“Where did your cousin stay? All of those rooms seem like no one lived in them.” Eve hadn’t planned on asking the question. She knew it was rude, but she couldn’t help the disappointment that began to eat at her. The house was beautiful, but it wasn’t filled with all the jewels and items she expected to find.
“Doesn’t really matter, does it?” He hopped over the fleshless bones on the bottom step of stairs and dropped his pack and crossbow. His hands went to the hem of his shirt and jerked it over his head.
“What are you doing?” She paused in her descent, three steps from the bottom. She stared at the glorious planes of his broad shoulders that tapered down into a sinewy waist. She licked her lips.
He looked over his shoulder, his gray eyes twinkling for the first time since they walked into the house. “I don’t know about you, but I’m going for a swim.”
“I can’t believe you’re not going to get in.” Gage backstroked away from the edge of the huge pond. The luke-warm water sluiced against his skin like soft welcoming fingers. Running water was one of the many things he missed. There was nothing like a swim to calm his nerves, especially now. The water seemed to wash away his problems, the tension of being at the place that was like his second home for all of his life. A beautiful mansion now filled with dead rotting corpses. He shook his head and dipped under the water, not letting the memories or reality get the best of him.
“Someone has to collect water,” Eve said when he resurfaced. She was bent over the edge, scooping water with an old plastic Rudy’s cup into a big cast-iron pot she found in the kitchen.
“You’re going to build a fire?”
“Duh.” She didn’t look up. Her gaze focused on the task before her.
“What did you do for water on the road?” He stopped backstroking and kicked his legs and arms around, treading water.
“I drank it when I found it.”
He rolled his eyes. “Obviously, but did you boil it?”
She stopped scooping water and leaned away from the shore in a slow deliberate motion. “Yes, I boiled all of my water. I set up a bonfire every night, especially on the nights that I had hordes following me.”
“Ah, so no boiling for you.”
“Obviously not. I took my chances. Hasn’t played out so bad thus far. But since I’m here and we have time, I’m going to boil this. I did actually boil water whenever I felt safe enough. The fire attracts them like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
She could say that again. If anything brought the gurghs a runnin’, it was the flame of a fire. “I did the same.” He paused. “In Eden you won’t have to worry about water. That’s the job of some people there. They collect it and boil it. Before I left, we were working on getting water running.”
Eve narrowed her eyes. “Why would you ever leave a place like that?”
“I told you, to find my—”
“Your brother. Yes, I know, but I don’t get it. Having a safe place to sleep, and clean water every night just seems like a dream come true.”
“Blood is thicker than water, Eve. You know that.”
The corner of her lips twitched at his joke before she mashed them together and looked away. She ran a hand through her short gold hair, pushing it out of her face. He couldn’t help but notice how there seemed to be different hues of blond, some brighter than others, some darker, almost copper.
“Tonight, we are going to eat good and have clean water.” She still didn’t look at him. Back at it, she was, pouring water into the large pot.
“It’s a sad day when a couple cans of green beans and some beef jerky are called eating good.” He dunked his head under water again, coming back up immediately.
“I used to think stuff like that was sad. Not anymore. It’s the best thing that’s happened to me in weeks and I refuse to see any downside of it.”
“True.” The rippling water rocked against Gage’s skin, feeling like a lullaby, trying to lull him to sleep. The blissful contentment of the feeling almost had him forgetting how pissed he was at Eve for acting like a damned fool and attracting all of those gurghs into the room with them. They both almost died and her at the hands of good ol’ cousin Bill. He hadn’t been too crazy about the older guy, but a part of him had hoped for something. That maybe he had managed to pull through this crazy new world. Hell, if Eve had done it, he figured that Bill could have with all the resources at his fingertips.
Apparently not, though. He hadn’t recognized any of the other gurghs that they’d taken out. His cousin had lived the life of a middle-aged bachelor, so there was no telling.
“You should get in,” he prompted Eve after he’d watched her start a small fire not far from the edge of the pond.
“No thanks. I’m not a risk taker like you are.”
“Could have fooled me.”
Her sea colored eyes squinted when she looked at him. “I don’t like being told what to do, Gage. The ‘shut the hell up’ look you gave me in that room pissed me off.”
Gage tried not to, but couldn’t help it, he smiled. “You are something else, Eve Mercy Wicker.”
A bewildered expression covered her face. “How did you know my middle name?”
“You told me, remember?”
“Yes, but…I didn’t think you would ever remember that.”
“Come on, Eve. Your middle name is Mercy. Like anyone could forget something like that.” The lie slipped easily off his tongue. He’d encountered plenty of other people with strange names in his lifetime and he couldn’t remember them to save his life. He remembered Mercy, because it was hers. Eve’s middle name.
“Right. Of course,” she said with an absent nod. She appeared hurt, but he couldn’t understand why. “I’m not getting in there because I don’t want to find out the hard way.”
Gage frowned. “Find out what the hard way?”
“That there is some sort of jenk that can swim faster than a motorboat.”
He burst into laughter. Is she serious?
