Chapter Thirty-Two

We drunkenly hit the mattress giggling… yep… both of us. Even Nokosi. He’s so wasted but so am I so who cares? The tent interior is spinning so I cover my eyes with my arm. It’s cold. Not so cold that I’m shivering but I just want to bury myself under the blanket.

He takes a gulp of his beer after fumbling with the tent zip and goes to lift his shirt over his head.

“Too cold,” I whisper, rolling onto my front. “I don’t want to get naked anymore.”

“Whatever,” he breathes and yanks my pants down just over my rear. I squeak, then laugh, then yelp when his cold hand creeps around my front and finds himself between my legs. He nudges his way into my warm sex, stretching my skin in a nice kind of way as his girth struggles to fit. My legs are stuck together so I’m not much help, and his chest is against my back so I can’t raise my hips or anything to meet him.

I relax, wriggling to help him find his way, sighing when he pushes into the hilt and starts thrusting wildly, grunting in my ear with each powerful jerk of his hips. I swear the truck bed moves but I’m too drunk to care.

It’s so fucking tingly but I’m too drunk for it to be more than that. Or at least I think I am. I soon find I’m wrong when the hand that guided him in starts playing with my clit.

I groan and bury my face in the blanket as he kisses my neck and grinds into me.

“So tight,” he whispers, getting harder and faster. “Fucking love your pussy, Lilith.”

“Shhh,” I hiss, giggling when he cries out louder just to be an ass.

“Take it in the ass, Lil!” he yells, still pounding inside of me.

“Oh my God, shut up!” I try to roll over, still burning with need, still laughing my metaphorical ass off. “I swear on all that is Satan I will shave off your beautiful hair while you sleep.”

He snickers, tipsy and happy and stops thrusting wildly so he can kiss me softly, forcing me to crane my head at an unnatural angle to accommodate it. Then he slaps my bare ass and keeps going, working me to orgasm before I even realize what’s happening. I almost scream… it surprises me that much. It feels incredible and I can hardly breathe when he’s done.

He holds his hips against my body until his own orgasm subsides and then pulls out immediately, finding wet wipes in his bag which we both use to clean up.

“I WANT THAT PASSION!” Mackenzie yells and Nok and I look at each other wide-eyed.

“I’M STILL PASSIONATE!” Bobby replies and I have to clutch my stomach to stop me from choking on my laughter. Oh it hurts. My sides are splitting.

Nokosi and I undress in record time, getting into our matching onesies that his father purchased for us specifically for this trip because he thought it would be funny. We both look like teddy bears but now I’m under the blanket in his arms, fur on fur, I’m so happy Dasan did. I’m so snug and warm in a way I never would have been in normal pajamas.

He also gave us a talk on sex education… reminding us that sex equals babies and disease and all that stuff. It was really funny. Nokosi didn’t think so. I couldn’t stop laughing into my shirt.

I told him that I got the implant over a year ago, so he didn’t have to worry about becoming a granddaddy just yet. He called me smart then asked when he could meet my mother. Nokosi promptly removed me from the house before his father could start talking weddings next.

In Nokosi’s culture they aren’t supposed to have sex before marriage, but his father isn’t as strict as most. He understands his son’s needs to explore life a bit before settling down. But I also think he’s convinced that Nokosi will settle down with me. Apparently Locklear men marry young and usually always pick the right woman for them. I can’t say I’m completely opposed to the idea. Especially if I’m now off the hook with my past.

That would be fucking amazing.

“Remind me to thank your dad.”

“Uh-huh,” Nokosi drunkenly mumbles and relaxes when I trap my thigh between his.



***



Bobby throws a napkin at Nokosi’s head, so I throw a butter knife at his face. He ducks and screams like a little girl. It misses by a mile, but it was never meant to hit him anyway.

“Pussy,” I comment, grinning at him as he rights himself and kicks the knife across the floor. It scrapes along the tiles before coming to a stop at Nash’s table leg. Nash who is currently on his phone with a serious look on his face.

We’re in a diner just off the route home after a long day and night and morning of camping. We had to leave first light because the storm changed course and by the time we packed up it was ready to rain hellfire down on us. The clouds are so thick and gloomy they look almost black. But overall it has been a great morning and now I’m treating them all to pancakes and whatever else they order. Because everyone is poor right now and I’m desperate for greasy food slathered in butter and syrup.

“How can you afford to pay for everyone’s breakfast when you don’t even have a job?” Mackenzie, who decided to sit opposite me, asks.

“How do you know I don’t have a job?”

