Tower in the Woods (7 page)

It was Nel’s turn to frown. “How many times would we have to agree to have sex in order for you to consider it? Besides, shouldn’t you just tell me what you want to do with me before assuming I would refuse?”

Dane closed his eyes. “We’re not having sex. At least not tonight. You’ve had quite enough emotional turmoil for one day and I refuse to have this discussion until both our brains are functioning properly.”

This time his words actually made sense. Dane was right. In one day she had talked and touched another person for the first time in eleven years. Before tonight, she had never met or kissed a man. Considering the likely emotional effects of all these experiences, having sex tonight as well was probably not one of her wiser decisions.

“All right,” Nel acquiesced as she adjusted her position on Dane’s lap, “perhaps we should lie down so we can be in a more comfortable position while we sleep. I don’t know about you, but all this excitement has made me very tired.”

* * * *

It served him right, Dane thought as he very literally experienced hell on earth. What else was he supposed to call holding Nel in his arms as she slept, unable to act on an arousal that simply wasn’t going away, and realizing it was he who had convinced her not to have sex with him in the first place? Since when had he become so bloody noble? What idiotic part of his brain had made him refuse when the woman he wanted so desperately offered to have sex with him? Resisting the urge to groan in frustration, Dane focused on reorganizing his thoughts rather than the feel of Nel’s soft body. He wondered how she could have so trustingly curled up against his chest, completely oblivious to the affect she had on his self-control.

The whole situation felt intensely surreal. He spooned a delectable female sniper who belonged to WITCH. Dane didn’t spoon the women he had sex with, let alone the woman he had refused to have sex with because he suddenly decided to develop a conscience. But here he was, cuddling with the woman who was giving him the most painful erection of his adult life, and having absolutely no idea what he was going to do with her once she woke up.

“It just occurred to me that you have been experiencing sexual arousal ever since we met.” Nel’s soft voice sliced through the night, completely cutting off Dane’s ability to form words.

“Gah…” was all Dane managed to get out of his mouth while his brain struggled to respond to her observation.

“That is why your groin is pressing up against my bottom, isn’t it?” she asked sleepily.

How exactly was he supposed to respond to that statement without sounding like an absolute ass?

“Is there anything I can do to help, without having sex with you, that is?” Nel rolled over to face him, her eyelids fluttering as she tilted her face up to meet Dane’s gaze with her own. There was an earnestness to the way she said the words, and the innocent offer was turning Dane’s thoughts into a garbled mess.

“Not really, no.” Dane managed to rasp out, deciding he very much deserved his own parking spot in heaven. “I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure? From what I’ve read, male ejaculation seems to be a matter of applying the appropriate amount of friction. It doesn’t necessarily have to come from sexual intercourse,” she somberly told him. In all his wildest fantasies, Dane couldn’t imagine a more erotic way to discuss a handjob. Did this woman seriously think he didn’t know how to jerk off? Perfect, this entire night was just perfect.

“I’m all right. Seriously. You should probably try to catch some rest,” Dane managed to mutter, hoping this was the end of the most bizarre conversation of his life. He was wrong.

Nel shook her head. “It can’t be healthy or comfortable to remain aroused for as long as you have. It’s been hours. Why don’t you let me try to help you?”

With those words, her little hands moved down to undo the snap of his jeans. Deciding to simply surrender to the madness, Dane rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. It was evident Nel had a mind of her own, and his penis was more than happy to play along. His conscience was clearly having a hard enough time stopping him from tearing off Nel’s clothes and taking her virginity, so it promptly decided to take a backseat.

“Let me know if I’m hurting you,” Nel said as she pulled down his zipper and reached her slender fingers into his pants. The surge of intense pleasure as her hand cupped his bulging erection was enough to make Dane’s hips jerk off the floor. He didn’t know how many curse words escaped his lips in the following five-second period, and he couldn’t bring himself to care.

When he opened his eyes, Nel was curiously scrutinizing his face. “Would that mean I am hurting you or not hurting you?”

“You’re doing fine,” Dane groaned out as he closed his eyes once more. His conscience must have decided to take a vacation, for he heard his own voice say, “It would be more comfortable if you took off my pants.”

