Chapter Eleven

We move around the back and Nok tugs the cover off, revealing a padded truck bed covered in a dark blue sheet and multiple pillows. I gasp when he grabs me by the hips and lifts me over the side of the truck.

I almost stumble forward as my body tips but I right myself at the right moment.

“Don’t do that,” I snap at his smug face, hands on my hips as I glare down at him from my towering height.

“Lift you?”

“Sneak up behind me.”

“You knew I was behind you,” he argues, not caring that I’m irritated in the slightest.

“I didn’t know you were about to manhandle me!” I sit on the makeshift mattress, fluffing up the pillows behind my back. This is so comfortable. It smells good too, so I know they’ve used clean sheets and cases.

I look around for Nash but he’s with Joseph, pointing to a food truck about forty yards away so I settle again and wait.

Nok climbs in after me and motions for me to shift up to the middle. I do so, fluffing those pillows too seeing as he took the ones I already organized.

It’s getting darker now.

I listen to Joseph and Nash argue over Joseph’s snack choices when Nok suddenly starts to howl again, like he did at the track that night. His reservation buddies all join in, I’m surprised by how many are here and laugh when the howling is the only thing that can be heard likely for miles and miles.

He then sits next to me and passes me a new beer. His shoulder is touching mine. This guy does not care about boundaries. This is good. This is what I need. Though not when it’s from behind. Nobody needs that.

“What time does the movie start?” I ask and look up at the darkening sky. It’ll be pitch-black soon. I’m really looking forward to this. I’m getting this feeling of excitement that I haven’t had for such a long time. I try not to let it take hold because I need to remain impartial. I’m leaving in a few weeks and when I feel things, it’s hard to leave. It’s so fucking hard.

“In about forty minutes.” He catches a lock of my hair and brings it to his nose. “You smell like…” He sniffs twice. “Apricots and vanilla.”

I move my head to get him to free my hair and look at the large rusting screen which is now holding an odd glow to it. It slowly gets brighter and brighter until a faded image takes shape. It’s a soap commercial, complete with sexism in a bottle.

“You got into a fight on my first day.”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

Fiery eyes roam over my face as I look at him expectantly. “He said something I didn’t like.”

“Do you fight everyone who says something you don’t like?”

“Yep.”

I can’t fight my smile. “Me too.”

We laugh together gently, and he edges closer, just enough that I can feel his body heat.

His eyes flicker to my lips as that familiar smug grin plays at his. “Do you want to kiss me, Lilith?”

“Oh God,” I groan and push his face away. “You really love yourself.”

“You were tempted.”

I shake my head. “You’re incorrigible.”

“You were still tempted.”

Narrowing my eyes, I slap his chest and shift away slightly. Being cautious about my skirt and legs. “You can stop staring at me now.”

“You. Were. Tempted.”

“If I kiss you will you leave me alone?”

“No.”

I grin and try to unsnap my gaze from his but it’s impossible. He’s a magnet and I’m his opposite, we’re always going to be drawn together. “I thought you don’t date white chicks, anyway?”

“I don’t.”

“So why are you trying to kiss me?”

His eyes glint with humor. “You’re not white in the dark.”

I laugh, unable to stop myself, and then shiver as cold seeps into my bones.

“Cold?” Nash asks, appearing out of nowhere, his eyes round with concern. Nok moves to grab the popcorn and drinks as Nash climbs into the truck bed, making it a tighter squeeze. He grabs a rolled-up blanket and shakes it out over the side. Dust sprinkles into the air.

Joseph helps but doesn’t climb in after him, he grabs a couple of beers from the crate by Nok’s feet and moves to a car that pulled up at the right of us.

I sip my beer and listen as Nash and Nok converse in another language. Nash seems mad about something or maybe it’s just familial ire. Satan knows my sister and I have enough of that between us. They both settle either side of me, seeming perfectly comfortable. Whereas I feel flanked.

Though I feel a lot warmer and less exposed when the blanket is draped over the three of us. I’m not so worried about anyone being able to see my panties, not that anybody is even looking this way.

“This is really cool,” I tell them both as the sound of the advertisements get louder. People are still rowdy, but Nash already said they’ll settle down when the movie starts.

The beer gives me a warming buzz and the two bodies either side of me add to that warmth.

“Nok, I thought you were going to sit with Vienna in her car?”

My body solidifies in a split second. I don’t want Nok to go.

“She cancelled, had to work.”

