Genesis Lost - Books 1 - 6, page 35
When she said nothing and showed no reaction other than a frozen face, I clarified. “I’m dyslexic, Ayanna. I read slow. Still reverse letters sometimes when I write. The council banned —”
“People with learning difficulties,” she said, the tone of her voice so hollow now, it was as if her soul had temporarily left her body.
She squeezed my hand but released herself of it shortly after, then gazed out the window. “We should go, or we’ll be late.”
“Wait a minute.” I grabbed her chin and forced her beautiful eyes my way. “Please tell me this isn’t an issue for you.”
She pulled back so slowly, it was merely the hint of an impulse against my fingertips. “It’s not.”
“Why are you so quiet then? And sad?”
“I’m not,” she said and gave me a lopsided smile. “I’m just… overwhelmed I guess. The thing with Bry. The seizure. Winnipeg….”
Her voice trailed off and I stared at the back of her head for a long while ever since she had pulled away for good. Perhaps she needed time to process it all. Yeah, that was probably it.
Monk waited by the door of the cabin, rolled up in a tight ball and waiting for me to let him in. With winter less than a snowflake away, he stretched himself out in front of the stove the moment we got inside.
I grabbed the oversized wool beanie from the table and pulled it onto her head. “Try to get as much of your hair in there as possible. Long hair is a big nope out there.”
“Because people will see I’m a woman?”
As if there was any hiding it. “That, and because someone, an attacker could easily grab and pull it.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Attack?”
I shrugged. “Nothing’s going to happen, but we always have to be careful. That city has been ransacked on the daily for almost two-hundred years. Folks know there isn’t much to get there anymore.”
Knock! Knock!
I plunged a pair of batteries into my pack and opened the front door. “About time. Already thought you’d chickened out.”
Oriel stood in the door with sparkling eyes. “You know me. I’d never turn down a run. Last time I found an engine bolt for my old Harley.”
“Where’s the jerk?”
Oriel flung his thumb toward the porch. “He’s waiting in the truck. Antsy to get on the road before Rowan figures us out.”
“He’s drunk?”
“About there.”
“Ayanna, this is my friend Oriel. He’s good with engines and shit like that. Fixed up my truck more than once.”
They both exchanged a wave of their hands before Oriel and I grabbed the stuff and began loading his truck. Sleeping bags, solar charged heating systems, dried food, water. We had it all, along with enough guns and ammo to take out a small army.
I opened the backdoor and gestured Ayanna to climb in. “Buckle up please. We’ll have to drive without headlights, and chances are we’ll hit a deer on the way.”
She climbed in, acknowledged Adair with little more than a nod of her head and buckled up. “I forgot my gray jacket.”
“Do you really need it?”
Those wide eyes of hers said it all. “Alright, I’ll get it.”
I gestured Oriel to keep an eye on her and went back inside, checking the wardrobe, the couch, the bathroom, and pretty much every corner. No jacket.
Five minutes later I found it tucked underneath her blanket, hanging halfway from the mattress. I gave a pull and tossed it over my shoulder, getting ready to leave until…
Clack.
Plastic hit wood.
I turned around, scanning the floor for whatever had fallen off Ayanna’s bed. And there, right beside it, was a little gray computer with an old-fashioned digital display. After I pushed a bunch of buttons, the orange display lit up, showing some interesting data and intriguing menu options.
Ignoring the nervous voices coming from outside, I worked myself through the menu, each push of a button making me hold my breath. Ayanna was tracking her cycle. No big deal, given her plan of conceiving a child. My child.
But option nine had me baffled: sperm injection. Last time I checked, my cock seemed perfectly capable of injecting just fine. Why did a computer for tracking her cycle need such an option, the words alone were so scientific they barely fit the screen?
“Are you coming or what?” Adair called from downstairs, leaning against the doorframe with an annoyed expression etched along his jawline.
I pushed the computer underneath the blanket and went downstairs, joining a very quiet Ayanna at the back of the truck. Oriel set the truck in motion, the roar of the engine barely masking those questions inside my head. Why exactly did she need to track her cycle? Was she on some sort of timeline? And why on earth did that thing inject sperm?
The part inside me which loved this woman told me everything would be okay. The other part, the smarter one, reminded me of how she had supplied Bry with enhanced water. Her initial interest in Adair. The reaction to my dyslexia.
Something sharp scraped along my insides, as if my guts knew something my brain hadn’t comprehended yet.
“I programmed for the back roads,” Oriel said. “It’ll take us a little longer, but it will be far safer.”
“This shit won’t stick,” Adair said and repeatedly tried to push the suction cup to the window.
“Just put it in the damn cup holder.” Oriel ripped it from his hands. “Hey, did any of you hear anything about Autumn?”
“Who’s Autumn?” Ayanna asked.
“Rowan’s sister,” I said, and stared over the treacherous midnight waters of Wolf Lake. “Rowan sent her to the Districts in exchange.”
Oriel smacked his tongue. “Do you guys think Rowan will still marry her off to chieftain Xavier?”
Adair sighed. “Not gonna happen. She doesn’t want to, and I doubt he will convince her.”