“You think it’s funny, but you know as well as I do that those things can accomplish all kinds of crazy shit that seems impossible.” She crossed her arms over her chest, successfully mashing her boobs. The thick globes pressed against the thin fabric of her sports bra, the tanned flesh of them bursting from the top. The enticing view successfully killed his laughter, and awakened a new feeling that had his cock shooting hard beneath the dark water. “I haven’t come across one of those yet.”
“There’s a first time for everything. Nothing shocks me anymore.” She turned away and walked over to her pack and dug around inside until she pulled out some clothing. He chanced a glance around, making sure there were no gurghs.
He looked back at her. His jaw dropped making him successfully suck in a big gulp of water that had him sputtering.
“You okay back there?” She smirked over her shoulder, but he didn’t even care. She still had her back to him, but stood naked from the waist up, dropping her black sports bra and bending over to snatch another piece of clothing off the ground.
From where he swam he got a perfect view of her sculpted backside in the khaki colored shorts she wore. The angle she bent her body gave him a mere glimpse at the bare flesh of her chest, but she moved too quickly for him to see more.
She jerked a big dark blue shirt over her head, concealing herself completely. It was so large, it fell past the material of her shorts. The movement of her hands focused on her waist and he sucked in another breath, without choking himself, when her shorts hit the ground followed by black underwear.
“What are you doing?” He forced his jaw to say the words, instead of gaping open like it wanted to.
She bent and picked up the clothes she dropped. “I have to wash my clothes somehow.” She knelt by the shore amongst the barren weeds and began rinsing each article with deliberate care. His gaze followed her every move. Each one more enticing than the last. She washed her shorts first and her bra second. The twisting and wringing of her delicate hands only m
ade his cock throb harder under the water. The fucker still rampant and hard since the moment her breasts bulged from the top of her bra. Every movement she made caused the large shirt she wore to expose more of her tanned thighs.
When she started washing the colored underwear, he made a decision. Every fiber of his being demanding that he swim as fast as he could and snatch her from the shore.
He didn’t.
He took a deep breath and swam slowly, doing a simple doggy paddle toward her, forcing himself to breathe as she ran her fingers over the smooth fabric. Fabric that had been pressed against the hot core of her body. His mouth watered at the thought of it. He realized now that he hadn’t gotten to taste her hot cunt on his lips in the before.
It seemed like it took an hour to reach the shore, though he knew it was only a minute or less. She looked up as he approached. Her round blue-green eyes focused on him.
“Are you—”
Gage jumped onto the shore, wrapped his arms around Eve, and pulled her into the dark water.
Chapter Eight
“Take me back to the shore Gage! Now! Now! Now!” Eve panicked. Pushing against Gage’s shoulders.
“What the hell? Chill, Eve.”
She couldn’t. Wouldn’t. The water was all around her. He was moving farther away from the shore. How will I get back? Die. I’m going to die! “Take me back! Take me back!” She flailed in his arms like a wildcat, desperate to break free of his hold.
“Dammit, Eve. Chill the fuck out! You’re gonna attract gurghs!”
Eve shut her mouth, but she didn’t stop her movement.
“Eve. Stop.” Gage gripped her hair and forced her to look into his gray eyes. There were flecks of black throughout the irises, making them look like a storm cloud, framed by long black lashes. His eyes alone were almost enough to calm her. Almost. “There aren’t any swimmer gurghs in here. I’ve never seen one that can swim and I always swim when I get the chance. No matter where I go.”
Eve pushed at his shoulders with her hands. “It’s not that.” She spoke through clenched teeth.
“Then what is—Oh!” He said the word like a light bulb went off in his head. “You mean, you don’t know how to swim?” He seemed shocked. Eve would have felt embarrassed if she wasn’t swimming in terror. Literally.
“Take me back to shore. Now.”
“You need to face your fear.”
“Fuck you!” Eve kicked her legs and twisted her body, thrashing about wildly.
“Holy shit, if you keep doing that we are both going to drown, seriously.”
The D-word hit her like a punch to the gut, effectively ending her thrashing and forcing her to cling to his muscular shoulders. “I hate you.” She was on the verge of tears. Could feel them stuck in the back of her throat, ready to spill out onto her cheeks.
“You have to face your fear, it’s the only way you can learn how to swim.”
“Learn how?” Oh heck no.
“Don’t sound so panicked. I’m not going to let go of you.”
“Just take me back to shore please. Please.” She hated how pathetic she sounded. She didn’t want to sound that way in front of him, like some sort of weak baby. She had been like this before. Putty in his hands.
“Trust me, Eve. Please.” In the process of their conversation he had released his death-grip on her hair. She sucked in a deep breath.
Her parents had never let her or Olive learn how to swim. The pastime was forbidden to them, like most things other kids enjoyed, including television and friends. “No daughter of mine will be caught half-ass naked in front of the world. That is blasphemy! A sin!” She could still hear his shouting when she was eight years old and had been invited to a pool party by another girl at school.
“I can’t Gage. Just take me back to the fucking shore.”
“Did you know that sixty-four percent of the American population is afraid of deep open water? You’re not alone in your fear.”
