“Goddamn witches.” He kisses me so good that I want him to fuck me one more time. I don’t want him to go. I don’t want him to leave me.
“Maximino.” I don’t have the guts to say what I want to say.
“We shared blood and everything else we had to share, Dumani. This sexual tension will never go away. It won’t be so bad once we put some distance between us.”
“It will never go away?” I ask in dismay. He shakes his head.
“No. I will always want to fuck you and you will always want to fuck me. Luckily, we have our own lives and I like to fuck anyway so I’ll live. I am going to Rome and you will be tucked safely away with your husband and his little family. All of this will be your favorite secret.”
“I can’t go home.”
“You can’t stay here. Think of your son. He’s too young for you to be dragging all over the world. He needs stability and one man around.” He checks his watch. His eyes are dark blue right now. Like night time. “I’ve already been here too long. Go home, witch. The next hunter will stick a sword in you instead of his dick.”
After he’s gone, I am left with a sadness that I can’t shake. Is it his blood? It’s more than that. I can still feel him inside of me. I can smell him all over me. He is supposed to kill me and we ended up in bed together. A week ago, I was in bed with Gavin. This week, I’m whoring for Maximino. His cum leaks down my legs as I walk into the bathroom. I shower first before I do anything else. I strip the bed and remake it. I put my red dress back on and sit by the window. Maximino told me to go home. I’m putting my son and myself in danger. I should go home and be one of Judea’s wives. I don’t want to. I don’t want to live with his women and children. What would it be like belonging to Maximino? What will he do to me? I will be the only one he’s doing it to. He told me that much. My pussy clenches again. I would rather be his whore than part of my husband’s harem. I would rather be his whore than Gavin’s roommate.
“Hey, I’m glad you’re dressed. There’s someone important that I want you to meet.”
“I don’t want to meet anyone.” I protest when Gavin pulls me to my feet.
“Come on, you are getting out of this room.” He isn’t taking no for an answer. “You look too pretty for no one to see you.”
“Let me cover my hair.” I blush profusely with guilt. Someone saw me. I braid and cover my hair before I take his hand. Hair that Maximino has been pulling all day. My scalp is still tender. My woman parts clench on his imaginary dick.
Chapter Thirty-six
The Antonov’s are always socializing. There are a hundred and thirty people out here drinking and having fun like we aren’t in the middle of the apocalypse. Nothing seems to ever faze them. I am dragged along against my will. I don’t like crowds and I don’t like socializing. Gavin’s arm is locked around my waist preventing me from escaping as he introduces me to more of his family and friends of the family.
“Pippa! Pippa, over here!” He calls to the crowd. A petite black woman turns at the sound of his voice and her face lights up in recognition. She can’t be an Antonov. They kiss cheeks. He pushes her glasses up when they slip down her nose. It isn’t intimate. It’s out of long habit. They keep talking because it’s nothing.
“Gavin, I came as soon as I got your message. I can’t wait to read your notes. I brought mine to compare. You’ll be pleased with my findings and… Look at me. I’ve been here for an hour and I’m already working. How are you? You look tired.” She genuinely cares.
“I still work too much.” He smiles sadly. She smiles too. “How was your flight, Pip?”
“It was pleasant enough.” She turns her smile on me. “Philadelphia Brown. Call me Pippa.”
“This is Duma.” Then he remembers. “She’s my girlfriend.”
His girlfriend? It sounds childish. I am not his girlfriend. I’m Judea Nehemiah Hamilton’s first wife. And Maximino’s whore.
“You remember Mino, don’t you? I didn’t expect to bump into him here. I haven’t seen him in ages.”
I ignore him like we didn’t fuck all day long. I don’t even look at him to know he’s close. I can feel him like pain. I can feel him like he’s touching me with his hands. My hair. My skin. Between my legs. Everywhere. I don’t want to feel this way. I don’t have to look at him because I am picturing him in my head.
“Maximino, yes.”
“We met in Italy, Gavin. Don’t you remember anything besides numbers and equations? You were there.”
