“The kit’s up and to the left—in the metal cabinet with a latch!” In the background, sirens blared. Shani drove like a demon, swerving onto dirt roads and over lawns.
He rolled to his knees and braced himself as Shani swerved into a turn. With blood-coated fingers, Royce pried open the medicine cabinet. He eased off the sweatshirt and studied the wound, wincing. Bullet holes oozed blood on either side of his muscle. Gritting his teeth, he squeezed and prodded the flesh, making sure his arm was free of metal.
“Doesn’t look like any major arteries got nicked, but I don’t think I have the stomach to really clean it here. Can I leave it open until we get to your people?” He braced the sidewall on a turn.
“How’s the bleeding?” The van bounced, Shani driving over a bank of gravel.
Royce ripped open a packet of gauze and pressed it to the wound. He unscrewed a tube of antiseptic one-handed. “Not so bad now.” He poured some strong-smelling liquid on a fresh wad of gauze and swept it over his arm. “Motherfucker!” The sting tore through him, made him see spots. He breathed through his nose, panting. “Yeah. No way can I clean this well enough for stitches.” He chanced another blindingly painful pass. “I couldn’t do it with my left hand anyway.”
“You…you don’t…” Shani’s voice shook as she stumbled over the words. Royce peeked around to the front of the van. She was looking straight ahead, her eyes on the road. But her hands were clenched in a death grip on the steering wheel.
He reached out a hand to calm her, but realized it was filthy with blood. “Hey. I’m okay.” Royce shifted back into the rear. He rifled through the supplies he’d taken from the cabinet. With quick movements, he covered the wound with fresh gauze and taped it in place, and ate a fistful of painkillers and anti-inflammatories.
“Seriously, I’m fine!” He stumbled through the dinette. The pain in his arm was fading a little, but a fresh bout of electrical jolts seared between his legs. With his good hand, he clutched the benches. Then, when he guessed Shani might drive in a straight line for a moment, he turned the handle on the sink. Water dribbled out, whatever had been left in the tank once they’d disconnected from the hook-ups at the campground. He cupped a half-handful to drink, and then used the remaining to wash his hands.
The sirens faded in the distance, and the van held steadier. So Royce wove through the dinette again and onto the bed so he could reach the front seat and squeeze Shani’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”
She bobbed her head in a terse nod.
“Really, Shan? You need me to drive?”
Shani barked out a watery laugh. “Yeah right.” She scrubbed at her face with the heel of her hand. “I almost got you killed.”
“Shhh…” He rubbed her shoulder in a one-handed massage. Then, despite the pain it caused to his shoulder, Royce leaned over the divider to kiss her cheek. “I’m fine. Really. I’m designed to heal quickly.” The ache in his nuts pulsed, and Royce couldn’t stop his high-pitched cry.
Shani’s bottom lip quivered. “Oh God—”
“I’m fine!” he snapped. Royce softened his voice. “Really.” He squeezed her shoulder one more time before sliding onto the mattress behind her seat.
“You sure?” She sounded so freaked out that Royce wished he could do more to reassure her.
“Yeah.” A pothole and jostling of the van covered his hoarse cry of pain. “Yeah, just, Shan…?”
“Mm hmm?”
Royce pressed his left hand between his legs. “Just drive fast.”
Chapter Eight
Shani listened to Royce’s breathing in the backseat. It was fast, shallow. They’d crossed the Oregon border three hours earlier, right as the sun dropped over the horizon. Still south of Portland, she knew they only had five or six hours left to drive, but Royce’s occasional gasps of pain felt like lashes on her skin.
“I’m gonna find somewhere to pull over.” She spotted a tent symbol on an exit sign and veered off I-5.
“You don’t have to do that.” His words were a groan. “Are you sure you’re blocking my GPS signal?”
