by Noelle Adams
His eyes were open, and he was watching her silently. She couldn’t begin to figure out his expression.
“I rolled,” she croaked. Cleared her throat. “Sorry.”
“You rolled,” Ethan said, quirking his lips.
She glared at him, not appreciating his amused tone. “You should have rolled me back to my side.”
He was clearly hiding a grin. “I tried. But you seem to be a very insistent snuggler.”
Ashley let out a squeak of outrage, embarrassed and feeling like she’d just been insulted. She didn’t try to pull away from Ethan’s side, though. She wanted to, of course, but she was simply too sleepy to move yet. “That’s not true. I’m not snuggly at all. I like my space when I sleep. I must have been cold or something.”
“The room felt pretty warm to me,” Ethan countered, twisting his lips in a very obnoxious way. “I promise you seemed quite determined to invade my side of the bed. I think you are a covert snuggler.”
“I don’t think so,” Ashley told him, but without much confidence that it was true. She still felt too lazy to move.
Evidently Ethan was too. Neither one of them tried to get up or pull away.
After a few quiet minutes, Ashley said, “I wish we had a change of clothes.”
“Maybe you could borrow something from Elaine,” Ethan suggested.
She huffed at him furiously. “Ethan, she’s at least six sizes bigger than me. You think her clothes would fit me?”
“Oh. I hadn’t noticed.”
She glared at him some more through narrowed eyes. Just more proof that Ethan never even noticed what she looked like. Her body was clearly of no interest to him at all.
“We should get up soon. Try to get an early start,” Ethan said, but made no move to follow through with his suggestion.
Ashley stretched her back out a little, trying to work up the will to get started with the day. The move caused one of her nipples to chaff against Ethan’s side.
She suddenly was feeling a lot more than drowsy.
She stretched a little more, to test the sensation. There it was again, when her breast rubbed against Ethan’s body. Definitely felt quite tingly.
Which really wasn’t something she should continue. Seeing as how Ethan thought of her as some pesky, little kid.
But now she couldn’t think of anything but being in bed with a gorgeous, half-dressed Ethan. Couldn’t feel anything but his firm, hot body against hers.
She had to get away from him. Rolled to her side with a jerk. Started to get up. But Ethan was out of the bed and on his feet before she was even in a sitting position.
“I get the shower first,” he said gruffly, then slammed the bathroom door behind him.
“Selfish jerk,” she called out after him, more for show than anything else.
In truth, she felt ridiculously let down. Her mind knew nothing could ever happen with Ethan—that she didn’t even want anything to happen. But her body had other ideas. It was now in this state of delicious expectation. An expectation that clearly would never be fulfilled.
She got up and looked at herself in the mirror over the dresser. One cheek, as she had predicted, was bright pink from being pressed up against Ethan. The straps of Elaine’s frilly nightgown had slipped off of her shoulders. Her hair was sticking out in all directions. Not just from sleep. She hadn’t been able to blow dry or style it for three days.
No wonder Ethan wasn’t interested in her. She looked like a sloppy little girl playing dress-up in her mother’s gown.
Ethan hadn’t even had an erection. Ashley did not have much experience with men, but she’d heard that men woke up hard all the time, that it was a common morning phenomenon. But not Ethan. Not this morning. And she had been curled up beside him, pressing her body against him, wearing a flimsy, feminine nightgown. And nothing from Ethan.
Not that she’d actually checked his pants, of course. That might have looked a little suspicious. But he hadn’t looked awkward, or embarrassed, or stressed, or lascivious. He had simply teased and insulted her in his normal, arrogant manner. No, she was quite sure he hadn’t been hiding some throbbing, aching desire.
No wonder she resented him. After spending all night in bed with her, he wouldn’t even extend to her the common courtesy of getting an erection.
***
Two hours later, Ashley was killing time by flipping through a magazine at a gas station convenience store while Ethan was in the bathroom.
They’d stopped a half-hour after they’d started off to fill up the tank of the old truck—which wasn’t much to look at, but seemed to run better than the Thunderbird. At least they could generally make the speed limit.
And then they’d stocked up with provisions from the quick shop—mostly junk food, water, and soft drinks. After they’d loaded their stuff into the truck, Ethan went to use the restroom, since Ashley had already gone.
The voices at the cash register distracted her from the magazine. She strained her ears to hear better.
“The man is around six feet, early twenties. A ginger. The woman is young, attractive, brown hair.”
Her heart started drumming wildly, and she tried to hide behind the magazine rack.
“Yeah,” the teenager behind the register said. “They were in here just a little while ago. Bought all kinds of stuff.”
“You saw them?” It was a second man speaking. “This man right here?”
There was a pause and Ashley concluded he must have shown the clerk a picture.
“Yep, pretty sure that was him. Wasn’t paying much attention to him, though. The girl...she was something. Real luscious figure, and the prettiest smile I’ve ever seen.”
Ashley felt a little flush of pleasure at this description of herself, despite her rising anxiety. The clerk must think they had already left. Otherwise, surely he would have directed the two men in their direction. She peeked around the magazine rack so she could get a good look at the men.