“Deep. Open. Water.” Eve swallowed a lump in her throat. “Take me back to shore. Fucking now.” She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, trying to calm her rioting emotions.
“No. Tell me something.”
“What?” She opened her eyes. A wave of nausea hit her as she took in the dark water surrounding her.
“Don’t look at the water. Look at me. Tell me something about yourself.”
“Like what?” She realized that she was breathing hard, like she’d run a marathon.
“Anything. Tell me what makes Eve Mercy Wicker tick.”
She locked in her gaze with his, trying to follow his advice for once and not throw up everywhere. “I don’t even know.” She dug her nails into his shoulder.
“Tell me about your name. Your middle name. Why did they name you Mercy?”
“So God would have mercy on my soul.”
“What?”
“Yes, they—” her gaze wandered over his shoulder.
“Look at me. Only me.”
She did. She focused on his slightly crooked nose and full lips. “My mom got pregnant with me before they got married. I was conceived in sin, they said. A damned soul.” They hated her. They made it no secret that she was the bane of their existence. “A child of Satan.” Her dad always said. “It’s why they named me Eve.” She took a deep breath, staring into his gray eyes. “A reminder of the fall of mankind and the woman who committed the original sin.”
“You’re serious.”
“I am.”
His dark brows furrowed.
“Swimming was a sin too. To wear a bathing suit. To wear anything and be dipped in water where our bodies would be exposed by wet material.”
As if on cue Gage’s gaze dipped. Staring at the wet material of her shirt. The movement of his eyes was like a physical caress against her skin. Her nipples pebbled hard underneath her shirt. His gaze narrowed, as if he could see her body’s reaction to him.
She became suddenly aware of his hand clasping her around her hip, his fingers splayed across her back. She was pressed against him so that her head was slightly above his and her breasts were right in front of his face. She was vaguely aware of the swish of water against her thigh as his free hand paddled to keep them afloat. I should be terrified. But she wasn’t. Her fear had dissipated like a bad dream does over the course of a day.
There was nothing left but him, holding her body against his in the water. She released her hands from the death grip on his shoulders and moved them back and forth over his smooth dark skin. Had anyone’s skin ever felt so right? She couldn’t remember, couldn’t recall. Of course there hadn’t been any others besides him when it came to touching, but she couldn’t remember exactly what his skin had been like beneath her hands.
She let her eyes follow her fingertips as they made their way up the slope of his neck and over his ear. She trailed them across his short hair. “How do you cut it? It looks just like I remember it.”
“I shave it with a razor. It’s pretty grown out now.” His voice was deeper than moments before, sending a tremor of pleasure rocketing through her body. She wriggled against Gage, wanting to prolong the blissful feeling. Her movement caused her thigh to rub against a thick protrusion between their bodies.
She sucked in a breath at the feel of his bare cock against her skin. She’d seen him undress even if she hadn’t wanted to watch. Or at least, that’s what she told herself. She didn’t want to see his bare body on display before her. But she had been helpless to look away. They’d gather the items she needed from the massive kitchen and she’d followed him out into the yard and walked over to the huge pond. She’d watched the muscles in his back flex as he walked. It was a sin to look that good. It really was. He hadn’t tried for any modesty at all as he’d stripped down to nothing. His tight bare ass flexed in the afternoon sun like a sculpture of some sort of perfect Greek god. His caramel skin stretched tight over thick muscles.
Her body reacted instantly to the previous memory and the brush of his erection sending
hot heat pooling between her thighs. A feeling only intensified by the cool water surrounding them.
She looked into his eyes to see that his pupils had dilated and his breathing was coming out in hard jaunty breaths. She kept her eyes on his and moved again. Letting his cock rub against her thigh in a slow deliberate sweep.
“Again.” The word came out of his mouth in a deliberate burst, as if involuntarily spoken. Without saying anything, she obeyed, wanting to feel the hard sensation of him against her, over and over. “With your hand,” he grated out after she had moved against him several times.
She let her hand trail between their bodies, over his wet skin and down to where his cock protruded from between his thighs. She looked down, but could barely see in the dark water. Dark. Water. She stared down to where her hand should be. Where she should be able to see it moving, reaching for Gage’s rock hard dick. She could see nothing. He was holding her up in a pond that could be bottomless. It would take nothing for him to just let go and less than minutes before she would be dead, her lungs filled with water to be nothing more.
She sucked in a deep breath and realized how close her head was to the water. She flexed her hand on Gage’s shoulder. “Gage, take me—” Her words died in her throat at the sound of rustling grass near the shore where they came from. With a jerk of her head she saw a jenk approaching the water.
Chapter Nine
The Before
“What the hell are you wearing?”
Eve froze at the sound of her dad’s voice as she entered the kitchen. He should have already left for work.
“Nothing.” She looked down at her feet and moved across the room to the small coat rack where her and Olive hung their backpacks.
“You ain’t just wearin’ nothin’. Come here dammit.” His voice raised an octave and she knew better than to ignore him. She heard footsteps behind her and knew that her sister had come into the room to get her backpack as well. The bus would be there in less than ten minutes.
Alive (The Crave) Page 6