Clearly fascinated by the male anatomy, Nel didn’t need any further urging to grab on to Dane’s waistband and pull down the heavy denim. Deciding to pick his battles, he moved to kick off the restraining cloth that had crumpled over his calves.

“Socks on or off?” Nel asked, her now alert blue eyes fixed questioningly on his face.

“Off,” Dane replied after a far too long pause.

Once he was left covered only in his boxers, Nel crawled back to sit by his side, her legs folded primly underneath her. As curious as any cat, she quickly tugged the undergarment down to reveal his very engorged male appendage.

“It’s a good thing we decided to put off having sex. I’m not quite sure your penis will fit where it needs to go,” Nel observed as she ran the tip of her index finger from the hilt of his shaft to the engorged end, causing Dane’s hips to buck up once more. If he didn’t know better he would have pegged her for a tease. At the rate she was going, he was certain he was going to be driven completely insane before the night’s end.

“It’ll fit,” Dane groaned out, realizing his penis grew as he spoke. At least there was one silver lining to the ridiculous situation. He may be scaring Nel out of her decision to have sex with him.

“I’ve been thinking about the science behind what we are doing,” Nel chirpily proposed as she proceeded to cup his balls, “and it occurred to me that my mouth would better approximate the conditions of sexual intercourse.”

Dane very nearly came in her hands. He should refuse, he very seriously should. But instead he chokingly muttered, “That sounds like a solid plan to me.”

Clearly emboldened by his words, Nel bent her head, her wispy blonde hair falling to obscure his view. Then she tilted her face to the side to meet his gaze, and that beautiful cascade of gold fell backward, leaving Dane with the tantalizing view of Nel’s mouth hovering less than an inch above his erection. “If I hurt you…”

“I’ll tell you to stop,” Dane quickly assured her, knowing no amount of pain would compel him to do any such thing. There were limits to morality, and refusing a blowjob at this point was several miles beyond that limit.

With her hand still cupping his balls, Nel lowered her head, her pink tongue sticking out to lap at the moisture beading over the tip of his penis. The contact was electric, and Dane clenched his hands into fists as a wave a pleasure cascaded through him. He didn’t close his eyes, for the sight of her lips closing over his engorged shaft was the most erotic vision he had ever seen. She looked so utterly submissive as she hesitantly moved her head up and down, her body propped up on her hands and knees in a position that made images of a very different kind of penetration race through his mind.

He heard rumbling sounds echoing through the room, sounds he barely recognized as his own voice, and he nearly came when Nel lowered her head farther to take him more fully into her warm, wet mouth. Twirling her tongue along the bulging blood vessels of his penis, Nel moved her head up and down as she sucked, the motion driving him almost to the brink. How he had the semblance of mind to say, “I’m about to come in your mouth” Dane did not know. Nel seemed to freeze for just a moment before simply continuing to milk him with those soft eager lips. With deep guttural sounds erupting from his throat, he shuddered as he emptied himself into her mouth.

Once she was done cleaning him off with her tongue, Nel lay back down next to him and pulled the blanket up over them. Her eyes drifted closed as she murmured, “See, now doesn’t that feel much better?”

Feeling a surge of protectiveness he could barely recognize, Dane cradled Nel’s trusting body against his chest, wondering how he was going to resist the temptation presented to him in such a delightful package. As he watched her fall into a deep sleep, he realized the entire interlude had probably lasted less than a minute. And no, he didn’t feel much better. He was still randy as all hell.

Nel woke up feeling very rested and pulsing with energy. She also felt oddly frustrated, as if she were going to jump out of her skin if something didn’t happen very soon. She didn’t know exactly what it was that she needed so badly, but she didn’t like how she felt.

It was in that moment Nel realized her face pressed up against a very broad and naked chest. A very broad and naked man’s chest, to be more specific. For a few seconds, she felt fear, panic at the reality that she wasn’t alone in her room, uncertainty as to why there was a member of the male gender lying naked next to her. Then memory washed over her in a flood of embarrassment as Nel suddenly remembered every single detail of what happened last night.

