We shuffled through the racks of clothes in relative silence. There were a few other shoppers, but none of them made eye contact or looked interested in acknowledging our presence. I’d noticed that about most people we saw. With the exception of the men who flirted with Nora at the diner, people tended to keep to themselves. The sole woman who worked at the store sat behind the front register station, not looking up from her book. I guessed she wasn’t paid on commission.
Nora grabbed a few items from the clothing racks – a sweater, some jeans, and what looked like a dress. “Can I try these on?” she announced in the direction of the store’s only employee.
The woman looked startled to have been addressed, but she nodded and pointed toward the rear of the shop. “Fitting rooms are in the back.”
Nora turned to me. “Find anything?”
I had never been too interested in fashion, so clothes shopping was one of my least favorite activities. Without really looking at fit or size, I pulled a few things off their shelves and racks. “Sure.”
I followed the slight sway of Nora’s backside to the fitting rooms. She’d taken off the sweater and dress from earlier and had returned the black, skintight thermal outfit that was normally hidden beneath layers of snow gear. My lower lip found its way between my top and bottom teeth as I let my gaze fall to her spandex-encased backside. No wonder that man at dinner had been drawn to her. It was a good thing she’d been sitting down or we might never have shaken loose of him.
She stopped and I nearly ran into her, fully distracted by the view. “Wanna share a dressing room?” she asked. The fitting rooms were individual stalls partitioned by half walls with curtains as doors.
I cleared my throat. “Uh, I’ll just go in this one.” I darted into a vacant stall and quickly pulled the curtain door shut. I thought I heard Nora chuckle, but I couldn’t tell.
“Sammy?" Nora’s voice called to me.
I finished pulling on a sweater that didn’t look terrible on me. “Yeah?”
“Can you zip me up?”
I abandoned my own search for clothes to go next door and help. I knocked as best as I could on the curtained door. The sheet of fabric was thrown back to reveal Nora in a state of half dress. The dress she’d chosen to try on was light yellow and it hit mid-thigh. She hadn’t been able to zip up the back and stood with her hands pressing the top of the dress against her chest.
I licked my lips and indicated for her to turn around so I could get to her zipper. She did so and I nearly choked on my tongue. Gone was the practical sports bra, replaced by a delicate lace undergarment whose light pink color nearly matched the tone of her peach skin.
Without thinking, my fingers traced along the bottom of the bra’s back where the double-hook fasten was located. Her skin seemed to tremble beneath my touch.
“When did you get this?” My voice sounded foreign to my ears. It was far too deep and raspy to be my own.
“I’ve always had it,” she murmured. “I’ve just never had an opportunity to wear it. Do you...do you like it?”
My knees nearly gave out.
She seemed to have forgotten the reason she’d called me over to help her. Or maybe she hadn’t needed my help at all. She spun to face me. “Sam.” She said my name, breathy and full of reverence. I swallowed back a telling whimper. “When are you going to kiss me again?”
I didn’t need to be asked twice. I grabbed her firmly by the hips and heard the breath hitch in her throat. I felt momentarily smug, enjoying the fleeting surprise in her eyes. I let go of her right hip just long enough to reach behind me so I could jerk the dressing room curtain closed.
Without boots on she was a few inches shorter than me. I dipped my head just slightly to accommodate the height difference. My nose slid along hers on my way to her mouth. At first, the kiss was slow and hesitant, just her pliant lips molding to mine, feeling warm and tender. Her tongue brushed against my bottom lip, not demanding entry, but testing. When my lips parted and her tongue slipped between them, there was a sense of exploratory wonder that ripened into something hungry. It became more than a kiss that said “I want you.” Instead, it was a kiss that said “I need you.”
She was soft and perfumed and I was doing everything I could to play it cool when all I wanted to do was pant and beg for her to touch me in return. I licked up the fine column of her neck. She arched into me, groaning like she didn't care that we had an audience just beyond the closed curtain.
“Sam,” she panted. She grabbed me by the neck of the sweater that didn’t look too ridiculous on me and pulled me up to eye-level. “I…You surprised me.”
I audibly swallowed. I could feel my heart working too hard, pumping hot blood throughout my body. Maybe I’d been too eager.
“Sam,” she panted again. “Take me home.”
The monorail ride back to our apartment was less than a four-minute trip, but it felt like four-minutes too long. I didn’t trust myself to sit next to her, the urge to feel her skin too palpable, so I purposely plopped down on the bench across the aisle from where Nora sat. I didn’t want to be obvious on the train, not knowing the community’s level of tolerance or even Nora’s level of comfort with PDAs.
I stole furtive glances at her during the commute. She smiled back at me, fully aware of what had to have been a hungry gaze on my part.
+++++
“So. Do I have to wait until the third date?”
We stood outside the apartment door and I didn’t know where to put my hands, so I settled for cramming them into the back pockets of the jeans I had just bought.
“I think we can overlook that one little rule this time,” she smiled. She grabbed onto my elbow and pulled me inside.
The door closed and our mouths met, tentatively, as if we hadn’t done this before. It was like I was rediscovering her body even though I knew it well. Our clothes were quickly abandoned, scattered across the floor on the way to the bedroom like an odd patchwork quilt of cotton-blends and denim.