She looks away for a moment, embarrassed. “Do you have a job?”

“Do you?”

“I do. I work for—”

“Didn’t ask, don’t care,” I respond, and she laughs around the word, “Bitch.”

Then she sobers and adds, “You didn’t answer my question.”

I tap my nose and sip my coffee. It’s not the best but it will do.

“You’re super evasive,” she comments, her smile fading now. “In a bad way not a good way.”

I stare her down, wondering what her deal is. “And you’re super nosy, in a bad way… not a good way.”

She looks away, out of the window, and chews on her lip. After a moment she apologizes but it sounds insincere and forced. “I’m not the best company in the mornings. I don’t like not knowing things.”

“I can tell,” Nokosi says, having my back as always.

She ignores him and continues. “I just find it all a bit weird.”

“What?” Bobby asks, looking at the girl who is sitting to his right.

Joseph and Mack’s friend, the giggler, are sitting opposite Nash on the other table looking over with inquisitive gazes.

“That a new girl rolls into town and throws actual cash at a fancy school that costs thousands per semester, a furnished house in the richer side of town, yet no job to speak of.” She shrugs her shoulders.

“Have you been putting your nose in my business?” I ask, suddenly seeing Mackenzie in a darker light, one more threatening. I completely underestimated her.

“It’s what I do. I can’t help myself.”

“Don’t go down this road, Mack,” I warn, gritting my teeth. “You won’t like what you find.”

“Is that a threat?”

I shake my head to clear it. What am I doing? Mack is obviously good at getting information. The last thing I need is her poking around where I don’t need her poking and provoking her isn’t going to entice her to stay away. “It’s a private matter, one I don’t like talking about.”

“I can tell,” she rebuts, shrugging her shoulders like she doesn’t give a fuck.

This bitch… she’s starting to piss me off. But she’s dangerous. She asks all the right questions. She’ll be an excellent detective one day. “You want to know where and how I have money?”

“Yes,” she replies, and I take back what I said about her being pretty. She’s fucking ugly and I hate her. But I also need her off my back. I don’t like that she’s not intimidated by me.

I start to lie, “My mother—”

“Your mother the environmentalist that nobody has ever met? Your mother who doesn’t work where you said she does or if she did it’s under a different name and also… if she did, she wouldn’t be earning nearly enough to throw the amount of paper bills you threw at the school to get a place.”

I decide at this juncture it’s best to tell the truth. Maybe it will make them all so uncomfortable they’ll never talk to me about it again. Dad always said the most convincing lie is one based on the truth. Well… let’s hope he was right. Although this one is all true. Sadly. Such is the tragedy that is my life.

“My twin sister and I were assaulted…” Nokosi tenses and everybody’s eyes swing to me. I’m not being loud but I’m not being quiet enough so that nobody hears. Luckily her smug face starts to fade into something a bit softer, more understanding. “It was brutal, it scarred us both for life. The money we have is the compensation from the assault. They were loaded. They paid well to make us disappear. End of conversation.”

“You said they…” she points out and I want to reach over and punch her in the face. “There was more than one?”

I nod bitterly. “There were five of them and two of us. Happy now?”

The glass of OJ in Nokosi’s grip cracks and then shatters. That took some serious strength. Orange juice spills over the edge of the table and between his legs but he doesn’t see it. His eyes won’t leave me.

He looks devastated, angry, upset. All of them swirling around his eyes.

“I am so sorry,” Mackenzie breathes as Bobby rushes to clean up the OJ. “I should never… I feel terrible. I can see I’ve made you… I’ve made us… I do this, okay? This is why I don’t have friends. I’m not a trusting person. I’m too paranoid. I hate myself for it, but I live for it. I’m sorry. So sorry.” She reaches for my hand, but I pull away. I’m not taking comfort from this bitch who put me on the spot in front of people I consider friends. “If there’s anything I can do to… I just…”

“Stop,” Bobby tells her softly. “Stop talking.”

The waitress places our food down, but nobody starts to eat. Suddenly everybody has lost their appetite, everybody but me.

“Get the fuck over it, guys.” I stab a piece of bacon with my fork and pop it into my mouth. “At least now you all know why I’m a fucking psycho. And let me just tell you, if you breathe a word of that to anybody, I will pluck your eyeballs out and feed them to the person beside you.”

Nobody knows what to say. It’s awkward now. I made it awkward.

No… Mackenzie made it awkward.

I look at her again. “Satisfied?”

“No. I wish you’d robbed a bank to be honest.”

At that I laugh lightly and wag my brows at her. “Maybe I did.”