by Urban, Ami
“Where’ve you been?”
All the commotion had started to upset the kid. Sensory overload was imminent. Which meant a tantrum would be if Lisa didn’t get him to sleep right then. We’d been thinking the same thing. Lisa excused herself, stopping briefly to shift her squirming son to her side.
“Hello, again, Raychel.”
Raychel smiled the sweetest smile I’d seen come from her since her wedding. It made the corners of her eyes crinkle. “I’m so glad you guys are here.”
Lisa nodded, her hand brushing against my sister’s arm before continuing up the stairs. And, no, I wasn’t off the hook. Because as soon as my wife had left the room, my sister turned her burning gaze on me.
“Well?!” She put her hands out to her sides, palms up.
Her husband, Gregg, stepped further into the room. I noticed for the first time he wasn’t using crutches. My gaze drifted downward. He had two legs!
“Lieutenant Dan!” I pointed, not able to shut my own mouth. “You got new legs!”
His expression didn’t change. “Do you know how many times I’ve heard that?”
“And it never stops being funny?”
“It stopped being funny after the first time.” Raychel slapped my pointing hand. “Stop changing the subject! Where. Have. You. Been?” She punctuated each word with a clap of her hands. There was such a burning energy radiating from her that I had to stop and stare for a minute.
“Raychel.” Gregg’s voice was patient. Kind of like Lisa’s.
“No, no, it’s okay.” I turned back to her and crushed her in a hug until she slapped my arms to let her go. “We did what we do best when we saw the bombs coming. We ran.”
“Okay, there are two things wrong with what you just said.”
I took a step back from her, pretending to be offended.
“First of all,” she put up one finger while placing the other hand on her hip, “It wasn’t bombs, it was an accident. [REDACTED] said all the chemicals they were working with were toxic and caused an explosion.”
“That…” I stopped. Was that right? I was pretty certain we’d all seen about three helicopters carrying what looked like warheads. We discussed it a lot after the fact. “We all agreed the planes were unmarked and carrying something…”
Gregg’s expression changed at once. He stepped across the room in three strides. “You saw that?”
“Oh, no. Do not start that conspiracy shit again, please.” Raychel held a hand to her forehead.
“What else did you see? Did you hear the explosion?”
I shook my head, the details of the event suddenly fuzzy in my brain. Had the planes been unmarked? Had they even been carrying anything? In the middle of my jumble of thoughts, Lisa returned from putting Rex to bed. She seemed to notice the tension in the room when she entered, because she stopped and looked at me with an odd expression.
“Hey, Babe, do you remember what the bombs looked like?” I held out my arms as she came to me. “I’m having a hard time getting the details right.”
Lisa shook her head after a moment of silence. “I recall they could have been nuclear or [REDACTED]. Which would definitely match the destruction we observed after the fact.”
“The CDC is saying that Dr. Holmes kept a bunch of volatile chemicals and the town exploded,” I said.
Lisa’s brows drew together. She tapped a finger against her chin for a moment, no doubt searching her mind for a rational explanation.
“I suppose he did keep chemicals that could certainly cause an explosion. And his staff were…less than stellar at their jobs. I wouldn’t be surprised if an explosion occurred.” She paused for a moment, seeming to remember something. “But that wouldn’t destroy the entire town. The hospital, maybe. But not the whole town.”
“I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if those two weird guys had something to do with it. They did take your name off the file,” I said, shifting my gaze to Gregg. His eyebrows shot up.
“Weird guys?”
“Don’t start, Gregg…” My sister’s warning came with a glare that’d make Medusa jealous.
Lisa put out her hands. “Oh, no, no. These men… Well, one is a doctor who helped me immensely when administering the vaccine to people. He was extremely thorough. One of the most thorough I’ve ever seen.”
I rolled my eyes. “Must you have an orgasm every time you talk about the guy?”
Raychel gasped. “Jack!”
“It’s alright.” Lisa stopped her before my sister could hit me again. “It’s a joke. I understand it sounds rude, but I don’t find it offensive.”