The exit ramp led onto a smaller route, one lane in each direction. Shani followed the signs toward the campground. “Yeah. The device that blocks it is in the van.” She curved into the mostly empty pullout. This campground was simpler than the one from the night before—just a few bare pads of dirt carved into the bushes. At one end of the space, a small stand held a drop-box for money, and a pad of sign-in sheets.
“That motel room must have been too far from where we parked.” Shani drew to a stop in one of the sites and craned her head around to check Royce in the back. His skin shone with sweat. “My bad.” Shani climbed over the divider and onto the bed. She was almost scared to touch him. Royce was curled onto his side with his arms around his knees. He flinched when she took his hand. “Is it your arm? Or the other thing?”
“The other thing.” Despite saying it through clenched teeth, he rolled his eyes. “If we’re stopping for a sec, do you mind if I…” Royce shifted, sitting up. “Crap. We left the bag at the hotel, didn’t we?” For a moment, his eyes held that same panic they had the previous night. “And I’ve only got one hand. My
left
hand.” His nose reddened as if he might cry. Royce shook his head, rolled his shoulders. “Fuck it. It’s only a few more hours.”
“No.” Shani scooted closer so that her side pressed against his. She passed her hands down his bare arms, careful to avoid his bandaged shoulder. “Can you get your shirt off?”
A hopeful expression widened Royce’s eyes, as if she was his savior. “You’re wonderful, you know that?” Royce pressed a kiss to her mouth. He tasted salty and his stubble scraped her cheek. And when he smiled, Shani couldn’t understand how she’d ever thought his lips weren’t pretty.
“Clothes off, lover boy.” Her voice sounded husky, and her hands roamed his body with a mind of their own, skimming the swells of his torso and then the ridges of his belly.
He kissed her again, this time more insistent. Royce wrapped a hand around her nape, holding her still. His mouth was soft on hers—sweet and damp. He nipped at her bottom lip so it stung. “God, I have wanted to do that ever since I met you.” Then he shuffled to the foot of the bed and through the crowded center of the van. Royce shot her a glance over his shoulder. “And this time I
am
returning the favor.” His eyes sparkled with wickedness.
Heat scalded her cheeks, but the word
no
caught on her lips. She headed to the pay station to fold three fives into the drop-box along with their slip, practicing the words she’d use to explain.
Um…you see, Royce—I’m allergic to sex. So, as you can imagine…this can’t really go anywhere between us.
Shani pressed the heel of her hand to her eyes, groaning at her foolishness. She’d sound like an idiot, and Royce—perfect, gorgeous, sweet Royce—would think she was a freak. At the very least, he’d laugh.
Royce disappeared into the van, and Shani walked toward the camper like a woman on death row. She cursed herself for kissing him, maybe even for agreeing to fuck him in the first place. For a day, she’d imagined she was normal. And now she’d get schooled.
Shani stood outside the van’s doors, taking one, then another deep breath. Maybe she could do this, she told herself. He’d already touched her, held her even. And they wouldn’t be having penetrative sex. She could caress and kiss and be caressed and kissed in return without revisiting those dark times in her past. At least, maybe she could if she was with Royce. And he couldn’t get a hard-on.
From inside of the van, she heard a tragic-sounding yelp, and Shani steeled her nerves. She swung open the back door and climbed in.
“What took you so long?” Royce lay on the bed with his head and shoulders propped against the wall. He lifted an eyebrow. “Almost thought you’d lost your nerve.”
“Yeah, couldn’t decide if it’d be worth my while.” She played it cool, though the sight of him lying there shirtless turned her knees to putty. Her fingers wound together before she forced herself to drop them to her sides. “So…” Shani swiveled her hips to fit through the dinette and kneeled on the bed. “Why don’t you show me where the nerve block ends and we can—”
Royce gathered her up with his good arm. With the hand on his injured side, he tried to tease her shirt up. He couldn’t raise his arm very far, and his fingers tickled at her waist. “I want your clothes off.” It wasn’t a command, just a bone-deep statement of
want
.
