by Emma Shortt
“Luke,” she screamed.
He lifted his ax to cleave its head but paused. The blood and pus would soak her if he did that, and she was right, they didn’t know where the infection lived. Instead he moved to the side and kicked the zombie hard. It fell back onto the road and Jackson scrambled to her feet. It reared up too, its teeth bared, its eyes gleaming with something that looked suspiciously like hatred.
Luke shot it, taking out half of its brain. It fell back to the floor, a puddle of blood and pus soaking the road around them. He shot it again, close up, removing the rest. It twitched once or twice before going completely still.
“It was under the car,” Jackson said, and there was a catch in her voice, something that he’d never thought to hear. “I didn’t even think to check. I was too…” She shook her head and ran her hands up and down Mandy’s hilt.
“Me neither,” he said, pulling her into his arms. She pushed back a little but Luke refused to let her go. “It held on? Even after all these miles?”
She nodded against his chest and pointed to the zombie. The skin across its legs was all but gone, just nasty oozing grazes visible.
“Shit…” He bent down quickly, checking there were no more, but they were clear. “We should get out of here,” he said. “Just to be on the safe side.
“Agreed. Put your foot down and get some distance.”
“I’ll clean the pus first.”
“No I—”
“I’ll do it,” he said. “I got this.”
She nodded slowly and held Mandy close. Luke frowned. He’d never seen her look so shaken, but shaken she clearly was. Her face was paler than usual and her hair was sticking up in clumped little spikes. He raced around, grabbed a towel, cleaned the pus as best he could, and washed his hands in bottled water—a waste but a necessary one.
Then he carefully walked her to the passenger side and shut the door behind her. One last look around and Luke started the car again. Jackson was quiet, her face blank, and he felt his chest tighten.
Had he distracted her with the kiss? Had they both been too quick to forget the danger they were constantly under? To think themselves safe when they so obviously were not? Those questions raced through his mind as he drove and they stayed with him for the rest of the goddamn day.
Chapter Twenty-one
That night, wrapped up tightly in blankets, in the passenger seat of the car next to Luke, Jackson felt herself shivering. It had been some time since she’d had such a reaction and she couldn’t quite work out why it was happening now. Maybe it was due to the shock of that zombie wrapping its hand around her ankle and pulling her to the floor, or maybe the fact it had pinned her down before she could even get Mandy into position, or hell, it could be a million things and then some. Or maybe it’s because you saw like a freaking hundred zombies! Either way she couldn’t sleep, even though she knew she should because it was Luke’s watch.
Wrapping her arms tighter around herself Jackson tried to instill some warmth. She was reminded ridiculously of a time when she’d spent almost a month walking in constant rain. It had been winter then and toward the end of it Jackson felt like she would never be warm again. Only she had. The feeling had passed.
They always passed.
This one would too. Just not yet it seemed.
She’d thought about the zombie horde nonstop as they drove, hours and hours to think, and nothing good had come out of those thoughts. Getting to the survivor’s camp seemed more important than ever now. Hell, it was crucial, because how long could she and Luke survive alone?
She looked down at her hands, surprised to see them shaking a little, and was thankful all over again that she and Luke were together.
Right to the end. Whenever that might be.
“Jack?” Luke whispered, obviously alerted by her fidgeting. “You okay?”
Jackson swallowed. She didn’t want to admit to Luke what was making her feel odd, but at the same time every part of her ached to talk. Turnaround much?
“I’m fine.”
“Talk to me, Jack,” he said softly. “You know you can talk to me about anything, right? Anything.”
“There’s no point.”
“There’s always a point. It’ll make you feel better, for a start.”
The minutes ticked by and Jackson kept silent. It was only when Luke reached out and took her hand that she spoke.
“I feel fine,” she said and he sighed.
“No you don’t.”
He squeezed her hand gently. Jackson closed her eyes and concentrated on the feel of his skin against hers. Soft and warm and oddly comforting. She squeezed back and took a deep breath. It wasn’t talking about them, her family and friends, so maybe just this once it was okay to open up to Luke. Maybe it would make her feel better?
“I keep thinking about the people.”
He frowned, she knew he did even though she couldn’t see it, and rubbed a thumb up and down the side of her palm. “What people?”
“The survivors in the town.”
“There were no survivors.”
“I think there were,” she whispered. “I’ve thought about if for hours and I think that’s why the zombies were massed there. Probably there were a group or two, and they hadn’t been able to get to them, so they called in reinforcements. They call each other with their groans or something. I’m almost positive it’s how they communicate.”
“You’re speculating.”
She shrugged, her shoulder aching from where the zombie had slammed her against the floor. “It makes sense.”
“Well, we killed a bunch of them, hurt a bunch more, so we helped.”
“I know we did, but if there are survivors, they’re not safe.”
“No one’s ever safe,” Luke said.
“And you expect me to sleep with those words ringing in my ears?”
“I didn’t mean—”
“I know.”