I gently eased her body down on the soft duvet and allowed my eyes to drink in her nakedness before taking a seat on the bed next to her reclined form. I ran my right hand along the length of her naked body and she arched her back to meet my touch.
But my body was trembling and she noticed.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, sitting up. Her gorgeous aquamarine eyes were filled with concern.
“I-I don’t want to mess this up,” I admitted to her softly.
Her hand moved up to touch the side of my face, and I closed my eyes, unable to hold back the sigh that left my lips. Her fingers tangled in my hair and she pulled me in for a searing kiss. Her mouth moved magically against mine. But as good as it felt, I needed more. I needed more of her touch. I needed more of her body. I regained my confidence and pushed her back down on the bed. Her short, strawberry-blonde hair fanned out on the comforter, framing her angelic face like a golden-red halo.
I hovered above her body, holding myself up with my arms and toes like a frozen push-up. I leaned down to capture her lips again in a gentle kiss, and she moaned into my mouth when my naked breasts brushed against her own chest. I could feel her hard nipples pressing into my skin and I shivered. I lowered myself just a little more, still not resting all of my weight on top of her, even though I knew she could take it.
I ground my naked sex into hers and groaned when I felt her arousal spread against me. I wanted to taste the source of that arousal, but I wanted to take my time. I continued to slowly grind into her, moving my hips in small circles.
“Fuck, Sammy. That feels so good,” she softly sighed. She rubbed the bottoms of her feet against my bare calves, opening herself up even more to me.
I wedged my right knee between her slender thighs and rested my own thigh tight against her sex. She closed her eyes and bit the bottom of her lip, groaning in the most delicious way. I loved the noises she made; she never held herself back. I pushed up into her wet sex, pulling out more of those sighs and murmurs from he
r enticing mouth.
“Please,” she whispered, her breath hot against my ear. “Touch me, Sam. I need you so much,” she begged.
I reached between our bodies and slid my fingers through her shaved wetness. I couldn’t help the moan that escaped my lips when I felt just how wet she was for me. I wanted her to saturate my skin. I wanted to drown in her arousal. I slipped through her silken folds and she pushed up against me, her pelvic bone roughly bumping against my own enflamed core. I dropped my head down and bit where her neck met her collarbone to keep from crying aloud. I wanted to leave my mark all over her body to show the world that she belonged to me.
She whimpered and her hips thrust slightly to receive more friction against the movements of my hand. I could feel her wetness pooling on her inner thighs. I knew she wanted me to touch her clit, but I needed to feel more of her before giving in to her immediate needs.
“Inside,” she panted, telling me exactly what she wanted. Her hands clawed desperately against my naked back. “Inside me.”
I bit my bottom lip and slowly slid my middle finger inside her wet core. Feeling her like this was making me painfully aroused like I’d never experienced before. She was swallowing me whole and I didn’t mind at all.
I buried my finger deep inside her and cupped her sex with the rest of my hand. From this position I could slowly thrust inside her and simultaneously rub her clit with my palm. Her wetness clicked all around me, filling my ears with its rhythmic harmony.
She gasped sharply and grabbed my ears unexpectedly to pull my face back down and capture my mouth in another desperate kiss. She thrust her tongue inside my mouth. I knew she was close. I could feel her tightening and pulsing hot around my single digit.
She wrapped her legs around my lower body and pulled frantically on my forearm, encouraging me to thrust harder and deeper inside her. Her moans were replaced by groans as I quickened my pace. My body was overheating; I could feel the sweat trickling down my back as I pushed my body to its limit. I closed my eyes and concentrated on her voice; I focused on pushing her over the edge.
And when I succeeded, she looked up at me beneath those luscious, thick eyelashes with a small, post-orgasmic smile curled on her satisfied mouth. I slowly rolled off of her sweaty form and onto my back for a breather; but she quickly found her second wind, and I found myself covered in her body like a human blanket.
She stared down at me with those devastating aqua eyes. Her gaze was full of promises that I was too scared to hope for.
+++++
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The next morning we were to report for our first day of work. It was unsettling when we parted, each of our respective new jobs in a different part of West Genesis. It made me realize that we hadn’t been apart from each other for any extended amount of time since we’d met. Even in Hot Springs we had always managed to run into each other after an hour or so.
I was nervous. All I had was an address. And even at that it was simply coordinates, not an actual street name with numbers. I fiddled with the hem of my new sweater and shifted in my jeans. I doubted my ability to just fit back into some kind of civilized society. Even wearing normal clothes had become confining.
I rode the red line to its last stop – the Washington platform. When I exited the underground train I was blasted in the face with a shock of cold air. I hadn’t thought I’d need my winter jacket for work, but now I was lamenting leaving it behind. The lowered temperature made me even more nervous than I had been before.
The train had stopped in a large empty bunker that looked industrial compared to the entertainment section of West Genesis –the Blue sector – where we ate our meals and had shopped for our new clothes. For a moment I worried I’d misinterpreted the directions. I thought about going back to the train and heading back to our apartment, but the monorail left the platform back towards the compound’s more populated areas.