“Um, Royce…” As gently as she could, Shani pressed his hand away from the hem of her shirt. “I can’t let you do this.” She paused, her body still against his, waiting breath by breath for him to answer.
He didn’t pull away. Instead, Royce spoke quietly into her ear while his good hand trailed down to hold hers. “Why, honey?” He nuzzled her hair.
Shani leaned into his caress, even as she forced out her words. “I can’t have sex.”
Oh God, he’s going to think I’m crazy. Even crazier than he thought before.
Royce tickled his way up her arm, though it must have taken all his will not to simply beg her to screw him. “That’s okay.” He chuckled. “I can’t either.” Those naughty fingers found the hem of her shirt again.
“No really.” Shani jerked away. “Not ever. I…”
“You mean, ‘medically’?” Royce’s gaze slipped down her body until he studied the V where her thighs met. “Why would they have done that?” His forehead creased in a mix of confusion and anger. “Those assholes!”
Shani dropped her head into her hands, unsure whether to laugh or cry. “No, you freak. They… I mean, I…” She pinched the bridge of her nose, her words rushing out in a breath. “I don’t want to, okay? Not ever. It was horrible for me before.” She met his gaze. “And I can’t. I haven’t even kissed anyone but you since I was freed.”
His eyes softened, and the corner of his mouth curled into a half-smile. “That’s not even on the menu right now, Shan.” He lifted her hand and kissed it as if she were a princess.
“But…” She patted his arm in a move that started as a swat and ended a squeeze. “I’m not a guy.”
Royce’s smile widened. “If you were, I’d say your makers did an outstanding job.”
“I’m serious!” Much as she wanted to put space between them, Shani eased closer. “I can’t get involved. If we get physical… We’ve only known each other for a day.” She shook her head. “But it would mean something to me. And if I can’t follow through—”
He kissed her before she could finish. His mouth opened hot and smooth against hers. Royce’s arm slid up her back to between her shoulder blades and drew her tightly against him. After a long minute, he pulled back just enough to speak against her lips. “You’re the first woman I’ve ever
wanted
to be with.”
Shani started to argue, but he kissed her again. His tongue pressed inside when she gasped, and he sucked her in deeper, as if he could eat her alive. His kiss became messy, hot and desperate, until she broke away, gasping for air. “But what if I can’t be with you for real?”
His lips trailed down her neck and to her collarbone. When Royce slid fingers up her shirt, Shani shivered under his touch.
“Then I know
literally
a million ways for us to get off without doing it.” He pulled her shirt up over her sports bra, his head ducking low so Royce could press damp lips to her belly.
Lord save her.
She helped him shrug her sweatshirt over her head, and then her pants down her legs until she wore nothing more than underwear and a sports bra. Not even nice underwear—the waist-high kind that only came in floral patterns. Shani shifted, rolling onto her stomach lest he see her less-than-perfect body too fully.
“Man, I love your ass.” Disregarding her shyness, or perhaps not caring, Royce slid down the bed. His legs hanging off the end, he buried his face in the T where her legs met her butt.
“Um…” She fought for words as Royce nibbled the lowermost curve of her cheek through her granny panties. “Shouldn’t it be your ass we’re working on here?” The last came out in a yelp because he’d eased the fabric to the side to tease at the seam of her pussy.
“In a sec…” Royce trailed his fingers back and forth, his breath on her thigh making Shani blush like a fire engine screaming. “Are you okay with fingers inside? Or is that too much?”
She looked at him over her shoulder. Royce seemed so earnest when he asked, wide-eyed and honest and completely gorgeous. Shani melted into his touch. “Maybe…” Her eyes closed when he teased a passing sweep along her nether lips and the pad of his forefinger plucked the underside of her clit. Her legs quivered. “I mean…just go slow.”
“Okay.” He parted her legs an inch with the palms of his hands and nuzzled along the edge of her panties. His fingers twitched like maddening bees on her cunt.
