“Yes, Josh,” she said, angling up, gyrating her hips in time to his downward plunges. “Yes.”
He pumped into her faster, harder, increasing the friction. Stealing her breath.
“Oh my God,” she said, over and over. “Oh God. Yes, yes!”
Looking for purchase as the whirlwind of sensation overwhelmed her, she clutched his back, receiving an answering moan deep in his chest. She dug in harder, raking her nails across his flesh. Josh broke the kiss, rising with a guttural sound, and pushed harder. He brought his body down again, hard and low, working his hips over her as she fought to hold on, fought to meet him at every step. She tightened her legs around him as her body prepared for climax.
“Oh, Jenna,” he rumbled into her ear.
She answered with inarticulate yelling. A climax thundered through her body, turning her end over end.
They held on to each other and exalted in the release. She quaked as he shuddered. He thrust twice more, hard, forceful pushes, and then quieted, leaning to rest his body on hers. She held him, hugged him close with her arms even as her sex still hugged his shaft.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
He wasn’t thanking her for the act, but for the emotional response that came with it. She knew, because the mirror of this was still fresh in her mind.
“Oh, we’re not quite done yet.” She chuckled darkly, flipping him over. It was her turn to stand vigil, but not until she was sure he was exhausted. She wondered if he looked forward to it with her as much as she did with him now. She wondered if it would change him as much.
There was only one way to find out.
Chapter Five
With sunlight streaming through the windows, Jenna finished cooking breakfast and tucked it into the oven to keep warm. Turned out she wasn’t as good at keeping vigil as Josh was. She had fallen asleep shortly after he had. The good news was that she didn’t need as much sleep because she hadn’t been the one who was emotionally drained. And so she figured she’d make breakfast. If the shoe was going to be firmly crammed on the other cloven hoof, she was going to make sure he noticed it.
He wandered down at ten thirty with his raven hair swept around his head. He was wearing pajama bottoms and a holey T-shirt. He hadn’t even bothered to put on socks.
“Mornin’,” he greeted sleepily. She handed him coffee without saying a word. He gave her a sheepish grin as he sat at the table. “I was pissed off the other day when you said thank you for…you know. Now I know why you said it.”
“You’re too touchy.”
He huffed and sipped his coffee. After rubbing his eyes again, he blinked as he looked out of the window at the bright morning. She followed his gaze, watching the trees lazily sway in the breeze.
She poured herself another cup of coffee before grabbing his plate and setting it in front of him.
His eyes widened. “You cooked breakfast? All this?”
“No, the elves did it. They had a vacation from the boot factory.”
“Have you eaten?”
She held up her hands. “I have, I promise. Don’t punish me.”
She wanted him to laugh, to make light of yesterday, as it was weighing so heavily on their minds, but instead he looked at her seriously. “No more punishments. No more rules. Just common sense and working together. A partnership. Will that work?”
She sat opposite him, sipping her coffee. “But breaking the rules was so much fun.”
He snorted as he dug into the eggs. As he shoveled food into his mouth, she marveled at how fast he ate. It made her a little queasy. She was suddenly glad she’d already eaten.
“I wasn’t trying to break the rules with the lemonade yesterday,” she said as he came up for air and some coffee. “Well, I mean, technically I knew I wasn’t supposed to go outside, but I only wanted to give you the lemonade. I wasn’t trying to prove anything.”
His eyes met hers. They were burnished gold and apologetic. His face was back to being a stone mask.
Annoying.
“On the one hand, thank you for thinking of me.” He covered one of her hands with his. “On the other hand, you were stupid for risking your life to be nice. Nice isn’t in you. Leave it to the Erikas of the world.”
“Ouch.”
“I like bitch better, anyway.”
“You have to. You’d make a nice girl cry twice a day.”
“You’re one to talk.”
“Yeah, but I set out to do it. You do it unintentionally.”
