by Tess Oliver
Andi adjusted the unwieldy backpack on her slim shoulders. It tilted to the side. I grabbed her arm before she fell sideways.
She laughed. “I’ll get the hang of it. Just not used to balancing so much weight on my back. One shoulder, yes, especially when all my loose change starts to congregate at the bottom of my purse. But all the weight distributed evenly on my back, that’s new.”
“We bought these when we were deep in our backpacking phase. We were even thinking about hiking across the country at one point, but you know how short Dawson’s attention span is. And mine too, I guess.”
“I was able to shove a lot of things inside this pack, some useful, some not, but I must warn you that most of my—” She held up air quotes. “Beauty items were left behind. I apologize in advance for the slow but scary transformation that will inevitably take place.”
“Sulli, you couldn’t be scary if you grew pointed ears, two horns and a third eye. Beauty items or not. And I appreciate a woman who doesn’t mind a little lack of luxury.”
“If, by lack of luxury, you mean me having to sleep in my brother’s sleeping bag, then we passed lack of a long time ago. I’m still wondering if I can turn it inside out. Did I mention that the first thing to fall out of the backpack when I unzipped the front compartment was a lacy bra?”
A laugh shot from my mouth. “Too fucking funny and so Dawson.”
“That’s why I figured I’d turn the bag inside out because I can only conclude, that unless my twin brother is living a secret life, he’s been entertaining inside the sleeping bag.”
“Yep, I think it’s the latter. In fact, I remember how that happened. Interesting story.”
She lifted her hand up. “Nope, it won’t be interesting to me. I shared a crib with the man, remember?”
“You’re right. Not for your ears.”
It was still dark enough for the rail yard tower lights to cast their glow on the massive collection of trains. The noises of the day were just getting started as engineers and rail yard workers began the task of sorting and directing trains.
Andi stopped and stared at the scene in front of her. “Jeez, how do they know which train goes where?” She looked at me. “How will we know which train goes where?”
“Guess you’ve never been this close to a rail yard. I used to like to come here and watch the switch engine assemble trains. We don’t need to know where it’s going. That’s the beauty of my plan. There is no plan. No maps. We won’t know where we end up.” I looked at her. “You know, if you’ve changed your mind, Andi, I can walk you back to the bus stop. I don’t mind.” When Andi had walked onto the bus, I was stoked about it. Traveling alone with the woman who I thought about more than anyone else was fucking awesome. I had no idea where this was headed. I just hoped it didn’t turn out to be a big mistake.
“I want to go, Tommy. I’m totally and completely ready for this. Or, maybe you don’t think I’m tough enough?”
“Never said that, Sulli. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that you’re tough enough.”
“Then just point me to the right boxcar, and I’ll hop onto it.”
I looked around the yard. A few workers lingered near the tracks, but for the most part, I’d found that they were pretty nonchalant about people riding the rails. There was an entire subculture of hobos or rail riders who traveled all over the country jumping from train to train. It was a way of life for them. As much as I enjoyed a short adventure on the rails, it wasn’t a lifestyle for me. I still needed an anchor like my hometown and my friends to keep me grounded.
I pointed to a train on the departure track that had a locomotive ready to roll. It was a long chain of boxcars, including a few open-topped ones known as Gondolas. The few empty boxcars had their doors open, just inviting us to climb inside.
I took hold of Andi’s hand. It always felt so small in my grasp.
“What about the convertible one?” She pointed to a Gondola.
“Not without a pair of safety goggles and ear muffs. I tried one of those one time thinking it would give me a better view. Turned out there was no view at all because I spent the entire ride trying to fish painful debris out of my eyes.”
“Ooh, I can see how that might be a problem. Then regular box it is. I rather like the empty one there with the pink and white graffiti all over the sides. Feels extra edgy and adventurous with all that street art.”
