by Eve Langlais
He grumbled, “They are, but that could change. What if you need to get off the ground?”
“Then I hope my Deviant ability knows how to fly.” Wryly spoken, obviously being sarcastic.
Which was why he took great pleasure in saying, “You might be able to. I’ve heard of flying people before.”
“I was jesting.”
“I’m not.” He grabbed her hand, her fingers staying in his grasp. He tugged them toward the lowest branch. “To climb, you want to grab and pull yourself up.”
“You make it sound easy.”
“Because it is.” At least to him. He tried to figure out how she couldn’t understand.
Never climbed. Surely, she exaggerated.
She reached and dug in her fingers then stood there, not going anywhere.
“You have to actually lift yourself.”
She eyed the branch. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Let me give you a boost.” His hands spanned her waist, and she let out a squeal as he lifted her.
“Pull with your arms to get on.”
She squirmed in his grip, leaning forward, and scrambled to the flattest part of the branch. He quickly followed.
She’d yet to stand.
He crouched and lifted her chin. “You can get up.”
“I could fall.”
“How? Are you planning to step off the edge? Jump?”
“I’m not on the ground. I could have an accident.”
“Don’t.” He pulled her to her feet.
“What kind of command is don’t? I can’t help it if I trip and fall.”
“Don’t trip and fall.”
She glared at him, which meant it took a moment longer before her expression changed and she whispered, “I’m standing.”
“And have been for many years now. Let’s not treat every small thing you do as an occurrence.”
She glared. “Asshole.”
“See how it comes easier and easier.” The easy grin on his lips was matched by one from her.
“Why are we up here?”
“We need to climb some more for me to show you.”
She craned her head. “How much farther?”
“You’ll see. Ready?”
The next branch wasn’t as high, and she managed on her own with him standing behind in case she fell. By the fourth, she climbed with confidence, and by the ninth, she’d learned not to look down. By the eleventh, she called him a new rude name, crouched on the branch, and gasped.
“I did it. I climbed a tree.” Such a little accomplishment and yet she beamed.
“A tree today, a mountain tomorrow.”
“Why would I climb a mountain?” she retorted.
“For the view of course.” He held out his hand, and she stood, her head cresting the smaller springy boughs that hid the vista from her.
Her breath caught and held as she stared over the vast treetops of the Seimor Forest. Their feathery leaves were in shades of gray and mauve with the occasional white thrown in. Only up here could the birds be seen, their nests on the highest boughs with no real predators to harm them.
“I never imagined…” She trailed off. “It seems so alive.”
“Because it is alive. Vibrant and thriving.”
“The air is good here, isn’t it?”
“The air is good almost everywhere,” he said softly. “The Enclave is keeping that a secret for some reason.” The reason being they couldn’t exert as much control if people thought they could leave the domes.
She didn’t reply, just kept staring before sighing, “It’s beautiful.”
No, she was beautiful. Her lips parted in wonder, her expression soft.
He couldn’t help himself. He drew her close for a kiss, only to stop short.
“What are you doing?” she breathed hotly against his mouth.
“Fighting hard not to kiss you.”
“Why?”
“Because I am not kissing you again unless you tell me to.”
“I won’t.”
“Pity. I rather enjoyed kissing you.”
Her breathing hitched. “I said I wouldn’t tell you.”
Instead she showed him.
Thirteen
Laura kissed him. The most brazen thing she’d ever done in her life.
The hottest, too.
She couldn’t stop thinking about the last one. How it made her lips feel and the rest of her tingle.
She could have died. Died not knowing how intense those tingles could get. Was she really going to return to a dome without having the biggest adrenaline rush of all? Sex.
A short slang word for the strangest of acts. She’d heard enough about it to be curious. To understand it wasn’t some bad and dirty thing, but a wondrous pleasure.
For a moment, she wondered if she kissed him wrong; he held himself so utterly still. Then his arms wrapped around her and he lifted her off her feet, which reminded her they were high up in a tree and she squeaked.
He held her close. “As if I’d let you fall. I think I promised you a bath.”
“Where will you find a bath in a forest?”
“By bathing right at the source.”
“You expect me to go down a well?” Her eyes widened.
“What? Why would we go down a well?”
“You’re the one who said the source. Everyone knows the water is piped in underground from deep wells that aren’t contaminated.”
Axel snorted. “Another lie. At least for your Creche. It has water trucks that go out daily to fill their tanks. Plus, they keep a cistern buried just outside the dome.”
“We barely got any to use.”
“That’s because you weren’t considered important enough.” The words were rough, and she flinched.
“Not my thoughts,” he amended. He dropped down to the branch below and then turned, arms open. “I think you’re plenty special.” He kept her cradled in his arms.
“Why the sudden change of heart? Aren’t you eager to trade me?”
“I was only eager because you seemed to want it. What if you stayed instead?”
“You’d teach me how to survive?”
He had skipped down another branch and helped her again. “I’d teach you many things.”