Josh shrugged, not quite grinning. He was still feeling uneasy about yesterday.
That made two of them.
They fell back into silence as he mowed through the rest of the breakfast. When he was done, he sat back and wiped his face.
“More?” she asked with a grimace.
“Do you have more?”
“Are you serious right now?”
“Yeah! I’m not on a starvation diet like you are. I like eating.”
She got up to get him more food. “Where the hell do you put it all? And why don’t you gain weight?”
He just waited patiently for her to put the rest of the breakfast on his plate. “If you think I eat too much, why did you make so much?”
“Because I figured you’d eat it all, you glutton.”
“Wise woman.”
“Can I have that on a plaque?”
“I’ll stitch it on a pillow for you.” He gave her a mischievous grin.
“Where did all this food come from, anyway? When did you get it?”
“When we were at the station, I asked a favor from the person who housesits for me.” Josh speared a potato.
Once he had finished the second plate, he asked for some lemonade. With an apology in his eyes, he took a big gulp. His face contorted spectacularly. He started coughing before setting the glass down.
“Sour.” He coughed and took a big gulp of his coffee. He looked up at her with watering eyes and then started laughing. Her heart hammered.
When the guy smiled, he was too hot for his own good.
“More sugar?” she asked with a hair flick. All minor embarrassments were effectively covered with the good ol’ hair flick.
Still laughing, he shook his head adamantly. “God no. It’s horrible. Thank you, I love you, but it’s horrible.”
She froze. It wasn’t until an oh shit expression came over his face that she started to panic.
He meant it. He’d meant that I love you. It was written plain on his face.
She wanted to scream, “Put the stone mask back on. Put it back on!”
Love was no good. She didn’t do love. It was crazy and unpredictable, and her life was already too crazy and too unpredictable as it was.
The silence dragged out, hovering over them. It was too full of unsaid words. Jenna didn’t want the balloon to pop and for things she didn’t want to hear to spill out.
She started washing dishes to distract her brain and return to the unaffected woman she usually was. She felt odd, though.
She stopped what she was doing for a moment when she felt that something was off. But then, she was in a strange place, with a guy who had just ignited an emotional bomb. Yeah, something was definitely off!
Scrubbing, grappling for words, she stopped again. She couldn’t shake off the feeling.
Usually when she identified the cause, the awkwardness faded into the background, but not this time. This time it intensified.
Pursing her lips, she focused harder.
Danger, perhaps?
It was hard to tell because her head was so messed up. Josh was a constant distraction.
But that wasn’t it.
It was danger.
Was he losing his shit again?
She turned to him slowly, trying not to provoke the hulk in the small kitchen, worried that they would have another episode like last night. She didn’t think she could take that again.
The itch between her shoulder blades made it feel like she was shedding skin, it wa
s so furious. Something was seriously…fucking…wrong!
There was no green monster at the worn, round table. It was just Josh, sitting with a fallen expression. His eyes were a mixture of many things, including hurt, but anger was not among them. His large expanse of shoulders was slightly hunched. He was feeling dejected, perhaps rejected. Not angry.
He looked up miserably and his eyes connected with hers.
Jenna had that look. That look. The one she always had when she became aware of him in the shadows. She’d said it was the look she got when she sensed danger.
His mind stuttered.
…sensed danger…
“Get down!” Josh screamed as table and chairs tumbled out of his way. Jenna barely flinched before he slammed into her, throwing her back against the cabinets and sliding down to the floor. A giant boom sounded a heartbeat later. She curled up in a ball under him as glass rained down.
“C’mon. Keep low. Hurry!” he said as he dragged her across the floor. They made it to the living room and to the fireplace.
“What are we doing?” Jenna asked, looking at all the many windows.
They needed to get out of sight. Fast.
Josh pushed on the brick, and then thumped it with his fist. A click sounded to the right, releasing a latch. A hidden door popped open.
“Holy—” Jenna blinked at it.
