Thicker than Blood (36 page)

A creak sounded from behind me and I turned,
watching as Dori’s bedroom door began to open. My stomach sank as
soon as I saw his profile, large and overbearing, the width of him
taking up every inch of the doorway.

I stepped back, deeper into the shadows,
willing the ground to open up and swallow me whole. He was the very
last person I wanted to see, let alone be locked in a dark room
with, especially since changing my mind about our little
arrangement. Dori’s perception of me only convinced me that I
wouldn’t be trading anything with this man, especially not my
body.

“Out.” His voice was rough and gravelly, deep
and oppressive, brooking no argument.

Dori responded instantly, wheeling herself
across the room without question. As the door closed behind her
with an audible click, my stomachache only worsened. This wasn’t
what I’d wanted. This was never what I’d wanted.

“The rotters?” I asked, my words breathless
and quivering.

“Almost here,” he answered, his black eyes
focused on mine.

I could hardly see him, but I could sense the
air shift around me as he stepped forward, his large body passing
by, his arm brushing against mine and causing me to shiver. The
curtains were suddenly yanked open and light flooded the room. It
was a welcome feeling, the warm sun on my chilled skin.

He approached me, and when his strong hands
fell on my shoulders, I willed myself to remain where I was, to not
run screaming out into the hallway and alert the infected to our
whereabouts.

Bending down, he pressed a hard kiss on the
side of my neck, his coarse beard grating roughly against my
skin.

“E,” I whispered, shivering again as fear
drenched me. “I…I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to trade with
you anymore.”

My fear gave way, breaching the hardened
walls I had built while talking with Dori. She was right; E was
dangerous, and suddenly my fight seemed futile.

His fingers jerked, squeezing my shoulders
even harder, causing me to wince. “That ain’t an option,
Wildcat.”

• • •

Leisel

“I thought we were waiting?” I mumbled against
Alex’s persistent mouth. “’Til after your fight…”

I was pressed up against the door, Alex’s
big, broad body entirely covering mine. His hands were in my hair
and my hands were up the back of his shirt, my fingertips digging
gently into the smooth skin on his back.

Our one small kiss had escalated rather
quickly. Although I was still crying, and Alex was obviously a bit
overcome with emotion himself, none of that seemed to matter any
longer.

He paused, releasing my mouth, and took a
step backward. I slumped against the door, my body overheated and
vibrating with excitement.

“There isn’t going to be a fight tonight,” he
said, dropping his gaze down the length of me. “Not with a horde so
close by. They won’t risk the noise.” His eyes looked me over.
“And…Lei?”

“Yeah?”

“You look amazing.”

I wanted to laugh at that, because I
looked far from amazing in my dirty dress and my face all red and
puffy from crying. But,
oh God
,
the way he was looking at me. It reminded me of the previous night,
after I’d been freed from the cage. That hunger, that wanting, it
was all back. Watching him watching me, my breaths shortened as my
heart began to pound even faster.

In one fluid movement, he’d pulled his shirt
up over his head and tossed it aside. Then he was back, pressing
his body against mine as he slid my dress straps off my shoulders,
then pressed hungry kisses to the skin he’d just bared.

My head lolled off to the right, allowing him
better access as his mouth explored my neck. I reveled in the feel
of him touching me, kissing me, wanting me in this inexplicably
crazy way that he did.

“Lei,” he said, my name a mere growl from
deep within his throat. His hands fumbled with the hem of my dress
and pulled it up, bunching it at my waist, and I helped him along,
trying to move the material out of his way while still kissing
him.

His kisses—my God, his kisses. I felt so
alive beneath his mouth and his hands, so wired, so unlike anything
I’d ever experienced before.

Alex’s hand slipped into my underwear and
then lower, his fingers finding me. In mid-kiss, my body went
still, my mouth falling open, my breath freezing in place. I
dropped my head back, dropping it lightly against the door, and
then he was moving inside me, and all at once my breath released in
a whoosh of air that ended in a gasp of pleasure.