“Shit, Sulli, there you go being all cute again.” I squeezed her hand in mine, and we walked over the rows of tracks to the empty boxcar. I looked inside. An old pile of newspapers and a discarded paper cup cluttered one corner of the otherwise empty car. “Looks like the previous tenants forgot to clean up after themselves.”
Andi’s cheeks were pink from the walk and the early morning chill. It made her pale eyes nearly a crystal green color.
“Are you ready?”
She nodded confidently. “Might need a leg up though. It’s higher than I imagined.”
I took hold of the strap on her backpack. “Let’s put this inside first. Otherwise, you might just fall backward.” I tossed her backpack up into the car.
“Guess that’s why hobos use those little knapsacks on a stick. Hey, that reminds me of my third grade Halloween costume. A little smeared coal on my cheeks, some old torn jeans and a knapsack on a stick and I was ready for trick or treating. Not very scary though.”
I knew Andi well enough to know that she could talk a long, fast streak if she was nervous. I pushed up her chin to lift her face to mine. She stopped her Halloween story.
“Andi, are you really ready for this?”
“I am, so stop asking. I’m just blathering on stupidly because it’s early and I’m a little cold and I’m standing in the middle of a rail yard about to hop on a train, an illegal and slightly sketchy thing to do. But I’m ready.”
I put my hands around her waist, and she put her hands on my shoulders.
“Wait,” she said, and I was stunned at how disappointed I was thinking she’d changed her mind. “Did you bring more snacks, because I’m already kind of hungry. My mom’s pantry was basically a graveyard of past their prime cereal boxes, so I didn’t eat.”
“I’ve got snacks.”
She braced her hands on my shoulders. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s ride, baby.”
Chapter 29
Andi
I pushed the final slice of orange into my mouth, and it rewarded me with a burst of sweetness. “I commend you on your snack packing ability.” I glanced down at the wrappers and peels on the top of the sleeping bag, our makeshift picnic blanket. “Granola bars, oranges and bananas, who’d have thought those would be your snacks of choice.”
“Frozen burritos and chili fries don’t keep well in a backpack.” Tommy scraped the orange peels into a pile. The boxcar careened gently back and forth, and each time, our shoulders touched. And each time, I wondered if that would finally be the trigger to get Tommy to put his hands on me. But he hadn’t moved toward even a kiss, and I was feeling the disappointment down to my toes.
The doors to the boxcar were open about five feet, allowing a nice amount of fresh air and a rectangular view of the passing scenery. It was an endless stretch of land, mostly flat, mostly barren, with the occasional flash of tall grass and trees. Even more occasionally, a shabby homestead or farm would roll past. It was the true definition of rural living, no shops, no traffic no civilization.
We rolled past a rusted pick-up truck, one of the few signs that there was life inhabiting this seemingly deserted piece of planet. “It seems someone just decided to leave their truck on the side of the road.”
Tommy sat next to me with his forearm resting casually on the top of his raised knee. “Probably broke down out there. The cost of towing it was probably more than the truck was worth. We’re still miles from any town.”
The car shimmied over a rough stretch of track and I pressed my hand against the floor to steady myself. “Guess they call that train turbulenc
e. Think I’m getting used to the movement now.” I leaned back against the wall. My body vibrated. “At first, it almost felt like seasickness.” I laughed. “Remember that time when my parents took us to the coast for whale watching?”
Tommy put up his hand. “That’s a memory I could do without. But I do remember you and Aubrey skipping back and forth from bow to stern and back again just as happy as can be. While Dawson and I clung to the side of the rail just waiting to pitch our cookies into the sea. That was fucking misery.”
“That’s because you didn’t take the motion sickness pill. As I recall, the words ‘seasick pills are for sissies’ were being bandied about.”
Tommy smiled. “Yeah, just another check on a long list of regrets.”
“Maybe it’s time to stop checking off regrets, Tommy.”