My sister crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that about you.”
After shrugging, I looked back at my wife. “The other guy coordinated the whole distribution of the vaccine across the world. Super amazing and super-fast. He gave me an orgasm every time.”
Raychel’s laughter filled the room. She’d tossed her head back and put her whole body into it. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry I judged so quickly. I should’ve waited for the punchline.”
“So, there’s nothing weird about the explanation, huh?” Gregg’s question gained all our attention.
“I’m sorry.” Lisa shook her head. “The planes could’ve been carrying anything. I have no reason to believe there’s any ulterior motive.”
Gregg slumped onto the sofa, pushing a hand through his light hair. “Well, damn.”
“Gregg.” Lisa said his name with a sort of forceful surprise. We all looked at her. “Your leg.” She pointed to the fact that, yes, he had two again.
He grinned, pulling up his pant leg to reveal a pretty nice-looking silicone or some kind of plastic prosthesis. “Like it?”
“Oh, my.” Lisa knelt down to inspect it while my sister and I shrugged at each other.
“I’m so, so glad you’re here.” Raychel squeezed my arm, her eyes glistening.
I smiled. A lot of emotions had flooded through me when I saw her again. When we’d found out a nuclear war hadn’t broken out and the world wasn’t irradiated, I somehow knew she was safe with Gregg. Sure, I felt guilty knowing she had probably already mourned my death, but it was better than her being in danger.
I hugged her close. “Missed ya, Ray Ray.”
She hugged back with only one arm wrapped around my waist. “Missed you, too, bro.”
“Who did this for you?” Lisa asked, straightening out.
Gregg let his pant leg drift back into place. “Dr. Kincaid at the hospital. He’s a genius. And he’s raking it in right now.”
“I can imagine,” I muttered.
“Wait, you have a working hospital in the area?” Lisa asked.
Raychel stepped toward her. “Yeah. It’s the same one where you guys found the medicine for Gregg.” My sister sat on the sofa next to her husband. He draped an arm over her shoulder. “They turned it into an emergency services place like…a month after you guys left.”
“It’s fully functional now?” Lisa turned halfway to me, glancing my way. “Do they have an MRI machine?”
“Yup.” Gregg looked at my sister. It was a sweet look. “And they have some amazing doctors there.”
“The surgeon is to die for.” My sister’s cheeks lit up with a blush. Her husband nudged her after rolling his eyes.
“Where the hell is my orgasm man? Everyone has one but me!”
“Seriously,” Raychel continued, staring at Lisa. “He’s yummy.”
My wife, bless her heart, had no idea what my sister was getting at. Raychel was the pretty, popular girl in school. She was a cheerleader. Always had a boyfriend from what I was told. The girl loved makeup, clothes and boys. She wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty, but she preferred being pinned-up and ready to go.
Lisa had grown up almost asexual. Because her nose was always buried in a medical book of some sort, she never focused on the things normal teenage girls did. So, she missed a lot of social cues. Where my siste
r had plenty of men around her, Lisa never sought out a partner. The way she put it, it just “never mattered.” Until I showed up. At one point, she confided in me that I’d awoken something in her. She’d gone from zero sexual encounters for three years to four or five times a week.
“Does he cook, too?”
I couldn’t help it. I doubled over in laughter at my wife’s question and the look it caused my sister to give her.
“No,” Raychel said slowly. “He’s pretty. Easy on the eyes. Dazzling. Symmetrical.” She looked at her husband who rolled his eyes again. “Very symmetrical.”
“We get it. He’s pulchritudinous.” My choice of word caused everyone’s necks to snap my direction. With a grin, I asked, “What?”
“Yeah. Pulchritudinous.” Gregg patted my sister’s thigh.
The four of us lasted about another hour of conversation before the topic of bed came up. We decided to call it a night and headed up the stairs.
“Hey.” Raychel tugged on the elbow of my shirt. “There’s something we need to talk about in the morning.”
I felt my eyebrows raise. “Oh? What’s up? You get knocked up?”