“Wait,” Ayanna said. “I thought people marry for love out here?”
“They do marry for love,” I blurted, as if I had to convince her of something. “She might get promised to a chieftain to keep the peace. But that’s a burden she carries because she’s Rowan’s sister.”
Oriel turned his headlights off. “It’s better not to be seen from here and on.”
We soon entered unclaimed land and turned ourselves into fair game for everyone out here. Neither we nor the Clan of the Mountains had any say in these territories.
Oriel shifted up a gear, and the engine of his truck purred like a kitten across the invisible back-road, eaten up by grass runners and layers of dead leaves. I opened the window and death immediately filled my nose. Non-sense, of course. You can’t smell decade-old bodies. Yet, I knew bones were piled ceiling-high in those abandoned buildings along the road. A constant struggle for people who spent some time scavenging through the old world.
“How come Rowan doesn’t have a wife although he is your chieftain?” Ayanna asked.
Each one of us tensed in their seats, hoping we could ignore her question. We drove in awkward silence for the better part of a mile until Oriel broke it. “He has a wife.”
“Had a wife,” Adair said. “He just doesn’t get it.”
“She’s dead?” Ayanna asked and threw me a questioning look.
“We don’t know that,” I said. “The day Rowan became chieftain she disappeared without a trace. They never found her body nor any trace of struggle. The other Clan denied having anything to do with it.”
“Could’ve been someone from the Ash Zones,” Oriel said.
“Unlikely.” I shook my head. “They don’t come this far out.”
“What was her name?”
“Darya,” Adair mumbled.
Ayanna didn’t question us further but continued to gaze into the night. We made good time and reached the outskirts of the city in under four hours. Rusted cars slept in piles through the decades, not minding the vines which slung through their shattered windows.
Adair pointed at a sign with a medical cross on it, which dangled on its final breath from a metal pole. An old ambulance poked halfway out from the crumbled wall, and wide cracks spread from the hole like a massive spider web. “Behind that is the collapsed main wing. Which is the townhouse you found, River?”
“Over there!” They followed my gaze to a townhouse at the far corner of the hospital. “There’s a side door to one of the other wings right across. We can observe it from the top floor. Those homes usually have a garage in the back so we can hide the truck if it is still standing.”
The garage waited for us intact. The rust-infested lock by the back door all but crumbled to the ground as soon as Oriel picked it. I stayed back with Ayanna as Adair and Oriel made sure the building was clear. When they came back, Oriel gestured us in with a nod. Adair, however, leaned his head into me. “There’s a door with pink letters upstairs,” he whispered. “Don’t let her go there.”
I dipped my head in understanding. We set up camp, and Oriel agreed to do first watch in the corner room upstairs. Adair kept an eye on the downstairs perimeter.
I flung two sleeping bags onto the floor, making the dust of the upstairs bedroom gush into my face.
“You should get some shut-eye,” I said to Ayanna and draped my big blanket over the two sleeping bags. “I’ll stay up and make sure everything’s quiet.”
She collapsed and rolled up inside her sleeping bag. Still quiet. Too quiet. Two minutes later, I stared at how her eyelids scurried, shoveling away the dark pictures of this place. At that moment she looked entirely innocent. So why did something inside me scream she wasn’t?
Nineteen
Ayanna
The pulse of the color had faded, leaving the letters behind in a numbed down version of princess pink. Five of them hung on the door.
"Andra," I whispered and ran my fingertips over the tacky surface.
The sixth letter, an ‘S’, lay on the high-pile carpet.
I glanced into the corner room where Oriel pressed his binoculars against the smeared window, too focused to notice my shadow in the hallway. Slow and steady, I turned the knob and squeezed myself through the narrow gap.
Lit by the moonlight from the window across, a parade of small circular mirrors on the wall glared at me. Underneath, knickknacks and oddities stood atop a chest of drawers. Between them, white and yellow framed smiles stared back at me.
Oxygen seemed to have gone dormant in this room, but the subtle sweetness of it drew my attention to the white baby crib in the corner. And just as my leg reached for another step, a tremble went through my body.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” River said, his heavy palm resting on my shoulder, subtly holding me back. “There are things out here not made for your eyes, Ayanna.”
The tremble which had just ebbed away now returned, along with a million needle pokes along my spine. My eyes darted back and forth between the rail of the crib and River’s tense expression, reminding me of how sheltered I grew up from everyone else’s tragedy but not mine.
I took a step back toward his body heat. “There’s a baby in this crib?”
“What’s left of it.”
The nod coming from my head was slow, controlled. As if I wanted to prove to myself and him that I could handle it. “The water killed the parents?”
“Those bodies are long gone.” He stroked his hand down my side, wrapped his arms around my waist and turned me around. “The parents might have left to gather supplies. Find food. Simply never made it back. Could have been a clanswoman. A small group of strays. There’s no way of knowing.”
A sob tore through my chest, and when it did, River took me into his arms and cupped my head. My body turned supple at his touch, every fiber of me delivering myself to this man without another thought wasted. I had never experienced anything like it, not just with the way he made my body react, but how he made me feel.
So wanted.
So loved.