“Secret door. C’mon.” Josh put a hand on her shoulder and directed her safely down the stairs in the dark. The room below was the size of the master bedroom, with mostly bare shelves on all four walls. There were a few cans and emergency rations, just in case. It had probably been a storm shelter once upon a time, but now it served as a shelter for the paranoid.
Not all that much happened in Colorado that would warrant a room like this one, but Josh was paranoid, descended from a long line of paranoid men. This house had been in the family for some time.
Josh’s feet slipped on the grime. The mustiness from the room being shut up for long periods at a time made his eyes water. With nothing to eat, and so far from the surface, he doubted there was much besides insects and maybe the occasional rat down there, but the way Jenna was shaking, her breaths coming in quick gasps, the idea of critters somewhere in the darkness was bad news.
“Josh?” she cried in a tight whisper.
“Right here.” He put a hand on her shoulder. It was so dark that if she swung a punch at his face, he wouldn’t know about it until his lip split.
But then she would have to see his face to punch it.
She must have groped wildly in his direction, because her arms clawed at him until she found purchase and grabbed on. She sighed loudly and glued herself to his body, clutching his shoulders and nearly climbing onto him.
“It’s okay, I’ve got you. You’re safe.” Josh squeezed her.
“I’m blind. Too dark!”
“Give me two shakes, sweetie, okay? I need to change and get things ready. Can you stand here on your own?”
He heard a weak “’kay” before he regretfully released his hold and made ready to leave.
Josh gave her a squeeze before his warmth and the safety that went with it was ripped away. She kept herself from whimpering like a baby, but had to wrap her arms around herself to keep her breathing under control. The situation was way worse than any attic she’d been thrown into. If her stepmother had access to a pitch-black torture chamber like this one, Jenna probably would’ve fallen in line at an early age.
A small light blinked on from under the stairs. Jenna focused on it immediately, fear abating within that small sphere. It bobbed and danced, showing Josh’s quick movements as he worked with something on the ground. He straightened up and walked in her direction. Footsteps pounded above them.
Josh froze for a fraction of a second. Then he was next to her.
“Here.” He handed her the pack from her woodland vacation. The footsteps above them thumped across the floor in the other direction.
“Shouldn’t we get out of here?” she asked with a shaky voice.
“He won’t find us down here. Even if he finds that door, which is doubtful, he has to figure out how to open it. If he tries to burn the house down, we’ll still have plenty of time to escape through the tunnel that leads from this room. Nothing to worry about.”
She took a big breath to steady herself.
“You’re doing fine, Jenna. I’ll see you through this, okay? We’re safe. He can’t get to us.”
She didn’t want to admit how desperate she was to hear him say that. How desperate to know that someone was in control, because she sure as hell wasn’t.
“I trust you.” With effort, her voice was stronger. “I just need to get my bearings. I’m used to surviving in a city. This whole woodsy bullshit is throwing me for a loop.”
Josh chuckled, the light not reaching his face. “Hopefully you learn fast. Do you want to hold the light? We’re walking out of here.”
She gulped. “I’d rather you lead.”
“I will, but maybe you’d feel safer with control of the light?”
“Nah, go for it. Sink or swim, right?”
There was a silent beat then the light started moving.
“What if there are wild animals in the tunnel?” Jenna asked, surprised to find him in jeans now. He’d been prepared.
“The other end is blocked. Nothing that doesn’t dig holes can get through.”
“Oh. What about spiders and rats?”
“Nothing for the rats to eat beyond that first room, so no worries there. Spiders…well, I’ll get the webs on my face, so you should be okay.”
“Great.” The prospect wasn’t all that appealing, but it was a helluva lot better than a lunatic with a gun.
They walked in silence. The air was thick with the smell of musty earth, as the ground turned from cement to rocky dirt. The rough walls looked jagged in the shifting light from the muted glow of the camping lantern.
