Then she threw her head back, mouth open in a silent scream as she orgasmed.
Cal slid two fingers inside her pussy, feeling her clench down on it in orgasm.
She pressed her hand over his, holding it there, looking at him, their eyes locked as she came.
Cal, still hard, pulled his finger out and pushed his cock in.
This prolonged her fading orgasm and she squeezed her eyes shut, her face contorting in a look of pleasure that nearly made Cal come again.
Then he was moving inside her once more, her breathing shallow and fast, her little moans of pleasure growing louder as they built toward another orgasm.
When they came this time, it was together.
He kissed her deeply, relishing the feel of her body trembling in pleasure beneath him.
“Oh God,” she panted, opening her eyes and meeting his.
He smiled at her. “Now you are all dirty.”
“Thanks to you.” She bit her lip.
“Come on. I’ll give you a nice, slow bath. I won’t miss an inch. Promise.”
18
“Let’s get that log for the palisade brought up here,” Cal said to Imogen.
He looked at Mirabelle, hair still soaked from the bath they’d taken together after having sex. With her bangs wet like that, they clumped together and made her horns even more obvious.
They hadn’t really talked about them at all. Whenever he’d brought them up, she’d seemed uncomfortable, insecure.
He’d tried to tell her he thought they were cute—which he did—but really, he couldn’t blame her for being freaked out.
She did have freaking horns growing from her forehead. Definitely not an everyday occurrence
Then again, nothing recently was.
“Want to come join us?” he asked her.
“No, but thank you for offering.”
“You’re quite welcome.”
“Ugh,” Imogen grunted in disgust at their sappy exchange, and headed for the gate.
“How are your cuts feeling?” Cal asked Eliza.
She nodded. “Good.” She stood up to prove this, though winced, which somewhat ruined the effect.
She stood only a few feet away from him, letting him look her up and down. She held her hands out. “All better.”
He scanned her body, able to be mostly clinical after his time with Mirabelle.
“Not quite. I should change those bandages out when I get back.”
“I’ll do it,” Mirabelle said quickly, dropping what she was doing and shooting to her feet then running over, looking around as though for more of the bandages.
“All right,” Cal said, trying to hold back a laugh at how quickly she had moved. It was by far the quickest he’d ever seen. “Good.” He looked at Eliza again, studying her wounds. They had heal—
Mirabelle pushed his arm. “Go on, stop gawking.”
“I wasn’t,” he protested.
She pointed at the gate. “Don’t keep her waiting.”
“I’m going, I’m going. Jeez.” He smiled, and she couldn’t keep the cross look on her face.
“Don’t I get a kiss?” he asked.
She blew air out her nose, but relented and gave him one.
“That’s all?”
“Yes that’s all.” She pushed him, her bare feet sliding in the soft dirt as he stayed immobile. “Now go.”
Cal patted her head. “You’re so cute.”
She tried to scowl at him, but soon was biting her cheek to keep from smiling.
He finally joined Imogen at the gate, who shook her head, annoyed.
She took the lead, quickly walking down the path as Cal pulled the gate shut behind them. “Don’t forget to brace this,” he called over it, since they would be gone a while.
Mirabelle waved dismissively at him. “Stop being such a granny.”
As he was walking down, Imogen already halfway down having not waited for him, he heard Mirabelle whisper, “You’re an ass,” to Eliza, and Eliza chuckle in response.
19
“Hey,” he called out to Imogen as she reached the bottom and then kept going, not bothering to wait for him there either. “You don’t know where we’re going.” He jogged down the slope to catch up to her.
Then she turned toward the right spot to where they had been getting the tall, thick branches from for the palisade.
She stopped and looked at him.
“Or maybe you do know.”
“Told you I paid attention.”
“Yeah, but you stayed at the hilltop. How would you—”
“I sat on the edge, saw which way you went.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, ‘oh’.”
They walked on.
“Oh hey I’ve been meaning to ask you—keep forgetting cause I don’t have anything to write anything down with—you were in the military, or contractors or assassins or whatever—”
She laughed. “Assassins?”
He shrugged. “What do you think about all this? What we’re doing, I mean. Any ideas for anything else we should be making?”
She shook her head. “Not my specialty. You’re the Boy Scout.”
“You heard us talking about that too.”
“Of course. I hear everything. Especially your little girlfriend when you two are together at night.”
Cal's pulse sped for a moment. He wasn’t embarrassed, not for himself, but rather for Mirabelle. Though he couldn’t help but smile at the image that this conjured up in his mind: her cheeks going red, averting her eyes as she chewed her lip nervously.
She was so adorable when she was embarrassed.
“I hope we didn’t wake you,” Cal said.
“It’s fine,” she said. “It’s… cute.”
“Wait,” Cal said, grabbing her arm and halting her.
She frowned up at him.
“Did you just say cute?”
“Yeah. It’s cute.”
“Cute?”
