulling on jeans. He leaned over and gave her a hard kiss on the lips. “Yes, yours. Come on, let’s hurry.”

He and Ross had gotten all the guns and ammo ready the night before while the others had been grinding jessamine roots, so all he had to do was tuck the one gun he’d kept into his jeans and go.

“How do we want to do this?” he asked Ross as they all gathered around the back of the semi-truck where they’d loaded all the fire power. “We can’t just drive up and start shooting.”

“No, but I can just drive up.” Mackenzie had finally ditched the ruined tank top and now wore one of the sweatshirts he’d seen Keera put in the RV. The woman still had her crazy pants with all the pockets and weapons. She’d tied her hair in some kind of knot on the back of her head. “You can all hide in the truck and I’ll just drive right onto the property. They know me. They’ll think I stole a new vehicle.”

Everyone was quiet.

She sighed. “Right. You don’t have reason to trust me. I could just be trussing you all up and leading you right into an ambush.”

“You could be,” Chase admitted.

She looked at each person, then down at the guns before she seemed to make a decision. She pulled her sweatshirt off.

Chase heard Tripp’s strangled noise behind him and didn’t blame the kid. The woman was seriously ripped and had gorgeous, small breasts tipped with plump, dark nipples. But he fast realized she wasn’t showing them her breasts. He winced, knowing what he looked at had hurt.

“Those fuckers branded me.” She touched the huge scar in the shape of a D on her side. It had healed badly with some parts of the letter thicker than others. It was also bigger than his hand.