“Vienna is Nok’s girlfriend,” Nash explains, leaning closer to my ear.

“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s just somebody I fool around with from time to time.”

I keep my eyes on the screen and remain silent. I don’t care who is with who.

“My brother likes to fool around with girls,” Nash whispers and Nok hears him.

“Means he’s probably good at it,” I mutter and grab a handful of Nok’s popcorn from his lap. Nash falls quiet and Nok laughs silently but I feel it shaking his side of the truck. I bet Nash can feel it too.

Nok says something to him and whatever Nash says back has Nok laughing even louder; something I can tell he rarely does.

“Sitting right here,” I murmur, feeling like a fucking doorstop between them.

“Sorry.” Nash gets comfy and puts his own popcorn on his lap as I finish off my beer and look for a place to put the empty bottle.

Nok tosses it out of the truck bed. It lands on the gravel with a thud.

“Don’t litter,” I admonish. “It’s bad for the environment.”

He laughs again as though I’m hilarious when I was being serious.

“An animal could cut itself on the fragments, or a mouse could get stuck inside. Don’t be an ass.”

He stops laughing. “You’re serious?”

“Deadly.”

“You care about mice?”

“All life is precious,” I murmur, feeling petulant and stupid all of a sudden.

Nok stands and jumps out of the truck bed, landing with grace and ease. I bet he does free running; he has the body for it.

Shit. I think I pissed him off. “Dude, I didn’t mean to—”

He grabs the bottle and dumps it by the crate of beer in the truck bed.

Nash’s jaw hits his chest, he looks as dumbfounded by Nok’s act as I feel.

When he climbs back under the covers and presses his arm against mine, I wonder if I’ve been entirely wrong about this guy the whole time. That makes me feel even more dread than ever.

No. Just because he did one nice thing doesn’t mean he’s suddenly a nice guy. There are so many horror stories floating around about him. He’s violent, full of hatred, treats women like objects… the list goes on. In fact, I’ve never heard anybody say a single positive thing about him.

But then, I could say the same about myself. Who am I to be judge and juror?

“You really think all life is precious?” Nash asks softly, his voice a whisper in the cool air.

“Yeah. I do.”

The movie starts off strong, with some good zombie-eating-human-face action. I don’t enjoy gore, but zombie gore is awesome.

We’re fifteen minutes in when a woman shoots a soldier zombie in the face.

Nok leans in and whispers, “Where’d you learn how to shoot?” I love how I came to his mind in this moment.

Licking my lips, I pop a kernel between them and then grin in the darkness. “The Walking Dead TV show.”

He chuckles, a whispered sound that comes with the most handsome smile I have ever seen from anyone.

I drop my leg that’s closest to him and mutter an apology when it lands on his hand. His hand that’s under the covers for some reason.

I tense when he places the popcorn on my lap between the crook of my other thigh and my stomach. His hand goes back under the covers and grasps my skirt. I shiver and my breathing stops as he pulls it away from my hip.

His eyes stay on the screen, so do mine. His hand however… it starts to trail a light path, using the tips of his fingers over the soft skin of the outside of my thigh.

When I look at him, he brings his other finger to his lips, telling me to shush.

I do as I’m told for the first time in my life. Too invested in the tingles that are coiling from my thigh to my core. I stuff more popcorn into my mouth, trying to act natural.

He grips my thigh with his entire hand, massaging up and down, careful to not manipulate the blanket so Nash doesn’t see. Poor Nash… but I’m too wired to feel bad.

I hold my breath when he drags his hand up until he’s covering my sex. I almost jump out of the fucking truck bed.

Dear Satan… fuck.

But then he goes back to my thigh again, digging his fingers in as I shift my other leg to make a hollow space over his hand with the blanket so nobody can see his movements.

He does it over and over, going up and over my panties and then back down my thigh, teasing every inch of flesh that he can reach while barely whispering the tips of his fingers over my heated sex.

I spread my leg outward, giving him permission. I no longer know what’s going on with the movie. I don’t care. This feels amazing. I’ve never been touched like this. I’ve never felt like this.

My clit is throbbing, my core pulsing, I’m soaked between my thighs. He’s not going there though. He just keeps breezing over it, rubbing my leg softly and that’s it… nothing more.

I want to cry. I’m writhing inside with need.

I feel Nash shift to my right and Nok stills until he’s satisfied Nash isn’t paying attention.