“Not really. I worked a lot when we were in Italy.” He admits. The two men shake hands. Is this nice lady the kind of woman the beastie likes? Maximino has obviously claimed her for the night. She doesn’t mind being claimed either. Did he give her his blood? Did he take hers? Are they fucking? I feel like mold right now. I feel dirty. I feel like a slut. I was his slut all day long.
“Duma? What an interesting name.” Max’s voice is formal and polite. I look up into his teasing eyes and I’m tempted to slap him. I turn away before I do.
“She’s wary of strangers. Give her time to loosen up.”
“It’s fine. I’m wary of strangers myself.” Max is smiling. I can hear the amusement in his voice. He knows it’s a lie. He had me already. His seed is still alive in my body. I fucked him with no problem. I’ll fuck him again. And again.
“Let’s get a drink.” Pippa is hanging onto Max the way I want to. He doesn’t look at me again. He is too busy kissing and entertaining her with her pretty ways and prim, purple dress. The mojito helps me loosen up. It doesn’t turn me into a social butterfly. That will never be me.
“You two are so cute together.” Pippa is sitting in a chair with our lover’s arm draped around her shoulders. I’m sitting with the wrong man. I watch him brush his fingertips over her bare shoulder. It’s a small touch that I feel on my own skin. She smiles at him the way I used to smile at my husband. He presses his lips to hers. I don’t like it. Gavin cups the back of my head and kisses me. I don’t want it to feel weird. I don’t want it to feel wrong. It does. I kiss him back anyway. I wonder if kissing Gavin will spark anything in the beastie sitting across from me? I glance at him after the kiss is over. It sparks a fire. It sparks something dangerous. For who? For me? For Gavin? I’ll never let him harm either. He wants me to be his thrall. His sex slave. He wants to use me to satisfy his sexual needs. Why can’t we be friends like him and this girl?
“I think I’ll say my goodnights.” I stand before anyone can protest. “It was nice meeting you, Philadelphia.”
“Sweetheart, you just got here. Have dinner first.”
“I’m not hungry.” It’s the truth. I’m starving, not hungry. “Stay and visit with your friends.”
“Are you sure? I’ve been gone all day and I want to spend some time with you.”
I can’t even look at him right now. I kept myself busy while he was away today. I have the battered pussy to prove it. I can’t look Gavin in the eyes. Maximino said and did mean things to me. I want him to kiss it and make it feel better. Then, I want him to do it again.
“I’m sure. Show them your notes. Do science stuff.”
“I’m not hanging around for science stuff, Pippa. Come and find me when you’re finished working.” I watch the beastie kiss her again. She’s enchanted with him. He’s like a cat playing with a pretty toy. He doesn’t want her for a girlfriend. He wants to play with her and she wants to be played with.
“Pippa?” The sharpness in Gavin’s voice surprises us all. “We can drive Duma back to the guest house on our way to the laboratory.”
“I’ll catch up with you later?” She asks Maximino hopefully.
“It doesn’t matter how late it is. I’ll be waiting.”
“Okay.” She can’t wait.
I leave the lights off when I enter the house. I stand in my favorite spot on the bedroom patio wondering if I have any redeeming qualities at all.
“I wonder if the boy would kiss you if he knew where your sweet mouth has bee
n?” His hand circles my throat from behind before his body presses against me.
“I cleaned my mouth. I wonder what the girl would say if she knew you love eating my pussy?”
“You cleaned your mouth and you still couldn’t get rid of my taste. You can gargle with gasoline and you will still taste me. I’ve been drinking whisky and I still taste you.” His hand tightens around my throat. “You’re in my head and I can’t you get you out.”
“You shouldn’t be here. They could come back.” I say breathlessly.
“You don’t know them.” His free hand squeezes one breast and then the other. “They’ll be in there for days. Especially now that Gavin knows I’m going to fuck his little assistant if she comes looking for me.”
“You would fuck her?” I have the tongue of a heathen. “We were together all day.”
“If she comes to me I will. She isn’t bad in the sack.”