I turned toward him, shamelessly letting him know, with little or no uncertainty that I wanted him to kiss me. He reached up, placed his hand on my face and kissed me. The kiss was warm and nice, but behind it, I could feel a volcano waiting to erupt. But he kept a lid on it. He lifted his mouth from mine and gazed down at me.
“That was almost as nice as the kiss I got from the youth pastor at that awful church camp our parents sent us to when we were fifteen.”
He dropped his hand. “Ouch.” He leaned back but turned his head toward me. “Church camp.” He rolled his eyes. “That was my mom’s last futile attempt to save her son from the pit of hell. Think it only helped pushed me closer to the edge. Wait, that creepy guy with the ponytail who thought he was slick and cool because he could strum stupid-ass folk songs on his guitar kissed you?”
“Really? That’s the part that you’re worried about?” I shrugged. “I was flirting with him. I stayed up late to help him clean up, and he kissed me. It was my first kiss. And I remember thinking—wow, I’ve sure placed this kissing thing on too high of a pedestal. It wasn’t any more exciting than finding that my mom had stuffed an oatmeal cookie in my lunchbox.”
“Shit, what a perv. What were Dawson and I doing while this creep was making the moves on you?”
I titled my head. “That was the camp week when Suzi Blackmoor and Janelle Nice came too. You boys were busy, as I recall.”
“Oh, right. Janelle Nice. Forgot about her, and her very contrary last name.”
“Now that you’ve successfully changed the topic about the disappointing kiss—”
He pulled his gaze away. I stood up and walked to the other side of the car, trying to find my words along the way. I turned around. He’d leaned his head back against the wall and was looking at me.
“Either we get past this invisible barrier of propriety and your fucking loyalty to my brother or we don’t. If we don’t, then we go back to the way we were—two people with a long history together, who will eventually grow old and apart and lead completely separate lives. In other words, Tommy—” I looked at him and wondered when he’d become so damn important to my happiness. “You either want me or you don’t.”
He was on his feet and moving toward me before I drew in my next breath. His massive hands wrapped around my arms. He pressed me against the wall of the boxcar, nearly crushing me between it and his rock hard body. The kiss that followed was not the mild, restrained peck from earlier. This was long months of urgency and longing built up in one ravenous kiss. His tongue drove deeper as his hands swept under my shirt finding their way to the clasp on my bra, flicking it deftly open with one swift move.
I smiled against his mouth. “It seems you’ve done this before, Tommy Sawyer.”
“Yeah. But not with you, Sulli.” He yanked off my shirt and pushed the bra off my shoulders. He gazed hungrily down at my breasts and rubbed his callused thumb over my nipple. It tightened against his touch. “You are so fucking beautiful.” He lowered his head and took the same nipple between his lips, teasing it to a tight, hard bud.
His hands worked the fly on my jeans, and all I could do was cling to his shoulders to keep myself upright both from the continual sway of the boxcar and from the sudden weakening in my knees.
He took his focus away from my breasts long enough to shove my jeans down around my thighs. I was naked from the thighs up. The way he looked at me, as if I was the most delicious, tasty treat in the world, made hot moisture cream between the folds of my pussy.
His movements were rough. It seemed he had a hard time keeping his strength in check, yet he knew exactly what he was doing. A sudden lurching of the boxcar jarred my shoulders and head against the wood planks of the wall. He quickly remedied that by sliding his arm beneath my shoulders, effectively holding me in one arm while the other ran trails of heat along my naked skin. It was all so different, so wild, without caution or inhibition. I was an illegal passenger on a moving boxcar, standing naked and exposed as we traveled across miles of land. No one could see us, but a slight shiver of modesty raced through me.
“I’ve never done anything like this in public,” I said breathlessly, as his fingers trailed along my abdomen.
“I think public requires a few more people, Sulli. So, feel free to spread those thighs a little wider, baby.”
I moved my feet apart, feeling the coolness of the outside air between my legs. He slid his hand down between my thighs. I closed my eyes as his fingers slid between the wet folds of my pussy, instantly finding my throbbing clit.