“We’re safe here, for the moment, I promise,” he reassured her. “Let me be the one to worry for once, Jack, just me. I’ll keep watch and you can sleep for as long as you like.”
She could see nothing through the dark of the night except for a shaft of moonlight illuminating the windshield, but she knew he was right. They’d found an old, roofless barn in the middle of nowhere. After checking it out, they hadn’t found a single dropping or pus stain. If zombies had been in the barn, it hadn’t been for many, many months. Still, safety was relative. They were okay for a handful of hours. Five being the limit they’d set between them. After that it was a question of moving onto the next safe spot they could find. Moving was good, Jackson thought. Staying in one place for too long was too much temptation. It became too easy to lure oneself into a false sense of security. Like Luke with the bunker, like her stepping out of the car like she was on a fucking country jaunt!
She aghast as she remembered how happy she’d been, how it hadn’t even fucking occurred to her to do a security sweep! How stupid. How ridiculous. It was like walking up the steps of the skyscraper all over again. Only this time she’d been thrumming with desire, exhilarated and happy and stupid. So stupid.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she whispered. “I’m used to this stuff.”
“Not this you’re not.”
“I am,” she insisted. “I’ve squatted in rotting Dumpsters for hours on end to hide from them, surrounded by smells the likes of which I’ve never known. I’ve stood on a tiny ledge, eight stories up, in the pouring rain for more than fifteen hours because the zombies were all over the building. One time I had the flu, though how you can still get it when there’s no other people around, I don’t fucking know, and I spent a week shivering in an abandoned mine. It was the only shelter for miles and it looked as though the roof was going to cave in at any moment. I was so ill I didn’t care. Truthfully, part of me wanted it to. At least then it would all be done with.”
“Jack…”
“I’m not telling you this as some sort o
f pity party,” she said. “I’m just trying to explain that this is my world. I live it. I shouldn’t be feeling like this.”
“Maybe for once you should just feel it?” he suggested. “You’re far too contained, Jack. Talk to me, lean on me. I’m here for whatever you need.”
“I need…” She paused and tried to untangle her thoughts, because in that moment as Luke continued to stroke her palm, his words soft in her mind, she knew exactly what she did need. It seemed obvious now. Like the thought had been teasing her for days and was now clarified. But how the hell would Luke react?
“Whatever you need, you know it’s yours,” he said and her heart thumped wildly.
She needed Luke. She needed his arms around her and his lips on hers. It was as simple as that. The last couple of weeks, every touch, every smile, had shown her that he was just right for her in every way, and though marriage and babies and happily ever afters were things that no longer existed—because who the hell would take the risk—there was nothing stopping them finding some enjoyment in each other, was there? To seize the moment and hold it? And she needed it. Damn, did she need it. After Tye, the bunker, the dead horde, and the out-of-nowhere zombie, she wanted to lose herself in the pleasure she instinctively knew Luke could give her. To forget for just a few hours that the whole damn world had fallen apart. That they could be minutes from their deaths, mere moments from the end of everything.
“I want you Luke,” she said softly.
His head snapped around so fast Jackson worried he’d given himself whiplash.
“You serious?” he asked.
“Aren’t I always?”
A moment passed and the intense light in Luke’s eyes was enough to tell her he would not deny her.
“I’ve wanted you since the first moment we met,” he admitted. “When you were in your purple panties.”
Warmth filled her then, banishing the chills and the odd feelings she did not want to name, and she held her breath as Luke reached forward and cupped her face. Maybe it was the last of the rush or maybe it was just him, but Jackson didn’t hesitate before wrapping her arms around Luke’s neck and tilting her head. He responded instantly, and once again his lips were on hers.
They were firm, yet so soft, and when his flesh pressed against hers she felt a shiver flow from her mouth, down her neck, before it wrapped itself around the base of her spine. They moved against one another, softly, exploring the taste and the feel, the sensation of unexpected contact. In that moment zombies no longer existed, nothing did but the two of them, the experience of him and her, and something…something she thought was lost but she had now found again.
She moaned softly beneath him, encouraging more and Luke complied. Taking her whole mouth, covering her lips with his in a gesture that was unassumingly male. His tongue tickled against hers, his fingers tracing a path down from the hollow of her throat to the base of her neck, before pulling back to look in her eyes.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. “The last bit of beauty in this world.”
And though Jackson knew full well that she was far from beautiful, that in the pre-waking-dead world Luke would have been so out of her league, in that moment his words made her feel like she was—like he meant every damn word.
Probably he did.
“Kiss me again, Luke,” she said. “Make me forget it all, just for a little while.”
And he did.
…
The feel of Jackson’s lips was like going back in time. To a place where the world made sense again. Luke relished the feel of her softness, the little mews of satisfaction she made, and the heat he could feel rising between them.
He wished for one moment that they were in a bed. Somewhere he could spread her loveliness beneath him and savor every moment, but beds, like everything else, were a thing of the past, and right now Luke was grateful for whatever he could get.