“What about me?”
“What about you? I have enough dick for the two of you.” He licks the side of my face. His tongue licked my pussy like this earlier. I swallow hard.
“Your jealousy is silly and unnecessary. Thralls have no say in what I do. None. You are already halfway to belonging to me.”
“I’m married.”
“Where is your husband? Why isn’t he here stopping me?” He releases me and walks away. Wait, where is he going? Maximino turns on the light. I get a chill as I watch him stalk me like an animal. He pulls my dress off over my head and tears my panties.
“Turn around and bend over. Put your hands on the bed and keep them there. Part your legs some more. I want to see that pussy.” Max says softly. He takes his time undressing. There is no hurry. When he’s naked, he walks around me looking at me from all angles. He ignores my fading scars. His hand snakes out and slaps my bottom. I gasp a swear word.
“You can’t kiss Gavin Antonov anymore. If you let him fuck you again, I will kill you.” He lines himself up with my aching pussy and he sinks in as far as he can go. “You are mine to use for the duration of my stay and I don’t want you sucking and fucking other dicks.”
Max takes me again and again. He pulls out of my pussy in mid-pant and shoves his dick in my ass. He covers my scream with his hand and he doesn’t wait for me to say no. Max takes. This isn’t making love. This is getting fucked. He reaches down and shoves a few fingers into my pussy. My eyes water and my body shakes. It hurts. He’s pounding my ass like a maniac and it hurts. I’m cumming. I’m cumming so fucking hard. Sinner. Devil’s daughter. Witch.
“Good, thrall. Your ass squeezes my dick every time your pussy contracts. Keep cumming.”
The hand around my throat squeezes off my oxygen before he bites deep into my pulsing throat. I can’t scream. I can’t move. His arm is locked around my middle as he rams his dick into me. I don’t want to get away. I’m cumming too hard. Maximino is growling low in his chest like an animal, and sucking my blood like he’s trying to drain it all. I lean back against him and I give him every bit of me. I want him to have me. He cums jerking and groaning my name. His hand loosens when he dislodges his teeth from my skin. I take a painful, wheezy breath. He choked me for a long time. The room spins when my blood begins moving oxygen again. I didn’t die. I won’t think about it. I fall face down on the bed when he lets me go. I’m drained. Maybe to death and I don’t care. I can’t move. So, he pulls back the bedding and moves me so that I’m lying right. Max drags the blankets up over me. I don’t want him to go.
“Stay.”
“I can’t spend the night here. It’s too risky. Go to sleep.”
“Please?”
“You’re a big girl and your boyfriend will be back eventually.”
“I want you.”
“You can’t have me. I told you what I’m looking for and it isn’t a love affair.”
“I’m not asking you to love me, Maximino.”
I just want him to tell me that everything is still going to be okay. Even if it isn’t.
“What do you want from me?”
“I don’t want you to treat me like a whore right now.” My voice breaks. “You know what? Forget it. You got what you wanted. Leave me the fuck alone.” I roll over with my back to him. I never should’ve gotten involved with him. He should’ve killed me.
“Fucking hell.” He says sitting down on the bed again. “No one is killing you.”
“Do you know everything I’m thinking?”
“No. I mostly pick up what you’re feeling and I get a stray thought here and there. You think about the same things repeatedly.”
“Like a machine?” My eyes fill with tears. “Is that why you want me to be your slave?”
“Slave? Where did that come from? I want to fuck you, not own you. You would be free to leave whenever you want.”
“Will I always be like this?”
“Like what? A witch? Yes. It’s who you—”
“No, a machine.” I sniffle. “Will I always be cold and empty like a machine?”
“Fuck Gavin. You’re not cold. He’s stupid.” His hand trails down my over my breasts. “I’m taking you home.”
“I don’t have a home.”
He lays down beside me rolling me over to face him.
“Stop crying. I don’t like it. Witches don’t cry.”
“I do. This one cries.”
“Well, stop it.” His hands pull my pelvis to his.
“What are we doing, Maximino? What is this?”