They looked to be in their thirties. Well-built. Nondescript. Both wearing dark clothes.
These were definitely the hired guns.
“We’d appreciate any information you can give us. Do you know where they were heading?”
“Back on I-64, I assume,” the clerk told them.
There was more than one route they could take to get to Sioux Falls, so she wondered if there were men assigned to all the obvious routes or if they’d somehow figured out which way they were going by tracking after them.
Then she remembered Ethan. He would be coming out of the bathroom any moment. She couldn’t let these two men see him. They might overlook her if they accidentally caught a glimpse of her, but they would certainly recognize Ethan.
She ran over to the back hall where the bathrooms were and saw the doorknob to the men’s restroom start to turn. She used both hands to push against the door, keeping it from opening out. Keeping Ethan inside.
Unfortunately, he pushed back, and he was a little bit stronger than she was. She quickly turned around and pressed her back to the door, planting her feet to add to her resistance.
“Hey!” Ethan’s voice sounded from inside the bathroom, as he struggled to open the door.
“Shut up,” Ashley hissed, as loudly as she dared. “Stay in there.”
“Ashley?” Ethan’s voice was slightly mollified. “What the hell is going on?”
“Stay put. Don’t come out until I tell you.”
“There better be a good reason for trapping me in this foul hellhole.”
Fighting a smile at Ethan’s dry tone, Ashley scurried back to her post behind the magazine rack to see if she could pick up any more information.
Unfortunately—or maybe fortunately—the bad guys had already left. She saw a dark sedan driving out of the parking lot.
So she scurried back to free Ethan from the bathroom. When she opened the door, he was standing stiffly with an irritated expression on his face.
“Let’s try to get out of here without letting
the clerk see us,” she whispered, taking his hand to covertly lead him out of the quick shop and feeling sort of like a sexy spy from a movie. If only she had some sort of skimpy leather outfit.
Looking totally baffled, Ethan shook his head but followed her silently through the back aisle of the store and around to the door. They were just darting out when the clerk spotted them.
“Hey!” he called out.
They both turned to look at the clerk. He was staring at them with his mouth ajar, pointing limply in their direction.
Sexy spy, sexy spy, Ashley told herself. And she remembered he had thought she was pretty.
She smiled at him seductively—or as seductive as she could manage. Gave him an obvious beseeching look. Winked, and then held one finger to her pouting lips in the universal sign for quiet.
The clerk grinned at her, winked back, and did the dorky locking of his lips and throwing away the key routine.
Ashley blew him a kiss and pulled a sputtering Ethan out the door.
He was huffing when they got back in the truck. “That was the most disgusting display I’ve ever had the misfortune to witness.”
Ashley turned to him in bewilderment. “What are you talking about? You were in the bathroom the whole time. You didn’t even see the men, and they were suspicious but not really disgusting. One of them was kind of cute.”
Ethan scowled. “I meant the repellent exhibit you made of yourself with that clerk. That was far beyond flirting. Why didn’t you just jump him and get it over with?”
She made a few inarticulate sounds of fury before she could form actual words. She wasn’t quite controlled enough yet to form complete sentences. “Why you...That’s the most ridiculous...You don’t even know why...I was trying to...Just because you find me disgusting and repellent doesn’t mean that every man does.”
The one sentence that she managed to construct was not what she’d been intending to say. And it sounded kind of silly. And it was very much off subject. And she wished she hadn’t said it.
Ethan was staring at her like she’d gone crazy, his jaw dropping open in dumbfounded shock.
But Ashley was still too angry to figure out why. “I might have saved your obnoxious life in there.”
Ethan’s face changed. “What happened?”
Ashley told him, explaining what she’d heard in precise detail and making sure to emphasize that the clerk had said she had a luscious figure and the prettiest smile he’d ever seen. And also that the man had called Ethan a “ginger.”
When they finished their discussion, they decided to take back roads and avoid the interstate from now on.
***
They drove on country roads for several hours, got lost a few times, and by mid-afternoon, they had made a wide loop around Lexington, Kentucky and hadn’t gotten much further. By interstate, they probably could have gotten that far in an hour and a half.
They hadn’t stopped for lunch—there were very few gas stations on these roads and virtually no restaurants, so finally Ashley asked if they could pull onto a gravel driveway that seemed to lead nowhere. There was a convenient grove of trees set back a good distance from the road, where it was cooler and they could have some privacy from anyone who happened to drive by. They could take a mid-afternoon break and get something to eat from the stockpile they’d purchased at the quick shop.
They could also study the map that Gus had thoughtfully provided and try to find a more efficient route through this endless wilderness, since the GPS on Ethan’s phone was off-limits.
There was some soft grass under the trees, so Ashley lowered herself and stretched out on the ground, munching on her chips and cookies.
Ethan sat down next to her and spread out the map between them. They both peered at it, plotting possible routes.
After a few good-natured arguments, they were starting to have some success. Ashley was lying now on her stomach, propped up on her upper arms. Her legs were bent at the knee and she was casually swinging her feet up in the air.