“Hold still,” Nok whispers in my ear and flicks his tongue at my lobe which is a mini fucking orgasm in itself. His fingers pull my panties to the side and his head thuds back against the truck when he slides one into the wetness. I hear him mutter something in his own language and wish I could repeat it because it sounded perfect for the moment.

He rolls my clit, rubs it with two fingers. Burning starts to rage through me. An inferno that’s making it near impossible to sit still consumes me.

I whimper and shift in my seat but immediately stop when Nash looks at me and asks a quiet, “You okay?”

I nod but dare not speak.

Nok touches my ear again with his tongue. My eyes roll into the back of my head.

His fingers keep rolling, getting a little bit quicker, just enough to give me a nudge closer to the edge. It is getting so hard to sit still. Impossible even. Yet I manage it, until he pushes a slick finger into me. His head thuds again when I clench down on his finger, squeezing him as tightly as I said I would when we were under the tree.

I unravel. My orgasm crashes through my body. My sex pulses and grips his middle finger in waves. I stop breathing which only seems to make it more intense.

I don’t know how I manage to stay silent, but my head feels like it’s about to explode. I grip his wrist under the blanket, holding him still as my orgasm slips away and I finally inhale sharply and then swallow.

Nash must think it’s because of whatever is going on in the movie I’m not watching because he just grins at me.

Nok places his hand on my thigh but stays silent. His fingers are wet. I’m wet. I’d be surprised if the mattress beneath my ass wasn’t wet.

I should return the favor, but when I reach for the button of his jeans, he gently guides my hand away and holds it for a moment between us. When he releases me, his hand goes back to my thigh for a while. I don’t push it. Why would I? He said no.

We continue watching the move like nothing happened while I sit uncomfortably in sodden panties.

Ugh.

After twenty minutes I have to get up to use the bathroom. I can’t take it anymore. It’s too uncomfortable.

“I’ll be right back,” I say quietly and look for which side to climb from. Either way I’ve got to climb over a guy if neither of them move.

Nok moves his legs and I feel his eyes on me as I grip the side of the truck bed and hop out. Landing well enough but with nowhere near as much grace as Nok had when he did it.

I make my way to the food truck and head to the bathrooms around back to do my business. I clean myself up, wash my hands and look at my reflection in the mirror. Jade green eyes stare back at me shadowed by black lashes, coated with mascara. My makeup is usually always minimal. I don’t typically wear foundations and such because it rubs off on the inside of my bike helmet.

“What are you doing?” I hiss at myself in the mirror. This wasn’t part of the plan. I’m not supposed to enjoy his touch. I tap my cheek and shake my head. “Focus. Don’t get attached. It hurts to get attached.”

Fuck.

I exit the bathroom and the light from within spills across the gravel and the trees in the distance.

“Good evening, little lady,” comes an unfamiliar male voice from my right.

I look at the sheriff in his beige uniform, a flashlight in hand pointed at my legs, likely so it doesn’t blind me. “Evening, officer.”

My heart is racing.

“You’re new in town.”

“Just moved here with my mom and sister, sir.”

“Like your manners, you were raised correct. Bet your mom is proud.” He takes a step closer to me and instinctively I take one back. My skin crawls. I don’t like cops as it is but this one… he feels dangerous to me. There’s something about him. His pale eyes and the sallowness of his white skin. His eyebrows look like two skunks across his forehead, thick and bushy, start black and end white. I wonder if his hair is the same.

“Name’s Officer Deacon, know what number to call if you ever need anything.”

I nod but don’t speak or offer up my own name.

“Well, you run along now and enjoy your movie,” he shines his flashlight towards the path that leads back to the cars. “Stay safe out there, little mud shark.”

Mud shark?

His light gets higher suddenly and his smile fades. “Nokosi.”

Nok glares at the man, his hands balled into fists by his sides and both are trembling, with fury or fear I can’t be sure. They have history. I immediately want to know what.

“How’s school?”

“Have a great night, officer,” I say, placing my hand on Nok’s shoulder to try and guide him away. No good will come from whatever Nokosi desperately wants to say to this man.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” Nok growls at me, shrugging my hand off him.

I let it drop to my side and watch him stalk away, back to his car, every step showing how angry he is.

“Be careful with that one,” Officer Deacon warns, his brows pulled together. “He’s got anger issues. He’s done some nasty things in his time.”

“Thanks for the heads-up,” I mutter and skulk back to the truck where Nok is nowhere to be found.