As I breathed in, breathed out, my chest
heaving, my body trembling, the pressure from Alex’s body was the
only thing that kept me standing upright. And although I was still
standing, I wasn’t, not really, not deep inside me. I was falling
and then soaring, then falling again.

Through fluttering eyelids I could see him
watching me, his eyelids hooded, his lips pressed together in a
determined line, and it only heightened my pleasure, knowing that
he was watching me, knowing that he was enjoying watching me.

“I dreamed about this,” he suddenly said, his
voice husky and deep.

I tried to focus on him but his hand was
relentless, pulling me out of my weightlessness and back into this
moment. To him.

“Hmm?” I mumbled.

“You. This look on your face, because of me.
I dreamed about it a hundred times.”

A tear slipped free from the corner of my
eye, not from sadness, but from being so overcome, so completely
mesmerized by him, by us, and by this moment we were locked inside
together.

“I wanted you bad, Leisel. From that first
day when I arrived in Fredericksville. You dropped off clean
clothing and food for all us guys. Ever since then…” His fingers
began to move more insistently, as if the memory of that moment
spurred him on.

“I was the first woman you’d seen in months,”
I mumbled breathlessly.

“You were more than that,” he said. “You were
something beautiful and good in the middle of a goddamn war
zone.”

This time I only managed a squeaky sort of
moan in response, which seemed to be perfectly fine with Alex,
considering he was now grinning.

• • •

Evelyn

Pulling out from E’s grasp, I quickly backed away
from him.

“I told you, I’m not trading now.” I jutted
my chin out, my fists curling into tight balls of defiance. But my
knees were shaking, sending trembles rippling up and down my
legs.

Taking a step toward me, a grin snaking
across his rugged face, E shook his head. “And I told you that
ain’t an option.”

“I don’t want your fucking vermin!” I snapped
angrily. “I’m worth more than a dead rat!” I took another step
backward, my back bumping against the door behind me.

Still watching me, he raised his eyebrows in
question. “Where you going, Wildcat? I’m not going to rape you. I
ain’t never had to rape a woman, and I’m not gonna start now.” He
laughed loudly, as if the thought of him having to rape a woman was
the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard in his life.

“Well, you’re not getting anything from me,”
I said, and swallowed back the lump in my throat.

“What happened, Wildcat? I thought you were
game?” He looked genuinely confused, and perhaps even a little
amused by my sudden mood change, as if this was all a game to him.
Trading women, sex…it meant nothing.

Reaching out behind me, I fumbled with my
hand, searching for the doorknob. “I was,” I said tersely. “Until I
remembered that I’m worth more than a piece of meat.” Finding the
doorknob, I turned it just as his eyes flickered from my face to my
hand.

He moved quickly for such a large man,
reaching me before I had the chance to actually open the door.
Slapping my hand off the doorknob, his arms came down to rest on
either side of my head.

“I agree,” he said, dipping his face down,
his mouth on my neck once again. “You’re worth a shit ton more than
a piece of meat.”

A low, throaty growl rumbled forth, then his
tongue darted out across my skin. He dragged his tongue up my
throat, over my chin toward my mouth, where he licked his way
across my lips.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I shuddered beneath
him.

“You taste like peaches, Wildcat,” he
murmured. “Sweet and juicy.”

He paused in his wet perusal of my face and
lifted his head, his black eyes looking me over. “I can get you
whatever it’s gonna take.” Pressing his hips against me, he rolled
them, making sure I knew how hard he was, how much he wanted
this—me.

If there was one thing I knew well, it was
men. I wouldn’t be getting out of this; he wasn’t going to let me.
But I wouldn’t let this happen to me for nothing, for a mere
rat.

“I want a truck,” I bit out. Thankfully the
tremble in my body hadn’t yet reached my voice. I sounded strong
and sure, the complete opposite of what I was feeling.

Quirking an eyebrow, he smiled slyly at me.
“Oh yeah? Why?”

I wanted to snarl at him, to tell him it was
none of his business, to tell him he could go to hell for all I
cared, but instead I smiled. Two could play at this game.

“Because,” I said, “I want me and my friends
out of this place.”