“Can you…are you doing what I think you’re doing?” Shani lifted her head to see Royce pumping his hips into the mattress as he almost—
so close, oh so close
—tasted her. “Your fingers…”
“Yeah, they can vibrate.” She felt him smile against the inside of her thigh. Then Royce stretched the material of her underwear aside. He snickered over her back. “My tongue too.” He proved it by pulling her hips back, so she half-kneeled, and dropping his head to her crack. He pressed the firm tip of his tongue right up under her erect bud.
“Ah…ah…ah…” The intensity billowed through her womb, down her shaking legs. Shani eased back onto the fingers he curled at her entrance, pumped back into his touch. Another flicker of his superhuman tongue and she catapulted into a blinding orgasm, this one forcing her into his hand, bucking and twisting her hips. Shani bit her lip on a silent scream.
His clever fingers curved to her G-spot, deepening the climax already in progress. Shani rode the waves of feeling, dots of light and color dancing behind her eyes. He didn’t stop touching her—nuzzling her buttocks, then her waist.
Royce shimmied up her body, rolling her to her side. He pressed a kiss into her sternum and sucked her nipple through the thick, rubbery material of her bra. “Damn, honey.” He held her pussy in his hand, rubbing slow, easy circles. “I need you to do me before I can take care of you any more.” Royce grasped her hand and fed it into his sweatpants, past the half-hard cock she now wanted to suckle and to the base of his sac. The dampness of his sweat bled into a slippery lubricant. He must have prepped with something from the medicine cabinet before she came into the van.
“I could only have done this with you.” Shani didn’t know why she chose that moment to tell him. Not giving him a chance to answer, she pressed her lips to his and forced her finger through his tight ring of muscle.
Royce groaned in relief, as if he’d come already. “I know.” His face pinched in pleasure when she added another finger and twisted. “I want to take off my pants.” He shucked his sweats and boxer shorts off in a quick move. “Take your bra off?” He licked his lips and watched her heaving bosom as if his eyes could X-ray through Lycra.
“Sure.” If he’d asked, she might have stripped her underwear. The fact that he hadn’t pushed made her all the more desperate. Shani unclipped the seatbelt-like back of her bra and lay down next to a naked Royce. He didn’t grab for her, left some space so he could watch her. When her hand went between his legs, he did the same. Again, not penetrating, but cradling her mound over cloth—his middle finger pressed firm along her center.
Royce closed his eyes. “I hated it, y’know.”
Shani paused with her fingers inside him, not moving. For a split second, she thought he was referring to something she’d done, but then she realized his meaning. “I know you did, baby.” She thrust into him a little cruelly, knowing he’d like it. When he gasped, forehead crumpled, she did it again. “I know.” She kissed his mouth, working a knuckle into his ass.
His fingertips pinched her nipple lightly, his soft attentions so different than his demand of, “Oh yeah, Shan—as much as you can!”
Shani dipped her head to lap at his nipple. Her hand worked deeper, bending and fighting until she half-fisted him. She curled her fingers inside him, wrenching the tissue wider.
Unable to reach Shani’s erogenous zones any longer, Royce lay back. Half-hard, he pumped his hips skyward, and under his breath he whispered
please, please, please
. She rubbed hard along his hot-spot, and Royce shouted, arching off the bed. Jets of come leapt from his cock to splash on his chest.
He fought for breath, muscles clenched and beautiful, for long moments after he came. “Oh fuck me.” With a deep chuckle, he reached for her, trying to drag her on top of him.
“Um…Royce.” Shani peered at the mess lashed across his skin and her handful of lube, or ointment, or whatever he’d used. She grabbed his t-shirt, already ruined from blood, and wiped off her hand. “We don’t have access to a shower until we get to Seattle.” Her nose wrinkling, she opened the medicine cabinet to find some wet wipes.