He traced her lips with his tongue, her soft skin with his fingers. The curve of her jaw, the sharp length of her cheekbone, even the arch of her eyebrow. He exulted in the feel of her skin beneath his fingertips. She responded by running her fingers along his back, before moving to the front and skirting over his stomach. Her touch was soft and delicate. A stark contrast to the way he knew those hands could be in other situations. But there was no anger tonight, only this, the two of them, finding some sort of peace in each other.
“Let me see you, Jack,” he said and she nodded.
It took only a handful of moments to remove her sweater and toss it in the back, a handful more to remove her vest as well. She was bare to him then and her beauty in the dappled moonlight took Luke’s breath away. She was pale, so pale and so delicate. Not in reality, he knew that, but here in the darkness she looked fragile, and the urge to protect her rose again within him.
To keep her safe.
Something he’d almost failed to do today. Something that he’d never let happen again.
He shuddered as he ran his fingers along her skin, pushing away the memory of the zombie trying to eat her, and concentrating instead on how fucking pretty she was. He peppered kisses along her neck, over the arch of her shoulder, and up to her ear. There he nibbled on the lobe, smiling when she shivered in his arms. Her skin was hot, though he knew not just from him. They were in hotter climes now, the feeling of freezing through the night almost over.
“Luke…” she whispered and he heard the plea in her voice. Heard it and felt like shouting in satisfaction. How long had he waited and hoped? Praying that eventually this would happen?
At last.
In one quick move he pulled her onto his lap so that she straddled him, her thighs either side of his, her back bathed in the moon’s glow. Her weight was negligible, yet it comforted him, made sense somehow, there on top of him. He placed one hand on the small of her back and the other on her shoulder before leaning in and taking one pert nipple between his lips.
It budded immediately. Its hardness ripe against his tongue. He laved it once, then again. Enjoying the feel, the sensations, the amazing experience of her against him, like this. Jackson arched her back, encouraging more and muffled a moan with her hand.
He pulled away. “Scream if you want to.”
“But the zombies—”
Luke reached up and laid his hand against her face. It covered the entire side and he let it rest there. She leaned into it and sighed softly.
“They aren’t here,” he said. “Not tonight. It’s just you and me.”
He ran his other hand up and down her side, along her arm, over her back, relishing the feel of her skin. She lifted his sweater and tugged until he allowed her to remove it, and it joined the pile of her clothes.
Luke had experienced many erotic moments in his life, but this, the two of them, naked from the waist up, stiffened him to the point of pain. He wanted to be inside her. To fill her and stretch her. To make her cry out…
“I want to have you, Jack,” he whispered against her lips, “but we have no protection.”
“We don’t need it.”
“But—”
She placed a finger against his lips and sprinkled kisses along his jaw line. Sensations fled to his groin and Luke groaned. He had to be inside her. God he had to!
“I’m too thin, Luke,” she whispered. “Or maybe too athletic. Whatever. I don’t even have periods anymore, so I can’t get pregnant.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
He lifted her up so she braced against him and shimmied out of her jeans. All that remained now were the purple panties and Luke smiled when he saw them.
“I’m going to keep these on,” she whispered. “Just in case.”
So she wasn’t forgetting like he’d asked. But could her really blame her for that? The dead hovered on the edges of his mind too and he knew their sex would be fast and frantic—a hard edge of need driving them, spurring them on.
He unzipped his jeans and freed himself. He was unbelievably hard, desperate to fee
l Jackson’s warmth, and Luke hoped he wouldn’t disgrace himself.
“I—”
He meant to ask if he could proceed. To treat Jackson with the courtesy so long ingrained in him, but she didn’t give him a chance. She held either side of the headrest and, panties to the side, slipped onto him. Her body sheathing him in one rapid movement.
“Ahhhh…” The sound left him before he even knew he made it, and he gripped her hips. His large hands spread across her belly and back. She felt fantastic. All hot and wet and warm. It felt like coming home.
“I want to ride you, Luke,” she said.
“Do it.”
She moved on him then. Lifting herself up so that she worked him, over and over. Luke gritted his teeth, the sensations so amazing they bordered on unbearable.
He ran his fingers down her spine, along her hips, every bit of her making his body ache.
“Luke.” She sighed his name, kissing her way along his ear, and he removed one hand from her back, knowing instinctively what she wanted. He placed it between them both, resting it against her clit, giving her the extra cushion she needed as she came down.
“Yes, Luke. Do that,” she whispered.
He followed her as she moved. His fingers pressing down on her warmth, rubbing along and around. She gasped against his lips, whispered his name, told him how much she liked it…
It was indescribable. Luke began to move. One hand on her hip pushing her down as she rode him. His hips bucking into her, driving as deep as he could possibly go.
“Jackson, God…”
“Luke, I—”
They moved and they moved and rational thought fled to be replaced by pure, exquisite sensation. He tingled all over, blood pooling low in his gut, his thigh muscles tightening every time Jackson pushed down on him.
He opened his mouth, to tell her perhaps that he might not be able to last much longer, but then she came and satisfaction made him groan.