The silence stretched as he did nothing but hold me, sending a tingle between my legs and into my chest alike.
I wanted him with a desperation that scared me. Even now, after he had told me the reason why he wasn’t in the databank, I still wanted him. And if I were honest with myself, which most the time I wasn’t, I’d confess that I wanted his child.
River picked me up and carried me out of the room, ignoring the way Oriel stared at us with a cocked head, hand stalling mid-movement in front of his chest.
He closed the door behind us and carefully planted my feet back on the dirty floor, running his thumb over my bottom lip as he licked his.
His mouth stayed silent but his eyes said it all. That he loved me. That he wanted me to stay. That he wanted to give me our child and raise it with me. Make me a clanswoman.
My head turned dizzy and I reminded myself to breathe. All the while, River kissed the side of my neck, moaning against my skin as if he was already inside me.
Did I care about his genetic shortcomings? Back home a child from this man would be deemed inferior, a thought which made anger sweep over me although nobody had even pointed fingers yet.
River was strong in more ways than one, born into this world entirely alone and yet surviving it just fine. He was rough, rugged, and fit right in with this harsh environment he called home. But where did that leave me?
His body pressed against mine, the sensation of his erection against my abdomen making me lose my thoughts.
“Do you want me?” he asked, lowering me onto the sleeping bag because even without my answer, he knew I did.
I wanted him so badly, I spread my legs to receive his hips the moment he kneeled down, a rush of heat and wetness swirling between my legs.
Ovulation was days away. Whatever would happen that night, it wouldn’t result in a child, that much I knew. The fact that I wanted him anyway just scared me even more.
I let my head rest back, finding myself lift my hips as River unbutton and removed my pants and my panties right along with them. Then his hands wandered higher, digging slightly into the flesh of my waist before he peeled my upper body from layers of fabric.
He rose and took off his sweater which he placed on the sleeping bag beside me, giving me a front-seat view of this gorgeous man.
Where other clansmen had tattoos he had scars, snuggly draped across his muscular chest, his strong arms and that ribbed stomach. Even without his black curls he would have been a handsome man, but with them he had a certain boyishness to him no matter how long his beard grew.
He unbuttoned his pants and slipped out of them, his hard shaft lining the thin, white fabric of his briefs, and turning irregular where the head of his penis rested.
The moment he lowered himself on top of me, he grabbed my hands and sprawled my arms across the sleeping bag. He held me in place like that, licking my breasts and taunting my nipples with his warm breath.
I found myself relaxed, then tense, moaning as the sensations alternated across every muscle inside me.
“River,” I moaned.
“What do you want?”
“You,” it came out of me, the haze of my head making it hard to tell what that included.
He let go of my arms and fumbled his briefs down, wrapping his fingers around his penis as he worked them up and down. “You want this cock inside you?”
“Yes.”
As if on command, I lifted myself onto my elbows and stared down. His penis was hard, the tip poking out from between his fingers, a copious amount of clear fluid leaking from it.
He rubbed the head along my folds, pushing and prodding them open until he wet himself on my open cleft. “I considered tasting you first, but I can tell you’re ready for me.”
“I’m ready.”
Impatience quivered through me.
Made me raise my pelvis toward him.
I wanted this. Wanted him. Perhaps I even wanted his child, though I knew he wouldn’t give it to me tonight.
“I want you on top of me this time,” he said and lay down beside me, pulling on my waist to follow. “I want to watch you come apart sitting on my dick.”
The junction of my legs ached and my womb spasmed from a mix of his unexpected withdrawal and the overwhelming anticipation of its return. His next tug made me swing one leg over him, gazing down as I navigated my entrance toward him.
He took himself in hand again, stroking his length once or twice before he helped guide his penis inside me.
The tip disappeared first, stretching me and filling me with such need, but I didn’t dare to lower myself down.
“Take your time, baby,” River said, a strained kind of patience lining his voice. “I want you to go as slow as you need to.”
His hands grabbed my waist and guided me further down without prodding, patiently waiting until I was ready to take in more of him. And when I was, he gently pushed me down, helping himself to fill me.
The pain of his slow invasion scattered my thoughts, making me gravitate toward the discomfort and chase the pleasure I knew waited behind it.
The muscles along my thighs cramped from the tension, not stopping until my buttocks finally found his thighs. I settled there for a moment, taking in the sensation of his penis reaching that far back inside me.
He nodded, his expression so full of anticipation and concern alike. “It’s alright. You set the pace.”
His fingers dug into the flesh around my waist once more, demanding yet not moving me an inch. He nodded the moment I began rocking against him, driving him deeper inside while I ground my sensitive clit across his pubic bone. The more I arched my back the more pleasure tickled through me, making my vagina clench around him.
Heat built up inside me.
My head tossed and my toes curled.
“So beautiful,” River whispered, and let his hands wander across my breasts where he cupped and kneaded. “Make yourself come on my dick. Do you feel how hard I am for you?”
Oh, he was so hard.
I arched my back even more, placing one hand behind him on his thigh for support. Like that I rocked against him, rubbing and raking, taking in everything this man offered me. Not just his hard shaft, but the love he said he had for me. The way he wanted me.