Once they reached the bottom, he grabbed a sack from the buggy then gestured for her to follow him.
He led the way through the woods until they reached a clearing. The trees ended abruptly where the rock started, the color of it a deep gray and smooth, almost glassy. It had a bit of grit, though, enough she didn’t slide.
Of more interest was the body of water, illuminated by the late afternoon sun, not yet touched by the shadows forming by the edge of the woods.
“Have you tested it?” she asked.
“The water? No need,” he said, having removed his boots and tossed them in a soaring arc to land on a large flat rock a fair distance from shore.
She watched when the shirt came off. Stared as a matter of fact.
In the light of day, he proved impressive. The initial strangeness had worn off, and she found herself admiring his shape as he stuffed his shirt into his bag. When his hands went to the waistband of his trousers, she did gasp and turn away.
She wasn’t quite ready to see that.
He chuckled softly. “Are you blushing again?”
Given the heat in her cheeks, she didn’t reply.
There was a wet splash and whirling, all she saw were ripples eddying and no sign of Axel.
She took a step forward. “Axel?” Another small pace. She noticed the water wasn’t dark like she’d first thought, but quite clear, the gray stone forming a bowl dotted with rocky islands. Flying through the liquid, Axel.
It proved quite an odd thing to see, his body moving fluidly through the water. Not fully nude, he wore some kind of shorts over his male parts. But it didn’t hide much.
He arrowed to the surface, emerging with a flick of his head that sent water droplets flying.
The wetnes
s of her lashes caused her to blink and absently remark, “It’s warm.” Indeed, the water that struck her had a pleasant heat.
“Feels great. Join me.”
“In the water?” She crouched down close enough she could trail fingers in it. The warm liquid soothed her skin. The showers in the dormitories never got better than chilly. “It’s deep.”
“It’s buoyant though, making it easy to swim.”
“Is that what you were doing?” She’d heard of the concept but had never seen it in practice.
“Get in the water.”
“It’s safe?”
He put some in his mouth and squirted it. “It’s fine. Strip off your stuff so it doesn’t get wet.”
“I should wash it.” But then how would she dry it?
“Toss your boots to the island.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t want to be near the trees at night.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“Because they do some weird stuff.”
She glanced over her shoulder at the line of thick trunked trees. “They’re trees.”
“The correct response is they’re alive. Everything in the Wasteland is. Everything is also dangerous. Usually more so at night. Don’t ask me why. It’s just the way it is.”
“Is that a lesson?”
“It should become your mantra while you’re out here. Lesson two is…” He crooked a finger.
“What?” She leaned close.
He yanked her in! She got a mouthful of water before she emerged from it and sputtered, “Jerk!”
“Only a jerk? I thought I merited more than that.” He sounded amused.
She, on the other hand, was anything but. “People can drown in water.” She tried not to panic and cling to him. She realized if she put one foot put down, she could hold herself aloft on the slope from the shore.
“I won’t let you drown.”
“How magnanimous of you.” The sarcasm was supposed to hide her fear.
He drew close. “What are you scared of right now?”
“Slipping under.”
“Kick your feet if you do.”
“What?”
“If you go under, kick your feet and move your arms. Watch.” He grabbed her hand and placed it on the edge, another anchor, before he sprang away from her and sluiced under the water. He fluttered his feet and pulled with his arms. Watching for a second time, she saw how he used his body to propel himself.
Like climbing, she could learn. He emerged from the water, the liquid sluicing from him. He thought nothing of letting it touch him.
Then again, given her submersion, it was too late for her to worry about its possible effect. She looked at the trees. Massive trees. The birds that lived above them. The water and air weren’t poison to them.
“Ready to try?”
“Hold on.” She reached under water and removed her boots, tossing the synthetic to the rock. Missed. It hit with a splash and sank.
Axel grinned. “I’ll get it.” He got the next boot, too.
She left her pants and shirt on.
He returned. “If you’re done missing the rock…”
She splashed him.
He laughed, looking younger than she recalled seeing. It suited him.
He stilled. “When you look at me like that…”
“What?” She kept staring, fascinated by him.
“If I show you, there won’t be a swimming lesson.”
“Perhaps another day.” She reached for him and drew him near, the slickness of his body exciting.
Their lips meshed, and she gasped into his mouth when he swung her away from the rocky shore’s edge.
He kept them afloat and moved them toward the island where he’d tossed their things. Once there, he held her pinned against its stone column.
He kissed her, a slow, sensual exploration that left her aching and breathless.
His hand skimmed up under the hem of the shirt he’d loaned her, fleetingly crossing her flesh, his goal removing the garment, leaving her only in the bandeau around her breasts. He left it intact as his lips moved from her mouth to trail across her jawline before teasing the tip of her earlobe.
A low sound rolled from her.
He held on to the island with one hand. A good thing, because she held on to him as his hand stroked across her body, thumbing across her nipples, while his lips nibbled at her neck.