The bridge of her nose crinkled. “As if.”
“Like, totally.”
“No, look. Really. There’s some stuff you should be aware of. I just don’t want you to be blind-sided.”
Now I was worried. My brows drew together, a frown settling on my mouth. “That sounds kind of serious.”
She shrugged, nodding at Gregg as he motioned her to their room. “Serious, yeah. Life-threatening?” Her gaze met mine. A flash of humorous recognition passed between us. “Probably.”
“You said the magic words. Now I have to listen to you.” I nudged her shoulder as she smiled.
“Tomorrow morning. Breakfast. Then we’ll give you guys the lay of the land.”
“Deal.” We hugged. “Missed you.”
“I know.” She kissed me on the cheek before retiring to her bedroom.
***
“I’m too old for this.”
“Amen,” I muttered to Mel Gibson as Lethal Weapon began its end screen crawl. Drawing in a deep breath, I shifted on the sofa. Lisa, who’d been fast asleep against me, also stirred.
“What’s the time?” Her voice was clogged with sleep. Long, dark tendrils of messy hair stuck out around her face.
“Two? Three?” I honestly didn’t know. Lexi was passed out in her bed, her kinky brown hair fanned out on the pillows.
Across from her on the floor, a child-sized pup tent was sitting, it’s zipper half-ajar. Inside, Rex was tangled in the blankets, snoring in intermittent purrs.
Lisa sat up, smoothing her wavy hair and pulling the quilted blanket tighter across her shoulders. Her eyes, only slits, did the same sweep of the room mine had.
“Is Rex asleep already?”
No, that wasn’t a joke. The kid hated the change in scenery. It’d taken ages to calm him down once we got upstairs. Hence, we’d decided to watch a movie in their room.
“The tent really made a difference.” I rubbed her back with the palm of one hand. She rocked forward with each stroke.
“I really appreciate your patience with his acute onset agoraphobia,” she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
Shit. The kid wasn’t the only one with a fear of wide open spaces…
“Hey, he did all the work.” I grinned at her. She tossed a small smile back my way then sighed.
“Just the same. I know it hasn’t been easy.” She looked at me, her dark blue gaze boring into mine. “Mastering the art of the seven-second orgasm shouldn’t be our main concern.”
A chuckle escaped me. “I got so many bruises from standing in awkward places during sex that I think I’ve become a sadist.”
Her smile lit up my chest, sending warm little electrical currents through my heart.
“Speaking of which.” Shifting my weight on the sofa, I turned toward her. “Aren’t you glad we finally have our own room?” I gestured toward the door across from us, closed tight.
My wife perked. “I cannot believe I forgot!”
Tossing a bedroom-eyed look her way, I nodded. “Yep. And…” I leaned in close to her. I could smell the scent of her shampoo. I could feel the hot puff of her breath. “It has a lock.”
“No way.”
“Yah-weh.”
“Jack.”
“Lisa.”
She sighed, but I kept poking at her. If I teased her enough, she’d sometimes get so fed up that she’d just beg me to take her. A normally patient doctor, Lisa’s resolve disappeared whenever it came to intimacy. I blamed it on her ex.
“There’s more to life than just sex and money, Babe.”
She cocked her head to one side. “I’d agree under any other circumstance, but, at the moment, all I want is the former.”
I pretended to be shocked by her words. “You kissed your mother with that mouth?”
Her brows lowered. “I’d rather kiss you.”
I smiled. “That can be arranged.”
I took her into my arms without hesitation. She fit perfectly there. It was as if no other woman could compete with her. Good luck to them if they tried. Lisa Reynolds was mine. Her lips were on mine. The ring I made was on her finger. She’d said yes to me. Sometimes I still had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming.
I attempted to scoop her up as I stood from the sofa, but my knee wouldn’t allow it. Instead of hefting her up, I got both arms underneath her, lifted about half an inch, then dropped her again with a grunt.
“It’s alright.” She put her hand on my shoulder then stood herself, grasping one of my wrists for leverage.