I saw a man heading toward a nearly hidden metal door. I watched him use his keycard on an electronic sensor located by the door’s handle. The sensor light went from red to green and he opened the door.
My voice was caught in my throat, but I hustled over to the door. It shut in my face, too late. I took out my keycard and experimentally moved it back and forth in front of the sensor like I’d seen the man do. The light switched from red to green and I heard the door unlock. Before it could relock, I grabbed the door handle and yanked. On the other side of the door was a metal ladder that went up. I looked up the dimly lit shaft, but it was too dark to see how far up the ladder went and what was at the top. I had another urge to turn around and wait for the next train to come by, but I shoved those emotions away and began to climb up.
The ladder was metal and cold against the bare skin of my hands. I climbed up, rung after rung, and my winter boots made an echoed sound with every step. I reached the top of the ladder, a point at which I could no longer go any higher because there was now a ceiling above me. I pushed tentatively against the metal ceiling until I felt it give. A square section swung up on hinges like I was crawling out of a sewer through a manhole.
It was colder still once I moved the trapdoor out of the way. I found myself in a new part of West Genesis, and it teemed with activity.
“You look lost,” a young woman said. She was bundled up in winter gear and appraised my own outfit of sweater and jeans with amusement.
“I’m not sure if this is where I’m supposed to be for work,” I told her truthfully. “I’m new.”
“HR assigned you a job?”
I nodded and pulled back the sleeve of my sweater where I’d written down the coordinates I’d received yesterday.
She grabbed my arm and twisted it so she could read the numbers. “Run out of paper?” she chuckled. When her eyes crinkled at the corners, a hidden dimple made itself visible.
It might have been cold wherever we were, but I could still feel my cheeks burn with embarrassment. “I’m still getting acclimated,” I mumbled.
She gave me a half-smile, the corner of her pink lips lilting up. “Sorry. I’m just giving you a hard time. I’m Jazmin. And you’re in the right place. Welcome to the Retrieval Team.”
Retrieval turned out to be a group of scavengers. It was our job to go above ground and salvage what we could.
“Here.” Jazmin pulled a heavy jacket with a fur-fringed hood out of a nearby metal locker. “You can borrow my spare jacket for today. Just be sure you bring a jacket for tomorrow.”
“Thanks.” I pulled the jacket on. It was a little big on me, particularly in the chest area, but it would work. “I’m sorry I didn’t know to bring my own,” I said gratefully. “No one told me what I’d be doing.”
Jazmin chuckled. “Sounds like Lisa Winter’s handy-work. You must’ve pissed her off for her to have been so vague with your assignment.”
“Yeah, I don’t think she likes my...” I trailed off, unsure of what label to give Nora. What were we to each other? “…roommate,” I finally decided on.
“Let me show you your sled.”
We walked up to a long row of snowmobiles. There had to be at least be 50 or so.
"Holy cow. Where do you get the gas for all of these things?” I asked, openly impressed with the number of snowmobiles.
“They’re electric.” Jazmin pointed toward a giant electrical panel. “It’s pretty fancy. No one knows exactly how it works, but the machines plug into that circuit board thingy. They charge at night and in the morning, they’re ready for our use.”
“Circuit board thingy, eh?” I lightly teased.
She smirked. “I don’t need to know how it works. I just know that it does.”
All told, there were about 100 people on the Retrieval Team. Jazmin and two other guys, Charlie and Greg, were the members of my immediate team. Jazmin was kind and patient and thorough while Charlie and Greg laughed a lot and teased me good naturedly. They reminded of the kind of guys I used to hang out with back at home. Today, our task was to loop in a twenty-mi
le radius and to be on the lookout for people to save. Jazmin told me our daily task, but Greg translated.
“Today, we get to fool around on the snowmobiles,” he laughed. “There’s never anyone out there.” He removed two keys from a metal cabinet lined with rows and rows of similar keys and tossed one of them to Charlie. Each key was tagged with a number that I suspected corresponded to a specific vehicle.
“They found people in the beginning,” Jazmin said, defending the importance of our job. “Things have slowed down lately though,” she said with a small frown.
“And we do that everyday?” I asked. They must not have been too good at their job because I hadn’t heard snowmobile engines or even seen snowmobile tracks in the snow. Although I probably would have just hid if I’d seen a group of people on snowmobiles.
“Just for today,” Greg chimed in. “Teams rotate tasks daily, so it doesn’t get too boring. Sometimes we go into small towns and look for supplies to bring back, sometimes we get to track animals.”
“And sometimes we get to goof off,” Charlie said matter of factly. He climbed onto a two-seater snowmobile and turned the key in the ignition. It was pretty fancy. My family had only ever had those tug-rope starters like a chainsaw or lawnmower.
“Hop on,” Charlie told me. He tossed a black snowmobile helmet in my direction.
I snatched the helmet out of the air and rested it against my hip. “Why do you get to drive?” Oh god. I was turning into Nora.
“You know how to handle one of these things?” he asked, looking amused.
“I grew up in North Dakota,” I snorted, pulling on the helmet and attaching the chin strap. “We drive snowmobiles out of the womb.”
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