“Yes, cute. Are you deaf? What’s wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me? What do you mean what’s wrong with me? All I said is you’re cute.”
“Oh you think I’m cute?”
“No, not you. You and your girlfriend, Mirabelle, are cute. You’re cute together, you know? Not that either of you are cute as in physically. Not tha—”
“Oh so you think I’m ugly?”
“No I didn’t say you’re ugly. You’re not cute.”
“Well if I’m not cute then I’m ugly.”
“Are you dumb? There are more options than cute and ugly.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, beautiful.”
“So you think I’m beautiful?”
She sighed. “No, it was an example. I don’t think you’re beautiful. That’s ridiculous.”
“So you do think I’m ugly?”
“Jesus! No. There are other options like… hot.”
“So you think I’m hot?”
“Oh screw you.” She spun and walked away.
He rushed after her. “Hey, we’re not done here.”
“We are.” She shook her head. “Jesus, I try to say you’re a cute couple…”
“I can’t believe you said cute,” Cal said.
“Can we just drop it?”
“It just doesn’t fit coming from you. I mean, cute? I never thought you’d even know what that word means.”
She frowned at him. “Of course I know what cute means. What the hell. It’s like one of the first words people learn. Like, ‘Oh look at that cute puppy or that cute kitten or that cute cockroach—” She fell silent, realizing what she’d just said.
“Whoa wait, cute cockroach?”
She sighed. “I was a weird kid, okay? I liked insects. Well at least some of them. Worms freaked me the hell out.”
Cal chuckled, eager to get more out of her. This was the most she’d spoken the entire time he’d kno
wn her. “Worms freak you out?”
“Yes. They’re so squishy and what if you accidentally squish them and then there becomes two and then four and then eight and then they just keep growing and growing and growing until you have an infinite number of worms.”
“Uhh, I really don’t think it works that way.”
“Yeah, you tell that to a four-year-old.”
“So did you have an ant farm?”
“No, I didn’t have an ant farm. Don’t be stupid.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, you said you liked insects. Why wouldn’t you have an ant farm?”
“Because if they get out you have a thousand million ants in your house.”
“A thousand million?”
She waved him off dismissively. “You know what I mean. Where the hell are these logs?”
“I don’t know, I’m following you.”
She stopped and looked at him. “What?”
“You said you knew where they were.”
She sighed heavily and looked around, then looked up to the sky, then looked around again, turned slightly to the left, and finally marched on.
“Wow,” he said, following her. “You have a really good sense of direction.”
“I know.”
“You’re not very good at taking compliments.”
“You’re not very good at giving them. What about you? Any strange childhood habits you had?”
“I used to eat dirt.”
She glanced over at him as they walked. “Dirt. Like… dirt? I was joking about you being stupid, but now…”
“Not actual dirt,” he clarified.
“Uh, what other kind of dirt is there?”
“You know, the other kind of dirt.”
Her forehead creased. “Sand?”
“No.” He sighed. “You know, like fertilizer?”
“Isn’t that kind of dangerous?”
“No.” He shook his head confidently. “Other animals eat it all the time.”
She stopped, putting her hand out and stopping him. “Wait a second. Are you talking about manure?”
He pushed her hand away and walked on.
Now it was her turn to rush after him. “Oh my God. You ate manure?”
“It smells worse than it tastes, all right? And little kids don’t have a disgust reflex. You know you can give a baby insects and it’ll happily eat them up until like five or something?”
“You ate poop.”
He looked at her, grimacing. “That’s disgusting. And also hearing you say the word poop is very strange.”
“Poop?” she asked.
“Yes. You aren’t the kind of person who would say that.”
“What would I say?”
“I don’t know, crap, shit, kaka? Wait, no not that.”
“So you ate shit?”
“That sounds better. But no. I mean yes, but no. It was manure. There’s a difference.”
“What difference is that?”
“One comes from humans, one doesn’t.”
“Nope, shit is shit. Haven’t you heard of bullshit?”
Cal frowned, thinking. “One’s mixed with hay?”
She snorted. “Manure is not mixed with hay.”
He shrugged. “Can we just drop it?”
“Like a doo-doo.”
“Okay, that’s even stranger than hearing you say poop, and frankly, quite uncomfortable to hear.” He shook his head. “You know, you’re kind of weird.”
“I’m not the one who ate shit as a kid.”
“No, but you liked cockroaches. You thought they were cute.”
“I never said—” She stopped when she realized she had said this. “They’re all shiny and stuff,” she explained. “And the way they waddle around on all of those appendages.”
Cal twisted up his face in disgust. “Even the way you describe it sounds disturbing. It waddled on appendages?”
“Hey, I’m not the one who ate poop as a kid.”
“All right, can we just agree that we both were strange little kids?”
“Okay. But you were stranger.”
“Whatever. Look, there’s a branch already broken off.”
They walked over and stared down at the branch, then looked up to the tree it had broken off from.