We poured backward toward our room. All that mattered in that moment was I had the largest erection I could remember having in a very long time. And her sweet smell of coconuts just fueled my already smoldering hormones. I spun around to secure the lock on the door once we’d tumbled in. When Lisa gasped out loud, I turned.
“Did you do this?”
Puzzled, I glanced up. Lisa’s hands were on her cheeks as if she’d just been offered a million bucks.
“Oh, shit!”
She turned to face me, concern written all over her face.
“I totally counted wrong.”
She still didn’t seem to understand.
“We have our own room…” I pressed the index finger of my right hand against the left, ticking off the list in my head. “I filled it with fake rose petals, then you tell her it has a lock. Stupid, stupid…”
To my surprise, she giggled. The giddy little sound was like music to my ears. Her hands were cupped in front of her mouth, eyes alight with humor. I motioned for her to come to me and she did, slipping effortlessly into my arms again. My hands went to her hair, cradling the back of her head as we kissed.
She broke it to look into my eyes. No doubt she could see behind them was humor and a little pain. This mixture of loss and an old wound ran my life most days. Managing it was pretty damn difficult while we were in the bunker, but she rarely complained.
“You’re amazing,” she said.
Me? I smiled. “Keep piling on those compliments and you’ll see what a three-second orgasm is like.” I tugged at the collar of her shirt. Soon, it went up and over her head. Aside from an occasional communal shower, we hadn’t been naked in front of each other in…a while. And the way she stared at me didn’t help. It was as if I was the last man in the world.
Well, I suppose I was the last man in her world.
Suddenly, I let my face fall, and I put my arms out in front of me. “I…I think I forgot what to do.”
“I can give you the abstract, but that’s about it.”
I laughed. “Something tells me I’ll figure it out.” I motioned for her to come to me again, which she did. As soon as our hips met, I had no doubt she could feel me pushing against her. A low sigh escaped her throat.
We helped each other out of the remainder of our clothes between
kisses. My hands were all over her, gliding over her spine, grasping her hips and squeezing her ass. In turn, she made sure that no area of my body was untouched. Each small caress left tiny shocks of pleasure in its wake.
I was off. As soon as our bodies met, neither of us made it past two seconds. My name escaped her throat as I grunted a curse.
I rolled over in the bed, the air from my lungs puffing out in short, quick bursts. Lisa stretched her arm, draping it across my bare chest. I reached my fingertips up to brush against the back of her hand.
“We should do that more often.”
I didn’t look at her. “Shouldn’t be a problem seeing as how I only take two seconds now.”
She seemed to hear the disdain in my voice and shuffled closer to me. My arm tightened around her waist.
“All that means is that we’ll have fifty times the amount of intimacy as other couples.” Her words flowed through me, doing the trick as I turned my head to the side to look at her with wide eyes.
“That’s true.” I paused a beat. “Can you tell that to my entire high school class? Because they voted me Least Likely to Get Laid.”
She sat up, feigning shock. “You?”
I grinned.
“With a face like that?”
I twisted up my features as I touched my cheeks. “Did it change again?”
***
The next morning, I was raring to go. After another shot of that mystery juice, I even got the kid up and dressed before Lisa had showered. I mean, sure, half the reason I did that was so I could join her, but it still counts. I’m sure she found it strange when I put on a high voice and started shampooing her hair like a stylist. I started saying things like, “Your roots are great!” and “You should really exfoliate more.” I had no fucking clue what I was talking about, but it sounded right.
She didn’t seem to mind, though. While she didn’t laugh a ton, she still playfully skirted her nails across my chest and tossed me flirty glances. Toward the point the hot water began running out, we decided to call it. But not before I pushed her against the tiled wall and we had one of our world-famous quickies.
And then I got to eat. Oh, boy did I get to eat. I’d forgotten what meals at Huntington House were like. But that morning, we descended the stairs to a buffet of eggs, toast, pancakes, fruit, juice and…bacon. And you can bet your ass I got me a full plate of that thick-cut amazingness.