A blush crept over her face as she recalled the way she had taken Dane’s penis into her mouth, and her cheeks grew even hotter as she remembered swallowing the gushing hot semen that pumped into her less than a minute later.

What she did had seemed logical at the time, scientific almost, and Nel had been too piqued by curiosity to stop and hesitate. Now that she had time to ponder, it occurred to her that what she had done without thinking was extremely intimate, and some may even say it was more intimate than sexual intercourse. After all, a great deal of trust was implied on both sides, and Nel had a feeling the man slumbering soundly next to her didn’t trust very easily.

Knowing there was no point in dwelling on events that had already transpired, Nel slowly wriggled out of the tangle of Dane’s arms. He stirred, turning over to his other side but remained in a deep sleep. After tucking the corners of the blanket around his naked body, Nel got up from the floor and walked over to the covered window. Moving the lightweight bookcase ever so slightly, she peeked out to see the storm was still at full force. Swirls of snow and sleet fell in a seemingly unending cascade to cover the entire landscape in white and gray. Dane was right—at this temperature there was nary a zombie in sight. Until this storm was over, Nel had just been given a long-overdue respite.

Accustomed to having more free time on her hands than she knew what to do with, Nel gathered Dane’s discarded T-shirt, pants, and underwear, bundling them up into her arms as she walked toward the opposite end of the room. Entering the small adjacent bathroom, she dumped the items into a large built-in ceramic basin on the floor. Stripping off her own clothing, Nel added the items to the pile.

The bathroom had been modified to contain a large cemented wall that stood taller than Nel’s head. Whenever it rained, water was collected through a pipe that opened onto the roof. The clean rain water was stored in a cordoned off area of the bathroom, ensuring she would always have more than she needed. Although the makeshift reservoir was large enough for her to swim in, it had rained heavily enough over the past few months for the it to almost brim over, forcing her to tamp down her hoarding tendencies and actually lavishly utilize the water supply. A turn of the tap sent water from the reservoir into the bathtub full of clothes. Nel hastily scrubbed the items with small amounts of precious handmade soap. It was regularly delivered by Mother Gothel, but Nel just couldn’t bring herself to waste something she depended upon so heavily and couldn’t create herself.

Once all the items were clean, Nel padded back into the sniper’s nest and spread the damp items on a drying rack located next to the fireplace. She was still wearing her chest bindings and underwear so she wasn’t too concerned about Dane waking up to see her unclothed. When she was done with her task, she looked back toward her sleeping pallet to find him still soundly asleep.

Feeling too energized to stay still, Nel went through her afternoon workout routine. She usually stayed awake throughout the night, monitoring the borders for zombies and falling asleep at daybreak. Her regular sleep cycle ensured she would wake sometime in the late afternoon, which still gave her far more free time than she needed. Since she had fallen asleep much earlier in the night than she was used to, Nel figured it may still be morning. Perhaps because of the man slumbering in her tower, the prospect of having to face a few more free hours in the day didn’t feel at all like a chore.

Determinedly, she tried to burn off what seemed like an endless amount of restless energy by doing push-ups, sit-ups, knee-highs, squats, and lunges. When she ended her exercise routine over an hour later her body glistened with sweat and she didn’t feel as edgy as she had before. Rolling her eyes when she turned to find Dane still fast asleep, Nel resolved to take a cold bath before giving in and waking the man up.

* * * *

Breathing a heavy sigh of relief as Nel disappeared into what he assumed was the bathroom, Dane flipped onto his back and opened his eyes. He had woken up to the sight of her clad only in a pair of cotton panties and chest bindings. To make things worse for his morning boner, she was working out, and his jaw dropped as he watched her sweat-covered body go through various strenuous exercises.

Damn, she was hot. Nel’s compact body contained barely any excess flesh, and the muscles of her arms, shoulders, and torso stood out in stark definition as she moved. She needed more meat on her, and her breasts and butt could stand to gain a few additional inches, but the sight of her as she was did more than enough to whet Dane’s appetite. He wanted Nel. He wanted her so desperately it was difficult for him to breathe when she was around. He was close to thirty-five years old and he had slept with a good number of women before now, but he had never desired any female as much as he wanted Nel.