She kept straining in the darkness, trying to see more than the light offered. Trying to hear past their muted footfalls. She glanced behind her into the darkness once, worried that someone was sneaking up on her. The only thing ensuring their escape was a hidden door. Just because she was unobservant didn’t mean the gunman was.
That small glow in Josh’s hand wasn’t nearly big enough. This bare tunnel, despite being underground, felt too open. If the gunman started shooting blindly, there was nowhere to hide and it was too dark to run. Bullets didn’t need light to go straight.
Taking deep breaths, she wrestled with her thoughts, trying to bring them back to Josh. He was the only solid thing keeping her alive right now. She needed to focus on him any way she could.
“How did you get my pack down here?” she asked.
It was a start. She continued her deep breathing, trying to trick her mind into thinking she cared about his response. Trying not to hear phantom footsteps running in the dark behind her.
“I was a boy scout. Always be prepared.”
“Seriously, though.”
“The pack you have on you isn’t your pack. It has all the essentials in it for a week’s survival in the woods. You didn’t notice some of your clothes missing from your other pack because when you brought clothes for the trip, you apparently thought you were going on a month’s vacation. I brought this down here soon after we arrived that first night, just in case.”
How could the guy be so calm? He sounded like he was out for a pleasure hike rather than running from a gunman.
Jenna kept trying to control her breathing, grappling for something else to think about, constantly turning her mind away from flashes of red on her limbs. Or Dale’s sightless eyes. Or her mother’s limp body…
“ARE MY BOOTS IN THERE?” Just great, Jenna—why not just advertise where they were in case the guy did get through?
Controlling herself, she continued in an even voice. “Because my flip-flops aren’t going to hold up through the woods.”
“You’re doing fine. We’re almo
st there.”
It wasn’t exactly an answer, but it helped. More deep breaths.
“I didn’t think there was a way for you to be less expressive than normal,” Jenna said as she watched the muscle play in his arm within the miniscule glow. The darkness pressed against the light, attempting to extinguish it. It threatened to crush the tiny sphere that kept Jenna from succumbing to panic.
His answer was silence. No surprise there.
“Here is where you would say, ‘Oh? And how am I less expressive than normal?’ And I would say, ‘Because it’s dark. You have no expression at all!’”
Silence.
“Bet you wish you had duct tape,” Jenna mused as her gaze slid across the uneven wall. She wanted to start running so badly that she nearly bumped into Josh’s back.
“Not necessary. Shutting you up isn’t all that complicated.”
“Oh no? How do you figure?”
“I just have to mention that you are babbling because you’re nervous, or dare I say scared, about your surroundings. You’re worried about what lies ahead, and you have no idea of how you are going to survive when you have no control and no knowledge of the situation.”
“Those are all very interesting questions, Watson.” Very interesting, indeed. She’d already be dead if it wasn’t for Josh. She wanted to be on her own, because she worked better that way, but there was no hope of getting through this without him. Not even a glimmer. She was big enough to admit it.
“See?” Josh’s bemused voice bounced off the walls in front of her.
She didn’t bother answering. Anger, no matter how slight, eased the fear a fraction. It was all she had.
An oh-so-long hush later, stuffed with the imagined cocking of a gun, they finally turned a corner into soft light. A few more paces had them at wooden steps leading to a hatch across the ceiling.
A new fear struck Jenna—what was beyond the aged wood? What if the gunman knew where the tunnel came out?
Josh, still agonizingly calm, turned off the light and wiped away cobwebs. He took out his phone and dialed with a couple of flicks of his finger. After a beat he said, “Hey, man, we got made. Had to go out the middle. One shot taken; could be more men, though. It was a near miss—she was standing in the kitchen… Yeah, I know.” He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. She wondered if he was being berated for letting her so close to the windows, or commiserated with on the close call. With those two, it was probably the former.
Unexpected Danger (Skyline Trilogy Book 2) Page 5