“Ashley,” Ethan said, interrupting their strategy session. He suddenly looked crabby and a little stressed. “Do you always go around flashing the entire world? Would you pull down your skirt?”
She glanced over her shoulder. Her skirt was indeed hiked up around her hips. Her panties were even showing. Grumbling under her breath, she pulled the flouncy skirt back down to the middle of her thighs. “Sorry. Wasn’t paying attention.”
Ethan got up.
“Where are you going?” she asked in confusion as he turned his back to her. He had accepted Gus’s offer of a change of shirt, so he was now wearing a worn gray T-shirt. She noticed a damp spot on the back from where he had perspired during the day.
Ethan started walking away. “I’m just taking a walk. I’ll be back in a while.”
Ashley started to get up. “I’ll come too.”
“No,” Ethan said firmly, not even turning to look at her. “I don’t need company. It’s not like we haven’t seen enough of each other in the last few days.” Then he kept walking away from her.
Ashley sighed. It would be nice if they could get along a little bit better, but Ethan was so often terse. He clearly wanted to get away from her.
She lay back down on the grass in the shade of the tree and stretched out her arms and legs. Closed her eyes. Tried not to think about Ethan and his need to escape from her.
After just a minute, she fell asleep and dreamed about Ethan instead.
She dreamed that he came back and found her sleeping under the tree. Knelt down beside her. Moved his body over hers. Woke her with a tender pressure of his lips. Then kissed her deeply, lovingly. Trailed his lips along her jaw and throat. Cupped her breast over her shirt with one of his hands. Rolled the nipple between his finger and thumb. Moved his hands further down her body. Touching her. Stroking her. Brushing against her skin. Tickling her. Crawling all over her.
Then his hands were everywhere. All over her. Prickling little sensations everywhere. She started twitching against it. Crying out for him to stop.
“Ashley,” he said urgently. “Ashley, honey, wake up.” Then she was being lifted up. Dragged somewhere. “Ashley, wake up.”
She tried to open her eyes. Finally managed it. But she still seemed to be in her dream. Ethan had put her back down on the ground. But he was hovering over her. Brushing her skin briskly with his hands. And it felt like something was crawling all over her. So she looked down at her body.
Something was crawling all over her.
She shrieked frantically when she saw that she was covered with little black ants. Then she couldn’t stop shrieking.
“I know,” he said in a low voice, still trying to brush them off her arms. "You were lying on an anthill.”
“Ethan, help me.” She was choking and jerking her limbs in her terrified need to rid her skin of the bugs. She’d never minded ants particularly before, but then they’d never been crawling all over her. “Get them off me. Please help me get them off.”
“I’m trying.” Despite his relatively calm tone, his hands were moving quickly, brushing as many away as he could. But they clung resiliently. As soon as he seemed to have cleared off part of her skin, dozens more moved to take their place.
Ashley was making horrified sounds in her throat as she tried to slap the ants away. She stared at them—little black specks all over her skin. She could feel them crawling, on her feet, her legs, her arms, her stomach, on her clothes, under her clothes.
She started to panic. Jumped to her feet screaming now. “Ethan, please. I can’t stand it. Help me get them off.”
Ethan stayed on his knees, started to get rid of the ones on her legs. He wrapped his hands around one thigh and dragged his fingers down her leg, pushing off the ants as he went.
Ashley started working on her arms, then noticed ants were all over her shirt. Wailed in frustration and frantically pulled the shirt up and over her head, taking all of those ants with it. She flung it away from her, then
tried to massacre the ants on her stomach. Noticed ants all over her skirt. Immediately pulled it down over her hips.
“Ethan, please help me.”
He quickly tugged her skirt the rest of the way down her body and threw it away from her when she’d stepped out of it.
He went back to working on her legs. He had gotten most of them off, but the ants from her upper body had persistently made their way down.
Ashley was slapping her arms in her frenzy, trying to swipe them from her chest and belly. It was like a nightmare. She could still feel them, even on the parts of her skin where they were no longer there.
Ethan’s face was still focused and purposeful. We’ve almost got them all,” he said, flicking a few ants off of her shoulders.
“It feels like there are more.” She ran her hands through her hair and dislodged several from the strands. Ethan stroked his palms down her back. Then pinched a few ants off the back of her thighs.
Ethan walked around her, studying her nearly naked body closely. Ashley wasn’t embarrassed or self-conscious about standing in her underwear—the frantic desperation was too strong for that. She was making involuntary gurgling noises in her throat.
“I think they’re gone,” Ethan said finally, brushing one more off her belly.
It didn’t feel like they were gone. Ashley was shuddering at the feel of their tiny little legs on her skin. “Are they still in my hair?”
Ethan buried his fingers in her hair, pulling down from the roots to search for lurkers. After a few minutes of this, he said, “They’re all off.”
She didn’t respond. Just stood naked on the grass, shaking and twitching and occasionally slapping at her skin. She felt on the verge of collapsing and was desperately trying to hold it back.
“They’re gone,” Ethan kept saying quietly. “Ashley, they’re all gone.”
She nodded, although it still felt like they were all over her.
“Are you okay?” he asked hoarsely.