Her head fell back, granting him more room to explore, almost demanding in her desire for him to kiss her more.
His lips trailed lower, stopping over the peak of one breast. He ignored the fabric binding them and pinched one nipple with his mouth.
She cried out.
He tugged at it again. And again.
Pleasure jolted through her, and she gasped as she clung to his bare shoulders. His leg pushed between hers, rubbing against her, bringing panting whimpers as something in her hurt and felt so good at the same time.
“Please.” She didn’t even know what she was begging for. Only that she needed something. From him.
He lifted her so that she sat on the edge of the rocky island, legs dangling. His hands tugged at her pants, rolling wet fabric down her legs until he could toss them aside. He parted her knees and moved closer, making her wonder what he did.
How intimately he could see her.
She wanted to cover herself. Her cheeks heated. All of her heated. She closed her eyes and gasped at the feel of his mouth on her inner thigh. He kissed her there on the smooth flesh, teasing with the bristled edge of his jaw. He switched sides, and she uttered moans as she shivered.
Groans as she trembled.
When his mouth touched her, she cried out. The hot spurt of pleasure was just the start. He kissed her between the legs. Did things with his mouth that should have been wrong but felt so good.
Something tensed inside her. Coiled and pulsed. Until it burst.
She fell back on the island and panted as he covered her, the size of him not as frightening as expected.
He kissed her, a strange flavor on his lips, but of more interest the hand that teased her between the legs.
That tension built inside her again, making her breath ragged. She dug her nails into the bare flesh of his shoulders as he moved between her legs.
Something thick and hard pressed against her. It brought a quiver of trepidation.
His gaze, half shuttered and smoldering, met hers. “Do you want me to stop?”
Stop before he’d finished what he’d started? She had to know what pleasure awaited on the other side of the coiling tension.
“No. I want this.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him in for a kiss.
He caught her sharp cry as he thrust into her. He stilled. “How is it possible you were intact?”
She didn’t understand his surprise. She still bit her lip at the pain. A pain that was gone, but the throbbing between her legs wasn’t. She could feel it, a pulse inside her. Or was it him? She realized he was within her, his shaft joined with her most intimately.
He shifted, and she gasped.
“Does it hurt?”
Yes, but not in a painful way. So she whispered, “No. Can you do that again?”
He moved, nudging deeper into her. A shudder of pleasure went through her. She clenched as he kept rocking against her, doing something so utterly incredible she lost her ability to even squeak.
When the ecstasy swept her, she screamed, and he yelled, too. His body went rigid against hers. The dying echo of their cry was only sound.
Even the wind in the trees had halted.
“What’s happening?” she whispered.
Still inside her, he said softly, “As night creeps in, the forest wakes.”
Fourteen
Her eyes widened. He regretted that he’d pulled her out of orgasm and into fear so quickly.
“What’s that supposed to mean, the forest is awake?” She pushed at him, her panic fluttering around her, teasing the very a
ir.
Axel could feel it, an energy seeking something to act upon. The power hungered and undulated, encouraging her fear in the hopes it would get out.
“Get it under control,” he murmured.
“What?”
“Your power.” He gave her a soft kiss. “You’re letting it run things. Control it.”
She blinked at him. “I can do that?” The curious query quelled the roiling power.
“It’s yours. You get to shape it.” Someone had to teach her, or it would leash her, and bad shit would happen.
He rolled to his side, hating the loss of connection inside her body. He drew her near, the feel of her smooth and warm body pleasing. They lay spooned, skin to skin, which meant she looked across the water.
“Is it me, or are there things moving in the forest?” she asked with a hitch to her voice.
“It’s moving.”
“We’re going to die!” She immediately went to panic and sat up, heaving for air.
He rose quickly, putting a hand on her, stroking her arm. “Calm down.”
“Calm down?” It emerged on a hysterical note. “How can I when the forest just came alive? It’s moving.” She enunciated this as if it were the most terrible thing ever.
He’d agree it appeared bad, but it was not the most terrible thing ever. He’d seen worse.
“We’re perfectly fine so long as we don’t leave this rock.”
That didn’t have the effect expected. She scrambled to her feet, which provided the most interesting view. She wore only a bandeau around her upper body, the lower half of her remained bare in the fading daylight.
More twilight, actually. As he’d explored her body, the day waned. Night fell. But they were safe. If they stayed on the island.
“Why is this rock safe?”
“You tell me.” Rather than point out the clues, he let her find them.
She grabbed some pants first, sliding them over those lovely legs, hiding her pert ass. A good thing because it was hard to concentrate when she appeared so tempting.
She never took her gaze from the shore the entire time she dressed. She pivoted to look in all the directions then chose to keep an eye on the closest shore—and the nearest writhing roots and branches.
Her wariness showed she finally learned the first lesson about living in the Wastelands. Never put your guard down. The second was observe. Evaluate what you saw.