“After this, I don’t think you’ll be comparing me to that creepy youth pastor anymore.”
I leaned against him for support, my shoulder to his chest, as his fingers moved farther between my legs. My low moan was nearly drowned out by the rhythmic click clack of the train as he pushed his fingers inside of me.
“Damn, Sulli, this pussy is just how I imagined it, hot, wet and tight.”
I groaned as his dirty words sent me closer to the edge of reason.
The car rocked from side to side again, throwing us off balance. He grunted with frustration and picked me up into his arms. Cool air brushed against my naked ass as he carried me over to the stretched out sleeping bag. He lowered me down on it. “It’s no five star hotel, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t make you scream my name with a five fucking star orgasm.”
I smiled and reached up to run my fingers over his beard. “You are Thomas ‘Huck’ Sawyer, after all.”
“Damn right.”
He moved to my feet and yanked off my shoes. With one fast pull, he had my jeans and panties off. I was stark naked lying on the floor of a moving train with the most dangerously horny looking man glowering down at me. I couldn’t remember ever being so erotically charged. He yanked off his shirt, and a small cry of desperation shot from my lips.
“Tommy,” I reached for the button on his pants, but he scooted out of my reach before I could open them. He lowered himself onto his stomach and between my thighs. The motion of the train, and his warm breath on my pussy made my head spin.
His hands slid beneath my ass as he lifted my pussy higher to his mouth. My legs fell apart as he spread me wide with his fingers. He pressed his hot mouth against me, kissing my pussy and coaxing more cream between the folds. He braced me higher with one hand as the thumb of his now free hand moved to run tingling circles over my clit. He had the skills of a man who’d brought many women to climax. I was right there with the rest of them, hurtling toward the edge of a mind-blowing orgasm.
I tangled my fingers in his hair and brought his mouth harder against me. As his tongue pushed inside of me, I cried out at the intimate invasion and the perfect ripples of pleasure it produced. My feet flattened on the ground, and I pressed my hips higher, begging for him to take more of me. I couldn’t get enough of his touch, his mouth, his tongue.
His tongue penetrated me again and again as I squeezed my thighs and held him securely against me. “Oh, Tommy, yes. I can’t hold back.” My pussy tightened around his mouth and hand as waves of ecstasy shuddered through my body. The fresh air blowing in from the outside and the train’s rhythmic movements only made the sensations more
vivid.
Tommy sat up and pulled himself up alongside of me. He gazed at the warm blush now covering my trembling body. My breathing had barely slowed to normal before he traced light circles around my belly, sending new shivers of delight through me. My skin had never been so sensitive or thrilled by anyone’s touch as it was by Tommy’s. I wondered just how long I’d been suppressing the desire to have him.
“Sulli—” He paused, but I knew him well enough, almost as if all these years of knowing him made it easy to read his mind.
“I’m on birth control, if that’s the question on your mind.”
A slight tilt of his mouth assured me it was. “I’ve got nothing against condoms when it’s other women, but it’s you, Andi. You’re the one I’ve always wanted, and I—” His voice grew tight. He stopped midsentence.
I reached up and ran my fingers along his chest. Every ridge of hard muscle, every stroke of black ink sent another wave of heat through me.
“I had my physical for work recently. and it was fine, so—”
I smiled. “Never in a million years would I expect Thomas Sawyer to be so hesitant about sex.”
“Shit, Sulli, don’t tease. You’re making me feel like a fool, and this isn’t just sex. I’ve been waiting for this a long time. I don’t want to fuck it up like I did with the pathetic kiss.”
“Uh, think you just went way past messing this up when you knelt down between my thighs, Mr. Sawyer.”
He laughed and pulled me into his arms. “I love every fucking thing about you, do you know that?”
I lifted my mouth to his and kissed him lightly. “I’m starting to figure that out. You can skip the condom, Tommy. I want this just as badly as you.”