“This is the beginning of a beautiful disaster.” He whispers into my neck. “That’s what it is, Kitten.”
The beastie holds me until I fall asleep against his chest. I awaken from a nightmare shaking with fear. I sit up and move away from Maximino. What’s wrong with me? What am I doing?
“Tell me about it.” His fingers wrap around my arm.
“It was nothing. I’m fine. I need a drink of water.”
“Come here.” He pulls me down again. “I’ll get your water.” I watch him roll out of bed naked. I have beautiful men. He is the handsomest. I drink my water and calm down.
“Tell me, Kitten. What makes one as mighty as you tremble with fear?”
“Burning the bodies.” I admit sadly. “I burned the little ones too. I see their faces in my sleep sometimes.”
“Why were you burning bodies?”
“It had to be done.”
“By you? There was no one else? Burning bodies isn’t a woman’s job.”
“You said yourself, I’m the devil’s daughter. I can handle it.”
“That turned out to be a joke. You are softer than wet paper napkins. You had no business burning bodies. Shit like that fucks with your mind and makes you unstable. There is nothing more unpredictable than an unstable witch.”
I fall asleep again and this time, I dream of Maximino. I don’t feel sad when he wakes me before dawn. He stayed the night. I watch him dress with hot eyes. I’m satisfied with our time together.
“Don’t fuck the boy, witch. I meant what I said.”
“Will I see you later?”
“Maybe.” He kisses me hard on the lips, smacks my bare ass, and leaves. I spent the night whoring and I spend the day being a mother. I’m relieved when I don’t hear from Gavin. I feel guilty enough without having to see him. I can’t stay here after what I did. It’s wrong. I should tell him that I’m moving on. I’m going home to be a good wife and raise my son. I carry Judi to his laboratory. The door is never locked. I let myself in wondering why I did it. Why did I let the beastie fuck me? Because I wanted him. I want him to do it right now. I pause. Someone’s fucking in there. I know the sounds well. I peek around the corner far enough to see Gavin holding Pippa on the counter as his ass flexes with each thrust into her.
“I love you, Pippa. I love you more than anything.”
I turn away and leave. I feel like I’m intruding on something that is meant to be. I’m not angry or jealous. I’m happy they found each other. I am sad for myself. Where do I belong? Wh
o will love me and only me?
“What did you see?” Maximino appears on the path in front of me. “You look perplexed.”
“I don’t even know what that word means.” I frown. “I saw them together.”
“Were they fucking?”
I look down at my feet and nod my head. They were fucking and so deep into it that they didn’t notice me watching.
“You were right. I can’t stay here. They’re together now.”
“Walk with me.” He says. “Don’t take it personally. Those two have been building up to this for years. There’s nothing like the end of the world to throw lovers together.”
“Like us?”
“We aren’t lovers.” He says. “We fuck.”
Maximino takes my hand as we enter the denser foliage. I love being outside. The possibilities are endless out here. I hold onto his hand feeling like a newlywed. Except, we don’t know each other and he only wants to fuck me. My son is the only reason we aren’t doing it right now. We hold hands instead. He asks me questions about my family and growing up in the church. I answer him candidly without reservations. I tell him about the box and the glass. I tell him about the babies buried in the orchard. We sit on a fallen tree with the sounds of the jungle for music. I tell him about the farm.
“What do you do for fun?”
“Fun?” I say it like I don’t know what it means.
“Do you sing or dance? Do you write or draw? What do you like to do?”
I blush at the first thing that comes to mind and look away. I enjoy making love.
“You are nothing like the witches I’ve met in the past, Kitten.” He kisses my hand.
If someone stumbles upon us they will know we are lovers. You can tell from the way our knees touch and our easy way with each other. We talk about me while my baby naps contentedly on my back. I enjoy his closeness. Max reaches over and uncovers my hair. I don’t protest when he shakes it out.
“Your hair is too beautiful to be hidden away.”
We could be caught. The pleasure we share is more powerful than the fear of being caught.
The Doomsday Papers Page 39