• • •

Leisel

I was still recovering from my orgasm when Alex
lifted me off my feet and carried me across the room, then set me
down on the mattress. My dress, ruined, torn open from the back,
was already hanging half off my body. With one sweep of his hand,
what remained of the dress was yanked from my body and thrown
across the room.

Seated on his knees between my spread legs,
unbuttoning his pants, Alex was still grinning down at me.
Giggling, I blushed furiously, not out of embarrassment, but
happiness.

“I feel guilty,” I suddenly blurted out, my
smile slipping away. “There’s infected out there, Eve’s out there
somewhere. We don’t know what’s going to happen if…” I paused, not
wanting to finish my thought. Not wanting to say aloud that we
could very well die here, today even, if the horde didn’t simply
pass by as expected.

“Better to have some happiness before you
die, right?” He paused in removing his pants, watching me intently
as concern creased his handsome features.

I nodded, although rather listlessly. “I
don’t want to die,” I said softly, and then froze, realizing what
I’d just said. It hadn’t been all that long ago when I’d been ready
to die, ready to just accept my fate and leave this world. I was
different now, changed. I didn’t want to die, I didn’t want to
leave, not when my life had finally become my own again. Not when I
had two people who needed me now, Evelyn and Alex. How strange it
felt to realize you were actually needed, when you’d spent years in
stasis, feeling helpless and useless.

“I won’t let you die,” Alex promised.

Dropping his hands to the mattress on either
side of my head, he lowered his face to mine and pressed a soft
kiss to my lips. I took his face between my hands, then arched my
body, pressing my bare breasts against his chest. Wrapping his arm
around my back while still balancing on one hand, Alex maneuvered
us both into a sitting position, with me straddling his lap.

We kissed again, a deeply satisfying kiss,
long and hard. The smell of him, of me, was all around us now, the
heady scent of skin and sweat and bodies pressing together. I found
myself unconsciously rocking my hips over his, kissing him more
fervently than before.

The ache had returned, the burning in my
belly, and excitement snaked up my spine. I wanted more of him,
needed more of him, and he seemed to understand this without me
having to say a word. Reaching between us, he finished undoing his
pants, and somehow—though I had no idea how—managed to wriggle out
of them without having to release me. Then he was there, that part
of him I was craving so desperately, pressing up against me, then
slowly and gently filling me.

Burying my face in the crook of his neck, I
squeezed my eyes shut. There was so much, too much that I related
to sex, and not all of it was happy memories. But I knew this was
different, that this was real and this was good. There was no greed
in this bed of ours, no evil lurking behind Alex’s handsome
features.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered, holding me
tightly to him. “I’ve got you, Lei.”

• • •

Evelyn

“You’ll die out there,” E said.

“I’d rather be free,” I retorted.

“Free to die?”

“Or to live,” I whispered angrily. “Either
way, I’ll be doing it my way.”

He watched me for a minute, clearly deciding
if I was worth it to him. “A truck?” he repeated as he grinned at
me.

“And gas.”

“Done,” he said with a shrug. “What else you
need, Wildcat? You got a list in that pretty little head of yours?”
he said, stroking a hand down my hair, letting my curls fall
through his fingers.

I nodded my head. “There’s lots of things
we’ll need.”

Throwing his head back, E laughed loud and
hard, embarrassing me and making me foolish. He continued laughing,
the volume of which made me wonder if the infected outside might
hear it. All at once he stopped, his gaze again meeting mine, his
features smooth and serious. “Of course there is.”

I swallowed again, the lump in my throat
stubbornly refusing to go down. “I want weapons, food, water…” One
by one I ticked off a survival checklist, all things that Leisel,
Alex, and I would need back out in the wild. Part of me hoped he’d
refuse me, that he’d laugh at my exorbitant and ridiculous
requests; yet another part of me hoped he would agree to my
demands, providing us with what we needed in order to be free of
this place once and for all. That perhaps if I were able to go back
to Leisel with the keys to our freedom in my hand, she would
forgive me for my many mistakes.