“That’s weird,” Imogen said, looking at the place where the branch had been not broken, but cut off.
“Something sliced clean through that,” Cal observed.
They stood in silence, breathing quietly, listening.
“That noise we heard last night,” Imogen said.
“Me and my cute girlfriend?”
She glared at him.
He held up his hands. “Don’t kill me.”
“That noise,” she repeated.
“Yeah.” He nodded, growing serious. “But if it was one of those monsters from the waves, they couldn’t do that. It’s way too high up. And that is a very clean cut. The ends of their talons are sharp, but they wouldn’t produce cuts so clean. That looks like it was made by a blade.”
“Are there people here with blades? Or other people at all? I thought you were alone.”
“So did I. But something did this.”
“If anything was nearby that meant us harm, it would’ve heard us arguing and been here by now.”
“We weren’t arguing.”
“Yes we were.”
“No we were—” He stopped himself.
Imogen grinned widely at him.
“Let’s take this and get out of here.”
She nodded at it. “Be my guest, scout.”
“Oh you’re gonna make me carry it?”
“Hell yes I am.” She held out her closed fist, then popped her thumb up. “One, you’re a big, strong man. Two, you’ve got some weird alien upgrade that makes you even stronger. And three…”
“Yes?” Cal prompted.
She dropped her hand, shaking her head. “Whatever. Two’s enough. Pick it up, doughboy.”
He frowned at her. “Doughboy?
“It’s the only insult I could think of.”
“Wasn’t a very good one.”
“Guess it’s something I share with your girlfriend.”
“Huh?” he asked, confused.
“That we both suck at insults.”
“Oh.” He shrugged. “I don’t mind. You’ve both got other assets.”
“Like tits and asses?”
Cal—face flushing as he felt uncharacteristically embarrassed while Eliza grinned at him—bent and picked up one end of the thick branch that itself could pass for a tree. Even just holding the end was heavy and awkward.
“Are you really going to make me carry this by myself?” he asked an eternity later.
“We’ve literally taken five steps. You’re tired already?”
“I know. But Eliza helped me with the others. I know she’s like a super athlete, but you can at least help me balance it. It’s pain in the ass carry it like this.”
She stopped and looked back at him, sighed, and moved behind him to take the rear end. “Choke up on it so you take more of its weight.”
“Enjoying the view?” he asked as they made their way back through the forest toward the hilltop base.
The branch suddenly grew heavier in his hands, slipping and falling.
He grunted and turned back to find Imogen standing there, hand to her mouth. “Oops.”
He glared blankly at her. “Ass. You gonna pick it up again?”
“Sure.” She bent down, her leaf bikini moving away from her body, giving Cal a flash of nipple.
She looked up as she lifted one end. “Enjoying the view?” she mocked.
“Uh, yeah. I mean, no.”
“Oh, so you don’t think I’m cute?”
Cal glared, this time even more blankly.
20
Cal stopped them as they made their way through the forest. “Smell that?”
“I smell forest.”
He sniffed the air. “No… this i
s… Come on.”
She grunted. “That’s the wrong way.”
“I want to check something out.”
A minute later they were staring down at the mangled corpse of one of the monsters from the waves.
“You smelled this?” Imogen wondered as they set the heavy log down to better examine the corpse.
“You don’t?”
“Kind of. I guess. Did the dog do this?”
Cal shook his head. “I don’t think so. Look.” He pointed at where one of its limbs was sliced cleanly off.
“Just like the tree,” she observed. “Do they ever fight each other?”
“Not that I’ve seen.”
“Well that’s… weird. The snake?”
“Maybe.” He sighed. “Come on, let’s get back.”
The picked up the heavy log again and left the mystery for another time.
By the time they made it back, the day had cooled considerably and the first of the suns had set.
They lowered the log down onto the thinner branches they’d gathered earlier.
Imogen looked down at the log, hands on her hips. “This is still really slow. How long did that take? Like an hour just to get one? And we still have to pull it up.”
“Hey, I’m all ears if you have any better ideas.”
She glanced up at the hilltop, now partially enclosed, though they still had a long way to go. She shook her head. “Do we even need more right now? We should focus on making the gates taller.”
“I thought of that,” Cal said. “But that would make them harder to open, and they’re already hard enough. I mean, I can open it by myself, but I’m strong.”
“Yeah big, strong man,” she said thoughtfully.
“We’d have to make the bracing stronger to make it taller. Besides, when the aliens got in, they used the logs to climb up. So it wouldn’t matter how high we made it if we kept the logs horizontal like they are now.”
“What about building another wall around the bottom?”
Cal raised an eyebrow. “That would take forever.”
She nodded. “We could make spikes.”
“On top of it?”
She looked up to the gate. “We could do that. I was thinking in the front of it, so they couldn’t get close enough to climb it in the first place.”
Survivor: World of Monsters 2 Page 6
